Back to Windows!

[ViolentJ]

KDF you may want to have a drink before you commence reading

After 2 years of Linux loving I've gone back to windows.

Although WINE/Cedega has come a long way, it seems I'm just unlucky and none of my windows only games are supported. I have a console but have always preferred the old keyboard and mouse.

So, I'm currently running a fully updated XP Pro with the playschool theme turned off and a custom classic theme. Had a few errors and crashes before all the updates had finished but everything seems to be fine now.

As much as it pains me to say it, it's actually booting and shutting down quicker than my Ubuntu install did. The only addition I have on startup is antivirus.

The only thing I'm lacking is the ability to have a wallpaper over dual screens. Nvidia has decided that for this option both monitors have to be the same resolution which isn't possible when one is a 22" widescreen and the other is a normal 17".

Apart from the wallpaper which I can live without I have no compalints so far. Hopefully it will stay stable this time and I won't return to the familiar pattern of reinstalls.

I have to say that Black & White 2 with everything on high is rather pretty. The last time I played this game my pc was a tad outdated and even with low settings it was stuttery.

Fear not though opensource fans. I am still running Firefox, OpenOffice and The GIMP

Not sure whether to bother with Vista or not?

 

[BenWall]

Good to hear it mate. I like some of the features in Vista but im sticking with XP for now, as its fast and stable.

I have Ubuntu on my laptop, and its fast enough, but like you say the reason I have XP on my desktop is for the games and the Adobe suite.

I have pm'd you about some software for the dual screens. Its amazing, does everything you need.

 

[ViolentJ]

That's some nifty software, thank you

 

[Final Maxim]

i dont think i could go back to XP now having got used to vista, its definatly a step forward

 

[MikeyK18]

its nt that different to xp

i download a vista transformation pack with converted my xp to look like vista n its exactly like vista

makes you wonder did microsoft do anything different with vista apart from slow your system down

 

[Gareth]

Good to hear it mate. I like some of the features in Vista but im sticking with XP for now, as its fast and stable.

I have Ubuntu on my laptop, and its fast enough, but like you say the reason I have XP on my desktop is for the games and the Adobe suite.

I have pm'd you about some software for the dual screens. Its amazing, does everything you need.

can you PM me those details mate, unless its Ultramon.

 

[Daz]

You are the perfect candidate for a Mac.

 

[BenWall]

Good to hear it mate. I like some of the features in Vista but im sticking with XP for now, as its fast and stable.

I have Ubuntu on my laptop, and its fast enough, but like you say the reason I have XP on my desktop is for the games and the Adobe suite.

I have pm'd you about some software for the dual screens. Its amazing, does everything you need.

can you PM me those details mate, unless its Ultramon.

Its ultramon lol

 

[ViolentJ]

You are the perfect candidate for a Mac.

I'd happily have one if I had money to burn.

 

[KDF]

KDF you may want to have a drink before you commence reading

After 2 years of Linux loving I've gone back to windows.

Although WINE/Cedega has come a long way, it seems I'm just unlucky and none of my windows only games are supported. I have a console but have always preferred the old keyboard and mouse.

So, I'm currently running a fully updated XP Pro with the playschool theme turned off and a custom classic theme. Had a few errors and crashes before all the updates had finished but everything seems to be fine now.

As much as it pains me to say it, it's actually booting and shutting down quicker than my Ubuntu install did. The only addition I have on startup is antivirus.

The only thing I'm lacking is the ability to have a wallpaper over dual screens. Nvidia has decided that for this option both monitors have to be the same resolution which isn't possible when one is a 22" widescreen and the other is a normal 17".

Apart from the wallpaper which I can live without I have no compalints so far. Hopefully it will stay stable this time and I won't return to the familiar pattern of reinstalls.

I have to say that Black & White 2 with everything on high is rather pretty. The last time I played this game my pc was a tad outdated and even with low settings it was stuttery.

Fear not though opensource fans. I am still running Firefox, OpenOffice and The GIMP

Not sure whether to bother with Vista or not?

 

[ViolentJ]

Are you that far behind reading forum posts? lol

Still using XP now with no problems! I spend loads of time on COD4 so switching back was definitely worth it.

 

[Mells]

KDF you may want to have a drink before you commence reading

After 2 years of Linux loving I've gone back to windows.

Although WINE/Cedega has come a long way, it seems I'm just unlucky and none of my windows only games are supported. I have a console but have always preferred the old keyboard and mouse.

So, I'm currently running a fully updated XP Pro with the playschool theme turned off and a custom classic theme. Had a few errors and crashes before all the updates had finished but everything seems to be fine now.

As much as it pains me to say it, it's actually booting and shutting down quicker than my Ubuntu install did. The only addition I have on startup is antivirus.

The only thing I'm lacking is the ability to have a wallpaper over dual screens. Nvidia has decided that for this option both monitors have to be the same resolution which isn't possible when one is a 22" widescreen and the other is a normal 17".

Apart from the wallpaper which I can live without I have no compalints so far. Hopefully it will stay stable this time and I won't return to the familiar pattern of reinstalls.

I have to say that Black & White 2 with everything on high is rather pretty. The last time I played this game my pc was a tad outdated and even with low settings it was stuttery.

Fear not though opensource fans. I am still running Firefox, OpenOffice and The GIMP

Not sure whether to bother with Vista or not?

+1

tut, tut, tut.....

I'm sad. Believe it or not you kept me interested enough when I first started using Ubuntu to keep on with it with all your eyecandy mods etc. I havent looked back. Bar a slight glitch when I had to use XP for a couple of weeks inbetween 7.04 and 7.10 - truely horrible. Just wait till you load up a couple of bits of software and it will be s**t slow again.

You'll get fed up and come back fella. If you havent already - try DreamLinux.

p.s. GIMP is s**t in windows.
p.s.s. keep a dual boot? goooo on!

 

[timmmah]

You are the perfect candidate for a Mac.

Yeah thats what i was thinking. You can even run windows on it with Bootcamp or Parallels.

 

[ViolentJ]

Mells I tried DL a while back, was ok but preferred Ubuntu. It's not that I don't like or can't get on with Linux. I used it for 2 years! It's purely the lack of support for the games I want to play. Having the Wine/Cedega devs dictate to me what I can/cannot play is just crap. With Cedega even if a game gets voted through for them to work on getting it to work it doesn't mean it will actually happen. I got all excited when I saw Black and White 2 had been voted through but when over a year later they hadn't touched it I decided enough was enough.

It wasn't an easy decision and I put the Windows CD back numerous times before giving in. As for dual booting, I switch between games and other stuff too frequently for it to be feasible. I would waste so much time rebooting it would be daft. GIMP under Windows seems ok to me?

I know Windows has a tendency to slow down over time but I think I'm keeping on top of that. Only using 304MB right now with Firefox running and background stuff like BitDefender and skinning with WindowsBlinds which isn't bad if you compare it to what your Linux install will currently be using. 5MB of that is taskmanager just to see how much memory is being used lol and FF is using 57MB.

 

[@Spoonie]

Why do people still dual boot when virtualisation is available?

 

[McBunny]

Why do people still dual boot when virtualisation is available?

because virtualization is slow and crappy unless you spend money

 

[Daz]

Why do people still dual boot when virtualisation is available?

because virtualization is slow and crappy unless you spend money

It was fine for me when I used it.. (although, I only used it for a select few apps which weren't available on OSX)

 

[ViolentJ]

Why do people still dual boot when virtualisation is available?

Running Linux in VM would defeat the object of using Linux imo and running Windows in VM on Linux there's no 3D support for games so it's a pointless exercise.

 

[JoelDee]

XP FTW

 

[KDF]

Are you that far behind reading forum posts? lol

Still using XP now with no problems! I spend loads of time on COD4 so switching back was definitely worth it.

Unfortunately thats one area that hasn't really improved over the last year. The sad thing is, most games that are available in windows and linux run better (more FPS) in Linux. Also, when a windows games need a game server most of the time the server part of the game is linux.

I have consoles so I don't use any of my systems for games.

 

[Mells]

are you back to linux mate?

 

[Rasclart]

You are the perfect candidate for a Mac.

I <3 MAC

To be fair XP updated is pretty damn stable and so it should be after all this time. I personally prefer XP from an admin point of view but not many clients have Vista yet.

 

[lewisniven]

tbh i find vista to be far faster than xp.

on a high end system (im running 3.5gb ram, core 2 duo @ 2.7ghz), vista is far more nimble, i could never go back to xp now, no chance. Vista is superior is almost every single way, peaople just moan cuz of the hardware requirements, remember how pants xp was at launch??

vista is only slow if ur trying to run it on a system that cant handle it properly.

welcome bk to windows anyway mate.