1.23.2008
Hac OS X Leopard
I am loving Leopard. I got Photoshop fixed (uninstalled, wiped all related files, reinstalled, and it worked), Office 2008 is really nice, I can do most of my schoolwork through Safari, and what I can't do in Safari, I can knock out in Firefox. I have my N-Gage QD set to sync with iCal and Address Book through iSync, and I can control Ruri with the N-Gage using Salling Clicker. I have iPhoto and Aperture synced with all the photos from both Ruri and Omoikane, all my music is tagged with album art in iTunes, and CoverSutra has given me a great interface with shortcut keys to control iTunes. Cover Flow in Finder along with Quick Look has sped up my workflow incredibly. I imported a couple thousand photos off of Omoikane and was able to trim out everything I didn't need in only 20 minutes! And I don't know how I used a Mac without Stacks before. Some people don't like them, but I love 'em. Time Machine is not only cool as hell, it's already saved my butt once (when I needed to resize my partitions). Everything just works. And that's pretty impressive considering I'm not on a Macintosh; Hacintosh is more like it. lol I only have one lingering issue, and that is that sound will only play through the internal speakers. I'm going to get an Airport Express router soon which will take care of that; our WiFi router died anyway, and with that, I can use AirTunes with my powered speakers and subwoofer to play my music (the only thing I really need bass for). All in all, I love it. It's fast, gorgeous, and works out much better for my photography and graphical needs than Vista. Vista has the gaming support, but Leopard kills it in the artistic department. And that is a big thing for as I just landed a job as a professional children's photographer, so I have a bunch of new toys to play with...
1.17.2008
I'm a Mac... And a PC!
I have Leopard up and running (near) perfectly on Ruri! I only have 3 issues, and two are simply compatibility issues. I can only get sound out of the on-board speakers, but I can live with that. Photoshop CS3 crashes when I try to load it, but that's a known issue. Hoping they'll get a fix out for that soon. Acquisition doesn't connect at all, but again, this is a known issue. Other than that, I couldn't be happier! I love Leopard! With Office 2008, I almost can stay out of Vista for everything but gaming. Now, I just need Photoshop CS3 to run and I'll be set!
1.15.2008
Ubuntu and Mac OS X Leopard
I installed Ubuntu the other day with no issues except one tiny one; the propietary drivers for my video card don't support CompizFuzion. Not a killer for me, but I'm a huge fan of the eyecandy. lol
Tonight, I'm working on installing Mac OS X Leopard. On my laptop. Yup, it's not a Mac, but I've found a GREAT guide to getting it to dual-boot on a PC, and I'm so close to it working. I have the dual-boot set up just fine, Vista works, Leopard installed, but I can't get all the way into Leopard. I get so far into the boot process and it visually freezes. I say that because my mouse cursor will appear up top, but the load screen (or diagnostic screen, either way) doesn't go away. After a while, some dance music starts that I can only guess is part of the "Welcome to Leopard" process. Soooo close! I'm hoping I can get this resolved soon; I want to play with Leopard!
Tonight, I'm working on installing Mac OS X Leopard. On my laptop. Yup, it's not a Mac, but I've found a GREAT guide to getting it to dual-boot on a PC, and I'm so close to it working. I have the dual-boot set up just fine, Vista works, Leopard installed, but I can't get all the way into Leopard. I get so far into the boot process and it visually freezes. I say that because my mouse cursor will appear up top, but the load screen (or diagnostic screen, either way) doesn't go away. After a while, some dance music starts that I can only guess is part of the "Welcome to Leopard" process. Soooo close! I'm hoping I can get this resolved soon; I want to play with Leopard!
1.07.2008
Back from the Dead
Sorry for the lack of posts, but with the holiday season, things have been hectic around here. Sophia officially died last month, and I replaced her with a brand new Compaq Presario C714NR. Her name is Ruri Ruri (or just Ruri for short). She has a Pentium Dual-Core processor, 2 GB of RAM (came with 1 GB), Intel integrated graphics (which surprised me in how good they actually are), DVD Burner, Vista Home Premium (which also surprised me in how well it works, but more on that in a bit), 15.4" widescreen, blah, blah, blah. We'll get the big question out of the way right now: No, I have not put Ubuntu on her yet. I will, but I just haven't gotten that far yet. Vista is running surprisingly well, and with the hectic world of the holidays, I haven't taken the time to partition and install Ubuntu. That being said, Ruri will dual-boot; Vista runs so well that I don't feel the need (or even a slight urge) to get rid of it.
Thoughts on Vista
What are my thoughts? Have I run into any of the horror stories? Does it really turn your peripherals into flesh-eating zombies that try to rip your face off? The surprising thing is that it runs great for me. Ruri was a little sluggish on the boot and during gaming (though still WAY faster than Sophia was) out of the box, but that was due to only having 1 GB of RAM. So there is credence to that claim; I really wouldn't suggest running it with less than 2 GB. I popped in a couple of 1 GB sticks within a week (they were on sale at Best Buy for $30 a pop). Other than that, I have no complaints. While it's a RAM hog (sits at roughly 55% of RAM usage on average), it doesn't seem to eat much of the processor; I hover around 10% of usage with iTunes, Outlook, Sidebar, and Pidgin running in the background. I like it better than XP as far as the interface goes. I have always loved the Aero look. I think the blur is way cool (I'm ADD, so pretty things tend to hold my attention!), and it runs smooth. I am in love with the new Start menu system; having a scrollable box with all your programs as opposed to columns of lists is wonderful! And you can just type the name of the program (or file) you're looking for for instant access. The Sidebar is pretty cool, though hardly original. I wish it had as many options as Google Sidebar, but I don't like that Google emblazons it's name twice, so I'm not using it. At any rate, it has everything that I need (weather, calendar, slideshow, etc).
Gaming
I haven't put a lot of games on here yet, but those that I have worked well. The highest end game I've tried is Call of Duty 4, and it's only a little slow with visuals set high. I ramped them down a bit and it runs fine. That game is insane, by the way. I've played and beat the demo about 4 times and I still love it. It's definitely on my list of games to get. Star Wars: Empire at War runs smoothly at full resolution and visuals. WoW? I don't play it (I know I'd get addicted, and I don't need that), so I can't comment there.
Applications
Aside from actually running smoothly, the biggest surprise for me is how fast applications load. Office 2007 apps load as if they're just a part of the system, and even large apps like Photoshop CS3 load within seconds. Now, all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt as I'm coming off of a 4 year old laptop to a brand new one. I went from single to dual-core and doubled my RAM. (That being said, I did have a desktop with a 2.5 GHz Athalon and a G-Force FX card a few years ago, so I do have a bit of a basis of comparison.) Vista is actually known for slowing down everything, but with 2 GB of RAM, it's not noticible. Everything loads fast, and I have yet to run into anything that isn't fully loaded within 10 seconds. Sophia was having a great day if she loaded anything in 10 seconds in XP or Ubuntu. lol
Peripherals
I have yet to plug something into Ruri that Vista can't imediately identify and load. At any given moment, I have my Maxtor OneTouch 120 GB external hard drive, WACOM tablet, Targus Bluetooth USB adapter, Logitech LX710 cordless keyboard and mouse, HP F340 printer/scanner/copier, and usually my Archos 404 and Sansa Connect all plugged in. No issues at all.
Conclusions
All in all, I actually like Vista. I had expected bad performance, BSODs, and freeze ups, but I have yet to run into any of those. I'm fairly certain that this is because of running a Dual-Core laptop that was built specifically for Vista, so I don't necessarily recommend it to those with older machines. I have yet to run into any software compatibility issues, but I know there are a lot out there, so do your research if you're considering a switch. For example, my Dad is about to replace his computer, but some of his essential software isn't Vista-compatible yet, so I'm going to have to wipe it and put XP Pro on it for him. Do the research and find out if everything you need works with Vista. For me, it works and I love it. Not as much as Ubuntu, but I like it better than any other version of Windows.
Thoughts on Vista
What are my thoughts? Have I run into any of the horror stories? Does it really turn your peripherals into flesh-eating zombies that try to rip your face off? The surprising thing is that it runs great for me. Ruri was a little sluggish on the boot and during gaming (though still WAY faster than Sophia was) out of the box, but that was due to only having 1 GB of RAM. So there is credence to that claim; I really wouldn't suggest running it with less than 2 GB. I popped in a couple of 1 GB sticks within a week (they were on sale at Best Buy for $30 a pop). Other than that, I have no complaints. While it's a RAM hog (sits at roughly 55% of RAM usage on average), it doesn't seem to eat much of the processor; I hover around 10% of usage with iTunes, Outlook, Sidebar, and Pidgin running in the background. I like it better than XP as far as the interface goes. I have always loved the Aero look. I think the blur is way cool (I'm ADD, so pretty things tend to hold my attention!), and it runs smooth. I am in love with the new Start menu system; having a scrollable box with all your programs as opposed to columns of lists is wonderful! And you can just type the name of the program (or file) you're looking for for instant access. The Sidebar is pretty cool, though hardly original. I wish it had as many options as Google Sidebar, but I don't like that Google emblazons it's name twice, so I'm not using it. At any rate, it has everything that I need (weather, calendar, slideshow, etc).
Gaming
I haven't put a lot of games on here yet, but those that I have worked well. The highest end game I've tried is Call of Duty 4, and it's only a little slow with visuals set high. I ramped them down a bit and it runs fine. That game is insane, by the way. I've played and beat the demo about 4 times and I still love it. It's definitely on my list of games to get. Star Wars: Empire at War runs smoothly at full resolution and visuals. WoW? I don't play it (I know I'd get addicted, and I don't need that), so I can't comment there.
Applications
Aside from actually running smoothly, the biggest surprise for me is how fast applications load. Office 2007 apps load as if they're just a part of the system, and even large apps like Photoshop CS3 load within seconds. Now, all of this has to be taken with a grain of salt as I'm coming off of a 4 year old laptop to a brand new one. I went from single to dual-core and doubled my RAM. (That being said, I did have a desktop with a 2.5 GHz Athalon and a G-Force FX card a few years ago, so I do have a bit of a basis of comparison.) Vista is actually known for slowing down everything, but with 2 GB of RAM, it's not noticible. Everything loads fast, and I have yet to run into anything that isn't fully loaded within 10 seconds. Sophia was having a great day if she loaded anything in 10 seconds in XP or Ubuntu. lol
Peripherals
I have yet to plug something into Ruri that Vista can't imediately identify and load. At any given moment, I have my Maxtor OneTouch 120 GB external hard drive, WACOM tablet, Targus Bluetooth USB adapter, Logitech LX710 cordless keyboard and mouse, HP F340 printer/scanner/copier, and usually my Archos 404 and Sansa Connect all plugged in. No issues at all.
Conclusions
All in all, I actually like Vista. I had expected bad performance, BSODs, and freeze ups, but I have yet to run into any of those. I'm fairly certain that this is because of running a Dual-Core laptop that was built specifically for Vista, so I don't necessarily recommend it to those with older machines. I have yet to run into any software compatibility issues, but I know there are a lot out there, so do your research if you're considering a switch. For example, my Dad is about to replace his computer, but some of his essential software isn't Vista-compatible yet, so I'm going to have to wipe it and put XP Pro on it for him. Do the research and find out if everything you need works with Vista. For me, it works and I love it. Not as much as Ubuntu, but I like it better than any other version of Windows.
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