Underdog45

Reply to Ubuntu Linux Master: Make Linux More Like Windows! in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Linux does not have something exactly like WindowBlinds, but there are plenty of different ways to customize the look. DeKorator for KDE is pretty similar in that you need only bitmaps to make the window decorations with no intense coding involved. Like everything else in Unix-like systems, theming is broken up into smaller, more modular bits rather than doing everything at once like with WindowBlinds or visual styles. I'm not saying one is better than

Reply to Will Vista increase demand for skinning? in OS Customization WinCustomize Forums

I can see a need for skinning in Vista if the focus problem is not corrected. As Paul Thurott pointed out, if you have two windows side-by-side (which will happen more often as people move to widescreen monitors and laptops) it's impossible to tell which window is the active one - look about halfway down this article: http://winsupersite.com/reviews/winvista_5308_05.asp

Reply to PC vs. Mac in OS Wars WinCustomize Forums

Microsoft may well be stepping in the right direction with Vista. The "Vista Ultimate" SKU will include: - Media Center code - Tablet PC code - DVD editing and burning software - Networking configuration options in one panel - Code that will read the hardware and scale the OS

Reply to Top 10 Anti-Virus and Anti-Spyware of 2006 in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

My anti-spyware strategy is using Firefox for everything possible, IE7 for the rest (mainly just Windows Update), and avoiding downloads that look like they might have sketchy origins. The only spyware I've ever had was when a roommate tried to load a pirated program on my computer. It wasn't even the program that did it, but the keygen program. SpywareBlaster also is a nice bit of preventative maintenance. I run Spybot and AdAware every now and then f

Reply to PC vs. Mac in OS Wars WinCustomize Forums

One of my roommates is looking at getting a Mac. The iLife apps are the main selling point for him. It's kind of funny, because he hates iTunes and once said that Unix is "disgusting." He got a free copy of Windows XP from being an engineering student (courtesy of the MSDN Academic Alliance) so if he gets it he'll dual-boot with Windows. For what he wants, it's the best out-of-the-box solution that won't require additional software purchases.

Reply to Microsoft Office 2007 in Windows Software WinCustomize Forums

There are a lot of impressive things about it, but performance is not one of them so far. I've got an almost three-year-old laptop with a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 M and 1 GB of RAM. Most of the applications, PowerPoint especially, are dog slow with sometimes a 5 - 10 second delay between clicking to go to the next slide and it actually rendering the next slide in the slideshow. I don't know if it's that I have a 3-year-old graphics card with naught but 32 MB

Reply to Theme Manager OEM In Action in Suites WinCustomize Forums

Augh! Too much Redskins! Hurts the eyes! How 'bout instead of yellow, have some pewter with that red! Go Bucs!

Reply to Windows Vista Preview (pre-Beta 1) in Windows Vista WinCustomize Forums

Right on with the RSS. I have seen an article somewhere about companies using RSS internally for sending out information and memos rather than using Email. Fascinating stuff.

Reply to Windows Vista: Take the poll in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Think about the major selling points (that are still in it): Aero, Indigo, Avalon, and the new Red Screen of Death to go along with the Blue one. Vista has a connection with sight, and that's a huge part of the new version. Joe User isn't going to care about all the new under-the-hood stuff that is the real work of putting together Vista. It's the look and feel of it all. At least it isn't some sort of contrived pun like (the) Windows (e)XP(

Reply to Windows Vista in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Well, they had to pick something since the original title, Windows 2004, didn't quite work out for them.

Reply to should we make skins for making money? in OS Customization WinCustomize Forums

There doesn't have to be a wall between hobby and business. There's no better example than the Homestar Runner Link guys who started making cartoons to teach themselves Flash, and now the sales of merchandise allowed them to quit their day jobs and do the website exclusively. They also do some freelance Flash stuff, including the Mellow Mushroom website Link .

Reply to Why Mac OS for Pentium but not Itanium? Seriously. in Apple WinCustomize Forums

The main reason Apple decided to move away from PowerPC chips is because they were not getting faster as quickly as Apple wanted them to go. The x86 architecture turned out to be better for Apple's speed desires. The reason they picked Intel is because AMD has had a history of supply problems.

Reply to Gmail = bad in Internet WinCustomize Forums

The second sentence of this "article" is more than a bit unclear. I'm not even sure as to what it's supposed to mean. Anyway, if you haven't heard, Google is an advertising company. They also do search, Email, maps, Picasa, and the like, but advertising is the only way they actually make money. In order to have more effective ads, and therefore charge more for ads to make more money, they collect information to target their ads at the right

Reply to Can Chris Jones save Longhorn? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

Half of all Windows installations are Windows 2000 despite XP being available for 4 years now. I find that hard to believe. No, check that. I find it impossible to believe. Do you have evidence of this? Check here: http://www.itjungle.com/two/two062205-stor

Reply to Can Chris Jones save Longhorn? in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

A couple things... WinFS, despite its name, is not a new file system. The Longhorn file system will still be NTFS. WinFS is a OS component that indexes files for easy search like Google Desktop Search or Apple's Spotlight do. Second, there is no guarantee that Longhorn will sell all that well on anything but brand-new computers. Half of all Windows installations are Windows 2000 despite XP being available for 4 years now.

Reply to Microsoft AntiSpyware beta in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

I've tried it out, but I prefer not to have a program like it running all the time. Through a combination of using Firefox and being an intelligent person while using IE, I haven't gotten any spyware in well over a year and a half. Still, MS Anti-Spyware, or the MS antivirus program that has been rumored about, is only fine unless they charge money for the service. How would it make sense for the consumer if a company that sells products wi

Reply to P in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

Liek, its totaly r0xx0rz!!1!1!! I can't stand fanboys, no matter if it's Linux, Mac, or Windows varieties. Jusdging from the first three letters of the site name, this is probably not the site for dropping off misspelled and generic platitudes about non-Windows platforms.

Reply to O in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

XP pro and Kanotix, a Pentium-optimized Debian derivative.

Reply to A in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

In February on RSA security conference, Richard Ford from Technology Institute of Florida and Herbert Thompson from Security Innovation Company made a research (they both say they are Linux fans) and concluded that Windows 2003 Server is more secure than Red Hat Server. After reporting a security problem, a patch is available aft

Reply to A in Personal Computing WinCustomize Forums

I've never had XP completely crash before, but I have had the system completely lock up plenty o' times. Part of that could be hardware, but at 2.0 GHz and 384 MB, I shouldn't have as many problems with that as I have had. I have a memory manager, and the average free RAM I have is in the 160 - 180 MB range, and after discounting the programs always running (virus scan, ObjectDock, etc) I come out with the figure that Windows XP itself eats up about 17

Reply to Longhorn and icons in Icons WinCustomize Forums

A bit offtopic again, but what do Linspire use? I got a Live CD of that. That uses KDE. KDE and Gnome are two different kinds of desktop managers. Check out these screenshot galleries to get an idea of what they are like: <a href="http://shots.osdir.com/slideshows/slideshow.php?releas

Reply to Longhorn and icons in Icons WinCustomize Forums

Um, Windows has not broken any new ground with this. If you want to see this feature in action, burn yourself a Linux live CD. KDE has done this for quite some time. I can't remember if Gnome does or not. Links for live CDs: Link - SimplyMEPIS Link - Kubuntu

Reply to Why freeware nearly always loses in the long run in Industry WinCustomize Forums

If you want to pay for software, do it. If you don't, then rely on what you can find for free but don't pirate the pay stuff. That said, there is something to be said for the open source model. The GIMP, or Gnu Image Manipulation Program, was originally a college project for a couple of guys who eventually lost interest and time in developing it. Other people took up the project, and now it's a nice Photoshop Elements replacement. With continu

Reply to Intel exec fears for U.S. competitiveness in WinCustomize News WinCustomize Forums

In the end, all you can blame is simple economics. If outsourcing reduces cost, companies will outsource. There are some tradeoffs, and not everything can be outsourced (if you server melts down, you can't call your specialist in Calcutta to come out and look at it). If the inconvenience of not having the people working in the same building with you is less than the amount saved or it can be overcome reliably through electronic communications and/or vi

Reply to What is Avalon in Avalon WinCustomize Forums

It was announced yesterday that WinFS is getting backported to XP too. Will all the stuff getting backported, it's almost like Longhorn will just end up being XP SP3. By the way, there seems to be a lot of confusion out there over WinFS. It isn't really a new file system; Longhorn will still use NTFS. WinFS will attatch metadata to files in order to make hard drive search easier and faster. Essentially, it's like a beefed-up desktop search eng