OS on your computer/s

Ian Robinson · #1 14-05-2008, 12:39 AM

I'm running XP Pro SP2 on my Laptop.

And XP Home SP2 on the desktop (that's what it came with and I haven't upgraded it to XP Pro seems to work OK as is even if it is a HP Pavilion and we've had nothing but hardware problems since we took delivery of the it .... I'll never buy another HP).

I see no good reason to "upgrade" to Vista.

RB (Andrew) · #2 14-05-2008, 01:44 AM

I'm holding onto XP as long as I can, don't need or really want to downgrade to Vista.
Also if I ever need to buy another lappy it will not be another HP that's for sure.
Probably get a Toshiba.

JohnH · #3 14-05-2008, 06:27 AM

XP SP2 on most - Vista on the newest Dell Laptop only - I do NOT intend to touch Vista for astro work - too slow and lack of drivers/support for most grear and programs. Anyone gone to Vista SP1 yet - reviews seem to indicate it is barely worth performing the update - no must haves.

Dennis · #4 14-05-2008, 06:52 AM

XP Pro SP2 on both desktops and on 1 Notebook. Win 98 SE on the older Notebook.

Cheers

Dennis

gbeal · #5 14-05-2008, 06:56 AM

XP Pro on the only PC I own, and only for imaging.
OSX on the others.

dannat (Daniel) · #6 14-05-2008, 08:12 AM

OS X here on 3 machines, on it's way is a linux eeePc for the kids - actually so i can use outdoors at night

have xp with sp2 runing via bootcamp on two of the macs - only for essentials

renormalised (Carl) · #7 14-05-2008, 08:12 AM

XP Pro SP2 on one of my PC's....Linux on the same computer (it's dual boot) and OSX Leopard on my iMac.

I also have an older PC I'll be switching over to Linux from Win98.

Although, I like Win98. I can tweak it and get it to run really well with hardly any BSOD's...especially when it's in good running order.

snowyskiesau · #8 14-05-2008, 08:15 AM

XP Pro only on the laptop - some needed security software only runs under Windows.

Otherwise it's linux on the other computers and OS-X on the Mac Mini.

acropolite (Phil) · #9 14-05-2008, 08:24 AM

XP Pro SP2 on everything, I prefer pro over the home version as I use remote desktop a lot and I need Pro on the laptop for the extra security features.

I have had little exposure to Vista but from what I've seen and read it's a step backwards.

Dennis · #10 14-05-2008, 08:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis

XP Pro SP2 on both desktops and on 1 Notebook. Win 98 SE on the older Notebook.
Cheers
Dennis

Actually, make that XP Pro SP3 for one desktop – I just installed SP3.

Cheers

Dennis

CoombellKid · #11 14-05-2008, 08:28 AM

XP Pro + SP2

regards,CS

ozstockman (Mike) · #12 14-05-2008, 08:36 AM

I have XP Pro SP2 on one desktop and a laptop. XP Tablet edition SP2 on my tablet PC and XP Pro SP2 on a nice UMPC I recently bough. All astrosoft work fine on these computers.
However my wife has a laptop with XP Home SP2 and russian localization and I had problems running planetary software with ASCOM based mount control. Dunno whether it was because of some problems with a serial port or because of russian XP Home but I could not connect to my mount via ASCOM. I checked the serial port and it seemed to work with other applications so I guess it's something wrong with ASCOM running on this OS.

DJVege · #13 14-05-2008, 08:37 AM

XP Pro SP2 on my desktop. My laptop came with Vista installed, and only "supported" vista drivers. After loading Vista once, removed it, put XP SP2 on it, and searched for compatible XP drivers.

Vista's painful. Mind you, with 2GB of ram, it's much better...but I still won't touch it. Not till next year maybe....after a couple of service packs.

renormalised (Carl) · #14 14-05-2008, 08:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ozstockman

However my wife has a laptop with XP Home SP2 and russian localization and I had problems running planetary software with ASCOM based mount control. Dunno whether it was because of some problems with a serial port or because of russian XP Home but I could not connect to my mount via ASCOM. I checked the serial port and it seemed to work with other applications so I guess it's something wrong with ASCOM running on this OS.

Iz probaobly nothink. Goot Russian computer programs OS Windows run well wiv everythink, da!!!. Maybe ASSSCOM iz infected wiv viralz stuff of imperialist Amerikanski CIA dezigns roobish!!!. Much better yu uz goot ol Russians softsware. Workz like all goot comradez for betterment of proletariate order. Spaceba...Dozhverdoniya!!!!.

:ro fl:

programmer · #15 14-05-2008, 09:02 AM

Vista Home Premium 64 bit on my desktop
Vista Home Basic 32 bit on my son's desktop
Vista Home Basic 32 bit on my astro laptop
XP Home Premium 64 bit as a relic from the past

Windows user and programmer for *cough* many years. Also first used Linux before 99.99% of the current population had heard of it. Get 2Gb (for about $40) or more and Vista flies.

RB (Andrew) · #16 14-05-2008, 10:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis

Actually, make that XP Pro SP3 for one desktop – I just installed SP3.

Cheers

Dennis

Dennis is that available through MS website or did you request a CD to be sent out.

In previous SP-updates I was able to contact MS and they'd send out the SP on CD, saves me d/l it everytime I need it for my systems.

Bloodbean (Troy) · #17 14-05-2008, 10:55 AM

XP SP2 on everything at home, just doing a little trial here at work with SP3(1,000 PC's here) to see if it works with our apps and so far so good.

Dennis · #18 14-05-2008, 10:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RB

Dennis is that available through MS website or did you request a CD to be sent out.

In previous SP-updates I was able to contact MS and they'd send out the SP on CD, saves me d/l it everytime I need it for my systems.

Hi Andrew

It was a 66Mb download which hung part way through, so I had to re-start it again, but it finished okay. There is an option to request a CD.

It took several minutes to install and the “read before installing” notes advised that my ATI Radeon 9800XT graphics card would lose its portrait/landscape capability unless I installed the latest SW and Drivers from ATI (now AMD!).

After SP3 completed there were still another 4 downloads due to various Office products I have installed.

The ATI uninstall and re-install took several re-boots so overall, it took a couple of hours from start to finish.

I did try to short cut the ATI upgrade but my Dual TV Tuner card didn’t like it so I had to do the full ATI uninstall and re-install – sigh, I should have listened!

Starry Night Pro 6 and The Sky 6 Pro seemed to open and display correctly at face value, but I’ll check more comprehensively later in the day!

Cheers

Dennis

AlexN · #19 14-05-2008, 12:15 PM

I have Vista Ultimate on my desktop and on my laptop. and I've had 0 problems with it. It takes a little time to get used to it at first, and there was a fairly extreme element of tweaking done to the os after the initial install, but since then its been without issue. A lot of people are quick to say that Vista is crap, however I think its a combination of people who can not / don't want to adapt to a bit of change, and people trying to run it on systems that just aren't powerful enough..

my desktop pc is a quad core 3ghz, 8gb of ram and has 2x 1gb video cards + 3Tb of hdd space. and at present, the system has been up for 87 days...

programmer · #20 14-05-2008, 12:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexN

and people trying to run it on systems that just aren't powerful enough..

Agree with your post except for this bit which can put people off (IMHO). Runs great on my 1.7GhZ single core laptop in 2Gb.

Edit: It's just great we have some choices.. Linux variants, OSX and Windows (talking about mainstream OSes).