Windows 7

[kumquat]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 I paid $49 for it from Amazon. There was special upgrade pricing for preorders a couple of months in advance of the release. And "LBYM" does not have to mean "LAFAPBYM" (Living As Far As Possible Below Your Means). I would personally consider LAFAPBYM to be a painful, obsessive, miserable way to live, but to each their own.

The post was intended to be partly tongue-in-cheek especially after your reading your signature line.

Quote:

"Hey, for every ten dollars, that's another hour that I have to be in the work place. That's an hour of my life. And my life is a very finite thing. I have only 'x' number of hours left before I'm dead. So how do I want to use these hours of my life? Do I want to use them just spending it on more crap and more stuff, or do I want to start getting a handle on it and using my life more intelligently?" -- Joe Dominguez (1938 - 1997)

You're free to spend your money any way you wish, even on "more crap".

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 By the way, another reason to upgrade is that as XP support goes away, system updates and service packs that protect users from new and evolving malware and other junk may no longer be pushed to XP users. XP support will be continuing primarily for corporate users (not normally known as early adopters) who are willing to pay for it, though.

System updates and service packs don't do much to protect users. The code is fixed after some one exploits the bug, not before. It's a case of closing the barn door after the lambs are sacrificed and the cattle raped the horse is gone.

[Rustic23]

I run 2 computers with Vista, (use to run 1 vista 1 ubuntu) and a net book on XP. My main complaint with Vista is the interface. I had the same problem when I moved to XP. Why Microsoft thinks it is necessary to change where things are found I will never know.

On the other end, I don't think I have ever upgraded the operating system on one of my computers. Rather than pay a couple of hundred dollars for an upgrade, I usually just purchase a new machine. As I don't see any need for a new machine, and unless something breaks, I don't see a new machine anytime in the near future, so it may be Window 8 or 9 or what ever before I upgrade.

[Zathras]

I have upgraded to Windows 7 on two computers.
Love it on both.
Nice improvements. Nothing huge, but none the less nice. And the networking seems improved.
Personally, I saw Vista as a huge improvement over XP as the single thing that annoyed the heck out of me was when a program caused a general fault and you needed to reboot the whole machine.
When the same thing happened on Vista (which was less often) it would simply crash the program.
However, I didn't try running Vista with any older software or peripherals (other than a printer which worked fine). So I certainly understand that a lot of people had serious issues with it.

[kyounge1956]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 (snip) Why Microsoft thinks it is necessary to change where things are found I will never know. (snip)

Me either. We have recently been "upgraded" to Office 2007 at work, and switched from a non-Microsoft product to Outlook for our email. The so-called upgrades are one and all more confusing to use (because they moved the menus around) and I think run more slowly than the programs they replace. They don't play nicely together. I use a Mac at home and wish I had one at work, although come to think of it, even if I could, we'd most likely have to use the Mac versions of Office and the menus are probably all rearranged there too.

[harley]

I've got numerous OSs running, even an old 98 version, although I don't boot that one up very often anymore. I've had a lot of problems with Vista, and since I'm not in the biz anymore, I think I'm going to quit being an early adopter. I have to admit I enjoyed the new Mac ad.

YouTube - Mac vs. PC Windows 7 vs. Mac Ad: Broken Promises

[Bimmerbill]

I always rebuild every 6 months or so. I like it, its what I do for fun.

You can always run "msconfig" and check all the programs that are now loading when you start your PC. I always shut off all the automatic updates for adobe, java, itunes, etc, etc. There really is a huge number of them.

[samclem]

Quote:

Originally Posted by harley I have to admit I enjoyed the new Mac ad.

Yep, the new "I'm a Mac" ad is great--kicking old Bill Gates while they are vulnerable.

And then last night I saw this ad that put a harpoon in Mac/ATT. It's a tough world out there in the ad biz.

Misfit Toys Ad

[FUEGO]

After seeing a brand new windows 7 premium laptop with decent specs today for $249 from bestbuy, I don't think I would ever consider paying more than a token amount for Windows 7 upgrade. I'd just buy a new machine w/ OEM W7 installed. Or wait till Windows 8 comes out in another few years.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by samclem And then last night I saw this ad that put a harpoon in Mac/ATT. It's a tough world out there in the ad biz. Misfit Toys Ad

Actually, if you listen carefully you will notice that they are not harpooning the iPhone at all ("everybody will love you"), but they are harpooning AT&T's 3G coverage.

In order to get what they wanted, Apple had to give AT&T exclusive rights for the iPhone in the US. But that exclusivity agreement is up (next summer?), and I'm sure Verizon would like a shot at getting the iPhone (it will need new radio circuitry inside to work on the Verizon network, but Apple can do that as easily as the rest of the Verizon phone providers).

AT&T is suing over some of those ads. I think they are really clever, but they can give the mistaken impression that you don't get coverage at all in those areas, when it is the high-speed 3G coverage that is lacking (the phone will fall back to the lower speed connection).

This headline took me for a loop - who would have imagined this 2 years ago?

Apple's iPhone Operating Profit Beats Nokia For The First Time (NOK, AAPL)

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According to a report from Strategy Analytics (via Reuters), Apple surpassed Nokia in the third quarter as the cellphone maker with the highest operating profit.

Not just profit margin, but profit total.

Quote:

According to the report, Apple's operating profit was $1.6 billion on sales of 7.4 million iPhones, generating revenue of $4.5 billion. Nokia's profit was $1.1 billion on sales of 108.5 million phones, generating revenue of $10.36 billion (€6.9 billion).

And this is during a recession, where you would think high end product would be at a disadvantage.

-ERD50

[TromboneAl]

Quote:

Why Microsoft thinks it is necessary to change where things are found I will never know.

This was always a pain when writing a manual or providing tech support. I couldn't just say "Click Start/Find/Files or Folders" because on different versions it might be "Start/Search/For Files or Folders." or something else.

But, unbelievably, manufacturers are even changing keyboard layouts with new computers!

[W2R]

I admit that I love new operating systems and I am DYING to try Windows 7. But last year, I bought a new laptop and a new desktop. So do you see what greed has done for me? Now I have no excuse to buy a new computer with Windows 7 (and I never buy upgrades - - might as well buy a new computer).

Today I somehow snagged my foot on the power cord to my laptop, with the result of essentially THROWING my laptop across the room catapulted by the power cord. In that brief moment when I thought it was ruined, instead of anguish I felt gleeful because I would have an excuse to buy a new one. But then, oh drat, it turned out that it survived with no damage.

Next year.

[TromboneAl]

I think I will just reinstall XP and all the many applications.

Had I designed Windows, each application would sit in a folder by itself. Everything necessary for that application would be in files in that folder. Reinstalling the OS would not cause any problems, and you could move the application's folder to a new machine in a second.

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl Had I designed Windows, each application would sit in a folder by itself. Everything necessary for that application would be in files in that folder. Reinstalling the OS would not cause any problems, and you could move the application's folder to a new machine in a second.

Early versions of the Mac OS did that. Everything the application needed was in one folder. To delete the application, just drag the folder to the trash.

[kumquat]

If it was that easy, why would you (or anyone else) cough good money for some new crap for something you already have?

Sorry, didn't I get flamed for asking that?

[heyduke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by TromboneAl I think I will just reinstall XP and all the many applications. ...

Remember if you live in the past with software OS's such as XP you also will own all the unpatched security holes in the software as well. No one including Micro$oft will be adding new patches to XP ...

[ziggy29]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kumquat If it was that easy, why would you (or anyone else) cough good money for some new crap for something you already have?

Because most modern software seems complicated enough that it has to throw crap into your system folders.

And how about we make a deal, you use (and pay for) what you want, and others will do the same. It's not your money they are using. Deal?

[W2R]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ziggy29 I paid $49 for it from Amazon. There was special upgrade pricing for preorders a couple of months in advance of the release. And "LBYM" does not have to mean "LAFAPBYM" (Living As Far As Possible Below Your Means). I would personally consider LAFAPBYM to be a painful, obsessive, miserable way to live, but to each their own.

I have a category of expenditures called "Electronics/Miscellaneous", and last year I spent $288/month on this category. This year, due to the recession, it is down to $68/month. Either way, IMO $49 shouldn't break the bank for LBYM'ers. It wouldn't for me, and my projected total 2009 expenditures are $21,168 which some people here consider to be impossibly low.

Like you, I think LAFAPBYM is unnecessary in order to LBYM. In fact, I think it is detrimental to LBYM efforts because it is likely to be frustrating and lead to scrapping LBYM entirely. For me the point is to determine what is necessary to live, and then to have some extra to spend for fun but not unlimited amounts for that purpose.

[Rustic23]

Al,
Before you reinstall or after if you all ready have, go to UBCD for Windows and check out this app. With it you can make a CD/DVD that will boot Windows directly to the cd/DVD. It has several apps built into it. One is driveimage xml. With this you can do a complete drive image of you drive to a backup partition or usb hard drive. I make a backup after I have installed the OS and all the basic software. That gives me a 'clean' install. It takes about an hour to make the backup and an hour to reinstall the OS and all the programs. All you need to do then is keep a backup of the data and reinstall it. This is the fastest way I have found to re-do a computer.

As for XP not being supported, it will be a while. From what I found on the web they will continue security until 2014. I will have gotten a new computer by then and operating system.

[ERD50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rustic23 Al, Before you reinstall or after if you all ready have, go to UBCD for Windows and check out this app. With it you can make a CD/DVD that will boot Windows directly to the cd/DVD. It has several apps built into it. One is driveimage xml. With this you can do a complete drive image of you drive to a backup partition or usb hard drive.

Rustic23 - can you then boot directly from that backup, or do you need to re-install it on the original hard drive first?

I ask, because I like to be able to verify my backups before I assume they are good. With OSX this is no problem, just boot from the external and try it out, then boot back to your internal drive, disconnect the external and put it on the shelf for safe keeping. OSX also lets you clone the disk right from the running system - no need to boot into a separate OS for that. I do incremental backups of a subset of my data to flash drives between full clones, which is nice - a couple minutes max (incremental backup was a paid program, 'SuperDuper').

But I'm not sure if I can tell friends on Windows if they can do this or not. Do you know?

-ERD50

[Rustic23]

You can not boot from the backup. The ubcd4win disk is a subset of XP or vista or what ever Windows disk you start with. You have to have a Windows install disk of some sort to make it. I generally make two backup copies. One the original with bare software installed, maybe just office and such, and another about a month later with data and everything. I not had a backup fail. I have erased them, lost them, and had a hard drive that was broke so bad it could not be reinstalled, but the backup always works. The other thing, I figure if it does not work, I am not worse off than having to go through the complete install, so I don't get rid of those original disk.

Some quirks are that the usb drives have to be installed at boot up. The cd will pause before booting windows and ask you if you want to 'boot bart' (a sub name for usbcd) or some other operating system. If you computer is set to book from a usb that is the time to plug it in. By the way, most of my vista backups are greater than 4 gigs and that is compressed.

Just thought of this, while you can not boot from the backup you can look at it's structure, file system, and I believe driveimage xml allows you to restore individual files. So you should be able to check the integrity of the backup file.