The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

I'm a sheep :S

 

Boycotting Windows 7 may not be a bad idea, I'm already signed up to two boycotts - the StarForce boycott, and now the Activision boycott.

 

While I would like to strike and Boycott windows 7, i'm afraid I've already teased too many people with the prospect of a powerful OS (Windows 7). They now want to switch, BADLY. Myself, I can be just as content with Linux or Windows XP, etc etc. I'm highly adaptable Though I do like the eye candy...although XP can be suited for prettier looks.

Besides, windows 7 home is a typical price for an MS operating system...

 

Exactly it, Win7 is no more expensive than any other OS, so I don't really see what the big deal is. It's not exactly perfect, but probably better than XP was in its infancy.

 

Windows 7 is miles and miles and miles ahead of what XP was at release. The support has so far been timely and everything has changed for the better since beta. I personally allow auto-updates but have it ask me when one is available so I can sift through. Most of them get installed but there are a few "Windows 7 Driver support packs" for some stuff that actually disable your hardware. Most notably for me it drops my Realtek onboard Gigabit NIC.

Very few complaints about 7 for me. Currently using a legitimately obtained free copy of 7 Professional x64 and it works like a charm. I even made a bootable USB drive to install it with. All I do is go to the MSDN Academic Alliance site, register for a new key, and I basically get unlimited copies of 7 Pro, Home Premium, XP Pro 32 and 64, and Vista Ultimate and Home Premium.

 

Estuansis

 

All very well, but you do realise that's only available to people studying computing right? Enough brags...

 

Creaky,
Why? Boycotting Win 7 would show Fat Bill that he has to bend to our will, not the other way around. You don't seem to understand that there are upgrades that they will put in, in spite of your efforts! You can't keep M$ out of your computer if you are on line, I don't care what you turn off! Your comment about Win 7 being too nice to boycott, is exactly the problem. You don't need it, you won't die without it, it's just the greed of your want vs your real needs!

Same thing for Oman 7. You both are typical of today in that you want to talk a good fight, but you don't want to put in the effort it's going to take, or give up anything. Let someone else do it, you have what you want! Change requires sacrifice! It's that simple! What's it going to take? Six months to a year for something worth while? If Win 7 doesn't sell in large numbers they will have to change the way they are doing Business. In the real world, people gave their lives for the freedoms we have today! Welcome to the new version or Orwell's 1984! Pogo said it right, "We have met the enemy and they is us"! Think about what I said today come 10 years from now, when everything you do with computers is mandated by the various governments around the world. Where you go, who you can talk to, what you can and cannot see or do. It's all about controlling the masses and That's enslavement! We've truly become, the marching Morons! http://www.wattpad.com/111513-The-Marching-Morons-C-M-Kornbluth

People need to wake up and grow a spine!

Russ

 

well said Russ.....

"the only thing we have to fear is fear itself...."

 

Russ, I don't really think boycotting Win7 is likely to achieve much. THAT is why I doubt many people want to do something, what would they get in return?

 

Sorry I don't mean to rub it in anyone's face

As far as I was aware your school had a similar deal??? My school is a very small local tech college in a town of 20,000 with an economy worse than the average depressed area. I have a friend going through the automotive courses and he was also able to register and get a key so it isn't limited to computer studies.

Either way guys if you really want to stick it to Microsoft, just pirate Windows. I know I know, none of this talk on the forums. But instead of refusing to use the product, show Microsoft that people are more willing to steal it than buy it because of the extravagant price. If they are willing to drop the price upon seeing such a reaction, that's how you achieve results.

It's much the same song for me with games. If it uses DRM or some sort of malicious copy protection, or if it's released in unfinished condition, I will pirate it. I won't pay for a game when I end up BETTER OFF stealing it. And mind you I pay for any game that's worth it. I buy more games than I pirate by far.

Russ, the current state of computing is far from slavery and many of these intrusive technologies are actively being fought against. Using Win XP isn't doing much except limiting your transfer speeds and whatnot. I honestly can't see why you are passing around a copy of Sandra obviously from a P2P network but then you simply boycott Windows 7. If you need to illegitimately obtain Sisoft's software to get your desired results, then why is Microsoft exempt from the same treatment? They have practically enough money to end all the poverty in the United States and still have huge amounts of unallocated funds just floating around. Have you seen the walk-through tour of Bill Gates' home? He isn't hurting from illegal copies of Windows.

Mind you guys I DO NOT advocate piracy in the slightest. But sometimes you have to break a few rules to ensure your own rights. Sort of a peaceful protest. In my eyes, that's the real revolution here.

And as far as privacy, a properly configured firewall and ip blocker will get the job done. Definitely far from perfect, but something like PeerBlock or PeerGuardian goes a long way in ensuring your anonymity on the internet. I've been successfully using P2P for almost 6 years now and I have never heard a peep from anyone about it.

 

Thanks to everyone who helped me pick out the parts for the pc I'll be trying to put together in my previous posts in this thread. One question I'd like to ask though, is what OS should I use? Win 7 is out but is obviously expensive. I could try getting that student upgrade DVD but its suppose to be for upgrades from older Win OS and I only have an OEM ME disc ha. I did read that if I got it i could install a 30 day trial and then reinstall over it with the Key. Is that correct? not sure if I if 32bit or 64bit either. Any advice on these issues would be of great help as its the last thing I'll need. Thanks Again

 

erkrow22,
The problem with upgrades and additional Service packs is you can't do a repair of a windows install, once you've added them. If you've added a SP-3 to an integrated XP w/SP-2, nothing will repair it. While I realize fully that the best way is a fresh install, it's not always possible, like at school or work. You just don't always have the time at the moment. Even System Restore doesn't always work, as I found out today when I had a computer with 5 different AV programs on it. Talk about twisting something in a knot, it wouldn't do a system Restore from any date. That's my reason for wanting a full version. Win 7 is the obvious choice, but I got along without it for years, and had all sorts of problems with the free trial version.

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Russ I fully understand your skepticism toward a new version of Windows. But remember this one is built off of years of experience and most of its major problems were fixed through Windows Vista. Go ahead and wait if you like but it is largely a fully functional OS with very few problems. The final build is also quite a bit better than the beta as they've been constantly updating since then. I am no fan of the Windows monopoly either but we could certainly be stuck with worse than Windows 7. It has all the good features of Vista with a small fraction of the problems.

 

On remembering old OS's, Windows 2000 Professional SP4 is still a favorite of mine. Loaded it up the other day on a 10GB partition to fool around with. Surprisingly it runs all of my hardware flawlessly with a few hacked drivers(minus Crossfire of course). Runs nice and fast too. Far beyond XP, though with obvious compatibility issues with newer software. I did get Steam and my original release copy of Half Life 2 running on it though and it works quite well. 2000 never gained much popularity though due to being aimed at the server market. Damn shame because it blew away 9x/Me.

 

Estuansis,
Well you are obviously wrong then, because it didn't come from any P2P or any other illegal site. It's a development copy final release meant to be shared for development purposes. Sisoft isn't looking for $291 of my dollars either, just for the privilege of being able to install it on another computer, after it has been removed from it's assigned computer. I guess you haven't though things through very well! I have 5 computers in this house at the moment. The cost of getting a one at a time use for my $291 is prohibitive! Even if I could wrangle a 20% discount for buying 5, it would still cost well over $1100 to run Win 7 Ultimate on all of them. That's ridiculous! I have paid for every version of Windows since the DOS version 3.1, and never paid more than $99 for any of them. That includes XP-Pro. The very same XP-Pro that the key numbers got destroyed because it was under a desk and got rubbed off by feet rubbing against it gently while it was there. I even sent the receipt for the purchase, the CD and what was left of the sticker which came mounted on the side of the computer, and the thanks for my loyalty to Micro$oft was being told to go suck an egg! That's 7 or 8 versions of Windows I paid for and supported Micro$oft with. God knows exactly how many versions of DOS, MS Works and M$ office I've paid for as well. Even my most recent version, was paid for. It breaks my heart that Bill Gates is down to his last 10 Billion or so. Vista cost him a bunch and it was a flop, so now he's making everybody pay because people turned their back on it! Given the state of the economy, it's even more outrageous! What you are seeing here is a classic case of what happens when you have eliminated all of the competition. You can do what you want and screw people anyway you feel like doing. Do you think for one moment that you would be buying CPUs as cheap as they are today, if Intel had forced AMD out of business? I have very few pirated copies of software, and most of them are older versions that I happen to like. I've also hacked a few myself, but I've never given those out or put them on p2p sites, and I never will!

I would also like to point out that Bill Gates and Microsoft "Pirated" win 95 from Digital Research, who developed it for them but it wasn't accepted by M$. Then M$ stole the source code and brought out Win 95! They were in court for years until DR could no longer afford to fight. By the way, I still have the Beta copy of Win 95, and it was far superior to the final product we eventually got! Microsoft has a long history of stealing other people's work, so please do not lecture me about piracy. I have about 60GB of software on my computer at the moment, 98% of which was bought legitimately! Perhaps Slavery was a poor word to use, but you can say what you like about "Intrusive Technologies" being fought againat, but unless the people fight back, it's only going to get worse. To those that say that it's useless to fight, might I remind them that it was the fighters that doomed Vista! We have Win 7 today and a long extension of XP, because enough people voted with their wallets and wouldn't accept it!

Respectfully,
Russ

 

Creaky, I didn't mean to imply that any particular person was a sheep. I was just a metaphor, same as growing a spine. It just pisses me off that the majority of people in the world live there lives with an "all about me" attitude. A lot of people today have no compassion whatsoever for their fellow man! It's all about them!

You and I both have been around to block, several times in our lives. I don't know about you, but I learned quite a few life lessons the hard way. I grew up poor, thanks to an Alcoholic father and had to fend for myself from the age of 14 on. I was an Auto Mechanic, because my father and his father before him were Auto Mechanics. I only got into Dental/Medical by accident and just being in the right place at the right time and the right circumstances. I didn't have to be a rocket scientist to see the potential for a much better life, so I worked hard and was well rewarded for my efforts. We've both seen tough times over the years, but nothing like what is going on today.

I have no doubts that Win 7 is a great OS, but it's horribly overpriced and still overblown with security. The idea that M$ is keeping a profile on every computer Win 7 is installed on tells me that we don't have the power to keep M$ from poking around inside your computer. They have ways to get in without you even knowing it. M$ has been trying to upgrade IE7 for over a year and I've kept refusing the upgrade because I think that IE blows, and I never use it! I do allow M$ to notify me of upgrades and I am very selective as to which ones I allow. I also check the box where it tells me that if I check it for the upgrades I don't want they won't offer them to me again. The other night I got a notification of an important upgrade to IE 7, which I refused, again! When I shut down the computer, M$ installed it anyway! I have a hardware and software firewall, but that doesn't prevent M$ from installing unwanted software on my computer, in spite of my efforts. They have ways to get in in spite of any hardware or software people used to prevent it. I hear all the talk about how fast Win 7 is, but we've reached the point where computers have gotten so fast over the last two years, you have to ask yourself, just how fast is fast enough? My windows folder has grown to almost 4GB, and at the rate it keeps growing I'm going to have to make my windows partition larger than it's present 37GB. I don't think you or I ever dreamed of 2TB HDDs, 8GB of high speed Ram or CPUs regularly batting out over 70,000 MIPS. The average person buying a computer is not going to spend the kind of money it takes to buy one anyway, because they don't have the money. I'm very happy with what I have as it does everything I need in a timely manner. I don't think that Win 7 is going to improve things enough to make it worthwhile for me. I'll be long gone before the Sh!t hits the fan anyway, so it's not all going to come down on my head anyway. I just feel sorry for the people I'll leave behind.

Again, I appologize for making you think the I was referring to you when I mentioned people being sheep. People do need to remember that sheep eventually get led to the Slaughter! I hope you read and enjoyed "The Marching Morons" and the parallel to today's world! I haven't read it in many years, and it was good to read it again!

Best Regards,
Russ