I'm writing this from my living room couch, because in some small way, a portion of hell has frozen over. before I tell you what I did, let me justify my reasons. Microsoft has had to release over a dozen patches since SP2 was released, almost all of them "critical" in nature. it's been like that ever since win98. At the end of december, 2006, MS will stop releasing patches for winXP as it will have entered it's non-supported development phase (their words, not mine). the next MS OS to be released, aside from the infinate patch loop and cash sponge that is Server 2003, is "longhorn" in 2008. 2 years AFTER Xp is done. what did MS do LAST time that happened. Windows ME (shudder).

I don't want to be dependent on Windows anymore. There are some Viable alternatives out there. Linux, an Open Source OS, comes in hundreds of "flavors" called distributions. Apple, with it's resurgence after the iPod became a pop culture smash, promises to be a strong non-MS player with OS X.

I wanted to try both, and there was a very easy way to do it.

I'm writing this from my couch because I'm accessing the web wirelessly...on my Apple G3 iBook...

to be continued...