Glitch City Laboratories Archives

Windows 7 looks decent enough but Vista has yet to irritate me like other people

Ubuntu Linux is worth it

IE is useless it crashes and my answer is no. Windows 7 is going to be another failure like Vista, and I bet you in a few months time Windows 7 is going to be the next victim for the Conficker Worm. Vista, XP Windows 7 Beta, and other Windows systems (like Server 2008), is going to be another victim to Conficker. Will I upgrade to Windows 7? Nope. If my Vista/XP goes wrong, I'll turn to Lunix.

Agree with Wa because I'm one of those kinds of people who like to think that machines should be made to do their users' biddings, not those of a manufacturer or software developer.

Case in point: Apple. You shell out HUNDREDS of $$$ for hardware that is not much functionally different than other, cheaper counterparts (in effect paying for the Apple brand) and Apple will maintain that IT, not YOU, controls this hardware. Apple considers it a DMCA violation if you try to make your iPod sync with software other than iTunes; same if you try to install "unapproved" software on the iPhone or make the iPhone use a different carrier than the one Apple wants you to use. There is a recent news item about Apple's claim to a patent on software technology that disables an OS in order to present its user with advertisements. Microsoft is no different. There are cases of Microsoft foisting software on its users through Windows Update (search your favorite engine for details about the .NET Firefox extension or Windows Genuine Advantage, neither of which could be uninstalled easily). Microsoft creates proprietary file formats designed to promote vendor lock-in, including the ever-ubiquitous "Word file" and "Powerpoint"; users of non-Microsoft systems have to effectively reverse-engineer these formats simply to read/write to them. Search "Digital Rights Management" or "Trusted Computing" for information about how your computer can be made to disobey you.

Get GNU/Linux, Windows 7 Sins, and this page on the Free Software Foundation website explain in detail why Windows 7 is in fact not "worth it." Keep in mind that although lots of free software people like to bash Microsoft, other proprietary software vendors (Apple, Macromedia/Adobe, etc) are no different. If you are a consumer of Adobe Flash content (which has around a 98% market penetration I think), you're already experiencing vendor lock-in.

Case in point: Apple.

• Webkit
• CUPS
• Darwin
• LLVM

My ideal setup would be to run the Windows inside a virtual machine. Unfortunately, the only information I can find regarding how to migrate an existing Windows install to a virtual machine comes with dozens of caveats.

Also unfortunately, the Windows 7 free upgrade is only an upgrade, not a full installer.

My ideal setup would be to run the Windows inside a virtual machine. Unfortunately, the only information I can find regarding how to migrate an existing Windows install to a virtual machine comes with dozens of caveats.

Also unfortunately, the Windows 7 free upgrade is only an upgrade, not a full installer.

Uh, for a simple way of installing Seven via your retail media into a virtual machine?

* Create VM in whatever software
* Tell it minimum 512 MB RAM, minimum ~30 GB HD
* Go into whatever 'options' and add a virtual CD drive mapped to your retail ISO or physical media
* Tell it to boot from that media
* Run the installer

Case in point: Apple.

Apples iPod and iPhone are practically the definition of controlled hardware, but the company really contributes a lot to open source:

• Webkit
• CUPS
• Darwin
• LLVM

Also while Ubuntu is all right, the transition isnt perfect. Trading a bunch of Windows niggles for a bunch of Ubuntu niggles is basically walking in place (though things really get better once you realize you can live without Flash).

I don't have a retail copy of Vista. It was preinstalled on the laptop. Presumably the Win7 upgrade disk won't do a full install; otherwise it wouldn't be an upgrade disk.

Case in point: Apple.

Apples iPod and iPhone are practically the definition of controlled hardware, but the company really contributes a lot to open source:

• Webkit
• CUPS
• Darwin
• LLVM

Also while Ubuntu is all right, the transition isnt perfect. Trading a bunch of Windows niggles for a bunch of Ubuntu niggles is basically walking in place (though things really get better once you realize you can live without Flash).

See http://community.winsupersite.com/blogs/paul/archive/2009/10/23/clean-install-windows-7-with-upgrade-media-the-answer.aspx - it does indeed work as clean install media.

Case in point: Apple.

Apples iPod and iPhone are practically the definition of controlled hardware, but the company really contributes a lot to open source:

• Webkit
• CUPS
• Darwin
• LLVM

While it's nice that they contribute some good software to the open source/free software community, the absurd amount of control they have over their gadgets isn't really justifiable to me. At any rate, if anyone wants to spend upwards of $300 on a severely restricted and locked down gizmo, fine by me. I can spend less on something that gives me more freedom.

Also while Ubuntu is all right, the transition isnt perfect. Trading a bunch of Windows niggles for a bunch of Ubuntu niggles is basically walking in place (though things really get better once you realize you can live without Flash).

Well, I personally like Ubuntu, but feel free to read that as any Linux/BSD-based distro if you wish.