XP vs. Ubuntu

[Giant Communist Robot]

I've never been a fan of Windows, here's some reasons why:

1. With DOS, you made your own decisions. With Windows, the decisions are made for you.

2. There is an implication that you are too stupid to learn DOS.

3. Planned obsolescence.

4. Overpriced.

Last week I got the free Ubuntu Linux CD. It has counterparts for things in Windows and seems to do everything XP does. Comes with Firefox and OpenOffice. Even has some features unavailable on Windows. Nice. A small pop-up informed me there were some 170 odd updates, so I began downloading. Some didn't install correctly, and Ubuntu froze up. I had to reboot from the power button, but then the kernel was damaged and Ubuntu wouldn't boot. I had to re-install.

I've had my share of problems with Windows in the past, but now have new respect for the stability of XP.

[Shapley]

I've never been a fan of Windows, here's some reasons why:

1. With DOS, you made your own decisions. With Windows, the decisions are made for you.

2. There is an implication that you are too stupid to learn DOS.

3. Planned obsolescence.

4. Overpriced.

You forgot one:

5. DOS never pretended it could multitask.

[Giant Communist Robot]

5. DOS never pretended it could multitask

Interesting point. Ubuntu claims to be a true multitasker; I've heard Windows simulates multitasking. I don't know.

[barfle]

A few years ago, I gave bar $500 to help her buy a new laptop, and for that she gave me her old Win98 tower. It was a useful machine, but I wanted to experiment with it, since I already had my XP tower in pretty good shape.

So I downloaded Ubuntu, eventually figured out how to put it on a CD, and tried to load it on the old 98 box. I got a message that said my BIOS date was too old. I thought Linux was easy on hardware.

So I tried an old Turbo Linux program I had, and it stopped loading about the time the GUI was supposed to show up. Three times, three strikes. I've pondered getting an even simpler Linux for it, but I'm having more fun replacing leaking spigots.

[analog]

but I'm having more fun replacing leaking spigots

Ahhh yes. Reality.

A good friend from work claims his most successful ever home improvement was when he junked the family PC, bought his wife a Mac and his boys an Evinrude.

This machine was ME and i was ready to put it out of its misery.
Son In Law convinced me to try XP so we bought a OEM disk and enough secondhand memory sticks to fill the motherboard. It then became liveable if slow, seldom crashes anymore.
GC you're right about XP .
How's Vista?
Son's HP with Vista has a neat feature, holding one of the function keys (i think it was F8) at powerup restores it to condition it left HP's factory. That was nice for removing the middleman's software.

[Trumpetmaster]

. Three times, three strikes. I've pondered getting an even simpler Linux for it, but I'm having more fun replacing leaking spigots.

Sorry Barfle but after reading your post
all I can picture here is the Little Dutch boy....

[barfle]

Sometimes the old "getting a drink from a fire hose" is inadequate. Keeping up with my job and my house is a lot like getting a drink from Niagara Falls.

[BigJon@Work]

When I first saw this thread title, I thought it read XP vs. Cthulhu.

I'd have a had time choosing which was more evil, Micorsoft or the Great Old One.

[dai bread]

I've never been a fan of Windows, here's some reasons why:

1. With DOS, you made your own decisions. With Windows, the decisions are made for you.

2. There is an implication that you are too stupid to learn DOS.

3. Planned obsolescence.

4. Overpriced.

Last week I got the free Ubuntu Linux CD. It has counterparts for things in Windows and seems to do everything XP does. Comes with Firefox and OpenOffice. Even has some features unavailable on Windows. Nice. A small pop-up informed me there were some 170 odd updates, so I began downloading. Some didn't install correctly, and Ubuntu froze up. I had to reboot from the power button, but then the kernel was damaged and Ubuntu wouldn't boot. I had to re-install.

I've had my share of problems with Windows in the past, but now have new respect for the stability of XP.

XP is an excellent system. I regret not sticking with it when I bought my present computer.

[Giant Communist Robot]

XP is an excellent system. I regret not sticking with it when I bought my present computer.

Did you get Vista?

[dai bread]

Unfortunately, yes. It was the updated version with the service pack that Microsoft issued to fix what must have been a total disaster.

It seems to me that the primary function of Vista is to protect copyright come hell or high water. There are some programs I (and others) actually paid for that ran happily under XP, but won't run under Vista. Granted, they were a few years old, but that just shows that Vista's back-compatibility is close to zero. A South African souvenir screensaver is one of them. Sibelius is another.

I asked about replacing Vista, but the tech. concerned said the remedy was likely to turn out worse than the disease. In other words, grin & bear it. My next machine will be a Mac. It's a pity, actually. The computer itself is a good one. Thoughts of Linux cross my mind, but I'm not a tech. and I don't want to wreck anything.

[analog]

Don't know if Vista has this "compatibility" feature but XP does...

if i right click a program file, then in the dropdown list left click 'Properties',
there appears a tab labelled "compatibility".
Clicking that offers me a checkbox that says 'run as compatible with [a selection of past versions of Windows.] '
Selecting the oldest one offered, usually Win95, caused a few of my old DOS programs to run just fine - namely Qbasic and DCCAD , which previously bombed.

Presumably, if Vista offers you a XP compatibility option it might work.....

worth a try?

a.

[dai bread]

Not as straightforward as it might seem, analog. I looked through some of the programs and some don't have a compatiblity feature, and some have it greyed out. Still, I'll bear it in mind next time I strike trouble.

[navneeth]

Ubuntu rocks! XP... XP? What's XP?

My 2 fils. (0.002 Kuwaiti Dinars.)

[Giant Communist Robot]

Ubuntu good points:

free
similar enough to Windows to be familiar
comes with GNU Chess and Sudoku
kernel less vulnerable to attack
terminal feature for manipulation of code---this is the kind of thing that gave DOS its appeal, the operator is in control. But Ubuntu is much more complicated than DOS ever was.

Ubuntu bad points:


not as stable as Windows
not necessarily intuitive, while Microsoft has gone to a lot of work to make sure Windows is
not all plugins will work
some compatibility issues

[Giant Communist Robot]

Here's an example: I had to unpack some rar files--with Windows you download the tool and click on install. With Ubuntu you need to locate a Linux compatible rar inflator and make note of where it downloads. Then, through the terminal you give the location (sometimes) and the install command. Some commands are version specific, so the web may not be much help.