[CS-FSLUG] OS/2 Anyone?

[Vincent Danen]

* [2008-04-05 13:17:02 -0600] Nathan T. wrote:

>Vincent Danen wrote:
>> I don't recall where I read it, but it was just a few days ago that they
>> were talking about Windows 7 and these compatibility issues.
>>
>> Mind you, if you look at software compatibility under Vista, which I've
>> heard can be pretty rough for older programs, then the modular system
>> they're thinking of for Windows 7 will probably be worse.
>>
>> Time will tell, of course, but if they *do* go that way, then yeah, I
>> can see a lot of people saying enough is enough.
>I don't know; I've been using Vista since I got the 64 bit disks from 
>Microsoft. Admittedly the 32 bit version drove me back to Windows XP. I 
>guess I'm just one of the unlucky people who never finds a version of 
>Linux that fits well. I've found Windows Vista in the 64 bit incarnation 
>to be problematic, but better for me than any Linux distribution and 
>close to how good Windows XP was. Some of the improvements in Vista have 
>encouraged me to stick with it, and now I'm quite comfortable with it. 
>The fact that the 64 bit works better than any 64 bit Linux distribution 
>I've ever seen, and that it can use all 8GB of ram I have unlike Windows 
>XP makes me content with what I have.

I've only played with Vista a little bit... came with my HP tablet and
seemed ok although the security controls made me crazy enough to want to
pitch the entire machine within 15 minutes.

Is the 64bit version dramatically different from the 32bit version,
besides being able to access more RAM?  To be honest, I've had not too
many bad experiences with 64bit Linux, although granted I only really
use Mandriva so can't speak for the other distros.  A few versions ago
(so a couple years I guess), the 64bit versions were pretty rough, but
the last year and a half or so I've not noticed a huge difference
between the two beyond browser plugin compatibility.

>Sometimes I wonder where people get their information from. Apple has 
>historically broken backward compatibility with new versions of their 
>OS, including within different versions of OS X and people have never 
>reacted to it the way they did with Vista. The reaction to Vista is also 
>a lot like the reaction to Windows XP when that was new. As bad as it 
>looks now, if Windows Vista were just to have as long a life as Windows 
>XP, I'm sure by the time five years had passed people would see it with 
>the same fondness and be complaining about the next version of Windows.

Well, not quite sure if I'd go that far.  Apple has been pretty good
about keeping backwards compatibility.  That's probably why you don't
hear so much complaining.  I've also never had anything break within a
major OS X version, but if you're using some heavy graphics or video
stuff, maybe subtle changes in APIs would account for that.  From a
purely desktop perspective (with plenty of *nix stuff thrown in), I
can't honestly say I've had any major problems with OS X, and I've been
using it pretty much f/t since 10.1 or 10.2.

I also don't think the reaction to XP was nearly as bad as the reaction
to Vista.  Yeah, XP wasn't so great until SP1, but even then, XP felt a
lot more like Win2k than Vista feels like XP.  They deviated from the
formula they kept for the last decade and people noticed.. good or bad.

> As for Linux; I'm looking forward to the day when I can install Ubuntu 
>and have it work properly with my bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and dual 
>displays without some kind of divine intervention. Working and mature 
>wireless support would be nice too. The rest may work, but that's still 
>not good enough for myself or Joe Average.

I have to disagree here.  On my HP tablet, the only thing that didn't
work out of the box with Mandriva 2008 was the touchscreen.  Everything
else -- wireless, sound, bluetooth... it all worked out of the box.  No
tinkering required.  And when I installed the last RC for Mandriva
2008.1 on my Toshiba Libretto, everything worked flawlessly.  It all
"just worked".  In my mind, that's a whole lot better than XP on that
machine so, yeah, I think it's ready for Joe Average.

Now, dunno if Ubuntu is ready for Joe Average... =)  Since Ubuntu
doesn't like to let me install it on the hardware I throw at it, I can
only speak on what works... namely Mandriva.  And OpenSUSE (kinda)
worked too.  Didn't bother trying anything else.
  
-- 
Vincent Danen @ http://linsec.ca/
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