Computer operating systems

[Zelandeth]

Most comfy seat I've had was in my Renault 25, though odds on finding a nice one are pretty slim.

They're softer leather as well so less likely to fatigue on the seams like this one has.

[Ben82]

I've been using Windows 10 for most of the week... haven't really missed linux too much! I think the whole micromanaging of the issues I was having was starting to take its toll. And kind of sums up my history with Linux on the desktop as a whole.
Haven't had any CPU usage issues in windows at all, in Linux Chrome would seemingly randomly start using up CPU usage with it's "gpu process". Firefox doesn't seem laggy on Windows either (not that I've had to use it much), but on Linux it was really laggy for me.

I am pretty certain the issues this time around stem from the linux intel-graphics driver, and potentially something to do with the kernel, as whilst the mainline release of the kernel helped somewhat, the issue did still occur in the end, both of which had updates during the period we were moving. I do notice that there has been another driver release a couple of days ago, but no changelog is given to suggest whether it might fix my issue or not.

[CitroJim]

Ben, I have to confess that I've been using Win 10 now for several weeks and I remain very happy with it. I run Firefox and Thunderbird on Win 10 and both work beautifully....

I still have my Linux though and still run it server-side...

[Ben82]

Well accidentally rebooted into Linux (Plex wanted to reboot after an update so let it, as there was some win updates also scheduled) and Linux was still the default boot.

Thought whilst I was there I would change the grub config to default to windows for now. And my 2nd monitor was going nuts, seemingly having a memory of everything that had been on the screen (a bit like when you win at solitaire on ancient windows!).

Made me roll my eyes and reboot back into Windows. It's a shame, when it was working well, Linux was great. oh well. Maybe soon I'll transfer the stuff off the linux partition to give some more space to Windows again.

[CitroJim]

I think it shows just how good Windows 10 is now Ben and just how dire Windows 8 was...

[Ben82]

I actually liked windows 8.1 Jim the reason i switched to Linux was I was using a Cygwin console a lot of the time for work etc, and thought it would be better if I just used the real deal.

Which worked great for months. Ironically I think after using Linux for some time, my console usage actually dropped and was using GUI tools again more.

[CitroJim]

Windows 8 used to stress and annoy me Ben... After Windows 7, which I use professionally, it really was a retrograde step.

The only place where Windows 8 is good, excellent in fact, is on a phone and that'll soon be upgraded to Windows 10 Mobile...

I love my Windows phone to bits...

[myglaren]

You will never convince me.



Seriously, I am more than satisfied with Linux - never experience your 'lagginess' with Firefox - except with Windows.
My experience appears to be diametrically opposed to yours Ben.

The only 'problem' I have at the minute is that I just bought the new (OK, over a year old but couldn't get it before) Jackie Evancho DVD, concert in Longwood Gardens.
Plays fine on my Mint laptop but Ubuntu doesn’t recognise it - both VLC player?
Not that is matters as I have a region 1 NTSC DVD player, just a niggle.
Ordered it from America, it came from Sweden

[CitroJim]

I love the picture Steve

[Ben82]

Steve, this is probably it: http://askubuntu.com/questions/505684/v ... dvd-movies think mint comes with the restricted stuff already set up.

As I said I reckon my issue is all down to the latest 4.x kernels and the intel gpu driver, my other laptop that uses an intel gpu that I think is still on a 3.1x kernel, as I haven't bothered to update it in ages since I only use it sparingly, and on that Firefox performs a lot better than chrome! (It is an old laptop!). Firefox probably performed better on that than my main laptop.

So it's likely that my situation is probably fairly unique and mostly down to the hardware/kernel/driver combination etc.

Oddly enough I think the current mint release's kernel (3.16) has an issue with my usb headset where the volume is too loud and mutes about half way down.

[myglaren]

Thanks for the link Ben - will give that a shot - was too idle to look before, partly as it plays on the other (Mint) laptops and the DVD player - restrictions on that as my son hates her.

[myglaren]

Didn't work, DVD not recognised by computer, not at all.
However K3b could see it and after installing a heap of plugins and libraries it is ripping it to my home folder now.
With those plugins VLC may work with it - or not

[Zelandeth]

Windows 10 has officially been put into my bad books today, having spent well over two hours trying to figure out why the one machine we have here with it on will not connect to our network via the range extender.

Turns out it's basically due to some very aggressive security measures which means that it won't play nice with anything using a different subnet to the router itself or something to that effect.

Basically, two hours down the drain only resulted in us finding that the repeater is fundamentally "incompatible" with Windows 10. It's a blasted wi-fi device...why should Windows have anything to say about the matter...Plus it's really hard to see what's actually going on given that the relay process is essentially transparent as far as all my other machines are concerned, and the controls on the repeater itself are extremely limited. You basically have options for 2.4GHz, 5GHz, both, your target SSID and the name of the relayed network, and of course the passcode. That's it.

Dug out and tested my *ancient* Netgear one and sure enough, it behaves exactly the same...it will connect to the repeater, but not the router further down the chain.

Seriously considering just wiring the house for gigabit ethernet at this point...

[Ben82]

Windows 10 has officially been put into my bad books today, having spent well over two hours trying to figure out why the one machine we have here with it on will not connect to our network via the range extender.

Turns out it's basically due to some very aggressive security measures which means that it won't play nice with anything using a different subnet to the router itself or something to that effect.
.

For home use why would you have a subnet mask at anything but 255.255.255.0 (which most routers would be set up for)?

I do know that if you have one device (let's call it A) on say
10.0.0.1/255.0.0.0
And another (B) on 10.0.5.5/255.255.255.0

Then A will be able to send requests to B, but B won't be able to send requests to A as it doesn't know how to reach A.

[Zelandeth]

The router is just set up as default (not that Sky will let me change much...and every time the stupid thing updates its firmware it wipes all of the user settings, including my firewall rules etc, which is *really* annoying), the problem seems to be connecting through the repeater.

Hard to tell when the repeater has such a limited user interface - though in fairness, it's designed to do a very simple job and basically plug and play. Mind you, the old Netgear one mind you is having exactly the same result and it does give me more information, and should be fine...and everything else plays nicely, it's just Win 10 that's the problem.

I'd rather not use the repeater at all, but unfortunately we have a pretty big house and there are serious signal quality issues on the one side of the house. The BT master socket being right at the extreme northwestern end doesn't help to be honest...

One thing which has occurred to me as a middle ground might be to just use the router effectively as a modem, jack a Cat5 cable into it and use a separate wireless access point in a more central location...though if I'm already going to that much trouble (will mean drilling holes in walls and lifting floorboards), I might as well just get a proper switch and wire connection sockets in each of the locations where PCs are most commonly used hadn't I?

...Would also mean I could finally move the server out of the chest of drawers in the corner of the bedroom!