elsiegee40 Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 I have a friend's ageing XP machine on the bench at the moment. It got badly attacked by trojans and the only option was a complete reinstall of windows. She is saving for a new machine, but doesn't quite have the money yet. I brought the machine home and kicked off the install only to get most of the way through and find the keyboard and mouse didn't work...USB keyboard and mouse... Bu99er! Abandon install, dig in cupboards, dust off ancient versions with purple and green connectors. Start again. Meanwhile on my own PC, my TomTom satnav has decided that it will only connect through one USB port... the middle one at the back, naturally. It took about an hour of fiddling and uninstall/reinstall to figure that one. I think I'll just tell everyone to go back to paper. I don't need this
CyberNerd Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 Top tip for home jobs: Install Windows for people who pay. Install Linux for free for friends/family. The install will be smoother and you'll not get them back every 6months with virus/trojan problems. If your getting paid it doesn't matter that you spend all night searching for drivers - and your guaranteed of repeat work :-)
elsiegee40 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Posted June 7, 2013 Thanks witch... I think a real Gin might be in order... it is bearly 7pm after all . Meanwhile... back chez gee40... "installing update 456789 of 987654" or something!
elsiegee40 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Posted June 7, 2013 Top tip for home jobs: Install Windows for people who pay. Install Linux for free for friends/family. The install will be smoother and you'll not get them back every 6months with virus/trojan problems. If your getting paid it doesn't matter that you spend all night searching for drivers - and your guaranteed of repeat work :-) No problems with friend paying back... I probably owe her loads of favours by now. She may be computer illiterate but she's one of the best
CyberNerd Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 No problems with friend paying back... I probably owe her loads of favours by now. She may be computer illiterate but she's one of the best Then you'll be doing her a favour with Mint15
ConradJones Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 Then you'll be doing her a favour with Mint15 seconded
elsiegee40 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Posted June 7, 2013 I think Mint would be a step too far for her.
Jollity Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 On the bright side, at least you had a PS/2 keyboard in the cupboard. I had a friend's boyfriend borrow one off me recently in order to enter a single keystroke to get past a BIOS message. May tomorrow be a better computing day! 1
ZeroHour Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 Did legacy mode not work? I have never had usb keyboard issues with xp tbh.... hmmm
Roberto Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 Mint is nice - it's the one Linux install I've done that I've actually wanted to keep - but if someone's expecting a Windows re-install then giving them something unexpected out of the blue won't end well.
elsiegee40 Posted June 7, 2013 Author Posted June 7, 2013 Did legacy mode not work? I have never had usb keyboard issues with xp tbh.... hmmm I never got that far. The mouse disappeared first, but I managed to do the regional settings using the keyboard alone. It then chugged on for a another half hour before popping up a box telling me that Windows would optimise the screen settings for the monitor with a box that said [OK] However, the keyboad wasn't working either by this time, so I couldn't click, hit enter or do anything. In the end I leant on the power button and started again with PS/2 keyboard and mouse.
CyberNerd Posted June 7, 2013 Posted June 7, 2013 I think Mint would be a step too far for her. For you or for her? I'd wager that Mint 15 would be fine for a "computer illiterate" who's used to XP.
elsiegee40 Posted June 8, 2013 Author Posted June 8, 2013 For you or for her? I'd wager that Mint 15 would be fine for a "computer illiterate" who's used to XP. I will stick it on an old aptop I have and see what her reaction is, but not this weekend; I have too much to do
ConradJones Posted June 8, 2013 Posted June 8, 2013 i think it boils down to software most of the time, depends on the users needs. windows is an unecessary evil to run a lot of software but with the advert of "always-on", cloud and browser based software its really starting to change,
Miscbrah Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 Give her Windows and let her stick with it. [Windows] I want to install this photo program - go to this site, download this, click 'install', use. [Linux] I want to use this photo program - there's no Linux one. There's one a bit like it though. Go to this site, download the tarball, open a terminal, type apt-get install %program%, then it won't work so remember sudo apt-get install %program%, compile this bit using your favourite compiler, create a few symbolic links, update a few other things, install moonlight, edit some .conf file, then it won't work for no good reason, then Google for ages finding no answers, then give up.
Guest salan Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 Give her Windows and let her stick with it. [Windows] I want to install this photo program - go to this site, download this, click 'install', use. [Linux] I want to use this photo program - there's no Linux one. There's one a bit like it though. Go to this site, download the tarball, open a terminal, type apt-get install %program%, then it won't work so remember sudo apt-get install %program%, compile this bit using your favourite compiler, create a few symbolic links, update a few other things, install moonlight, edit some .conf file, then it won't work for no good reason, then Google for ages finding no answers, then give up. you know in all the years of using Linux, I have never had that happen. I have had loads of Windows programs that don't play nicely together and ended up being removed. Alan
fromtheinternet Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 Give her Windows and let her stick with it. [Windows] I want to install this photo program - go to this site, download this, click 'install', use. [Linux] I want to use this photo program - so I open up the software manager, find one I want and install it. Fixed that for you. 1
CyberNerd Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 The one thing that would make windows useful would be a package manager! 1
BKGarry Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 The one thing that would make windows useful would be a package manager! That's the Win8 App Store is it not?
ConradJones Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 apt-get install *scratches head* tar -xvf tarball.tgz ./configure make sudo make install (Much Simpler!) -------------------------- Disclaimer I love linux and use it on all machines, but unfortunately dia does not come close to visio, libreoffice is fine for me but i can understand why some people need ms office, the list of software is endless but the linux situation is getting better all the time and has really grown in the last few years and for me as a tech its more usable than windows, dear god I hope I never see "Add New Hardware Wizard" as long as I live. But I don't think that alters for a lot of people the software they need is only available on windows.
CyberNerd Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 That's the Win8 App Store is it not? Thats a joke isn't it?
BKGarry Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 @CyberNerd Are you referring to the whole of Windows 8 as being a finished product through a comprehensive end user opinions on a whole before it was release, then yes :-) Sorry, I am still not Convinced by Win8 as a whole, but some bits are very good. And yes the Win8 AppStore is the biggest joke of them all ;-)
fromtheinternet Posted June 10, 2013 Posted June 10, 2013 I've been using Win8 since shortly after it went RTM. I don't think I've ever actually seen the app store...
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