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General => Computers / Internet => Topic started by: Garden Manager on January 30, 2007, 10:50:40
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Here we ago again. A new wonderfull operating system from Microsoft.
What a RIP OFF! £99 just to upgrade to the most basic version, which lacks most of the new features Vista is supposed to porovide and to me looks not much better than an updated XP.
I have just checked if my system is compatible. It is (should be it was sold as 'Vista ready), however several of my programs wont work with it, including Norton Internet Security 2006! Kind of an important bit of software i am sure you'd agree.
No sorry Microsoft, i will NOT be upgrading to your fancy new baby, and wil be sticking to XP. I just wonder how long they will continue to offer support and updates for XP now its no longer the latest model.
To me all these new upgraded programs are just a way of getting money out of us. I see no other benefit
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I wouldn't even consider using a new version of windows until the first service pack has come out despite all the beta testing they are always still full of bugs. Besides linux is getting easier to use all the time & most variations on it are free.
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Support for `XP`is till 2011.
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By 2011 i bet most people will be using it...sadly. As the tools and software apps (not just the OS's) advance PC's will need to be upgraded to run them, and within next 6 months every new PC will come with it as standard...and most people and buisnesses still seem reluctant to go for non MS OS's like Linux.
If your in IT, In some ways your better off getting now to have a head start on others, undoubtably they have made configuring the OS even more complicated and impossible to find the setup screen with the tab on it, with the button on it that takes you to another screen with two more tabs and finally a check box that you think might be the bit that your looking for...
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My OH is getting all excited about Vista's release. I won't touch it.
I hate MS with a passion. Wouldn't touch Norton's with yours either Garden Cadet but that's purely personal preference.
Is Vista XP with all the service packs and updates included or is it a completely different OS ? You can bet your bottom dollar they'll be having all the eager beavers doing all the beta testing for them.
Crooks ! >:(
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I've been updating windows since windows first hit the streets, how many years is that now?
I certainly won't touch it for a long while yet...probably not until I'm forced to. I hate being a test m/c for someone elses software, especially when I have to pay for it.
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we tried the beta which was kind of ok
except it would only work on one of our pcs and even then struggeled
i dont like macs ( university disitation day before it was due to be handed in was eaten by a mac! ) and unfortunatly bill gates has my soul so i have to use his products or i will got directly to hell!
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I didnt upgrade to XP until we got a new PC with it on. The same will go for Vista too I guess. By that time i would like to think all the bugs will be sorted out.
The most annoying thing is we just got a new pc last august. It was sold as Vista ready but loaded of course with XP SP2. We could upgrade but as our other PC (laptop) is older it would probably have to remain XP. The 2 machines are networked (just). Having 2 operating systems might mess up the network entirely.
The thing that annoys me the most is that when new windows software comes out, it cna render perfectly good software obsolete - since it doesnt work as well with the new OS. I had some good software which worked prefectly with win98, but barely functioned if at all with XP. I predict the same with XP and Vista. Then theres AOL software - it has functionality issues I am certain with XP. I dread to think what it would be like getting it to work with Vista! Even the current AOL browser is a few years old now.
No 'Nanny' Microsoft can stick their new baby as far as I am concerned.
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GC,
Why bother with 'Vista'? ----- for 2yrs. hence?
Why bother with AOHell ------ Forchristssake at any time?
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Tellboy:
No I am not bothering with Vista. If you had read my posts you will have realised this.
AOL - Havent got a choice on that front. Other users in household like it so we stick with it.
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ordered a vista laptop for myself today ;)
but only so I can use it as a test system at work to find out which programs need re-writing etc. The sad thing is we still have plenty of Win98 machines that do everything pretty much instantly and never have any problems. Regardless of how bad the OS is I would not buy a PC (for work) without the latest O/S on it
IMO Vista wont be a problem MS office 2007 will be the bad guy!
Glow
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You're using Office 2007 ??? I'm still on 2003! MS won't get a ha'penny out of me for a very long time yet !
;D
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I'm still using Office 2000, there aren't any features in 2003 or 2007 that I would use,
so why waste money on upgrading.
I've only just put XP on my PC, not through choice though, but that's another story.
I was running windows 2000 for ages quite happily with everything running smoothly.
Now with XP, my dvd writer doesn't work. I've narrowed it down to the problem
being caused by XP, as no dvd writing programs will work.
There are loads of people with the same problem and Microsoft don't have a fix for it.
According to their help and website, dvd writing is not a feature of XP.
I am one who won't be upgrading, as I will probably have to spend a fortune on extra bits
in my pc which aren't Vista compatible.
What does it do that XP doesn't? (that's worth having).
The only thing I've seen on the telly that it does is the windows cycling around
when you switch between applications. Whoopy Dooo!!!
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I have just consulted the oracle. I shall pm you !
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You're using Office 2007 ??? I'm still on 2003! MS won't get a ha'penny out of me for a very long time yet !
;D
Nope were not on office 2007, what I meant to say was that office 2007 will cause the problems. Historically all my work based problems have not been caused by internal hardware/software but external.
eg we export most of our goods so deal with international customers - unfortunately this includes the "must have the latest" Americans. So we expect a rush of off 2007 documents saved in the new "backwards incompatible" formats that we wont be able to open.
This will then force us to react, possibly by buying office 2007 ourselves which then will need a more powerfull pc with vista. Then non of our printers, hardware, bespoke software etc will work etc etc etc bit of a M$ induced vicious circle.
hence the need to buy a vista machine as soon as to test and be ready to react.
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bloody americans ! bloody Gates ! Bloody bloody ! 8)
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I have tried the beta version of office 2007 and yes there are problems with it!! it caused my pc to crash unexpectedly, maybe after 20 mins or 6 hours! I never knew when it was going to happen!!!
Kev
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Lesson here,
Don't tread where the amateurs fear to tread.
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Got mine today
talk about over security conscious
other than that its just a pretty xp with gadgets - the home versions may be better tho with the music/video side of things
incidentally I did a basic install and the windows folder was 6.7GB!
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Will not bother upgrading for a year or so, just because everything is running perfectly under Windows XP Pro since procuration. Am so sad though that no 2 son's Dorling Kindersley educational CDs (inherited from no 1 son 5 years older) won't work on our XP machines at all. Our PCs running Windows '98 went caput a few years ago so if anyone has any bright ideas as to how to get these CDs to work again, I'd be eternally grateful.
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if the DK stuff installs but fails to run then run them in win 98 compatability mode (may even work better in win 95 mode) heres what to try.
Find the exe file that starts the program - if you have a shortcut right click properties and it will tell you the location. (sometimes you can just apply the following to the shortcut and the exe inherits the behaviour but it is best to directly modify the exe file).
right click the exe and select properties, select the compatability tab
tick the box that says run this prgram in compatability mode for
select the os from the DDList
save ok
run the exe
full MS bumph is here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/appcompat.mspx)
HTH Glow
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Thanks Glow, but still can't get them to work. Get the message: "the sound decompression software has not been installed properly. Please run Setup and try again. This program will now terminate." Doesn't matter which DK program or how many times I run Setup, I still get the same message, even in Win 95 mode :(
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there's open office what is free... there's linux what is also free .... and they are much less susceptible to viruses etc. There's macs which rrrrrooooocccckkkkk!!! ;D
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I still use Office 2000, find it perfectly acceptble for what I use it for and have seen no reason to upgrade (by buying the whole program again!). It works fine with XP. Another reason to stick with XP i think.
I too have a number of good programs bought when we had a Win98 machine , that since moving to an XP machine have stopped working and are currently gathering dust. They wont work even in '95/98' mode. The stupid thing is they would probably work better on a higher spec machine if only XP would allow it.
I guess for those situations its not worth partitioning the drive and installing windows 98 is it?
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GC,
I don't understand your problem?
Obtain a decent hardrive, partition it, put the system of your choice on one & your files on 'tother. Better to have a 'back up drive' for your files.
Am I fick or summat?
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GC,
I don't understand your problem?
Obtain a decent hardrive, partition it, put the system of your choice on one & your files on 'tother. Better to have a 'back up drive' for your files.
Am I fick or summat?
Sorry! Maybe i didnt make myself clear enough. I was wondering if it was worth doing thats all so i could run the programs.
Ok so it is. Thanks
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Here we ago again. A new wonderfull operating system from Microsoft.
What a RIP OFF! £99 just to upgrade to the most basic version, which lacks most of the new features Vista is supposed to porovide and to me looks not much better than an updated XP.
I have just checked if my system is compatible. It is (should be it was sold as 'Vista ready), however several of my programs wont work with it, including Norton Internet Security 2006! Kind of an important bit of software i am sure you'd agree.
No sorry Microsoft, i will NOT be upgrading to your fancy new baby, and wil be sticking to XP. I just wonder how long they will continue to offer support and updates for XP now its no longer the latest model.
To me all these new upgraded programs are just a way of getting money out of us. I see no other benefit
go look on Ebuyer, I paid £67.52 for my copy of Home Premium OEM. but if ur runing XP Pro as I was it will do a clean install so anything u have on the boot partition will be lost. Back up any doc's, Pic's etc. or even better put them on another hard drive. and as for norton why pay 4 what u can get free, I've used AVG Free 4 over 10yrs now and no worries also I find the built in firewall walll much better then what coms with XP. Mines a home made pc of about 6-7 yrs and all works great.
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I've ditched MS Windows XP and am now using Ubuntu Linux v6.10 on my desktop and v6.06 on my Laptop. I use V6.06 on the Laptop because v6.10 refuses to install on it, although I tried many times. Funny, my Epson Stylus C680 printer works better under Linux than it ever did under Windows.
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Just goes to show microsoft windows might be the biggest OS but it aint nessesarily the best!
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often the case that the defacto standard isnt the best - anyone remember betamax videos - they rocked!
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Hi
I've been beta'ing Vista since the very early days, when it really was a beta product and horrible. Yes its an early product, and yes there will be incompatibilities or teething problems as there are with every single new OS. Bugs, security issues and system vulnerabilities are not exclusive to M$. If its the whole monopoly thing you don't agree with, then fine. I personally just want good products that are good enough and flexble enough to let me do what I want....which brings me to Vista.
Vista by and large is a fantastic operating system. Calling it a tarted up XP is fundamentally wrong, but I can understand, because its subtle, although no less brilliant. It is absolutely jam packed full of features and technical under-pinnings that blow XP and all of its earlier versions out of the water. OSX has been a great OS for some time also, and I still prefer some features of that compared to Vista, but only a few.
Vista is advanced, but if you're not a power user then maybe you won't quite get it, which is fine. Stick with XP if it does the job and you are comfortable with it, but you can't knock what you don't neccessarily understand. The only compelling reason to not get Vista with a new system, is if you have an application that isn't compatible. Which again, is not M$ fault that private betas have been available for nearly 2 years and they haven't done anything about it.
Honestly, it is the biggest, and it is the best! Its Apple's move next.
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But like many others, I don't want the bloated all bells and whistles OS. My webmaster, photographic and communications requirements could easily be handled on a computer of five years ago running a GNU/Linux OS.
Edit: I see that Dell have jumped in with an advert, I would not recommend Dell as they tend to limit their installation to run certain software. I have run a user group for 18+ years and never seen a Dell at our meetings.
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But like many others, I don't want the bloated all bells and whistles OS. My webmaster, photographic and communications requirements could easily be handled on a computer of five years ago running a GNU/Linux OS.
Which is fair enough, but the majority of users are embracing the digital age and M$ and Apple have responded with rich OSs with as many features in there as possible. MP3 players, digital cameras, video, Internet, mobility, multimedia libraries etc etc. Yeh sure, you can do the same on open source OS and software, but that's not what its about. Give my dad Linux and he'd have a nosebleed, thats before even getting it on the maching.
I don't get the bloated all bells and whistles argument, if you don't want to use the bells and whistles, you don't use them. There's no real bloat in terms of current hardware, and even over the past 5 years for that matter. I've had XP breathe new leases of life into older PCs with low amounts of RAM. In terms of productivity, Vista is breathtaking, trumping even OSX.
Edit: I see that Dell have jumped in with an advert, I would not recommend Dell as they tend to limit their installation to run certain software. I have run a user group for 18+ years and never seen a Dell at our meetings.
Limit their OS config so that it can't run certain software?! I've never seen anything of the like. The only time that exists is when a user has a corporate build that is supplied by his/her company which has system policies configured to lock the machine down. This could be applied to any brand of computer however.
But, as I said, each to thier own. I just can't sit back and watch folk argue old wives tales and things that aren't right or make no sense. When it comes to OS's, macs vs PCs, Canon Vs Nikon and loads of other tech subjects there's lots of it about.
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Touche,
I understand that the BIOS is not as free as the normal makes. On the computer BB's we often see comments about difficulties with installing certain things on Dells, As I said, I have never seen a Dell at our meetings or know of anyone using a Dell. One of our members lives in "Dells Lane", he has a dealer built PC. I think the name existed long before the computer company.
Even on here we have comments:-
http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,91/topic,28337.0 (http://www.allotments4all.co.uk/joomla/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,91/topic,28337.0)
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timiano,
interesting thread. I still ask - why vista at this early time?
If you play kiddywink games, I can understand your requirements.
As most computer users only use 80% of their machine capacity anyway, why the need to uprate with the inevitable need to upgrade their hardware to accommodate the software?
Driven by the profit motive? At your expense?
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Got shiny new pc - with vista - aaaaaaaaaaaaaargh.
Ok, Open Office works with it. Apparently, even office 95 works on vista. Outlook though may not - you can't import outlook files (.pst) to windows mail (upgrade from outlook express) - but you can import outlook messages to outlook express then import those into windows mail - not direct!
I needed the newest version of my antivirus program to run on Vista - suspect that is the same with Norton.
Notice that Messenger needs to be run in admin mode or it crashes.
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Oh, and as for backing up files on another computer with file sharing enabled - I need permission to copy these, aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhh.
Vista seems just incredibly slow.
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Oh, and as for backing up files on another computer with file sharing enabled - I need permission to copy these, aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrghhh.
Vista seems just incredibly slow.
Just as i suspected its been 'overdone'. In other words been over written and its thus too big for its own good.
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must be me, i loaded vista home premium, and i have had no problems, maybe time will tell,
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I have just got fed up with the Microsoft "updates" which often mean that your existing software need to be replaced. I wonder how many photographers will be upset that their Adobe Photoshop software may not work with Vista and they have to buy a new "Vista" version.
I have now gone the opposite way, thrown out Windows and moved to Linux (Free) with free downloadable software for many applications. It doesn't object to reasonably modern machines either, I just installed a 250GB HDD on my existing machine. After juggling around with it for a time, I realise that the best way to set it up is with an 80GB HDD fitted in the machine and connect the 250 GB HDD as a USB drive (for saving pictures and data to). The advantage with this is that the USB drive can be used with my laptop as well.
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http://www.computeractive.co.uk/vnunet/news/2185308/french-parliament-switches
Interesting!
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and about time .... I think the global take over of open source software has to be led by cross platform software like open office. Once everyone sees that it is (almost) as good as M$ office but free it will start the ball rolling. Especially in business environments. I also think it needs a better public face, if it had a Richard Branson (or Dr Who!) behind it I think it would go places.
but when kids at school throught to pensioners at colleges have M$ word rammend down there throats it needs something big to change the situation.
Annoyingly I am in the final (5th) year of my OU computing degree and of the 10 modules I will of studied I would not of been able to complete any if I had not been running an M$ O/S
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By 2011 i bet most people will be using it...sadly. As the tools and software apps (not just the OS's) advance PC's will need to be upgraded to run them, and within next 6 months every new PC will come with it as standard...and most people and buisnesses still seem reluctant to go for non MS OS's like Linux.
Linux is making inroads, I see from Computer Active magazine that the French Parliament is about to change from Windows to Linux as their standard O/S for their MP's.
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Annoyingly I am in the final (5th) year of my OU computing degree and of the 10 modules I will of studied I would not of been able to complete any if I had not been running an M$ O/S
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So the Open University is not so open then.
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I think they want to be but there hands are tied by the material they are trying to teach eg my final course Concurrency in Distributed Systems (is as interesting as it sounds) is all about writing networked software using Java (a multiplatform language) as the object orientated language example - all well and good then they hit you with all reports etc must be submitted as M$ Word documents coupled with video clips that only play in media player. etc etc etc I suppose you could get round most problems on a Linux distro but when its 15 hours study per week and you have an allotment to dig weed etc its a bit hard.
Anyway small triumph today as I managed to get IE7 to install on my PC without having to validate my license ;D ;D ;D
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I find Open Office pretty good, but don't we really need an Outlook competitor? So much is done by e-mail nowadays.
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mozilla
thunderbird for email
sunbird for diary/calender
firefox for browser
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Individually good programs ( I use FireFox), but I thought they didn't yet integrate diary, e-mail and contacts nor work with OpenOffice the way Outlook does with MS Office.
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Individually good programs ( I use FireFox), but I thought they didn't yet integrate diary, e-mail and contacts nor work with OpenOffice the way Outlook does with MS Office.
There are several programs (for free) which do the email and calendar/contacts etc. in the Linux field. Evolution and Kontact to name but two, although I am still using Digita Organiser which runs under Win Emulator (Wine), I have been using this since my Amiga days and through Windows 3.1 to XP.
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and about time .... I think the global take over of open source software has to be led by cross platform software like open office. Once everyone sees that it is (almost) as good as M$ office but free it will start the ball rolling. Especially in business environments. I also think it needs a better public face, if it had a Richard Branson (or Dr Who!) behind it I think it would go places.
but when kids at school throught to pensioners at colleges have M$ word rammend down there throats it needs something big to change the situation.
Annoyingly I am in the final (5th) year of my OU computing degree and of the 10 modules I will of studied I would not of been able to complete any if I had not been running an M$ O/S
Glow - I always end up finishing tmas on deadline day. SO, there I am, writing 1500 words plus for an eca and Word says **** you and freezes. Bloomin whatsits. Anyway, I installed Open Office and managed to complete ECA in time. This year, started courses, tried Word again - it said again **** you. Back to Open Office.
Anyway, my shiny Vista computer - was reading horror stories with regards to Office versions. I still not installed MS Office on reading a list of Vista-compatible software somewhere on wiki. I did however, install Open Office which Vista seems happy with. Good news is that FirstClass and the Java Netbeans thing works.
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Ive been using Open Office since version 2 and Im really happy with it. Except for the graphic quality of pie charts etc
RE: OU tmas love them exams hate them - I have plotted my degree to take me via the exam room only twice
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Office 2007 is great though, especially if you can get it for Edu prices. Some don't like the new 'ribbon', but I think it's great; really intuitive.
One Note 2007 is just about my favourite Office application of all time. I couldn't live without it now.