Vince Winterling has left a new comment on your post "Upgrading XP": Surprised you haven't upgraded to Vista. Any particular reason?
Yup. Tried it. Didn't like it. :-)
I have a very nice 3.2GHz desktop system a couple years old (my main pc), but my sound system doesn't have Vista drivers. Runs fine on XP, but Vista is a no-go. It's now running XP, and is a fine system, overall.
My laptop is a 1.6GHz unit, and it bogged down something awful in Vista. It was like driving a car with the parking brake on. I took Vista off, reinstalled XP and then switched to Firefox which is much leaner and faster than IE. It's like a whole new laptop.
I actually can't go into detail because my noncompete agreement with Brian Livingston (the guy who bought my newsletter business) has another 90 days or so to run: Until the noncompete agreement expires, I can't write my normal sort of how-to columns about Windows.
I'll be happy to provide more detail in a few months, but for now, please understand why my answers are, um, generic. I don't want to violate my agreement, or do anything to damage Brian's business.
Legally yours,
Fred
Hello Fred,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I just want to say 'welcome back'. I don't believe that you know the extent of how much you have been missed.
Back in December, 2006, I did a blog article asking 'Fred Langa and The Langalist - Where Are You Fred?" which generated over 50 comments.
http://www.lockergnome.com/blade/2006/12/30/fred-langa-and-the-langalist-we-miss-you-fred/#comment-155078
It was one of my reader comments that brought me to your site.
I am glad to see that you are 'rebooting' your life after the 'crash'. Many of your loyal Langalist readers will be happy to know that you have been found!
God bless you Fred,
With the deepest of regards,
Ron Schenone
Brian's "business" / newsletter leaves a lot to be desired. Long live the Langa List
ReplyDeleteBob Geiter
Strikes me as a very naive user question. There are millions of pages on the web about the many problems with Vista.
ReplyDeleteHe can't even google 'Vista sucks'.
I don't think Vista sucks; on higher-end hardware, it's visually gorgeous and has a number of nice refinements. It's also safer for beginners for "black box" PC users (those who don't want to have to think about security, for example) because the default setup is safer than XP's.
ReplyDeleteBut the lack of reliable backward compatibility with XP drivers, and the higher hardware requirements make it a less-than-ideal OS for users who already have a good XP setup. If Vista can run on the XP box (not a certain thing), it will be slower than XP on the same hardware.
Sh*t. I'm writing about Windows, so I'll shut up now.
And for the posters above, thank you for the kind words.
I got a new laptop last summer and it came with Vista installed. Vista actually ran fairly well on it even though it originally came with only 1 GB of RAM (I've since bumped it up to 2 GB). It has a solo core 2.2 Ghz AMD CPU and integrated graphics, but it ran Aero just fine.
ReplyDeleteAs much as I wanted to stick with Vista, however, I ultimately ended up wiping the drive and putting XP on it for one primary reason: lack of drivers for my "legacy" hardware. My printers, scanner, and webcam work just fine with XP, but because they are several generations old there are no Vista drivers for them (and probably never will be).
I got a new laptop because the old one died, but I didn't feel like investing more money in all new peripherals just so everything would work with Vista. Everything runs happily on XP. I have Vista set up as a VM using VMware, so when I get a craving for Vista (I actually think it looks much better than XP), I play around with the VM (I even have SP1 installed -- alas, no Aero running in VMware).
I think the Windows Secrets newsletter is excellent (I had paid subscriptions to both before they merged), but it has NEVER been what the Langalist was. I miss your voice, Fred.
ReplyDeleteI concur with what Bob Geiter said in his post about Brian's newsletter leaving a lot to be desired. His, (Brian's), newsletter cannot even come close to what the Langa List did.
ReplyDeleteBrian, if you are reading this, do yourself, and your readers a favor and either get some real newsworthy items into your publication or...just shut it down. Right now it's not worth the time it takes to read it.
Well, that's a little harsh, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteEveryone's tastes are different, and Brian's style made him a top-selling book author with his Windows Secrets series. So clearly, Brian's data-driven approach works for lots of people.
And no one's style works for everyone. I usually convey data in my writing, but I also like to have fun with it. Sometimes, that means exploring tangents for no purpose other than that they're interesting. My writing is often extremely casual and informal. And my approach to a topic can be very (ahem) elliptical.
I try not to over-analyze, but I think this latter kind of writing appeals to what are called "ludic readers;" those who get pleasure from reading--- pleasure beyond whatever intrinsic value the raw information has. I'm a ludic reader myself.
But that kind of not-always-straight-to-the-point writing will send a data-driven reader up the wall. Brian's style drive some folks crazy; my style drives others the same.
Different strokes.
Fred:
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry if you feel my remarks about Brian's newsletter were a bit harsh but that is how I feel.
It's not just the writing style that is annoying but many other things, including paying for the privilege of seeing ads all over the newsletter hawking everything from Brian's books to Tupperware.
Fred:
ReplyDeletePlease forgive the short answer I left this morning. I really did not have time to go into any real detail.
I do want to apologize to you if you felt my remarks were disrespectful toward you, since this is your site.
Your newsletters and other columns were always number one on my list to read whenever I found them. There is no way I can remember how many different things I learned about because of you. I was one of the first subscribers to your LangaList Plus edition...not just because of the lack of ads, but it gave me a feeling of giving something to you for all you had given to me. While I realize that the price of the subscription did not come close to paying for what I received from you, I was at least contributing.
When you announced the combining of your newsletter with Brian's I was stunned, to say the least. I was even more stunned to learn that you had given him the rights to your newsletter's name. I personally felt that you wound up much poorer for that move.
While I doubt you remember, we spoke not too long after I had received the first issue or two of Brian's newsletter. I mentioned to you then how disappointed I was in the content and I asked you about several things that were in your publication that were missing from Windows Secrets. I also mentioned that I had emailed Brian twice and that he never had the courtesy to respond, even if it was to tell me that he didn't give a damn (although his lack of responding told me just that).
What you said about different writing styles is true but I can honestly say that Brian's newsletter is the ONLY one that I have subscribed to that I did not like in any way, shape or form.
I would appreciate a response but if you're too busy I do understand.
Let me end this by says while I have been made much richer in my PC knowledge because of you, I now feel quite poorer because the place I received that knowledge from is no longer around (LangaList/LangaList Plus).
Thank you for taking the time to read this.
God Bless You!