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How crap is Vista

Discussion in 'Break Room' started by mike weber, Oct 6, 2010.


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    I´m not a computer person, but I´m running Vista and a computer is about to head it´s way through the plate glass window..........

    I really thinking of going to apple is it worth it or does anyone think windows 7 works well. I read something that it´s even worse.

    Vista is driving me nuts I tried to update adobe file reader but the computer stops it and I´ve got some Winter D stuff that I want to read but noooooooo

    So anyone else had enough of Vista or got any advice or is apple the way forward or
     
  2. Graham

    Graham RIP

    MAC - go for it.

    I switched 3 yrs ago. I can run all my power point and word office stuff. The graphics are better and smoother. No virus software and it doesn't crash!
     
  3. Mike:

    I ran Vista for a few years on my home computers and didn't have any real problems with it that couldn't be fixed fairly rapidly. However, I would recommend the upgrade to Windows 7 if possible. It seems cleaner than Vista and I currently run Windows 7 on my laptop and desktop computer at home and like it better than Vista. I run Windows XP on my office computers, but my computer here in my own office is running Vista. Other friends prefer their Apple computers. I think it is really a matter of personal choice.

    By the way, my first computer was an Apple IIe with dual floppy drives, no hard drive and a dot-matrix printer. We've come a long way baby!!
     
  4. Oh we used to dream of an AppleIIe with dual floppy drives! My first was an acorn Electron with an external cassette drive.

    We ALWAYS hate the new windows...

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ts_D_6o9Bmg

    Windows 98b was my least favourite.
     
  5. Griff

    Griff Moderator

    Mike,

    Windows 7 is the dogs danglies compared to vista mate

    IG
     
  6. W J Liggins

    W J Liggins Well-Known Member

    Hi Mike

    I go along with Ian here. I'm a computer dork, but rely on my son who is an IT consultant. He reckons that Vista is hopeless but says that 7 is Vista with all the problems sorted. He built me my new computer running Windows 7 and I'm now on Office 2010 with no worries after the initial teething problems.

    Having said that, I was perfectly happy with XP. Bring back the BBC B per Robert!

    All the best

    Bill
     
  7. blinda

    blinda MVP

    On a VAS 1 -10..... definitely an eleven. Now using Windows 7 , tis Eric the half a bees` knees :cool:

    Cheers,
    Bel
     
  8. blinda

    blinda MVP

    Thanks a lot for the warning on that Isaacs...played it out loud only for my offsprings innocent ears to be assaulted.:eek:
     
  9. Oh give over! your offspring are teenagers! I suspect they've heard the f bomb get dropped before!;)

    Parental advisory! May contain bad words.
     
  10. Sinclair ZX 80 was my first http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX80 Yeah, baby check out those specs. Now I run an Apple at home and wouldn't touch another PC if I had the choice, but there is certain software I have to run on a PC at work, it runs on XP though.
     
  11. Old skool Simon:drinks.

    I remember playing with a ZX81 but I never got to see a zx80.
     
  12. You didn't miss anything, it looked the same, only it was white and didn't have keys.
     
  13. Jeff Root

    Jeff Root Well-Known Member

    An Eagle III was my first computer. We purchased it for the lab just before the company went public. What happend after that:

    Sad story.
     
  14. gdenbyUK

    gdenbyUK Active Member

    I think you're both missing a (con) trick here.... just get rid of Microcrap Windows altogether, but keep your innocent PC! I absolutely refuse to pay that Gates guy a further £50 for a seveth attempt at inconsistent bug-ridden rubbish, with planned 18 month obsolescence and degraded performance thanks to 'security updates'!

    As a former 20 year IT professional and a MCSE in NT5, I recommend from experience a free trial with Linux Ubuntu which is downloadable from www.ubuntu.com This is a professional open-source operating system that has all the windows features, without all the the sieve-like security holes. It includes OpenOffice, which will import and edit all your spreadsheets, presentations and documents. You can put it onto a cheap memory stick and tell your PC to boot from it, leaving your hapless Windows systems intact, just in case you're forced back...

    Instead of Windows Explorer, you tend to use Firefox. My whole podiatry clinic runs on Ubuntu and Firefox, accessing electronic patient records and downloaded pictures of feet (very exciting!) hosted on the web by PracticePal at www.practicepal.co.uk I've used this configuration now for a year, without any major issues, recycling my notebook and netbook PCs to have super-fast network performance.

    When Windows 7 'mysteriously' slows down.... think UBUNTU !!

    Regards Gary, owner and private practitioner: www.footwisepodiatry.co.uk
     
  15. gdenbyUK

    gdenbyUK Active Member

    I looked at the Apple iPad a couple of weeks back (Sept 2010). I would really like to use it, since its excellent glass touch screen would mean no more finger nail clippings within the clinic's keyboard! However, I found a couple of constraints with the current variation that prevent my using it with my web-hosted patient records system:-

    1) iPad does not include by default, a folder-file system compatible with transferring-in all your old correspondence and business spreadsheets. The system can be 'hacked' to allow this, at a risk to the warranty. The reason appears to be the intended frequent USB synchronisation with another web-enabled PC that hosts the images - movies - e-books etc. that you want to take with you on the iPad.

    2) You cannot simultaneously transfer pictures from your digital camera via the USB adapter AND display your screen overhead via a digital projector. One socket - two different leads! It's a foible of mine, to display what I'm writing about the client to the client, as well as showing images of their pet corns, verrucae etc!

    Apple tend to upgrade their device specifications quite regularly - the iPad is one device that has many clinical as well as educational and personal applications. Watch this space!! I'm happy to be corrected, if anyone knows better.....

    Regard
    Gary www.footwisepodiatry.co.uk
     
  16. mgmiller

    mgmiller Welcome New Poster

    Look out! The Penguins are here!
    Your choices are not limited to Microsoft and Apple. There is a third way...
    I completely agree with gdenbyUK. Microsoft = :deadhorse: I switched my office over to Ubuntu in 2008 (v8.04), was able to use all my old computers hardware without problems and recently upgraded all of them to Ubuntu 10.04. I have one XP based machine on the network that is not allowed on the internet, otherwise I am 100% Linux/Ubuntu. I also use Ubuntu exclusively at home on the 4 networked machines there. I have a friend and colleague who had his office network brought down several times by viruses picked up by his staff while surfing the internet at work. :bang: The last straw was losing his office network and file server for a week at the cost of about US$5000 to fix and restore. :sinking: In early 2009 I convinced him to switch to Ubuntu and he and his staff love it. Like my system, his file server is XP based (server 2003) which allows multiple logins via remote desktop over a wired gigabit ethernet network. The file server is never allowed on the internet or to send or receive email. All the workstations are Ubuntu and his staff can do what ever they want with total immunity to any malware. There is no antivirus or anti spyware software installed or needed in Ubuntu, you never defrag your hard drive because the Linux EXT4 file system does not fragment, it's extremely stable, contains a full office compatible suite, has tens of thousands of other applications easily installable by a few clicks from within the built in software center and overall has lifted a large burden of routine computer maintenance from me since I build and maintain my computers and network infrastructure. When I first installed it in 2008 I did a dual boot with Windows in case I needed to go back in the event that it was not working out. When I decided to do the upgrade in 2010, I realized that in 2 years I had not booted back into Windows even once, so I just formatted over the whole drive and did a clean install of the 2010 version using the whole drive. It should be noted that installing the OS only takes about 15-20 minutes on the old hardware in my office. These are old AMD xp2600+ single core cpus with either 512 MB or 1 gig of ram and integrated sis graphics. Hopelessly slow and outdated by todays standards but they are quite snappy with Ubuntu. My fastest home machine uses a triple core CPU with 4 gig of ram and I use it for video editing (amazing OpenShot video editor) and photo editing in Gimp (Linux rough equivalent of photoshop) and that system really flies. The cost for all the OS installs and all the software I use with it (office suite, photoshop replacement, video editing and more) is $0.00 All the installed software updates automatically with the rest of the OS and 99% of the time you do not need to reboot when done. I am often working in the office on a patient chart on 1 desktop while Ubuntu is happily updating on another desktop on the same machine without interruption. Ubuntu allows multiple desktops on the same computer at the same time. I have the default 4, but you can have pretty much what you want. Just 1 mouse click and you have a new desktop to run whatever you want on while the other ones do something different. I had similar functionality in Windows using tricks in the video drivers, but it was never stable and often crashed. In Linux, it's built into the OS and never gives trouble. I regularly do imports from my digital camera, finally moving them to the file server on one desktop while the EMR software happily chugs away on another. So I guess from a typical bewildered Windows users perspective, the moral of the story is....Yes Virginia, there is a :santa: and :pigs:.

    This was my first post here. I hope I wasn't too boring.
    Regards;
    Marty
     
  17. LondonPod

    LondonPod Active Member

    Vista IS rubbish and so slow. My work laptop runs Windows 7 and no problems to report as yet....

    Still waiting for Apple to get it's act together and either support Windows format/flash content on its OS or just come up with their own practice management system so I can finally say goodbye to Windows.

    Robert - nice link, I know the guys from "Amateur Transplants"...Now taking Christmas corporate bookings.:santa:
     
  18. HansMassage

    HansMassage Active Member

    Sounds lie the thread starter suffers from Vista's overly cautious security system. You have to give it administrative permission to do the most mundane things. I use a 94 edition of QuickBooks. Because that edition was before they had a Microsoft security code validation I have to give it permission each time I start it.
    I tried Ubantu. It was nice but I never did get Wine to work with my legacy programs.
     
  19. Stephanie C

    Stephanie C Member

    I bought 2 vista laptops for about $350 each and it cost me nearly 3 grand to fix the mess it made of my frontdesk vpn. So technically, I guess that means Vista = x/2 * 10^1 where x is an amount of your currency.
     
  20. W J Liggins

    W J Liggins Well-Known Member

    Hi Marty

    Thanks for that - far from boring and I even understood most (some) of it. As mentioned, I am a computer dork, so can you say whether the Ubuntu/Linux ops will run software such as Office, and if it runs alternatives, are those programmes able to read the files created in Office?

    Cheers

    Bill
     
  21. gavw

    gavw Active Member


    If you have one of the newer Intel based Macs, and must run windows applications, then you can easily configure it to dual boot into either OS X or windows 7/XP/whatever. This is what I do, although I avoid windows as much as possible.

    I would also echo Marty's sentiments about Ubuntu - this, I think, will be the future.
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2010
  22. javier

    javier Senior Member

    Hi,

    I recommend you to install WUBI application from Ubuntu. It works as a Windows application, thus you can enjoy Linux advantages (for example no virus and more stable OS function) without the risks of hard disk partition (the chance to lose your files during Ubuntu installation). If you do not like Linux, you can remove it for your PC.

    Actually, I think its better to have both OS (Windows and Linux) on the same computer (if you have enough space on your hard disk) because it will help you to get used to Linux progressively. Also, you can not find all Windows applications when you use Linux and not all software is available for Linux (such as Photoshop).

    If you use Linux for emailing (Evolution works like Outlook) and Internet surfing/downloading, you will save money because you will not need a Antivirus/Spyware/Malware software.
     
  23. mgmiller

    mgmiller Welcome New Poster

    It is possible to get Ubuntu/Linux to run the previous version of Microsoft Office either in wine or in Crossover Office by Codeweavers. But you really should not need to. The Open Office suite that Ubuntu comes with can read and write Microsoft Office compatible documents very well.

    If you want to just try it out, you don't need to install anything, just go to ubuntu.com and download the .iso for the "live CD". I would suggest the 32 bit version as I find it to be a bit less of a hassle then the 64 bit version. You can either create a bootable CD or a bootable thumb drive and just start your computer off of that. It won't touch your hard drive and will let you try it out. Once you reboot without the live CD, you are back in Windows as if nothing at all has happened.

    As far as installing it goes, someone mentioned a wubi install. That is easy as you install and uninstall Ubuntu as if it was a Wilndows program. It should not be considered a permanent way to dual boot however, because you are still running in the NTFS formatted HD of you Windows partition. If something happens to bork Windows, you may lose Ubuntu also. Done as a proper partitioned install, it will carve out its own dedicated part of your HD and format it in EXT4 which will then be immune to any vagaries of the Windows install.

    What some people do is try the live CD, followed by a brief wubi install to get a better feel for things, followed by a real dual boot. One problem with this method is transitioning from wubi to full install. It can be tricky to get your profile to carry over. It's easier to just start over after uninstalling the wubi version.

    In my personal experience, I have done only 1 wubi install because that computers HD was partially damaged and would not accept a repartitioning for correct dual boot. The drive eventually failed totally and was replaced by a single install of Ubuntu only. In all my other installs, I did about 5 of them as correctly partitioned dual boots and had no problems. I finally just wiped out all of those drives and did a solo install of Ubuntu without Windows because I never booted back to the Microsoft OS in over 2 years.

    If you are considering a dual boot, it is very important that you defrag your windows drive first. I usually do it 3 times in a row just to be sure. This allows the partitioning operation to proceed with the least chance of problems.

    After setting up the dual boot, the first time you boot back to Windows, you will get a prompt to run chkdsk before starting Windows. This is created by design in the partitioning software. It marks the NTFS partition with the "dirty" flag, forcing the chkdsk to run to clean up any final formatting inconsistencies that may remain. This only happens on the first Windows boot, subsequent boots are "normal".
     
  24. joejared

    joejared Active Member

    Keep the disk, just in case you need a coffee coaster.
     
  25. While I still working out which way to go Ive switched to Google chrome for my internet time, the computer is working much better.
     
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