new computer arrived

I just received my new HP pavillion. It is as fast as the wind. But navigation is a little different than the XP. It will take me a couple of days to get it configured to my convenience. Email is different. I am familiar with outlook. I do not know how I will like Windows Live email.

Time to install Ubuntu on it

linux from scratch

After messing with Windows 7 for a few days, I would not recommend this OS to anyone sucking air! It is an absolutely horrible system.
conifermtman, I am currently thinking: "Linux".

major bean wrote: After messing with Windows 7 for a few days, I would not recommend this OS to anyone sucking air! It is an absolutely horrible system.
conifermtman, I am currently thinking: "Linux".

Well it is better than Vista.

I have to say, its been over three years since I told Bill Gates, and his Microsoft to go the way of the Edsel! My entire career was with their system, went from being the "holy grail" to being "wholly a mess"... I L O V E my Apple, and everything about it. We are just in the beginning of observing Microsoft go the way of American On Line!

stcroix2 wrote: I have to say, its been over three years since I told Bill Gates, and his Microsoft to go the way of the Edsel! My entire career was with their system, went from being the "holy grail" to being "wholly a mess"... I L O V E my Apple, and everything about it. We are just in the beginning of observing Microsoft go the way of American On Line!

I don't think so, most high end business systems are not going to Apple anytime soon. Even if Apple would allow their OS to be licensed on anything but Apple hardware, Microsoft would not go away. Apple would be exposed to the same challenges that Microsoft has working with so many different devices. Apple is a very closed system, they pretty much dictate what hardware you can choose from, unlike the PC world.

As much as I dislike Microsoft, Windows 7 is rarely rebooted because it locks up. In fact my work PC may get rebooted once a month or less. Also, having to make appointments with the Mac "Genius" at the Apple store for support is a joke. When I want answers, I want them now, not at Apple's convenience. My biggest beef with Windows is the virus situation. If Apple had the same market share as Microsoft did, they would have these problems too. Hardly anyone owns a Mac compared to PC's so they are not big target for virus authors.

For people who just surf the web, write emails, listen to music and do light photo editing and have the intellectual curiosity, Linux is the most cost effective solution and once set up is just as easy to use. I bet the Google Chrome OS pulls ahead of Apple within a year a two. The marketing problem that Linux systems have is name recognition, once you add Google in front of most products, they will take off.

In terms of ease of use, for all the things I now do on a computer, and those which I did when I was last out in the real world, this Apple system runs vastly ahead of any PC I was ever blessed with. Most of my workday was spent plucking away on one of these machines. Once the decision makers in the gov't find out about the ease of use of these machines, look out Microsoft. I know that for my work unit here in Colorado, we would have bit the bullet, and bucked the brass out east and been using some of these machines for Task Specific projects. Quite often at the end of the fiscal year we were flush with drug/asset forfeiture funds which had to be spent, and quickly... it would have been an easy decision for me, Apple vs Nigh Vision gear... and we would have saved many thousands of dollars! All I am saying, considering ease of use, this system over the systems I've used previously is akin to going from iron wheels to steel belted radial RUBBER tires on my pickup truck!

Only have to "reboot" once a month, hey... I've yet to "reboot" this system, and I purchased this macbook pro in Sept '07

Evidently, too, your experience fixing a problem on your Microsoft based system is totally different than mine. We had to invest in our own technicians, trained them ourselves, and for a work group of 33 people they could not keep up with all the required repairs, and glitches with both the hardware systems and software. It was a constant stream of one disaster to the next. Talk about proprietary folks... try dealing directly with Microsoft!

Love the debate, too

stcroix2 wrote: In terms of ease of use, for all the things I now do on a computer, and those which I did when I was last out in the real world, this Apple system runs vastly ahead of any PC I was ever blessed with. Most of my workday was spent plucking away on one of these machines. Once the decision makers in the gov't find out about the ease of use of these machines, look out Microsoft. I know that for my work unit here in Colorado, we would have bit the bullet, and bucked the brass out east and been using some of these machines for Task Specific projects. Quite often at the end of the fiscal year we were flush with drug/asset forfeiture funds which had to be spent, and quickly... it would have been an easy decision for me, Apple vs Nigh Vision gear... and we would have saved many thousands of dollars! All I am saying, considering ease of use, this system over the systems I've used previously is akin to going from iron wheels to steel belted radial RUBBER tires on my pickup truck!

Only have to "reboot" once a month, hey... I've yet to "reboot" this system, and I purchased this macbook pro in Sept '07

Evidently, too, your experience fixing a problem on your Microsoft based system is totally different than mine. We had to invest in our own technicians, trained them ourselves, and for a work group of 33 people they could not keep up with all the required repairs, and glitches with both the hardware systems and software. It was a constant stream of one disaster to the next. Talk about proprietary folks... try dealing directly with Microsoft!

Love the debate, too

I know plenty of heavy duty Mac users that have to reboot weekly and often daily. While not entirely Apples fault, Photoshop also has a tendency to shutdown a lot on macs. Macs are far from perfect, when you have a problem that requires knowledge of the command line users are stuck making an appointment with the Mac genius bar. As much as Steve Jobs likes to use terms like "magical", under the covers Macs are just BSD UNIX with a touch of the Next operating system mingled in.

The company I work for deals with only Dell desktops and servers and just about all our desktops are Windows XP or 7, with a couple of power users running Ubuntu Linux and Virtual Machines. We rarely have problems. I have worked in companies in the past with as many as 20,000 users and have had similar experiences their. My biggest beef with Apple is that you don't get a lot of bang for your buck, but then again I build all my own desktops and servers for my home and business, which means I'm spending only 1/3 to 1/2 on my hardware.

conifermtman, Ok let's talk about a good virtual machine software 64 bit to put on my machine, with Linux as the host.