Windows XP Update Today

[Lesley (imported)]

I belive the real reason that both Apple and Micro$oft want all your details, is so that they can check if you are using an unpaid for pirated edition.

These corperate heavies only think in terms of $$$$$$$, all else is irrelivant.

[nullorchis (imported)]

It could be that Bill Gates was looking at his penis in his hand when he came up with the name for the company.

[mrt (imported)]

Ubuntu and it's variant Kubuntu are my favourites at the moment. I have yet to come across hardware they can't cope with.

As a rather new fan can you tell me what makes Ubuntu or Kubuntu better then another Liniux? And what sort of graphics shell do you suggest for dolts like me used to winDoze? I use KDE now and it seems familiar enough.

Thanks!

[calmeilles (imported)]

I'm not sure that there is anything definitively better than any other Linux when you look under the hood. What I like are a combination of (a) KDE which is my fave GUI (b) ease of install (c) painless automatic updates.

I built a "new" (snaffled from a departing colleague) machine with it having previously used Centos and before that Fedora and RedHat. It worked and six months later, despite all my tinkering, installing applications and un-installing them again, it still works.

[fhunter]

As a rather new fan can you tell me what makes Ubuntu or Kubuntu better then another Liniux?

Thanks!

Ubuntu tries to look user-friendly . As for if it is good or bad - it's your to decide.

It is based on Debian - mostly. At least packages built for one usually work on another.

I used Slackware (and still use it on servers - you first build and tune it, then it stands and works like a solid rock - for years). But system upgrade is a pain... (I don't know - haven't used Slackware for a year - switched to Debian)

Same for searching needed software - I got tired of building specific software by hand. But for understanding the inner works of the system - slackware was (and is) priceless.

[mrt (imported)]

Thanks for the input. Slackware is more of a system for people who want to know whats going on which is my curse.

[Free to be ME (imported)]

Wow still updates to XP amazing , sorry I had XP on my old system crashed a lot was very slow to run stuff even with my 2.0 GHZ Athlon I had at the time with 4 gigs of RAM. I bought a new sytem 2 years ago now overclocked to 6 ghz Athlon64x2 4000+ dual core with 4 gigs and running OEM Vista Home Prermium it has never crashed runs almost to fast. From what I understand it is the upgrade which like any other OS mac included unless you follow to letter installation you'll have issues that is messed up. But thats not the point.

What the Microsoft update is not doing is this

IT DOES NOT CHECK YOUR HARD DRIVE SN

IT DOES NOT CHECK YOUR CPU SN

IT DOES NOT CHECK WHAT YOU HAVE STORED ON DRIVES

What it does do

IT DOES CHECK THE SN OF THE OS LOOKING FOR EITHER UNREGESTERED (STOLEN) OR CLONED COPIES. I DO NOT BLMAE THEM GIVEN THE PRIACY OF SOFTWARE OUT THERE. IF YOUR COPY OF XP OR VISTA IS A CLONE OR NON REGESITERED (A NO BRAINER WITH VISTA ITS AUTO REGESTERS) THEN THE UPDATE WILL NOT INSTALL UNTIL A VERIFIED SN IS GIVEN.

IT DOES CHECK FOR COMPATIBILITY OF YOUR PROGRAMS AND WILL DIRECT YOU TO SITES IF THEY NEED UPDATING TO RUN ON THE UPDATE OF YOUR OS.

IT DOES CHECK TO SEE IF YOUR CPU IS FAST ENOUGH TO RUN THE UPDATE SAME FOR RAM.

[Free to be ME (imported)]

Oh yeah the "sniffer" is only if you want to participate in the thing where sytem performence data is taken to see how the os's could be made better you can opt out and besides you can just turn it off in your configuration by setting these to off. They are backdoors for the sniffer as far as IP's go every site you hit gets your IP no big deal.

Remote access auto connection

Remote access cnnection manager

Remote Procedure Call (RPC) locator (tuning it off also helps keeps you from becoming a zombie system)

Windows error reporting service

Windows remote management

[eefje46 (imported)]

Microsoft does'nt need to know what parts i have in my puter. And i do not like it i they are checking if my software is legal or not. Imho what i buy is mine. and i can do anything i like with it. That is not theit opinion, They look a little like the kobold's from the harry potter book's. I is one of the main reasons i'am running opensuse. Just for the games my kids are playing i have an illegal copy of xp. And if someone wants to see speed try running windows 3.11 on a p4 or athlon cpu. Furhter more knowledge shoul'd be free and ms is keeping the knowledge just to make profit. And how can i control if their rubbish i good enough to be safe for my system. i do not like security by obscurity.

[genderless (imported)]

Actually a lot of software you use does this, not just Microsoft products.

Also the safest OS against hackers is Linux Ubuntu, Apple this year got breached in quicker order than MS Vista. I happen to run a dual boot system including Windows XP SP3. It works very well for me.