Encrypted Messenger is now free.

I wrote this thing over 7 years ago. Here are a few vids explainaing.

Short Version: It still works but is free and you can get the source code too if you want to play around with it. Download it here http://johnyTech.com




AND... here is the source code

Code Review (sort of) video

Part 1/2



Part 2/2


You can download the main program here
Source Code is here

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FOLLOW UP: Can Linux Really Replace Windows?

5 Years ago I said this
"Can Linux Really Replace Windows?
Server: Probably
Workstation: Perhaps.
Average home PC: No way! "

Today I'll say this
Can Linux Really Replace Windows?
Server: Yes
Workstation: Yes
Average home PC: Yes (as long as you dont play popular games)

The whole OSS and Linux movement (if you care to call it that) has come a long way.

My latest Linux excusrion has been with Ubuntu (not a man's linux install by any means). But it is a great install if you don't want to spend a lot of time mucking under the covers. It literally just works (like a mac, but less snooty). You have your Open source equivilents of Word, Outlook, etc and can even connect to an exchange server or whatever mail system floats your boat.

Now I could go on and on, but seriously, why write the same things thousands of other people have written.

This is really just to say that it is safe to switch (as long as you don't want to play fancy DirectX games)

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I'm in WIRED! :)

http://wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/howtosecurity.html (Near the middle of the page – color and bold added)

“»IM on the DL
With an admin password, you can download an encrypted service like PSST (psst.sourceforge.net) or a program like Encrypted Messenger (www.johnytech.com), which encodes most IM clients. The quick and dirty way: open an AOL IM account and use the Web-based chat service (aimexpress.aol.com). With all the Web activity at work, the chance that anyone will notice your texting is small.”

It is also in the WIRED print version August 2006 (with Steve Colbert on the front page) page 26 of the 44 page pullout)

--Looks like I’ll be adding a small update to my website this weekend

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Congressman's Excuse for killing Net Neutrality

Original Letter

Page 1

Page 2

Most of us know about the whole Net Neutrality issues. I like many others wrote to my congressman asking them to support Net Neutrality. He wrote back. It wasn't a truly personalized letter (and there are some obvious grammatical errors worthy of a B- in high school English), but the signature looks pretty real.

Here are the key reasons he gives for killing Net Neutrality.

[It took me a while to find them buried in all the text]

• “Providers have repeatedly said they have no intention of slowing access“
  “Because consumers would not continue with a provider if they were faced with any such blocked access.“
  What he fails to realize is that many consumers in America only have one choice for broadband access and you can not trust businesses on just a verbal promise.
  If they have no intention, then why do they care if it is a law?
• Net neutrality will “slow the Internet for us all“
  This is NOT a joke. Read the letter. He clearly has no clue how the Internet works and is just saying what they want him to say.

He has drunk the kool-aid. Put simply, net neutrality doesn't allow the providers to filter the Internet access for consumers. So, AT&T (or whoever) can not charge large sites (google, amazon, ebay, etc.) a large amount of money to give their traffic a priority. This is blackmail.

I run a hosting company. This will affect me as well. There is no way I could afford to pay for higher priority traffic--there is no way I would. I would move my hosting offshore before I would pay the blackmail fees.

I don't know what party he is in and I don't care [Edit: He is Republican]. But he won't be getting my vote.

Full Text Of The Letter Here:
Dear John: Thank you for your recent letter regarding your concerns as Congress begins to address issues facing the telecommunications industry. I appreciate you taking the time to contact me. The last major telecom legislation was passed in 1996. Since then we have become much more dependent on technology and as the demand for more access and quicker speeds has grown, the telecomm industry has been able to provide it for us. The 1996 legislation was focused on service- specific networks that did not compete with one another and removed unnecessary regulatory barriers to open up markets to competition. Today, we are faced with a changing market—the industry once characterized by specific networks now is characterized by more digital technologies, allowing for increased competition. The 1996 legislation is already out of date, and how to regulate the telecommunication industry has once again become a debate in Congress. Any legislation we address in today’s Congress should continue to foster a competitive environment where the telecom industry can grow and provide consumers what they demand. The 1996 telecom bill no longer addresses the major issues in today’s market. The latest proposal to address the changing needs of the telecommunication industry is the Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement (COPE) Act of 2006, introduced by my colleague, Representative Joe Barton (R-TX). This bill includes provisions that allow ample competition for cable and telephone companies. Promoting competition means lower prices for consumers and increased incentive for innovation. An increased number of cable television providers in the market leads to more choice and more control for consumers, and the COPE Act allows this by preventing over regulation of the industry. The debate over network neutrality has been brought to the forefront with the renewed energy to update the telecomm laws. Proponents of net neutrality argue that any new telecom legislation must include extensive net neutrality regulations in order to provide all equal access to the Internet and to prevent providers from controlling access or using power to slow specific services. These proponents fail to realize a couple of main points. First, providers have repeatedly said they have no intention of slowing access, especially because consumers would not continue with a provider if they were faced with any such blocked access. Rather, in an environment without excessive regulation, providers are able to get the best product to consumers. Proponents also fail to realize that over-regulation through net neutrality provisions will not provide a ‘level playing field’ as they suggest, but rather slow the Internet for us all. Unwarranted net neutrality provisions being discussed in accord with the COPE Act are solutions in search of a problem. Over regulation will end up hurting competition and innovation instead of encouraging it. Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. As Congress continues to discuss updated policies regarding the telecomm industry, rest assured that I will keep your views in mind. I hope you will continue to inform me of the issues that concern you. In the meantime, I encourage you to visit my Internet website at http://www.house.ov/tancredo where you can sign up for the Capitol Update, my weekly E-mail newsletter.

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C# Cookbook 2nd Edition Review

The book starts out by purporting not to be a reference book. I suppose that is accurate, thus the title "Cookbook" and not C# Reference book. However the more you see of the book, the more you can't help but see it as anything but a reference book.

It is a different sort of reference book. If you need to look something up quickly, the index will be a better resource then the table of contents. It is really the best of both worlds. If you are looking for something to "sharpen your saw," just open the book to a subject using the table of contents. If you need an answer fast, then jump to the back and follow standard procedure.

As usual, the text and code examples are top notch (it is an O'REILLY book after all -- what would you expect?). There are times when you have 20+pages of code in the book giving you the feeling that they are padding the book (be glad you can download the code samples from the website). There is also the appeal it has for just sitting down and picking a few subjects on C#/.NET and reading over their sample problems and suggested solutions.

The big question you have is, "Is this book for me?" That depends. If your office doesn't have Internet access or you just prefer a book over a simple google search (this it not an uncommon thing) then this book is definitely for you. If you usually do everything on-line (code snippets, examples and such) then you can survive without this cookbook. I'll be returning my copy in hope that someone else at the Denver User Group will have more use for it.

I can't help but shake that this is essentially a reference book (despite what the introduction says). A good reference book, but still a reference book.

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Sony Online / Lithum / Matrix Online Forums Privacy Exploit -- Fixed on SOE's end

The Forum Exploit has been fixed. They still pass the session in the URL but they redirect you to a different page before they link to external images so they have essentially solved the problem.

Great job (there was one person at SOE who took care of this and grats to you :) )

Lithium hasn't responded.

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Sony Online / Lithum / Matrix Online Forums Privacy Exploit

Few have much nice to say about Sony Online Entertainment. I will say that they try to give a decent product to their clients. Sometimes they succeed. Sometimes the excel (and then ruin it by changing it).

However this is about Sony Online Entertainment not protecting user privacy. You need to know how to protect yourself since they have chosen not to.

I sent a detailed email to SOE explaining how users can (and some were) log on to the Sony Online Matrix Online forums as other users and even administrators. It should be noted that I also sent this same information via the Sony Online Matrix Online Forum system as a Private Message to Walrus (He is essentially the head honcho for the gaming community relating to The Matrix Online). I never received a response so I sent an email to Bruce Economy since he seems to be the highest up email address I could find.

Here is the content of the email:

---

From: John Hasson [mailto:john@unigrep.com]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 10:49 AM
To: Economy, Bruce
Subject: Found big exploit on forums (by accident even) -- Matrix Online -- can log in as admin or other user

Here is how it goes.

On my sig... I track the referring URL.
The recent list can be seen at http://mxoHouston.com

When someone is replying to a post with my sig the system passes their sessionId in the URL.-- (If they are logging in to reply to the message)

You will see something like this... the sessionServerID is what gets ya.
......action=view_main&id=11711&t=inbox&sessionServerID=JpVq3Ykr7cAfd%3FC0

If you click on that link with the SessionID around the same time period they have logged in then you are logged in as if you are them.

I noticed it by accident when I accidentally posted a reply as Harpalos

http://mxoboards.station.sony.com/matrix/board/message?board.id=mission&message.id=2076#M2080

I quickly edited it of course...

And tracked down what happened.

Suggestion:
Have the board set a cookie without passing the sessionId along the URL. That way it can't be taken advantage of.

If this is not fixed.. someone could log in as an Admin or a Moderator

If you cant fix it... I suggest making sure that the Admins or Mods make sure they log in first using the standard log in link on the main page before they start replying to messages. But players will still be able to take over each other's forum accounts.

John Hasson
john@unigrep.com

---

To his credit, he replied very quickly telling me it would get sent to the right group. See his quick response.

---

From: Economy, Bruce [mailto:beconomy@soe.sony.com]
Sent: Monday, December 05, 2005 11:58 AM
To: John Hasson
Subject: RE: Found big exploit on forums (by accident even) -- Matrix Online -- can log in as admin or other user

Hello,

Thanks for sending this to me. I’ll get it passed on to the right group.

Sincerely,

Bruce W Economy
Senior CS Supervisor
Star Wars Galaxies - Planetside - Matrix Online
Sony Online Entertainment
beconomy@soe.sony.com

http://www.station.sony.com/

---

I thought ok great. They will tell lithium (who makes the forum software) and they will get it fixed.

Well between then and now, I was banned. A few weeks later I got permission to come back. The game just wasn't the same anymore and eventually left the game again.

For those wondering if this is why I got banned. It isn't. It may have caused them to put a “watch” on my account, but I was banned for something else (that will go in a future post).

Well five months later it STILL isn't fixed. So I figure I'll send one more email to Bruce to see if he can light a fire to protect people's privacy.

Here it that message that I sent today.

---

From: John Hasson
Sent: Thursday, May 18, 2006 3:50 PM
To: 'Economy, Bruce'
Subject: RE: Found big exploit on forums (by accident even) -- Matrix Online -- can log in as admin or other user

Hi Bruce, I no longer play any SOE games (for the moment) but this is something that you should know about.

5 months ago I emailed you about this exploit. It is still not fixed and people can still log in as other people. Even worse I have been contacted by others who also knew of this and used it for their own gain so I know it has caused issues in the past.

This concerns me because you claim to protect user privacy.

http://www.esrb.org/confirm/soe-confirmation.jsp

This is simply not the case. I'll have to go public with this shortly so users can know how to protect themselves.

John

Hi Bruce, I no longer play any SOE games (for the moment) but this is something that you should know about.

5 months ago I emailed you about this exploit. It is still not fixed and people can still log in as other people. Even worse I have been contacted by others who also knew of this and used it for their own gain so I know it has caused issues in the past.

This concerns me because you claim to protect user privacy.

http://www.esrb.org/confirm/soe-confirmation.jsp

This is simply not the case. I'll have to go public with this shortly so users can know how to protect themselves.

John

---

And here is the reply.. well not much of a reply :)

---

Economy, Bruce on 5/18/2006 3:49 PM
The e-mail account does not exist at the organization this message was sent to. Check the e-mail address, or contact the recipient directly to find out the correct address.
...<beconomy@soe.sony.com>... User unknown>

---

This means two things. Either Bruce no longer works there or he changed his email address because too many customers players were emailing him.

To summarize:

SOE has known about this privacy breach for 5 months now. That is plenty of time for them to fix it. So I am posting here to tell the users of lithium forum software how to protect themselves.

NEVER LOG IN WHEN REPLYING TO A MESSAGE. EVER!

Only log in from the main page and then browse the forums and reply after you have logged in.

3 possible ways for Lithium or SOE to fix it.
1) Don't pass the session in the URL before you set it as a cookie.
2) Don't allow users to link to external images for their forum signatures
3) Don't link to external images/links when processing a login

There may be other ways to fix it, but any of those will work.

Whats really sad is that this is not a really elaborate exploit.

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Adam Herscher @ Microsoft Responds

His post can be found here: On Blogging and Bug Bashes

To summarize: They are paying Non-Coders (the "everyone else" group @ Microsoft) for bugs they find that are fixed.
So.. if Joe Marketing finds a bug and reports it. When that bug gets fixed Joe Marketing gets $100. (at least I think it is when it gets fixed, it would be crazy to pay them for each bug they find regardless of if it gets fixed)

He goes on to say how we are all spinning the original post the wrong way. Look at the original post mirrored here (the original was taken down).

I don't see how it could be taken any other way then the famous dilbert comic.

I'll have to digg around for the original post if I can even find it, but I seem to remember someone else at Microsoft reporting annoyances from Vista as bugs. They were talking about Vista's constant nagging the user on things. (Do you want to do [this]? Are you sure? It might be a security risk, etc.. )
His concern (and it is valid) is that users will simply start clicking yes all the time (like they did in IE) He reported it to the Vista folk. Turns it isn't considered a bug since it is by design. So.. no $100 for him :) He ends his post with stating that real bugs are easy to fix. Design changes are hard late in a project.
*I have not tested Vista so I have no first hand experience with it yet.

Most issues the non-qa/coding group will find are going to be design issues and not actual bugs (since if they aren't normally doing this type of thing they won't really have the experience to find actual bugs).

This will lead to frustration on their part because most “bugs“ reported will come back as “That's not a bug. We did that on purpose.“ It will spiral from there.

So.. I still call pointy-haired boss on this idea unless they take their user interface input into consideration (since that is mostly what the non-techie group would find).

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Microsoft has Pointy Haired Boss named "Brian V"

Here is the link: http://blogs.msdn.com/mpoulson/archive/2006/05/12/596319.aspx

Aparently they are being paid for each bug they find and fix.

Snippet incase it gets taken down:

• “MSFT employees get paid extra $$ to find bugs in Vista Beta 2
  Today Brian V sent mail out that told msft employees on the Vista teams they will get paid $100.00 for each bug we file and get fixed in Beta 2.
  
  The person with the most bugs filed and fixed will get an extra $500.00.
  
  How SWEET is this!“

What does this remind you of? ...

Dilbert :)

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I got .text Blogging Software Working. Here's how.

Well, I finally got .Text to work. I had to make some changes to the code to get it to let me do a few things on the backend. I also relieve heavily on internet archive. Web Archive of Scott Water's Dottext InstallationWalkThrough11

I'll cache the steps here so others can figure out how to set it up: (incase it dissappears from the web)

---

Before you get going, you have to make one choice. Will you be hosting a single blog or multiple blogs?

OK, now that choice has been made. We will walk through the basic steps.

1. Unzip the files somewhere on your local directory
2. Create a new web application (virtual directory or site) pointing to your directory (the DottextWeb folder) *
3. Create a new SQL Server Database (you can also use an existing DB, all .Text objects start with blog_, so it should play nice)
4. Run the full database setup script (found at data\FullDBSetup.sql for binary installs and data\Dottext_095_FullDB.sql for source code installs)
5. Configure you web.config: See BasicConfiguration

To make this step a little easier, I included 4 sample web.config files in both downloads (in the config folder and otherstuff project). These are preconfigured for basic setups. Each file contains a description of what needs to be deleted at the top. Please make sure you deleted the comments once you have made your changes.

6. Add new blogs (I recommend using DottextHelper)

7. If using a multiple blog setup (community site), you need to decide if you will need to make an additional decison: How do you want to add blog directories?

• Option1 Folder/Directory setup. For each new blog you create, you will need create a folder (same directory as the code) with the same name as the blog and with an empty default.aspx file. ASP.Net will not handle non-asp.net requests by default. Since the requested blog exists in a folder does not exist, without the default file, asp.net will never know about your request.
• Option2 If you want to elminate the need to create the blog folders and default files, you can tell IIS to pass along all requests to the aspnet_isapi.dll. To accomplish this you will need IIS access. For Windows 2000 and Windows 2003 instructions see this article: [Wildcard] Mapping all requests to asp.net is a powerful feature, but it does not come without issues. See WildCardIssues for more details.

Other helpful links

.Text relies on two primary values from you database for each blog: Host and Application See HostApplication for help with this.

* If you are installing the source, the virtual directory should be called DottextWeb

Possible Issues:

Step 4 from source. FullDbErrorMessages

---

A few comments... you dont have to call the virtual directory DottextWeb if you are installing the source. (At least I didn't have to)
The Dottexthelper is a command line utility in the Source Zip. I include the source Zip here incase that also goes away.

You can download DotText .95 Here (1.3M)

Original Download Source

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IRC Overlay and Radio Player for Full Screen DirectX Games

Why is this cool? It overlays IRC and an Internet Radio on top of your full screen DirectX Game. This mean people that don't have 4 monitors and 8 computers can still participate in online radio events and chat game/server wide in IRC channels without having to run in window mode or keep an eye on a seperate window.
No DJ logged into your current game? No problem..send the request via IRC :) Want to know where things are happening before you hear it on air? Watch the IRC. Want to be able to say things in games that the chat is heavily monitored?...

Demo Video at the Bottom of the Page

Here is what it does.
-It connect to the server here to verify the version number (if you don't have the right version, it won't run till you get the right version)
-It creates a window that will be on top of your video games/screen (the fancy word for it is "overlay")
-Then it downloads online radio stations, their IRC Channels and tiny images for buttons
-Once all this is done you will see a few buttons along the bottom. You click on the button and it tunes in to that radio station and connects to their IRC Channel.

Other things of note:
-The tiny Plus and Minus are for volume control
-This version does not save any user settings
-Ctrl+Alt+Shift+O will make it reappear after you hide it. (You can also use that key combination to hide it)
-The X (top right) will hide the overlay, but will not unload the program from memory. You will need to use the Icon in the Tray by your clock to do that.
-The \/ (Top Left) makes the main text area transparent.
-Can only connect to one server and channel at a time.
-You can drag it around bu clicking on the title bar and dragging it
-It requires .NET 1.1 mainly because I wanted to see what would be needed to code the overlay in .NET. I coded the test versions in VC7 and then in VB6--Maybe I'll release that code so others can play around with it.

Things To Do:
-Universal Support...(it seems to work fine on RADEON gfx cards but not Nvidia...)
-Handle IRC color command (probably just strip them out?)
-Create an Installer.
-Make the scroll arrows work.
-A better interface for multiple IRC servers/channels
-Allow resizing the window
-Testing, Testing and Testing
-Public Skins Interface?
-Interface for selecting user radio and irc channels (so you can listen/connect to something besides what is on the server here)
-Highlight the buttons when you move the mouse over them.

If you want your online radio station to show up in the buttons you need to send me:
1) A png image exactly 10 pixels tall. Keep the width reasonable.
2) Your IRC server/channel
3) A Windows Media Player compatable URL for tuning in
4) An email with 1-3 to john[at]johnhasson.com -- no promises that it will be put in there.

Have you read all that?
Requirements:
1) .NET 1.1
2) Probably The Latest Version of DirectX
3) A Graphics card that can handle my overlay code.
Update - So far the only reported successes have been with RADEON cards

I am not responsible for dataloss, errors, floods, earthquakes or migratory pattern changes due to this applicaiton.
By downloading and running this you understand that you do so at your own risk.

Download latest beta here 128k zip -last updated 5/2 2:31 PM MST

Send crash reports to john[at]johnhasson.com Subject Line: Overlay Crash and then give as much detail as you can. Short and useless crash messages are subject to mockery and posting on the internet.

I'll be watching for comments and offering support in the following places:
Subnova - Post comments
Thread in Rumbaar's Matrix Forum
#subnova IRC Room
#siradio IRC Room
The email address above. Put something about the overlay in the subject line.

Supported Commands

/join	/join #subnova This will leave your current channel (if you are in one) and you will join the specified channel
/leave	/leave This will leave your current channel
/play	/play http://www.siradio.fm This will tune the internet radio station into the specified URL /play This will start playing the last radio station selected (either by clicking on one of the buttons or manually entering the url as above)
/stop	/stop This stops the radio from playing (useful for when you just want it quiet for a minute)
/me	/me jumps for joy. This will show you jumping for joy in the IRC channel you are in
/server	/server irc.subnova.com This will disconnect you from your current IRC server (if you are connected) and connect you to the default IRC port on the specified server /server irc.subnova.com:6667 This will disconnect you from your current IRC server (if you are connected) and connect you to the default specified IRC port on the specified server /server irc.subnova.com/subnova This will disconnect you from your current IRC server (if you are connected) and connect you to the default IRC port on the specified server It ALSO will join you to the #subnova channel once you have connected /server irc.subnova.com:6667/subnova This will disconnect you from your current IRC server (if you are connected) and connect you to the default specified IRC port on the specified server It ALSO will join you to the #subnova channel once you have connected
/nick	/nick TasteeWheat This will change your nickname to the specified name if it is available
/msg	/msg Username Message This sends a private message to the username
BUTTONS	Click one of these buttons. It will Tune into that radio station and connect to their IRC Channel.

WMV Download Link Video is 9.9M

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CLASSIC POST: Can Linux Really Replace Windows? (9/28/2001)

This was originally written for angryCoder which seems to have pretty much died so I though I'd at least give some of my old articles new life.

Can Linux Really Replace Windows?
Server: Probably
Workstation: Perhaps.
Average home PC: No way!

What! That's it?
Where are the statistics, the numbers--the proof! Show me proof!

Ok, proof--

Proof Summary:
My Wife's Computer: Definitely Not.
My Computer: Nope
My Other Computer: Sure, why not. I don't want anything to do with Windows XP and having to contact them whenever I get a new hard drive.

Background:
Let me start by giving you generic hardware specs. None of my workstation home PC's have any major power. The fastest CPU in the house is a K6-2 500mhz. (Not fast at all by today's standards) They each had around 128Meg and Win98SE.

I've been working with computers for over 15 years--programming for closer to 8 so I figured Linux would be a walk in the park. I know my way around the command line interface of DOS very well and UNIX pretty well too. I can move files around, fdisk, dir, chmod, w, h, ls -al, etc. with the best of them (or so I thought).

Plus as a past Delphi developer (up to 3.0) I was really excited about Kylix.

This whole thing started when my wife was complaining that I was using her computer too much and making it unstable. That happens when you have Adobe Photoshop, two Visual Basic IDE's, Interdev and seven or more IE windows open on the hardware I described. (I still think it was all her. I just can't prove it!)

So I figured, "Hey, Linux is really stable!" -- I read slashdot. I figured those folk know their stuff. About once a week I see some blurb about how great Linux is, and how it can replace Windows in the workplace, saving gobs (or mountains, I forget) of cash on licensing fees. "Linux is more fun to use and is just plain better than Microsoft windows." Ok, I'm game...

I had an old copy of the Mandrake 7 distribution on some CDs that I bought in New Orleans (another story there). "I'll just plop those CDs in and I'll be done in about an hour!," I thought.

I just don't know enough about Linux. Yeah, I know about Gnome, KDE, X-Windows (sorta). I used to telnet into HP-UX machines on a regular basis to handle corporate billing processes by moving files around, chmod-ing them, ftp-ing them from one place to another, etc. But what is this? COLOR in the text console? WOW! That is so cool!

But wait, this is a PC for my wife to replace her Win98 Box. She just wants Email, Web Browser, and a little MS Office stuff (Word, etc.). A text-based box will not do.

First of all, my AGP video card was not compatible. Then, my network card was not compatible. Then, my sound card was not compatible. It even complained about my case. Yeah right. It never complained. They just did not work. It never said, "You know, I like you and all; but none of this hardware is gonna work on me unless you jump through some hoops."

But I'm a trooper. A few hardware problems aren't going stop me! They never stopped me in the windows world. I've coded in C. If I have to, I'll write my own driver! And off I went...

Mayday, Mayday! Abort, abort! Danger Will Robinson!

Did you know that (as far as I saw) everything in Linux is configured in text files? This reminded me of Windows 3.11 and all the .ini files. To their credit, these text files are well documented--just not good enough for me. It did not say, "You have an AGP ATI-Rage card, type 'ATI-Rage 128' here." It said, "Here is where you define your video card."

I was able to get the network card and the sound card working. After many struggles, I used older equipment and it worked like a charm. My sound card is from my OLD 386. Worked great! I switched the NIC with a NIC in my existing Win98 box. Low and behold, it liked it. The incompatible NIC worked fine in Windows.

But the graphics, and thus, the fancy Gnome or KDE UI (user interface), were not working. This will not do. So I researched and found an answer. I love Google--(groups.google.com) to be specific.

I needed to upgrade my X-free to a higher version than what I had. But oh the pain! Microsoft has ruined me! It is so easy in Windows or even the Mac world I imagine. Just click a few times: Yes, Yes, No I don't want to reboot, and I'm done!

Since it is late, and the only place around here that is open is Barnes and Noble. I rush out there to find the cheapest "Learn Linux" book that has CDs. I pick a Redhat book, because I hear they are pretty good.

So now I'm on version 8. Thank the stars and everything else! It has the right version of X-free that I need (4 point something).

What the #$@%! Why is it slower than Windows 98?

Yeah, you heard me. Slooooooooooower than Windows 98 was on the SAME machine. Oh the command line interface is fast, but of course it is fast, it is all text!

Oh, I was so disappointed. But wait! Compusa is having a sale on RAM -- $19 for a 128 Meg PC133 stick. I buy 3 because I've heard that with Linux, it is not the speed of the processor, but how much RAM you have.

I shut down Gnome to install the ram. It hangs, so I kill the power. It does not come back up. I do not want to reinstall because I don't want to reinstall Mozilla again. Plus, if this is going to happen on a regular basis I need to know what to do. It runs though something that reminds me of scandisk. But it stops and says, "Sorry, I suck." Turns out I have to type some cryptic command to tell it do a special scan and fix the file system differently then it normally would-I'm sure my wife is gonna looove this....not!

The 384 Megs of ram did make a difference. I even got SAMBA working and was playing my MP3's. It was still slow! Star/Openoffice was not installing. Plus I REALLY missed Ctrl+Enter when typing URL's. I was playing MP3's in the MP3 player that it came with (looks like winamp), and surfing in Mozilla, because Netscape 4.7 sucks--the window refreshes and screen updates were awful. The MP3's were even skipping-no it was not my network. I felt like I just put Windows 98 on a Pentium 100 with 32 Megs of ram!

I expected everything but the slowness.

I rebuilt the box as Windows 98 SE in less than an hour. (Not counting figuring out how to uninstall linux. Microsoft has instructions on their website.) I gave it to my wife and her PC became mine.

BTW - the machine flies even with those ridiculous themes installed!

I don't use her computer any more.

I'll check back with Linux in 6 months or more. In the mean time, I'll try FreeBSD. I hear you only need two floppies to install it...

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