7 replies to this topic

[Chiquito]

Admittedly a newbie with Linux, I screwed up my Fedora 8 system while messing with the service settings. Couldn't get it going more than limping along in a non-GUI environment. Maybe an 'upgrade' to Fedora 9 would straighten things out. Installed that, all seemed to go well. Final reboot, no graphics. Quick search on my Dell laptop shows it's a common problem with the 9 release. Went to bed.

Tried a few of the suggested solutions before work. No luck. Came back from work to try some more. Now my Dell is dead. Won't power up at all and shorts the external power supply. Swapped the external supply and battery with my other identical Dell, same problem. Something fried on the motherboard at the power supply. Dang.

Found that basically no one has a good solution yet to the Fedora 9 issue yet so am going to install Debian 4 when I get home this afternoon. I am in learning mode on the Linux and the more problems that need to be solved, the more is learned, right?

The Dell will wait or maybe end up in the trash. I have a hard time with morons so don't call their tech support anymore, ever. It's way out of warranty anyway and I do have another one. All the data is on an external USB drive so the pain will be reinstalling all the software needed to access the data.

Computers suck.

[TJDave]

Computers suck.

AMEN, Brother...

[BajaGringo]

Have you considered using Windows? They have a new version out called Vista.








Sorry - I just couldn't resist....

[Chiquito]

Knowing it was a tongue in cheek statement... I've setup Vista in computers for my daughter and my mother. I don't care for it. And why pay for a system that has as many or more problems than the free one? Only for compatibility issues.

[TJDave]

I have Vista on my home PC and I have had no problems so far (anybody got some wood to knock on?)...

I bought this PC very recently and Vista came as the pre-installed OS. I have heard that many of the problems, glitches, and compatibility issues occur with older systems "upgrading" from XP to Vista.

[BajaGringo]

Vista did have a lot of problems in the early releases. I know, I was there in the first row, center aisle.

They have taken care of most of those problems via updates and the latest ones have been the best IMHO. Microsoft took the criticism to heart it seems and a few big name commentators labeling Vista the new Windows ME seemed to light a fire under their CS.

When I listen to many of the complaints today I think that they are based on old experiences or they aren't downloading the latest updates. Because of some problems with XP and the automatic updates svchost recently, many have just turned the automatic updates off.

Today when someone tells me of a problem with Vista, the very first thing I do is download all the updates and then take a look. It seems to solve most of the problems I encounter. I am sure that a few remain. XP still hasn't worked out all of its problems either...

Seriously though, I am sorry to hear about your problems Chiquito. I spend as much time as you do in front of a screen and I know how frustrating that is. My only advice to anyone is always the same. Keep an external HD just for backup. And do it.

Frequently.

[Chiquito]

I think I have five USB drives for various things. Once on Star Trek they mentioned have x terabytes of memory on the ship, sounded very futuristic. Now I note I'm approaching 2 terabytes on my desk. Funny. I still have some tape backups in storage somewhere, wonder if I'll ever use them.

[Klort]

Same for me.. I decided to wipe everything out of the hard drive and do a clean install for Windows Vista. I agree - it has not caused problems! I love it.