Windows Cannot Error

I started the entire path to Linux due to a single Windows Error message. My little netbook couldn't handle the massive book I was writing (pictures every two pages, tables and formatting galore, et c.). I needed a real PC.

A friend kindly gifted me her old computer parts. She handed me a plastic bad full of plastic and silicone parts. I hated computers, but knew I had to get this thing working to complete the book.

I spent nine hours in total, mostly just figuring out where bits went, and shopping for the couple of parts I needed. Somewhere about seven hours in, I took an old hard drive with Windows 2000 and booted the thing up. It worked, but couldn't access the internet.

Error: Ethernet drivers not found. Download ethernet drivers.

Some developer had, at some point, typed in this error message, without realizing or caring about the ridiculousness of requesting a user download ethernet drivers. This single, maddening, ridiculous, error message prompted me to look at another route. I had no idea where to get a safe copy of drivers for an unknown type of ethernet, for an outdated copy of Windows.

I thought Linux was some L337 hak0r, but I felt so annoyed that I got some youtube instructions on burning an iso with rofi, and dove in. Nine hours in, I had booted up Ubuntu. I steeled myself against the incoming glitches, terminal-faff, and mostly hoped to give up early if I couldn't get this thing working.

It all worked.

• The internet worked.
• Firefox was already installed.
• Libreoffice was already installed, and the book opened just fine.
• I searched around for how to install GIMP on Ubuntu; you just click the app store, or press the Windows key, type in 'gimp', and the app store entry comes up.

To this day, I maintain the most user-friendly computers are the basic Linux distros, like Ubuntu and Mint. The app stores, and way drivers are always built-in ensure they all 'just work' in a way that nothing else does.