Users fight to save Windows XP

[gerryh]

Have been running Vista on 2 new laptops....no problems to speak of...in fact my wife ( who HATES upgrading) prefers it over XP...... be that as it may...I have 5 machines that are not capable of handling Vista for hardware reasons. Am I worried...nope....why should I? Support for XP will continue till at least 2014... that's 6 years away still. I will be VERY surprised if I'm not having to upgrade hardware by then.


As for the comments that Microsoft is ripping us off by "requiring" us to "upgrade"...what a load of hogwash. You don't HAVE to upgrade because there is a new OS available anymore than you HAVE to buy a new vehicle because GM brought out a "new and improved" model.:roll:

Xp cost about 250 dollars to buy...it came out, what, 2002? That's a total of 12 years.. that's a little over 20 dollars a year for your operating system.:roll:

I don't use Apple..... but I bet it is the same thing with apple and their operating systems.

As for Linux.... how many flavours are there? How many upgrades? How many "fixes" per year? How "user friendly" is it?


Nothing of importance to whine about?

 

[johai]

Just a few little details.
1. Computer stores are selling computers with a free downgrade to XP from Vista
2, As of today you can still buy XP ($250.00) and nobody is offering any discounts because XP is going to be an orphan in June.
3. Linux is getting more user-friendly all the time. http://www.ubuntu.com/news/MostUserFriendlyAward
4.

Well if one added another $300.00 to the XP price you would have a complete Ubuntu system. Monitor extra at your discretion. I have a 17" ACER LCD. Any where from $150-200.
No problems as of today.
Later, Johai

 

[gerryh]

How about 850 canadian for a new laptop with 17" LCD, 250 gig HD, 2 gig memory, built in cam, Vista Premium. Sorry... your price of 550 for a linux system WITHOUT a monitor is no big steal.

 

[johai]

How about 850 canadian for a new laptop with 17" LCD, 250 gig HD, 2 gig memory, built in cam, Vista Premium. Sorry... your price of 550 for a linux system WITHOUT a monitor is no big steal.

Financially you have made your point but it will still be Microsoft/Vista and eventually more disks to buy. I will not have that burden nor anyone else that goes to Ubuntu.
Let's agree to disagree.
Respectfully,
Johai

 

[johai]

Have been running Vista on 2 new laptops....no problems to speak of...in fact my wife ( who HATES upgrading) prefers it over XP...... be that as it may...I have 5 machines that are not capable of handling Vista for hardware reasons. Am I worried...nope....why should I? Support for XP will continue till at least 2014... that's 6 years away still. I will be VERY surprised if I'm not having to upgrade hardware by then.


As for the comments that Microsoft is ripping us off by "requiring" us to "upgrade"...what a load of hogwash. You don't HAVE to upgrade because there is a new OS available anymore than you HAVE to buy a new vehicle because GM brought out a "new and improved" model.:roll:

Xp cost about 250 dollars to buy...it came out, what, 2002? That's a total of 12 years.. that's a little over 20 dollars a year for your operating system.:roll:

I don't use Apple..... but I bet it is the same thing with apple and their operating systems.

As for Linux.... how many flavours are there? How many upgrades? How many "fixes" per year? How "user friendly" is it?


Nothing of importance to whine about?

Gerry.
You strike me as being someone who is willing to listen or give something an honest try. If Canonical has names it's for a reason and followed by dates, i.e., Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 or Heddy Heron 8.04 . Fixes, if any, are rectified a lot more quickly because you don't have to call anyone and besides there is always someone watching and an upgrade is sent to you via the net at no cost and no unnecessary waste of your time and more disks to buy to address the fixes.
You strike me as being computer savvy therefore you would find it very "user friendly".
Gerry, in all honesty I think you are trying to talk yourself out of something. But I am probably wrong.
Good computing to you.
Regards,
Johai

 

[#juan]

Quoting gerryh How about 850 canadian for a new laptop with 17" LCD, 250 gig HD, 2 gig memory, built in cam, Vista Premium. Sorry... your price of 550 for a linux system WITHOUT a monitor is no big steal.
​

Financially you have made your point but it will still be Microsoft/Vista and eventually more disks to buy. I will not have that burden nor anyone else that goes to Ubuntu.

I just bought a new 22" LCD monitor for $249.00. I have a 17"CRT monitor that is now extra. I'm getting to the point where I can have another computer for Linux. My last "extra" computer I gave to my daughter.
Anyway, my point is that $550 plus $250 for a monitor would still be cheaper than the system that Gerry quoted but with a 22" monitor.

 

[johai]

Gerry.
You strike me as being someone who is willing to listen or give something an honest try. If Canonical has names it's for a reason and followed by dates, i.e., Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 or Heddy Heron 8.04 . Fixes, if any, are rectified a lot more quickly because you don't have to call anyone and besides there is always someone watching and an upgrade is sent to you via the net at no cost and no unnecessary waste of your time and more disks to buy to address the fixes.
You strike me as being computer savvy therefore you would find it very "user friendly".
Gerry, in all honesty I think you are trying to talk yourself out of something. But I am probably wrong.
Good computing to you.
Regards,
Johai

Oh and Gerry I forgot to tell you that there is a 575 page printable manual embedded in the system that is updated regularly. It is in colour, gives page examples etc., no need to call anyone. What would a manual of that size cost from Microsoft?
Sweet Dreams
Your Friend,
Johai

 

[gerryh]

except...the system I quoted was a laptop with all the bell's and whistles....A desktop is a lot cheaper.... the point is, taken over the long run, Windows is not that much more expensive than the open source Linux. Ubuntu is up to version 7.01, therefore it is the same as any other OS in that you need to make regular upgrades and install patches if you want to keep up with the latest and greatest. Being open source allows the user a small savings over the long run in software.

Also note, that the difference in cost between a machine with an OS and one without is not that significant, so the $250 price is not really accurate, because it is a lot less than that if you bought it preinstalled on your machine.



Microsoft HAS to upgrade their software. They make their money selling software, a consumable. If the software was never obsoleted then Microsoft would be out of business and we would still be running x86 machines with 640kb memory. Considering the software that MS is making has a 12 year support lifespan, we as consumers don't have a lot to complain about.

Go buy yourself a decent BBQ...how much you gonna spend? How long is it realistically going to last? How about a car?

 

[gerryh]

Gerry.
You strike me as being someone who is willing to listen or give something an honest try. If Canonical has names it's for a reason and followed by dates, i.e., Gutsy Gibbon 7.10 or Heddy Heron 8.04 . Fixes, if any, are rectified a lot more quickly because you don't have to call anyone and besides there is always someone watching and an upgrade is sent to you via the net at no cost and no unnecessary waste of your time and more disks to buy to address the fixes.
You strike me as being computer savvy therefore you would find it very "user friendly".
Gerry, in all honesty I think you are trying to talk yourself out of something. But I am probably wrong.
Good computing to you.
Regards,
Johai

I must admit that I have not looked at ubuntu. Can';t remember the name of the last linux flavour that I DL'd and tried on my machines, it was about 2 years ago . It was turfed after about a week of not being able to find suitable drivers for all my hardware.

There are over 32 ubuntu linux flavours alone. As of 2002 there were over 100 different linux flavours. I shudder to think how many there are now.

 

[johai]

except...the system I quoted was a laptop with all the bell's and whistles....A desktop is a lot cheaper.... the point is, taken over the long run, Windows is not that much more expensive than the open source Linux. Ubuntu is up to version 7.01, therefore it is the same as any other OS in that you need to make regular upgrades and install patches if you want to keep up with the latest and greatest. Being open source allows the user a small savings over the long run in software.

Also note, that the difference in cost between a machine with an OS and one without is not that significant, so the $250 price is not really accurate, because it is a lot less than that if you bought it preinstalled on your machine.



Microsoft HAS to upgrade their software. They make their money selling software, a consumable. If the software was never obsoleted then Microsoft would be out of business and we would still be running x86 machines with 640kb memory. Considering the software that MS is making has a 12 year support lifespan, we as consumers don't have a lot to complain about.

Go buy yourself a decent BBQ...how much you gonna spend? How long is it realistically going to last? How about a car?

Gerry,
I have a pre-installed BBQ in my kitchen, so much for that. Sorry that I didn't get back to you sooner because I have 12 desks running right now and trying to keep topics in line. Maybe I'll add the other 20 and print out where I am at any given time and the topic. I think that avoidance has become the issue here. As a consumer why would you support a billionaire who is trying to sabotage Java so that Linux has to re-adjust.
Lots of luck down the road.
I'll just renew my computer every six months without leaving my house or having to buy a new bookcase for all those extra disks.
Like a lot of things tend to do this will all become clear in the wee hours of the morning.
Let common sense and respect for the other prevail.
Johai

 

[MikeyDB]

The best Windows ever written was Windows 3.11

Mind you, Microsoft and the morons in Redmond haven't written decent source code ever....

I keep getting "updates"....which are actually of course patches for poorly written security code...

But hey...if it's good enough for the Pentagon and the House of Commons....

 

[gerryh]

The best Windows ever written was Windows 3.11

Mind you, Microsoft and the morons in Redmond haven't written decent source code ever....

I keep getting "updates"....which are actually of course patches for poorly written security code...

But hey...if it's good enough for the Pentagon and the House of Commons....

windows 3.11 was fine if you wanted a task switcher...desqview did just as good a job. OS2 was FAR superior as an operating system.

 

[MikeyDB]

gerryh

Might have been...but I was writing code for Novel and doing network installations and found OS2 a little cumbersome...but hey that's just me..

 

[gerryh]

gerryh

Might have been...but I was writing code for Novel and doing network installations and found OS2 a little cumbersome...but hey that's just me..

and novel was not a desktop aplication, it was a server OS. How about we compare apples to apples.

 

[MikeyDB]

Oh gosh gerry for a momen there I thought we were going to have a conversation....

Novel was a NETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM..... not a desktop application yes, but when you write code for an OPERATING SYSTEM....(Think Windows here or any other OPERATING SYSTEM..... one writes for the user interface..... Back then it was mostly DOS but when Windows 3.11 came around...AN OPERATING SYSTEM... it made record and file locking easier and made a few other things easier and transparent to the end user...

Keep YER FKN APPLES and ORANGES...

Go talk to ayone else....

 

[gerryh]

Oh gosh gerry for a momen there I thought we were going to have a conversation....

Novel was a NETWORK OPERATING SYSTEM..... not a desktop application yes, but when you write code for an OPERATING SYSTEM....(Think Windows here or any other OPERATING SYSTEM..... one writes for the user interface..... Back then it was mostly DOS but when Windows 3.11 came around...AN OPERATING SYSTEM... it made record and file locking easier and made a few other things easier and transparent to the end user...

Keep YER FKN APPLES and ORANGES...

Go talk to ayone else....

We gonna get technical here???? Windows 3.11 was basically a gui sitting on top of DOS 6.. NOT a true operating system on it's own.


Novel was a peice of **** untill Novel 5 and by then it was damn near dead in the water.

 

[Praxius]

eh???

As per PM, you claimed you never had any problems with XP.... I know I certianly have. But then again I also do a lot of graphically and CPU intensive things with my computers. I'm a slave driver when it comes to computers as I tend to make them do three or four things at once.

 

[Nuggler]

Sorry to hear that Praxius; I just use my computer to research music, download and print out same, e.mailing, CC, reading blogs, history, and other simple tasks. Me puter is not overly stressed.

I know, simple is as simple does; so for me, XP does it good.

Just not looking forward to having to change again to some other money sucking venue.

8O

 

[Praxius]

Have been running Vista on 2 new laptops....no problems to speak of...in fact my wife ( who HATES upgrading) prefers it over XP...... be that as it may...I have 5 machines that are not capable of handling Vista for hardware reasons. Am I worried...nope....why should I? Support for XP will continue till at least 2014... that's 6 years away still. I will be VERY surprised if I'm not having to upgrade hardware by then.

True, I used my mom's new laptop with Vista (My only real experience with it, besides one other laptop once a few months ago) but I didn't have any issues with it. Worked smoothly, didn't seem to take too long to open things up, there were a few new features that were interesting, some missing that I used to like.

A lot of people claimed Vista got all Macified with it's looks and function, but I've used the last 4 Mac OS's before and although I seem some similarities, Vista is still not as Fisher Price as Mac is when it comes to doing what you want.

I find macs treat you kinda like an idiot, but with style and when something screws up, it just smiles at you with that piano ding noise and doesn't really tell you what happened.

As for the comments that Microsoft is ripping us off by "requiring" us to "upgrade"...what a load of hogwash. You don't HAVE to upgrade because there is a new OS available anymore than you HAVE to buy a new vehicle because GM brought out a "new and improved" model.:roll:

Xp cost about 250 dollars to buy...it came out, what, 2002? That's a total of 12 years.. that's a little over 20 dollars a year for your operating system.:roll:

Yeah I never got it either. Those who complain drastically about a program 6 years old.... I dunno... I'd hate to see what they're like when a video game keeps coming out each year.

Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Unreal 2, UT 2003, UT 2004, Unreal 3.....

Or how about Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 2 Turbo, Street Fighter 2 Champion Edition, Super Street Fighter 2, Street Fighter 2 Alpha (I swear they don't know how to count)

I don't use Apple..... but I bet it is the same thing with apple and their operating systems.

Yeah when Panther came out, a lot of things I used at work on OS 9.2 or whatever just didn't work, they added a bunch of flashy and graphically intense features which were just as useless as things some would complain about on XP or Vista....

Heck, then you have Photoshop, or Word Perfect, or Norton Anti Virus, or any other program that updates year after year and you are always recomended to upgrade.

Hell with Norton alone, they're nazis when it comes to buying their stuff. Microsoft seems at least balanced that you don't have to keep paying for your program each year in order to keep using it.

As for Linux.... how many flavours are there? How many upgrades? How many "fixes" per year? How "user friendly" is it?

I tried a couple of times to install a Linux OS but each time it was either too much of a pain in the ass to setup, or when I finally got it up and running, I didn't know wtf I was doing and seemed more limited then Mac or PC. Then I had to start running around the internet to find programs that work for it that were similar to what I was used to, or at least would let me do what I was used to on XP....... to me, although it was free, it was still just too much hassel.

 

[Walter]

As Woodrow Wilson quipped, "If you want to make enemies, change something."