Kitz Forum

Computer Software => Windows 7 => Topic started by: broadstairs on January 13, 2012, 09:49:43 AM

Title: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 13, 2012, 09:49:43 AM
Well I got my new laptop and I decided that trying for a refund on W7 was not worth the hassle - so I decided to try it and it has decided me that Linux is the way to go on this as well (I already run it on the old laptop and main PC).

It has been so much hassle to setup the way I want it and the security is a problem getting in the way all the time, plus it has updated W7 several times since I got it on Monday, this last time has taken 3 reboots and it is still not finished after some hour or more. Also the desktop seems to be shared between users, so if my wife wants Firefox called WWW it has to be that way on my desktop as well, I'm sure it can be changed but it should not work that way IMHO, each users desktop should be independent. Also there was so much rubbish pre-installed that I spent an hour just removing all the unwanted stuff (and rebooting ofcourse). My other real issue with PCs these days is that you dont get a full Windows disk, and try asking for one - nowhere actually said I cold have one when asked and I asked in loads of places.

Linux is so much easier and less hassle I really dont understand why people dont use it more.

Stuart

PS. This latest update has now been going for about 1.5 hours and still not finished so I can use the damn thing  >:( >:( >:( >:(
    and it just rebooted AGAIN >:( and it still has not finished >:( >:(
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: renluop on January 13, 2012, 10:07:47 AM
WUD: Have you considered changing the WUD settings?
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 13, 2012, 10:21:10 AM
Most, if not all, of what you complain about is down to the decisions/laziness of the computer manufacturer, not Windows 7 or Microsoft.

The only point that isn't relates to desktops which I suspect is more down to your own decisons/understanding. I'm not sure how you have set up different users (and which is an Administrator, or whether that's a separate user) but they should indeed be seriously independent - and are in my experience.
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: AdrianH on January 13, 2012, 10:32:00 AM
Oh dear......... may I suggest you view the "Let's get started" videos provided with the OS?


The desktops are not shared, each user can have their own log in/applications/security levels.  You should have a password protected admin account and use a Limited User Account for everday browsing .
Win7 is easy to use and maintain if you take a few minutes to read up on how to use it's features.

Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: UncleUB on January 13, 2012, 10:37:42 AM
http://www.computeractive.co.uk/ca/special/1931607/windows
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 13, 2012, 11:07:36 AM
I appreciate the comments and that folks are trying to help, however I am in no mood to even try to understand the ins and outs of W7.

What I did was to set it up exactly as a novice user would attempt and there are several things which in my view should not happen but did, bear in mind I have nearly 40 years experience as an IT technical consultant so I do know how things work and what to do and several things about Windows in general should have been ironed out years ago like the number of reboots to get stuff installed - a rarity on Linux and Macs in my experience. There is so much bad design built into Windows that has been propagated through all the releases. I mean this laptop has rebooted probably at least 3 or 4 times a day since in the past 4 days just to update, delete or install stuff, on my Linux machine I have probably only rebooted for that reason 4 times in the past year and then at my convenience and without the need to have reminders popping up every few minutes.

I am also intrigued about the problems of networking which have been experienced as shown here in other threads, again not a problem with Linux even sharing with XP and W7. In W7 take these so called Homegroups why do something like this when your other OSs don't support it and you dont provide an update for them to support it.

I could go on but I wont.... suffice to say as soon as I have time Linux is going on this laptop and if I need Windows (which is becoming rarer these days) I'll use Virtualbox on my Desktop to run XP which is somewhat better and easier to setup in my view even for a novice.

Stuart
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 13, 2012, 11:15:58 AM
this laptop has rebooted probably at least 3 or 4 times a day since in the past 4 days just to update, delete or install stuff,
I struggle to believe that is required, but obviously can't deny that it is your experience.

I've set up very many W7 machines, some of which (as yours appears to have been) were laden with price-reducing "freeware" which are enticing you to buy the full product, and have a seriously out-of-date OS image onboard.
Even so, I would normally expect maybe 2 or 3 reboots in the worst case to get totally up-to-date and "clean and tidy".

Windows 7 does not generally require many reboots even to install/remove applications; my main system runs for days/weeks at a time for example.
Perhaps some of it is down to laziness on the part of the "surplus" application authors?

That said, I'm afraid you do come across as a "dyed-in-the-wool" Unix person, so maybe best to stick with products (and especially methods) you're familiar with.  ;)
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 13, 2012, 05:07:47 PM
That said, I'm afraid you do come across as a "dyed-in-the-wool" Unix person, so maybe best to stick with products (and especially methods) you're familiar with.  ;)

Interesting because I've only been using Linux full time for about 12-18 months, prior to that W2K and XP and used Windows and OS/2 at work on PC's plus I never used *nix at work as I worked on large commercial mainframes.

I dont have a particular favourite for PC's, at least not one which is practical now, for years I had a 'big box' Amiga computer which had at the time an OS to blow away everything else available - sad when it's demise finally came brought down by lousy business men who could not market stuff or create a viable business plan to save their lives. I also emulated a MAC on it for a few years. I've had a very broad spectrum of experience with PC OSs starting when I first worked with one of the very first IBM PCs in the country (guess who I worked for!).

My main problem with the later M$ OSs is that they do not learn from their mistakes and have not kept other stuff which does work well. It is also very much bloatware, I'm already finding that the laptop now boots more slowly AFTER all the 'updates' have been installed than it did out of the box and that's after removing McAffe AV and Firewall which in my view is rubbish and unnecessarily expensive (who ever added the FEE to the name got that right). I still run one PC with W2K which runs 24x7 and usually for months on end without needing attention as it runs my weather station. My wife's PC still runs XP mainly because it works and I've not had time to move it to Linux yet which I probably will as she has no reliance on XP now. You only have to look at the number of websites devoted to getting M$ software to run or run faster to see what I mean.

As for Linux - it's not perfect but it is free, it works and most of the major distributions can be installed with little or no effort on most modern hardware, my only reason now for keeping XP in a Virtualbox environment is because my specialist photo printer has no working Linux support as it is no longer manufactured, eventually when I run out of ribbons/paper for it I will have to invest in something else and hopefully it will work with Linux. I now have free software to meet every need (except printing photos) and in pretty much every case it works as well if not better than the commercial equivalent at least for my requirements.

Stuart
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 13, 2012, 05:28:43 PM
Interesting because I've only been using Linux full time for about 12-18 months
Well maybe you've been "converted".  ;D

At least you've managed to avoid Vista............

Nonetheless your experience bears little resemblance to what I see every day; as for running slower after initial updates that is very odd.
What make & model of machine is it and how much RAM does it have out of interest?
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: UncleUB on January 13, 2012, 06:41:04 PM
Quote
At least you've managed to avoid Vista............


Oi  ;D

I have been using it for nearly 5 years and have had very few problems. ;).......Before that I was a very happy ME user  :D
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 13, 2012, 06:48:45 PM
I don't want to digress too much from this thread, but ME to Vista is probably an improvement.  :lol:
(I'm quite rare in that I got on OK with ME, but it doesn't and didn't win many votes.....)
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 13, 2012, 08:19:31 PM
Nonetheless your experience bears little resemblance to what I see every day; as for running slower after initial updates that is very odd.
What make & model of machine is it and how much RAM does it have out of interest?

Its an Acer Aspire 5742 with an I5 processor and 4gb memory and 320gb hdd. Its not slower once it's up and running just takes longer to boot up now, probably not by a huge amount but noticeable anyway. It definitely takes a bit longer to settle down and perform once the desktop is up, I was typing an update on another forum earlier using it and it took several seconds for my characters to appear on screen but this only happens if you try to do something immediately after the desktop appears, probably re-indexing or some such to speed up file searching which is a waste of time IMHO.

I don't want to digress too much from this thread, but ME to Vista is probably an improvement.  :lol:

I must say I have to agree that anything was an improvement over ME  :lol:

Stuart
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 13, 2012, 08:22:49 PM
probably re-indexing or some such to speed up file searching which is a waste of time IMHO.
Mine too.
I often see systems with multiple indexing/search systems (and other equally useless replicated rubbish) crippled by it all!
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: oldfogy on January 14, 2012, 01:36:32 AM
The problem is as with most of us when we get a new toy is that we want it to work instantly the same as the old toy did because we were that used to it we could navigate around it with our eyes closed (well almost).

Well the bad news is that just is not happening, lets face it every time there has been a upgrade 'XP, Vista, Win7' it's been a nightmare to get things set the way we want them set, "you do not have the right to do this that or the other" (sound familiar) but it's my computer and if I want to delete or move a file there should be no reason why I can't IT'S MINE, not Microsoft's.

With my new laptop (Christmas present 2010 to myself) was to dual boot it with XP, then work on the Win7 setup as and when I wanted to, but to be honest I don't know why I bother with it, because XP does everything I need or want it to do.
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: asbokid on January 14, 2012, 01:49:00 AM
The asbo motto: If it can't be done in Linux then don't do it!

Out of curiosity, what is your specialist printer?  No doubt someone, somewhere is hacking away at a Linux driver for it!

It gives great satisfaction to liberate equipment that was enslaved to the Microsoft platform.

I don't really understand the manufacturers who insist on keeping their devices for Windows only.  I guess they are being blackmailed or bullied in some way by the Great Satan of Redmond.  A popular maker of digital storage oscilloscopes wouldn't release the USB transaction protocol for their scopes. They include a CD with all their new oscilloscopes but it contains very poor closed-source Windows software. We had just bought several of their budget models, in ignorance of the lack of a Linux driver. The scopes were bargain price: sub-£200 for dual trace 25MHz DSOs. But there were no public details of how the USB driver actually worked, nor the structure of the datagrams containing the trace data.  Most labs use Linux by choice so to have Windows-only software is a major cause of annoyance and frustration. Lots of people requested the specs of the protocol from the company, but they stonewalled us all. So we reverse engineered the driver, and published it, along with some Linux tools to do the job that only the BillyGatesWare tool could do before. At that point, the company did a complete volte-face. Announcing its full support for Linux, it publicly released the driver specs, the USB protocol, and the datagram format for its scope. Today, the same company has regressed all the way back to stage one.  It's released a new and improved range of scopes, but again with a closed source Windows-only driver for retrieving trace data. And in doing so it has annoyed the Linux community all over again. What a crazy company!

Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 14, 2012, 08:24:40 AM
Out of curiosity, what is your specialist printer?  No doubt someone, somewhere is hacking away at a Linux driver for it!

It is a Hi-Touch 640PS and there is a set of Linux drivers but it is closed source which they wont release (I've asked) and it was written for a quite old implementation of CUPS and it will not work. It is a dye-sublimation printer. My wife has a Kodak G600 which does have a working driver. Dye-sub printers are not as common in use as ink jets which is why the drivers are less common.

Stuart
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 14, 2012, 09:23:01 AM
I don't really understand the manufacturers who insist on keeping their devices for Windows only.
Pure economics. The cost of development for a smaller market isn't worth it to them.

 
Quote
I guess they are being blackmailed or bullied in some way by the Great Satan of Redmond. 
Oh dear, Linux paranoia strikes again.  :baby:
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: broadstairs on January 14, 2012, 10:00:41 AM
I don't really understand the manufacturers who insist on keeping their devices for Windows only.
Pure economics. The cost of development for a smaller market isn't worth it to them.

 
Quote
I guess they are being blackmailed or bullied in some way by the Great Satan of Redmond. 
Oh dear, Linux paranoia strikes again.  :baby:

While I agree that economics is the reason for a lot of things there is no doubt in my mind that PC manufacturers get a better deal from M$ if they only supply M$ software with the hardware. I do think that more should be done to level the playing field and manufacturers should be made to supply hardware without software if that is the choice of the consumer and since no way are M$ products free the hardware must also be cheaper, otherwise they are giving the OS for free and M$ would not want that argument!

As to peripheral manufacturers I think again they should be made to provide interface details for their kit so it makes life easy for the *nix crew to provide drivers, after all it can only increase sales of their kit. This again would just level the playing field.

Stuart
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: HPsauce on January 14, 2012, 10:10:44 AM
there is no doubt in my mind that PC manufacturers get a better deal from M$ if they only supply M$ software with the hardware.
I think that may have been true in the past to "some" extent, but there are 2 realities that suggest otherwise now:
1. Anti-trust/monopoly and similar legal/regulatory actions in the USA and EC especially.
2. Despite what people think Microsoft don't supply software to do everything  :lol:
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: tonyappuk on January 14, 2012, 01:32:54 PM
Just to add my threeh'perth (?!) I still use XP without any updates apart from SP3 because I'm used to it and it does all I need. I have got Mint 10 and latest Debian available to dual boot from but I have not escaped to Linux yet because I edit a Newsletter (it used to be two) and MS Publisher is what I use. I have tried to use Scribus but it is not as user friendly as Publisher or perhaps I'm just too old a dog to change. And before you ask Publisher does not run under Wine. I've tried Win 7 in a virtual install but the new tricks argument applies again and where would I get the Win 7 drivers for all my old gear?
Retires to comfy chair and slippers.
Tony
Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: asbokid on January 14, 2012, 08:16:45 PM
I don't really understand the manufacturers who insist on keeping their devices for Windows only.
Pure economics. The cost of development for a smaller market isn't worth it to them.
That's not what Linux is about.  Provide the specs for your equipment and someone will develop a Linux driver, for free.

There is a clash of two very different schools of thought here, and manufacturers often find themselves sitting awkwardly between the two. I guess it goes against their corporate culture to give anything away.

There's the profoundly greedy and selfish ethos epitomised by Microsoft.  This is a world of a badly written, poorly maintained closed-source software like the Windows operating system, and then there's the very open Linux community where  benevolence and generous donation of time and skill abounds.

Title: Re: Windows 7 and why I'm going to ditch it
Post by: asbokid on January 14, 2012, 08:45:00 PM
Out of curiosity, what is your specialist printer?  No doubt someone, somewhere is hacking away at a Linux driver for it!

It is a Hi-Touch 640PS and there is a set of Linux drivers but it is closed source which they wont release (I've asked) and it was written for a quite old implementation of CUPS and it will not work. It is a dye-sublimation printer. My wife has a Kodak G600 which does have a working driver. Dye-sub printers are not as common in use as ink jets which is why the drivers are less common.

Stuart

That's a shame.

Don't suppose you would ever buy another Hi-Ti printer, because of the company's poor support and attitude towards Linux users.

We have been playing with a multi-protocol USB bridge controller called the Winchiphead CH341.  It is a single IC containing a USB peripheral controller and a bridge controller supporting a range of serial protocols as well as the IEEE 1284 parallel printer protocol.

It's a very low cost solution with lots of different applications.  We have been using it to program serial EEPROMs. 

In large volumes the IC costs just a few cents. There's a Windows-only device driver for the USB controller, and there's an API provided through a Windows DLL.   And yet the company refuses to release some proper specs of the IC.    People want to get the device working in Linux and need the IC specs to do that.  But the company isn't interested.   

For a reason why, i guess it's another case of Follow-The-Money.  The company sells a very profitable "Evaluation/Development Kit" which is, again, only available for Microsoft Windows.  That kit would become obsolete if development moved away from Windows and into the Linux community.

Consequently, because of that rotten attitude, the company finds itself bad-mouthed across the internet.