[pama123]

Please, don't. We know you like your Mac. We know others prefer Windows. We know others prefer their various Linux flavors. AND THERE IS ENOUGH ROOM IN THE WORLD FOR ALL OF THEM. So, please DON'T go 'round again, because nobody will ever convince the other sides in this eternal "holy war".

Jim (who has used many flavors of computers with many OS's from PCs to Mainframes)

Thanks Jim,
I'm with you on that one...
Too many people who are too passionate about inanimate objects – they're just tools, they ALL have some good points, they ALL have some annoyances (just like people).

Like Jim, I’ve got a number of systems… and yes, I hate the “Blue Screen of Death” (BSOD) from Windows, and I equally hate the “Spinning Beach Ball of Death” (SBBOD) from OSX.. and the “I-have-no-idea-what-this-thing-is-doing of death” (IHNIWTTID) from Linux… I used to get caught up on this kind of stuff, but now I’m just too tired (or old).

So, to the orignal poster (remember him?), I changed from Windows to Mac.. I like Mac, but I'd say it has about as many annoyances as I had with Windows - just a new set of annoyances.

If you don't want to go to the bother of buying Mac version of everything, you could just keep on doing what your doing.. and refreshing every so often, but next time you setup your PC - with software and drivers etc... take a 'snapshot' of the hard drive image right after you have installed everything .. you can then restore your PC from that image and save a lot of time (you'd still need to apply any patches released since the time you took that image).

Here's a link to get you started on cloning your PC.

Good luck with your decision.
Paul

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Last edited by pama123; 06-02-2009 at 02:50 AM.

They had the solution in 17th/18th century England. It may need a little revision but I'm sure a 21st century version could be arrived at.
Window tax - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[deadwolfbones]

I'm using that turd (Vista) pretty hard and liking it just fine. I've had approximately zero issues with it since first installing and turning off the UAC annoyances.

It seems to me that most of the complaints about Vista come from a) people with severely outdated hardware trying to run it or b) nitpicky standards compliance types and overly paranoid security freaks who will comb it over for any fault.

OSX is a fine OS as well, and I enjoy using it at work. For me, though, the versatility of any flavor of Windows trumps OSX any day.

[Wheatfield]

Probably now is the time to interject:

YouTube - Mac vs PC

[nanok]

i am way too bored with this os flame wars to have read more than 10% of this thread. i am sorry, it isn't even entertainign for me.

to the original poster: the t40 is a nice machine, i loved it, and still have one in my house (still going strong). with that amount of memory you have, it will run nicely with a decent linux desktop. don't believe all the uninformed crap you read, linux hasn't been "ready for desktop use" for many years, yet many people just use it and don't seem to be bothered by that "fact" (and no, it's not only geeks). just try an ubuntu live cd, which will cost you nothing, and see how you feel about it, as mentioned, you can install it dual boot with your current windows, at least for the first period, so you can switch back when you are missing some software, but i doubt you will ever need to.

edit: for your convenience:
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

feel free to pm me if you want more info on applications you can use in linux-land to do the stuff you need, i run open source software exclusively (except the bloody nvidia drivers, but, btw, your t40 has a great video card, with excellent opensource support, so no need to worry).

just try it, and decide for yourself, i have a hunch you will be amazed and pleased.

ps: no flames please, this is specifically directed at the original poster, in trying to help him make an informed decision, and i won't even bother to respond to "intelligent advocacy against linux", please don't take it personally, i am just "too old for this crap"

[nanok]

wheatfield: that was entertaining. there's a lot of stuff around on thesubject, many of them are funny (including those part of that "get a mac" campaign, you must admit). another funny one i just came across:

YouTube - Get a Linux!

and

YouTube - South Park Mac vs. PC vs. Linux

[glasbak]

However, now, despite running one single program, I have 81 processes active! The thing takes an age to boot up, and this doesn't change when I reinstall windows, as I have to download and install something like 1GB of updates.

oops,
I must be doing something wrong, my notebook (model from 2002) bought in 2004, only once installed XP, installed all service packs+security updates over time, runs now 30 processes, eats 160Mb of ram, boots in several seconds, shuts down in several seconds.
This should not be happening if I understand it correctly.
This also gives me no reason to update my notebook

George

[Wheatfield]

oops,
I must be doing something wrong, my notebook (model from 2002) bought in 2004, only once installed XP, installed all service packs+security updates over time, runs now 30 processes, eats 160Mb of ram, boots in several seconds, shuts down in several seconds.
This should not be happening if I understand it correctly.
This also gives me no reason to update my notebook

George

I've been running the original OS install on my laptop (XP Home) since 2004 when I purchased it new. I haven't had any reason to do anything to it beyond the occasional disk defrag. It still runs as new.

[ftpaddict]

Probably now is the time to interject:

YouTube - Mac vs PC

That guy dresses like a prune.

[newmikey]

Not having read the whole tread.
I'm going to say it 'have you looked at Linux'!

I actually was afraid to suggest just that, scared of being branded as a fanboy

Let's face it, those of us that switched to Linux full time did so out of a couple of reasons:
1. Safer with anything to do with internet (browsing, mail, msn etc.)
2. Great featureset and looks (rotating cube desktop, Beryl gadgets etc.)
3. Infinitely customizable look&feel
4. Great wealth of software available at no (or low) cost - includes crap, but also includes brilliant SW that other platforms only get later.
5. Runs happily on computers with limited or older hardware - sometimes requiring switching off certain features, but a Linux distro can always be found that runs on your PC.
6. (really a subset of point 5.) Uses less of the HW resources but uses them in an optimal way (dedicated swap partition, journalling file systems, different windowing environments)
7. Fed up with EULA's, licensing restrictions, "phone home" schemes, software updates that impose HW restrictions and monopolistic (yes both MS and Apple) OS makers.
8.......

To be totally honest, it is usually only after we switch to Linux that we think "Oh crap! Now what do I do about my image editing and RAW conversion software?"

It takes time, some compromising and a bit of elbow grease until you find out that you can get all of those and turn out great images with the available software. The software that "makes it" to the multiplatform stage, like RawTherapee and GIMP usually fails to convince "the others" unless they are on a tight budget. So be it.

Windows is fine, I use it at work and with pleasure, knowing that I have unlimited access to reinstalls, helpdesk, antivirus support and the corporate mailserver. Apple looks absolutely fantastic to me and I am pretty sure the people I know that use it are darned happy with it.

I am stuck though with spending all of my money on hardware - camera and lenses - and I do not believe you should be required to spend more money on software (CS$) than your whole camera is valued at, nor do I believe it is right to steal and use a pirate copy or otherwise illegal means of accessing copyrighted software. I have nothing against paying for software, as long as the payment is reasonable and in line with the real value of the product. I once payed for NeatImage (now running happily under WINE) which was a reasonable amount (<100$) and carried lifelong upgrade guarantee as well. Now that's what I call fair.

Having to pay for an operating system just seems silly to me. Why would you buy a car only to find out it will not move unless you spend a lot of money on the software that controls the engine? Take a camera: would you buy a camera if you were charged separately for the firmware? (and for every firmware update?)

Having said all that, it is not the operating system you see when you are editing images, it is the actual software you use. I am a great believer in cross-platform development, causing everybody to have access to the exact same software without regard to the OS they are running. That would open the market up totally and allow everybody to make a fully free choice - spend money on an OS or not, spend money on software applications or not. A great equalizer.

CS4? Absolutely brilliant piece of work, certainly worth every penny others spend on it but way beyond my needs and wants and way over my budget.
GIMP? Excellent piece of work seeing it is totally free. Still being actively developed and will see full 16-bit compatibility soon.
Lightroom? I have seen amazing results that blew me away, but also way overprocessed crap.
Digikam? Has the same image management options as Lightroom, though not the same RAW engine and possibilities. Comes free and cannot be recommended enough.
RawTherapee? Gallant attempt by a small band of enthousiasts to put a RAW converter in the merket (still free but not OSS) that offers quality, quality and more quality.

In the end, it is the size of one's wallet and the amount of spare time available that drives people towards one OS or the other. It really does not make any difference at all - the images that come out of the black box will show how capable the photographer is.

[Duncan J Murray]

Thanks for all the replies.

Didn't mean to trigger off a huge argument (in retrospect inevitable), but was just curious to see what other photographers were using.

Yes - I learnt 8 years ago that Norton was not a good choice. I have used McAfee, Sophos and AVG, and I'm perfectly happy with AVG at the moment.

I had not considered Linux before. I am currently downloading ubuntu. Maybe this is the solution?

I was going to request that people stop referring to my laptop as outdated or obsolete, but I just realised that I'm going to have problems burning the image onto CD, as last time I did this the drive made a progressively more worrying noise, before giving up and producing a wiff of smoke.

Thanks for the advice! I will report back...

Duncan.

[pingflood]

Just thought I'd chime in... put Windows 7 64-bit on my desktop and it's pretty damn nice. Everything Vista SHOULD have been. Applications run very fast and it's been 100% stable. So far so good.

[séamuis]

Just thought I'd chime in... put Windows 7 64-bit on my desktop and it's pretty damn nice. Everything Vista SHOULD have been. Applications run very fast and it's been 100% stable. So far so good.

I have been satisfied using windows 7 for several months now. I will keep using the RC until it is officially released. far superior to vista.

[nanok]

Thanks for all the replies.

Didn't mean to trigger off a huge argument (in retrospect inevitable), but was just curious to see what other photographers were using.

Yes - I learnt 8 years ago that Norton was not a good choice. I have used McAfee, Sophos and AVG, and I'm perfectly happy with AVG at the moment.

I had not considered Linux before. I am currently downloading ubuntu. Maybe this is the solution?

let us know how you get on with it, and if you need any help

I was going to request that people stop referring to my laptop as outdated or obsolete, but I just realised that I'm going to have problems burning the image onto CD, as last time I did this the drive made a progressively more worrying noise, before giving up and producing a wiff of smoke.

i requested it earlier . i still think that's a nice machine. optical drives are consumables, unfortunately, i had similar problems with mine. unfortunately, for the t series it might
cost a bit to replace it (they are those 9mm, rare drives), it's okay if you get it from ebay though. optical drives are oboslete though, with the cheap usb flash disks these days

Thanks for the advice! I will report back...

Duncan.

good luck, and have fun. whatever you choose, i hope it works for you (and without breaking the piggy-bank, if possible )

[ftpaddict]

You want an overpriced laptop? Since we're comparing apples to.. windows, I thought I'd throw in the odd brick.

Panasonic Toughbook CF-19 - Fully Rugged, Wireless Notebook PC Convertible to Tablet PC

A cool $3486 for a 2 GB, Intel SU9300 (semi-useless) and a 160GB HDD.