When I was off sick and lying on my back, I decided to really explore Ubuntu on my computer, I found myself falling more and more in love with it. When I was better and able to move around, as my favourite sport, field archery, had to be put on hold for the rest of the year, I decided to buy a new laptop, an Asus K55VD SX696H with 8GB of ram.
This is a very nice notebook and well within my budget, obviously I had no choice of Operating system thanks to the collusion between Microsoft and computer manufacturers, so I got my nice new laptop with one of the worst Operating Systems since Vista.
Because of the new EFI and GPT system I could not easily install Ubuntu alongside Windows 8, but after 5 days of trial and error I finally managed to load Ubuntu 13.04 alongside Windows 8.
Since then I have been playing and exploring Ubuntu and my verdict is this is a Gem of an Operating System, but it takes some effort and a willingness to learn, but once you get into the swing of it you realise just how flawed Windows really is.
The amount of software that is available is huge, from excellent smooth scrolling first person shooter games, platform games, to quality office programs and technical stuff. VLC movie player works well and my favourite programs are Krusader, a wonderful dual pane explorer similar to XYplorer, Deluge bittorrent works well with Tor and a simple sticky notes program called Xpad.
Libre office comes free and is simple and a joy to use, Live Mail for hotmail is available, and apart from Tom Tom everything seems to be supported, including my Ipod Classic. It seems to be blindingly fast and as stable as a rock, everything a good Operating System should be.
This does not take long to become intuitive, and if you get stuck just do a google search for what you want or are trying to do and there is usually an easy tutorial or help available. Ubuntu is improving at a fast rate, far faster than Windows, and the following of Ubuntu is growing is growing at the same pace.
I cannot recommend Ubuntu highly enough and recommend more people try it. If you have a new 64 bit computer and want to try Ubuntu and are prepared for a sharp learning curve the way I managed to install Ubuntu is here.
My scores are as follows:
Windows 8 3/10
Ubuntu13.04 10/10
Monday, June 10, 2013
Wednesday, June 05, 2013
Windows 8 - Another Disaster from Microsoft
I purchased a new Asus K55VD SX696H - 8 GB, I selected this notebook because it had good reviews and I could select certain flavours. It is a very nice machine, in particular when I changed the small slow harddrive for a Seagate Momentous XL 750 GB hybrid harddrive.
The one disappointment is I had NO choice of operating system, I had to have Windows 8, as it came pre-installed, to me this was against my consumer rights,my human rights and my basic right to choose. After playing with Windows 8 for several hours, my conclusion is that this is as bad as Vista was, if not worse.
Don't get me wrong Microsoft have produced some gems, Windows 3.11 was excellent, I loved XP, and I grew to love Windows 7 thinking it was a worthy replacement of XP, but Windows 8 is horrible, no start button and these silly apps.
Here it is time for an admission, I like Ubuntu (Linux), but I always had a dual boot system, so I could go into Windows and do the couple of things I couldn't do in Ubuntu, like use Tom Tom Home, because irony of irony, the Tom Tom unit is run on a Linux system, but their software is only produced for a Windows or Mac system, of course I complained to Tom Tom, and got a very nice reply, that just gave the usual company bullshit.
Why do Microsoft produce something good then replace it soon after with a piece of crap? Why do Microsoft and the computer manufacturers collaborate to take away the basic right to choose? I could understand if Microsoft did what Apple does that is produce their own computers with their own operating system, but this world dominance thing is really against all the principles of freedom of choice, so I shall be writing to Human Rights, Consumer Rights and Trading Standards to lodge a complaint against Microsoft.
I also had one hell of a job installing Ubuntu in dual boot load, mainly thanks again to the way Microsoft insist on their software being almost hard wired into the firmware bios. I did get around this problem and the solution is here.
I know many people who love Windows 8, but I think I know more who hate it and wish they still had Windows 7. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 8 goes the same way as Vista, already I hear that this month there will be Windows 8.1 to restore the start button, but with more limited functionality that people are used to.
I am not against change, I am almost 60 and I love technology, what I hate is badly written software, or bloated software, for instance from pressing the power button and selecting Ubuntu to load takes about 20 seconds, Windows is at least 8X slower, and that includes login time. Updates in Ubuntu come down in seconds and install seamlessly in the background without countless restarts, and most of the software is open source and free and comes with Office compatible, Libre Office which is a joy to use as its simple and just gets on with the job at hand.
The one disappointment is I had NO choice of operating system, I had to have Windows 8, as it came pre-installed, to me this was against my consumer rights,my human rights and my basic right to choose. After playing with Windows 8 for several hours, my conclusion is that this is as bad as Vista was, if not worse.
Don't get me wrong Microsoft have produced some gems, Windows 3.11 was excellent, I loved XP, and I grew to love Windows 7 thinking it was a worthy replacement of XP, but Windows 8 is horrible, no start button and these silly apps.
Here it is time for an admission, I like Ubuntu (Linux), but I always had a dual boot system, so I could go into Windows and do the couple of things I couldn't do in Ubuntu, like use Tom Tom Home, because irony of irony, the Tom Tom unit is run on a Linux system, but their software is only produced for a Windows or Mac system, of course I complained to Tom Tom, and got a very nice reply, that just gave the usual company bullshit.
Why do Microsoft produce something good then replace it soon after with a piece of crap? Why do Microsoft and the computer manufacturers collaborate to take away the basic right to choose? I could understand if Microsoft did what Apple does that is produce their own computers with their own operating system, but this world dominance thing is really against all the principles of freedom of choice, so I shall be writing to Human Rights, Consumer Rights and Trading Standards to lodge a complaint against Microsoft.
I also had one hell of a job installing Ubuntu in dual boot load, mainly thanks again to the way Microsoft insist on their software being almost hard wired into the firmware bios. I did get around this problem and the solution is here.
I know many people who love Windows 8, but I think I know more who hate it and wish they still had Windows 7. I wouldn't be surprised if Windows 8 goes the same way as Vista, already I hear that this month there will be Windows 8.1 to restore the start button, but with more limited functionality that people are used to.
I am not against change, I am almost 60 and I love technology, what I hate is badly written software, or bloated software, for instance from pressing the power button and selecting Ubuntu to load takes about 20 seconds, Windows is at least 8X slower, and that includes login time. Updates in Ubuntu come down in seconds and install seamlessly in the background without countless restarts, and most of the software is open source and free and comes with Office compatible, Libre Office which is a joy to use as its simple and just gets on with the job at hand.
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