How-To Geek

Different toys for different people.
Do you like to drive an automatic or standard shift in city traffic, think about that one for a while. Windows7 is the automatic and Linux is the standard shift.

I used to prefer a standard shift - had both automatic and standard since 1964. But now at my age I prefer an automatic. Just traded my last standard for an automatic. So preferences can change over time.

I mainly use Windows 7 but I am starting to venture into the world that is Linux. At the moment I am seeing what distribution I like best.

I currently have Linux Mint installed on my home PC.

My school has Ubuntu installed on the netbooks and I like what I am able to get into on them. The account students have to use are non admin for obvious reasons.

So far I'm liking Linux Mint the best. I am going to try Kubuntu next.

I Like Windows, mainly XP and 7 (Hate Vista), and Windows 8 is growing on me. Windows is good for everything, but given a money no object choice, I would pick Mac, just because in my experience it is quicker, nicer to look at, and requires low maintenance.

Showing your age LH? :-) Dos is ok been reluctant to get back in to it always have wanted to ahhh yes!!!! i remember running a bulletin board back in the day fun times.

John

John, you're giving your age away. ; )

I went from my Commodore 64 to mainframe terminals at work (the "software) was preset for us for data retrieval only), NT at work, then XP, first at work, then at home. I liked the mainframe terminal keyboards (nothing else). NT was a dozer. Eventually liked XP. Skipped Vista for good reason. Loved Win7 from the word go when I first got it last summer (still learning to use it). Have no intention of using Win8.

But, then again, I'm not exactly a geek (not even a wannabe).

Vista was a resource hog, klunky to use, and many programs and hardware wouldn't work on it (the latter was it's biggest sin for me—I would have had to replace a scanner, laser printer, and an expensive music notation program—although, supposedly, much of the other two sins had been corrected by SP1).

If you are happy with Vista, then stay with it (like I did with XP; I've only recently started using Win7); there's nothing wrong with that. EOL for Vista isn't until 4/11/2017 so you have some breathing room.

"...what does Granny know?" More than I do!

LF, Vista is not a resource hog (especially if you configure it correctly (and I run very low end systems))
Not had a problem with programs or drivers either.

Vista was sound when I had it reliability and function-wise. It's just a bit slower than W7 overall...only bad running on a gig ram or less. When Vista came out it was too often rolled out with systems that only had 1 gig ram and that was too low for it and hence gave it a bad rep. W7 has not suffered this because 2 gig is the minimum now in a budget system which is fine.

I remember that lady from Portugal that came here to seek advice on a terrible performance problem. They had sold her a Vista Ultimate laptop with 512MB. - There are bad sales people all over the world. LH may remember that one too.