Windows 7 for an Ubuntu devotee

There are three reasons I know of for spending money on an operating system at a time when free Ubuntu is now such a viable option. Those reasons are not Internet Explorer, the Microsoft Office paperclip and the excitement gained by placing your valuable data within an environment of questionable security. The reasons, for me, are:

1. iTunes
2. Adobe Photoshop
3. Adobe Premiere

So long as these three pieces of software are unavailable for Linux, I have no option but to make a pact with Redmond’s finest. Sure, I could also choose to go the OS X route, but while that option is cheaper than Windows, the hardware to run it is expensive and is likely to be obsolete before my trusty, upgradable, PC which also runs Ubuntu Linux.

So this week, I took the plunge and bought Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade as my XP installation has gradually been slowing down and the annual rebuild was due. Windows 7 has had overwhelmingly positive press – perhaps a consequence of releasing the slow, poorly supported and infuriating-to-use Vista previously. This time, it is reported that there is a return to the stability of Windows XP while bringing improved boot and shutdown timings and a whole array of UI improvements (which I openly admit I am a sucker for – hence my devotion to Ubuntu’s Compiz window management and Gnome Do’s Docky functionality.)

Before I talk about how the Windows 7 installation went, a quick word about my three reasons for adopting Windows. Many Linux advocates will suggest alternatives to iTunes, Photoshop and Premiere. While Songbird and the Gimp are without a doubt excellent developments, Songbird does not support iPhone syncing and the Gimp does not have the community and support that the Adobe products offer. (Nor, frankly, does it have the usability or reliability in my experience.)

So, Windows 7 it was. The box arrived (looking intriguingly smaller and neater than the Microsoft marketing images – how did they do that?) with a 32-bit and 64-bit DVD inside. I can see no reason to go 64-bit yet (with its diminished software support) unless I am looking to run a system with >4Gb RAM. I’m not. Even given Premiere Pro’s system demands, RAM is not an issue for me, and my current 2Gb does me fine. The 32-bit disk started booting; some of that promised eye-candy was already on display and then… what’s this… it appears to have stalled. No disk activity, the mouse pointer (which I can still move) is the only think on the wallpaper, but it’s spinning-circle (egg-timer replacement) has disappeared and it seems nothing is happening. Now I know that at this point in a OS install, drivers are being loaded and hardware is being detected – sometimes a lengthy process. So I give it a minute or two. Then give up and try booting again. Same result. A quick google suggests it may be some USB devices so I disconnect printers, webcams etc. Same result. Further research suggests it could be BIOS settings, so I tweak those. Same result.

Then I read an article suggesting another unlikely solution: patience. I give this ago. 5 minutes and 20 seconds’ worth of patience in fact. At which point the installation continues without apology. Having learnt the divine skill of patience, the rest of the installation went smoothly (though there was a need to “keep the faith” at various points during the install.) After not much more than 30 minutes, the PC booted into Windows 7 is record time and I’m liking what I see. Subsequent software installation has been effortless and the system continues to run well. I chose to move from Symantec antivirus to the free AVG offering, and for firewall, I’ve taken on Comodo instead of ZoneAlarm or Windows 7′s own blockers.

Finally, it was necessary to deal with Windows’ unforgiving abuse of the Master Boot Record by replacing it with something that will acknowledge the fact that I have Linux running on another partition. To do this, I followed these steps (which were new to me as I’m not so familiar with grub2).