Nah, give me XP any day. Or 98 SE. Ah...those were the days...
More and more I'm being drawn to Linux though. All of the bells and whistles without the resource hogging. ~shrug~
98SE. That was THE BEST operating system ever. I ran that for a while last year on my fairly new computer. I got sick of all the new stuff, all the bells and whistles of even XP, and I just switched to 98SE for a while. It got kind of annoying though when programs wouldn't work... I rely on VLC for all my media and that doesn't work in Windows 9X, things like that, and I ended up switching away but instant boots and shutdowns... I miss that now. It's too bad that people stop supporting those old OS's. My drivers all still worked for my machine, I got Internet up and running after an awful lot of trouble, I got most things working but the program support was just not there.
Thanks for bringing back good old memories!
Matt
Heh. good memories: Commodore 64, my first computer.
Or Dos 6.22, where I cut my teeth on programming.
Or an AS/400 which I accidently shut down in the middle of class.
Now those are some classic machines/OS's.
I tried DOS at one point on a really old machine and got too frustrated. Being brought up with Windows 98 I am used to a GUI for everything and I have no knowledge of command line, and DOS was too foreign for me to handle. It was interesting for a while but I got frustrated quite quickly. I also don't like the fact that you could cripple the OS from within the OS, you could like delete it basically. I like the security built into more modern OS's, I like having control over my machine but there is such a big chance of making a mistake and I don't want to make a little mistake and delete my OS or something!
Matt
[quote="SEGMAT":2jx2h1d7] I also don't like the fact that you could cripple the OS from within the OS, you could like delete it basically. I like the security built into more modern OS's, I like having control over my machine but there is such a big chance of making a mistake and I don't want to make a little mistake and delete my OS or something!
Matt[/quote:2jx2h1d7]
Then I would stay away from Linux. You also have the ability to delete the wrong files.
One of my early experiences in DOS was deleting the COMMAND.COM file before I took a trip (for security). I planned to put it back witha startup disk, but I couldn't boot from the floppy because it got damaged during the trip. The machine had no CD ROM and I had no other recovery disks short of my Windows 95 CD ROM.
Not my most brilliant move ever. I eventually found a DOS boot disk and got it all working again, but that's the best way to learn. Dig in!
You're right that it's the best way to learn but that's only if you have time to do so. Most people need a computer that they can trust to allow them to do some things but to keep them out of what the computer knows will be damaging. That's why I enjoy Vista, and have even grown to appreciate some of the features like UAC which you very quickly get used to.
Matt
And to tie this into a different discussion, we've discovered yet another use for Virtual Machines.
Going back to one of the original topics of this thread... Cloud computing. I'm a university student and so I wanted a laptop for use in class like most other students, but I ended up getting a desktop instead because it was a great deal, it has great specs, and I always thought that a nice desktop was a good idea and that if I needed a laptop I could always pick up a cheap one somewhere and just use that for in class only.
I did some looking around for a cheap laptop today and I found one for $340 including taxes and shipping (although this is a Canadian price because I'm in Canada), it's the ASUS Eee. I'm sure that some if not most of you have heard of it... what do you think of it? The one I was looking at (maybe all of them are like this, I don't know) had a 2GB solid state hard drive, so it's designed for cloud computing. I'm thinking about getting it but I'm a little bit shy of the whole idea of cloud computing. Price isn't the issue at all, I can afford the computer, but I'm just not sure if I want to venture into the cloud yet. What do you people think, about the computer itself, and the idea of doing it right now... we had discussed the idea of having cloud computing sometime in the future, but we never really discussed doing it right now.
Matt
The EEE PC (and others like it) are essentially internet terminals. They are not designed to be used as stand alone power horses(think of it as a cross between a smart phone and an ultra light laptop). A smart phone is a great reference, good for games, and surfing the occasional internet page. An ultra light laptop is good for word processing, the occasional video, and surfing the internet.
The EE PC...I don't know. I've seen them, they look neat, but I'm not ready to spend money on them. They're not big enough to be useful computers, and they're too small to be handy organizers. They're just....there.
For now, I am sticking with conventional laptops. At least until the EEPC proves there is a niche for it to fit into.
You're right... I just think it's cheap enough and could maybe be useful in a school setting as well as give me first hand experience in the world of cloud computing. I just don't know how easy it would be to do the crossover between the cloud and my desktop which I would use at home. That could prove to be quite annoying. I guess I'm kind of leaning towards not getting it, I'm curious but I don't think I'm that curious!
Matt
I agree they are neat. Heck, I'd like to have one. They are a niche product and I could see several uses, at least for me. My problem is a carry a whole tech lab, well a 17" laptop w/ 2 hd, 3 usb drives, a variety of cables, and 1 or 2 external drives. Security gives me funny looks at the airport! The Asus might be useful while waiting to get the car worked on at the dealer, but other than that it would fall into the "toy" category for me.
Matt, I think you would be better served by a 14" or 15" laptop, but that's my .02
See, I would like a 14 or 15 inch laptop... Heck, I'd like to have a 17 inch laptop and just have a nice case to carry it with ease, but I don't have that kind of money. I looked online for the cheapest laptop there was and that's when I found this one. Other than "netbooks" the cheapest thing is around $500 (Canadian) and I can't justify spending that much money. I still love the idea of this laptop, but if I'm honest with myself it's more the toy aspect of it that I like, and I don't know if I should spend that much on a toy. The actual use I would get out of it might not be worth the money.
I'll have to see what I do, but it sure would be great to be able to report first hand on here how cloud computing is doing right now, how it is to do that kind of stuff.
Matt
One more thing that I figured I'd throw into this is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said today (Wednesday) that within the next month, there will be a new OS from Microsoft! It's not Windows 7 but an OS designed for people who create Cloud Computing applications. Someone out there (or people) are really interested in getting the ball rolling on this project and it seems to be taking off. If you want to check out the article, I'll put a link at the end of the post, but this is a positive reason for me to go out and get that laptop, and report my experiences!
Matt
http://www.pcworld.com/article/151731/a ... =nl_dnxnws
Just weighing in with my humble two cents worth -
First of all, MS Office is no more complicated than any other program running on your computer. It's all about training. Just like Dave knows how to put a computer together very easily and I can put MS Word templates together very easily. Any word processing program on your computer would have the same problems with your data, etc. being stored elsewhere. I am not a big proponent of Cloud Computing but as Dave will verify my first reaction is generally negative.
As for lawyers, my son is one and a damned fine one if I do say so myself. You can visit him at http://www.baltimoreinjurylawy.....rblog.com/. I know - I can't believe I grew a lawyer either!
Now on to Vista. I have it on my laptop and do not care for it at all. It takes forever to boot up and shut down and it always has these little reminders pestering me! I love my XP!
Nobody brought it up, but Office 2007 is not one of my favorites either. There are some very cool aspects to it but in my opinion they have "dumbed it down" for folks who want someone to do the work for them. I hate that you cannot customize it the way you could with 2003 with toolbars and macro buttons on the toolsbars, etc. To me it looks like they tried to create another WordPerfect.
Ok, that's my two cents worth - maybe four!
1 Guest(s)
