The 7th Hell of Gates

[reneg8or]

They say it is the best version thus far, Windows 7. I am transferring 1.6GB data on my son's brand new laptop with i5 2.6 cpu, 4gb ram and Win7, from the dvd to a kingston 4gb flash. It has been taking 4 hours now and many system crashes in between. Task Manager has to remain handy to kill errant apps. An altogether frustrating experience. On my other laptop, a Core2Duo 2.1Ghz with 3gb ram, I had so many hassles with W7 that I formatted and installed Mint instead. All problems gone, including hardware driver incompatibilities. Even Vista gave me less trouble.


My oldest laptop comes from 2003 and outperforms this new Samsung. It has a Pentium4 Mobile 2.8Ghz cpu, a gig of ram and runs perfectly on Ubuntu 11.04.


I prefer the old laptop to my son's mew one. My wife called from the kitchen, saying ''get back to Linux because then you never swear!''


That concludes my relationship with anything MS-related.

 

[ponder]

They say it is the best version thus far, Windows 7. I am transferring 1.6GB data on my son's brand new laptop with i5 2.6 cpu, 4gb ram and Win7, from the dvd to a kingston 4gb flash. It has been taking 4 hours now and many system crashes in between. Task Manager has to remain handy to kill errant apps. An altogether frustrating experience. On my other laptop, a Core2Duo 2.1Ghz with 3gb ram, I had so many hassles with W7 that I formatted and installed Mint instead. All problems gone, including hardware driver incompatibilities. Even Vista gave me less trouble.

Challenged with that schite I usually just boot up linux from usb or cd, much less painful.

 

[reneg8or]

He has an Aviolites Titan Mobile Lighting Desk that runs through Windows only. It is for his job; he is production manager for a media company. If he had a choice.......

 

[Kloofvreter]

I've never has ANY issues with Windows 7 .

 

[reneg8or]

Consider yourself lucky. If I wanted my problem solved, I would have had to buy new equipment. When I installed Linux, everything just worked. I did not even need to configure my 3G dongle or my wifi router.


I did a comparative test today, running Ubuntu 12.10 live from DVD. My son's laptop was much faster and smoother. Under Win7 Home Pro, it constantly froze applications when I tried to shift data from one device to another. Just reading a DVD took around 15 mins, whereas even my 2003 on Ubuntu takes a few seconds. It is as if Windows or something struggles to juggle the jobs but then let it fall to the ground. On my Thinkpad it ran better, but Linux remains the faster, lighter and more stable system.


Perhaps an IT guru has an explanation - or shall we hire someone from IBM to do load balancing on a laptop to keep Win7 running?


Once programmes are opened and loaded into memory, it works quite OK, almost as good as on Linux. Just don't call data from a drive or send 1.6GB data to a flash drive. My 2003 happy lappy does it in a 5th of the time needed by the 2012 laptop.


His system is defragged and scandisked daily and it is all neat and tidy. It baffles me, but I'm no IT guru either.

 

[Kloofvreter]

Consider yourself lucky. If I wanted my problem solved, I would have had to buy new equipment. When I installed Linux, everything just worked. I did not even need to configure my 3G dongle or my wifi router.


I did a comparative test today, running Ubuntu 12.10 live from DVD. My son's laptop was much faster and smoother. Under Win7 Home Pro, it constantly froze applications when I tried to shift data from one device to another. Just reading a DVD took around 15 mins, whereas even my 2003 on Ubuntu takes a few seconds. It is as if Windows or something struggles to juggle the jobs but then let it fall to the ground. On my Thinkpad it ran better, but Linux remains the faster, lighter and more stable system.


Perhaps an IT guru has an explanation - or shall we hire someone from IBM to do load balancing on a laptop to keep Win7 running?


Once programmes are opened and loaded into memory, it works quite OK, almost as good as on Linux. Just don't call data from a drive or send 1.6GB data to a flash drive. My 2003 happy lappy does it in a 5th of the time needed by the 2012 laptop.


His system is defragged and scandisked daily and it is all neat and tidy. It baffles me, but I'm no IT guru either.

The only issues with older hardware I am aware of, is with the 64bit version of Windows 7. 32bit works fine for me.

EDIT: AFAIK, Defragging does not really help much with an NTFS partition.

 

[reneg8or]

As I have said, consider yourself lucky..... Had 32 and 64. Had hardware compatibility issues on both.

In the end, paying R4k for OS (comparable) as well as office, makes no sense of Linux offers it for free. I'm not using it because of it being free, but rather for security considerations and much less hassles. LibreOffice does all I want it to and more; other software works efficiently also.

My life does not evolve around a computer so I want it do do its job and not tax me with all sorts of hassles.


Then again, if you're not a Linux user, you can't compare the two and, of course, you will be as happy with Windows 7 as my son was with his until I showed him today...........

 

[reneg8or]

Defragging is a non-issue in Linux so I don't even consider it. He just has this notion to be very methodical and tidy. So he sets timed tasks for those. I enjoy life instead.

 

[Kloofvreter]

Defragging is a non-issue in Linux so I don't even consider it. He just has this notion to be very methodical and tidy. So he sets timed tasks for those. I enjoy life instead.

LOL, it's a non-issue for WIndows as well, but yeah, I have heard from many that Linux is pretty lightning fast

 

[reneg8or]

I was considering Windows for future use but even MS Office is going to the cloud, which is impractical when there is no broadband. Some tasks are easier, others more involved than in Linux. Windows8 is a tablet OS and Windows is slowly departing from the desktop arena. it seems that Android and Linux may offer better options to some. All have their ups and downs.


Linux is very light and fast, yes. That is where it saves time and money - less need for costly hardware upgrades. LibreOffice does 90% of what MS Office does (and it is cross-platform) and it is doing so at a 100% cost saving. More importantly, its interface remains the same unlike MSO that keeps changing. MS is causing extra expenses in terms of staff training, etc. Loss of production.


For fun & games, use MS. For getting the job done, Linux is ideal.

 

[vinodh]

For fun & games, use MS. For getting the job done, Linux is ideal.

Not so sure about that. Microsoft Office is still the benchmark. It may not be cheap but its still the market leader and the first choice of just about any business. It would be great if Libre Office was as good as you say it is and actually competed closely with Microsoft Office but it still has a long way to go.

 

[InvisibleJim]

Not so sure about that. Microsoft Office is still the benchmark. It may not be cheap but its still the market leader and the first choice of just about any business. It would be great if Libre Office was as good as you say it is and actually competed closely with Microsoft Office but it still has a long way to go.

MS Office is kind of the iPad of Office suites and they've reached a point of diminishing returns in terms of functionality. The gap between MS and OS is actually quite small in terms of capability.

I'd even go so far as to say that the capabilities of the OS Office suites outstrip the capabilities of most of their potential users (the ones I support anyway!)

 

[JonnStar]

I was considering Windows for future use but even MS Office is going to the cloud, which is impractical when there is no broadband. Some tasks are easier, others more involved than in Linux. Windows8 is a tablet OS and Windows is slowly departing from the desktop arena. it seems that Android and Linux may offer better options to some. All have their ups and downs.


Linux is very light and fast, yes. That is where it saves time and money - less need for costly hardware upgrades. LibreOffice does 90% of what MS Office does (and it is cross-platform) and it is doing so at a 100% cost saving. More importantly, its interface remains the same unlike MSO that keeps changing. MS is causing extra expenses in terms of staff training, etc. Loss of production.


For fun & games, use MS. For getting the job done, Linux is ideal.

I've tinkered with Linux for quite a while a year or two ago. When it breaks, it breaks into a thousand pieces. You really need to know what you are doing to get it working again. And this implies that 90% or more of standard users out there wouldn't be able to keep it running.

With Windows 7 and a new laptop you might find you have Norton or some other crap installed causing your grief, or simply faulty hardware or perhaps even just poor vendor drivers or far back on updates.

That isn't to say it is the best OS of all time. In a perfect world things would obviously be different

 

[MyWorld]

When it breaks, it breaks into a thousand pieces.

I do not have that experience at all. The last serious "break" I had was when I was running Arch Testing a few years back. The only time I reinstall my desktop is when I upgrade it every other year.

The failures I have had recently was hardware related. Just the other day I had to redo the wife's PC, the 320GB +/-10 year old harddrive finally gave way in spectacular fashion.

 

[InvisibleJim]

I've tinkered with Linux for quite a while a year or two ago. When it breaks, it breaks into a thousand pieces. You really need to know what you are doing to get it working again. And this implies that 90% or more of standard users out there wouldn't be able to keep it running.

Tinkering sounds like the operative word here. You can also similarly break Windows if you tweak registry settings etc. Linux or Windows, you reach a point where it is usually easier and quicker to backup and re-install than to try and fix a myriad of small problems.

Tinkering is fine if you're trying to learn or need to optimize in some way but for normal, everyday admin, less is more. Windows or Linux will mostly both plod along quite happily in normal use with just an occasional nudge here and there.

 

[MickZA]

I do not have that experience at all. The last serious "break" I had was when I was running Arch Testing a few years back. The only time I reinstall my desktop is when I upgrade it every other year.

It's hard to remember how finicky linux could be 5/6 years ago but I have to say it has been rock solid in my experience for at least the last 3 years (Fedora/Centos) with the only hiccup being the transition to Gnome 3 - windows users are now exhibiting similar dismay with Windows 8

 

[ponder]

Yeah I have not had a borked linux install in many many years.

 

[JonnStar]

I do not have that experience at all. The last serious "break" I had was when I was running Arch Testing a few years back. The only time I reinstall my desktop is when I upgrade it every other year.

The failures I have had recently was hardware related. Just the other day I had to redo the wife's PC, the 320GB +/-10 year old harddrive finally gave way in spectacular fashion.

Tinkering sounds like the operative word here. You can also similarly break Windows if you tweak registry settings etc. Linux or Windows, you reach a point where it is usually easier and quicker to backup and re-install than to try and fix a myriad of small problems.

Tinkering is fine if you're trying to learn or need to optimize in some way but for normal, everyday admin, less is more. Windows or Linux will mostly both plod along quite happily in normal use with just an occasional nudge here and there.

Thinking back I have actually had Ubuntu decide to break all on its own :/ twice.

Once was something to do with xserver or the graphics.
Another was permissions got all screwy.

And on no part of mine, at least both occasions I did not recall doing anything to cause it.

Then there was the issues with surround sound and getting all speakers playing properly.

Hey I'm not slating Linux though, I still quite liked it and even managed to get a few proper games going on WINE. It was also an awesome OS to make you learn more about how PC's work.

Besides which it is probably much better nowadays too

 

[Hamster]

I've never has ANY issues with Windows 7 .

Same here. Never have any significant problems with my ISPs or bank either. Then you get people like some of my friends who always have problems with the above. Just saying...

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Got two computers at work. One is a Gigabyte 565WM laptop, Vista preinstalled.

Other is a HP DX6200 desktop tower. XP preinstalled.

I got a Win7 licence, and installed Win7 on the HP desktop. It was a dog, was slow. Never crashed tho.

Reinstalled XP, got the speed back.

Vista was a dog on the laptop, even with 2Gb RAM. Kicked it off, installed Win7. It was much faster and smoother than Vista.

YMMV. Same for Linux distros. On one PC/hardware combinations you may get stellar performance, with another iteration you'll want to have a hammer at hand.