OT ... PC upgrade

[dennis]

I don't like linux as a desktop. I have had so many things that don't work properly on my machine that its not worth it. It is a slightly unusual machine being a convertible tablet with a multitouch screen.

You can buy 32 Gb sticks for about £17 inc P&P.

They run on old computers, you know the ones that use so much electricity they would pay for a new PC in a few months.

What expensive taxation?

There is no money in linux or other free software. People download it, decide they don't like it and buy office home and student, or get a copy off their friends (it can run on three machines so its only ~£20 a copy).

Its life.

[John Rumm]

How much did you think a mass produced CD and case cost to make then? ;-)

That will have a large part to play. As will the deals they will do with large OEM, or less than copyright friendly nations to sell their product at almost any cost if it means maintaining the whole eco system and keeping users aware from competitive products.

It varies with the package. There are signs that they are starting to soften a little on the home user in general...

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But you later say you're running XP?

I was extremely glad my laptop came with a free upgrade to Win7 from Vista. My desktop was running XP. Now Win7 which I prefer to XP. But have kept XP on another partition.

Think you're the very first person I've heard admitting to liking Vista.

[Huge]

Oh, so Red Hat's business is imaginary, is it?

[dennis]

About 10p for the disk and about 15p for the case and inserts?

[tinnews]

..

>

£20!!! Just download it for free. Or if it's really, really difficult then you can get free Ubuntu CDs if you ask.

[Adrian C]

Yes it does :)

Forget about having to sire kids to gain microsoft discounts, all ye now have to do is have the friendly mother-in-law gain residence in your abode and pack her off daily to the University of the 3rd Age!

Sweet.

[Jethro]

Met many ME users :) ?

[dennis]

Ok tell us which free software RH sell?

[Scott M]

No, I just hate it less than Win7! They've changed the fundamentals just for the sake of it which, to me, is a pain. To me an OS is something that looks after the mouse and keyboard, not something to "surprise and delight" me with endless pointless graphic things; sliding menus, see-through menu bars in a vain attempt to emulate Macs.

[Scott M]

Funnily enough I was given a free copy of Win 7 this morning. Currently trying to remove it from the Netbook it came with. Free because there was a case a while ago where someone wanted a refund because he didn't want the OS with a laptop. It was granted but them M$ changed the wording so it's not possible any more.

I know. I tried it a while ago on a W7 PC but the colour scheme your left with for the task bar text is almost unreadable and it can't be changed. Not really a solution.

[Tinkerer]

I can give an example. My Gateway laptop (four years old) is a Vista machine but cannot be upgraded to Win 7 as there are no drivers for either USB or the audio. Fortunately Vista has behaved itself and I have no need to upgrade.

[Hugh - Was Invisible]

I managed to go straight from XP to 7 which is quite user friendly if you spend enough time googling how to get it to work your way instead of how some idiot at M$ thinks you out to use it.

There are however some issues with some software and the 64 bit version of W7 (which I have) not liking each other.

[John Rumm]

Linux

[John Rumm]

There really is little to commend Vista over Win7 beyond "that is what the machine came with, and I can't be bothered to change it".

[Bob Eager]

I'm running 7 (only use it for work stuff), and mine looks pretty traditional! Apart from the Start button not saying, Start, that is.

[dennis]

They don't sell Linux.

[John Rumm]

[John Williamson]

I'd agree there is nothing to recommend Fester over 7. I have a Toshiba laptop which came with an option to downgrade from XP to Vista. I did that, and it ran like a sloth on Valium. Installing the Beta test version of 7 Ultimate gave it almost the same performance as XP, even before turning off the daft graphics, which didn't actually make that much difference. If all I had on a machine was Fester, then I would either pay to upgrade to 7 or spend the time getting Linux to work.

[John Williamson]

They sell you the install media, and a level of support. They do not charge for (i.e. sell) the GNU and GPL software.