Windows Vista Problems

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I am going to start with the second story that happened today. A nice old lady called me and told me she was buying a new HP computer with Qwest DSL and Windows Vista. It is a very nice computer. It came fully loaded with a huge monitor, remote, TV card for watching TV and listening to AM/FM radio. What more could a person ask for? and all under $800 with a HP printer. So she kindly asked me to hook it up for her. I thought it would be a quick install. So I talked with her as I hooked everything up. Once I was done I turned on the computer and connected it to the Internet. It said it was protected by the newest Norton on a trial basis. Immediately it disconnected from the Internet and stopped working? So I did a spy bot virus scan and found 16+ viruses on her computer. How did she get these viruses? Well from doing windows updates and downloading avast anti virus of course. Just that fast. So I looked for her Windows Vista install disk. It said "32 bit only" and she had a brand new 64 bit computer that came with the disk. OK that makes sense? I did a system restore and put my anti virus on it before connecting it to the net this time. It stayed connected. So what next? Well I put in the Printer Driver disk and it said it was not compatible with this version of Windows. OK? What a joke? The lady asked me if we should box it up and send it back. I told her this was normal Vista features in action. So after downloading the correct driver and installing it everything worked about as well as could be expected of a Vista computer. What No Office? No Word? OK so I put on openoffice.org 2.1 and it ran fine. We ended up putting SUSE Linux on the other half of the computer just in case Vista decided to take a dump.

So what's the first story? Well my father asked me to put Vista Ultimate on his laptop. My dad the Windows Lover I thought. This ought to teach him. And indeed it did. The Control panel crashed The system when you tried to open it. Explorer.exe crashed all The time. He could not find drivers for his new Vista Ready laptop, He had all kinds of fun. In The end he told me he would rather use Linux than Vista lol. Now I have him convinced.

So if you want to learn SUSE just go to [HYPERLINK@www.mindblowingidea.com] and click SELF HELP. Look for SUSE on one of The 4 pages. SUSE 10.2 is The newest stable version. Just use it.

The Response to This:

An Anonymous Sender wrote:

That’s good information to have. While I’m no lover of Bill Gates, I’m not sure everyone is ready or even needs to switch to Linux to avoid The Vista pitfalls. When purchasing a new computer, they can always use XP or Media Edition if they are gun shy about Bill’s newest boondoggle. At least they would then have The drivers they need and not have The learning curve that results from a new OS. Just a thought.

My Response:

Windows 98 and 2000 are the most secure versions of Windows but Microsoft stopped allowing people to download updates for them and now you have to switch to XP or Vista or else.

I tried this but it does not work. Windows XP is under Heavy fire right now from all the Linux supporting hackers and the people Microsoft stole from as well as all those people that hate the blue screen of death. Some people just like making viruses to brag about or as a hobby in their free time. No anti virus firewall or spy ware program can stop all the viruses out there. Many XP computers just simply won't work until you wipe the entire hard drive (not reformat or repartition) and reinstall Windows and all the programs from scratch. This is why I give the simple choice at startup to boot in Windows or Linux. Plus did I forget to mention XP will only be sold for another year and then Microsoft is dumping it? Well they are. Microsoft is trying to force everyone to switch to Vista. And they are making all the new programs only Vista friendly. This is not a good business strategy. When I can't run my old windows 98, 95, NT, 2000, 3.1 programs and XP programs in Vista because Vista does not support them and I can run them in Linux for free under WINE there is a serious problem! That's right pre Vista programs run better under Wine in Linux than on Vista! I know its a shocker but soon even Internet Explorer 7 will be available from ie4Linux for Linux. And you can currently run Internet explorer 5.0 5.5 and 6.0 on Linux. So you don't have to worry about those annoying sites popping up saying your browser is not supported for this page. So why stay with Windows XP? well for another couple months you should still be able to use the new programs from Microsoft and for a year or maybe two Microsoft will still supply updates and registrations for it. And they will still sell it for a year. And where is the fun in an Operating system without Blue Screens and Viruses? Ok I admit that SUSE Linux does not support DVD playback when you install it but using a detailed group of instructions or an install CD I created you can have your DVD player working in no time. Yes a lot of 3D video games for Windows don't work in Linux. But now most of the Video Games being made for XBOX PS3 Wii and Computers are all being made for Linux not to mention all the free games. My favorite is defendguin. Based on Atari's skyline game they made. There are cool jet fighter games too. Now you may think but What about all the cool graphics in XP, Vista, and Mac? Well the truth is Linux has all that including the Start Menu and it has more? what More? yes have you went to [HYPERLINK@www.video.google.com] and looked up beryl? well you should. It's an optional 3D desktop for the people that are not afraid of new features, and have faster computers. Of course it's not turned on by default. If you have Nvidia or ATI video cards and a Direct X 9 card or better it will work. You don't even need all that junk they say you must have to be VISTA ready. lol. Your 3 year old computer would do just fine. Not to mention Office is free and all the educational programs your kids need like typing tutors and geography and even college courses. Well since the average Linux Operating System comes with over 400 programs that Windows does not have all for free I probably should stop talking or I will clog the Internet up. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. go to [HYPERLINK@www.distrowatch.com] to find out all the latest. And if you want to know more look for videos on each version on video.google.com . Complete SUSE instructions are on my site on [HYPERLINK@www.mindblowingidea.com] click Self Help.

Someone said Windows Media Center was a good OS to use? Well A customer I just had bought a brand new Dell with Media Center installed and the Printer Spooler would not work with Lexmark printers (Dell resells mostly Lexmark printers, Dell printers are relabeled lexmark printers). XP worked great on all her previous Dell Computers to hook up to the Lexmark Printer but the New Media Center edition would not work. It disabled it's Spooler every time the computer restarted. Even when I started the spooler and reinstalled the spooler After installing a printer we were right back to it not working. I even reinstalled the OS several times. It never did work and the drivers were downloaded for XP but would not work with Media Center. Maybe Dell wanted her to get a newer printer? One of my other customers told me Dell told him he had to get Media Center edition of XP or he would not be able to record his movies from his camera? What are they trying to pull to squeeze that extra dime out of him? Everyone knows Windows Movie Maker comes on every XP computer. I think it even comes on ME the Most Errors i have ever gotten in a Windows OS. Too bad Vista is even worse than ME. I thought ME was the worst mistake Microsoft would ever make.

Dell sent me an e-mail asking me to fill out a survey. They said that all the schools want LINUX computers instead of Windows and are going to teach Linux. They asked what programs should be installed on these computers that customers would want. I answered the survey. Other companies are switching too. HP has dumped a lot of research and money into making all their printing products Linux compatible. Linux people don't go away from Linux they just buy the products that work with Linux. Most anything you buy works with some form of Linux but just like Vista there are some things it's not compatible with actually not just like Vista. Vista is not compatible with over %80 of people's computers Linux works on about %90 of people's computers. If you don't trust me just go to Wall mart or Sears and ask for a Linux computer. They will sell you one. IBM (the main supporter or Microsoft that got it started) said that they now primarily support Linux %100 over anything else. Why? Well it's because IBM makes Servers and Servers can't crash or the Internet would just stop working. over %60 of the world's servers run Linux. NAPA only uses SUN BSD Linux for their servers. NAPA has never used anything else. AT&T invented the LINUX BASH because it runs all their equipment out in the filed that routs calls and such. Even though most of AT&T's workers use Windows at their desks just because they are comfortable with it does not mean that AT&T thinks it's better. Novel invented SUSE because they needed something stable to install on their servers and equipment. IBM mainly is the supporter or Red Hat and Fedora because only Fedora could be used to test the New Cell Processor they invented for the PS3 when it first came out. Now SONY supports Yellow Dog Linux because it's all that will run on the PS3.

So what is the catch? Well for starters most computer technicians were never trained in Linux so you might have to learn something about fixing computers or you might have to ask one of your relatives. Linux computers can get into any windows machine on the same network without permission because of security flaws so be careful not to hack in to your friend's computer using the file sharing or printer sharing wizard. Be careful not to use encrypted password protected WiFi with your laptop. Linux will automatically give you all passwords to all WiFi networks you request to use if you have airsnort installed. Linux looks different. Even though it has a Start menu if you choose the KDE Look and Feel, it still is different. KDE use to be almost exactly the same as Windows but as time progressed they found that this plane Windows looking start menu was just to plain. Now they made it have tabs for a quicker search (not available in Linspire) and separate sub categories, to help you find things faster. they also added nicer looking icons with big text and icons so that you can see them better. If you are a Mac lover the Gnome is for you. Use Gnome instead of KDE and the menus at the top of the screen will be there to help you adjust to Linux from a Mac. Yes you can install LINUX on a Macintosh. Just download the PPC version. the X86 version is for a 32 bit computer and the X86_64 version is for 64 bit and 128 bit PCs. Linux is expensive. Even though you download it for free look at all that time you spend learning how it works. I mean you have to download it, burn it to a disk, install it by pressing enter, set a password and user name, and then you have to download all those free programs and updates, install your printer and scanner. A support package can be purchased from Novell for SUSE for one year for over $200 that will allow you to get help and support, a manual and an install DVD of SUSE for a whole year. One positive thing about Linux is at least you don't have to download most printer drivers when using SUSE.

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