Falling into the Vista Trap

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Falling into the Vista Trap
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skedone

Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 351
Location: essex inbetween a blue bit and a green bit

Posted: Sun Aug 12, 07 10:50 am Post subject:
bug fix beta tester for linux (most kern) dev of about 5 emu`s and own linux distro also beta tester for to many to list here for windows software also mobile R&D symbian software dev arm dev do i need to say more

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 07 10:31 am Post subject:
Sadly for some this is a joke.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 07 11:09 am Post subject:
Not so far from the truth ... Dell offers XP again amidst Vista complaints

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 07 12:17 pm Post subject:

I've been using Vista for about 6 months now. I'm concerned that it is not quite as stable as XP used to be. It is certainly an improvement in a number of small ways over XP, and it is generally a more pleasant place to spend the day if like me you are chained to the keyboard, but the stability is a bit of a concern. I guess it will be OK when they get SP2 out! The Vista team should go and ask the Win2003 Server team how they do it, since Win2003 is miles better.

I think there is also an issue (and this applies equally to Linux) that too much new functionality is being added all the time. I think less is more. After all, Fender produced the Strat guitar in the 1950s and it was perfect so they haven't done much with it since! How about a Windows Lite, cut down, simple basic stuff and none of the bloatware. That was the original rationale for Firefox browser (although it too is getting a bit too much middle age spread now). There's a good argument that Linux could and should fill that gap in the market, and I for one wish Dell success if they decide to go ahead with it. We need a choice of O/S's.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Wed Sep 19, 07 1:55 pm Post subject:

orangepippin wrote:

I think there is also an issue ... that too much new functionality is being added all the time.

Definitely true - I don't think I have seen a useful improvement to Word since version 6!

dougal

Joined: 15 Jan 2005
Posts: 7184
Location: South Kent

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 2:11 pm Post subject:
XP gets another few months... https://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7017624.stm but has anyone seen XP "Starter Edition"?

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 2:40 pm Post subject:
60m Vista licences in a year - amazing. I think the XP starter edition is something that they market in the Far East where software piracy is widespread. It is basically a very cheap cut down version.

Jb

Joined: 08 Jun 2005
Posts: 7761
Location: 91ï¿½ N

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 4:36 pm Post subject:

orangepippin wrote:

60m Vista licences in a year - amazing.

You can't necessarily trust that figure though. Software manufacturers are pront to counting the number of licenses they ship rather than the number that are really in use (not just microsoft, though I know they certainly do that) so a thousand seat license with only 150 used is counted as a thousand licenses.

OP

Joined: 28 Jul 2006
Posts: 4661
Location: Yorkshire

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 5:07 pm Post subject:
I think you are talking about application and database licences which are indeed sold on an arbitrary per seat basis. That is not how Vista is sold though, and I think 60m Vista licences is very likely, given that about 230m PCs were sold in 2006. The rest must be made up of Linux sales.

MarkS

Joined: 01 Aug 2006
Posts: 2626

Posted: Fri Sep 28, 07 8:34 pm Post subject:

skedone wrote:

bug fix beta tester for linux (most kern) dev of about 5 emu`s and own linux distro also beta tester for to many to list here for windows software also mobile R&D symbian software dev arm dev do i need to say more

well a bit more detail would be nice, anyone can be a beta tester - and for MS that includes buyers up to SP2

What software do you write?

skedone

Joined: 19 Oct 2006
Posts: 351
Location: essex inbetween a blue bit and a green bit

Posted: Tue Oct 16, 07 6:41 pm Post subject:
what info do you want mate most of my software that i right is embedded system stuff

judyofthewoods

Joined: 29 Jan 2005
Posts: 804
Location: Pembrokeshire

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 07 10:48 pm Post subject: Linux looks like a good alternative

I am so fed up with Vista, that I have been investigating Linux, now that some of it is 'granny-proof'. Just dipped my feet into it, and despite a few initial difficulties I was able to have a good poke around in both Ubuntu and Puppy - both run from live CDs. I even managed to share files with Vista on my hard drive, external USB hard drive and USB flash stick, and all without writing a single command line. I have also found what looks like an easy enough step-by-step instruction (for Ubuntu - including all the commands to copy and paste) to hopefully get my USB Speedtouch Modem working on next boot. Now I am faced with deciding which way to go - Ubuntu or Puppy. Ubuntu has almost all the softwear I need, and I could run the few apps I can't get in Linux either in Vista or Wine or such like (I really do love my Irfan and CoffeeCup), and with file sharing so easy, it would be a breeze, and it looks like most things can be done without any scripting, but Ubuntu Live Cd's big downside is its very slow, defeating one of the main points of having it. This means a dual boot setup on the hard drive. Puppy was extremely fast, running entirely in RAM, and can do so even if on the hard drive, when installed as an image. Apps opened instantly, and the CD can even be removed. Downside, the apps were very basic, and getting other softwear looks more complex, not to mention the modem problem. My questions:

Puppy

1) Even if the Puppy apps were easy enough to get (from the larger 'unleashed' package), I wonder if the larger size package (e.g. Firefox, OOo, GIMP) would prevent the OS from working in RAM, and slow it down considerably?
2) Would the larger package work with a frugal install?
3) What part would run in RAM?
4) Would I need more RAM to fit the larger package?

Ubuntu:

1) Can Ubuntu be run as a frugal installation like Puppy?
2) Can it run in RAM?

Has anyone used both the above and how do they compare? Which is easier in the long run, runs without having to open the console?
If I do a frugal install, do I still have to partition the hard drive

My spec:

Acer Aspire 5100 laptop
120 GB HDD
AMD Turion 64 Mobile Technology
1 GB RAM DDR2
USB Speedtouch 330 ADSL modem
NTFS file system on all drives, I think

If I go down the Linux road I don't want to continue with live CD - great as a demo, but nut for permanent use, too much power consumption, noise, wear and tear, and too slow. I would want the OS on the hard drive, but preferably as an image (as Puppy can), and of course, with Windows.
I use the computer mainly for surfing, email, web design, graphics - photo and draw/paint apps (getting by with simple ones like M$ paint, paint.net and Irfan). My main gripe with Vista (apart from blue screen crashes, nagging and snooping, oh, and how about the merry little dance you have to dance trying to catch a file in the Explorer tree?) is the speed. I have a new machine with probably twice the spec my old XP machine had, yet its much slower. I do a lot with photos and other graphics, and it takes forever just opening thumbprints. As a last resort I am still considering upgrading to XP, and will probably still get XP as the Windows part of the dual boot when I can afford an upgrade, as it would be a lot more snappy.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 45515
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Nov 25, 07 10:51 pm Post subject:
so far i can interact with youse seems to work with this hpp dv 9000 ha ha ha time will tell

OtleyLad

Joined: 13 Jan 2007
Posts: 2737
Location: Otley, West Yorkshire

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 07 9:01 am Post subject:

As a software developer I always feel obliged to keep up with new operating systems so when people ask me: "Is you software compatible with...?" I can say yes or know (don't know is not a very useful reply).
So I went down to the local PC shop asking them about installing Vista and they said "Don't bother, WE can't even get it to work properly with our exising MS applications". From what people have said already in this thread there is little or no advantage when Vista does work, so there is not much incentive to get it especially when XP works ok.

oldish chris

Joined: 14 Jun 2006
Posts: 4148
Location: Comfortably Wet Southport

Posted: Mon Nov 26, 07 8:33 pm Post subject:

Currently I'm using the lightweight version of Ubuntu called Xubuntu. I have no need for anything MS so i have no dualboot requirement. The previous version of Ubuntu has been known to screw up the hard drive when you try adding it to Windows - you have been warned (happened both to me and a friend). I have been successful with both Mandriva (2007) and Suse (10.2) Linux as dual boot (on various son's machines).

My hardware is a 800MHz CPU, 250Mbyte RAM, 20gig hard drive of which the system uses a staggering 2.2 gigabytes. With this version of Ubuntu the speed is very acceptable.

I'm thinking of installing Puppy one rainy day in mid-winter.

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