Category: Geeks r Us
Ok here is my experience with vista. And keep in mind it hasn't been just for me that I've experienced this, it's been tons of other people.
Now mind you I'm legally blind and all I use is Ubuntu with orca and nothing else, but the only reason I can write this article is because of vista on my week old laptop.
My laptop I purchased is a Compaq Presario f572us and it came with vista home premium. My first experience with vista on this dual core 1.7 ghz system with 1 gig of ram was that it took forever to load jaws, and the system didn't even come with drivers for any of my hardware, or at least not my wireless. So I went online and downloaded what I thought to be my drivers for my card and after three blue screens of death I realized it wasn't going to be easy. So I went back and read about a guy who had the same laptop and put XP on. And after hours of searching for xp drivers because God knows if any manufacture allows xp drivers on their site it's commiting a sin, he got it working. Turns out I had to use xp drivers to get my wireless working...hmmmm. Anyone who tells you vista runs great with 1 gig of ram is lying like a dog. Jaws won't even read those annoying user access control dialogues when they pop up. I hate the new start menu and the new windows explorer. Oh, which reminds me, Internet exploder and winblows exploder keep crashing on me. Hmmmmm boy real secure. And even if you disable every nonsensicle toy in vista it still runs like a 300 pound alcoholic with high cholesterol.
Folks, Vista is nothing but a marketting scam. Why? Because I was one to use vista beta 2 which mind you was 2.5 gigs. On my emachine I had 256 mb of ram. Well, it installed just fine but was buggy as all hell. But when rc1 came out the installer wined and complained that I had to have 512 of ram. Hmmmmm explain when it worked fine with 256? This is a scam because it is forcing people to upgrade their computers for no real reason. How many people actually care about high end graphics cards other than gamers? We want to get work done, and that is what Linux is here for. Vista is nothing but eye candy and full of bloat and no one will want to use it. That is why I am here to help people switch over to linux.
So if anyone wants the xp drivers to a compaq f572 let me know I will send them along. I personally dispise windows of any version. Linux isn't as scary as most think it is and plus you get no viruses, it's almost impossible to be hacked and you can do what ever you want without the worry of another trojan getting in from port 5900 when you know vnc is off. The accessibility is great and I am part of the Orca development mailing list, so I know what I'm talking about. The only reason M$ can get away with this new eye candy graphics scam is because of the way they redesigned the way services are loaded at startup. Even switching to classic views don't eliminate the whole problem. Who knows what processes are running. At least with linux you can view what processes are running and it's sure a lot less than what vista has running just at idle.
So my bottom line is, just get rid of vista and either put xp on if you really have to, or use Linux, because I will be here to help you along the way I'm writing another entry to this forum.
Cody
I have had similar experiences with Vista. You can't run vista on a gig of ram with a screen reader, and JAWS is flaky with it. If you want a good screen reader with Vista, go for Window Eyes. It will read the UAC's. Furthermore, Vista's price tag is riddiculous. You have to buy the OS, and then you have to buy the parts for the computer. Might as well stick with XP if you have to, and I am beginning to explore the route into Linux.
Well I'm glad some one agrees with me. I might as well just do that and put xp back on this laptop. But I was also wanting to try out suse and if I like that I'll see about putting that on my laptop however I wish I could get wireless working. I've tried several times with ubuntu, but each time is sent my kernel and whole install hurtling into the sun and had to reformat..oh well I'll figure it out one day.
Wait, so in other words you are telling us that in order for the laptops to work you need to switch from evil Vista where nothing works over to Linux where everything works and then saying you can't even get wireless connection on the Linux system on your computer? That's a bit odd. Not saying Linux is bad, it's good someone is giving MS a run for their money and I want to try and set it up on a partition and play with it, but in my experience XP is great and I have no reason or insentive to switch from it and, well, I think people just go slack of Ms too easily and it's just become fashionable more than anything to slack them off and create a good vs evil Linux Windows thing. I think both systems have their merits, I'd be happy to see Linux become more mainstream if and only if they maintain their commitment to accessibility. But give the evil empire their due, XP is a great operating system for the average home user, Vista,, I agree, is nothing special but neither was XP when it came out, a year from now it might be something worth looking at and it might not.
Thanks for the other post on Orca set up, I will certainly try it, but I wanted to restore a bit of balance to the discussion again. I will not install any operating system on my laptop that does not allow me instant easy wireless access, without it a laptop is pointless.
I'm also curious how well Open Office works on Linux, especially the Excel version. Excel is a fantastic programe and I'd want something equivalent on the Linux dist.
cheers
-B
Open office works great with orca. But as for clarification. Wireless does work with linux but with a little technical knowledge. With linux every piece of hardware works with the exception of wireless, although I've heard Mepis has wireless support right out of the box. XP is certainly better then vista, however for me it's been too much of a hastle, keeping up with pointless updates, catching viruses every 5 seconds, the ability not be able to look at the kernel and edit it. Windows is ok, or was ok I should say, but it's licensing garbage is what hooks people in to deception. You're not really buying windows, you're leasing, just read it and you'll see. And windows has been the only operating system to crash on me several times. I doubt it is anymore secure as 95 was. Mac has never died, Linux has never died, but xp has. With mac/linux I don't have to worry about viruses or drivers. I could go on. So don't bash linux because wireless doesn't work off the bat. It does, however it takes some configuring. I haven't installed a version of linux on any of my machine old and new that something hasn't worked. There is no reason for vista to be 2.5 gigs and xp be 700 megs. I'll stop there. If I have to use windows I will use either 2k or xp. But with linux I have options.
ody
Mac, did I hear someone say mac(as woof cowers back in to the corner fearing the boot of the wilde brue)!
yep mac bought mine for $75 g3 500 mhz and I upgraded the ram to 576 and runs tiger beautifuly
What should I look for in a cheap but still useful mac just for playing around? I don't want to spend more than $200 or so if possible since this would just be for amusement.
go on craigslist it's where I got mine. A mac g3 500 mhz should do you fine but probably wont' have enough ram, so you'll need to find a stick or 2 of sd ram. I was lucky enough to be handed a stick of 512 and was told to just take it. There are only 2 slots in a mac for memory at least on my moddle. I wouldn't pay over $100 for a g3 500 mhz otherwise I'd consider it a rip off.