Testimonial: I Took The Red Pill ... And Look Where I Ended Up



by Opey

The Rabbit Hole had a chamber with a wall of windows behind a veil with the words, “IGNORE WHAT'S OUTSIDE,” painted on it. Emboldened by my previous experiences of discovery of forbidden Truths while burrowing about, I indignantly tore aside the veil and defiantly peered outside the windows into the Open Source landscape. After gazing for what seemed like months at the plethora of variously-sized edifices, all of which are marked with the words, "Welcome! Freely enter!" I decided to actually lumber through a window and go investigate the buildings.

After noting the building directory of several buildings, I decided to further investigate the "PCLinuxOS" building, and walked through the KDE entrance. The guard at the doorway, however, held up his hand and insisted that I choose to comply with password etiquette. Not wanting to seem untoward, I acquiesced.

'Whoa!" I exclaimed. "Totally rad!" ... or some such retro-effusion. "Jeepers! ... so much alien stuff!" Then I came upon requests from seemingly every direction to provide a password. "This is getting really old, really really fast," I thought.

Shortly, however, I discovered that, when scanning over the building's directory outside, either I missed the part, or else it was missing from the directory, that cautioned me to don high-speed slippers before entering. Since I hadn't ever previously forayed into any of these buildings in the Open Source landscape, it took me awhile, and required my poking around some forums for info, to finally learn that it was my PC's clod-hopper MS-esque modem that the building's floor just could not handle. By this point, my frustration over having spent so much time on a futile foray was heaped upon my disappointment with not being able to explore all the rooms. I resolved that I would forestall revisiting the building until after I'd made certain preparations upon my laptop. Perhaps someday my PC would once again enjoy high-speed ... slippers.

Meanwhile, as I sauntered back toward the building's exit, it occurred to me to attempt to recant my agreement to provide a password at every turn. As I was (and am) completely oblivious to the functions of this alien land, I poked around fairly haphazardly.

I left the building. By then, I was ready to just dual-boot back through windows and fogedaboutit. After a session in what now seemed like a breath of fresh cyber-air, I needed to reboot for some reason (prolly some apps installation).

Zip. Nada. Niente. Caput. Finis. ... well, for all intents and purposes, anyway.

Some lingering message about loading something ... and no recourse but to turn off the lights. On retrospect, this .. snafu ... may have had something to do with my having, inventively, I concede, encrypted an extra FAT32 partition that I created during the setup process.

After reformatting, reloading the system, and then restoring from Paragon BU/Restore archive, I was up-to-snuff ... but, of course, the windows entryway out into the Open Source landscape was gone.

I mulled over reconstructing it on the PC. .... naw. What for? I'm not about to go invest money into what only turns out to be a slow boat to China, one that will, hopefully, be sunk in short order (no offense to China).

So. That brings me to today. Today I am preparing to reconstruct the window entryway into the Open Source landscape ... but on my laptop. (Starbucks is a fine place where to don high-speed slippers.) I am going to follow the CD-Live instructions TO THE CYBER-LETTER. I am going to be compliant and be a good little adventurer. I am not going to cast off the password etiquette for what seems like every move I make while rummaging through the PCLinuxOS building until I can make friends with some of you out there who can hold my MS-esque hand ... while I rummage through the PCLinuxOS building. ... so ... um

... can someone meet me at the door?

Opey, forevermore.