[Hampshire] [OT] Why I (Sometimes) Hate Windows

I know hate is a strong word, but sometimes...

I finally upgraded my wireless router. The old one was 802.11b but my
work and home laptops, and my wife's, are all g and the work one may
even be n. So my shiny new router (802.11n) arrives and I plug it in.
Wow, talk about user friendly, I am really impressed (Netgear WNR854T,
if you are interested).

Both my work and home laptop run Linux (Ubuntu) and setting the home
one was relatively painless. Not tried the work one yet, but should be
no different, but it sits in a docking station at home with GBit wired
so I don't use wireless on that one much anyway.

On to my wife's WinXP Compaq...

Turn it on, select the network and... BSOD!!!!

You are kidding me, right? Nope. Reboot and as soon as I log in BANG!
BSOD again.

Quick Google (useful having more than one machine sometimes) and I
discover others have seen similar problems. Oddly they don't mention
my wife's make or model of laptop, seems to happen to Dell's, IBM's,
and now Compaq's. And it's not just my new router, seems to be just
about any n-spec router. The comforting thing was that the common
denominator was WinXP and new drivers seem to fix the problem, so off
I go to the Compaq (HP) web site to download the latest and greatest
driver....

Already have the latest and greatest driver (4 years old!) installed. :o(

It's funny, one of the most frequent complaints I hear about Linux is
the lack of drivers. I agree that if you have the absolute latest and
greatest hardware it can sometimes be a little tricky, but wait 6
months and your sorted.

Maybe I can finally persuade my wife to leave the dark side and join
the rebellion. Doubt it somehow, though I have no idea why she resists
so strongly, all she does is read e-mail and write a few documents,
oh, and look at her photos. All of which she could do on Linux.

<sigh>

So maybe I can make the router work in b/g mode only... 'spose that
would do for now.

Unhappily yours,
Rich