OT. Dell

[tony sayer]

He hasn't tried Vista yet;!...

or rather hasn't undergone -trial by Vista-;(...

[Andy Burns]

Sorry, I forgot the URL

[T i m]

Likewise (mostly and much much better than most others).

Similar, mine was XP.

It worked ok on a Toshiba laptop (but again only seeing 1 USB wireless device out of several PCMCIA WiFi cards etc) but had real issues on a Dell (that is 100% rock solid with XP).

I was hoping I could have that setup on at least 1 machine (probably a laptop) and to get there painlessly I have 3 removable drives I can use with the Tosh (as Ubuntu worked on that), XP, Vista and Gutsy Gibbon. After getting most things going on the Linux (not easy and often VERY frustrating / illogical) email, newreaders, flash etc etc I find I never use it, because there are so many other bit's of kit I need it to talk to (gps's, transceiver config software etc) and many Windows only software packages (and I don't want to arse about with VM's etc) it still doesn't actually make the grade. Vista has yet to excite or impress me (although it doesn't have as many unresolved issues as the Linux solution [1]).

When our daughter switches a machine on in her room it's the PC 99% of the time (not the Mac next to it) and when she borrows the Tosh she first checks the XP drive is in there (and it invariably is) but will use both the Linux or Vista solutions if she just intends to do a quick bit of web browsing (ie not MSN / Cam etc).

Agreed, if you are *interested* in something else, for the fun of it that's a good idea (although I'd go for a caddy drive rather than dual boot, just_in_case) or if you have an under (Windows) spec machine you just want as an Internet window then also (probably) ok.

All the best ..

T i m

[1] Not to say many / all my Linux issues couldn't easily be resolved by someone who knows what they are doing.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Technically they may or may not have a leg to stand on, but that's never very relevant in patent cases, which are more about who's got more money to pay lawyers, and OLPC doesn't have any money.

knowledge of patent cases, such as claiming you are using public domain techniques so you can't be violating a patent.

Actually, I hadn't realised Intel had ever joined in until I read that. I know they weren't part of the project during the design stages -- their components were too expensive to build the laptop within price, and they were producing a competing product at the time.

[Andy Hall]

I read an article in one of the Linux magazines on the plane yesterday which discussed Microsoft's tactics in connection with a deal in Nigeria where Mandriva had won the software business.

We have no doubt that the company has "a strong relationship with the government in Nigeria."

However, a few days later.....

[Andy Burns]

Perhaps I'm wrong, but I'm assuming a local Nigerian representative will have had relatively little cause to mount a similar defence? If they are strapped for cash, maybe that can't afford much better.

No doubt their $6m was welcome, but I bet it came with a lot of pressure to use Intel chips instead of AMD (and probably indirectly to use M$ instead of linux) for an OLPC2.

And the final straw seems to have been when Intel tried to "turn" a Peruvian order for 270,000 OLPCs into a Classmate order.

[Lobster]

Blimey - 'copacetic' - there's my new word for the day. Apparently it's been used just once before in the archived history of this newsgroup - by Mr Mike Ring in 2001.

David

[Colin Wilson]

I've been AFK for a couple of days, but a small note on this - I was=20 able to configure a machine via this with 1Gb memory and 160Gb HD for=20 only ** =A387 ** +VAT and delivery (without monitor) - I posted the=20 details on alt.consumers.uk-discounts.and.bargains the other day...

[Huge]

[Huge]

I have no intention of using Fister. The one Windows machine I actually own, which is in reality my wife's, is due to be replaced by a Mac in short order. I have a Windows laptop, but my employer supports that. My main computer is a Sun workstation running Solaris, and always has been.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

And the UK dictionary and spellchecker I have on this machine doesn't recognise it...

[Owain]

Oh dear. Did Bill Gates respond to one of those emails asking for his bank account details?

Owain

[Roger]

The message from "Dave Plowman (News)" contains these words:

Canadian slang. The title page has disappeared but I think this one was from some time in the 80s.

[John Rumm]

or older:

[Roger]

The message from John Rumm contains these words:

turn merely claims 20th century and of unknown origin.

[Derek Geldard]

I worked with Micheal O' Ringo (as we called him) in 1969.

Bear in mind he'd trained to be a Vicar, and "Copacetic" seems to be a descendant of the Hebrew phrase "hakol beseder".

Or as the Na^^^ Germans would have it "Alles in ordnung"

DG

[Derek Geldard]

A private user doesn't usually benefit from the commercial versions, only one or two obscure copyright features (filters and fonts IIRC) have been included out.

There's more to it than that. A lot of the keyboard shortcuts are different. It doesn't bother me but my kids were taught Micro $$oft Office at school / work and it keeps tripping them up.

I tell them at 32 / 21 it's about time for them to fu** off and buy their own place and their own computers and software and then they can pick and choose to their hearts content.

DG

[<me9]

Have they won 3,500,000 dollars?

[Steve Firth]

Umm no, you run OpenOffice which is actually more compatible with Word/Excel/PowerPoint than is the current version of Microsoft Office with the latest Service Pack. You also have some security in knowing that the OpenOffice developers do a lot of testing, frequent patch releases to fix problems reported by users, and don't just maintain, but continuously expand backwards compatability. MS OTOH have just removed all backwards compatability, so if you want to open an old document you're stuffed.

Of course since OpenOffice is cross platform you can ditch MS Office and run OO instead even under Windows. I you have a Mac then NeoOffice is the Mac port of OO. I've used it for a couple of years, and Windows/MS Office using clients haven't even noticed that their documents are received, edited and sent back using a different package to the one they expect.

[Steve Firth]

In brief, yes.

If you want a good computer and you don't understand computers much, go and buy an iMac. It will do most of what you want straight out of the box. If you want to do MS Office stuff install Neo Office which is free.

Dell also fare badly in terms of delivery, reliability and availability (that last one as you discovered).