Do Not Make This Mistake!

This will seem a strange post, no matter where I post it but the reason for it is educational. It is my prayer that it will help some not to make the leap from the frying pan into the fire.


Being a self taught IT and Computer Builder, I have, over the years gained a good deal of experience with Microsoft and Linux Operating systems. When Bill Gates pilfered Mr. Jobs for the MSDOS it was a blow struck for the common man and in that spirit Mr. Gate piloted his ship, the USS Microsoft into untested waters and emerged with the Windows 95 operating system, an adventure that terminated with the very best OS ever to leave the port in Redmond, Washington.


Since that time Bill no longer pilots the Microsoft Vessel and they have shipped two colossal mistakes from the Microsoft docks, Vista and the never finished Windows 7. This article is not about these, I.M.O., mistakes but is instead in the interest of public understanding.


Recently I built a new computer for a friend that was built with the, rapidly growing, Ubuntu operating system in mind. With only the WIFI left to be brought on line this gentleman's son-in-law, an Apple employee, told my friend the he would never be able to learn to operate the Linux system and he needed to purchase a copy of Windows 7 to run on his newly finished Linux compliant computer, absolute insanity for anyone in the computer industry at any level!


There are two major clues as to why this was a wrong and problem fraught manuver, the first of which comes directly from the coffers of Microsoft. Microsoft has published two free pieces of software, down-loadable from their official website. These programs are for no other purpose than to inform you whether or not your hardware will run Vista or 7. The second indicator is found on websites from around the world and is the number of major problems folks from everywhere are having with, in this case, Windows 7.


It is and has been my advise to never line up to purchase the latest and greatest, based on the PR. It is the companies business to sell you their new product, no matter how good or how bad it is. And if you build or have built a computer for a certain operating system, never expect another OS to run on it without a good deal of testing and more cash, an unknown volume of cash. If you do so you have just created a nightmare of your own making and there is not a tech in this world that can fix it for free!
gif,GIF89a%12%00%12%00%B3%00%00%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%00%00%00%FE%01%02%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%21%F9%04%04%14%00%FF%00%2C%00%00%00%00%12%00%12%00%00%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%00%60%28%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7C%00J%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%00%3B
 
Aye Bill...

I think there can be reasons, eg. perhaps high end gaming where the latest and greatest and as fast as possible may make sense but in general, I don't think its a good policy.

Financial reasons come into it as well for me. My own policy is usually to get something near entry level, either bare bones or complete build depending on what's around. As things stand, just about any processor and 2GB RAM is going to be more than capable of doing what I want. Lets say a build of mine costs £200 - £250 and I replace after 4 years. I'd wager my next £200-£250 PC would run rings round the £750 PC I might have built and now can't afford to replace..
 
That, fairly well, defines the criteria I was working from and the gentleman I did the free build for is in his mid eighties and of course, retired. I did his build with a low end AMD Quad-core and two gig of RAM with all the on-board I could get. It absolutely was not ready for Vista nor Seven. He, now has a machine that, just, limps along but will not, even, consider dual booting to see the difference.
gif,GIF89a%12%00%12%00%B3%00%00%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%00%00%00%FE%01%02%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%21%F9%04%04%14%00%FF%00%2C%00%00%00%00%12%00%12%00%00%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%00%60%28%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7C%00J%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%00%3B
 
I haven't got as far as a quad yet Bill... though the next build here probably will be just that - one of the AMD Athlon quads.

---
Shame he won't look at Ubuntu. I've got one using that as I had problems with Lirc and OpenSuse and I need a remote control with this one as its used to watch tv recordings (and shedule and can record on 1 tuner) in the living room. For this Ubuntu is running 24/7 quite happily on an Intel Atom /nVidia ION mini ITX board..
 
That, fairly well, defines the criteria I was working from and the gentleman I did the free build for is in his mid eighties and of course, retired. I did his build with a low end AMD Quad-core and two gig of RAM with all the on-board I could get. It absolutely was not ready for Vista nor Seven. He, now has a machine that, just, limps along but will not, even, consider dual booting to see the difference.
gif,GIF89a%12%00%12%00%B3%00%00%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%00%00%00%FE%01%02%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%21%F9%04%04%14%00%FF%00%2C%00%00%00%00%12%00%12%00%00%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%00%60%28%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7C%00J%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%00%3B
Need more ram for response time to improve. Q core is ok

I just built 2 high pwr gaming machines. I used AMD Q core phenom II black edition. 8 gigs ram, also running raid which tremendously speeds up the experience here, Nvidia GTX 260 gpu with a 650 watt pwr supply so I can run those high demand games and for some frosting..............I set up with the Nvidia 3D package :). Quite the experience LOL.
Win 7 I have nooooooooooo probs with. I,m running 7 home premium and 7 pro edition. Both are very stable os. From my experience.

Chili out
 
What should I say? For those of us that are blessed with an income it is nice that we can choose to be extravagant and build 'High End Computers' and then choose to burn some of that income purchasing games. On these over powered and over built machines I would expect no problems with Win7. But the computer and the class of computers being discussed here are the type of unit that most of the folks outside of the US and many elderly people in the US use and have built for themselves.

I do not wish to topple anyone's Apple Cart but there is always the real world to be considered when a post will be read around the world.
 
I don't even own a real windows machine anymore. I use mostly CentOS and OSX, but I do run Win7 in Parallels for the few things I need it. I actually like the software. It's relatively clean, but I get frustrated with the Networking options sometimes. As a programmer however, I LOVE it. Well, I love .NET4 which is what Win7 is built around, but you have no idea how nice it makes a programmer's job compared to the old Win95/98/XP days of programming.
 
I quit programming in the late eighties and so I have no feel for that issue today and will bow to wisdom.
gif,GIF89a%12%00%12%00%B3%00%00%FF%FF%FF%F7%F7%EF%CC%CC%CC%BD%BE%BD%99%99%99ZYZRUR%00%00%00%FE%01%02%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%00%21%F9%04%04%14%00%FF%00%2C%00%00%00%00%12%00%12%00%00%04X0%C8I%2B%1D8%EB%3D%E4%00%60%28%8A%85%17%0AG*%8C%40%19%7C%00J%08%C4%B1%92%26z%C76%FE%02%07%C2%89v%F0%7Dz%C3b%C8u%14%82V5%23o%A7%13%19L%BCY-%25%7D%A6l%DF%D0%F5%C7%02%85%5B%D82%90%CBT%87%D8i7%88Y%A8%DB%EFx%8B%DE%12%01%00%3B
 
Need more ram for response time to improve. Q core is ok

2GB was absolutely fine for Bill's intended build and purpose. Guy running I'd quess Open/Libre Office say Firefox web browser, Thunderbird email, maybe organise his photos with Digikam (or is there a Gnome one with Ubuntu), etc. would have a very capable and nice to use Ubuntu PC for his needs.

I just built 2 high pwr gaming machines. I used AMD Q core phenom II black edition. 8 gigs ram, also running raid which tremendously speeds up the experience here, Nvidia GTX 260 gpu with a 650 watt pwr supply so I can run those high demand games and for some frosting..............I set up with the Nvidia 3D package :). Quite the experience LOL.

Now you go onto something quite different... It's not an interest of mine but for sure, if you are seriously into gaming, it is a completely different thing. You'd not be wanting Linux as I don't think you'd find even close to the latest games available and, I think this is one specific (rather than "general user" area where, yes you probably can't have too much power and the latest and greatest hardware may well be desirable.[/quote]
 
I don't even own a real windows machine anymore. I use mostly CentOS and OSX, but I do run Win7 in Parallels for the few things I need it. I actually like the software. It's relatively clean, but I get frustrated with the Networking options sometimes. As a programmer however, I LOVE it. Well, I love .NET4 which is what Win7 is built around, but you have no idea how nice it makes a programmer's job compared to the old Win95/98/XP days of programming.

I'm just an occasional dabbler who mostly uses php. I find the Eclipse PDT version with the Zend debugger nice to use. Have also been using Netbeans a fair bit lately, I think as I already had another Java project from some time ago that used it. I started on a midi .kar type player for here: http://www.folkinfo.org/forum/topic.php?topicid=1439 Have broken off that and am dabbling though I might drop it or decide it's too complicated for me... with an abc notation parser.

On Win, I guess I had my first sort of breakthrough with dabbling when I got of things like Basic on a Commodore 64 and got onto Turbo Pascal. I also liked Borland's Delphi.
 
Back
Top