Chris, I agree with you on the poor quality of Vista I would find it hard to call it a creditable OS at all. However I believe that Linux is a creditable option as Damon has pointed out Ubuntu is a great OS. The UI can be tailored to resemble M$ or you can have something a little bit different. The only problem with Linux is the availability of software, like you say if you need to do a task with M$ OS you can just search and invariably you will find something, with Linux you might not find exactly what you want. Although that is changing and fast.
If you have a spare machine download and put Ubuntu on and give it a go, if you like it partition your laptop hard drive and make it dual boot, use Linux for day to day open office, email stuff and M$ for the stuff you can't find a Linux replacement for. Eventually you might not even boot into M$ at all.
I was actually thinking in development terms when I was on about nicking an example Mickey. I'd rather have pins stuck in my eyes than run some of the freeware/shareware tripe that's been assembled by some kid who looks like your best mate's younger cousin.
Do they still allow you to frig about with the kernel to suit your own needs with Linux with a billion bedroom boffin's open source comprising it???
Even when I was toe-rag student scroat - the fact that the idiot Cornes brothers (Phil & Andrew, so called lecturers, ho, ho, ho) at my polyveristy - could mess about with the bare bones of the OS really didn't instill me with a warm, comfortable feeling of it being "operationally safe".
Thing is, most of the Unix mongers were of the same ilk and so you had literally a different flavour of Unix (due to hackers tweaks) on every academic box in the place. While I'm sure that's all shored up now, those numpties (aprx age to me & 5-10 years older) still have that same attitude.
MickeySoft's attitude from the off was "mess with that and we'll sue". So while their O/S' are conceptually p!ss poor in comparison to to other O/S' out there, at least they're equally p!ss poor around the world.
I just don't trust the history behind Unix is all (beardy techo's "Whoa dude wouldn't it be great if..."). I'm a MickeySoft product of the 80's where "Greed is good" and "lunch is for wimps".
I tried a Mac a couple of years ago. Just had to see what it was all about. Very cool Titanium laptop. Looked the dog's. Trouble was it was crap at multi-tasking,
Creo the Mac has been multitasking for years, I have worked on them for donkeys, before Billy Boy Gates even dreamed up "Winblows 95" and that couldn't even cycle steal properly, what do you mean it was crap????
Just burning a DVD in the background, whilst downloading a shitload of headers from my newsgroups, listening to Itunes as I type this reply, cannot get more multitasking than that.
PC software will not run on a Mac, unless you are running a flavour of a "Micro$haft OS" on a Dual Boot System. Some discs give you the option of a dual install, usually Epson, HP, Canon proprietory software for their particular hardware. I couldn't run "my software" on a "Winblows" machine either.
As to your other points,
1. What do you get from your ISP, are we going back to Compuserve days ???? All you need is their IP address, your email address and your user name & password. POP mail is practically universal nowadays, wireless needs practically no user setup, the OS picks it all up for you, unless you are using "Winblows" (what a nightmare!)
2. Turn the dock off, or set it to autohide, the dock will always seem wrong to a "switcher" because they have always had the static "whadya call it thing" at the bottom hard coded in.
3. Macs are not personal computers, we are having a laugh, are we not ???
For the past couple of years everybody who has a computer in the home fancy's themselves as graphic designers, I know, you should see some of the crap I get each week to run through prepress.
In the pub on a night you can here them moaning about I cannot do this, how do you do that, I had to ring PC World Tech support the other day, my printer won't work anymore- it was working yesterday..... are these folks Mac users ???? you bet they aren't.
Well I have had my say and I'll probably get slagged off by the numerous "Winblows" guys but what the hell... I'm off now..... just going to check for Adware, Trojan's, Spyware etc;........ on my sons PC.
Mac's have always been the best DTP/Designer tools, ever since the original '84 B/W cube looking jobby (do you guys still only have one button on your mouse?).
Like I say, you just need the white trousers to go with one.
One thing I will say, when I breezed past the Mac's on my way to the WinTel box (being cooled by liquid nitrogen just to run the O/S), I saw one of those "waffer theen meent" Mac jobbies (about the thickness of 3 credit cards). Impressive.
Dunno if this has been mentioned (have only skimmed through the posts) but depending on which version of Vista you have you are legally entitled (by the terms of the M$ licence) to downgrade to XP Pro (assuming you have a copy). You can even call M$ to activate it.
Google "vista licence install xp" (no quotes) for more info
Actually I ran Vista on an old Toshiba M4 which had 1.5 GB of RAM and a crap graphics card 128mb I think - in fact the M4 was a pile of shite. Vista was pretty stable on this too.
Firstly, for god's sake don't get a Mac! (Mac=Expensive Wank for cretins)
Ubuntu might be compartively easy to use compared with other Linux releases, but for the masses it really isn't that suitable. This is mainly because people have enough problems keeping there Windows PCs going properly, and this is with the whole of Microsoft support and countless friends and colleagues familiar with the OS available to help them. Take away that support, and people would be completely lost. Furthermore, half the software I use is built to run on Windows, so I don't see much point in moving to Linux where I have to hope that a suitable alternative exists.
Regarding Vista, well I'm still on XP myself and have only tried Vista out on a few occasions, and yes it really is fucking annoying. This is mainly due to unfamiliarity (akin to someone pissing about on your computer changing your settings), but it does seem to take an extraordinary amount of time to boot-up. I've since been told that there is a reason for this, as it starts up by loading more stuff to run in the background so that it in effect it runs more quickly once it is up and away.
Overall though, I think it is just going to be one of these painful transition periods that we all have to endure. The OS might not look to different on the surface, but behind the scenes will be many revisions aimed at providing a platform for the next generation of software. So I'm hoping anyway, if not then its a complete waste of time and money!
The next version of Windows is due out in 18 months or so as well...
Agree with you KeefT. Any form of Linux (Ubuntu probably being the most user friendly) is not for the man on the street.. It may well be one day but - the main issue is support and compatibility. Windows has a support ecosystem amassed due to the 90% market share that the platform has. Right or wrong, its just the way things are..
