Bye Bye XP?

[mixture]

As I sit here typing this message on my MacBook, the fan is going flat out trying to cool the machine down. After while, it will get so hot that it will shut down a core and start running slow.

Aah... so you're basing all your harshness towards Apple products over your very unscientific survey of one.

Well, let me tell you, neither my current or my previous MacBook pro, nor those of others at work exhibit the issues you describe. The only time you can get the fan going on a MacBook pro is if you are deliberatley performing CPU intensive tasks such as video rendering etc. ... but the CPU tasks have to be pretty intensive ... in which case I would fully expect the fan to start running, I'm surprised you would not !

Just typing and browsing the internet, you'll never get the fan going... ever !

I owned my previous MacBook pro for over 6 years and it performed flawlessley throughout despite me working it hard. Same with my current one. The only reason I upgraded was to get access to GPU rendering in Adobe in the newer model, otherwise I would have happily continued using it for another few years.

They are excellent value for money.

[Andy_P]

Aah... so you're basing all your harshness towards Apple products over your very unscientific survey of one.

Wrong again buddy, just stating something that is occurring right now, on this particular mac. Dont forget, I work in enterprise computing, so I deal with a lot more of this **** than you care to know about.

[llondel]

You have absolutley no idea what you are talking about and you obviously have inherent bias towards Windows and Linux.

I have used all three. I would favour Windows or Mac over Linux any day for desktop computing, Linux is just not ready for prime time on the desktop.... fantastic as a server with console interface.... but desktop... no way !

I have them in reverse order. Linux, then Mac with Windows at the bottom of the pile. I'd put Windows 8 down with ME and Vista, too, at the bottom of the Windows collection now I've had the misfortune to have to use it for a week or so.

I have no problems with the Linux desktop, KDE is a mature and stable interface. I guess it helps that regardless of OS, I turn off all the eye candy and other pointless desktop animations and run a basic interface. For Windows I load Classic Shell and set it back to the good old interface too. My wife prefers Macs, so I've had plenty of experience maintaining them. My son, once I set up Minecraft on Linux on his dual-boot PC hasn't been back to Windows, "I think I've outgrown Windows" is what he said.

[Andy_P]

My wife prefers Macs, so I've had plenty of experience maintaining them

Wot, you have to maintain them?

[mixture]

Wrong again buddy, just stating something that is occurring right now, on this particular mac. Dont forget, I work in enterprise computing, so I deal with a lot more of this **** than you care to know about.

Well on another thread I see you saying Linux is a POS .... so I suspect you're just one of those grumpy old farts who is never going to be satisfied unless they've coded it themselves !

Lets just agree to disagree and leave it at that.

[Mac the Knife]

"According to MS, the main userbase prefers the metro interface."

Well they would say that, wouldn't they!

It's hard to find anyone in the business users world who likes it.

Fine for a tablet but not for serious use.

And mix, the fan control in my old MacMini has been up the chute for a couple of years now - always on full and yes I did all the resets imaginable to fix it. Had to install a 3rd party fan control app to tame it.

My black MacBook has also not been hardware or software problem-free tho' running OK at the moment.

Macs are great but but very expensive and the Macs of today are essentially unrepairable - no problem if you've bought the (expensive) AppleCare Protection Plan which gives you a swap replacement but if you haven't and it goes titsup you just have to throw it away and buy a new one.

Gotta say - these days I think the best thing is to get the most generic gear you can and install an LTS mainstream Linux distro.

Mac (sic...)

[maxed-out]

To all the IT gurus out there.

Is my current hardware suitable for windows 7? I have found these items on my pc:

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3

System Manufacturer: PACKARD BELL BV
System Model: IMEDIA 2579
System Type: x86- based PC
BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
BIOS version/Date: W7301 VP2.303 , 05/12/2006
SMBIOS Version: 2.4
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 CPU 6300 @ 1.86GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM


Graphics:
Chip Type: Radeon x1650 Series, ATI Technologies
DAC Type: Internal DAC(400Mhz)
Memory: 512MB
Current Display Mode: 1280 by 1024 (32 bit) (60Hz)


Am I correct in assuming that by using a 64 bit version of Win 7, I can upgrade my RAM significantly or does that depend on the age of my PC?


Thanks.
mo

[Andy_P]

Gotta say - these days I think the best thing is to get the most generic gear you can and install an LTS mainstream Linux distro.

Pretty much my opinion too, except I say go buy the cheapest thing that suits you needs and requires the least amount of user input.


@maxed-out - your biggest problem putting win 7 on an older PC is the lack of drivers. Manufacturers of hardware tend not to go back and write new drivers for old hardware unless is very specialised stuff. If you want to upgrade, buy a cheap PC from Dell or your local chain computer store is probably a better way to go. Otherwise just stick with XP for now, which these days is fairly secure provided you dont go clicking on links in emails too often (or surfing for porn ).

[Saab Dastard]

maxed-out,

That CPU is 64-bit.

However, it appears that the motherboard is limited to a maximum of 2GB RAM. It's got 2 slots, and it appears that it only supports up to 1GB modules, DDR2. It's possible that a BIOS update may allow larger RAM modules.

It will run Win 7, x64, but it will be hamstrung by the lack of RAM - 4GB makes it a lot faster.

You will need to go to the Packard Bell website to see if there are Win 7 drivers (and possibly a BIOS update) available for your particular model.

SD

[mad_jock]

Nah actually mixture your coming across as one of those IT types who has a very admin encentric view on the way the world wrks similar to the bloke whoes fingers i broke.

You have your picture but not the big picture. You have your views on your ideal world but that doesn't fit with reality.

I have been running high end hardware since i was a finite element engineer and its never changed we run them at 100% cpu and disk and when we are generating images the video gets a kicking as well. Our runs especially none linear take days not mins. The code we used to use was optimised for crays, which roll royce used.

My salary was 22k as an engineer, the hardware and software was approaching 35k a year when i was 25. Silcon graphics extreme grahics and ansys.

I will admit i fired a screw driver into the apple talk port on the A1 plotter when we got it.

[Andy_P]

Nah actually mixture your coming across as one of those IT types who has a very admin encentric view on the way the world wrks similar to the bloke whoes fingers i broke.

You have your picture but not the big picture. You have your views on your ideal world but that doesn't fit with reality.

I have been running high end hardware since i was a finite element engineer and its never changed we run them at 100% cpu and disk and when we are generating images the video gets a kicking as well. Our runs especially none linear take days not mins. The code we used to use was optimised for crays, which roll royce used.

My salary was 22k as an engineer, the hardware and software was approaching 35k a year when i was 25. Silcon graphics extreme grahics and ansys.

I will admit i fired a screw driver into the apple talk port on the A1 plotter when we got it.

Not sure who you are talking too, but my main work is 2 things, consulting work for large enterprise systems and electronic engineering. From a development perspective, both jobs require fairly high end, high powered systems. I am one of those exceptions to the rule though. You will find that for 99% of people here, all they need is email, web and word processor. Any cheap piece of hardware will do that just fine these days.

[mad_jock]

No its not at you. You seem to be the type i used to want to work with.

My game after rollouts was rnd packet switching with enterprise destrubuted bata bases with golbal live servers where the load was with sat backup when the internet went tits up. The current live DB moving with the time zone from primary to secondary etc. The engineering stuff was ours short and sweet. Raid 0 ram to max proc has hard as you could get at the time and IT had sod all to do with the purchase or the spec. In fact most of the time it was unix boxes and they didn' t have root anyway. We had our own subnet and they got there arses kicked if there was any ****e on that subnet.

Macs with that broadcast crap were just pushed off and relegated to the extreme bollocks subnet. With a switch so the rest of us didn't have to deal with that crap.

The even thought that a machine isn' t running at .98 .99 from the day its live is a waste of resource to me.

[davidpotter]

if you use window xp then quickly upgraded to window 7 or 8.
Because of the upcoming patch window xp files will not be supported, then your computer will be in danger.
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[Andy_P]

This might make some people happy Microsoft is bringing the Start Menu back | The Verge

[mixture]

Nah actually mixture your coming across as one of those IT types who has a very admin encentric view on the way the world wrks similar to the bloke whoes fingers i broke.

You have your picture but not the big picture. You have your views on your ideal world but that doesn't fit with reality.

No idea what you are on about mad_jock, and quite honestly I'm not interested in wasting any more time trying to figure out what you are on about and attempting to discuss it with you.

There is no "view on the world" to be had when it comes to XP. XP is obsolete and people insisting on using it after April 8th are nothing but stubborn mules. XP is obsolete and people are taking very real risks with their insistence on using it after April 8th.

I've had it up to here with this stupid little thread.... time to grab the popcorn and watch people learn the hard way !

[Andy_P]

You guys/gals will be pleased to know I still run some Win 95 and NT4.0 boxes! All off network though. Also got some OS2/Warp 4 machines scattered around the place (ATM's)!

hey mad_jock, apple stuff can be noisy on networks, but some of their networking stuff is pretty neat. Bonjour is excellent, likewise the spin off GNU stuff (avahi) is also pretty good. I am no network engineer, but I work with some and they do constantly have challenges with it on large networks with multiple subnets. It also makes up for a large amount of network bandwidth when you have a lot of devices. Its becoming a real problem with things like iPads. However, like you said, if you can segregate it to a small subnet then it really is a good thing. Mobs like cisco and motorola are doing grand things in this space now from what I have been told.

[Ancient Observer]

mixture - you know my view on this. As a pensioner, nothing that Apple makes is "good value for money". They appear to be good products, but they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive for us poor people.

[Andy_P]

mixture - you know my view on this. As a pensioner, nothing that Apple makes is "good value for money". They appear to be good products, but they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too expensive for us poor people.

My basic rule for advising people on what to buy is, if you own a mac and are familiar with it, then stick with it. If you are familiar with windows, then stick with that.

As for quality, well mac is no better than any midrange pc based stuff. I have had pc laptops last 12 months, I have had ones last 12 years. Mac is no different. Ugly as they are, I would vote HP as the most rugged laptop, and ASUS as next. Asus stuff is probably better these days. Worst I would say is toshiba, which given they were the best in the early 90's is a sign that what is good now may not be so 10 years down the track.

[mad_jock]

Just got a rog asus g750jw for 999 quid. I stuck a ssd in and it really shifts.

Not really doing IT these days but have to sort the occassional issue out in the office. I have a look at what they have done every couple of months and sometimes reconfigure things when some bright spark has piggy backed hubs etc.

I think next time i am in i will setup an apple wifi network for all the i gadgets and stick it into the current apple subnet. I had forgotten about them getting into the pc network.

To be honest i don't per say care if someone has a mac or not. Its when they try and use some gizzmo productivity crap without seeing what bandwidth it uses.

[maxed-out]

Saab,

Thanks for the info. Maybe I should look at a new motherboard then.

Cheers,
mo