New OS

I'm looking for a new OS
I have tried playing by the rules , i even bought my own version of XP
The machine that i installed it on is a little flaky, so i installed it on a different HD.
Now when i tried to reactivate it , they said something like , our records show that you have exceeded the number of "something or other"
WTF !!!
so i am looking for a new OS ?
whats out there?

Phone Microsoft and get them to correct it.

Try Linux (a huge range of OSes), BSD or buy a Mac.

What do you normally use your computer for?

Do you need to upgrade it anyway?

If so you could buy a PC with Linux pre-loaded or (as stated above) a Mac.

Hero999 said:

or (as stated above) a Mac.

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Nigel, is there any chance that you could ban him for a comment like that?


I have had bad experiences with linux. Usually wireless problems. I am eagerly awaiting GooOS (Google OS). It is supposed to be based on linux/unix...

Window$ is fairly good, but they are too paranoid about their stuff.

I get all of my OSes for free, so i really don't have a reason to complain...

Marks256 said:

Nigel, is there any chance that you could ban him for a comment like that?


I have had bad experiences with linux. Usually wireless problems. I am eagerly awaiting GooOS (Google OS). It is supposed to be based on linux/unix...

Click to expand...

Well that's probably a 'marks256 problem', rather than a 'Linux problem'?

Why do you think a Google branded version might be any better?.

i called them , and after 12.5 mins i was reactivated ,yay
now i just need to put xp on a different box, one that doesnt freeze up , uggg

Why do you think a Google branded version might be any better?.

Click to expand...

I don't. I just want to see what the feel needs to be changed...

The biggest problem Linux faces is industry support. Google is a very big company and people are more likely to listen and support it if they made an OS.

take your copy of windows back for a refund and go grab opensolaris from Sun ... run a real UNIX on your computer, none of this willy-nilly wannabe linux

as for getting a refund, tell the store you don't accept the license agreement (which is presented to you AFTER you finish the installation) ... that way they can't complain about the cd being open - since it says right in the license agreement if you don't accept return to the place of purchase for a full refund.

i'll consider that justDIY
i'm on a different box now , xp hasnt complained yet , but i'm sure it will.
the best part is the box hasnt frozen up , yet , keeping my fingers crossed!

take your copy of windows back for a refund and go grab opensolaris from Sun ...

Click to expand...

Too bad i don't have a legal copy of windows to return!

I've been working on switching to debian with KDE (linux distro and window manager)...

There's a bit of a learning curve, and getting it to work properly with all of my hardware has proven to be a giant pain in the .... especially on my laptop. But I think the end result will be worth it.

Depending on where you go with your career and what you end up doing, knowing a bit of linux can help you out. I'll always have a windows machine for my engineering apps though.

I love linux. I'm getting to the point I think I can safely call myself intermediate skill level with linux instead of a newby. Once you learn enough linux to get by you will always have that skill to use over and over.I have recently been studying perl/tk and I love it. A page and a half of code and I made a graphical program that converts text to binary or hexadecimal and back. Computers and electronics are related and you don't need parts to write a program. I would love to get into developing some open source but I can't find any mentors or partners. I put slackware 11 on 2 166mhz pentiums recently.They used to have Damn small linux but it was lacking some software I usually use. I don't understand what anyone needs a new machine for. If an old one is pretty quick and it can play video ,that's good enough for me. 400mhz and 256k is plenty. The point is the only other option would be to use windows 98 which is 8 years old and sucks. Slackware 11 has very recent open source software and has only been out a few months.The same linux I run on those old machines would run on a server with 32 processors and a bazzillion jigabytes of ram (no really).

Unfortunately hardware vendors don't give away drivers for linux like they do windows so you have to do some research before buying hardware.

Marks256 said:

Nigel, is there any chance that you could ban him for a comment like that?


I have had bad experiences with linux. Usually wireless problems. I am eagerly awaiting GooOS (Google OS). It is supposed to be based on linux/unix...

Window$ is fairly good, but they are too paranoid about their stuff.

I get all of my OSes for free, so i really don't have a reason to complain...

Click to expand...

what is the chipset?
there are 3chipset makers that provide Linux drivers and one that does not (broadcom - although reverse eng has 90% of functionality working, cant act as a server via wifi tho)

when was the last time you tried? the latest FedoraCore (and ubuntu) actually have pretty much every wifi card driver as part of the install. The fun is in configureing it (again a couple very easy and a couple can be annoying)

I myself have a nice RaLink chipset and it was a doddle to setup on my nice Gentoo install (had wifi and Linux for over a year now with no problems), likewise my new build is 100% 64bit and all hardware supported (sound,GFX,DVD-burner,Wireless,Funky-mouse,printer...) more than what can be said for Windows:Vista64bit that has substandard GFX, limited sound (none for X-fi), no USB-based drivers) THere 32bit is only slightly better

you should try linux again. It isn't hard it is just different

I tried it a week and a half ago (since then i formated the HD and put XP Pro on it so i could get some work done... ) I used Mepis. I was SOOO close to getting it to work. The wireless drivers worked just fine, but it would not connect to my crap linksys router. It would detect the mac address when scanning for it, but once i tried to connect, then it wouldn't detect the mac address.

Styx,Gentoo is a pretty advanced system. I didn't like compiling everything from scratch ,but I've heard stuff runs better that way.

There is way more info on linux online than any other system.People are pretty good about helping. I go to www.linuxquestions.org a lot. I highly recommend it.

Was just thinking about my next perl/tk project might be a graphical interface to the p2k programming software for my pickit2. I like to program (even if I'm not very good) but I always have to have something worthwhile.

I didn't get much help on linuxquestions.

Depends on the kind of questions you're asking Marks.

Marks256 said:

I tried it a week and a half ago (since then i formated the HD and put XP Pro on it so i could get some work done... ) I used Mepis. I was SOOO close to getting it to work. The wireless drivers worked just fine, but it would not connect to my crap linksys router. It would detect the mac address when scanning for it, but once i tried to connect, then it wouldn't detect the mac address.

Click to expand...

ok you have me intreagued now the fact that you have the driver up (so to speak... phrase given when a driver is associated with a piece of hardware AND a network node and is ready for instructions) is EXTREAMLY promosing!!!

What exactly failed? could the Mepis WiFi-GUI see your router? was it due to encription (what encription-type are you using!!)

99% of wireless problems with linux is downto not getting drivers (and thus people a halted before bringing the interface up!) you are pass that is this is most definitly fixable.

My initial hunch is the encription setup. Try this: disable encription on your router (only for a short time...) and see if you can connect! (I have a feeling it will connect and thn you can pick up an IP address really easily!)
Then it is just a case of configuring the encription (not as hard)

for the record I actually have a harder time with Windows and wireless then I do with Gentoo, I don't think it is downto experience since while I know my gentoo system inside out I do know my way around windows

cyb0rg777 said:

Styx,Gentoo is a pretty advanced system. I didn't like compiling everything from scratch ,but I've heard stuff runs better that way.

There is way more info on linux online than any other system.People are pretty good about helping. I go to www.linuxquestions.org a lot. I highly recommend it.

Was just thinking about my next perl/tk project might be a graphical interface to the p2k programming software for my pickit2. I like to program (even if I'm not very good) but I always have to have something worthwhile.

Click to expand...

Well not really, compiling yourself actually causes more problems (there is no upstream support from GAIM or BMPx for gentoo since we keep pointing out problems ). sure you can play around with the CFLAGS and add stuff like -funroll-loops and other crazyness but in realtiy you might get a 1%-2% performance boost BUT with an increase chance of packages not compiling

Gentoo comes into its own in having the best package manager (true dependancy checking - the original reason I went gentoo 3years ago) as well as teh USE flags (to control what gets enabled at compile time or not) - this results in a system where I know what is what (FC,Mandrake,Ubuntu... all have a load of /etc files which I have no idea what they do)



Also the biggest advantage of Gentoo is it has the best documentation and the best support (type forums into google )
even if you don't use gentoo if u have a problem post in the "off the wall" section and I will pretty much guententee yr prob will get fix (there are FedoraCore QA ppl on the gentoo forums and Ubuntu as well as debian..., plus doesn't take long to install a distro in a VMWARE machine to test)

ok you have me intreagued now the fact that you have the driver up (so to speak... phrase given when a driver is associated with a piece of hardware AND a network node and is ready for instructions) is EXTREAMLY promosing!!!

What exactly failed? could the Mepis WiFi-GUI see your router? was it due to encription (what encription-type are you using!!)

99% of wireless problems with linux is downto not getting drivers (and thus people a halted before bringing the interface up!) you are pass that is this is most definitly fixable.

My initial hunch is the encription setup. Try this: disable encription on your router (only for a short time...) and see if you can connect! (I have a feeling it will connect and thn you can pick up an IP address really easily!)
Then it is just a case of configuring the encription (not as hard)

for the record I actually have a harder time with Windows and wireless then I do with Gentoo, I don't think it is downto experience since while I know my gentoo system inside out I do know my way around windows

Click to expand...

I am not really sure... My router is crap. I thought linksys was higher quality than that... Hey... are there firmware updates for linksys routers? Anyways... No, i don't have encryption enabled. I dont think Mepis has a GUI for wireless. I did find one on the net, and it was rated very high, but i couldn't compile the freaking source.