How to install Windows XP in 5 hours or less [dive into mark]
My Windows XP installation has reached its half-life. (You do know that Windows has a half-life, don’t you? Every installation of Windows naturally degrades along a logarithmic curve until it becomes annoying, then unbearable, then unusable. Each successive revision of Windows has featured a slightly longer half-life. Back in the day, Windows 95 would last me about 3 months, while my copy of Windows XP has lasted me almost 9. I’m not bitter; when you realize that you’re measuring on a logarithmic scale, a factor of 3 improvement is really quite impressive.)
A long article and a still longer thread of comments.
I’m struck by two things: 1. how Mark’s experience was similar to my own of earlier this year with WIN2k, and 2. how few people understood what he was trying to do.
To be fair, he could have been more precise: he wasn’t just installing Windows XP, but doing a lot of post-installation work to make it useable. That said, nothing should be that difficult, and the fanboys’ reaction is typical. They’re most likely gamers to whom reformatting costs them nothing since their scores are stored on a server, or minimally skilled users of a couple of applications (like IE and the various pr0n viewing utilities they need).