exploder99
New Member
I have been a Linux user for the last 7 years. I was given a test computer to test a Linux distributions new releases on and it seemed like a great computer. I found a problem right away though, it came with a Foxconn main board with a tampered BIOS. Some of you might remember that Foxconn deliberately altered the BIOS so Linux would not run properly. When I first got the computer it would destroy a SATA hard drive in 3 to 5 times of booting the machine! Three BIOS upgrades later, the computer runs great but Linux still will not run like it should, all of the hardware is supported though.
Rather than have the computer just sit and collect dust for another 2 years, I decided to install Windows Vista because I had a legal copy from an HP computer that was struck by lightning. I had never used Vista but I thought it was worth a try. I got Vista installed and installed all of the updates, tweaked the services using a guide I found online. Vista was running pretty nice, it was quick and it looked nice too with the Aero theme.
Vista provided all of the drivers I needed out of the box except for my NVidea GT 220 but Windows Update took care of that, things were looking good! Now I needed some software and much to my surprise, nearly every open source application I know and use was available for Windows! I installed LibreOffice, VLC, Firefox, Bleachbit, Gimp, Pidgin and Virtualbox. I also installed Flash, Java, and Silverlight for multimedia playback. For anti-virus I went with Avira Personal Edition because it was light and has done a good job protecting my Wife's Windows machines.
The experience taught me a great deal. I had no idea that so many of the open source applications that I enjoy have Windows versions and they work just as good in Windows! Vista's desktop effects settings are almost identical to the settings in KDE, that saved me some time! In the end, I enjoy using Windows Vista just as much as my favorite Linux distribution and the applications match up almost perfectly! Vista takes up 27 GB of hard drive space, where PCLinuxOS only uses about 3 GB for the same applications and functionality but it's a 500 GB hard drive so that's not really a problem.
I like how streamlined Vista looks and Firefox looks a whole lot better in Windows than it does in Linux. I have not used Windows myself for the last 7 years. So far I am enjoying using Vista, I have been using it for about 2 weeks now. I am real happy with the applications I have installed. It's nice to finally get some use out of this computer and I can still get some testing done with Virtualbox.
Edit: Just looked through the Free Software List here in the forum. I did not post anything that is not known already here, except Bleachbit was not in the list.
Rather than have the computer just sit and collect dust for another 2 years, I decided to install Windows Vista because I had a legal copy from an HP computer that was struck by lightning. I had never used Vista but I thought it was worth a try. I got Vista installed and installed all of the updates, tweaked the services using a guide I found online. Vista was running pretty nice, it was quick and it looked nice too with the Aero theme.
Vista provided all of the drivers I needed out of the box except for my NVidea GT 220 but Windows Update took care of that, things were looking good! Now I needed some software and much to my surprise, nearly every open source application I know and use was available for Windows! I installed LibreOffice, VLC, Firefox, Bleachbit, Gimp, Pidgin and Virtualbox. I also installed Flash, Java, and Silverlight for multimedia playback. For anti-virus I went with Avira Personal Edition because it was light and has done a good job protecting my Wife's Windows machines.
The experience taught me a great deal. I had no idea that so many of the open source applications that I enjoy have Windows versions and they work just as good in Windows! Vista's desktop effects settings are almost identical to the settings in KDE, that saved me some time! In the end, I enjoy using Windows Vista just as much as my favorite Linux distribution and the applications match up almost perfectly! Vista takes up 27 GB of hard drive space, where PCLinuxOS only uses about 3 GB for the same applications and functionality but it's a 500 GB hard drive so that's not really a problem.
I like how streamlined Vista looks and Firefox looks a whole lot better in Windows than it does in Linux. I have not used Windows myself for the last 7 years. So far I am enjoying using Vista, I have been using it for about 2 weeks now. I am real happy with the applications I have installed. It's nice to finally get some use out of this computer and I can still get some testing done with Virtualbox.
Edit: Just looked through the Free Software List here in the forum. I did not post anything that is not known already here, except Bleachbit was not in the list.
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