Nooooooooo! Windows Its like a nightmare!

[demag]

I've been using Linux for a while now, its absolutely great, brilliant,wonderful! Well I haven't set the network back up since the install and needed to print the other day. Saved the doc to a flash drive, popped onto my sons computer to use the printer and its got a bloody virus!! . Gave him a rollicking, sorted the virus and did the printing at work from t'internet. Got home after work, daughter rings, "Dad can you look at the computer its running slow". Popped up. I thought here we go this doesn't look right. Ran Anti Vir and Malwarebytes, found 129 viruses!! . Turned out she opened an unknown email, clicked a link.......Gotcha! Luckily her pictures and music are ok but Windows has totally changed! The virus used a really old restore point to rehash Xp then destroyed all other restore points! I am using the pc now to do this. I had to manually reset everything. Reinstall a/v and firewall. Spent hours in safe mode because it wouldn't work in normal mode. It's taken about 6 hours to get it back up.


Boy am I glad I don't use this crap anymore!

[jonathan_dyane]

When I saw the thread title, my response was going to be 'try GNU/Linux' but you're here already! Just sorry you still have to deal with it fixing the kids PCs...

[onthecut]

Luckily her pictures and music are ok

OK -- I might be the only one who does, but I think XP is OK. Have had no major issues at all and once I completely got rid of the Norton the machine came with it fires up and runs a treat. Being a miserable sort of git, I think the real problem is that the offspring do far too much downloading of junk off the net, with inevitable consequences. My work machine is off limits for any internet work and guess what -- never a glitch !

Mike.

[andmcit]

Dave; sometimes you MUST have a drive in another 'normal' car to realise just how good
a Citroen is when you get back in and drive it! Get a feel for what you'd be missing...

Occasionally I have a momentary passing wander around a PC (or worse, for an irrational
moment use MSOffice on my Mac), but the pain goes away as soon as I use the Start button
to make the damned thing Shut Down!

Andrew

[onthecut]

So come on guys --- how about the rest of you ???!!!

This is very balanced so far ---- one each for Linux, Xp and Mac -- let's have some aggro !!!!!


Mike.

[andmcit]

As approx 95% of the world endures Windows machines I'm pretty sure the consensus will fall into the
"better the devil you know" camp. As the world runs about in Fords Beemers and Toyotas, we know
differently to them with our weird and maligned Xm's and other weird Citroens and are happy for it!!

I'm not saying you have to embrace Macs though and any minute know someone's going to have a pop
at them - all I'm saying is yes, there are other alternatives to the omnipresent Windows option in the
form of Linux and Apple - try it, you may like it etc!

Andrew

[drtim]

Ho hum Andrew yes I know what you mean but then again I got a bit flumoxed earlier trying to post a pic of what a Comet delivery van did to the rear of my Prestige this afternoon, uploaded it of the phone onto the /home , just COULDN'T get it uploaded onto photobucket until I realized the phone named it a .JPG and photobucket was looking for a .jpg.

Not that case insensitivity is one of Windows' strong points. I am a hardened oldtimer who was dragged kicking and screaming onto Unix and then Windows from OpenVMS (now that is GOOD technology, not cheap, not always up to date, but damn good still) and I am running Ubuntuy on my clapped out old PC in lieu of '98 which really is to insecure to use for anything but running my music studio stuff these days, however I am not totally convinced about it. In fact I believe just running Microsoft OS's in an environment where the Data Protection or Freedom of information Acts apply contravenes them, but people are not going to jail on this basis and those that do loose their jobs over security issues seem to bhave no problems getting another one!

If you know how to drive XP/Windows 7 or even hawk spit Vista and have a reasonable clue about the basics of security and backup then you stand a fighting chance and don't have to struggle with things like web 2.0 stuff not displaying right and slow flash video. However once the kids get loose on it with MSN, limeware etc it really is open season for the bad guys. You REAL:LY need to take reguiar backups and be in a position to restore to a known good state (either with a known good disk image of a configured system or the factory reinstall media).

I almost don't blame the kids (I had an interesting 90 mins with a smartie pants work experience 16 year old earlier in the week), the education system doesn't appear interested in teaching them anything about the realities of using such obviously flawed techonology as the basis for their whole life experience, probably because the teachers and their masters just don't get it either.

I was involved in some quite high level anti-Windows web advocay about a decade or so ago and it basically ruined my career, and I'm still struggling to get off the bottom rung in the Windows game (yes I can do it, I can do Linux too, convincing the recruitment industry of this even with the vast transferable skills from the Digital days is somewhat "challenging" and may yet see the demise of my much loved Prestige!),

Interestingly enough work co-worker James the Jap car fan who takes such continual delight in deriding my XM's because only the japs do it right according to all his car maintenance mags (fair do's he does know a bit) is absolutely brilliant with Windows (and Novell/Zenworks) but it is all he knows and doesn't really get my angle on the whol OS thing at all.

Oh, and if any of you live in Manchester, be scared, very scared...

[demag]

My argument is this: As Mike says, if your happy with Windows and it does it for you then why change. I would agree with that. But I wasn't happy with it for some years and every time it locked up or ran slow I got paranoid about another virus. It was driving me nuts. I had dabbled with Linux a few times but just couldn't get the right package for me. After 2 or 3 years messing with it but going back to Xp I eventually found PCLinuxOS. Ok there are still some things I don't quite understand but I'm getting there. My pc doesn't slow down, I don't get blue screens, the forum members just laugh when I mention viruses and it boots up in less than 1 minute. And to be honest I've got that settled with it and the fact that when I press the button it just works, I had to think what to do when the kids pc's got viruses.

[drtim]

My argument is this: As Mike says, if your happy with Windows and it does it for you then why change. I would agree with that. But I wasn't happy with it for some years and every time it locked up or ran slow I got paranoid about another virus. It was driving me nuts. I had dabbled with Linux a few times but just couldn't get the right package for me. After 2 or 3 years messing with it but going back to Xp I eventually found PCLinuxOS. Ok there are still some things I don't quite understand but I'm getting there. My pc doesn't slow down, I don't get blue screens, the forum members just laugh when I mention viruses and it boots up in less than 1 minute. And to be honest I've got that settled with it and the fact that when I press the button it just works, I had to think what to do when the kids pc's got viruses.

Sounds like it is working for you Dave. For me, I recently worked out that some recentish Ubuntu update (OK I am on an old version but I havn't had the time to upgrade or even work out if my clapped out 10 year old box can cope with an upgrade but it IS a long term support version I am running) or my inkjet running out of ink was totally knobbling the performance with a CPU loop inside the lp socket driver! Printer is now off pending a financial miracle that might allow me to replace the ink cartridges or printer!

If you're prepared to put up with a bit of that sort of stuff though there are benfits in running Linux, but don't think it is a 100% cure for all the woes one encounters using Microsoft OS's in the current internet environment. Remember, rootkits were first developed on Unix.

[ThwartedEfforts]

XP cut down (minus the interface effects and all other whistles and bells) is really quite good. It's why they can't get anyone moving to Vista and the principal reason Windows 7 will fail. XP Media Center has been running under my TV in the lounge without a reboot for months upon end. It just works. To move to another operating system would be pure folly when it's the applications that determine what you do and how you do it, not the underlying Apple/Lunix/Microsoft platform.