I changed jobs at VA, had surgery (getting better, thanks), went on vacation, and didn’t take the time to work on the blog. But, Gentle Reader, I am back with a number of posts today of things that accumulated during the hiatus.
First, some thoughts about Windows 8. I installed Win8 on the test machine I keep in my office. This is not my first time installing 8, I had previously installed and uninstalled a pre-release version. Like many technically adept, I dislike (hate is such a strong word) the metro interface. I have started to use the live tiles for things like Hulu and NetFlix, but am not really impressed.
After a few days, I decided that I needed a Start Menu. I tried a few, and ended up using Classic Shell. Are you the support person for your family, church or other charity? Install Classic Shell before you leave. This one program will save you a lot of phone calls. Classic Shell is well written, and is shareware. Donate if you use it.
I am running the native Windows 8 anti-virus, Windows Defender. Do some research, and you will find that it has a mediocre track record, and I would not use it on a machine where I spend any time on the internet. AVG Free is better. For an Office alternative, I skipped OpenOffice and tried LibreOffice. I haven’t used it for anything critical, but it has opened the attachments in my email, and has done fine with basic spreadsheets.
I bought a Raspberry Pi, and used the Debian version of Claws Mail on it. There is also a Windows version, and I recommend it for computer geeks, but not their family members.
I have been experimenting with alternative browsers, too. I had quit using Mozilla Firefox in favor of Chrome for some time. Since all my computers are using 64 bit OS (for speed and securit), I decided to try WaterFox. Waterfox is x64 only, and it is very fast — faster than every other browser I tried. This is objective speed testing using various web based tests, not just my opinion. And it works just fine with Windows 8.
I still think that Windows 8 is ugly, and that Microsoft made a mistake by not allowing the users the option of keeping the Start Menu. But I no longer class it in the same fail category as Windows ME and Vista. With a few tweaks, you may not decide to revert to Windows 7.