Pain in the Butt Microsoft

[Bill]

FWIW, I have been specifically looking at audio drivers for laptops on the Windows 10 preview. MS provide a generic driver. This seems to work with many of the chipsets I've tried. I don't know who wrote it, but it is being modified and updated regularly, apparently by MS. It doesn't expose the vital "Stereo Mix" or "What you hear" function where the hardware has not crippled this, but usually the manufacturer's drivers do. I have been attempting to raise this with the MS reps on the forum.

For external audio devices, many manufacturers provide Mac drivers in the same way as they provide Windows drivers.

Linux audio with external devices, on the other hand, seems to me to be a complete mess. Not only are the drivers difficult to find or non-existent, but the basic audio UI's are a masterpiece of confusion.

I'm with, I think it was, Bob H. What I would really like to find is a basic LTS version of Linux that has been developed by someone for simple useability rather than bells and whistles. Until I find that, I'm going to stick with XP, W7 or W10 for any real audio and hence most of my other work.

[Huge]

Well, I was wrong. They work fine so long as you only manipulate them in Darwin/Shell/Unix/Terminal (or whatever it is you MacPhreaks call it.)

The minute you manipulate them in the OS/X GUI, they break.

ICBA to characterise the brokenness, but I would definitely say Don't Do That.

(I created a text file, then a hard link to it. Edit the text file with vi and all is well. Edit it with TextEdit and the edits only 'take' on one file and the other is truncated to zero bytes (yes, pedants, I know they are in theory both the same file.))

[Tim Streater]

Terminal. In which I tend to run the zsh shell to do simple things like fgrep.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But is it Win7 you bought yourself - or an OEM version supplied as a package with the computer?

[Huge]

Fair enough. Not a terminology I would use, but if the Mac community uses it ...

One of the reasons I bought a MacBook was that it had a Real Unix system underneath. It appears that it is slightly less real than I thought. But not enough to make me get rid of it. Or run something else on the rather nice hardware.

[whisky-dave]

Doh !

is a Homer quote isn't it ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

OSX may have a stable unix keernel at its heart, but the chrome and tailfins applied on top make it just as ghastly as Windows.

The only advantage is that the hardware is tailored to work with the software.

And it is a bit more stable as a result of those two things.

But you pay a huge price for that.

[Tim w]

[...]

What nonsense. A consumer isn't expected to read a license and even if I read it I couldn't remember it or understand it for long. If MS sell an OS then the consumer has a legal and moral right to expect it to work and to be able to use it in a normal reasonable way. That would include changing a hard drive and would include transferring it to another PC.

Tim W

[whisky-dave]

But that depends on what's thought to be reasonable.

Why, if you buy windows to use it on one PC then you use it on one PC. I've got about 40 PCs in my lab we buy licenses so we can have windows on m ore than one PC. Microsoft decide that a PC is a certain amount of hardware and if you buy ONE license you can put it on that hardware. This is where Apple differs from MS, in that if yuo already have a licensed copy you can install it on as many hard sics as you 'own' they really couldn't care less , in that they don't restrict you.

[The Nomad]

Agree 100% but I fear you have not bought the OS ...

You have, I think, purchased the right to use it on loan from M$.

The only winblows here is on a VM for extremis use - a work citrix based thing that won't play nice with *nix (and that is XP with all the bits turned off).

Avpx

[whisky-dave]

Forgot to say that isn't exactly true, as with MS you have options. When I last looked you had a home edition a buisness edition and a pro edition at the very least all being differnt in their own way. Buying the home edition meant you couldn't transfer it to a new PC. But there were ways around it or so someone told me. ;-) Might be differnt with 8.x

[Bill]

H & J = jazz mandolin & guitar and sort of country songs with lines like

"What made the boys say wow, it's all behind her now"

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've got news for you...

[whisky-dave]

as you snipped the important bit, in that case then change my line to ..............you [sh]ouldn't transfer it to a new PC.

[Martin Brown]

That isn't true either. The ones you cannot move to another PC are OEM versions "not for resale" that are bound to the manufacturer of the PC.

You can only run one copy if you only have one licence but you can move it to another PC if you have a full Home licence rather than an OEM one. Various third party tools exist to recover the registration code for when you have lost the crucial package with the magic key on it.

[Andrew Mawson]

Well it is the 'professional' version and not and OEM version, and is legally licenceable to three PCs (yes 3 - I checked with Microsoft when I got it), and I'm fairly sure that the two PCs in question were loaded from the same disc originally - though as I've bought two full copies of Win 7 pro this possibly isn't the case.

Andrew

[Martin Brown]

All you need then is to talk to them explaining what has happened and they should provide you with a suitable product validation code.

TBH if you swapped system disks between two radically different machines I am surprised that you aren't having all sorts of strange driver conflicts in addition to your other woes. Perhaps Win7 is a bit smarter than earlier versions of 'doze in this department.

I had this hardware changed problem happen with another product fairly recently when I tried to install it on an SSD based netbook and it took exception to the very different hardware. The machine it was installed on had expired with a puff of smoke. They were surprisingly good about it too - I was expecting more of a Spanish inquisition.

[whisky-dave]

Which is what most people buy as individuals. Most PCs come with the OS

Which most people wouldn't have, I notice you said the full home licence that would imply thre are other options and if a person IS going to buy teh OS as a seperate item there's an advantage to understandiong the licencing agremnet you are buying.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I simply loaded it in to the new PC as I'd done with the old, and had no problems whatsoever.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Well, yes. But if they buy a machine with installed OS I'd rather expect they'd do the same again with a new one.

I assemble my own PCs. So bought my own copy of Win 7 Home Premium. No problem in loading that into a new machine.