Stop freezing up already

When I was working at Pacific Title, back in my former life in Los Angeles, I worked with a man who confused the hell out of me. He wasn't that much older than I was, maybe six or seven years older, but he had, what I thought at the time, some very strange ideas about software and drivers and such.

It was my first introduction to open source software, and I thought this guy was a jerk. I wanted some system brought up and it needed some new graphic drivers installed on it. He had installed some proprietary drivers on the system and they failed and he couldn't fix the problem. After fighting with it for a day or two he downloaded some open source drivers, ones with fewer features but missing the bug of the proprietary driver. In a fit of exasperation during the work, he declared (very loudly) he was never installing another driver he didn't have the source code to, this was it, he was done.

I thought him looney.

In those six or seven years since, I've come around to his way of thinking. I understand why he feels the way he does. Not being able to fix a bug that you can see RIGHT THERE is unexplicably infuriating. Just give me the darn code, I'll have it fixed in 10 minutes.

I'm also leery of installing software on my systems now. Having to close all of my programs while the HP All-in-One installer does some voodoo to my system, only to watch the whole system freeze up, is not my idea of a good time.