Outlook is The Devil

I may have mentioned it before, but I am a Linux user completely on my home PCs. It took me a while to make the switch completely, but I have done it and never looked back. Once in a while, I use Windows for personal use, but generally it is limited to work. Our office uses Outlook for e-mail (what a surprise) and we have it installed on a home machine that runs Windows. Don't get me wrong, Windows is very appropriate for a lot of people. Properly maintained, a Windows PC can be a very useful machine. But when things go wrong...

Tonight, using Outlook, we were trying to send an e-mail message and the address book suddenly became nonexistent. You can go to the address book tab, see all of the entries, even open them up and edit them. However, if you go to send a message to one of them, it tells you that the address book is not found. It makes no sense. The usual reboot and try again didn't work. Restoring the file from a backup did not work. Maybe tomorrow after a good night's sleep, it will work again. Who knows. It's just this pattern that makes me crazy.

I also have a demon spawn printer/scanner combo that only works with Windows. I have tried unsuccessfully to find a way to make this machine work under Linux, but there is not a single person in any forum, web site, or any other published document that has been able to make this printer print. Anyway, the scanning function only works about 50% of the time in windows. You can scan something to the PC you are using, then go back, do the same thing and it will not work. Reboot, power down, reboot a couple more times and it will work again for a few minutes.

I used to think that Linux was difficult, that this futzing around with Windows was somehow easier because it worked a portion of the time. I realize now that I have been a Linux user for over a year, how stable the system is and how I never have to mess around to do the minor details. Also, if you have a problem, you can search Linux user groups, documentation, post a message and get help. When I try to solve technical problems I encounter in Windows, nearly every answer I find wants me to pay for it.

I'm not one of these Linux zealots that has a mission to convert the world. What I am is a believer in a system that lets me actually get the things done that need done without getting in my way. Things work and work consistently. Once you get something configured, which I will admit can sometimes be a challenge, they STAY WORKING. I don't mean to preach, but if there are any of you out there who think it's not worth the leap to ditch Windows and go this route, I implore you to think again. There's a link on the right for Ubuntu Linux. Start there. Regain a functional PC again.