Replacing Vista With Xp

[fraser_john]

Cool, I want haha. Cheers for the headsup.

re number 1, its annoying that if I search my laptop in ubuntu forums for instance, it is claimed that it works flawlessly, except sometimes with easly fixed audio hardware issues. 2 months of stuffing around reconfiguring this and that and installing crazy drivers and I never got it to work. Maybe I'm just linux-tarded, I like to think of myself as quite computer literate though.

I have two computers, my wireless network hardware has no drivers is the problem with that computer...

If I had a computer which had hardware which could all work in some flavour of linux simultaneously, I'd do it for sure...until that day...

I have ubuntu downloaded and just dont seem to get around to formatting a partition for it, I also have the Windows 7 RC downloaded and was going to do that today, but ended up doing my Fridgemate wiring and documentation instead! Too easily distracted.

John

 

[jonocarroll]

1) there seems to be no linux drivers for any flavour of linux that support my sound hardware in my laptop=linux is out.

Out of morbid curiosity, which soundcard do you have? And, what laptop is it?

 

[Jazman]

i mainly use linux now ..just i dual boot and use win fro games and a couple of other things and thats it now and i found with a little bit of time linux as easy to use as windows and i do not use command lines that much ...no need with add remove box or synapic makes it easy as

 

[loikar]

EDIT: Replied to to the wrong post.........Too many beers!!!
Fixed

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

Probably because you have a SATA Hard drive and will need to hit F6 to install them before XP's loader will see it.

Have a look at your system information or download CPUID and find out the make and model of your motherboard, then hit their website to find the SATA driver you need.

Once you have that, load it onto a floppy (if you have one) and when first booting from the XP disc, it'll say down the bottom "press F6 to load third party drivers...) press F6, it should find your floppy, and away you'll go.

 

[Brownie]

Love it healthy discussion,

I've been doing this IT thingo for lots of years now, and there has always been love & hate between different flavours, IBM OS/2 versus Windows NT 3.1, Open Systems Versus Mainframe, Windows versus Linux, Solaris versus AIX etc etc etc. Must admit I was part of that world once, bagging out anything not Windows workstation or server flavours. I wonder what drives this behaviour, maybe I could get a government grant to research this......

BTW does anyone on the forum have a mainframe, maybe we can start Mainframe versus.....well not much else to compare......Maybe Sparc.....

I find it very funny looking back....Now work for the maker of one of the more popular flavours of Unix (not AIX) and don't give a damn about that anymore, got a job to do thankfully my techo days are in the past.

Yes early falvours of Linux were a pain in the arse to install stuff, but they seem to have there act together. I think its called evolution.

BTW Linux, Windows, Solaris, AIX all need patching and OS updates because they are designed by Humans, and all humans (with the exception of myself) are flawed, Humans make mistakes....

I guess Microsoft wouldn't be the huge company it is if it really did make a shit product, someone somewhere obviously liked the product....

So how about we all get along and have a happy life agree to disagree and get back to the important things in life......making beer......

Cheers Brownie

 

[Brownie]

OMG just looked at the Xtree Fan page...god I loved that program.....

Oh and I still use the old Windows 3.1/3.11/Windows NT File Manager (Winfile), love it.....

Perhaps we should take a walk down memory lane, what the oldest piece of IT equipment or software you have used.....

3Com Open Server....
OS/2 with Microsoft Lanmanager
Also opened the door to a Cray Super Computer once....was quite underwhelming...




Brownie

 

[bum]

I still have (and occasionally use) my C64 - with dataset, naturally. Yes, it does so count as a computer!!!

I guess Microsoft wouldn't be the huge company it is if it really did make a shit product, someone somewhere obviously liked the product....

Unless, of course, they somehow managed to get their products bundled with nearly every new computer sold and also managed to convince consumers there was no other choice. You know...hypothetically.

 

[newguy]

IBM OS/2 versus Windows NT 3.1

Boy does that bring back painful memories.

My first "real" job out of university was working for Northern Telecom (now Nortel) doing production line test support. Our dept HAD to use OS/2 running on PS/2's because it was the only multitasking OS out at the time. For some reason an operator running our test s/w had to have a multitasking OS even though they weren't allowed to run anything other than our test s/w. <_<

I'm not even going to go into the PS/2 architecture (try buying a normal GPIB interface card - you had to buy 3x more expensive microchannel cards for the PS/2). OS/2 was the worst thing I've ever had to use. When I quit that job I swore that I'd never own or use anything with IBM stamped on it and I almost succeeded*.

To begin, our internal IT dept wouldn't support OS/2. If we had any issues (and we always did), we were totally on our own. IBM support was non-existent. OS/2 was buggy, unstable, and a general pain in the ass. To borrow a phrase from my cousin, not worth the powder it would take to blow it to hell.

We couldn't use off the shelf C compilers because none of them would run on OS/2. We had to use IBM compilers and they had virtually no documentation or support.

I truly hated those machines and that operating system.

*I was issued an IBM laptop at a subsequent job. I was actually beginning to rethink my "IBM is shit" attitude when the troubles began. H/W and s/w issues started to come hard & heavy and the IT dept ended up giving me 4 new IBM laptops in a 12 month period. I still feel justified in hating IBM (now lenovo).

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The argument that linux programs take ages to sort out, are a pain to install, are not supported really is an old dead argument.

I have found that installing Linux programs are way ahead of windows. You just pick it from the software repositry and the software manager installs it for you. Even non-repository software, if in the correct format, will easily install using the soft ware manager..

Linux programs wont overwrite existing libs ( DLL's ) like win does , causing kaos and when you remove a Linux program, it is gone, without leaving crumbs in the regisrty like win does.

And you dont get the " you need .net 2.0.42.54.345v1 installed" please allow another 200Mb for .net.. AAARRRGGHHHHHHH


And things like some drivers etc are a lot smaller than for win. An example is the USB 3G aircard modem I installed on both XP and Ubunut.. XP driver took 32Mb...Linux needed 18Kb to do the same job...Go figure


And some of the Audio and DVD software ( and GIMP ) are miles in front of what is available on Win, and free

 

[bonj]

My first home computer was an Amstrad CPC6128. In terms of hardware, it was miles in front of the C64... faster loading times, better sound and colour... but for some reason they chose a proprietary disc drive that used (at the time) discs that cost $10 each and weren't compatible with any other system. On top of that, the marketing was terrible so the C64 got way more games. It had one feature that was particularly impressive (particularly since MS hasn't learnt from them and implemented a similar system), the Z80 processor, being 8bit, could only address 64KB RAM, but they broke the RAM up into 16KB banks and supplied 128KB total, with 16KB banks that could be switched in and out in software (while maintaining its contents). It was mostly used as video RAM, but it was innovative at the time, and a similar system could enable 32bit systems to address more than 4GB.

While we're on the topic of 32bit memory addressing, all 32bit versions of XP, Vista, (and probably W2K) are able to address the full 4GB if you disable the memory page file (set the size to zero). I tested this on Vista for the short time I had it, and it worked fine. I believe the pagefile is counted in the total addressable memory, so disabling it gives you access to actual hardware RAM.

An addition to Stu's comment above about driver sizes etc. The reason for this is shared libraries. Most Linux programs and drivers are built using libraries that are common to most other programs/drivers. Unlike Windows, this allows the library to be installed only once, and used by all the programs that depend on it. It is possible to compile statically linked programs on Linux, but isn't common. Even the dynamically linked libraries on Windows seem to be proprietary from each software vendor, which means a lot of reinventing the wheel going on. I guess that's just an ideological difference between proprietary and open source software developers. It could also be due to the proprietary developers being unable to use open source libraries due to licensing restrictions with the GPL and the like. Using GPL'd libraries forces them to open up their source and forces them to use the GPL too. Very few GPL'd libraries are also available under the LGPL (which would allow them to keep their source closed)... Just another ideological obstruction for proprietary software developers.

 

[Zizzle]

I always acknowledge that Windows has many, many flaws. But the reason why it has been successful is that you can turn your computer on and your files will open.

Windows in all convenience until you get a virus or trojan that logs your credit card number and online banking details.
Or your PC joins a SPAM botnet and gets kicked off the net by your ISP.
Meanwhile your $100 virus scanner is daily downloading updates and generally slowing your machine down. Money well spent.

Bill gates is a genius. He sells shite and people still love it.

 

[Sammus]

Out of morbid curiosity, which soundcard do you have? And, what laptop is it?

It's a connexant HDA in a toshiba satellite P100.

Apparently it's supported, and there was somewhere to download drivers, but after following every different guide on the net to get them working, I never did.

Disclaimer: I can't remember which is which, it could be the sound works ok on my laptop but the wireless doesn't. Point is, the stories are identical. I went through basically the same process twice of searching for help and drivers and guides for driver installation. On my desktop one of them didnt work, on my laptop it was the other, and I need both!