127 replies to this topic

[Frost]

BLAAARRRARARGARAGRAHGAHGAHGHGH!

Sorry, I had to get that out. That's been the gist of my experience so far trying to do things in Boot Camp. From fighting Halo 2 Vista to fighting Windows Media Player and rebuilding the library and reloading my popsnizzle literally about fifteen frakking times to get it to sync to my phone (damn you Apple for removing support for Motorola phones), to interminable failed updates, to exploding, hanging software...

The only thing Windows is good for is playing games. When they work.

I don't see how people use this popsnizzle for hours a day on a daily basis. I have been for the past handful of a days and I'm about ready to rage so hard that I delete the entire thing. I haven't rebooted a machine this much due to malfunctioning applications in such a short timeframe since Apple shat System 7.5.3 onto the world and mercilessly crashed us until they got 7.6 out the door.

If I was a MCSE or whatever they call it now I would kill myself.

[Janichsan]

Well, yes, it does.

You should be lucky that you haven't got Windows 8 yet.* A colleague of mine had the brilliant idea of installing it on his work laptop and fought three days until it was half-way usable again...

* The final version is already available for university employees, if you are wondering.

[Frost]

Windows 8 was actually the primary reason I finally pulled the trigger on Win7 and stopped limping by on running XP under VPC7 on my G5. No way am I using that crap.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Frost, on 12 September 2012 - 01:23 AM, said:

BLAAARRRARARGARAGRAHGAHGAHGHGH!

I don't see how people use this popsnizzle for hours a day on a daily basis. I have been for the past handful of a days and I'm about ready to rage so hard that I delete the entire thing. I haven't rebooted a machine this much due to malfunctioning applications in such a short timeframe since Apple shat System 7.5.3 onto the world and mercilessly crashed us until they got 7.6 out the door.

This. I forgot my laptop the other day, when I went to work, so I had to spend an entire day using a Win7 terminal.

How do people actually do something productive on Windows machines? They are absolutely horrible and confusing to work with!

Oh, and upon waking it after sleep, all files on the desktop were missing, apps didn't work, and it went into a spinning wheel of death upon log out.

[The Liberator]

Funny, within the past six months Win7 has been more stable than SL. …then again, in the past nine months SL has been re-installed three times; with crazy bad file management.

The only real issue I've ever had with using Win7 in the past few years is my anti-virus has something against Steam (and all my games) and I can't network the computer properly. …it hates the printer and Time Capsule. Other than that, nothing.

Lib.

[Sneaky Snake]

I didn't mind windows 7, but I installed windows 8 on my hackintosh partition, and good lord do I hate it. It's pretty and that's about all it has going for it, everything else about it sucks

[jgwdoc]

I've been running vista-64 via Boot Camp for a few years, with few problems since the SP2 update, but I do nothing but run games. I've debulked the bloated OS as much as possible, and run nothing through it but games, a browser, and an anti-virus program. Even stripped this bare, I have updates with recurrent reboots almost every time i start it up, and every game I ever play requires lots of internet research for tweaks before I can get it to run right. Not to mention that everything in the OS is hidden, so you have to go through reams of commands to be able to find and fix any problems.
I'm with Frost, even with my "best case" set-up, Windows sucks.

[Frigidman]

I agree frost. The only thing my Windows PC is used for is games on one (Win7), and home theatre on the other (SageTV XP). Work? On a PC? Good lord, I would have changed professions years ago if I had to do work using Windows.

I do know, when I went to Win7 for my game rig... I ran into far less issues dealing with it in terms of installing and running games than XP. And don't even bring up vista... that thing is a heaping pile of dung beetle fantasies.

About the networking on Win7, yeah... drives me nuts. Its terrible trying to connect to an XP machine on a Win7 machine, for some reason M$ figured no one would want to do that easily (I guess they dont believe in migrating to a new os... just full reinstall and start from scratch). Funny part is, if you connect TO the Win7 machine on the XP machine it works just fine... but not backwards. I've had that issue on three sets of Win7 <-> XP machines and still havn't figured out the problem. Oh well =p

I won't be going to Win8. I see no point, when Win7 is working just fine and has been rock solid and fully supported for my gaming rig. There is absolutely nothing in Win8 that is work the trouble of 'upgrading'.

[The Liberator]

I also forgot to mention that we have to use Vista Business purely to run the AVID Media Composer* program and AVID Unity engine . This is all part of my TV production course. Rather annoying as the computers are nearly falling over without the help of Vista. …not to mention the image that is on the computers is fire-trucked.

So yeah, I do know Windoze when it's just plain crap too.

Lib.

*To any of you that may be familiar with AVID, the platform alone is annoying enough, not to mention working with it in on Windoze.

[Frigidman]

Oh my god AVID... I feel so sorry for you, and you have my deepest condolences. On top of Vista even, and aging machines? Geezus. You must have the resolve of a saint.

[Bernie]

I, a dedicate Mac person, have been stuck using Windows for that last 7 years at work. It is really not that bad, except for when I have to use it. Productivity is high, except when the computer is on.

But seriously, I don't know how people can stand Windows when there are so many inconsistencies. What text does a double-click select? Depends on the app you're using. I can't save using certain filenames, but I can rename the file after I've saved it. I can manipulate a file in the Finder (or whatever it is called in Windows), but I cannot open the file because the path is too long. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Over the years, I have considered using WIndows for gaming. Fortunately, I am able to live my home life without Windows. I really don't think I could stand living in the same home with a Windows computer.

[Frost]

Bernie, on 12 September 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Even stripped this bare, I have updates with recurrent reboots almost every time i start it up, and every game I ever play requires lots of internet research for tweaks before I can get it to run right. Not to mention that everything in the OS is hidden, so you have to go through reams of commands to be able to find and fix any problems.

^ THIS . For the love of God, this. I hate how I have to waste my time Googling until hell freezes over just to get each game working completely properly. There is ALWAYS some nonsense issue. None have been as bad as trying to get Halo 2 Vista to work, of course, but only two games have installed with zero issues so far. And the 14-hour (!) migraine of getting WMP 12 to function as intended sent me into such a screen punching rage that I made this topic last night.

I can see how people who aren't ridiculously tenacious like myself just give up and live with things not working.

Bernie, on 12 September 2012 - 05:23 PM, said:

Over the years, I have considered using WIndows for gaming. Fortunately, I am able to live my home life without Windows. I really don't think I could stand living in the same home with a Windows computer.

That's the beauty of Boot Camp. When you finally, absolutely cannot stand it anymore, Mac OS X is two clicks away. Even better when you're in Parallels, it's a three-finger swipe away.

[Eric5h5]

The only Windows I ever do is Crossover, so technically not Windows at all.  But even using that, there's still just enough Windows yuckiness to annoy me (like install wizards for everything...gah).

--Eric

[Frigidman]

One of the biggest problems with getting games to run right, is so many companies just slop some 'port' from their pathetic console version which is so dumbed down and ridiculous. Then they don't bother fixing any problems, and leave it up to the community to come up with hacks and work arounds.

Whenever I come across some googled forum post about 'lets hope they release a patch for this nigh game breaking bug!' ... and its dated 2009... you can sure bet it aint fixed or will ever be fixed =p Gets old fast...

Sounds like Halo 2 is one of them. A sloppy port from the console version thanks to M$ forcing bungie to make it for console foremost. Forget about Halo 3.

[Frost]

The sad thing is, both the Halo 1 PC and Mac ports were fantastically done and well-supported, well beyond even Halo 2's support sunset. Gearbox really did a damn good job, as did MacSoft in getting their code working on the Mac. They didn't skimp on the universal version either. Even forgetting the Intel side, the Universal Binary ran better on PowerPC than the PowerPC version did (excepting that intro cinema bug they never fixed).

God knows why Microsoft went from Gearbox to whatever incompetent frakups did Halo 2. Just the Microsoft thing to do I guess. If you find something that works, break it.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

At last someone realized that the Halo 1 ports where not that bad. Up until now I've mostly been seeing people bash them.

[The Liberator]

Frigidman, on 12 September 2012 - 09:19 AM, said:

Oh my god AVID... I feel so sorry for you, and you have my deepest condolences. On top of Vista even, and aging machines? Geezus. You must have the resolve of a saint.

Yeah, it is not easy, I will tell you that.

Frost, on 13 September 2012 - 02:17 AM, said:

Just the Microsoft thing to do I guess. If you find something that works, break it.

That will be my new quote! That reminds me of what a friend told me once:

Quote

Microsoft suck so much, if they tried to make a vacum cleaner, it would blow instead.

Lib.

[Frigidman]

Frost, on 13 September 2012 - 02:17 AM, said:

The sad thing is, both the Halo 1 PC and Mac ports were fantastically done and well-supported, well beyond even Halo 2's support sunset. Gearbox really did a damn good job, as did MacSoft in getting their code working on the Mac. They didn't skimp on the universal version either. Even forgetting the Intel side, the Universal Binary ran better on PowerPC than the PowerPC version did (excepting that intro cinema bug they never fixed).

Well, it was many many years ago for the Halo 1 port... when ports were done with care. Back when Big Name™ game companies didn't just care about throwing out sequel #521 to some game that was marginally successful a decade prior... but hay, lets milk it, and do a sloppy job. People will buy it anyhow because we are in the age of human cattle!

[Sandbox]

Windows is ok for basic operations if you do not plan to invest time to use the system more effectively

[Frost]

Frigidman, on 13 September 2012 - 07:01 AM, said:

Well, it was many many years ago for the Halo 1 port... when ports were done with care. Back when Big Name™ game companies didn't just care about throwing out sequel #521 to some game that was marginally successful a decade prior... but hay, lets milk it, and do a sloppy job. People will buy it anyhow because we are in the age of human cattle!

Yeah, pretty much.

Amusingly, I just got Halo 1 PC in the mail (I've wanted to mess with Halo Custom Edition forever and was super pissed when the Mac version got canned; time to remedy that). Installed and runs totally without incident.