New laptop and vista

[Roy]

Morning all,

Much to my surprise and totally out of the blue my other half asked me if I wanted a new laptop, well I almost fell out of my chair but soon recovered and said, do you know what, I suppose I could do with a new one.

So now comes the hard part, what to get and more importantly and this is my main concern, will everything work under Vista.

If any of you guy's out there are using a laptop running Vista and I'm sure there are lot's, could you tell me if things like MaximDL, PHD, The Sky work OK (I ne

ed to run these programs) does the eqmod get along with Vista, will my Atik and QHY5 play ball.

Will I need to hunt down any specific drivers in order to get any of the above to work.

Sorry for all the questions but the last thing I want to do is shell out on a new lappy just to find out it's no better than my old one which by the way is knocking on a bit.

Any tips or advice welcome.

Cheers

[beamish]

If you're prepared to hunt about just a wee bit you can still find top-end spec lappies running XP Pro if you're in the least bit worried about moving to Vista.

[dark knight]

The Sky 6 and eqmod runs on vista. Sorry can't help with the other stuff.

[mcrossley]

I haven't found anything that doesn't work under Vista yet. I have used: Maxim, AstroArt, PHD, QHY drivers, ASCOM, SkyMap Pro, Stellarium, Registax, Registar, Philips Webcam (the 840K requires a tweak to persuade the drivers to load), VirtuaDub, Photoshop, IRIS, Metaguide, DSS.

[Roy]

Thanks for your help lads,

Mark thanks for listing the things that do work, that helps a lot.

Reassuring too.

[RobH]

I would get something that runs XP pro....Vista works OK but is full of carp that you don't need and uses loads of hard disc space.

I'm going to get a new laptop soon and am going for XP pro, despite having had a vista laptop for 2 years now.

Cheers

Rob

[ashenlight]

I would go with a few suggestions on here - get something that runs XP Pro. Vista, in my experience, loves to hog hard disk space. IMO, I would always prefer to run Linux, though since upgrading to Ubuntu and getting rid of the partition so I have no access to any Windows OS, alot of programs I enjoy running have come to an end (Stellarium as an example) - Linux has its own version, but, tbh, some aren't that great. SO I have taken over the downstairs PC for all things astronomy - easier as it's closer to the back door than mine

But yea, I would definitely for the XP Pro over Vista. Vista likes to look flashy but doesn't actually cut the mustard imo.

Amanda

[Psychobilly]

Vista's bloatware... ok if you give it the PC it really wants ... but then that would make a stonking XP machine...

Windows7 is suppsoed to address those issues... does look clean but RC1 is pants running 32bit apps...

XP Pro for me on a lappy...

[gfletcher]

I do not think DSLR Focus runs on Vista

Graham

[Roy]

I new this wouldn't be straight forward

I would like to stick with XP as I know all of my software will work, just need to sort out the pesky qhy5

Guess I'll start looking for a lappy with XP Pro

Any suggestions on where to look.

[arad85]

Guess I'll start looking for a lappy with XP Pro

Any suggestions on where to look.

What sort of spec/price are you after? It's typically the business machines that will have XP support on them due to some companies insisting on XP...

There is also another option, which is to buy a vista lappy and then install XP on it. You need to check availability of XP drivers, but the manufacturers website will show you that. I've just got a HP EliteBook 6930p from work which has full support for XP (we run XP in work - heck, we're still on IE6!!).

[MikeP]

I just bought a Toshiba laptop. It ships with Vista installed and XP Pro on a DVD. They have a cashback deal on some models too.

Rather than fight Vista, I took an image (as suggested by Toshiba) and then installed XP Pro - piece of cake.

Mike

[Jarndyce]

Dell laptops are avaialable with XP Pro preinstalled. Hopefully, this would mean that all the appropriate XP drivers are loaded.

Vista is awful. Follow the advice above. As Peter said, you will get much better performance.

[daryl_lincoln]

If any of you guy's out there are using a laptop running Vista and I'm sure there are lot's, could you tell me if things like MaximDL, PHD, The Sky work OK

I have all the above programs working on vista along with DSS, Starry night pro, and all meade software though, I have never been able to get v5 of autostar suite working (v4 works perfectly). You also have to have download V7.05 evisage off meade's website.(v7.05 is miles better and worth the download if u use DSI's)

Toucams 740k and 840k dont work without alot of messing about copying files here and there.

[gman]

I ditched Vista for linux on my laptop a while back (laptop is a couple of years old now) as vista crawled like nothing else. Its fine if your system can handle it though. I'm currently running opensuse 11.1 at the moment which is good enough for all of my needs at the moment. I think the biggest bottleneck for me was the 5400rpm HDD. It was always thrashing the disk. Since making the switch to linux, I've swapped the HDD for an OCZ SSD. Now it flies:D

Obviously linux is not for everyone, especially when you have lots of must use windows software. In some areas its streets ahead though. Its well worth trying out a live CD if you have the time. For those who don't know, a live cd allows you to boot the OS directly from the CD without making any changes to the system.

I would go with a few suggestions on here - get something that runs XP Pro. Vista, in my experience, loves to hog hard disk space. IMO, I would always prefer to run Linux, though since upgrading to Ubuntu and getting rid of the partition so I have no access to any Windows OS, alot of programs I enjoy running have come to an end (Stellarium as an example) - Linux has its own version, but, tbh, some aren't that great. SO I have taken over the downstairs PC for all things astronomy - easier as it's closer to the back door than mine

Amanda, doesn't one of the ubuntu repositories include stellarium? I used ubuntu 7.10 for a good while and of the linux distros I've used, I'd say it has the biggest software library around. I only really ditched it due to problems with 8.04 upwards. In opensuse it can be found in the education repo. I'm sure ubuntu has an equivalent.

Functionality wise its no different from the windows version.

Gareth

[beamish]

Roy try here

Windows XP Laptops - Cheap and Used Laptops, Refurbished, Discount laptops, Windows XP Laptops - UK Portableuniverse Shop. Wifi laptops, Dell laptops -

or just google XP Pro laptops

What dya mean by "just need to sort out the pesky qhy5 " ? Problem?

[Roy]

Thanks guys.

Beamish the main reason for me wanting to get a new laptop was because I'm fed up with PHD crashng/freezing constantly.

After reading various things about the amount of resources it can use I decided that maybe my old laptop wasn't up to the job, however last night a miracle happened and hopefully there should be no need to get a new laptop after all.

If you take a peek at my latest image in the deep sky section all will become clear.

Thanks for the link though m8.

[arad85]

I'll say it, just because it's been niggling me with all the comments about moving to linux. When I built my last PC (3GHz dual core, 4G memory, 1Tb RAID 0 array) I installed Linux (standard Ubuntu 8.10) on it. This is from a background of running linux back in the day (my first linux build was 0.99e IIRC, so that's back in '94) but moving to Windows as everyone was more used to it and more compatibility. I persevered with it for 3 months, and finally reinstalled XP on the machine as I found no end of problems that had to be worked around. A non exhaustiev list includes:

• The default pulseaudio driver crashed - had to do a really deep clean to get ALSA back which worked flawlessly
  
• The UI was beautiful, but had more bugs than an anthill (popup windows wrong sized - had to be manually overridden, windows would crash and disappear occasionally, boot sequence would hang for 30 seconds....
  
• "Compatible" apps just aren't compatible (whilst OpenOffice reads Word files, it does NOT format them the same...)
  
• Finding a CD writing program that would make a CD that could be read on Windows took ages...
  
• The widgets system regularly crashed
  

There were other problems as well, but I'm in a rush Since switching back to XP, I've had a pretty stable system that runs all the software I want it to (in fact, one of the first things I ended up doing was installing an XP virtual machine, just so I could edit other peoples documents).

As an OS, it's great, but IMHO it has far too many bugs in it to be used as my stable user machine (my XP machines are regularly up 24/7 for many weeks/months at a time - unless a software install requires a reboot, unlike the Ubuntu machine which would require a reboot once every 2-3days).

There... got that off my chest....

[gman]

I'll admit that finding the right linux distro can be a pain and new releases often go through a few weeks with heaps updates. The last ubuntu I tred was 8.04 which caused me no end of headaches.

I've had my current install of opensuse since the end of December and can probably count the number of restarts from updates on one hand. Before that I was using PCLinuxOS minime which was even better. The only reason I changed was due to PCLOS' use of an older kernel which no matter what I tried would not run with a new wacom pen tablet. Got to admit that I miss that minime, after installing the ssd, it would boot in a mere 18 seconds (still only 35 seconds or so with the HDD. With Vista, I'd have to wait a good 5 minutes before being able to do anything.

I'll also be the first to admit that I've never made the complete jump from windows. My PC, which is my main system is still primarily used with XP pro. I'm currently planning on installing opensuse and dual booting. That will be fun.

[arad85]

With Vista, I'd have to wait a good 5 minutes before being able to do anything

Just stripped Vista off an older PC and reinstalled XP.. What a difference... Having said that, we've just bought a new laptop which runs vista like it wasn't there... Makes you wonder how fast it would be with a standard XP install (or linux for that matter)..

BTW, remembered what the thing was that shoved me over the edge on the linux machine... Sometimes FLASH would load in the browser, sometimes not and it really peeved me having a blank area where something should have been. I was running Nvidias latest and greatest beta drivers for VDAPU support which may have contributed, but having said that, all that was sorted for windows a good few years ago now...

[PhillyDee]

You might find this of some use:

Downgrade Vista to XP Pro

[NickH]

windows 7 even in beta is better than Vista on so many levels...

but hey ho..

[merlinxlm]

A company named ebuyer, sell a lot of laptops with Vista business down graded to XP Pro. The HP models that they sell are quite impressive for the price, here is an example of one unit; HP 6735s Laptop - Laptops at Ebuyer

We tend to use HP and Dell as laptops in work, I work in the IT department of a local goverment. Regarding Vista, the business version seems a lot better than the home version. But I would wait until Windows 7 is released, I've been using it at home for the past few months. And I think comparing it to Vista, its a lot more stable and faster. A lot of new Net books come with XP installed on them, I've just bought a Asus 1000HE, a brilliant little unit with 2GB upgrade. I Hope this information helps you.

Thank you.

[arad85]

A company named ebuyer, sell a lot of laptops with Vista business down graded to XP Pro.

Yup, I'd vote for ebuyer as well... do a reasonable amount of personal business with them. Although I'd buy (and just have done) a laptop with a core 2 duo processor in rather than the AMD ones. Better performance vs battery life in my experience...

[merlinxlm]

Yes your right regarding the battery life, the AMD do tend to be more battery hungry, compared to the Intel units.