So there I was, having a nice, relaxing Sunday afternoon, recharging my mental batteries with a few rounds of Quake, when a nice big BSOD hit me.

...Okay, whatever. Reboot. "You must activate this copy of Windows in order to use it" *click* "This copy of Windows has already been activated", repeat ad infinitum. So I delete the files that are used by activation, hoping to reset it. Turns out on the next boot my mbr, as well as several segments of my hard drive have been corrupted. For the second time in a year.

So I'm done with Winblows. Totally totally done. I spent the next 8 hours installing and configuring Ubuntu (mostly compiling quake sources). I'm not new to linux, having dual-booted several times in the past. I can get around comfortably, but I've always been able to go back to windows for things like xfire, broadcasting, etc. I don't really have that option any more.

The result of this is me feeling really really clean (not at all elitest like I thought I would), but a little timid as well. It's like being in a familiar forest past dusk, where everything is just a little more treacherous than before. But, again like the forest, you know that you're just as safe as always.

No more windows for me. Ever.