Comments on: The Harris Report http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/ Cycling, articles, sites, and thoughts Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:56:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.5 By: John http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-383 John Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:42:19 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-383 I don't have any Linux boxes in use right now either. A couple at the office, but they're doing menial tasks, one runs a cd-tower, the other a tiny internal website. Were I to use it, I'd use Ubuntu for a desktop, Slackware for a server. Installation is so much easier now. Meanwhile, XP is great. The only BSODs I can remember getting were either from hardware (failing RAM, etc.) or the %#@! iTunes 5 installation. Yeah, restoring an image leaves nothing behind, which CAN actually be cool if you set everything up as you like it, install all your programs and <i>then</i> make your own image. Saves time like crazy, I do it on the loaner laptops here in the office. Set up one, and then clone the rest of them like sheep. Ghost isn't that expensive, might be worth getting for disaster recovery situations. I don’t have any Linux boxes in use right now either. A couple at the office, but they’re doing menial tasks, one runs a cd-tower, the other a tiny internal website.

Were I to use it, I’d use Ubuntu for a desktop, Slackware for a server. Installation is so much easier now. Meanwhile, XP is great. The only BSODs I can remember getting were either from hardware (failing RAM, etc.) or the %#@! iTunes 5 installation.

Yeah, restoring an image leaves nothing behind, which CAN actually be cool if you set everything up as you like it, install all your programs and then make your own image. Saves time like crazy, I do it on the loaner laptops here in the office. Set up one, and then clone the rest of them like sheep. Ghost isn’t that expensive, might be worth getting for disaster recovery situations.

]]> By: todd http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-381 todd Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:54:41 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-381 Heh. I've never done Linux. I've tried, but I've always failed. I use linux only on hosted accounts that give me nice interfaces to the important tools. The last time I tried it, It wouldn't install becuase it was a CD drive that wasn't bootable. That meant I needed the install boot floppy. I got the thing to partially install and run in text mode, but the graphics card wouldn't init in graphics mode (it was unsupported or too old or something). So I got a new card, and it was too new and the bios woudn't support it. By that time, it wasn't worth the effort any more. I've had good luck with XP w/r/t reliability (I don't recall ever getting a BSOD) and as long as you add enough intruder prevention stuff like AVG, you're fine. Beside, my router has a firewall, too, so I haven't had any trouble so far. knock wood. I've been using Windows since 2.1 or something, so I'm used to it and can bend it to my will. Although I have to say these latest versions are getting pretty difficult to find your way around to do simple things like change environment variables and computer host names and IP addresses. When I installed this machine, I just let it go DHCP, but then I wanted to change it to fixed since it will be the server and I have to tell the router where to redirect port 80 requests. I hunted for like 10 minutes to find where to do that. It's the most non-obvious thing. Loading a restore disk also wipes out any applications you have installed. V. bad. esp. when you've got applications (like Dreamweaver) that have to phone home to activate. If you don't deactivate before your re-install, you have to go through MM's maze to try to get it turned on again. Bleah. But I think they got enough grief about it that they changed it back to a "honor system" in ver. 8. Heh. I’ve never done Linux. I’ve tried, but I’ve always failed. I use linux only on hosted accounts that give me nice interfaces to the important tools. The last time I tried it, It wouldn’t install becuase it was a CD drive that wasn’t bootable. That meant I needed the install boot floppy. I got the thing to partially install and run in text mode, but the graphics card wouldn’t init in graphics mode (it was unsupported or too old or something). So I got a new card, and it was too new and the bios woudn’t support it. By that time, it wasn’t worth the effort any more. I’ve had good luck with XP w/r/t reliability (I don’t recall ever getting a BSOD) and as long as you add enough intruder prevention stuff like AVG, you’re fine. Beside, my router has a firewall, too, so I haven’t had any trouble so far.

knock wood.

I’ve been using Windows since 2.1 or something, so I’m used to it and can bend it to my will. Although I have to say these latest versions are getting pretty difficult to find your way around to do simple things like change environment variables and computer host names and IP addresses.

When I installed this machine, I just let it go DHCP, but then I wanted to change it to fixed since it will be the server and I have to tell the router where to redirect port 80 requests. I hunted for like 10 minutes to find where to do that. It’s the most non-obvious thing.

Loading a restore disk also wipes out any applications you have installed. V. bad. esp. when you’ve got applications (like Dreamweaver) that have to phone home to activate. If you don’t deactivate before your re-install, you have to go through MM’s maze to try to get it turned on again. Bleah. But I think they got enough grief about it that they changed it back to a “honor system” in ver. 8.

]]> By: John http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-380 John Fri, 21 Oct 2005 14:44:13 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-380 Ahh. I was half expecting you to call out the name of your favorite Linux distro. Restore Disk Upside: It's a lot faster to "reinstall windows", as it's a speedy ghost image. Downside: Everything else. Ahh. I was half expecting you to call out the name of your favorite Linux distro.

Restore Disk Upside: It’s a lot faster to “reinstall windows”, as it’s a speedy ghost image.
Downside: Everything else.

]]> By: todd http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-379 todd Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:23:51 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-379 It comes with XP Pro. My only real gripe is that it comes iwth one of those "restore" disks instead of an actual XP Pro disk, but that's what pretty much everyone does. It comes with XP Pro. My only real gripe is that it comes iwth one of those “restore” disks instead of an actual XP Pro disk, but that’s what pretty much everyone does.

]]> By: John http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-378 John Fri, 21 Oct 2005 13:10:07 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-378 What OS is on there? What OS is on there?

]]> By: todd http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-375 todd Fri, 21 Oct 2005 01:58:29 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-375 The thing is I bought it as a server and now I'm finding it's really super fast and with lots of graphics and sound power that would make it a really good desktop machine. No. No. It stays where it is. Maybe a media server. Hmmm... I've still got lots of things to load on it though. ColdFusion and Apache are loaded, but I've still to install PHP and MySQL and ImageMagik and ... ... ... The thing is I bought it as a server and now I’m finding it’s really super fast and with lots of graphics and sound power that would make it a really good desktop machine. No. No. It stays where it is.

Maybe a media server. Hmmm…

I’ve still got lots of things to load on it though. ColdFusion and Apache are loaded, but I’ve still to install PHP and MySQL and ImageMagik and … … …

]]> By: John http://cycling.finial.com/blog/2005/10/20/the-harris-report/#comment-373 John Thu, 20 Oct 2005 20:02:16 +0000 http://cycling.finial.com/blog/?p=171#comment-373 Nice system. I'll have you know that I ordered new RAM for my current machine, and thereby have no need for such glitzy machinery. I happen to LIKE the way my PC sounds like a vacuum cleaner when I turn it on, thankyouverymuch. (Goddamnit!) Nice system.

I’ll have you know that I ordered new RAM for my current machine, and thereby have no need for such glitzy machinery. I happen to LIKE the way my PC sounds like a vacuum cleaner when I turn it on, thankyouverymuch.

(Goddamnit!)

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