Laptop recommendations?

[jacksoncsplayer]

What's different about vista? I heard it's supposed to be more the mac operating system..

[shobet]

What, Unix?

[Accept2]

I like Vista, but eventually everyone will be running a version of Linux, and where will that put Microsoft?...............

[shobet]

Linux has come a long way since those early days of it coming on a floppy! It's getting there but I can't see the normal Joe user fucking around with config files and having to drop to the CLI it to get his wireless card working with the flavour of linux he's decided to put on his PC.

So I don't see us all using Linux on the desktop in the near future, there are too many enterprises with too much money invested in MS solutions. Linux on the enterprise platform is in my opinion in a more robust product and in advance of the MS server solutions. I've not really had time to play with the 2003 family but I'm told it's a lot better than the previous product.
However on the desktop, MS is king and will remain so for the foreseeable future. It would take just so much time and money to re-educate the end users. You have to remember these people are entrenched in the way they've been interacting with their computers for a long time now.

I'm not an OS evangelist. Pick whatever works for the solution you want, they all have advantages and disadvantages.

[Newc]

What's different about vista? I heard it's supposed to be more the mac operating system..

It's an idotit's operating system. If you know anything about computers, and you're sure you want to do something, you have to make the system NOT ask you if you're sure you want to do something, and that function is buried under a mountain of menus.

It's harder to get to the important settings in Control Panel - to keep idots from screwing their systems. Idiots don't deserve a computer.

To top it off, I'm already running into software issues - the software for my cellular modem won't install. I get an error. There's no patched version on either site.

But it's not only the OS, it's the computer itself - even if I could get the modem software to install, I can't use a full-size PCMCIA card modem - I have to shell out $200 more for the new ExpressCard which is more narrow, because apparently that's "the wave of the future".

Gee, I thought full backwards compatability was the wave of the future? Silly me.

Soon as I find my XP CD, Vista's getting eradicated.

[Shawn Lutz]

I agree Newc. I don't use Vista but I the home network engineer so I had to set them up. They should let you toggle interfaces from the Idiot proof to Pro for people who know what the fuck they are doing

[Newc]

One more major beef with Vista - I get too many errors saying that I can't do something until I log in with Administrator priveledges.

I'm the ONLY user set up for this system, which makes me the Admin. I will NOT have a program deny me total access to my own system.

Of course I used to get this error in XP and NT4 SP3, but you'd think by now MS would have fixed this issue?

[hippietim]

It's an idotit's operating system.

[hippietim]

One more major beef with Vista - I get too many errors saying that I can't do something until I log in with Administrator priveledges.

You can turn this off.

Of course I used to get this error in XP and NT4 SP3, but you'd think by now MS would have fixed this issue?

Sure, we could fix this - let any user on the system perform administrative tasks. How does that sound?

[texasfury]

I like Vista, but eventually everyone will be running a version of Linux, and where will that put Microsoft?...............

Making Microsoft Linux, which EVERYONE will run. The day that comes out, is the day I switch to Linux. It will be the only distribution that has DirectX, easy patching, no hassle software installation. 99.999% of the drivers will work, all of the commercial apps will run on it, and it will have the familiar Windows interface we all know. There will be none of this mismatch BS you get with the current state of Linux.

So yes, bring on Linux, as long as it's MS putting out a distribution.