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1351

Living Room / Re: Windows 8 Secure Boot may lock out Linux

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 22, 2011, 08:16 AM »

Another nail in the Windows 8 coffin - it will also mean that you can't boot into USB, CD or DVD based utilities to fix problems when Windows 8 won't boot!

This is really worrying and should be made as public as possible as it means if something doesn't work the only option you have is to reinstall the OEM setup!

I am amazed that Apple have got away with this crap but I think the competition commission in Europe will jump on this from a great height.

Presumably Apple manage to get away with it because they ship their own hardware and OS.

MS do not make PCs so what they are saying is that other manfacturers have to lock their systems to MS products - that is the ultimate in anticompetitive behaviour!

1352

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 22, 2011, 03:57 AM »

I agree - when widespread hardware support for Linux appears (that is as feature rich and easily installed as in Windows now) and big software companies such as Adobe start to port porfessional products to Linux I think there would be a potential for a mass move.

Hell hardware manufacturers would welcome the move with open arms to get away from MS OEM licensing.

At the moment the problem isn't lack of under4standing (most Linux is one click install pretty much) - it is the lack of pro software tools and lack of manufacturer based hardware support.

I have tried Linux so many times now and I have yet to find anything other than a basic CUPS driver to work my printer. CUPS is a great idea but it doesn't seem to support anything other than plain printing - and even then WYSINWYG generally. General support for WiFi cards - or persuading manufacturers to produce drivers - is also needed.

Hardware manufacturers are getting more savvy and some provide Linux drivers but until it becomes the rule the average user doesn't want the hassle.

I also think there is a huge need to reduce the breadth of distro choices and to agree on some standards to make it easier for developers to develop for a wide range of distros.

1353

General Software Discussion / Re: Why 2012 may finally be The Year of the Linux Desktop (courtesy of Microsoft)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 21, 2011, 02:38 PM »

Does this mean Windows 8 won't let you install any 3rd party software unless it comes via the Windows Store - or is it just the Metro apps (which I would guess most desktop users won't be bothered with).

If it applies to all installations Windows 7 will be the last version many people use!

I think my friends first reaction to the look of Metro - "It looks like a shop" - is right - it is all about money and about locking people in.

Trouble is whilst Apple have their religion no such religious feeling exists for Microsoft. Personally I think if they go down the Apple route they won't succeed and just push many people to Linux.

Hell if developers are suddenly going to get stung for developing for Windows it is probably going to be the biggest shift to Open Source ever. Hopefully hardware manufacturers will follow suit with drivers.

1354

Living Room / Re: BBC - inspiration?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 21, 2011, 06:16 AM »

Windows 8, etc. etc. ...
or was it just a rhetorical question

-tomos (September 21, 2011, 05:48 AM)

Got it ...

Do you get the impression lots of things are going to be sliding sideways from now on.

Presumably BBC iPlayer will soon be BBC metroPlayer

1355

Living Room / BBC - inspiration?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 21, 2011, 05:16 AM »

I wonder where the inspiration came from for the new BBC website:



http://beta.bbc.co.uk/

(Sorry if this link doesn't work outside the UK).

1356

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 19, 2011, 05:00 PM »

It has to be said the ribbon in Windows Explorer is the devil's spawn.

Don't get me wrong I like the ribbon in Office but then Office is a complex piece of software. In Windows Explorer is it completely ridiculous - plus they have removed some of the really useful shortcuts available in Win 7 to compensate for the stupid amount of lost real estate the ribbon uses.

I have lso now discovered how to add tiles to the Start page - not that it is useful because the mouse handling on the Start page is truly awful.

I have still to find a convincing way to shutdown - you logoff from the start page but then you are faced with a pointless wallpaper and a clock. There is another page buried underneath with a shutdown button and user logon screen but I'm damned if I can find a consistent way to close the clock to get there!

1357

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 19, 2011, 12:42 PM »

LOL - but then why bother - just stick to Win 7.

I think MS will do what they did with Vista and offer free downgrades to 7 when 8 is preinstalled on laptops and desktops.

1358

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 19, 2011, 11:55 AM »

The tiles are aimed at tablets and phones - the trouble is that in the Preview the tiles have completely REPLACED the start menu (there simply isn't one) and as a result a speed and flexibility seem to suffer massively on a Desktop.

I just hope that MS have the sense to give the option to restore a start menu option (or classic type inteface) before the final release because I for one will never upgrade a desktop machine to a version of Windows as irritating as the Win 8 Preview.

1359

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 18, 2011, 06:46 PM »

I agree VMWare should not be the benchmark BUT I did a comparison of Win8 vs. WinXP in VMWare - the Win8 being a brand new installation, the WinXP being with much lower resources allocated and at least 3 years old.

As a comparison I would say that the video everyone is cooing over doesn't seem to live up to expectations!

Boot time seems like the least of the problems to me - if MS really want to dumb down Windows to the point of idiocy I can't help feeling Linux is going to get a massive boost for corporate use provided Linux developers can get their act together and start producing something with less disparate distros and much better hardware support - it could also be the spur hardware manufacturers need to produce Linux drivers.

If Linux don't do get organised I can see MacOS taking over the corporate environment - the future for business is definitely not Windows 8 in anything like its current form. Business isn't even enthusiastic about moving from XP yet to Windows 7 (forgetting the disastrous Vista) and when they see Windows 8 (3 generations on) I think they will collectively hold up the hands in horror. Steve Balmer will hold his hands up in horror too when corporate licenses don't get renewed!

The strange thing with the Win 8 preview is that it is obviously Windows 7 with much useful stuff to desktop users stripped out and a silly childish veneer added to make it tactile for phones and tablets. Ultimately I think it is trying to be all things to all people and in then end it is likely to fail on all counts. I may be speaking prematurely but I think sales of Windows 8 to none phone/tablet users is going ot make Vista look like a huge success and within weeks of launch they will be offering a free downgrade to Windows 7 with every OEM installed edition on laptops, webbooks and desktops - just like they had to with Vista.

1360

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 18, 2011, 05:04 PM »

Well I have downloaded the Developer's Preview.

Here's what I did:

1) Tried to install 64 bit eiditon in VMWare Workstation 7 - no dice - doesn't even start the installer, just a new blue screen that says HAL_INITIALIZATION_FAIL

2) Upgraded to VMWare Workstation 8 (I was going to do it at some point so bit the bullet).

3) Installed 64 bit edition of W8 Preview - which completed but would not install VMWare tools

4) Downloaded 32 bit version which installed and allowed VM Tools to install so I can use it in full screen mode.

I am running on an AMD Phenom II x6 core host with 16Gb of memory under Windows 7 64-bit.

The VM is allocated 4 cores and 4Gb of RAM plus a 60Gb virtual drive. After repeated boots I can't get a clean install of W8 to boot in under 26 seconds - and that is with no added software (other than in the 32 bit ISO supplied).

Granted I have only been playing with it for half an hour but I hate it (with a passion)!

1) Boot time in the video that started this thread is ridiculous. I cannot get a clean install down below 26 seconds from cold start. A VM of Windows XP I use (which has a bit of extra stuff installed and has been running fro years - it was transferred from my old computer and runs with 2Gb of RAM and 2 cores) starts in 30 seconds. So much for much improved boot time.

2) The Tile Start page seems to have absolutely no options on it except to click on the tiles (no right click or any other buttons that I can find). You don't even seem to be able to switch off directly - you have to logoff (which is very slow - I thought it had crashed) and then shutdown.

3) Clicking on a tile opens the app in full screen mode and you then have to use Alt Tab to cycle to other open apps, press the windows key to return to the Start page or move the mouse to the middle of the left hand edge of the screen and click on an app to cycle through (one app at a time). If you choose to go to the Desktop it looks very like Windows 7 BUT there is no start menu only a button that takes you back to the start page. Pressing F1 doesn't invoke a help system (but I suppose that may not be available yet). Right clicking on the Taskbar allows you to go into properties but there are no Start Menu.

4) Apps are a bit odd - there isn't much that you can do to create a document in the standard ISO so I tried using Paint Play which is a very simple painting app. Your efforts survive shutdown and restart but there doesn't seem to be any mechanism to save what you are doing. There are no menus and right click seems to only do things like hide toolbars to give more screen space.

5) The old utilities (Notepad etc.) are still there but I can't see any way to run them except by using Win R to open a run command box and typing the exe file name.

All in all the interface is entirely optimised for touch screens with little if any real support for more than one button on the mouse. It feels INCREDIBLY childish and very limiting on a desktop computer. It is EXTREMELY frustrating to be constantly sent back to an infant school desktop (it really is designed for 3-5 year olds) and with no option to restore a normal desktop environment I cannot honestly see a single business user wanting to go near this.

The other thing that strikes me is that the stupid start page will become extremely cluttered if you install lots of apps (not that there seems to be an obvious mechanism for installing anything except going via the desktop - which I had to do to install VM tools) - plus the constant flashing of all the tiles as they rotate and update content is incredibly irritating.

I showed the start page to a friend and her first comment was "it looks like a shop" - all hail the future. Personally I think it looks like a webpage in the worst excess of Flash based advertising. Maybe someone will come out with a tool to disable the animation otherwise I think it is in danger of inducing mass epilepsy!

Oh by the way - you are asked to link you user profile to a "live" account as your login. There is an option for a local user account but using an email address is already pushed for the 'benefits' of cloud based computing.

If this actually gets released and becomes dominant on home computers we can kiss goodbye to the days of anything sensible happening on desktop machines and laptops unless you move to Linux or Apple (heaven forbid).

Finally this is a an alpha preview release and it shows - it crashes and freezes constantly - even taking down VMWare itself in the process!

1361

Living Room / Portal Free on steam until 20th September

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 17, 2011, 07:26 AM »

If you haven't played Portal now is your chance.

Install Steam, click on Store and find Portal. You can download/install for free until 20th Sept.

If you don't already have a steam account go to:

http://store.steampowered.com/about/

Install Steam and set up an account (you don't need to give credit card details to download free games).

1362

General Software Discussion / Re: Is Windows 7 boot management more broken than ever?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 15, 2011, 04:53 PM »

There is an automatic fix when the boot drive isn't doing what you expect - just use the Repair windows option booting from a System Recovery Disk or a Windows 7 disk and use BOOTREC at the command line prompt.

For details see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392

1363

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 13, 2011, 06:23 AM »

Just looking at the video is very impressive but every version of Windows since XP has been hailed as fast booting (and a Win 7 fresh install that has been fully optimised is pretty quick, plus you can starting using it before the boot process completes).

Trouble is that in the real world these speeds are never maintained beyond the first few days of use without regular maintenance - which windows is terrible at in automatic mode.

Also it isn't clear if anything is actually ready to use - it is dead easy to load a start page quickly (Especially if it was cached before the system shutdown) - it is entirely different to be able to do something useful at that point! I don't know about other systems but I can't get on the internet at that point simply because it takes longer to connect to the router (assuming the interface is even ready to use at that point).

MS have always been a company that likes smoke and mirrors - and way early pre-release software has a habit of going through numerous processes that remove the full potential of these early promos.

1364

General Software Discussion / Re: Windows 8 Fast boot time ? Check this out...

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 13, 2011, 04:23 AM »

With 16Gb of RAM I don't often hibernate (it is usually quicker to shutdown/start normally

1365

General Software Discussion / Re: Does "OS Transition" software exist?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 11, 2011, 12:30 PM »

If it were my computer I would get a copy of a Windows 7 SP1 Ultimate 64-bit DVD from somewhere and do an in-place upgrade (borrow one or download an ISO and burn one - they are easy to find on the net with downloads direct from the MS servers). That should update all the Windows files.

Just insert the installation DVD while Windows is running and follow the instructions when they appear on screen (or open the DVD drive and start setup.exe).

You will need to use the license code for Ultimate (on the box and supplied by Dell if it was preloaded).

Alternatively ask Dell to supply you with an SP1 disk (assuming they supplied the machine with Ultimate installed) - which means you won't even need a license code.

1366

Living Room / Re: Battery Life vs Expandable Memory (Music Player)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 11, 2011, 12:21 PM »

My answer is to buy a decent MP3 player - I am still using my old Creative Zen Photo MP3 players (years old now). 8Gb of memory and play up to 20 hours on a single charge.

If you only get 6 hours play time it sucks so don't buy it.

1367

General Software Discussion / Re: Building Windows 8: I need longer arms!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 09, 2011, 04:03 PM »

My biggest question is how many years did they spend on the killer OS? And what did we get? Vista ...

1368

General Software Discussion / Re: Building Windows 8: I need longer arms!

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 08, 2011, 05:31 PM »

Questions:

1) How many people are going to buy touch screens and chuck out perfectly good LCDs?
2) How many businesses will buy this? Business lethargy killed Vista (along with a crap OS) but there has been a big reluctance to move to Win 7 too - do MS really thing business will be interested and if not they have lost the biggest part of their market share.
3) How many people will still want this after the novelty wears off?

Yes on tablets and phones, but laptops and desktops?

I know quite a few people with all in one computers with touch screens but I have yet to see anyone use it once they have have had it more than a week!

1369

Living Room / Re: Should I Get A Divorce?

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2011, 03:40 PM »

There are plenty of regions where you can still buy a Samsung Galaxy - if she wants a Galaxy get her a Galaxy and p**s on Apple from a great height.

Actually of you look around you can probably find a Galaxy cheaper outside Oz! You might need a friend to ship it to you.

How about http://www.amazon.co...ndroid/dp/B004TL9UR0
or http://www.amazon.co...-Wi-Fi/dp/B00519RW1U

1370

General Software Discussion / Re: Free simple database progam needed (that can import from Works DB ideally)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2011, 01:03 PM »

Thanks - SnapDB looks nice and simple and the sort of thing he needs. I have also mentioned OO Base - but to be honest for what he is doing I thing Excel would probably be better than OO (which is a bit overkill given that he already has the home version of Office 2010 installed).

1371

General Software Discussion / Re: Free simple database progam needed (that can import from Works DB ideally)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2011, 11:11 AM »

Thanks but he doesn't have Access and as I said I can covert to Excel via CSV - trouble is he doesn't want to use Excel - too complicated!

1372

General Software Discussion / Re: Free simple database progam needed (that can import from Works DB ideally)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 03, 2011, 09:32 AM »

Thanks but that just seems to be for works word processor - there is a plugin for that available for MS Office.

It is the DB app that is rather more elusive!

1373

General Software Discussion / Free simple database progam needed (that can import from Works DB ideally)

« Last post by Carol Haynes on September 02, 2011, 02:15 PM »

I have a friend who has just started using Windows 7 and has a lot of databases in MS Works format on his old hard disk.

Does anyone know of a simple free Database program that works on Win 7x64 (comparable in complexity and features to Works DB) ?

Ideally it would be good if it could import or open WKB files - but if not importing CSV files would be good.

I have suggested he uses Excel as he has pretty simple tables but he isn't sure about using Excel and is a bit intimidated.

Any ideas gratefully received!

1374

Living Room / Re: Donation gamer: Games to give

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 30, 2011, 05:19 PM »

Thanks for Defense Grid - really enjoying it.

Only problem is it is very time consuming - love the graphics.

Trouble is I always seem to get killed in the last moments of each level - haven't got my strategy totally sussed yet!

1375

Found Deals and Discounts / Re: Paragon Rescue Kit 11 PRO ÷70%

« Last post by Carol Haynes on August 27, 2011, 05:07 PM »

In theory you should be able to recover the old setup to a larger drive/partition or even to a different machine with different hardware.