copemech Posted May 11, 2008 Report Share Posted May 11, 2008 Well, I want to inquire again with the local geeks if they are running it? Seems the SP1 is out and all. And the ones selling it say everything is ok? With few exceptions, everything has it anyway, but I understand some manufacturers are offering retro disks for XP? Long story short, I gotta buy a lappie for the daughter. Hell, I don't even have a lappie! I have this old P4 1.4G, 256meg in the shed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomant Posted May 11, 2008 Report Share Posted May 11, 2008 Well, I want to inquire again with the local geeks if they are running it?Seems the SP1 is out and all. And the ones selling it say everything is ok? With few exceptions, everything has it anyway, but I understand some manufacturers are offering retro disks for XP? Long story short, I gotta buy a lappie for the daughter. Hell, I don't even have a lappie! I have this old P4 1.4G, 256meg in the shed! It's debatable whether Vista is OK although it does depend on what you use it for. Unfortunately though, Microsoft has stopped issuing new licences for XP for computer suppliers from Jan this year trying to bully people into buying something they don't want, namely Vista. (although you can get licences from 3rd party outlets) A poll by US market research firm Harris Interactive found that only 10% of those questioned were planning to upgrade to Vista in the near future. (Reference Link). People are generally happy with XP and don't want Vista! For businesses it will cost a small fortune to upgrade for no apparent benefits. MS Office 2007 is a total croc of sh** for sure. Office 2003 is much better although you can get a free office package which is compatible with MS products called OfficeOrg from Sun Systems. Get it here. Click Link Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neonsurge Posted May 11, 2008 Report Share Posted May 11, 2008 Without going into too much detail, Microsoft do seem to have dropped the ball with Vista. They made the mistake of giving their customers what they were asking for. Remember that episode of The Simpsons where Homer designs a "car for the people"? Same thing. The bottom line is that it's bloated, slow and extremely memory-hungry and unless you have a reasonably fast machine with at least 2Gb of RAM and a meaty graphics card you're going to be spending a lot of time swearing. You can spend several fun-packed hours disabling all the stuff that no-one really needs in order to persuade your applications to run at an acceptable speed but really, life's too short. Like AA says, see if you can snag a copy of XP: I think Microsoft have extended the availability period so it shouldn't be too much of a problem. If you're feeling brave, the latest version of Ubuntu (Hardy Heron) is actually very usable as a desktop OS (but trialscentral.com looks like crap in Firefox 3 Beta 1 which is installed with Ubuntu by default - looks like you've got some font substitution issues in the default TC stylesheet fellas ) Office 2007 is actually very good with some really cool new features such a the MSOXML file format and save as PDF but it's got a steep learning curve from previous versions due to the completely redesigned user interface. Open Office is OK but there are still some binary-level compatibility issues with MS Office and obviously no .NET integration (which blows it for me) but it's fine for most things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted May 12, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 12, 2008 Some good thoughts there, guys! And although I am somewhat behind the curve now(as I had built many of my own since the 286), I'm still more of a hardware/ compared to software fellow. Knoe naut about lappies! But I think I found her a decent thingie at a reasonable cost(not made of money either)! Wot she wanted was a pink Dell 17" lunker because of the 10key and the color! Got somewhat costly when reasonably equipped, and bulky! So, in a more practicle sense, I think I got a pretty good deal on a much smaller unit, an HP 14.1 widescreen running an AMD dual core processor at 2.1g, and with 3g of ram and a dual layer DVD burner with lightscribe. Has all the other crap too, including webcam, all for $600,(i like the built in card reader for sd) and weighs about 5lb. Tolerable! Unfortunately it is black, and she almost cried when I gave it to her today, untill she turned it on, then she got better, I think she just wants a pink backpack now? Oh, I did give her a pink wireless mouse to go with it, and as I understand her presumed need for a 10key pad, I think you can get them? Came with the Vista, of course, which I still have to ck to be sure has the SP1! Oh well, the first deed is done! On the software side, this is another issue with the thing! She says she needs the 'full meal deal', meaning Word, Excel and Powerpoint at a minimum, for her university studies in marine science and marine biology, which will hopefully lead to something? I personally have never needed more than my old version ov Works with Word, never needed to create a PPS file! Only sent them on to (close) friends! Don't ask! More later! Cheers! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telecat Posted May 12, 2008 Report Share Posted May 12, 2008 The Bottom line is that Hp, Dell and many other makers are still offering PC's with XP. In Fact when Vista came out Dell dropped XP except for a few low end products. It's NOW available across the range again. Vista does not have a "killer" reason to switch. XP promised Better performance over Win2K and also better USB support. On the other hand Vista has lost functionality due to security issues with some "older" hardware and is far too "feature rich" to run on the current PC's. A bad combination. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tt5th Posted May 12, 2008 Report Share Posted May 12, 2008 I'm not sure if this will apply to your daughter but the university I've being studying at put me onto some deal with Microsoft to get the full Office package for about Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted May 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 13, 2008 More good points! As per Neon, yes, it did come with a graphics card, no no dog here, as it does seem to run quite well considering! I came home today to find hew wacking away at it, maybe with a bit of homework in between, the typical stuff these kids doo now, myspace, facebook! Nuts! The lot! I did get a chanch to download the Open Office software just to ck it out today. My brief opening of each application seemed to indicate that most everything is there, yet somewhat sparse by intention. Seems to be a broad file format list of compatability. Not quit sure about about the need for .NET integration comment by Neon, but doubt that is an issue. As there may well be some offerings for students as per Tt5th, so I may well wait! The Home and Student edition of Office is $175 in the stores, and a view of the comparison card in the store showed no difference between MSO standard other than the lack of Outlook, which I consider to be a blessing and a curse, and could live without! As I run Outlook for no other reason than to back up old e-mails for referance and deal with those pain in the butt"contact us" things. I can see where saving as PDF could be advantagious on '07, One does have to change with the times, it WILL happen! The kids learn quickly! Friggin nuts! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted May 19, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 As an update, took me all friggin afternoon to get the SP1 update done and run the backup disks for the unit! Friggin bulky ! Not to mention it did not like the Sony dvd-r discs, second time I tried to use them in two different drives with same results, after waiting an eternity, they would not ck out, a trip down to the local drug shop and 3 DVD+R's for $2 fixed it! What a pain! Getting the I-tunes files over from her other computer was another issue! Can they make things a bit more difficult! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dabnabit Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 Vista is a bloated pig, resource hog! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomant Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 I'm of the opinion that I can just about put up with the problems associated with Windows XP & Office 2003 - as long as they keep the security updates coming, I can't see a need to change this set-up. So I have no need for Vista and cant ever see a reason why I would. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neonsurge Posted May 19, 2008 Report Share Posted May 19, 2008 So I have no need for Vista and cant ever see a reason why I would. Halo 2. Bioshock. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted May 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 I'm of the opinion that I can just about put up with the problems associated with Windows XP & Office 2003 - as long as they keep the security updates coming, I can't see a need to change this set-up. So I have no need for Vista and cant ever see a reason why I would. Roumour is no more support after the end of the year? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
copemech Posted May 20, 2008 Author Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 Halo 2. Bioshock. I tried for a while to keep up with the demanding hardware requirements of games, specifically, trying to get MS Flight Sim to run and work properly, and over the years I gave up! In a way, I think this was a plus, as if the daughter did not have this stuff, or other things like the X-box, she would find more constructive outlets than sitting in front of them. And she did. Oh yes , they still do their other things on the computer, including the Myspace, but not playing games. They get exercise doing the gymnastics, which is good! After Christmas, the first real game showed up here, as one of her friends brought over the Wii and has been here since. I suppose the kids coming to play on the guitar an Fri. or Sat. eves here is good, beats them running around where they should not! I just let them crank up the stereo and big TV and let them go, fun to watch really, as they have a good time, safely! But I must admit the Wii is somewhat amazing and from what I have seen, the others are too. Does'nt Halo 2 run on a game platform as well? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
atomant Posted May 20, 2008 Report Share Posted May 20, 2008 Roumour is no more support after the end of the year? Yes, thats the thing - we will be bullied into getting Vista when we dont want it. And then what comes after Vista.. Vista needs more power from the PC therefore hardware upgrades as well as server and software upgrades. all for no REAL benefit!!! I reckon Microsoft will keep supporting XP for a while yet in relation to security updates as I think with the current world financial climate, there isn't the appetitive or the money to upgrade to vista right now. Forcing people to upgrade right now wouldn't be the smartest move me thinks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
telecat Posted May 21, 2008 Report Share Posted May 21, 2008 Given HP and Dell are pressurising Microsoft to continue support for XP I don't see support for the product being dropped soon. Vista take up isn't going as well as MS had hoped despite the noises coming from Albuquerque. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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