Do you still use Windows sometimes? And why?

Message

cartz · #61 Post by **cartz** » Wed 07 May 2008, 08:53

sojourner wrote:Love the elegance and quickness of Puppy, but still use Windows for Quicken and Microsoft Reader. Microsoft Reader is loaded on my laptop and my IPAQ pda. Allows me to carry numerous books from Project Gutenberg that I have created using Reader Works (win) software.

You can batch convert the Microsoft Reader formatted books using a free windows utility at:
http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html

There are many formats you'd be able to convert them to that would have readers available both in linux and on the IPAQ.

cartz · #62 Post by **cartz** » Wed 07 May 2008, 09:02

I'm new to Puppy and loving it and could probably ditch Windows altogether if it was just me.

But my son needs the best possible chess analysis programs (Chessbase and Fritz) and the linux equivalents (even if I could get them working in Puppy) wouldn't be good enough.

My daughter uses Photoshop and Illustrator for her artwork and Cubase for her music. I know there are substitutes for these but unless all 3 could be replaced with the same functionality and ease of use there is no way she'll drop windows. On top of that our scanner is not supported in linux so it's pointless anyway for her. Although on the plus side I have got her using the windows version of Abiword.

So, for now, it seems to be mainly a 'hobby' for me. Maybe one day we'll get there.

I must say though that reading this thread has taken some of the 'pressure' that I'd put on myself trying to convert us over totally to puppy - I can see that most other people are in a similar boat.

Cheers,

cartz.

Turpin · #63 Post by **Turpin** » Wed 07 May 2008, 11:55

Aye, Windows is still the main OS.
In order of importance to me:
1. I have three sound cards and need recording/playback (for workstation monitoring, phoneline monitoring, recording skype calls, and desktop video captures).
2. Games.
3. excellent support for the Hauppauge WinTV (the one without hardware encoding)

If number 1 were fixed, I'd use Puppy as my primary and boot into Windows just for certain games (such as Elder Scrolls: Oblivion). The TV card I can live without for now.

Meshica7 · #64 Post by **Meshica7** » Wed 07 May 2008, 18:45

Only at work to do my time entry and that's about it.

At home it's:

OS X Tiger on an old PowerMac G3.I run Pro Tools for music.

Teen Pup 2008 on a Dell Inspiron 1100.This was given to me by a friend and I quickly stripped it of Windows XP.I tried several flavors of Linux before arriving at Puppy.It simply works!The screen is dead (hence "free") so I have it hooked up to a Hitachi CM615.If anyone knows of where I can get a cheap screen for this laptop let me know!.

OS X Panther on an i-Mac G3 (original Bondi Blue).My wife's for checking Yankee scores!

System 7 on a Macintosh Plus all in one.

And soon to come a Mac Book Pro dual booting OS X Leopard and Puppy Linux.

I have not had a need to run Windows at home.Been on Apple since before the Mac emerged (about 1982-83).

As you can tell from my TeenPup 2008 screenshot,I am pretty much a Mac guy

Juan

puppyluvr · #65 Post by **puppyluvr** » Thu 08 May 2008, 00:49

Hello

Yes, sometimes I still do, but then my Windows looks like this..

Aitch · #66 Post by **Aitch** » Thu 08 May 2008, 08:33

puppyluvr - you're forgiven

that's so un-M$, I quite like it

Aitch

recycler · #67 Post by **recycler** » Fri 09 May 2008, 11:34

I'm still in transition...finding fire hydrant is close to being a complete replacement for XP. Meanwhile I really like the default backdrop on puppy 3.98 and at work have taken to replacing the standard XP backdrop with that

nitehawk · #68 Post by **nitehawk** » Thu 15 May 2008, 23:29

I use only Puppy 3.01 and PC-BSD right now,.....but I do still miss my win98se. I still keep the installation disk. I'm still in that state of "learning" my way around linux and BSD. I had used win98se for so long,...it just seemed like second nature (even the "blue screens of death",....I really have to actually do a lot of serious thinking when I'm computing now,...but I hope with time that will become easier. (Sometimes I get awfully tempted to reach for that old installation disk)!!!

earlytv · #69 Post by **earlytv** » Mon 19 May 2008, 13:37

I have several WYSE 3150SEs, S90s and S90Ls and tried several PUPs but cant get the pups working fully.
The WYSE go from 128meg to 512meg ram and from 32mb to 512mb IDE flash. Micro, a AMD GENODE GX, runs at 400mhz. I/O on S90, S90L is usb only. Thousands of these still in use and for sale and sometimes dirt cheap. Very small size, S90 is 7x5x1.5. They come with WIN CE on the 3150SEs and winXPE on the S90, S90L. The CE is seen like a mobile device on web sites so when on the web I see a whole new side to AOL, YAHOO, ECT. The XPE is a smaller XP, 256meg. The XPE and CE were made just for these to use them to their best and they do. The XPE is fast on this slow system and once I found ADMIN mode easy to change, upgrade, ect.
Pup install problems,
No sound I got on this site and no one had a fix.
Units boot only by USB floppy or USB superfloppy mem stick got pups to load finally.
With 100% USB I/O on S90 many items dont work on pups that look for normal floppy, CD, HDD so simple play a audio cd pups dont see CD but then sound dont work anyway.
My internet service is Road Runner cable and the home page is a mess using java, flash player, and much more all at same time. Pups have a problem with this page, opera and firefox quit seamonkey makes it most of the time, WIN CE dont even try, BUT XPE WORKS THROUGH IT FINE AND FAST.
Drivers for USB printer, scanner, pups might have XPE does have.
XPE shows a slight speed + over pups on same unit, mostly on internet.
Windows security, CE none, XPE has several
FIREWALL
IDE write protect switch, only ADMIN can change after reboot.
User mode cant change, install, uninstall anything even favorites go away.

I use windows on these because it works best.

Lobster · #70 Post by **Lobster** » Mon 19 May 2008, 16:18

I am using XP to post this.
I have access to two computers + my Asus laptop whilst I house sit
for my sister whilst she is in Transylvania (or Romania, I believe it is now)

One computer is dedicated to PClinuxOS (my suggestion)
but I can not get in - no password.

And this 'fast' 64 bit 3500mz Athlon which takes five minutes to boot . . . (not unusual)

I ruined two DVD's trying to create a Puppy 4 disk. Faulty DVD drive I think is the cause . . .

Anyway I hope to have a Puppy DVD by tomorrow . . .

Dingo · #71 Post by **Dingo** » Mon 19 May 2008, 20:23

after three months of full linux use, I have Re-booted my PC with Windows, due to bad behavior of XNEWS (newsgroup reader) under Wine (you can read but not post) I hope use in future Xnews under wine also for posting

Colonel Panic · #72 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sat 07 Jun 2008, 11:28

My Windows XP installation was borked for some reason and wouldn't boot into a desktop (and when I tried, my hard drive was making a horrible grinding noise), so after some hesitation I reformatted it and installed another Linux distro, from which I boot PizzaPup. The only thing I miss with Windows is MSN Messenger, which as some nifty features (such as picture display and sharing) that I haven't found yet in any Linux chat client.

There is a shell for XP which makes it look a lot like Mac OSX, called FlyaKite. It's about a 31 MB download.

Aitch · #73 Post by **Aitch** » Sat 07 Jun 2008, 13:06

@Colonel Panic

The only thing I miss with Windows is MSN Messenger, which as some nifty features (such as picture display and sharing) that I haven't found yet in any Linux chat client.

try meebo - online msnmessenger + fileshare audio/video chat/conference other apps/games - cross platform win/lin/mac/bsd etc

http://www.meebo.com/

Aitch

nitehawk · #74 Post by **nitehawk** » Sat 07 Jun 2008, 23:37

I re-installed win98se on my PIII /256mg, /500mhz, /8g hd the other day,....but suddenly remembered what a "booger" it was to get the modem, internet (etc,) all configured and working. So I said "heck with it"...and put Puppy4 back on it. The computer works a lot better now. That computer and Pup4 belong together like peanut butter and jelly. (Be sticky on the keyboard, huh?)
My main computer: PIII,384mg, 933mhz, 40g/8g HDs runs Pup4 on the 8g hd,...and what ever else I want to fool with on the 40g hd (but no windows)!

KF6SNJ · #75 Post by **KF6SNJ** » Sun 08 Jun 2008, 01:50

I have been win-free for almost six years. I am not going back to it either. I am staying with Linux and primarily with Puppy.

chris667 · #76 Post by **chris667** » Sun 08 Jun 2008, 10:31

I work for the family business, we still use Windows 2000, as we have an Access 2000 database. It's not connected to the internet and will never be, so security is not an issue. I will eventually migrate everything over to Linux, but it's working, so even if it could work better/faster, it's not really worth my time trying to change it.
We've also got a beautiful, but very, very stupid Vista laptop. It belonged to me, but my dad liked it because Vista has speech recognition built in. I t draws a huge amount of power from the batteries, which is a big deal to me as I live on a boat and don't have easy mains source.
My puppy laptop (Mobile P2 with CF card for a harddisk) draws 45w, less than half of what the Vista one does. Plus I was given it for free!

I don't need anything other than a browser now Google Docs has come along.
Personally, I find Windows computers quite irritating now, they're soooo slow.

Colonel Panic · #77 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Sun 08 Jun 2008, 12:35

Aitch wrote:@Colonel Panic

The only thing I miss with Windows is MSN Messenger, which as some nifty features (such as picture display and sharing) that I haven't found yet in any Linux chat client.
try meebo - online msnmessenger + fileshare audio/video chat/conference other apps/games - cross platform win/lin/mac/bsd etc

http://www.meebo.com/

Aitch

Thanks for the info, I've used meebo now and found one of my old MSN contacts waiting for me to "add her". So, success

Mercedes350se · #78 Post by **Mercedes350se** » Mon 09 Jun 2008, 06:00

At work I am a full time do$er. I have dropped hints and given magazine articles to some of the IT staff but ...

At home I have 98SE on one HD and 3.01 on a second. Change the power supply to the HDs and hence a different operating system. No way is it elegant but it works in the short term. No, I didn't want to dual boot.

The reasons that I am not totally 100% canine have been subjects of posts on this forum.

The current one (reason) is that I have been receiving a lot of spam - due in part to me not checking my profile and hiding my email address. The profile should have been set up with it hidden!! (Not only this forum I should add).

Mailwasher lets me bounce them off the mail server which gives me a certain sense of satisfaction.

8Geee · #79 Post by **8Geee** » Mon 09 Jun 2008, 10:10

No. Windows has moved to the RecycleBin.
Why? Two words: ActiveX, and Shockwave.

The administration of anything past W98se is purely a joke. An ActiveX application BY NATURE of ActiveX, can allow any unsupervised code-writer the ability to gain root permissions. I will also clarify that unsupervised good-intentions are just as bad if not worse than the sinister code-writer. Microsofts' insistance upon ActiveX, and making it prerequisite, is the worst security flaw availible on the internet today.

Shockwave is just another ActiveX security flaw ( allows unsupervised admin elevations) with a different name. Now you have TWO flaws instead of formerly one.

Thank goodness for ActiveX killers and the Shockwave disable bit.

Colonel Panic · #80 Post by **Colonel Panic** » Mon 09 Jun 2008, 19:56

Mercedes350se wrote:At work I am a full time do$er. I have dropped hints and given magazine articles to some of the IT staff but ...

Hey, not many people use DOS these days. I still miss the speed and some of the features, such as the command shell 4DOS (I've not seen any Linux shell which can match its power and versatility) and text editors with WordStar command sets.

Mercedes350se wrote:At home I have 98SE on one HD and 3.01 on a second. Change the power supply to the HDs and hence a different operating system. No way is it elegant but it works in the short term. No, I didn't want to dual boot.

Interesting, I've not read of that being done before.

P.S. Good car in your username (if you can afford the gas/petrol/spare parts.)

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Do you still use Windows sometimes? And why?

Windows

desktops

I use WIN CE and XPE on Wyse Thin Terms