My Laptop with Vista SUCKS!!!!

What mainboard and processor level functions are you talking about? Vista kernel functions are not that different from XP's. Can you give me an example of what you're talking about?

PhreePhly

 

Try it first. Seriously.

If you want to wipe your drive, that's one of the things the installer can do but make certain everything you want to save is backed up! (picturess, emails, address book and links/favorites)

 

search hackintosh. what lappy do you have? and give it some time delete all the bloat they cram on the thing and you will be happy.

 

untrue. i run vista fine on 1 gig of ram on my dell mini12. its not speedy but for what i do it doesnt need to be. id slap linux on it in a heart beat if it was native and didnt have to hack around to get it to work. but serious vista works fine.

 

you need to lighten the load on that lappy. how fast does it load in safe mode?

go to your start up folder and delete everything in the folder.
open the run and type msconfig and uncheck all the crap that loads itself automaticly and not needed. i will post a link to a site that will walk you through optimizing the thing and make it run allot better.

yes its a little more work then some other os's but vista works fine and no need to buy a new laptop unless you want a new laptop. and a netbook is fine for most things portable.

 

ok heres what i would suggest.

get a usb2 hard drive.

use the included software and make a backup image of your drive. and i mean complete drive including the recovery partion.

after you do this yuo will be able to install and if yuo dont like it you can revert back.

if you have a thumbdrive you can also use a sweet peice of software i found the other day that allows you to install the os onto the thumbdrive and it will act like a normal setup just like a livecd but better

UNetbootin - Homepage and Downloads
then download this
Index of /files/ubuntu/intrepid/iso-images

follow the directions and install the unetbootin and use the iso to put it onto the thumbdrive and make it bootable. then tel us what dell laptop you have and we can walk you through on making it bootable. usualy its on the inital splash screen and it will say f2 to boot to bios f12 to select boot device. hit f12 and then choose the flash drive. if its not there you need to make it a selectable device in the bios.

but by all means check this site out first TweakHound - Tweak & Optimize Windows Vista

 

I am IT at a school in S VT .. 120 computers and maybe 11 servers.

All XP Pro and Server 2003

Vista is not allowed . I am the 1 guy in charge of all machines, so I need everything to WORK ! Win 7 is appealing bec it is said it requires a much smaller footprint in terms of mem etc. I can't imagine trying to run vista on a celeron w/512 MB ..

My laptop came w/Vista home premium...I am tolerating it, but no plms (4 GB ram helps)

 

i using an Asus eepc netbook right now with xp. we got this a couple of months ago and love it. but i would recommend that you have a decent desktop if you are going to get a netbook. I haven't had any issues with it so far

 

I'm actually pretty impressed with Windows 7 RC. I just got it up and running on the aforementioned disappointing laptop, and it's lightning fast. SWMBO's computer is finally running like I expected.

 

Did you install Vista on it, or did it come pre-loaded with all the other crapware? I believe one of the biggest problems with Vista was OEMs screwing with the installs. My son got a a new laptop or Christmas, a Dell Studio 15, which came pre-loaded with Vista. It's a 2.4 GHz Core2 with 4 GB RAM. No reason to be slow, but boot-up would take almost 3 minutes. I blew everything off and did a clean install and it was much better.

I also think this is why Win 7 is looking so good to people. They are basically doing a clean install with no crapware.

PhreePhly

 

It was preloaded, and I realize the downfalls there. Unfortunately, I only had "recovery" disks, so a fresh/clean Vista install was not an option. However...having used Vista on multiple machines and in several professional and home settings, Windows 7 really is a big improvement.

FYI, I'd much rather be running any Linux distro, but SWMBO insists upon familiarity even after trying a few window managers and flavors of Linux.

 

I have been an exclusive Linux user for about 14 years now. I don't miss the blue screens, pathetic performance, or mandatory reboots in the least. The learning curve is still a bit much for most casual computer users, so for those, I highly recommend a Mac. If you're not afraid of the command line, or facing some in depth configuration now and then, I highly recommend giving Linux a chance. Windows should be a last resort in all cases.

 

so matt what did you decide to do?

 

I downloaded Ubuntu and am going to test it out today. I will load it onto a seperate drive that I have (is it that easy?) and see how it runs, albeit slowly. Then I will almost positively wipe my harddrive (how do I do this still) and start over. As much as I want to continue with a familiar OS, I don't see a light any time soon with Windows. If I had the money to blow, I honestly would get a mac. Money doesn't grow on trees, so...

 

Once you've burned the CD you can boot to that to try out Ubuntu. When you decide to install, the installer can perform a wipe.

Remember to back-up everything you want to save first!

 

I just realized that I didn't burn the cd correctly, so I am trying to download it again. Only another two hours of my life. Thankfully I have the TV on and can just avoid it. If it doesn't work this time, I will try to download it tomorow at work. I am still annoyed by my Computer, so it's a good thing that I am not throwing it.

 

No sweat, take your time.

How's your IPA coming?

 

IPA is coming right along, will be ready in two to three weeks. Brewing went well, though I got interrupted right at the end of chilling and transfer into the fermenter. Still came out alright so I am not too worried.

 

So I just figured out how to boot from the CD and it seems to me that it would be a much better system. There are like 20 things preloaded and I can erase them from the get go. Next is that I don't know if my wifi will work from it and if that is true, then I am going to be in a world of hurt (laptop). Is there a program that I can download to make it work, or will it work, just not from the cd boot?

Again, I am only using this for the internet and a couple of random things, so I don't need a miracle and it already booted faster than Vista (even from the CD). I know that memory is cheap, but so am I and if I can make the wifi work, I can get by in life just fine.

 

The WIFI should work. Use the same configuration you use in Windows (same WEP, channel, etc...) and test it out when booting from the CD.

Worst case scenario is you might need a driver - hopefully not though.

 

Well, I am sitting at a place without wifi, so I will test it when I get home later on today. Will update again later today or tomorrow. Otherwise though it does seem like it could be easy enough to utilize. Pictures, music and the internet are what I bought this computer for, I will get a desktop for the more processing power.

 

which did you use? the dell one i listed or the stock one from ubuntu? the one from dell will have everything you need.

 

I have an Acer Aspire 3680

 

oh ok. sorry. thought you had a dell. haha. yea i doubt youll have any trouble.

Acer Aspire 3680 - Edgy Install Guide - Ubuntu Forums

its old info but it may lend some info if you run into problems