So at the end of the day yesterday one of our Linux boxes croaked. Hardcore died, dead, gone. Its a dual processor machine and, from what we can tell via the BIOS messages before the whole thing blacks out and cranks the PC speaker to a blairing yell, one of the processors is dead. We are not too sure on the second processor either.
We keep spare systems around for when we have hardware failures. This time, the box that died is so old that we don't have any backup. The backup machine is about 6 years newer then the system that died. So we grabbed the spare box anyway, slap the old drives into the new box, and boot it up. Linux complains that things have changed a lot (eg: going from 2 P3 processors to single P4 processor) but it boots! Horray! I grab a package listing of all the software installed, verify that all the important directories are on their own partitions (/home, /backup, and so forth), and reinstall (it had a really old kernel anyway). Downtime under an hour. Users don't seem to notice a thing.
Today I built 2 more Linux boxes from scratch taking under an hour each.
Also on my agenda today was the backup of a Windows XP box whose hard drive is dying. This one is a MUCH higher priority then the Linux boxes right now so I started it first before the Linux stuff mentioned above.
I run a full backup of the system using XP's backup utility. Slap a new drive in and install Windows XP. First problem: the site license key we have doesn't work with the new discs we got from Microsoft last month.
Well I have all these systems that came from Dell/HP that run Linux and they all have the keys on them so one of them should work right? 12 keys later I find one that works! I install XP run updates and I have to reboot. It fails genuine advantage check and won't let me do anything but call Microsoft.
I am not doing that. I don't have the time to waste right now.OK, whatever. I go and grab the latest key from our site license agreement with Microsoft and try to reinstall. This key doesn't work with the new discs.
OK, whatever. I download the latest version XP from the site and burn it off. BTW, for whatever reason I never got better then 120kbs downloading from microsofts site today so that was a couple of hours wasted waiting for downloads. Start the install completly over and this copy works with the latest key. Great I guess..I mean I have only wasted several hours already on installing XP.
Install completes. Run updates. 95 updates totalling a 120MB download FOR THE LATEST COPY OF XP THAT MICROSOFT HOSTS ON THEIR SITE! What the F***?
OK now I am getting frustrated because this takes over an hour to do.Now that all the updates are done I get to restart. The system fails its "Genuine Advantage" check. AGAIN? WTF? Whatever, this time it has more options then just calling microsoft. I hit the little "activate over the internet" it does something in the background, I have to reenter my key, and lets me go on my way.
Great. Now to apply the backup. It takes for ever but it finally completes. Horay! The system lives! Right? Oh wait...gotta reboot.
GD WGA!
I can not log in, this time it refuses to activate over the internet and it rejects every key I can get my hands on. Site license or off the lables of the Linux boxes, nothing works.
This time I call Microsoft. What else am I supposed to do? (Jokingly I said I was going to switch the box to Linux and the users who need the system were not amused....still working on them to be converts). I use the number provided on the Activation screen. They tell me "Oh this isn't our problem, this is a technical support problem" and they transfer me to Tech Support. BTW, if you ever call Microsoft /ALWAYS/ get the number that they are transfering you to. I am glad I did because not a single one of their transfers worked and I had to call the number they gave me. Not a single transfer.
So Tech support says "Oh this is a site license. We can't deal with that. You need to talk to those guys. I will transfer you." The transfer fails and the number they gave me goes to MSDN publishing. Idiots only have to read off of a screen and they can't do that properly apprently. Call back to Tech Support. Same thing, this time I get sent to MSDN. They tell me, "What you need is to activate. We can't do that. Go back to the activation people." The activation people give me the same thing "Oh no. They were wrong. You need Tech Support." After that transfer fails I just hang up the phone.
Sonuva....unbelievable...All day long and I still don't have this box rebuilt.
What else am I supposed to do? Why the only thing left that I can think of. I pick up the box, walk over to another one of the guys in the group:
"I do the Linux stuff and you handle the Windows stuff, right?"
"Uh...yeah. Usually."
"Here."
I ditch the task off onto someone else.
I really should send a bill to Microsoft for the amount of time they wasted. But what absolutly amazes me is that this stuff is in the news all the time. This isn't unheard of. That means people all over the world put up with this sh*t regularly! What the hell are they thinking? Why do people put up with this? I would have better used my time by watching the paint dry on the wall, so how can people waste their time like this? Do they have nothing else better to do?
Today was a miserable day and I got two things from it.
1) I know now that I am going to distance myself even further from Windows
2) I got a new appreciation for Linux. Never have I had this kind of sh*t pulled on me under Linux.
God I Love Linux!
