Computer Questions Not Worth Their Own Thread II

Iranon said:
There is no "easiest to learn" across the board.

Ubuntu and Mint have the reputation of being easiest to get started with - most things will work without any user intervention. To achieve this, they go beyond what makes sense from a purely technical sense - they're fairly buggy and unstable by Linux standards, despite being based on a distribution that's renowned for its quality control.
They are also much more complex under the hood than, say, Arch Linux or Slackware... those are relatively easy to dig into, but expect you to do many things by hand that are taken care of for you elsewhere.

*

Fedora is somewhere in between. Not the easiest for newbies to get started with, not the easiest for nerds to understand, but a reasonable compromise.

It's the free testbed for a commercial Linux distribution (Red Hat), and where most of the real technical innovation in Linux happens. Of all the non-geeky distributions, it's the most cutting-edge one.
Click to expand...
Thanks! I know "easiest to learn" is a relative term.... hence the quotes. ;) I also know some jackwagon will have no problem loudly proclaiming it.

So far we're doing a lot of command line stuff, which I have a lot of experience with. So right now it's mostly learning the 'flavor' of the commands.
 
I had to reinstall Windows 7 last weekend, but it was nbd in the end. Click click install restart a few times, done. It's nice to have a clean slate actually.
 
Nothing but problems for me. For one thing, I didn't have a working widows disk. Had to go out and buy 8. And I can't find any of the settings to put things back as they should be to make it readable.

And that's been the least of my headaches today.
 
OK, critically important. Win 8 has a popup saying my files are not backed up, put them in the cloud now.

I very much never want to see that again. How do I go about that?
 
Cutlass said:
Nothing but problems for me. For one thing, I didn't have a working widows disk. Had to go out and buy 8. And I can't find any of the settings to put things back as they should be to make it readable.

And that's been the least of my headaches today.
Click to expand...

Hit start, type "bigger", hit settings, (or windows+w to go directly to settings, and then type "bigger") "Make everything on your screen bigger" to make stuff in Metro apps bigger, "Make text or other items larger or smaller" to make text on the desktop bigger.

Cutlass said:
OK, critically important. Win 8 has a popup saying my files are not backed up, put them in the cloud now.

I very much never want to see that again. How do I go about that?
Click to expand...

Well the flippant answer would be to put your files in the cloud.

I'm not really sure what you mean though, screenshot of the popup?
 
Hello,

My internet is very 'laggy' lately. It sometimes just switches off, and then goes online again after half a minute, one minute or never at all. It seems mainly to do so after 'overloading' my data traffic: after I open a page with a lot of images or a Youtube video.
However note that if it switches off while downloading a video and it goes online again, it won't go offline until the video is downloaded unless I perform another action on the internet.

Going in and out of stand-by always solves the trouble.

Does anyone have an idea what might be causing this?
 
Certain programs I use automatically create .bak files in the same directory as working files. There's no way to disable that and hiding the files manually doesn't work as it deletes them and creates new, non-hidden ones. How do I monitor certain directories for these .bak files and automatically set the filesystem to hide them? I don't mind a third-party program as long as it's a) free and b) minimal system resources.
 
Dunno if this is the right thread but whatever.

I'm looking to buy a laptop or tablet. I currently have a high performing desktop computer that I love so I am not looking for a high performing laptop per se. I'm looking more for something lightweight that I can carry with me to university and work. Earlier this summer I spotted the Samsung Ativ Q which was a laptop that ran dual operating system (Windows 8 and newest Android), flipped back to a tablet mode, and generally seemed awesome, but it looks like now Samsung has patent issues regarding it and aren't releasing it until 2014 if ever. So now I am looking for alternatives.

The tablet-laptop hybrids do appeal to me and I am looking for something along those lines. (Windows 8 OS would be ideal) I've done some research and there are two products that stand out. The Lenovo Ideapad and the Samsung Ativ Smart PC.

If I decide to get the Samsung tablet, I am undecided on whether I should go for the 500T or 700T model. If I go with the 700T model the price difference between it and the Lenovo is not that great of a difference. I'm still a very big fan of the desktop computer and intend to keep on doing the majority of my work and leisure on the desktop, so I am also afraid I'm overspending on a (for my intended use) niche item if I buy the Lenovo laptop/700T model. Any thoughts from the CFC populace?
 
You don't want either of those, they're both running previous-gen CPUs (Ivy Bridge and Clover Trail respectively, rather than Haswell or Bay Trail.)

Haswell CPUs are going to be significantly faster and with a shorter batter life than Bay Trail/Silvermont CPUs, with Bay Trail probably giving you smaller and fanless form factors.

You'll probably find smaller/slower Bay Trail products to be cheaper. On the other hand, if you've already got a phablet-type 6" phone, getting an 8" tablet is probably kind of redundant.

We'll probably be seeing a bunch of new models with current-gen CPUs hitting the market at the same time as Win8. (October 18). (Or you'll be able to find people unloading their first-gen Surface Pros cheap at this point.)
 
I've heard of the Haswell CPU. The delayed Samsung Ativ Q that I wanted was supposed to be running it.

From my perspective however, I am looking for a product that fits the niche of being able to take notes in class and be a generally practical and mobile laptop/tablet. I don't need (think I need?) a high-performance laptop with the latest Haswell CPU as I will still continue to be using my desktop computer. I am sure the previous-gen CPU's will fit my purpose fine.

That being said, what should I be expecting come October 18? New product lines worthwhile enough to hold off a purchase? I'm fine with waiting a month but what am I getting out of it?
 
Why won't my Google login stick? Not to mention, the not-logged-in search settings won't stick either.

Every time I go to Google, I have to log in, just so I can avoid that ridiculous "search-as-you-type" instant search thingy, because the logged out search settings just won't save permanently. On top of that, I have to log in every time I exit and restart my browser, because my Google account just refuses to stay logged in.

Damn irritating, to say the least. :gripe:

Any idea why? This happens on Facebook and Twitter too. :gripe:
 
Ok, I've done some thinking towards my situation and I've come to the conclusion that none of the available products for windows laptops/tablets on the market are worth paying the premium price they charge. Not with the new generation Haswell processors coming around the corner.

All aside from the 2013 Macbook Air.

Now I hate Mac products with a passion, always have. Their operating systems have always been counter-ethos to everything I looked for in a PC and I have no intention of using the Mac operating system. However, I can't argue that Mac doesn't dish out some of the best product specs year after year. Comparing the specs of the Macbook Air to other products on the market it is clear that they are a cut above what the market offers, and they run the Haswell chips as well. And to top it all, this year's edition is offered at quite a reasonable price.

So now I am confronted with a prospect I've never considered before, buying a Macbook Air and partitioning the drive for Windows 8, and exclusively running Windows on it. However, the idea still scares me, so again I come here for a second opinion. How feasible is it to use Windows on a Mac? Has anyone on here have any experience with Windows on a Mac?

In other words, help a PC guy out before he get's stuck with a Mac. :p
 
After much deliberation, I got myself a 13" Sony Vaio Pro... and it's a nice machine.

Made of carbon fibre, only 1kg heavy, vibrant 1080p IPS touchscreen with excellent colour fidelity, bright enough to be somewhat usable outdoors, astonishing sound for its size, battery life around 9 hours under light use after light tweaking (6-7 before), one of the faster SSDs available, excellent ergonomics for me (see below).


Since I'm the nitpicky sort, here some considerations:

If you have heavy hands, forget it.
While carbon fibre allows it to be light and very tough, it's bendy - annoyingly so if you associate quality with an unyielding slab of metal. The keyboard is wonderfully precise and a joy to type on... if you hit the keys lightly. Hammer them and you overwhelm it, the mushy feeling exacerbated by the flexible backing may be worse than the "harsh, little feedback" baseline of ultrabooks.
The touchpad is good but not as good as the Macbook's (may be software-related, but no amount of fiddling changed that), pronounced texture would cause too much friction for some. The hinge lifts it up at the back, improving typing angle and cooling situation... but it's uncomfortable if you lean on your machine while it's on your lap.

Sony packs a lot of software on it, much of which is crud. Some isn't crud but awkward - if Intel, Microsoft and Sony work on the same thing without good coordination, end user experience suffers.
Fan control is overcautious by default - fans spin up early, but CPU temperatures are very low (from what I've read, often 20°C below competitors with the same workload). Fiddly to change: Sony messed with Windows' power management and made it less accessible.

More utilitarian and not as "sweet" as a MBA or other ultrabooks in some respects - the material itself, standard power plug, opening it one-handed will lift it off the table (can't have that perfect balance at this weight: hinge needs to be stiff enough to actually use the touchscreen), visible cooling exhaust instead of having the (hidden) speaker grille do double duty, little details mar the clean lines like the plastic feet on the hinge.
Not to say that its design is mediocre, far from it... but if there was a choice between "good" and "sexy", Sony went for the former.
 
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