MS Vista SP1 is out. It will be pushed to automatic updates in a month. It is available for download.
Anyone I even know that uses vista wants to go back to xp
For good reason!
That’s one of the main things that keep me from buying a new computer. The other of course is price.
Question for all you Linux users out there: how hard is it to install, use, and maintain your particular version of Linux, and how do you go about getting it? Keep in mind that I’d still need to keep some form of Windows because I have to do a lot of work in Japanese.
Ubuntu would be an excellent choice for a first version of Linux. You can run it as a live CD (boot from your CD ROM drive without it touching your windows partition) Ubuntu will also set-up a dual boot with Windows effortlessly.
You can download Ubuntu for free here:
Or you can order a free CD here ( free, no shipping charges)
Thanks. I guess the next questions would be:
1. Are there many apps available for Win/Mac that aren’t available for Linux, and
2. Would apps that work on one version of Linux work on another?
These may seem obvious to you, but I’ve never even considered Linux before so I have no idea where to start. But I am starting to get more than just a little sick of any computer I buy slowing to a crawl within six months because everything on there gets tied up in knots.
But I am starting to get more than just a little sick of any computer I buy slowing to a crawl within six months because everything on there gets tied up in knots.
Then you might prefer Vista to XP…
1. There are apps on Linux that function very similarly to apps on Win/Mac.
MS Office (Win/Mac) = Open Office (Linux)
Outlook (Win)= Thunderbird, Evolution (Linux)
There are of course differences between Win/Mac and Linux. You’ll need to do some exploring:-) That is why I suggested the Ubuntu live CD. You can boot your computer from the CD only and try-out Linux for a bit and see if it meets your needs before you install it to your HD.
2. Linux is Linux. Most apps that function on one version of Linux will also be there on another version of Linux.
Why is that? I keep hearing all these horrible things about Vista. What are some of the good things about it?
- It actually catches a lot of the malware and crap that XP would gather (and makes it slow down).
- As long as you never shut down and have to go for lunch while it restarts, you’ll find it runs quicker.
- Whining about it is so last year. Get used to it.
- 64 BIT
Aside from it looking nicer, aside from that stupid sidebar, nothing.
Whine to the 3rd parties who still haven’t or simply won’t write proper drivers for it.
It works fine. For M$oft.
But don’t use it for an excuse NOT to try Ubuntu.
So I guess this leads to the question of what I can do to speed up my computer in the meantime. I bought it about 4-5 years ago, and it was pretty good for its time. It’s an NEC notebook, with a Celeron M processor (not sure how fast, but it’s in the 1 to 1.5 GHz range), 3/4 gig of ram and an 80 gig hard drive. One thing that would obviously make it run faster would be to defrag the hard drive (as soon as I can get rid of enough crap to do so), but other than that, what else can I do to speed up performance?
The biggest problems I have are:
1. It takes a good 5 minutes to boot up, especially as it brings up all this crap I don’t need but can’t seem to get rid of.
2. Every once in a while, the CPU usage hits 100 percent. A lot of times the “system idle process”, which I presume would be what windows is NOT using–is sometimes upwards of 50%.
What’s really strange is that I run AVG anti-virus and Spybot Search and Destroy, both of which show no threats. I then ran a free diagnostic tool from the makers of Zone Alarm, and it said I had threats in every area. So either the stuff I have isn’t catching anything, or else the Zone Alarm diagnostic is “finding” things that aren’t really there in an attempt to get me to buy their product.
Any thoughts? I’m getting really sick of waiting a minute for Firefox to load or 5 minutes for Photoshop.
Format, rinse, repeat.
Back up everything you want to keep and just format it with a clean copy of XP, then do all the upgrades. You’ll see a big difference.
Sounds like a great idea. The only problem is that I’m using Japanese Win XP, but the computer I bought didn’t include an installation disk. I want to keep using the Japanese version, but I don’t want to have to pay for something I already own. Any thoughts?
How long ago did you buy it?
Sometimes there’s a restore CD or DVD, or sometimes there’s a program that will burn the CD for you (ie: the CD image is actually on the drive).
You should at least have an option of buying the CD (cheaply), since you have the license.
Further to the excellent advice from herbie and MiG I wanted to mention one more thing about the Ubuntu live CD, then I’ll shut up about Linux:-)
The Ubuntu CD is an excellent diagnostic tool. That is, when you boot from it you can check to see if your video card, sound card, NIC, and printer is Linux compatible before you install Linux. 
You have a Celeron M? Arggh!!! Toss it in a wood-chipper.
The reason it got slow is because XP itself has grown so big since they made that POS it can barely run it. Even if you turn it over, write down the XP code on it and install from the latest XPH w SP2 (don’t bother with XPP) there will be over 100 more updates to make it current.
Then it will run like shit again.
Don’t even THINK of putting Vista on it, Vista is for NEW stuff like dual cores with 2 GB RAM and minimum 256 video only. 99% of the whining is from ppl who ‘upgraded’ to Vista.
To this day you can buy Celeron M laptops running Vista basic, and they’re sluggish crap for people who are so cheap their brain is froze.
Do the Ubuntu thing. You have a computer thats worth $100 tops. Not worth even the cost of OEM windows.
Agreed. Stardog Champion: Ubuntu will probably run very well with your specs.