DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Thu, 3 Apr 2008 16:45:49 EST

That's true, but I've been good about that aspect at least (knock on wood). I'll just have to wait and see what's available when I'm in the market, I guess.

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 21:31:03 EST

Yeah, but can you spill a cup of coffee on a Macbook's keyboard?

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 17:25:44 EST

Oh yeah, I have seen those around. It looks like it (this model, anyway) got decent reviews, but it's even more expensive than a MBP. &nb

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

Wed, 2 Apr 2008 13:38:15 EST

If you're prone to dropping your laptop, you should look into the Panasonic Lifebooks. Spill-proof keyboard, shock resistant HD, very nice display. Not cheap, and the battery life leaves something to be desired, but I was that

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Tue, 1 Apr 2008 21:10:38 EST

On that I wholeheartedly agree: easily the majority of our service requests are "my computer runs too slow." And it's painful to see computer literally new out of the box that take 5 minutes to boot. Msconfig is your friend....

I appreciate

stevetherobot: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:19:21 EST

WGA still does occasionally phone home at random times. There's no way to "opt out" of this by simply not running the update program

One way to opt out would be to install ZoneAlarm firewall and when it asks if WGA can access th

stevetherobot: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Tue, 1 Apr 2008 11:16:46 EST

You can get a bunch of Unix utilities that have been ported to Windows, including split, gzip and gunzip. I've been using them for years on Win98, Win2K and WinXP. I haven't tried them on Vista yet though.

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:00:01 EST

That's interesting, because I've seen more problems from HPs than any other brand (except Toshiba) at our help desk. Dells definitely aren't what they used to be, that's for sure.

I'll probably need a new laptop sometime in the next year or so; as

zyxwvutsr: Re: Blah, blah, blah...

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 19:44:45 EST

For example, they claim that the Hardware Functionality Scan will not impair the ability of the open-source community to write drivers. Microsoft's white paper on the subject contradicts this, saying that GPU functionality is used in H

skeeter1: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 15:02:33 EST
"I think her mistake was getting a Dell, as they suck horribly nowadays. I used to be a loyal Dell customer, then they started sucking. I just got an HP about 6 months ago, and it's awesome."
No disagreement, here. My last Dell

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:13:35 EST
My machine has 2GB of memory and a 1.8 GHz AMD Turion, and it's plenty fast. I think her mistake was getting a Dell, as they suck horribly nowadays. I used to be a loyal Dell customer, then they started sucking. I just got an HP about 6 m

joshv: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:31:50 EST
My 2GB laptop handles Vista just fine - certainly no faster than XP on the same machine (it was purchased with XP), but not noticeably slower.

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:18:38 EST
It's got 2GB on there already. That's sorta my point: 2GB is plenty for an XP machine, but it's a minimum for Vista; ergo slower performance. And I know that's how it goes, but when that performance hit comes without any real gain, it's

joshv: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:06:33 EST
" My gf has a high-end Dell laptop (designed to be a gaming machine) which runs Vista and is sloooowww. And I've done all those things you're supposed to do to keep it running quickly (spyware, defrag, etc.)."
Did you add memory? 2GB minimum

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:23:23 EST
I work in tech support for my school, so have to deal with it pretty regularly. We see a lot more things going wrong with Vista than with XP machines. Plus we switched the computer at our desk from XP to Vista last summer and its performance pr

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:24:51 EST
People hate Vista because it sucks, pure and simple. I for one will never use it. I'll switch full-time to OS X or Linux before I use Vista.
If you will never use it, because it sucks, so you don't use it, isn't that a bit like a nun

JimmyHavok: porn server bonus

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:55:57 EST
My boss said, "The worst thing was that it was gay porn, so there wasn't anything there I wanted."

Pravda: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 21:49:33 EST
and told them about my boss's computer that was used as a porn server without his knowledge
Seems to me that many kids would see this as an advantage.

DEMachina: Re: Ha Ha

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 14:27:47 EST
Did you actually read MS's supposed technical response (which in reality is PR)?
Gutmann addresses it after his paper, and another That's just plain wrong. I work with Windows based servers that have uptimes in the year+ range all the time. Take any of the NT based OSes, install them on server gra

joshv: Re: corrupted memory

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 10:07:18 EST
Yeah, well programs that eat up all the memory are not the fault of the OS. Windows task manager provides a way for you to find these programs and kill them - try that the next time you think you need to reboot.

zyxwvutsr: Re: Ha Ha

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 09:06:04 EST
It wasn't my intent to take a side on the Ou vs. Guttman argument - Ou's blog post just happened to be the first thing I ran across when doing a search on the topic. I could have picked ay number of other pages that said basically the same thing as Ou, so

JimmyHavok: corrupted memory

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 21:18:09 EST
Well, I get a pop-up that says the memory cache is too small and that a swap file is being opened. Or else the system just starts running slow, so I reboot and it's back up to snuff.
Releasing memory was always a problem with older versions of Win

jwb: Re: Ha Ha

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:27:50 EST
Well, I hate to rebut an ad hominem attack with another one, but George Ou has been Daring Fireball's Jackass of the Week a dozen times or so. H

DEMachina: Re: Ha Ha

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 20:18:54 EST
That "through debunking" you mentioned was done without actually seeing what Gutmann did. Gutmann responded to Ou's (and another ZDNet blogger's) claims here.
Ou's post reall

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:51:37 EST

I think a lot of people have dodgy hardware but don't realize it
That, and Norton Antivirus.

jwb: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:45:17 EST
I think a lot of people have dodgy hardware but don't realize it. Their computers crash and they blame it on Windows (or Linux). The real problem is they or Dell saved a nickel by using a power supply that isn't quite up to the task, or 1/2" of

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:28:13 EST

Windows never could
I haven't tried with Vista (mostly because my only Vista install is on a laptop that gets turned on and off a lot), but a Windows 2000 box will run for a year without a reboot. (Except for reboots required

skeeter1: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 18:10:57 EST
"I have the bad habit of leaving my XP machine running overnight, because I am too stupidly impatient to wait for it to boot. I'd say four days is the limit."
That's been pretty much my experience with both XP and Vista as well. No it

joshv: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 17:29:33 EST
I am not sure what "uncorrupted memory" is, but if you have programs that are consuming large amounts of memory and not releasing them, then closing the program or killing it with task manager will free up the memory. If it doesn't work, there is sti

zyxwvutsr: Ha Ha

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:57:38 EST

I for one will never use it....Further, Vista refuses to play "premium" content (which is anything 800x600 or above) if you don't have movie-studio-approved hardware...
How do you know that Vista won't play premium content if

DEMachina: there's a reason

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 16:26:56 EST
People hate Vista because it sucks, pure and simple. I for one will never use it. I'll switch full-time to OS X or Linux before I use Vista. I'm alright with XP, and will think about upgrading to Windows 7 when that comes out if it doesn'

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:20:16 EST
You use the word "explanation" in relation to Windows support, therefore I surmise that you have never had to deal with these people. They are barely above the level of an Eliza program. The furthest I've ever got with them (it's like a game, e

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 13:05:13 EST
If you didn't like the previous release 7.10, you're not going to like 8.04, either. It looks identical. Perhaps one of the themes from http://art.gnome.org/ would suit you more?
I am using a different theme (the Gnome bluecurve theme instead

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:56:08 EST
My biggest gripe is Ubuntu's default look and feel - it's ugly as hell, although I've read that they're putting some effort into making the next release better looking.
If you didn't like the previous release 7.10, you're not going to like 8.04,

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:47:32 EST
You'd want to split a large file into parts so that the individual parts might fit on a CD or DVD or into some other finite space, or because your email provider has a limit on attachment size, or for a variety of other reasons.

JimmyHavok: Re: Windows is that reliable

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:30:18 EST
Windows would stay up for years at a time
I have the bad habit of leaving my XP machine running overnight, because I am too stupidly impatient to wait for it to boot. I'd say four days is the limit. After I play with graphics editors,

JimmyHavok: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 12:19:40 EST
I regularly uninstall Norton on my friends' computers, however, I then install NOD32. The speed gain remains. Norton is simply a pig. I have had no problems with NOD32, and it occasionally turns up a virus attachment, so I assume it's wor

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:38:01 EST

To do any ordinary file operation, like split a large file into parts...
In what way is that "ordinary"? Why would you ever want (let alone need) to split a large file into parts?

Windows is a platform that

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:27:36 EST

64-bit Ubuntu seems stable enough for me - though Wine is almost totally unusable
I run Wine on 64-bit Mepis, and it works great. I run Photoshop, Raw Shooter, and MS Office 2003 with little or no loss of functionality.

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 11:19:01 EST

I've been running on Ubuntu since last November and I'm generally happy with how things are working. My biggest gripe is Ubuntu's default look and feel - it's ugly as hell, although I've read that they're putting some effort into making the

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:49:45 EST
I said that windows doesn't phone home every day. And it doesn't. Apparently it once did in 2006. I installed Vista in 2007.
I am aware of the fact that there have been issues with WGA. The vast majority of folks though have no p

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:33:03 EST
64-bit Ubuntu seems stable enough for me - though Wine is almost totally unusable. As my Linux server is semi-experimental I justed wanted to kick the tires on a 64-bit OS, and perhaps do something crazy like install 8GB of RAM and actually be able t

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 09:24:25 EST
For those kinds of users, sure. But add a digital camera into the mix. Add an iPod or other MP3 player. Gah. I realize that malware infestation can be a serious issue with XP, but I've managed to teach my family how to avoid them wi

profwhat: Free software

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:54:24 EST
much more of the software for windows is commercial, but this also means it's higher quality
Closed-source software is not always made with the user's best interests at heart. They try to lock you into proprietary formats, which can screw y

profwhat: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:20:58 EST
I am posting this from IE6 running under Ubuntu, using Wine.
WHY?
Ubuntu 64-bit has lots of problems. Unless you have a really compelling reason to run 64 bit, like some crucial piece of software that requires it, you shoul

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 08:06:31 EST
Well, you were wrong:
Microsoft's antipiracy tool phones home daily
By Joris Evers, News.com Posted on ZDNet News: Jun 8, 2006 12:25:00 AM Microsoft

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:46:10 EST
For the average user, it will just be more frustration than it's worth once they want to do anything more than surf and read email..
If they just want to surf, read e-mail, and play solitaire, though, Ubuntu is an excellent solution. I do hi

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 07:39:59 EST
7-zip has been around for awhile, and it's awesome.
This is very true - that's one big beef I have with Linux (or with OSS developers, I guess - it's not really the Linux developer's fault) - there are a number of open source programs for Win

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 06:15:30 EST
I've been using "shady" freeware zip packages for quite some time on windows with no problems. 7-zip has been around for awhile, and it's awesome. And then of course there's winzip, but I stopped using that only recently when it turned into a h

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 05:43:50 EST
What explanation did Windows support give you for this? I purchased an upgrade version of Vista, and installed it over XP. All it did was ask me for my original XP key, which was legit as well, and it worked like a charm. Was your

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:43:28 EST
I think this is a matter of perspective. My primary OS is Linux, and has been since 1995. Every time I use Windows I am amazed at what a software ghetto it is. Windows doesn't have the bare, basic functions that Unix descendants have had

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 01:34:19 EST
If you purchase a legal copy, you will be able to run it.
Ha! Says you. I skipped Windows XP so when I bought (as in paid full retail price) for Windows Vista Home Basic, I upgraded directly from Windows 2000 Professional. Alleg

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Sat, 29 Mar 2008 00:10:33 EST
"Which is all well and good, until it's not all well and then you're screwed. If I buy and pay for something, it should always work - it shouldn't "phone home" every day. I bought Windows, I'm not leasing it (although I guess that's the model MS is moving

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:51:01 EST
As for Window restrictions, I really don't understand what's bothering you. If you purchase a legal copy, you will be able to run it. There are some folks who run into problems (this is rare though) - they call Microsoft and then all is well.

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 23:06:39 EST
I am posting this from IE6 running under Ubuntu, using Wine. Though an impressive feat, there are plenty of graphical glitches, and flash still doesn't work right (even though this is the primary reason advertised for using ie4linux). Wine's be

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:54:45 EST
It is possible to get flash working on 64 bit ubuntu - the trick is to install the 32 bit version of firefox (which will run just fine) and then it works. The java issue is still there though. I ended up just sticking w/32 bit ubuntu because of some of

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:16:12 EST
I'm running Ubuntu on my server, and I love it, but I couldn't use it full time. Fonts look like ass, flash doesn't work (64-bit ubuntu), java doesn't seem to work in a web browser either. Adobe Lightroom for Linux? Ha.
There is

joshv: Windows is that reliable

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 21:10:58 EST
Actually windows is that reliable. If it weren't for reboots related to OS updates, Windows would stay up for years at a time - 2000, XP or Vista - they've almost never outright crashed on me.
Currently I am playing around with 64-bit Ubuntu serve

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 15:12:16 EST
The big deal-breaker for me on Vista is the copy-protection scheme. I don't like the idea of an operating system that will cripple itself if it doesn't authenticate properly. It's bad enough when regular software does that sort of thing, but to have the

Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to Hate (Trees And Things)

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

stevetherobot: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

stevetherobot: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

zyxwvutsr: Re: Blah, blah, blah...

skeeter1: Re: there's a reason

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

joshv: Re: there's a reason

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

joshv: Re: there's a reason

DEMachina: Re: there's a reason

PenitenziAgite: Re: there's a reason

JimmyHavok: porn server bonus

Pravda: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

DEMachina: Re: Ha Ha

joshv: Re: corrupted memory

zyxwvutsr: Re: Ha Ha

JimmyHavok: corrupted memory

jwb: Re: Ha Ha

DEMachina: Re: Ha Ha

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows is that reliable

jwb: Re: Windows is that reliable

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows is that reliable

skeeter1: Re: Windows is that reliable

joshv: Re: Windows is that reliable

zyxwvutsr: Ha Ha

DEMachina: there's a reason

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

JimmyHavok: Re: Windows is that reliable

JimmyHavok: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

zyxwvutsr: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

profwhat: Free software

profwhat: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

jwb: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to

joshv: Windows is that reliable

port1080: Re: Windows Vista - the O/S That Everyone Loves to