Reasons NOT to purchase Windows Vista

[Dumpy Dooby]

Originally Posted by nbiggershaft

It's true it's not just the amatuers that use macs for editing, but it's not like those programs need mac video processing to run. It's just a silly propagation of industry standards, people learn on Mac's because Mac's come with a good video card and they have better low end pc video editing capability. Then it seems to just stay that way. I guarantee $ for $ I could make a windows machine that would beat a MAC on video editing, it's just not what the industry uses.

Like I said in my previous post, there is no longer a premium on Apple computers. Also, in that industry it's likely cheaper to go with Apple because you can purchase entire units from a single manufacturer as opposed to a Dell or HP where you're purchasing units from an assembler.

In other words, it's cheaper for a company to purchase everything in bulk from a single manufacturer than it is to purchase everything in bulk from an assembler. With the latter choice, the company would have to pick up the bloated costs to assemble, plus whatever margin it is that Dell, HP, et al. want. With the former choice, the company is simply picking up the cost of the units from the manufacturer directly, now with the exception of video chipsets and processing unit.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by cleverest

I'm interested in learning about Linux more...specifically why so many people switch to it? Is it just to avoid Microsoft? What are the positive features to a person who enjoy A.) Games (new games and old console emulated titles) - B.) Audio creation (midi and via software, Adobe Audition, REASON, etc...) and - C.) Internet research

I mean is there any reason for a person with those interests to use linux?

I know a lot about XP / 2000/ ME / 98 / 95 / DOS, and a little bit about MAC OSX, being a PC technician for years, but I never took the time to learn LINUX...

Anyone have a great link (with screenshots) to learn about Linux

The main reason is freedom to have control over your computer without having to justify yourself to a corporation. It's sorta hippie, sorta practical at the same time.

I initially got into it because other people I know were, but moving forward I really got sick of Microsoft forcing me to justify myself to them every time I upgraded my computer components. It was ridiculous. When they told me I had upgraded too often and would have to purchase a new license if I wanted to continue using their product that was really the last straw. I (unlike many) had actually paid for my copy of Windows and wasn't going to purchase another one just because they didn't want me to upgrade often.

Linux works, and you can customize the hell of it. Everything you can do on Windows, plus more. At the kernel level you can compile one that fits your exact hardware, etc, etc..

Games are possible, but because most gaming companies have moved away from OpenGL (think quake 3) and torward DirectX, it is quite a bit harder.. but not impossible. I've played WoW on Linux before, and EverQuest before that.

Internet research can be done with Linux better than on Windows IMO, just because of the multi task features that come with a decent xwin platform. Things like XGL (can't remember what it's called now) make multitasking and organization actually fun, so..

As far as design, well, probably better to stick to osx/windows for that as well as it's a bit of a hassle to get working.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Winter

So....important question. We just bought a new laptop this weekend that came with Vista pre-installed (much to my dismay.) What do I do about it? What is the most viable solution? Wipe it out and install XP which is what we had on the other laptop? All suggestions as to the best course of action to take would be much appreciated.

Thanks, guys.

I would say yes, format it and put on a copy of XP Pro. At least for now. Maybe in a year or two when Vista isn't so new and they've ironed out some of the kinks, and workarounds are available for the plethora of issues (whether third party or through Microsoft) it'd be worth it.. but right now? Ugh.

Vista does come with some neat stuff, but there's really no reason to upgrade from XP.. and certainly reasons not to (as evidenced by the article)

[cleverest]

Originally Posted by motivez

The main reason is freedom to have control over your computer without having to justify yourself to a corporation. It's sorta hippie, sorta practical at the same time.

I initially got into it because other people I know were, but moving forward I really got sick of Microsoft forcing me to justify myself to them every time I upgraded my computer components. It was ridiculous. When they told me I had upgraded too often and would have to purchase a new license if I wanted to continue using their product that was really the last straw. I (unlike many) had actually paid for my copy of Windows and wasn't going to purchase another one just because they didn't want me to upgrade often.

Linux works, and you can customize the hell of it. Everything you can do on Windows, plus more. At the kernel level you can compile one that fits your exact hardware, etc, etc..

Games are possible, but because most gaming companies have moved away from OpenGL (think quake 3) and torward DirectX, it is quite a bit harder.. but not impossible. I've played WoW on Linux before, and EverQuest before that.

Internet research can be done with Linux better than on Windows IMO, just because of the multi task features that come with a decent xwin platform. Things like XGL (can't remember what it's called now) make multitasking and organization actually fun, so..

As far as design, well, probably better to stick to osx/windows for that as well as it's a bit of a hassle to get working.

Thanks for the response! I'll certainly stick with windows xp / MCE until I learn more about LINUX at least....do you know of a good net resource to learn it? (if not that's cool, I can use google I suppose)

[motivez]

Honestly, the best way to start learning is to install it. Install a user friendly version like Ubuntu ( Welcome - Ubuntu: Linux for human beings ) and eventually you'll want to learn how to do something you can't figure out from experimenting.

Then, you'll read the documentations for that feature and move on until it happens again.

You could take a course or read the documentation or some guides, but it's more fun to experiment I think.

[cleverest]

Originally Posted by motivez

Honestly, the best way to start learning is to install it. Install a user friendly version like Ubuntu ( Welcome - Ubuntu: Linux for human beings ) and eventually you'll want to learn how to do something you can't figure out from experimenting.

Then, you'll read the documentations for that feature and move on until it happens again.

You could take a course or read the documentation or some guides, but it's more fun to experiment I think.

Sweet, is it possible to easily install on another partition and dual boot to it? I just have one computer to use at the moment and I need to keep evil ol' windows on it....I won't bug you with anymore questions, just that last one.

[Dumpy Dooby]

Originally Posted by motivez

Games are possible, but because most gaming companies have moved away from OpenGL (think quake 3) and torward DirectX, it is quite a bit harder.. but not impossible. I've played WoW on Linux before, and EverQuest before that.

This was actually the reason I told him to stick with Windows. His games won't work right with Linux. I dunno, though. Has ReactOS gotten DirectX to work yet?

As far as design, well, probably better to stick to osx/windows for that as well as it's a bit of a hassle to get working.

I've toyed with some shells. They all seem pretty easy to customize, and you can make them look so pretty () in Linux.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by cleverest

Sweet, is it possible to easily install on another partition and dual boot to it? I just have one computer to use at the moment and I need to keep evil ol' windows on it....I won't bug you with anymore questions, just that last one.

Yeah, it's not hard. The installer will do the partitioning and everything for you, just make sure you don't screw up and erase your Windows partition on accident.

Ubuntu will install a boot manager (called grub) that you can use to set the boot order, etc. On reboot, grub will show you a list of operating systems that you can boot, generally Linux is first on the list unless you play with the settings.

If you have ever done anything with partitions beforehand, installing Ubuntu should be a breeze.. if not, well, you might want to find and print out an installation guide beforehand in case something goes wrong.

Also, you don't actually have to install Ubuntu to play around with it. You can download and burn a live CD (I believe they call it a Desktop CD), you just burn the .iso, and put it in your cd/dvd drive and reboot. The OS will boot from the CD, and if you like what you see, you can use their installer from the CD.

If not, you take the CD out and reboot again and you're back to loading windows.

If you go that route, you need to make sure you set your CD/DVD drive to be before the HD in the boot order in your bios, but that's a simple task and a good idea anyway.

[cleverest]

Originally Posted by motivez

Yeah, it's not hard. The installer will do the partitioning and everything for you, just make sure you don't screw up and erase your Windows partition on accident.

Ubuntu will install a boot manager (called grub) that you can use to set the boot order, etc. On reboot, grub will show you a list of operating systems that you can boot, generally Linux is first on the list unless you play with the settings.

If you have ever done anything with partitions beforehand, installing Ubuntu should be a breeze.. if not, well, you might want to find and print out an installation guide beforehand in case something goes wrong.

Also, you don't actually have to install Ubuntu to play around with it. You can download and burn a live CD (I believe they call it a Desktop CD), you just burn the .iso, and put it in your cd/dvd drive and reboot. The OS will boot from the CD, and if you like what you see, you can use their installer from the CD.

If not, you take the CD out and reboot again and you're back to loading windows.

If you go that route, you need to make sure you set your CD/DVD drive to be before the HD in the boot order in your bios, but that's a simple task and a good idea anyway.

Cool, thanks for the all information, that sounds pretty easy!

[jff.law]

Gaming
If your a gamer, you really don’t want Vista for gaming. There are already many games that do not work well with Vista, and then there’s the hardware requirement.

[Scrum]

Originally Posted by jff.law

Gaming
If your a gamer, you really don’t want Vista for gaming. There are already many games that do not work well with Vista, and then there’s the hardware requirement.

[kombayn]

I love my mac. I've owned Mac's since I was 15, my first was an all white iMac it screwed up once. Since then I've had a PowerBook G4 and an iBook G4, no problems since. Still love my computer to this day and I will eventually upgrade to a MacBook this summer once the new specs come out and they work out the small bugs in the new operating system.

[Kytro]

Originally Posted by jff.law

Gaming
If your a gamer, you really don’t want Vista for gaming. There are already many games that do not work well with Vista, and then there’s the hardware requirement.

Actually, most games work fine in Vista, and I am willing to bet that in the near future some may require it.

On the same hardware Vista will be a little slower than XP, as XP is a little slower then Windows 2000.

[Ardentfrost]

Interesting tidbit of info. 2 months after I posted that I would probably switch to Linux eventually, I did. I haven't looked back.

[motivez]

Originally Posted by Ardentfrost

Interesting tidbit of info. 2 months after I posted that I would probably switch to Linux eventually, I did. I haven't looked back.

Nice, what distro did you end up going with, and what WM?

[JaJae]

I think Vista is just fine now. I have Vista Ultimate 32 bit and XP Home installed. I typically use XP simply because I upgraded late last year and I want my computer to feel responsive. But I do switch over to Vista from time to time and it runs just fine now with the latest patches. Obviously it's not as snappy, but this happens with every new operating system release. Aero is pretty lame, but I use it anyway, this slows down the system a bit as well. But if you have a modern computer nowadays, Vista runs just fine. When it first released it was a bit cumbersome, but now with the new Intel processors and RAM so cheap it's pretty easy to run Vista without hiccups. Driver support has come around (except for a few rare oddball vendors who can't keep up with the times).

I have to say, Vista is going to be the new standard. We might as well get used to it. If someone is looking to purchase a new MS operating system I'd recommend Vista over XP now. Linux is always a viable option and I've played around with a few distros (Ubuntu, Gentoo, etc) for a couple years or so. In the end my productivity is just higher in Windows using Windows software. Being able to customize Linux to my needs is great, but I have so many Windows programs I use on a daily basis that Linux just isn't right for me. The Linux versions or replacements of the software I use simply aren't up to par.

[motivez]

I don't think it's fine still really, usability and sluggishness of systems where it's installed (because it's bloated to all hell) is only one factor in why I'll never use it barring some major changes

XP will be supported long into the future, so for anything where I *have* to run Windows, I'll continue using it.. but for everything else, it'll be Linux.

[JaJae]

Originally Posted by motivez

I don't think it's fine still really, usability and sluggishness of systems where it's installed (because it's bloated to all hell) is only one factor in why I'll never use it barring some major changes

XP will be supported long into the future, so for anything where I *have* to run Windows, I'll continue using it.. but for everything else, it'll be Linux.

How much experience do you have with Vista? Is it on a box that is shared or public? And MS is going to stop supporting XP much quicker than 98. But yes, they probably have years left before MS stops supporting it and they'll probably have a new computer by then.

[Ardentfrost]

Originally Posted by motivez

Nice, what distro did you end up going with, and what WM?

Ubuntu (which comes with Gnome). New version drops in 2 days, I can't wait