Quote from: flatfly on December 23, 2012, 08:30:46 PM

If your computer doesn't like the Qt client, how about trying out Electrum or Multibit (both lightweight, fast-starting clients)? You'll be up and running in minutes, literally. and you can always come back to the Qt client when it's more reliable on regular PCs.

See this chart for a quick comparison of the various bitcoin clients:

http://dre.redmartian.org/compare.htm

Seriously, I feel bad for you (and all unsuspecting new users) wasting so
much of your valuable time just getting the Qt client started.

Well I am the original poster here (lost access to the account).
I should have listened to you and used Electrum. But I got so angry and suspicious because the "official" client didn't work. Plus I had problems finding a way to buy bitcoins in the UK.

Can't believe I didn't buy any Bitcoins in December 2012 when I posted this....

Imagine if I had spent a few hundred pounds, as I wanted!

Instead, I bought them at ten times the price now, in January 2014.... In the meantime I heard Max Keiser talk of bitcoin on RT during the autumn. Lately taking some time off work, I listened to tons of podcasts and now I am up to speed.

I was sooo close in 2012! But I dropped out because QT was so useless and hung. Seriously, this client is a liability. I have a high spec PC but it just didn't work.

My impression at the time, was that it was "buggy". I wasted 2 weeks on and off trying to get the QT current operational... Then I got so annoyed that I just dropped out altogether

And now I am running Electrum, just as flatfly suggested!

I think that QT has become a liability. The download page should actively discourage n00bs from using it, and point them towards a light client instead.