New laptop

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Wow, its an explosion of posts! I don't mind sharing the thread, but I am glad that randomizer realized he did kinda hijack it.

In any case, the current wireless driver that I have through ndiswrapper is a bit odd. It will sometimes refuse to connect to networks that i KNOW are there and it seems to register low signal strength on the UT public wireless network, which is a pain because then it won't connect. Sometimes if I rmmod/modprobe ndiswrapper, the problem goes away and I get a connection, other times I am not so lucky.

By the way, thank you to audiovoodoo for explaining the cult of apple :)

-Zorak
 
Yeah, I am sure that if I were to give it a real shot, I could get the CodeWarrior compiler we have to use for my embedded systems class installed and working under linux. I'd also need a terminal capable of communicating via RS232 (or SCI as Freescale calls it) to talk to my microcontroller. The thing is, I literally picked up this computer before going to class on my first day of school, and since that point I have been drowning in work, so I haven't had much time to figure how to make the tool set I need work under Linux. I'd be all for doing it, but I just don't have the time 🙁

Also, in the time that I have had to use Vista on this laptop, it hasn't been terrible, but there have been a few annoyances, such as the change of UI and changing where things are stored. All in all, I wouldn't say I like it, but I don't _hate_ it either. It is no better than using XP, and I don't care enough about it to buy another copy of XP to install on this machine. Also, since I spend most of the time booted into Linux (which I prefer), I don't notice as much. I do wish I had enough time to figure out why I am having these wireless/graphics problems though 🙁

-Zorak

p.s. I probably shouldn't have made this long-winded post, but I wanted to take a break from what is otherwise a really nasty schedule ATM.
 
I am keeping crappy Vista (the bloody thing wasting 50Gigs of my HDD) only to be able to run Adobe CS4 Suite which I use often....
DAMMIT!
Click to expand...
50GB? I'm pretty sure you have much more than Vista installed. Vista uses about 15GB without having components stripped out with vLite. If it used 50GB, I wouldn't be able to fit it plus downloads on a 40GB partition 😉
 
Yeah, actually my vista chews up 50GB of my HD even though it is not all in use. The reason being that there are some files that it stuck towards the middle of the disk space and the repartitioning tool refused to move those files and make the partition smaller. I didn't feel like taking chances w/ gparted since I needed a system up and running ASAP, but that may be an option for me in the future.

-Zorak
 
It's just Microsoft's way of supporting the hardware industry, without Vista 1TB hard drives (and quad-core CPU's) would have a very small market.
 
Very true, it is entirely possible to fit many distros on a single CD still, although nothing much besides the distro. Once I find a distro I like I'll probably get the DVD to save on bandwidth each time I reformat and have to restore everything.
 
We should note that the 4.7 Linux DVD includes OpenOffice, drivers, and many goodies (apps, desktops, eyecandies ...)
While Vista DVD has ... well ... vista!
Click to expand...

Hmmm.. and there was I thinking I also got a media player, web server, firewall, and a fancy web browser [/Anti Trust] ;-)
 
Common!!
Did you actually try running anything on what MS claims to be a "Media Player;" I will not even pretend that you actually brought up the words "web browser" and "web server" in the same sentence you referred to vista!
Click to expand...

[Devils Advocate]
Well it plays MP3's out of the box! The web browser works with my bank whilst that commie FireFox thing does not. I was able to get my 'ChiTech' home automation web control system working with just 4 mouse clicks using the power of IIS...
[/Devils Advocate]

You know this is what you are up against, and in cases with some justification.
 
Yeah, i don't think i would bank at a place that insists on using IE. That is just begging for something to go wrong. Also, audacious media player plays mp3s, wmas, ogg, mp4/aac?, and all sorts of other audio formats out of the box and is quick to install. Besides, who uses WMP anyways? Anyone using windows knows to install winamp for music and the CCCP/Media Player Classic or VLC for videos.

AMDFangirl, IIS is the MS web server. It is like Apache, and it comes free with winXP pro. If I recall correctly, I believe I read somewhere that despite its smaller installation base, it is still compromised more of the time than the open source Apache webserver. Funny how that works out, yes? 😉

-Zorak
 


epic_fail.jpg


Just think about what you wrote there for a second, just pause for a moment and mentally walk yourself through the home of your non tech savvy friend who just purchased a new laptop. Do you maybe want to retract that statement now as you see the mental picture of them struggling to understand how to change their desktop background to that picture of their dog?

You talk about choice to not bank with somebody, good luck finding a truly OS friendly bank here in the UK. There are a couple but the majority are IE specific sites, same with our tax office for a while. I'm not saying it's a good thing, just that it's the way it is and that's what people have to deal with.




For older versions that might have been true but for IIS7 which is free with Business Vista or the server products then not from what I read. The biggest issue IIS faces is the skill level of the folks installing it. Compared to Apache it's a sinch to get working and serving pages, to lock down properly requires as much skill as an Apache install. Again I'm not saying it's THE SOLUTION just that it does work for a lot of people, hell even I can get IIS serving ASP.NET pages hooking into remote SQL Server back ends in under an hour!


 
It's the same with everything. You can't expect a bullet-proof OS if it isn't properly configured, yet as long as you know how to lock it down you're fine. Given that some military systems run Windows XP means it can't be that insecure if you know how to lock it down. The same thing goes for web servers. I can set up an Apache server and let it run on my home PC. I don't think it would take too long before someone broke into it though, because I don't know how to configure it properly (and haven't tried to learn, because I don't intend to run websites with 40% uptime).
 
Heh. I see I may have hit a nerve. I admit I wasn't thinking about what my non-tech savvy friends do on their own, since after I set things up for them the first time, they have usually continued to use the same programs i've shown them (whether out of laziness/familiarity or out of genuine like for the programs, I don't know). Also, this may just be me, but even though I know a lot of non-tech savvy people, I only really know one hopeless case like you describe. Most people are willing to learn just a little bit if they think it will benefit them.

Also, I apologize for forgetting that you are not in the USA. But I will NOT retract my statement about choosing another bank. That is a valid solution if it is available to you like it is for me in the US. Before I opened my account at our local bank I made sure that I would be able to do my online banking in Firefox/Linux and they assured me their site would work (which it does). So again I apologize for the US-centricity of my proposed solution, but that doesn't make it any less valid. Here's hoping that your banker's IT department gets their act together!

-Zorak
 
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