(05-15-2014 09:08 AM)Niner National Wrote:  Android is awesome as long as you stick to higher end hardware. It sucks if you buy cheap Android phones.

Fair point, I went from the Droid X to the Galaxy Nexus to the Galaxy S3 and now the Galaxy S5. Always top of the line when I get them.

Windows 8 is on the wife's laptop so I've played around with it. Frustrating at first just trying to find simple things, etc.

Having said that, I recently rebuilt my own PC and installed Windows 7.

May 21, 2007

Question. When you install software, like video editing programs, where does it save the shortcut? Does it create an app like button on the start screen?

(05-15-2014 09:33 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  Question. When you install software, like video editing programs, where does it save the shortcut? Does it create an app like button on the start screen?

Yes.

(05-15-2014 09:36 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:33 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  Question. When you install software, like video editing programs, where does it save the shortcut? Does it create an app like button on the start screen?

Yes.

That's weird. Is it like a smart phone where you decide which apps appear?

(05-15-2014 09:38 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:36 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:33 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  Question. When you install software, like video editing programs, where does it save the shortcut? Does it create an app like button on the start screen?

Yes.

That's weird. Is it like a smart phone where you decide which apps appear?

Yes, you can drag the icons around the start screen.

(05-15-2014 09:40 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:38 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:36 AM)mlb Wrote:  

(05-15-2014 09:33 AM)oklalittledixie Wrote:  Question. When you install software, like video editing programs, where does it save the shortcut? Does it create an app like button on the start screen?

Yes.

That's weird. Is it like a smart phone where you decide which apps appear?

Yes, you can drag the icons around the start screen.

How long did it take you to get used to?

Never did. I don't use it on a daily basis. I had to set it up for my mom about a year ago and I've stuck with Windows 7 on all my machines due to it. I've held out on pushing it out to my company as well, including Windows Server 2012 that employs the same interface. We've stuck with Server 2008 R2 for now.

(05-15-2014 09:46 AM)mlb Wrote:  Never did. I don't use it on a daily basis. I had to set it up for my mom about a year ago and I've stuck with Windows 7 on all my machines due to it. I've held out on pushing it out to my company as well, including Windows Server 2012 that employs the same interface. We've stuck with Server 2008 R2 for now.

I love Windows 7. It is by far my favorite version. I just ordered a new laptop and it has 8.1 installed. It seems like it is going to be a lot like learning a new phone.

(05-15-2014 08:27 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  GTS said this the other day in a thread. It's just not easy to use. Windows should have kept with their basic format. When people are clamoring to go back to your old system you have a problem. The start screen is even bs. When will Microsoft get it's game together and stop trying to be Apple. It's ok. Do what you do, you have a fan base.


My 2 cents.

People still use Windows?

I've had 8.1 for about a month now, since I had to replace my old laptop. So I'm still trying to figure out how it works. Most of my time seems to be spent trying to foil the system so I can avoid the "improvements" and get back to having the capability I had 20 years ago.

I hate, for example that I can't even seem to set my computer to recognize my printer as the default every time. The system seems rigged to make me want to send stuff to the cloud as a first option. I suppose there's a lot of stuff out there by mistake now, since I have no idea how to delete it.

It seems to me this system was never really meant for laptop users. Everything is geared for phones, tablets, etc. If I wanted that stuff, I'd have bought them in the first place.

If Microsoft weren't a bloated corporate culture divorced from reality they would have followed John C. Dvorak's brilliant advice ... keep XP forever.

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2454844,00.asp



But no, they want to try the Apple style "new OS down your throat every year" model.



And I say let Apple and Microsoft do precisely that. It's just yet another reason to use Linux.

I haven't used Windows on any of my machines since 2002. And some of the mainstays you have to put up with on both OS X and Windows I find to be simply unacceptable now. A few of the bigger ones:

- Needing anti-virus. Either a crappy free anti-virus that doesn't do a good job ... or a mega-corporate anti-virus which is cheapish but sodomizes your computer's resources .... or a good one that is expensive.

- Needing to go through some complicated, time consuming, and risky to your data OS upgrade every 6 months to 18 months if you want the latest OS. In my Linux, I just keep on updating everything. Whenever I want. I can even just update security stuff if I don't want to be bothered.

- Having to update non-OS vital software manually one by one. In my Linux, I update the entire software stack at once. Browsers, photo editors, office suites, video editors. It all updates in one. The only exception is games, and Steam keeps those up to date automatically in the background.

- Not having a powerful and versatile command line. Windows Powershell is like somebody tried to make MS-DOS as good as a Linux shell from 1999 and gave up half way through. Utter ****. OS X's command line is somewhat different but pretty close, and with some hammering you can get a proper Linux CLI in there. People invariably go "omg I don't understand any of that you're typing is this the NSA what is going on LOL IMADUMBASS AND PROUD". When they first understand it is when somebody asks me to fix something on their computer. If it is Windows, I have to, from memory, tell them where to go through menu after menu after screen after button after tab and window after button after tab after menu after menu. It's f'n horrible. God help you if they are visually impaired and the config screen they bring up is busy. In Linux I can just say "here, copy and paste that into a shell." Job done.

- Not having *COMPLETE AND TOTAL* control of what the computer is doing. In every way.

- Do you honestly think the NSA doesn't have its tentacles in OS X and Windows?


People who think the allure of Linux is that is cost nothing miss the bigger point. The power of total platform freedom and a vastly more elegant, versatile, powerful, and efficient design and tool set is a more powerful sell than any price point ever could be.

Do what you do. Stop trying to be something else. Upgrade XP would be my suggestion. People loved XP. People wanted to still use XP. People understood XP. It's just a darn shame.

Funny I was typing that out when GTS posted his point.

I like knowing where to go and how to get things done. Familiarity. I put in a zip drive last night and couldn't find it. I had to take it out and put it back in so it popped up in a window. It's just crap.

LOL people snobby about what operating system other people use. Some of us just can't be as fabulous as the chosen ones.

Let's focus our priorities, gentlemen.

(05-15-2014 11:46 AM)Machiavelli Wrote:  Funny I was typing that out when GTS posted his point.

I like knowing where to go and how to get things done. Familiarity. I put in a zip drive last night and couldn't find it. I had to take it out and put it back in so it popped up in a window. It's just crap.

Tweaked it to be more in depth.

(05-15-2014 11:41 AM)georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:  - Do you honestly think the NSA doesn't have its tentacles in OS X and Windows?

I agree on that point, but I also believe that they have their tentacles on Linux as well. Either through different distributions, through different add-ons (apache, MySQL, Oracle, etc., etc.), and other purposefully place back doors that would be extremely hard to find and can be protected at some level by the different GPL licenses.

Unless you write your own operating system then I believe the back doors are there.

I'm actually quite happy with Windows 8.1.

At first, it was very difficult to get used to, due to the MEtro start menu and the other touch-screen oriented crap, but the OS is very stable and fast. I think it is just as good as Windows 7, if not better.

And surprisingle, it breaks the Windows trend of Suck, Good, Suck, Good, Suck, Good, Suck, Good.

There are a few guys on here that still use Windows 95.