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Windows 7

mutemaler
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Posted 10/24/09 - 04:37 PM:	#11
Arkon wrote: Has anyone tried it? Is it like XP or more like Vista? Is it worth upgrading to? (I prefer XP over Vista myself) Thanks. What I surf with (w95c, I believe I belong to a fraction of a fraction of a percent if you trust the web stats) won't be of interest to you, but I have a MS strategy which you might bear in mind. You wait until MS has officially STOPPED changing an OS (unless you like unstable systems and huge updates, enjoy being a guinea pig), and THEN get the very last version, and then only every 2nd or 3rd system (the ones inbetween being rather poor). In this case that would be XP. I wouldn't touch windows 7 until they are done "fixing" it. But yes, skip over Vista. I have other systems (the w95 is small and fast is all, a lite system I made myself way back when), its just that a OS needs to be stable, not current, and that more or less current applications need to be able to run on it. That is all. At the moment I have multiple distributions of Linux and am trying to decide which one to go to for the 2 old systems I have, will buy a new PC, maybe a netbook without the net, either blank or buy a copy of XP for compatibility reasons. But no more. The MS daze are coming to a close.

psychotick
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Posted 10/26/09 - 07:17 AM:	#12
Hi, Going from XP Pro SP3 to Vista business was the worst mistake I ever made. Most of my games wouldn't run, hardware needed updates everywhere, I couldn't find anything in the new crap directory system and those damned pop ups drive me nuts. So yes, am waiting desperately for windows 7 SP1. (Never by an OS before the first service pack release - you're just asking for trouble). Cheers.

swstephe
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Posted 10/26/09 - 07:21 PM:	#13
wuliheron wrote: I'm anxiously waiting for it to arrive in the mail. I'm tired of programs, especially games, doing the herky-jerky because xp can't use more ram. You might be plugging the wrong hole in that case. The physical memory limit of Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 is the same on 32-bit cpu's, 4Gb, (that 2^32, so it isn't possible to use more memory anyway). Even Linux would have this limit. The result of upgrading from XP to Vista/7 is that the operating system uses more memory, so there is less available for programs and games. If you want more RAM, you would need to switch to a 64-bit CPU, (and pretty much replace the rest of the hardware as well). Now for the next bitter pill -- the memory limit of Windows Vista Home was 128Gb, but Windows 7 requires you to buy "Business" version to get the same limit, the cheaper versions actually reduce the physical limit of memory, so it would stop using memory that you had installed and paid for. I use XP as part of my business. I've managed to avoid Vista all this time -- except it came on my laptop and about 3 months later, I got into a "critical update loop/paradox". It would install a new update, fail, reboot, rinse and repeat and my laptop was useless. I had gotten tired of the massive security it decided to implement on all my zip files anyway. I had to replace with Ubuntu on that laptop and am far more productive and secure, (no more viruses or background programs stealing bandwidth). I guess I'll have to upgrade to Windows 7 eventually. In this tiny Asian country, all software is pirated and Microsoft doesn't support any software for private individuals or even return calls. Several times, in my pursuit of legal, supported, copies of Microsoft products, I ended up with some kind of weird legal loophole where I ended up with the software for free anyway. I had technical support say -- "Well, it looks like we don't officially support your country. Listen, here is a register key that will work, enjoy. 'Click'". Meanwhile, the country's bandwidth is slowed to a crawl every time Microsoft releases a new update and everyone is auto-downloading that update. The bandwidth here was already terrible, (we were rated the 138th fastest country). Sometimes it is tempting to switch to 9600 baud modems for faster internet.
Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.

Cadrache
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Posted 10/27/09 - 06:42 PM:	#14
I did rather like ubuntu the little bit I played with it. Other then their install package thing. It's soo hard to find the correct version of the item you need. (and things that are supposed to auto-install didn't.) My only problem I had with ubuntu was the hp/linux hardware compatability issue (Almost top of the line pavilion.) and learning that most of the systems in the field I was planning to take this year used a windows based archology. Stupid moving/funeral expense put me below the limit to actually go to school this year. So it got postponed a year hopefully.
"...There was a writer who asked why it was that when we find positive experiences we say that only the physical facts are real, but in negative experiences we believe that reality is subjective. He made an example of those who say that in birth only the pain is real, the joy a subjective point of view, but that in death it is the emotional loss that is the reality." - Tony Ballantyne, Recursion. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

optrader
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Posted 10/31/09 - 02:42 PM:	#15
Mute, I am using Linux Mint. It comes with multimedia support...unlike Ubuntu. I think it is probably the best distribution for anyone wanting to move from Windows to Linux. Install is easy. My computer came with Vista. I partitioned the harddrive and I can boot into Vista or Linux Mint. But, I never use Vista. I hate Vista! As far as Microsoft is concerned, they have lost me as a customer. Linux is free to download, or you can order a disk for a small sum. There are tons of applications that can be downloaded for Linux for FREE. If you need an office application, OpenOffice comes with Linux Mint and most other Linux distributions.

swstephe
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Posted 10/31/09 - 10:16 PM:	#16
The news is reporting that Microsoft is intent on repeating the Vista rollout problems again. They didn't give clear upgrade paths to their users, so bloggers have tried to provide alternatives. Many people find that they upgrade to Windows 7 and find their computers unable to run. There are already postings of how to do a clean install using the upgrade version of the software, (so users don't have to pay a second time for the full version of the operating system just to fix Microsoft's problems). Microsoft is claiming it is a violation of licensing and threatening legal action against their own customers. Microsoft earns about US$12 billion a year. If everyone in the world switched to Linux, that would be US$12 billion mostly going back into recovering the economy. What is the money for the operating system really paying for? I call it "selling the customer's cow back to them". Most people get one operating system, then with some dressing up, they actually pay for the same thing again. Maybe it is a bit like that "lipstick on a pig" thing from the election? Maybe Microsoft should be allowed to remain for competition, but they need to bring their business model down to the real value.
Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.

Banno
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Posted 10/31/09 - 11:36 PM:	#17
The logic of buying a proprietary OS is that is ought provide better functionality with less fiddling. Sure hose who enjoy fiddling can get a Linux system to do lots of cool stuff, but you have to fiddle. A proprietary OS should just work. Macs do this, very well. Windows fails miserably. So forget Windows. If you like to fiddle, get Linux. If you just want to get on with it, get a Mac.
Davidson: We make maximum sense of the words and thoughts of others when we interpret in a way that optimizes agreement. Russel Morris: There's a meaning there, but the meaning there doesn't really mean a thing... Ned: Such is life

mutemaler
Professor

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Posted 11/01/09 - 02:44 PM:	#18
optrader wrote: Mute, I am using Linux Mint. It comes with multimedia support... Hi optrader, its been a while! The MM support sounds good. I have lots of distributions, just have trouble getting around to testing them out. Will buy a new PC (still), but in the meantime want a distro for the two old PCs, use at least one for development. I need the printer working (a brother dcp-135c) so that might be the deciding factor (the drivers), but otherwise the smaller the better, and I do like tinkering (a point Banno made), both with the system and putting together a nice package of custom software, like compact, well programmed things. Check this ought, I have (from a Galileo Computing book): slackware, ubuntu, knoppix, gentoo, openbsd. And downloaded these during a course in web programming I took recently: deli, vector, arch, dsl, and puppy linux. No mint in there but I've heard good things about it. I think if you REALLY want to know linux you work your way through a slackware installation. But the low end ones I downloaded are also good, stable distros, so I hear anyway. And if I can find a driver for my printer/scanner for damn small linux that would be fun to play with. Just have to get around to doing it. Too much choice there. And I don't know if mint will run on my machines. Xbuntu does but just barely, and its just too big for my tastes. I like spartan. Maybe others have some experience there.

swstephe
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Posted 11/01/09 - 06:56 PM:	#19
Banno wrote: The logic of buying a proprietary OS is that is ought provide better functionality with less fiddling. Sure hose who enjoy fiddling can get a Linux system to do lots of cool stuff, but you have to fiddle. A proprietary OS should just work. Macs do this, very well. Windows fails miserably. So forget Windows. If you like to fiddle, get Linux. If you just want to get on with it, get a Mac. I don't think you have to fiddle as much as the past. The latest Linux distributions work without much fiddling anymore. I've had to fiddle with Windows a few times, (how many Windows users have had to modify their registries or run some program to clean up some software that doesn't remove itself correctly, or to hunt down viruses in the system drivers). I've heard Mac is a lot better, but I haven't had one in a while. An operating system's purpose is to be the standardized layer between hardware and software. This allows you to run the software you want to get what you want done. Mac used to always suffer from not having as much software available, and what was available was very expensive. You can find lots of software for Windows, but their prices have gone up, (partly because Windows keeps raising the prices of development). Apple, in general, has made development difficult or non-standard, (I spent years just fixing all the string handling functions when we ported software to Apple). Linux, on the other hand, has "package managers", which Windows and Mac don't have. Think of whatever software you want, install it, and run it.
Ethics is the measuring of morality. Morality is the measuring of good. Good is the measuring of benefit. Benefit is the measure of values.

Cadrache
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Posted 11/02/09 - 02:05 PM:	#20
Not so much fiddling as figuring out which type of the Linux OS you have. Add on top of that which type of graphics platform you are using - and things get overly-complicated for people who merely want to know the correct search string to run the install. I've also been generally disapointed with most Linux manuals as well. I mean if you go through 5 chapters before they tell you which ubuntnu type (32,64 bit) that auto-installs - then you have to wonder if the manual will work better as a psychological review of the authors. But once you download the network drivers from the modems/network cards that don't work as well as always being connected to install other drivers... then Linux is great!
"...There was a writer who asked why it was that when we find positive experiences we say that only the physical facts are real, but in negative experiences we believe that reality is subjective. He made an example of those who say that in birth only the pain is real, the joy a subjective point of view, but that in death it is the emotional loss that is the reality." - Tony Ballantyne, Recursion. _____________________________________________ Truth is want. - The internal state of matters. Truth is Need. - The external state of affairs.

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