New Laptop - which flavour of Windows? (and other issues)

[Huge]

Moron.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Indeed. where performance counts its the default - e..g. more web servers run Linux than anything else.

[dennis]

However most of them are never accessed except by the robot counting them.

[The Natural Philosopher]

eh? what planet is this? Most of them are accessed by people downloading web pages, or there isn't much point in having them is there?

Oh. Its Planet Dennis, where the laws of Reality don't apply.

Have they eased up on the Largactyl again Dennis?

[dennis]

Its the planet where most users don't give a stuff about the tens of millions of web servers that contain junk, its called Earth BTW.

[spamlet]

A long shot but that HP printer behaviour sounds a bit like what happened with one of ours. Only by chance did I come across a thread that explained that the printer (with integral scanner) expected us to do a print head alignment before it counted as installed - by putting the first test page on the scanner to let it read what adjustments were needed. We had no idea it needed to do this and were rather peeved by the waste of paper and ink every time we turned it on. Of course no sooner did we discover the secret, than the ink ran out...

S

[BillW50]

In news:hnp9vg$mcl$ [e-mail], Barry Watzman typed on Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:06:52 -0400:

Different strokes for different folks, I guess. I had Windows 7 Ultimate RC on two machines for 10 months and I wasn't impressed at all. I also have two unopened Windows 7 upgrade up on the shelf that I seriously doubt that I will ever use them.

And both Vista and Windows 7 displays can be customized. Thus makes it very difficult to write documentation. As the documentation screen shots may not look like your screen. Thus makes life very difficult and wastes people time. And clicking on all of those safety prompts are also a big waste of time.

OS like Vista and Windows 7 works differently than previous OS. As before, you controlled the OS. But under Vista and Windows 7 does just the opposite. As they control the user. And it appears some people like this. So it must be some sort of fetish thing I suppose. But it isn't for me. Good thing I have 6 Windows XP machines. As that should hold me into the next decade or two. ;-)

[Bob Eager]

Then turn them off.

Only if the user lets them...

Windows 7 is the least worst since XP. Had to upgrade because I'll be teaching it at work. Not that I use it very much at all.

It's faster than Vista, easier to use, less obstructive.

[BillW50]

In news: [e-mail], NT typed on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 13:15:30 -0800 (PST): [...]

You must be easy to please. As I find all flavors of Linux as a very poor substitute to replace Windows with. I've used Linux for a number of years. And even Ubuntu is just awful when it comes to playing multimedia files. As Ubuntu needs three times the processor power just to play the dang files compared to Windows on the same machine. And support for many file types are just awful! I actually like my Palm OS far more than I like Linux. And my favorite version of Linux is Xandros. At least it actually works, unlike Ubuntu. But it still doesn't work as well as Windows XP.

[The Natural Philosopher]

So say its fans. I spent nearly 1/4 hr trying to stop it doing things I didn't want every time my mouse wandered somewhere or I hit the wrong key.

Shades of that dreadful paper clip thing in Office.

I suppose that's why I like Linux. I have to spend the time turning on stuff I WANT, not turning off stuff that I don't.

Same with the Mac, it comes with far too much stuff enabled on it. Its a bloody walking advert, not a computer fit for work.

[BillW50]

Can't turn them all off. And Windows 7 blocks my access to some application configuration files. Both Vista and Windows 7 also blocks stream recorders from downloading files. And blocks most systems from recording the sound coming from the sound card. So what good is that?

And from a recent update, Microsoft can now remotely disable your Windows 7 at anytime they want to if you are connected to the Internet. The user doesn't even control their own OS anymore.

The user doesn't have much of a choice. As if you force it, the OS starts to break.

If you have to use it, then you have to use it. A handful of people are forced to use Mac and Linux machines too that really don't want too. Fortunately for me, I can use anything I want too.

[~misfit~]

What worries me is that, according to a friend who works in IT looking after a few business' machines, you can't run 7 with the 'Windows Classic' interface that I always use for any XP installs. (I avoided Vista but suspect that I'll have to embrace 7 one day.)

I like the clean and simple classic interface. No bells and whistles, just an OS. I'd actually been considering moving to 7 fairly soon until I heard that it's no longer an option. Now I'll delay for as long as is possible.

[The Natural Philosopher]

yeah. I run classic on my XP virtual machine.

All these bloody icons everywhere eat up bandwidth and CPU.

[tony sayer]

A few of our old WIN 2000 Pro installs have a classic simplicity about them and do all we -need- ;)...

[BillW50]

In news:hqeoa5$nk0$ [e-mail], BillW50 typed on Sun, 18 Apr 2010 05:52:35 -0500: [...]

I am referring to KB971033. Lauren Weinstein's Blog write a great article about this update which can be found here.

controls and owns your Windows 7 OS? Microsoft does. :-(

Sorry... but I don't have a fetish for allowing Microsoft to play games with my OS. Maybe it is fine for the rest of you, but I am not interested. I played those games back in the 80's with GeoWorks. And those games cost me over $1000. And for what? Anybody using GeoWorks today? I hope they used my money wisely and enjoyed cruising around in their yachts. :-(

[Bob Eager]

I don't seem to get any at all.

I agree. I use it because I have to. I didn't say it was good. But it's better than Vista.

Don't use Mac or Linux either! .-)

[Bob Eager]

I'm not a fan. Just think it's better than Vista.

It's not bad...for a jumped up UNIX wannabe.

[Bob Eager]

He hasn't looked very hard then.

[The Natural Philosopher]

That's a very fair description.

Its a bit behind in the driver, eye candy and multimedia stakes, but its way ahead in the font rendering, and general stability stakes.

Like PostScript, X-Windows works if you throw enough CPU at it.

Gnome ain't bad, for what it is. I like the relative simplicity. Must try KDE one dull day when nothing else appeals.

[Bruce]

I still have fond memories of Windows NT 4.0 which never crashed.