Being considered by others a highly computer literate person, I thought installing Linux would be painless and a sinch.

First, I acquired Red Hat Linux 7.1 off of a friend. I was kind of happy to know that I wouldn't have to partition my drive into a Linux and Windows partition thanks to Red Hat's great No Partition Install. Unfortunately, Linux, as antiquated as it is, cannot read off of the modern 21st century NTFS file system. Disappointed, and encouraged by an Open Sores friend, I illegally downloaded and stole PartitionMagic Pro 7.0, not just normal PartitionMagic, but the more expensive Pro version. (I felt so bad afterwards, I went to confession in the good Catholic manor.)

Being a commercial program, PartitionMagic had a GUI and was very easy to use. All I had to do was right click and choose a couple of options to resize my NTFS Partion to 30GB leaving 10GB open for my Linux partition. I restarted, and when I came back into windows, all worked well. I opened PartitionMagic and created a Linux Native partition. I put the Red Hat cd into the computer and restarted. When Red Hat Linux Setup started, it was a very old Windows 3.1 looking GUI. (I was amazed that Red Hat took the time to make a GUI, knowing the usual quality of Open Sores programs) Unfortunately, I had to connect an old ps/2 mouse to my computer because apparently the antique Linux operating system doesn't support cutting edge technology like USB and lasers. I followed the instructions until I got to the screen that said manually choose the partition to install the Linux operating system on. Unfortunately, I had trouble figuring this out because of the very strange way Linux handles storage devices. Instead of using a modern, and easy letter-based interface, Linux uses strange and alien terms such as hda1/ and hda2/. Following the advice of the manual, I mounted hda2 as / which apparently means root. Luckily, hda2 was the Linux partition, but unfortunately, Linux doesn't support 21st century functions like same disk Virtual Memory so I had to again, make a 1 GB Linux SWAP partition from PartitionMagic Pro, which if I haven't added already, I was encouraged to download in the manner of a common thief.

Again, I restarted my computer and ran the Linux set up again this time making it as far as Ready to Copy files. Unfortunately, the unstable and highly undocumented install program, called Anaconda (Largely because it chokes the common reputations of computers and Operating System Install programs) had an "Abnormal Termination" error, whatever that means. I was launched into a strange DOS type text based interface seen only in horror films. I tried several things like typing in WIN and EXIT, but it was to no avail. I had to manually restart my computer by shutting off my computer at the power supply (Most modern 21st century computer makers and the beloved Microsoft warn against this for it causes Hard-Drive damage)

The third and final time I had to run the Linux setup program, it finally installed. It didn't have drivers for my cutting edge Flat-Panel monitor so I had to choose a generalized 1999 driver for generic monitors. Eventually, I got to GRUB configuration which allows two operating systems to boot off of one computer. I configured it so one OS would boot off of hda1 (the C: Drive, mind you) and the auxilary OS would boot off of hda2 (The D: or E: drive on most modern operating systems)

Finally finished with that abomination of an install program, I rebooted my computer and when GRUB loaded up, only Linux was on the option screen. Unfortunately, I ,had to choose Linux and instead of the quick 35 second boot-up time of Windows XP Professional, I was met by a tediously slow boot up not seen since Windows 1.0. It took over 2 1/2 minutes (On a 1.7 Ghz computer with 256 MB of RAM)

Now before, a couple of my hairs were just being singed, but now, I was so far down in hell, I was wishing I weren't born. I thought, wrongly of course, that if I restarted the computer, GRUB would work correctly and Windows XP would be on the GRUB screen but first, I had to find the restart command on the GNOME Equivalent of a start menu. Well, where could it be, it wasn't on the start menu. Again, against the recommendations of every computer manufacturer in the civilized world I had to manually restart. I restarted and GRUB still only had the Linux OS to choose from. I put in the Windows XP Install disk and restarted the computer using the ingenius repair option to start into Windows XP. When I finally did get into Windows XP, it was really messed up. The Virtual Memory (64-bit I may add, and on the same partition) wasn't working, and may hard drive was 99% fragmented, up from 47 before I installed Linux. Now I'm angry, my computer is even more messed up than I can go into detail on.

All-in-All, I lost 17 GBs of data, including 400 MP3s, Countless pieces of Intellectual Property and Artwork made in commercial programs like Paint Shop Pro and Lightwave 3d, 3 GBs of Legally downloaded Commercial Programs and several Word Documents need for school. The moral of this story (Besides backing up your hard drive before installing evil antique operating systems like Linux) is that Linux is a monopoly uses illegal business tactics like offering "free" (It's not actually free, because you have to pay for it in performance, and features)and thwarting existing installations of commercial and legal programs.