Last week I made a reckless decision to upgrade the OS on my Toshiba laptop that I use to do everything Rails from XP to Vista.

Welp … MySQL broke, RadRails broke, Linksys broke, the list goes on …

The one that really killed me was MySql. Besides this port25 article there is not really much help out there.

The problem was I could not get MySql server to start as a windows service. After seemingly endless attempts, I think what made everything finally work was the following – turning off the windows firewall, turning off user accounts, and using the standard MySql install. Don’t ask me how I got there.

I mentioned that the upgrade to Vista was a reckless decision, and it really was because things were working fine with XP and I did not really need to go to Vista. Like many, I just blindly jumped in without thinking too much about it. Had I read a little I probably would have said no to vista.

The interesting side to all this is that the get-a-mac commercials on TV are REALLY talking to me now.

Since jumping on the Rails bandwagon it has be obvious that the Mac and Apple are held in very high regard by the rails community and I have been considering the Mac but avoiding the learning curve.

The other interesting side to my Vista problems has been the amazing sales momentum of the Macintosh, and Apple’s soaring stock price.

I just find it curious that Microsoft’s latest is full of problems while at the same time Apple and the Mac are taking off.