Computer Woes

[xylothrill]

Does anyone else find XP to be painfully slow to boot up?  I have noticed this on all the pcs I have ever used with it.  How does the osx compare? 

OS X Is a lot faster to boot than Vista and I hear Vista is even slower than XP. . OS X is a lot faster to install as well.

 

[Satya]

OS X Is a lot faster to boot than Vista and I hear Vista is even slower than XP. . OS X is a lot faster to install as well.

That's good to know.  Of course, the faster processors are faster, but Linux loads faster than XP on the same machine.

[lex_rooker]

And, um, I was only joking about the "real men" comment.

That's nothing.  You should here the comments I get when people see my needle point.  At times I felt like calling on Rosey Greer (another famous needle pointer) to defend my honor.    Don't do it much anymore.  Most of my work is in petty point which is about 500 stitches to the square inch.  After age 50 it became a strain to see stuff that small.

Lex

[xylothrill]

That's nothing.  You should here the comments I get when people see my needle point.  At times I felt like calling on Rosey Greer (another famous needle pointer) to defend my honor.    Don't do it much anymore.  Most of my work is in petty point which is about 500 stitches to the square inch.  After age 50 it became a strain to see stuff that small.

Lex

Good for you! Most so-called "real men" would be too embarrassed to admit something like that. You like creating thing so what difference does it make if it's a needle point or hard-core dehydrator? I'm suddenly reminded of The Bear talking about his ballet days. :-) I think any kind of art or dance is Paleo. Traditional peoples still do both, male or female.

Craig

[xylothrill]

That's good to know.  Of course, the faster processors are faster, but Linux loads faster than XP on the same machine.

I had OS X and Vista on the same machine. I think one of the reasons OS X is faster is because it's core is BSD Unix and as you mentioned, their hardware and software are virtually inseparable, acting as one. I had never had the OS crash, only a program once in a while.

I'm really liking this linux. All I really need is internet apps. I like this Rythmbox music player. It's just like iTunes but it won't support my iPhone. Linux will only see my iPhone as a camera and I can get pics off it but not sync music. So, iTunes is the only thing I need on windows so I've kept a windows partition until I can figure out a hack or program to take care of that.

Craig

[lex_rooker]

iPhone huh,  I'm a little more than annoyed with Apple for not releasing the iphone to the CDMA world.  I have Sprint and my Company used Verison so even though as a retiree, I can get a great deal with Verizon the iphone only works on the GMS networks.  Oh well, I probably need a new computer first anyway.  My desk top PC was home built about 3 years ago and is beginning to grow long in tooth.  The cooling fan rattles and it's a bit slow.  If you ever saw the movie "12 Angry Men" there is a fan in the jury room that sounds just like my PC....

Lex

[xylothrill]

Apple only went with AT&T because Apple wanted complete control over the advertising, pricing, and promotion of it. AT&T was the only one to agree. The other networks have knock-offs now but the iPhone really is the cream of the crop.

Apple is known for quality so they'd rather have control than to release it to any company that doesn't agree to their terms. In a way it's good but in a way, it's bad.

I used to have Sprint but I either had no service or I was roaming. Finally, I had to set it to permanently roam. Still, they insisted they had towers in the area and I was in their service range. I wasn't too happy with their service. I finally decieded to switch when my razr's screen would work when it wanted to. None of this was a good enough reason to break my contract and if I was going to have to buy a new phone, it was going to be an iPhone.

As for the cooling fan, macs run so cool, they don't need them. At least my mac mini didn't and the laptops and iMacs don't. I'm not sure about the Mac Pros. They might need fans.

Craig

[xylothrill]

Well, I've gotten an external usb hard drive for the Mac Mini. Now I have three OS's to choose from.

Mac comes with X11 so you can run linux apps, even KDE and Gnome themselves. All you'll need are the libraries compiled for Darwin. Those apps will look different but they'll run.

[lex_rooker]

My old Epson Perfection 2450 scanner died so I used the opportunity to get a new one.  After looking at what I really need to do most of the time the choice came down to the Epson V500 or the Canon 8800F.  I finally decided on the Canon and what a great little scanner it is.  It can make multi page PDFs as you scan the documents.  After each scan it asks if you want to add another page to the PDF.  When you say "yes" it prompts for you to scan the next page, when you say "no" it completes the PDF and places it in a folder on your hard drive.  Now this is the way computers should work.

Lex

[xylothrill]

My old Epson Perfection 2450 scanner died so I used the opportunity to get a new one.  After looking at what I really need to do most of the time the choice came down to the Epson V500 or the Canon 8800F.  I finally decided on the Canon and what a great little scanner it is.  It can make multi page PDFs as you scan the documents.  After each scan it asks if you want to add another page to the PDF.  When you say "yes" it prompts for you to scan the next page, when you say "no" it completes the PDF and places it in a folder on your hard drive.  Now this is the way computers should work.

Lex

That's exactly how my Epson Stylus Photo RX620 was under Mac OS X. Have you gotten your Mac yet? I haven't tried it under Linux yet. I'm really getting used to this Linux. I've decided to ditch Kubuntu, which uses KDE and go with Ubuntu, which uses Gnome. It just seems more intuitive to me. It seems that Mac users gravitate toward Gnome and Windows users prefer KDE. There are exceptions, of course.

I have a theme going that I like pretty much.I like the little things such as the text box you see up top next to the book. It's a dictionary. I just enter texts, press enter and I have my definition!

Here's a pic of my desktop, which is ironic because I've usually been turned off by the darker themes.

[goodsamaritan]

Nice looking desktop, Craig.
I've been a linux user since 1998 (I'm a network administrator)
I installed Ubuntu on the computers of my employees.
Did you get Ubuntu pre-installed on your computer?

[xylothrill]

Nice looking desktop, Craig.
I've been a linux user since 1998 (I'm a network administrator)
I installed Ubuntu on the computers of my employees.
Did you get Ubuntu pre-installed on your computer?

Edwin,
No, I had to pay hidden royalties for the Vista that came with it. I installed Ubuntu and made it a dual boot system. You can't just go out and by computers pre-loaded with Linux over here - at least not in my area. You usually will have to order them. Satya suggested a site where you can build your own computer without an OS.

I love the repositories! Everything in one spot and installation at the touch of a button. Automatic updates are awesome too. The last two updates increased my start-up and application launch times!

I tried Linux back in the nineties also but found the web browsers incompatible with many web features. Today, that's not the case at all. I can get any kind of browser plug-in that's offered on Mac or Windows and have yet to experience a non-viewable element of a webpage.

Plug and Play wasn't available ten years ago. Now, I plug in my iPhone and it asks me if I want to download new photos.

The forums are full of power-users who make it seem like you need to use the terminal because that's what they know and are used to. The average person won't need to use the terminal but it's nice to know the power is there if you need it. The ONLY thing I need my Mac or Windows for is to sync my iPhone. There are hacks to enable gtkpod to get into the songs on my phone but I choose not to do it. The iPhone is based on OS X and therefore is UNIX. It'd be great if I could install Linux on my iPhone, having it retain its functionality and be able to sync it with Ubuntu but that would probably take time and I haven't read of any plans of that sort. Although, I have read about a couple of Linux powered touch phones out there.

May I see a pic of your Linux desktop? Do you use any other operating systems? The graphic manipulation program you suggested to Nicola was for Windows, wasn't it?

Craig

[xylothrill]

Satya too!

May I see your Linux desktop too, so long as it shows no personal, identifying features?

Craig

[lex_rooker]

Craig,
Based on your's and others success with Ubuntu I'm rethinking my strategy.  I'm leaning towards keeping my current desktop running Windows XP Pro for the heavy duty stuff, but getting an ultra portable PC like the Fujitsu P series, Sony TZ series etc and loading Linux.  From what I've read, finger print scanners and other high security stuff don't work but that's no biggie for me.  The idea is for a small portable pc with great battery life for doing e-mail, checking forums, light word processing, paying bills and watching the occasional DVD.  PhotoShop, and other big ticket items would remain on the desktop.

The only thing I'd need to make sure is that my Sierra Wireless 595 card is supported and that the computer has a supported PCMCIA cardbuss slot to plug it into.

Any ideas here?

[goodsamaritan]

My office desktop is the boring generic install.
I'm not too keen on customizing my own look.

[goodsamaritan]

For those who use Linux and from time to time need to use some windows specific programs or gadgets, I have good experiences with VMWARE.
If you are a little tech minded, you can install a 10Gig or 20gig windows install and make it into a vmware appliance.

I regularly run windows xp under my Ubuntu to use the scanner software Epson 660 because the windows driver has a descreen option.

I also do this for my employee because our accounting software subscription in quickbooks online requires windows internet explorer.

See http://www.vmware.com/products/player/

This also works for the opposite, if you have windows and want to try out different linux flavors.

[lex_rooker]

Edwin,
Do you have any advice on installing Ubuntu on something like a Fujitsu P8010.  This little pc is not cheap but it has a PCMCIA slot (for my Sprint wireless card), a reasonably sized hard drive, and pretty good battery life.  It seems a good fit assuming I can find drivers for the Sprint card.  I can't find anything on the web regarding putting any flavor of Linux on it.  Help in knowing what to look for would be appreciated.

Lex

[goodsamaritan]

You can visit http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Download an Ubuntu CD or request for a free one by mail.
Pop in the Ubuntu CD on your CDROM drive and boot your computer using the Ubuntu CDROM drive.
Ubuntu comes in a LIVE CD, you can run and test drive Ubuntu if it works on your PC in that one little CD.

You can also conveniently try Ubuntu via VMWARE.
I will assume you have windowsXP or Vista.
Download the VMWARE Player for windows at http://www.vmware.com/products/player/
Install VMWARE player.

Download an ubuntu vmware appliance (installed image) to test ubuntu under windows.
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/1232
Unpack in a directory and run ubuntu via vmware under windows.

Enjoy.

[xylothrill]

You can visit http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu

Download an Ubuntu CD or request for a free one by mail.
Pop in the Ubuntu CD on your CDROM drive and boot your computer using the Ubuntu CDROM drive.
Ubuntu comes in a LIVE CD, you can run and test drive Ubuntu if it works on your PC in that one little CD.

I agree that a live CD would be the best way to test for compatibility. If you haven't bought it yet, take the CD and your sprint wireless card with you and ask if you can test it. In the upper right corner it should list wireless networks.

If these are new computers, good luck. Ubuntu was only one of several distributions that would run on my new computer.

I'm not sure about your Sprint wireless card. The only pain with Linux now is getting new unsupported hardware to work.
Read this thread: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=454596&highlight=sprint+Wireless+595
HoolTool seems to have the easiest method if you feel like going through that.

Craig

 

[Satya]

Satya too!

May I see your Linux desktop too, so long as it shows no personal, identifying features?

Soon.  I am switching to a newer Mandriva next week.  Plus, I have a photo of my son and nephews at the lake on it presently.  Don't want to make that public.

[xylothrill]

Soon.  I am switching to a newer Mandriva next week.  Plus, I have a photo of my son and nephews at the lake on it presently.  Don't want to make that public.

Cool beans! Is that a corset you're wearing or is your waist really that small?  Tee hee (I almost wrote "waste")

Craig

[Satya]

Cool beans! Is that a corset you're wearing or is your waist really that small?  Tee hee (I almost wrote "waste")

No, it's a denim halter top.  My waist only looks small in comparison to my hips.

[xylothrill]

My office desktop is the boring generic install.
I'm not too keen on customizing my own look.

That's the default mine came with. Sadly, some people pick a distribution based on the default look.
In the forums, you hear people recommending Beryl, Emerald, Compiz-fusion... making it sound complicated. There are GTK2 themes. All I had to do was download the Moomex theme, drag it to the appearance window, choose it, choose some colors and poof! My new customized desktop. I swear it took less than a minute once I found a theme I liked.
The background of the green anole, I just chose to set as background when viewing it in my browser.

I've been thinking about taking some network administration classes. The economy sucks right now and since I'm a tipped employee, it's reflected in my tips. I don't think I could afford to go part-time and pay for school. At work, they have a windows server and network. They have problems all the time with the administrators having had to work overnight in at least one case I'm aware of.

Craig

[xylothrill]

No, it's a denim halter top.  My waist only looks small in comparison to my hips.

Typical woman! "My waist isn't small, my hips are big." You have a figure many would envy! You're definetly NOT a pear-shaped person! :-) It's more like an hourglass. Your sculpted back sliming down to your waist and rounding back out at your hips. That's what I see. And I'm not just saying that because you're HOT!

Craig

[Satya]

Typical woman! "My waist isn't small, my hips are big." You have a figure many would envy! You're definetly NOT a pear-shaped person! :-) It's more like an hourglass. Your sculpted back sliming down to your waist and rounding back out at your hips. That's what I see. And I'm not just saying that because you're HOT!

So, you think I'm hot?    (Do I get to be a warrior at 200 posts?)