Had cause to reboot to Windows...

[Inferiority Complex]

I've been dual-booting for years but a few months ago, started using Linux as my main O/S with a small Windows partition for a few games.

This morning, I had reason to boot to Windows & I was stunned by what I experienced.

Now that I am fully used to how Linux works and what I've come to expect from it, running Windows again for just 20 minutes was painful.

Explorer crashed three times;
iTunes wouldn't Rip any CD's (still trying to find a good Linux-equivalent for that);
Internet Explorer wouldn't run properly;
whilst shutting down, the whole system hanged causing me to press the reset button.


I never thought I'd view my computer with so much disdain...

[Exodist]

Try GRIP for ripping CDs. I havent found another program that does it this good on any platform. The program does one thing and does it correctly.

http://nostatic.org/grip/

[koshatnik]

I still use audiograbber in linux, runs great under wine.

[ade234uk]

I've been dual-booting for years but a few months ago, started using Linux as my main O/S with a small Windows partition for a few games.

This morning, I had reason to boot to Windows & I was stunned by what I experienced.

Now that I am fully used to how Linux works and what I've come to expect from it, running Windows again for just 20 minutes was painful.

Explorer crashed three times;
iTunes wouldn't Rip any CD's (still trying to find a good Linux-equivalent for that);
Internet Explorer wouldn't run properly;
whilst shutting down, the whole system hanged causing me to press the reset button.


I never thought I'd view my computer with so much disdain...

I know what you mean. I only reinstalled my Girlfriends Windows XP 4 months ago, and already its starting to become slow. You now have to sit with it when you Shut it down, otherwise it will probably still be shutting down when you wake up in the morning. So annoying. A few years back I would have investigated why it did this, you know what? These days I just cant be bothered to waste my time.

Ubuntu, I shut down and walk away and its shuts down every single time in the same amount of time it did when I first installed it.

There is so much **** in Windows that gets in the way, you don't actually get on with what you are meant to get on with.

[t0p]

For quite some time I used my XP partition mostly just to store my music and video files. I didn't even boot into XP to put files there - I just cut-and-pasted them there from Ubuntu. Then I had to use XP for something, and it horrified me. Ubuntu utilizes hardware so much better than XP - Gutsy Gibbon was pretty sprightly, but XP was slooow. So I formatted the partition and added it to Ubuntu's allocation. Never looked back.

Incidentally, I don't have a XP installation disk, but I do still have the product key stuck to the side of the tower case. Can I download the .iso from somewhere, install it and then get it activated? Not that I intend to do this - but it'd be nice to know. Maybe I can get a discount on Win7 if I'm upgrading from XP?

EDIT: I just realized: at the end of the first paragraph I wrote "Never looked back." Then, straight away, I looked back. Heh.

[Bachstelze]

Incidentally, I don't have a XP installation disk, but I do still have the product key stuck to the side of the tower case. Can I download the .iso from somewhere, install it and then get it activated? Not that I intend to do this - but it'd be nice to know.

As long as it's the same version (i.e. Home vs Pro), it will work.

[ChrT]

For quite some time I used my XP partition mostly just to store my music and video files. I didn't even boot into XP to put files there - I just cut-and-pasted them there from Ubuntu.

That's what I did with my storage box for a while (except it's Fedora Core), then I realised one day I haven't booted up XP in at least a couple of years and just deleted the NTFS partitions (which, by then, were tiny compared to all the additional drives I've plugged in said storage box in those two years) and extended a ZFS partition over the empty space.

[Dragonbite]

Now that I am fully used to how Linux works and what I've come to expect from it, running Windows again for just 20 minutes was painful.

Explorer crashed three times;
iTunes wouldn't Rip any CD's (still trying to find a good Linux-equivalent for that);
Internet Explorer wouldn't run properly;
whilst shutting down, the whole system hanged causing me to press the reset button.


I never thought I'd view my computer with so much disdain...

wow.. you do a lot in 20 minutes.

Usually when I go into Windows after a long time I have to wait an hour or more for all of the updates to finish downloading/installing/rebooting before I can start doing anything. Maybe this wouldn't happen if I turned in on more often, but whatever.

[ddrichardson]

Usually when I go into Windows after a long time I have to wait an hour or more for all of the updates to finish downloading/installing/rebooting before I can start doing anything. Maybe this wouldn't happen if I turned in on more often, but whatever.
Almost as bad as PS3 updates. These are spectacular, turn on for a quick game of Call of Duty and be greeted by a 500+ Mb download (because Sony don't do incremental updates, oh no that would be too simple). Takes damn near as long to install it does to download.

[ELD]

Almost as bad as PS3 updates. These are spectacular, turn on for a quick game of Call of Duty and be greeted by a 500+ Mb download (because Sony don't do incremental updates, oh no that would be too simple). Takes damn near as long to install it does to download.

Ah the beauty of consoles updates.

I had to install two 360 updates the other day...all i tried to do was watch a movie from pc on my tv, gah!

[Inferiority Complex]

Try GRIP for ripping CDs. I havent found another program that does it this good on any platform. The program does one thing and does it correctly.

http://nostatic.org/grip/

I still use audiograbber in linux, runs great under wine.
I've been using SoundJuicer to extract my music CD's but for Audio books, I like to merge the tracks in iTunes so that Chapter 1 (tracks 1 to 9) is one file, chapter 2 (tracks 10 to 16) are one file, chapter 3 (tracks 17 to 23) are one file, etc. I haven't found anything in Linux yet that will let me do this though.


wow.. you do a lot in 20 minutes.
No, I don't. I had a few things I wanted to do but couldn't do any of them.


Usually when I go into Windows after a long time I have to wait an hour or more for all of the updates to finish downloading/installing/rebooting before I can start doing anything. Maybe this wouldn't happen if I turned in on more often, but whatever.
I disabled the updates. If I'm only ever using it once in a few months for short periods of time, I didn't see the point in keeping it updated. Except the anti-virus & firewall.

[sydbat]

I've been using SoundJuicer to extract my music CD's but for Audio books, I like to merge the tracks in iTunes so that Chapter 1 (tracks 1 to 9) is one file, chapter 2 (tracks 10 to 16) are one file, chapter 3 (tracks 17 to 23) are one file, etc. I haven't found anything in Linux yet that will let me do this though.Just use Audacity (or something similar) and merge those tracks. A bit more painful I agree, but it is fairly straight forward.

[doas777]

in all fairness, with dual boots that are rarely in windows, you should probably run a chkdsk. Ubuntu won;t trigger an automatic FS scan on NTFS drives, so there may be FS corruption there that is going unnoticed.

[ddrichardson]

I disabled the updates. If I'm only ever using it once in a few months for short periods of time, I didn't see the point in keeping it updated. Except the anti-virus & firewall.
Unfortunately this is a very prevalent attitude if the compromised machines I've repaired are anything to go by. I'm not criticising you personally but there are too many Windows users who think an up to date anti-virus is sufficient protection.

The fact is that (heuristics aside) AV is reactionary - a threat is found, its signature isolated and updates applied. Realistically, the application of common sense eliminates most threats in downloading anything likely to cause an infection. What it doesn't prevent is any software exploits, particularly browser exploits. In this scenario it only creates a false sense of security.

[SomeGuyDude]

wow.. you do a lot in 20 minutes.

Usually when I go into Windows after a long time I have to wait an hour or more for all of the updates to finish downloading/installing/rebooting before I can start doing anything. Maybe this wouldn't happen if I turned in on more often, but whatever.

Yes because lord knows Ubuntu never has 500MB of updates if you haven't run it in a while.

I really don't know what's up with your guys' systems, but with the exception of WinME I've never had that many screwups happen in Windows. Heck in XP I only got the BSoD a small handful of times, and that was prior to the later service packages.

I also find it kinda funny that people will have errors in Windows and say "that's proof that Windows is terrible", but if someone comes on here plagued with bugs in Linux that just means they need to fix 'em because Linux is totally awesome really.

[RiceMonster]

yes because lord knows ubuntu never has 500mb of updates if you haven't run it in a while.

I really don't know what's up with your guys' systems, but with the exception of winme i've never had that many screwups happen in windows. Heck in xp i only got the bsod a small handful of times, and that was prior to the later service packages.

I also find it kinda funny that people will have errors in windows and say "that's proof that windows is terrible", but if someone comes on here plagued with bugs in linux that just means they need to fix 'em because linux is totally awesome really.

+9000

I'm using an XP computer right now. It stays on all week without rebooting and I don't experience crashes or any performance issues.

[Grenage]

Windows is easily as stable as Linux these days, it's all down to how you treat it (as with any OS).

I don't like windows, but it does its job well.

[Dragonbite]

Yes because lord knows Ubuntu never has 500MB of updates if you haven't run it in a while.

Biggest update I've had to do recently was only because I installed 9.04 like a week or two ago so ALL those updates were waiting to "pounce" on me. :lolflag: Otherwise I'm on it enough that when there is an update, I run it and it doesn't pile up. That's what I was trying to say.


I really don't know what's up with your guys' systems, but with the exception of WinME I've never had that many screwups happen in Windows.

One time I was installing Visual Studio and it borked my entire system, my XPs run fairly stable. I was then stuck in a continual-reboot-loop.

Oh, wait.. you said "that many screwups", yea, other than the Visual Studio (and drivers) issue things have been fairly stable.


Heck in XP I only got the BSoD a small handful of times, and that was prior to the later service packages.

I love those caveats... "only got a BSoD a small handful of times...".

Like the System Administrator who cannot understand how people have problems with Windows Vista since he got it running, with a few "minor" tweaks. Of course a System Administrator's "minor tweaks" could very well be a major accomplishment by the general consumer. I don't know the details, but his frame of reference could be different than, say, my parent's.

[missmoondog]

for all you people that say you had some horrific times booting into windows and it hanging at shutdown, running super slow, etc, you obviously have more issues than just windows. i know this is one of the main differences you're talking about. the fact that your windows systems are infected and full of junk in the registry and what not, but, cripe, it's NOT hard to keep clean, and there in lies our arguement.

the only thing that keeps your linux system running so sweet is that you mostly have to wipe the system out every 6 months to stay up to date, with most distros. try running the lts version of ubuntu for the entire 3 years and then tell me your stuff is running just as good as the day you installed it! very doubtful.

myself, i've been dual booting for about 5 years now and have had no issues what so ever using windows OR linux. honestly, my windows easily runs faster, on all 5 machines, than my xubuntu 9.04, which i just installed within the last week, but not that much that i'm freaking out complaining about either.

not interested in starting an arguement here, just stating my personal opinion, even if it is coming out of my a**!! :lolflag:

[hoppipolla]

Try GRIP for ripping CDs. I havent found another program that does it this good on any platform. The program does one thing and does it correctly.

http://nostatic.org/grip/

Yeah I enjoyed using GRIP it always worked for me too :)

Is it really the best one on Lin?


EDIT -- Ah sorry Sound Juicer seems to be a favourite too - I've never tried that one :)

[SomeGuyDude]

I love those caveats... "only got a BSoD a small handful of times...".

Like the System Administrator who cannot understand how people have problems with Windows Vista since he got it running, with a few "minor" tweaks. Of course a System Administrator's "minor tweaks" could very well be a major accomplishment by the general consumer. I don't know the details, but his frame of reference could be different than, say, my parent's.

I said that to point out that, yes, XP had a rocky start, but once MS got the patches out it was smooth sailing. And I've put Win7 on some other computers and that's running smooth as hell. Plus Vista treated me great aside from being a little draggy.

I can't stand all this nonsense about Windows being a minefield of errors and whatever the heck else.

[Dragonbite]

for all you people that say you had some horrific times booting into windows and it hanging at shutdown, running super slow, etc, you obviously have more issues than just windows. ... it's NOT hard to keep clean, and there in lies our arguement.

What do you suggest to clean things out?


I can't stand all this nonsense about Windows being a minefield of errors and whatever the heck else.

I'm not saying Windows is a complete failure or that Linux is perfect. I've had my share of issues with both. It's just when I am dual-booting I don't go into Windows very much so the updates to run build up. That's one reason why I prefer to single-boot my systems.

That, and the time I made a partition in my dual-boot system for sharing files which I think I made Fat32(vFat). When I booted up to Windows to make sure it would boot, and see if it could find the partition it didn't like something about it and blew away ALL non-Windows-made partitions!

So until I can get some RAM and start running some virtual machines, I stick with one system or the other.

[SomeGuyDude]

I'm not saying Windows is a complete failure or that Linux is perfect. I've had my share of issues with both. It's just when I am dual-booting I don't go into Windows very much so the updates to run build up. That's one reason why I prefer to single-boot my systems.

That, and the time I made a partition in my dual-boot system for sharing files which I think I made Fat32(vFat). When I booted up to Windows to make sure it would boot, and see if it could find the partition it didn't like something about it and blew away ALL non-Windows-made partitions!

So until I can get some RAM and start running some virtual machines, I stick with one system or the other.

That above post wasn't directed entirely at you. More, I'm skeptical of all these horror story claims made by people on this board about all the errors Windows has.

I've used every iteration of Windows from 3 to 7 (including the NT's and whatnot). I've had them on a total of eleven computers plus working with my friends' and family's machines, and I've NEVER seen the kind of DEFCON 5 error catastrophes people claim happens when they boot Windows on here. The only massive problems I've ever seen was with people who have no AV and just don't do anything resembling responsible computer usage, so when I come over to help they've got 50 viruses.

I get the feeling that people just BS the "problems" Windows gives them because it helps the "cause" or something.

[ddrichardson]

I get the feeling that people just BS the "problems" Windows gives them because it helps the "cause" or something.
Its nothing that sinister - people just remember negative experiences more vividly than positive. One place I worked used to remind its staff that for every ten good impressions they made they were undone by one bad experience.