[Cloud9...68]

I have a very old Windows (XP) computer, which has gotten slower and slower over the years. In particular, visiting a content-rich site like amazon.com was torture - press a key, wait 30 seconds, watch it finally appear on the screen, press another key, etc. A fellow rider in my vanpool suggested I try using Google Chrome for my browser, and wow, what a difference! While my computer still isn't, and never will be, blazingly fast, the difference between Chrome and Windows is remarkable. I highly recommend it!

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[Darryl]

I've been using Chrome on a number of machines for quite some time now. It is a much faster browser than IE. There are a few websites that you'll encounter that are incompatible but I haven't found that to be too much of an issue. I know lots of folks like Mozilla Firefox and I've used it but not consistently enough to tweak it properly. Chrome needs little or no tweaking to perform.

- Darryl

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[Cloud9...68]

The one thing I haven't found yet in Chrome is how to add bookmarks/favorites.

Edit: Doh! Never mind - found it

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[rhudeboye]

Add unbuntu and watch your system fly.

I STILL LIKE FFOX BETTER

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[Cloud9...68]

"Add unbuntu and watch your system fly. "

I guess I could google it, but what the heck is that?

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[DaveN]

Well for one thing it's Ubuntu [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]
It's a Linux flavour that has reached a good level of popularity. Unlike the old Red Hat/Free BSD days there are a lot of decisions in picking a Linux platform now. Still have to enjoy the chase as far as Linux goes but not near as bad as it used to be, recompiling everytime you wanted to use a program on a particular OS. Ahhh Make...

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[Cloud9...68]

With my level of computer knowledge and interest, I think I would have better luck swapping a BMW V12 into my 968 than I would putting a new operating system on my computer [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tongue.gif[/img] . Plus with all the likely compatibility issues with my existing software, it sounds like a recipe for unending frustration, even if the end result is ultimately a better running system.

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[rhudeboye]

Cloud9...68' , it sounds like a recipe for unending frustration, even if the end result is ultimately a better running system.

I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. My first time using unbuntu on my laptop, upon start up it identified my video card and installed the driver (I had to DL it for windows). It identified my make and model of notebook as well. Then it WOWed me. It gave a notice alert that there was a recall on my dell battery and told me to contact Dell. I was floored. I quickly found that the system couldn't be bogged down with open windows. It remained fast. Many of the features in the newer windows OSs are copied from Linux . Another nice feature is the scrolling desktop. It takes your one monitor and turns it into 2 or 3. You simply swipe left to go to monitor 2 and all your programs are there and open. Then you can drag them to your open docs in screen 1. Such a good idea.

I don't know if you would get the same results if you load in all the typical MS stuff like ie and office, but if you go with all the popular add ins like Fire fox, open office, which is pre-installed, VLC movie player etc. you'll never need a new machine. Think of Linux as Chrome for your entire system.



http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop

This is a link to there newest OS- Fedora
http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Rock...88.html?artik...

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[Cloud9...68]

This all sounds good, and one of the senior managers at my place of work is enamored with Fedora, but I have a few issues that means it probably won't work for me. First and foremost, I'm using Magic Jack for my land line phone, and it says it only works with Windows and Intel-based Macs. Second, will it work with Quicken? And does it work well with MS Office? I have some important stuff, like my stock trade records and maintenance records for all my cars, in Excel. Thanks.

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[rhudeboye]

open office works fine with with excel, word etc. I dont know about quicken or the majic jack thing. My friend is using magic jack and vonage he is comparing the 2. He is strongly leaning towards vonage.

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[Cloud9...68]

I'm sure Vonage is a better system, but the overriding advantage about Magic Jack is that it is phenomenally cheap - only $19.95 a year - and only $69.95 for five years. Free, for all intents and purposes. I'll put up with a lot on inconvenience, given that I use my cell phone for 95% of my calls nowadays, to save that much money. We were paying a staggering $55 a month for our land line before switching to Magic Jack. It does have some issues, but I think they're more related to my ancient computer than to the product itself.

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[flash]

i don't understand the issues with browsers, or see any big differences between them in performance, but for me, it's safari all the way - i've tried some others, but so far really prefer safari

as for phones, i spend a lot of my day on the phone, so this is a very big issue to me - i had vonage and hated it - the constant 911 call was a problem for me - also, having to leave the computer on to make or receive a phone call sucked

phones cost me about $500 a month, and while i would love to spend less, there is just no way i could deal with the inconveniences of VOIP, and i can't deal with the inconsistent service of cell phones - i may yet try to figure out a way to drop one line to that, but the business lines can't change

no perfect world i guess

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[Cloud9...68]

Yes, phones can be a real pain. Rightly or wrongly, I've always kept my computer on all the time anyway, and I don't need the land line much, so uber-cheap VOIP does the trick for me. I could see it being a big problem for a business, though. On mine, I have to wait at least 5, maybe 10 seconds from the time I pick up the receiver, to when the person on the other end can hear me talk. But for less than two bucks a month, I can deal. And I plan to devote part of today, since I pulled a muscle in my side yesterday and won't be doing anything physical, to getting on the chat line with Magic Jack to try to troubleshoot this annoying problem.

As far as browsers, our family's Mac's run great on Safari, but on my old PC, it runs even slower than Explorer; it takes forever to open, at any rate. Chrome works the best of any browser I've tried so far.

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[flash]

i often keep one on too, but i don't like the idea of being forced into it - i had a system crash a number of years ago when we had vonage, and i was screwed with no phone ability to get tech support

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