Good Advice for People Upgrading/Updating

By Don Burnett

ALL OSes HAVE PROBLEMS

I don't care which OS you have, OSX recently had a huge security update (security holes in MacOS my, oh my!) that wreaked havoc on users machines who did the software update. Linux has had driver problems including unavailable drivers for sometime. The last time I installed linux and added an nVidia hardware accelerated 3d driver, when the driver compiled and installed it crashed the kernal and I had to reinstall with no ideas to why this was happening even though I supposedly was on the right release and the package manager had downloaded for me..

So please fanboys of Linux and Apple stop trying to claim that you are better. I own machines with both OSes installed and frankly you just aren't any better at all. This is something we all have to deal with. Don't give up get some help, when you run into stuff like this. "Switching" just gets you a different set of problems..

 

Vista Upgrade Path

As for Windows Vista, people with a sygmatel audio chip are complaining because their motherboard and chip doesn't work (that's some non-recent Dell machines)? Well if you think how many machines are out there with different motherboards and chips? If you actually look at the numbers, it would be amazing if Microsoft could test every single board and resource on the planet. It's really not their responsibility though they have safeguards in place.

So you bought from a company that used a cheap audio or model chip and the chip maker either went out or put it in the hands of the hardware seller to support. Frankly this isn't Microsoft's fault, it's the folks at Dell or HP or anywhere else to support specific features of their hardware models. I can hardly feel that Microsoft should be held responsible for a part of the OS they don't package.

If the drivers come on a separate disc from the manufacturer of the hardware blame them, and remember the next time you buy hardware the problem you went through so you don't have it again.. Microsoft will do all they can and they do, but if the hardware maker goes up the river then what do you do? I have been stung by this in more than one Windows update cycle myself. I know Mac owners who had to throw out full systems because their computers weren't compatible with the OS X version of the OS a few years ago. Hardware that wasn't fast but perfectly useable with the old OS..

Is there a Solution?

How do I get around that, I make sure that I have a standard "supported" chipset in any machine I buy. It's simply not good enough to say I bought a "Lenovo, a Dell, or an HP"... Learn to read the hardware specs and ask questions. If they won't tell you who makes it don't buy it. I feel safe with ATI/AMD and Nvidia nforce chipsets. Hold the CPU maker responsible make them update you to something that is supportable and sustainable. A good thing to do is check the hardware specs with the list of drivers in Microsoft documentation. If all the main drivers come on the Vista installer from Microsoft then you are good.

Also don't expect your 4-5 year old machine to be completely compatible with the next version of "Windows".. It's called LEGACY hardware.. You buy a system with drivers and software certified for that machine at time of release. The manufacturer usually only supports what they have released or bundled.

Missing Drivers? Microsoft is not to blame..

Microsoft has given driver manufacturers uprecedented early access to Vista and offered help with driver development to them. More than one company (third party) didn't even start their driver development before Vista shipped. Microsoft warned these folks, if they didn't start updating I'd consider it the 3rd party company's problem, like a certain big sound card maker that started sound with the PC industry.

It's best to be an educated user, back up your machine before you update anything, and be sure you have the right drivers and updates for your hardware.. It will make your life a whole lot easier.. Demand more from whoever you buy your hardware from as a consumer as well. Don't let them sell it as a "throw away" in a couple years type of sale. Above all keep your machine secure with anti-virus and malware protection.

For those looking to go back to XP? Why? you can in about 5 minutes turn off User Account Control, go back to the old look and feel (change your preference setttings) and you'll still have a much more secure OS and probably just as useable. There are several websites that are out there that will show you how to do this. In five years, I don't think you'll be looking back at this anyway. It's nice to see that XP is a great user experience that has so many people that like it though.  With Vista you get a completely re-written OS with security as a first thought, not as a re-write. Sure that security might be a tad slower (I haven't noticed myself) to work with but when your cursing your machine because you have to reformat or re-install or take that into your dealer for them to work on it, you might be glad you had a bit "slower" OS.. I don't actually believe though it's any bit slower.. Plus you get WCF,WPF, and other goodness in Vista, stuff you don't see but will make way cooler graphical applications possible that isn't on XP.. Also support for bigger memory sizes is there..