Is Windows 7 The Linux - Netbook Killer?

[freitag1]

I doubt win 7 will replace my nLite version on my 901 but maybe until then netbooks have so dramatically improved that I get a new one anyway. How I love my netbook

[CDNinKS]

I already run a cut down version of XP (TINYXP) on my EEE PC and my Aspire One. I have a legal copy of XP, so don't feel I am cheating anyone. This works very well on both systems, although I am a bit disappointed with the read/write speed of the 8gb SSD of the AAO. It really slows everything down.

http://aspireoneblog.com/blog/2008/12/spee...-up-windows-xp/

Thanks, I had already done most of those tweaks.......did stop a few more services though, so will see what happens. Tiny XP by default has a lot of unnecessary services disabled already. I am going to check for a ZIF to CF card in Pantip in a few days and check the price of a 300x 8GB CF card. If not too expensive, I may go for that mod.......seems to be the only way to really get things cooking again. I am a window/tab hog.....just now I have 10 open, so I need some fast read/write. I have already added a gig of ram, so I know that is not the problem.

[sjaak327]

Just a general remark: If you really think any operating system other than Windows in its various incarnations is affected by malware you are living in a dream world and it's time to wake up. Really. It's not because Linux and Mac are so secure, it's that the virus writers don't care about these platforms.

What's more likely (A) getting hit by a comet or (B ) getting your computer infected by malware?

Linux: A

Mac: A

Windows: B

OSX by a wide margin, despite the low marketshare, they are quite vulnerable to a wide range of exploits, mainly due to Apple's inability to patch things quickly and more importantly properly. hel_l they only just recently came up with a browser that has a Phising filter ! Indeed count the OSX users lucky that hackers and other criminals have not been interrested in the OS, of course when they wake up and see what goat cheese OSX really is, they will target them...

[sjaak327]

Furthermore, I aslo run various Linux flavours, and the number of patches each month, is rapidely exceeding the patches I need for Vista.

Sign on the wall maybe ?

[dave_boo]

Furthermore, I aslo run various Linux flavours, and the number of patches each month, is rapidely exceeding the patches I need for Vista.

Sign on the wall maybe ?

Don't confuse patches with updates!

Granted there are security patches that are rolled out with what is surprising frequency; but consider how and when they're rolled out. Most of those security patches are released before the hackers can roll up an exploit. Compare that with other Operating Systems modus operandi of waiting until their vulnerabilities are being exploited. I'd rather have the extremely large community probing the software looking for ways to make their systems safe than have some faceless corporation making decisions based on whatever the hel_l it is that they make them on.

Updates improve functionality.

[sjaak327]

Furthermore, I aslo run various Linux flavours, and the number of patches each month, is rapidely exceeding the patches I need for Vista.

Sign on the wall maybe ?

Don't confuse patches with updates!

Granted there are security patches that are rolled out with what is surprising frequency; but consider how and when they're rolled out. Most of those security patches are released before the hackers can roll up an exploit. Compare that with other Operating Systems modus operandi of waiting until their vulnerabilities are being exploited. I'd rather have the extremely large community probing the software looking for ways to make their systems safe than have some faceless corporation making decisions based on whatever the hel_l it is that they make them on.

Updates improve functionality.

I know what you are saying, however, Microsoft is doing quite a good job nowadays to patch security holes, before they can actually be exploited. I know that when XP was launched, this was exactly the problem of the first 1,5 years of that OS. I guess they have learned their lesson.

[JSixpack]

I already run a cut down version of XP (TINYXP) on my EEE PC and my Aspire One. I have a legal copy of XP, so don't feel I am cheating anyone. This works very well on both systems, although I am a bit disappointed with the read/write speed of the 8gb SSD of the AAO. It really slows everything down.

http://aspireoneblog.com/blog/2008/12/spee...-up-windows-xp/

Thanks, I had already done most of those tweaks.......did stop a few more services though, so will see what happens. Tiny XP by default has a lot of unnecessary services disabled already. I am going to check for a ZIF to CF card in Pantip in a few days and check the price of a 300x 8GB CF card. If not too expensive, I may go for that mod.......seems to be the only way to really get things cooking again. I am a window/tab hog.....just now I have 10 open, so I need some fast read/write. I have already added a gig of ram, so I know that is not the problem.

Please post back w/ what you find. I'm thinking about getting an AspireOne myself.

[falkenbach]

proud user of asus eee 4g, I installed windows vl from usb one month ago, as with pre-installed xandros experienced too many bugs and problems.

win 7 make not much sense since already we have big choise of different xp n-Lited packages, i even see the one stripped down to 160mb installation ;-)

preferred vl sinse its official xp release and I suppose more stable ;-)

also i have a strong feeling that xandros was choosed primarily to make hardware less useful ;-) hidden 1.5gb partition in case of 4g total memory, disabled full desktop mode, not even close in terms of usability to debian - looks like xandros really helpful for turning pretty awesome hardware into simple console for inet surfing and office documents ;-)

[dave_boo]

I know what you are saying, however, Microsoft is doing quite a good job nowadays to patch security holes, before they can actually be exploited. I know that when XP was launched, this was exactly the problem of the first 1,5 years of that OS. I guess they have learned their lesson.

I applaud Microsoft's decision to finally get on the ball with security, and there's a good chance that is much better than I assume. As posted earlier, I only boot into Vista to play games, and since otherwise have no use for Windows have quite fallen behind on all the advances. I do know that the UAC pissed me off though; if an admin installed the program, why do you need to click on that "Are you really sure you want to run this program?" dialouge?

xp n-Lited packages, i even see the one stripped down to 160mb installation ;-)

I've looked at V-Lite, having used N-Lite in the past, but you need to download a 1,3 GB WAIK file from Windows! Since I'm currently working in the Gulf, that's not much of a possibility over the satellite link.

[CDNinKS]

JSixpack,

It does seem that disabling those few more services has helped.

If you do decide to go with an AAO, you may be better off going with the Windows/HDD model. It comes with a gig of ram already and with a spinning HD, read/write will not be a problem. I guess it depends on your budget. I already had a EEEPC 2GB, which worked fine under TINY XP, but was very limited in space. I seen the AAO 8GB SSD model for 8400 Baht and could not pass it up, but did have to add the 1 gig of ram, so now have invested 9500 baht.

Good luck

[sjaak327]

I applaud Microsoft's decision to finally get on the ball with security, and there's a good chance that is much better than I assume. As posted earlier, I only boot into Vista to play games, and since otherwise have no use for Windows have quite fallen behind on all the advances. I do know that the UAC pissed me off though; if an admin installed the program, why do you need to click on that "Are you really sure you want to run this program?" dialouge?

For the same reason as on open suse maybe, I mean, when you do admin related stuff, it will ask for the root password on that platform as well, just in the same way as OSX would. There is also a reason why your screen contains a bomb in open suse, when logged on as root, bad thing to do. In vista it doesn't matter as UAC contains that extra layer of security.

I for one am very happy with UAC, as it has helped me on more then one occasions to avoid that nifty web script doing havoc on my machine, that's the fun part of it, when I get such a prompt, if I'm not doing any admin related stuff, I know somehting fishy is going on.

Edited January 5, 2009 by sjaak327

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

I am sure i have tested my last Windows version already (Vista) as i am very very happy with Ubuntu for the past 8 months, however i still do install Windows (usually XP, sometimes Vista) on PC's that i build for others and i work on a bunch of XP-powered machines every day at the office.

During X-Mas i had the pleasure of fixing a virus-laden PC that belongs to the 11-year old nephew of my boyfriend - that machine is not connected to the internet in any way, shape or form and hence can't ever catch security- or other updates for Windows itself or any anti-virus so none was installed - didn't stop viruses though as those come through thumb drives from friends, diskettes from school (!!) and CD's full of pirated/cracked or even downloaded (!!!) "freeware" games that are the hit amongs teens in villages up north, available for 10 Baht at the village nicknack shops.

The boy complained that his computer was slow and made weird sounds, i started it - Windows took like 15 minutes to load, a Window "This Computer Is Under Attack" danced all over the screen, right click didn't work, a strange application opened a zillion windows with the error message "XXX - Invalid Picture" (generating those "pong" error sounds, i.e. the "weird sound"), task manager and regedit were disabled and clicking ANY executable resulted in a screen flash and another error popup "file not found". I installed an old version of Avast! from my thumb drive and then hooked up my cell phone trying to get an internet connection to update this - no success however, and bluetooth didn't start anymore...... still both my thumb drive and the memory stick inside my phone had been infected with no less than SIXTEEN different (!) viruses and trojans that propagate that way.

Needless to say it was a three-day adventure rescuing that machine and NOT losing the boys beloved mp3's, games and photo collection, involving replacing the genuine but un-updateable Windows install with a pirated but fresh one with SP3 and all updates (original CD was lost - kids!) and then hunting down drivers and anti-virus updates on a 1-2 kbps GPRS connection.

On my next visit i will install Ubuntu and teach him how to play mp3 and look at pictures on it, and simply tell him that games, which don't work under Wine, won't work, fullstop.

For Windows 7, as long as it has compatible drivers available faster than compatible viruses it's good...... i was an early adopter of Vista and remember being unable to use devices that were mere months old because the hardware manufacturers were not supplying Vista drivers, and my main computer activity (recoding videos) being disabled by lack of compatible codecs, specifically DivX... the switch from Vista to Linux was easier than from XP to Vista!!

Best regards.....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi

I am sure i have tested my last Windows version already (Vista) as i am very very happy with Ubuntu for the past 8 months, however i still do install Windows (usually XP, sometimes Vista) on PC's that i build for others and i work on a bunch of XP-powered machines every day at the office.

During X-Mas i had the pleasure of fixing a virus-laden PC that belongs to the 11-year old nephew of my boyfriend - that machine is not connected to the internet in any way, shape or form and hence can't ever catch security- or other updates for Windows itself or any anti-virus so none was installed - didn't stop viruses though as those come through thumb drives from friends, diskettes from school (!!) and CD's full of pirated/cracked or even downloaded (!!!) "freeware" games that are the hit amongs teens in villages up north, available for 10 Baht at the village nicknack shops.

The boy complained that his computer was slow and made weird sounds, i started it - Windows took like 15 minutes to load, a Window "This Computer Is Under Attack" danced all over the screen, right click didn't work, a strange application opened a zillion windows with the error message "XXX - Invalid Picture" (generating those "pong" error sounds, i.e. the "weird sound"), task manager and regedit were disabled and clicking ANY executable resulted in a screen flash and another error popup "file not found". I installed an old version of Avast! from my thumb drive and then hooked up my cell phone trying to get an internet connection to update this - no success however, and bluetooth didn't start anymore...... still both my thumb drive and the memory stick inside my phone had been infected with no less than SIXTEEN different (!) viruses and trojans that propagate that way.

Needless to say it was a three-day adventure rescuing that machine and NOT losing the boys beloved mp3's, games and photo collection, involving replacing the genuine but un-updateable Windows install with a pirated but fresh one with SP3 and all updates (original CD was lost - kids!) and then hunting down drivers and anti-virus updates on a 1-2 kbps GPRS connection.

On my next visit i will install Ubuntu and teach him how to play mp3 and look at pictures on it, and simply tell him that games, which don't work under Wine, won't work, fullstop.

For Windows 7, as long as it has compatible drivers available faster than compatible viruses it's good...... i was an early adopter of Vista and remember being unable to use devices that were mere months old because the hardware manufacturers were not supplying Vista drivers, and my main computer activity (recoding videos) being disabled by lack of compatible codecs, specifically DivX... the switch from Vista to Linux was easier than from XP to Vista!!

Best regards.....

Thanh

Would have been faster to boot a Linux LiveCD, do a search for the files and copy them onto an external drive....

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

True, but neither such CD nor an external HDD was available........ otherwise i'd have done just that As i said, next time i'll have an Ubuntu CD with me (and possibly my USB HDD as well).....

Kind regards....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi

True, but neither such CD nor an external HDD was available........ otherwise i'd have done just that As i said, next time i'll have an Ubuntu CD with me (and possibly my USB HDD as well).....

Kind regards....

Thanh

Or you could do like I do and keep Slax on your thumbdrive. Always hangs around my neck so I'm ready to whip it out if some system needs help. Other good thing is that you can build modules for it; say if you wanted to reset a password for Windows you could get John the Ripper on there.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Hmm i guess THAT would require to boot from the thumb drive? I'm not sure if that machine would be able to do that.... it's not a recent model Didn't try to be honest... USB ports it's got plenty... how large a thumb drive would you need to install a full-blown Linux distro on? Something like Ubuntu (as i'm used to it) or PC Linux OS (i like Gnome). Mine is using 5.3 GB now and close to 20 GB for /home but i got two virtual machines on there (XP and Win95, 10 and 4 GB respectively - of course wouldn't have that on a "mobile" distro)

Thumb drives are cheap these days, 8 GB for 600-ish Baht..... but i haven't seen larger ones.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi

Hmm i guess THAT would require to boot from the thumb drive? I'm not sure if that machine would be able to do that.... it's not a recent model Didn't try to be honest... USB ports it's got plenty... how large a thumb drive would you need to install a full-blown Linux distro on? Something like Ubuntu (as i'm used to it) or PC Linux OS (i like Gnome). Mine is using 5.3 GB now and close to 20 GB for /home but i got two virtual machines on there (XP and Win95, 10 and 4 GB respectively - of course wouldn't have that on a "mobile" distro)

Thumb drives are cheap these days, 8 GB for 600-ish Baht..... but i haven't seen larger ones.

Kind regards.....

Thanh

Slax can fit on something super small, IIRC you only need 256 or 512mb drive (thinking it's only 256 mb, because there's a copy2ram cheatcode that requires at least 512 mb of ram--it actually copies the whole operating system in to your ram). Granted it's not going to have all the programmes that you'd use on a full blown install, but it has a gui, and other tools. If you're used to Gnome, Slax may not be right for you since it uses KDE, but if you're only going to use it for a rescue system it's great. I think that Ubuntu also has a stripped down USB edition. Anyways, go ahead and give Slax a try, it's only a 190 mb download.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi

Thank you very much, download is running I gonna be at Panthip anyway on Saturday so i'll get me a couple of new thumb drives. I don't mind KDE, it's just that i like Gnome more... on another computer i have Ubuntu with Gnome, KDE and XFCE installed and can switch between them as i wish

Slax, provided the thumb drive is somewhat bigger (i'll get 4 or 8 GB) can install additional programs as well or is it a pure "rescue system"?

Kind regards.....

Thanh

[Crushdepth]

If you have a recent version of Ubuntu installed, there's a 'create bootable flash drive' or something like that in the menu. You can just plug it in and have it made.

[Thanh-BKK]

Hi :0

Umm where is that? Can't find it..... Ubuntu "Hardy" 8.04.1 here. I refuse to update further - can't possibly get more stability and speed out of the computer i have, and some updates have the ugly tendency to break previously working things, such as USB 2.0 hub support.

Regards, and good night....

Thanh

[dave_boo]

Hi

Thank you very much, download is running I gonna be at Panthip anyway on Saturday so i'll get me a couple of new thumb drives. I don't mind KDE, it's just that i like Gnome more... on another computer i have Ubuntu with Gnome, KDE and XFCE installed and can switch between them as i wish

Slax, provided the thumb drive is somewhat bigger (i'll get 4 or 8 GB) can install additional programs as well or is it a pure "rescue system"?

Kind regards.....

Thanh

Yes, check out their FTP server.