Replacing Vista With Xp

[bum]

If you want something to look like tofu and feel like tofu why pretend you don't want tofu?

 

[browndog]

Well, I just booted with my XP CD and loaded it and it said there was no hard drive available to install to and my only option was to bomb out. Seems microsoft don't want people downgrading their latest OS's. Bum, the only good tofu is marinated then fried or soaked in Laksa.

cheers

Browndog

 

[bum]

Not true. The only bad tofu is stinking tofu - it is the worst thing I have ever eaten in my whole life.

 

[peas_and_corn]

There's such thing as stinking tofu, bum?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Stinking tofu = Vista :lol:

 

[bum]

Yeah, P&C. Stinking tofu is the literal translation for a type of fermented tofu - I doubt it'd have a prettier English name because the shit is so disgusting that no one would bother churching it up. So awful.

 

[bum]

Oh, it turns out that the English name is stinky tofu. Enjoy:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stinky_tofu

EDIT: Just read that wiki properly and it turn out one of the ways I've eaten that probably also had goose blood in it. YUM!!!

 

[bonj]

Do you eat that tofu bacon stuff?

Oh no... a Microsoft fanboy.

The beauty of Linux is freedom. Freedom to choose how you want your computer to perform. Freedom to choose how you want it to look. Freedom to choose where to spend (or not spend) your hard earned dollars.

Yes, you can make it look like windows if you want. There's nothing wrong with that if you are after a familiar look and feel that other family members are used to. But beyond that, you have the freedom to make a Linux system behave how you want, which is the major issue in this thread (and incidently the topic of an email conversation I had yesterday with another AHBer... haven't heard back if their problem with Vista was resolved, but no news is good news.)

You are free to continue thinking Linux is just for hippies, but the enlightened among us have realised that it constitutes a break from the "We know best" attitude thrust upon us by Uncle Bill and his cronies. Who ever thought of making the legitimate user's lives more difficult to try and thwart a piracy threat that cannot be overcome, or to work around the serious security holes in their own product? PC users are dumping Vista in droves because it is overbearing and oppressive against legitimate customers. Some of those are moving to Linux, but a lot of them are also going back to XP. That speaks volumes for the customer satisfaction, or lack thereof, in Windows Vista. As for waiting for Windows 7... and then spending more money only to fix the problems in a piece of software that was defective from the moment it was purchased... that is just plain ludicrous. I wouldn't buy a new car because the car I just bought new was defective... I'd demand the defects were fixed at the manufacturers cost.

 

[bum]

Presumptuous much?

I'm actually a Mac fanboy.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Most, if not all, the IT guys I have had to work with have found Vista a pain, and a lot of general users as well.

When I went over to Linux, i had absolutly no idea how it would perform, or even work as I was so used to doing everything in M$

Well, what a revelation, Ubuntu Linux seemed a lot more straight forward, and it just worked. I have tried to kill it by doing things I didnt know about and trying things I had no idea about, and it kept on working. try that with Win and it will come crashing down around you.

And the software takes up a lot less space to...and does the same, if not better than most win porgrams, and faster.

Vista ( and Xp ) is glossy, but you pay a high price for the gloss...but Linux has some cool tricks that Vista just cant do..

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Presumptuous much?

I'm actually a Mac fanboy.

Would you like fries with your tofu.....


I would like to comment on how M$ funds Apple to keep themselves out of court on anti-competition legislation...but why bother

 

[Brownie]

Interesting thread.......

I'm in IT and an ex Windows support guy.....my work laptop came with Vista on it, never changed, I like it for the most part and does what I want and I'm a real heavy user normally have between 5 & 10 applications open at once with only 2GB of RAM some apps are quite heavy on memory and CPU Vista copes quite nicely, some quirkiness but then all Operating Systems have their own quirks.

Home puters have XP and they run fine too it all depends on what you are doing with your computer, if you are getting deep and meangful with the OS then XP is probably a better choice in the Windows range, much less security facets to find and turn off.

If you want to do Graphic design then a MAC is the way to go, but if it just basic Internet, email and office type use then Windows XP/Vista or Ubuntu will suffice and without any problem. unless you have less than 1GB of RAM.

The problem with Windows and MS are open about this is that it trys to be all things to all people....run current stuff, run legacy stuff, try to provide a variety of user themes etc etc etc. to do this they need add some chunkiness to support the older stuff. Lets not forget that Office has become the monalith we know it is today because the vast user population wanted more features, much like Windows.

Like that people are using virtualbox .....maybe folks should also try Open Office instead of MS Office...much less chunky.

IMO it seem people like to whinge about MS products for the sake of it, I have used most of them and supported most of them, some annoyed the crap out of me, but they generally work reasonably well.

Strangely a few weeks ago I loaded up Windows 3.11 (yup good old windows for workgroups), I realised how simple life was back then.

No I don't work for MS....in fact work for a direct competitor......

Brownie.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

I still have some programs that will only run under DOS 6.1...

Nice and simple....

Not many out there know much about those older systems now, but you would be suprised just what is out in the industry that was build on software for DOS 3 & 6


Lord...Can I have Xtree Gold back please B)

 

[jonocarroll]

I understand there's recently been a public release of an unfinished version of the next Windows (Windows 7). Apparently it's already performing better than Vista and is designed to integrate better with older software.

Windows 7 RC1 (release candidate 1) was released last week for download. Very nearly finished version. My favourite name for this is now 'Vista SP2'.

If you've got the 32bit version windows'll limit your RAM back to 3Gb, dunno what the reasoning behind that is but apparently that is the case.

I'm in that situation and looked into it and found it's not too hard to upgrade to the 64bit version but the system never, ever lags and I couldn't be arsed setting up again so I left it as is.

32bit limits you to 2³² addresses = 4GB - it's a hardware issue, the bus can only address this much memory. 64bit can theoretically address 2⁶⁴ addresses = 16.8EB (EtaBytes... 10³ = KB, 10⁹ = GB, 10¹² = TB, 10¹⁵ = PetaBytes, 10¹⁸ = EtaBytes) but that's insane. The processors artificially limit you (some up to 48bit), and the OS can also. It varies depending on which flavour you have, but I've seen a limit of 192GB RAM for one version. Don't laugh - Bill Gates allegedly (probably not) said '640kB ought to be enough for anybody'.

As for upgrading... it's fine as long as you've got a 64bit processor. I do, but I'm happy using the 32bit version of XP (when I use XP).

I still have some programs that will only run under DOS 6.1...

DOSBox FTW.

I've heard that the most popular upgrade channel for Windows was a downgrade from Vista to XP. Google it, you'll find heaps.

 

[tcraig20]

Lord...Can I have Xtree Gold back please B)

That takes me back...

 

[tcraig20]

Don't laugh - Bill Gates allegedly (probably not) said '640kB ought to be enough for anybody'.

Its believable though, given the way the old file allocation table used to work.

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Ah...those where the days

http://www.xtreefanpage.org/lowres/x10dirja.htm

 

[bum]

A couple of the above posts have been directed to me personally so I think I'd better take a second to clarify my position on Vista. I said if all you do is turn your computer on and use newish software (i.e. designed to run with Vista) then it is not all that bad. And it isn't. If you don't touch anything under the hood and don't do much more than surf the web, download and run a couple apps (most users) then it is completely usable and very stable. I understand very well that from an IT perspective it is not terribly good to work with.

And I'm not actually a Mac "fanboy" per say - but they have long been my preference. They are definately going downhill lately, though - I hate these Intel machines.

 

[bonj]

I admit, I'm a Linux fanboy. I have 5 operational Linux systems at home. I've been using it since 1997 and it fits my personality perfectly. I'm an IT guy, so I like being able to meddle under the hood. I also admit that my last laptop had Windows XP on it for over 2 years before I got my current one. It just seemed to work and the little annoyances weren't great enough for me to take the time to suss out the then unknown wireless drivers, so I stuck with it. It is a testiment to the extreme crapness of Vista, that I dumped it and took the effort of researching and troubleshooting wireless drivers for the new laptop (had to switch to an alternate driver due to instability with the default on Ubuntu Gutsy). As I said in my previous post, Vista was overbearing and oppressive. Do you really want to do that? Are you sure? Double sure? Actually, I don't think you really want to do you? Aaaargh! On top of that, it wiped my experimental Linux partition without any notice, so I retaliated in kind and haven't looked back.

I actually don't mind OSX. The underlying kernel and system are very unix-like and that appeals to me. I haven't used it enough to comment on the GUI. I don't hate Macs like some do, but I'm definitely not a Mactard* either. I would take one any day over Vista. It's just infuriatingly tedious will all the confirmation and are you really sures.... grrrr

*Troydo's term... :lol:

A couple of the above posts have been directed to me personally so I think I'd better take a second to clarify my position on Vista. I said if all you do is turn your computer on and use newish software (i.e. designed to run with Vista) then it is not all that bad. And it isn't. If you don't touch anything under the hood and don't do much more than surf the web, download and run a couple apps (most users) then it is completely usable and very stable. I understand very well that from an IT perspective it is not terribly good to work with.

And I'm not actually a Mac "fanboy" per say - but they have long been my preference. They are definately going downhill lately, though - I hate these Intel machines.

 

[jonocarroll]

Just for laughs;