BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

Florida Jim

On 7/20/2011 1:55 PM, Harryk wrote:
On 7/20/11 1:44 PM, wrote:
On Wed, 20 Jul 2011 06:32:14 -0400,
wrote:

On 7/19/11 11:16 PM, wrote:
On Tue, 19 Jul 2011 21:31:20 -0400,
wrote:

I wonder what parts of the operating system the Best Buy boys will
remove, and how well the computer will run without them?

Are they talking about Microsoft's infamous "upgrade to a more
familiar version" (AKA removing Vista and installing XP).
My wife had her vendor do that with all the new machines in her office
that came with Vista.

BTW Microsoft may not be enforcing that "you can't swap machines
without calling us" thing on XP pro anymore.

I just installed my retail XP pro that was on a machine that died into
another one and expected I would have to call the 800 number, for the
3d degree before they would authenticate it (like the olden days) but
it sailed right through the online okey dokey, passed the microsoft
"legal OS" test and let me download the new media player.

My wife's new desktop computer came with Win 7 and had a small
amount of
non-Microsoft Windows "crapware" on it, which I was able to remove
without incident. There are a handful of varieties of Win 7, and you
can
upgrade from one to another by paying a fee, but I didn't see anything
that let you downgrade from Win 7 to XP.

The downgrade was just for unhappy Vista users.

One thing I learned from the smartest guys in the mainframe business
is to stay one generation behind the latest hardware and software. Let
some other pioneer take all the arrows and pay all of that "new smell"
cost. I am just starting to get rid of my last W98 apps but I am sure
I will still have a few 98 machines around. I still use DOS for my MP3
players. Everything else is XP pro.
I did find a guy in Ebay selling 1gz WYSE XP thin clients for $20 a
pop so I may be moving my servers to them.They only use 20-30 watts.
I am using an old lap top for my weather station and my TV machine is
a 2.4 gz Compaq desktop. That is now going to have to run 24/7 now
because Replay TV is dropping support on their DVR so I need to
replace that with a local WiRNS server.

I just upgraded my two mac machines to OS X Lion. The upgrade was $29
and change, total, for my two machines. Would have been the same for
five machines. Or maybe more machines.

Anyway, I started the upgrade and was "asked" one or two questions and
it took over. I went to a meeting for about an hour and a half and
when I got back, the upgrades were both installed. I was always
nervous about windoze upgrades because sometimes they would die
halfway through, or present some impossibly arcane error message.

I'm on the new OS now. There supposedly are "250 new features," but I
haven't looked at the list and there's no real cheat sheet that shows
how to use them...not yet.

I'm trying to resolve a Win 7 problem for my wife. When she VPNs in
from home to her server downtown, she can't print locally...whatever
she wants to print prints on one of her office printers but not on her
home laserprinter. I'm hoping it is only a minor headache to set
up... :)

Keep us informed, And promise you won't peek at her patient files.