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Sick of Windows Vista!


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OK, I have been running Windows Vista since Day 1 and am sooooo disappointed in it. It crashes a lot more than XP. I don;t run a lot of programs, but I do run Mapsource and Google Earth along with a game or two. Nothing major.

 

If I were to wipe my drive and install Linux (of which I know nothing) can I still install Mapsource and connect my GPS? What about GE?

 

Thanks!

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If I were to wipe my drive and install Linux (of which I know nothing) can I still install Mapsource and connect my GPS? What about GE?

Thanks!

 

Linux is a completely different beast than windows. You can't run windows programs under linux without running it under a "windows emulator". The free windows emulator for windows is called "wine" and it used to run mapsource ok. But it hasen't run it successfully for me in a while.

 

Google Earth, on the other hand, works just fine under linux and you can download a linux version of it.

 

You can do most things under linux that you can do under windows, but the programs are different (instead of M$ word, you have to use open office's "oowriter"). But most things exist (and are sometimes better than the windows counterparts). Except for mapsource. There is no linux equivelent that helps you install maps into your gps. It's about the only thing that makes me switch to windows sometimes. VMWare is the windows solution that lets me run windows-in-a-linux-window, but it's not free.

 

(note: I use linux for work and am not a good person to ask what it's like for someone that's never used it before...)

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That's what I would do . . . but don't use XP Media Edition. That version, which is on my DELL laptop, has problems with the Palm Desktop software (just in case you have a Palm). Mapsource works fine on it, however. :D

 

Hm, that's wierd...I have Palm Desktop with no problems on my media edition. :wub:

 

Maybe I am lucky.

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On the Palm site, if you browse around, you will see they do not support Media Edition. On this laptop, unless I HotSync from the Administrator account, instead of the Limited account I generally use, I get the horrible, full-screen, "Blue Screen of Death.

 

I have absolutely no problems with my Desktop computer still running Win2K. :D

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On the Palm site, if you browse around, you will see they do not support Media Edition. On this laptop, unless I HotSync from the Administrator account, instead of the Limited account I generally use, I get the horrible, full-screen, "Blue Screen of Death.

 

I have absolutely no problems with my Desktop computer still running Win2K. :D

 

On my desk top we are running Windows XP Home Media and never had a problem with MapSource or Palm.

 

On my new laptop I have Vista and MapSource is running just fine, however there are issues with the Palm as Vista does not recognize the files used in Palm.

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Linux is my primary desktop OS. When I need to run something that requires windows (like Mapsource), I use VirtualBox with a Win-XP guest. VirtualBox is free, and performance is just fine for these sort of apps (as fast as running natively as far as I can tell).

 

I have not had much success running things such as Mapsource under Wine, but with VirtualBox everything works great, because it's an actual Windows install, unlike Wine. The only minor issue I had is that VirtualBox doesn't yet support serial ports, but a $9 USB-Serial adapter from Newegg solved that.

 

As mentioned above, things like GoogleEarth run just great in Linux.

 

Hope this helps.

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On the Palm site, if you browse around, you will see they do not support Media Edition. On this laptop, unless I HotSync from the Administrator account, instead of the Limited account I generally use, I get the horrible, full-screen, "Blue Screen of Death....

 

Yeah, I went down that path too, lol. Once you said that I had to go see what they said about it. Of course, not supported...

Edited by egami
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I don't know if VMWare server is what you need, but they recently changed their licensing model and it's now free. See http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

 

The non-free copies don't let you create new installs... IE, it's a player for existing installations. That works great if you're playing a installation of a free operating system because it's legal to distribute those. But it doesn't work if you want create a windows installation (since no one can legally give you an already installed one).

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OK, I have been running Windows Vista since Day 1 and am sooooo disappointed in it. It crashes a lot more than XP. I don;t run a lot of programs, but I do run Mapsource and Google Earth along with a game or two. Nothing major.

 

If I were to wipe my drive and install Linux (of which I know nothing) can I still install Mapsource and connect my GPS? What about GE?

 

Thanks!

 

I find that if you buy a new computer the crapware they install makes the OS less stable. Similar issue with upgrading from XP. You really need the fresh install so you keep the system kludge down to a minimum.

 

More kludge, less stable.

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The non-free copies don't let you create new installs... IE, it's a player for existing installations. That works great if you're playing a installation of a free operating system because it's legal to distribute those. But it doesn't work if you want create a windows installation (since no one can legally give you an already installed one).

 

Ah, I didn't realize that.

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The non-free copies don't let you create new installs... IE, it's a player for existing installations. That works great if you're playing a installation of a free operating system because it's legal to distribute those. But it doesn't work if you want create a windows installation (since no one can legally give you an already installed one).

Just try VirtualBox http://virtualbox.org/. It's free and I've found the performance better than VMWare Workstation. The free VMWare Player and free Server product performance is absolutely horrible, when last I tried them.

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While searching the Garmin Website for another issue, I found a link that deals with MapSource & Vista compatability issues. They appear to have a fix in the latest update. Here's a link to the Garmin page...

 

Garmin's page on Mapsource & Vista compatability issue

 

Good Luck IG, Hope to see you around this summer :laughing:

 

Thanks Coach. Actually Mapsource runs fine in Vista, but Vista seems to crash a LOT more than XP and I don;t run a lot of programs either. Also, I usually wipe my hard drive every few months and do a clean install, and with XP I never had a problem, but Vista will only let you reinstall it on the same computer 10 times or so. Just getting sick of all the restriction Microsoft is putting on the program I paid $140 for....

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Just try VirtualBox http://virtualbox.org/. It's free and I've found the performance better than VMWare Workstation. The free VMWare Player and free Server product performance is absolutely horrible, when last I tried them.

 

Hadn't heard of that one; thanks for the reference!

 

(VMware has always performed slowly with minimum ram... If you load your machine well with ram, it does wonderfully; and also make it go to full screen display)

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Linux is my primary desktop OS. When I need to run something that requires windows (like Mapsource), I use VirtualBox with a Win-XP guest. VirtualBox is free, and performance is just fine for these sort of apps (as fast as running natively as far as I can tell).

 

I have not had much success running things such as Mapsource under Wine, but with VirtualBox everything works great, because it's an actual Windows install, unlike Wine. The only minor issue I had is that VirtualBox doesn't yet support serial ports, but a $9 USB-Serial adapter from Newegg solved that.

 

As mentioned above, things like GoogleEarth run just great in Linux.

 

Hope this helps.

 

scotte,

 

You mentioned you have a Linux box running VBox with a WinXP guest. I am running Ubuntu 7.04 w/VBox and a WinXP guest as well and the issue that I have run into is USB related and Windows not seeing my Garmin 60CSx. In the USB configuration for the virtual machine settings, I do see it, but it registers as an 'Unknown Device' with a Vendor/Product ID of 091E:0003.

 

When I look in /var/log/messages, I do see my GPSr connecting to ttyUSB0, so I believe Linux is successfully detecting the unit.

 

If you have any insight that you could share as to how your WinXP guest recognized your GPSr, that would be great.

 

Thanks!

 

MrZumma

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I don't know if VMWare server is what you need, but they recently changed their licensing model and it's now free. See http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

 

The non-free copies don't let you create new installs... IE, it's a player for existing installations. That works great if you're playing a installation of a free operating system because it's legal to distribute those. But it doesn't work if you want create a windows installation (since no one can legally give you an already installed one).

 

I've been using a licensed VMware Workstation for several years for a lot of reasons (as a software engineer it's convenient to have multiple "PC's" on your laptop as well as taking snapshots with rollback capability ... among other things). I didn't try the brand new version 6 yet, but so far my attempts to run MapSource inside of a VM and connect to any Garmin unit have failed. Version 6 comes with USB2 support ... let's see ...

 

Jan

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While searching the Garmin Website for another issue, I found a link that deals with MapSource & Vista compatability issues. They appear to have a fix in the latest update. Here's a link to the Garmin page...

 

Garmin's page on Mapsource & Vista compatability issue

 

Good Luck IG, Hope to see you around this summer :D

 

Thanks Coach. Actually Mapsource runs fine in Vista, but Vista seems to crash a LOT more than XP and I don;t run a lot of programs either. Also, I usually wipe my hard drive every few months and do a clean install, and with XP I never had a problem, but Vista will only let you reinstall it on the same computer 10 times or so. Just getting sick of all the restriction Microsoft is putting on the program I paid $140 for....

 

We've been running Vista on a laptop for a couple of months now and have had no problems with it crashing.

 

2 things you might want to do is run "msconfig" and go to the start up tab. It will list all the program that start when you boot the computer. Just go down the list and determine those that you really don't need and that are not 'required' and uncheck them. If you aren't sure, ask someone that does know.

 

The other thing to do is to click "start", then right-click "computer" and select "Manage". Select "Services and Applications". Select "Services". Again, go down the list and determine whether you really need that service running all the time. If you left click on an item, it will give a brief description in the left-hand column to help you figure out what that service is. If you don't know whether you need a service or not, leave it as is until you ask someone who knows. Many of these "services" can be stopped and set to "manual" "start-up type".

 

Rather than doing a reinstall of your operating system, consider using a program like Acronis True Image. It make an exact image of your hard drive (and computer component id's) and saves it to a place of your choosing. You can then reinstall this image to your hard drive (or another hard drive and just switch hard drives) and be back in business with your computer set to the image of when you made that image. All the programs, files, settings, etc. are there (except, those added after the image was made) ready to go and there is no need to get authorization for any of the programs.

 

John

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OK, I have been running Windows Vista since Day 1 and am sooooo disappointed in it. It crashes a lot more than XP. I don;t run a lot of programs, but I do run Mapsource and Google Earth along with a game or two. Nothing major.

 

If I were to wipe my drive and install Linux (of which I know nothing) can I still install Mapsource and connect my GPS? What about GE?

 

Thanks!

A good reason why you never buy anything when it first comes out.I've got two laptops that were made just before the XP/vista swap.I have no fears about crashes because the big bugs have been worked out of the system this late in the game.

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.... I HotSync from the Administrator account, instead of the Limited account I generally use, I get the horrible, full-screen, "Blue Screen of Death...

The Limited User Account in XP is so severly restricted, that it has never fully worked. Mix it with apps that are not written with multi/restrictive users in mind, and you get a horrible experience.

Edited by Seedillume
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I can understand your disappointment in Vista--I share it. If I was an eye-candy afficianado, I'd buy a Mac. :)

 

But I'm not having any crash problems. If your Vista came with a new computer, then the problem may be that the manufacturer monkeyed around with the version of Vista on your machine. Computer manufacturers love to replace Windows system components with their own 'custom' versions, and it leads to many of the crash problems people experience. The other major cause of system crashes is the gigabytes of crapware that most manufacturers install on their machines.

 

I'm not having Vista issues because I immediately wiped the HD of my new computer and installed a clean OEM copy of Vista (from Microsoft). I have to have Vista one machine, and it happens to be the laptop that has my GPS software. If you have XP, I'd recommend going back to that--recent manufacturer's versions weren't as unstable as their current versions of Vista.

 

If you have to stay with Vista, clean as much of the crapware off your system as you can--there are a number of articles online that describe how to do it. Then check Garmin for the Vista upgrade to MapSource. Other common GPS apps work without problem.

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Mapsource is coming soon. ..

 

.. since January 2006, or was it since September 2006. :)

 

Hell I am amazed

 

.. how long Garmin takes to port this little software package

.. how patient Mac users are while waiting for further announcements

 

Why not porting QLandkarte to Intel Mac in the mean while?

 

Oliver

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(Palm)...nless I HotSync from the Administrator account, instead of the Limited account I generally use, I get the horrible, full-screen, "Blue Screen of Death.
That can be fixed.

 

The problem isn't that Palm Desktop only runs correctly in an admin-level account. The problem is that it only runs correctly in the account that installed it. So, the fix (in short) is to uninstall it, promote your regular user ID to an admin account temporarily, re-install under that account, then "demote" the regular account back to its limited level. In more detail:

 

1) Log in with the administrative account that originally installed the Palm software, and completely uninstall it via Add/Remove programs.

 

2) While still in the administrative account, change the "limited" account you usually use to an administrative account. Not sure how it works in Media Edition, but in XP Professional you'd go to Control Panels -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management -> Users And Groups, select the "Administrators" group, and add the user ID that you need to "promote."

 

3) Log back in to your regular account (that now has admin rights).

 

4) Install the Palm Desktop software. Setup the Palm desktop software to your needs and sync one time.

 

5) Log out of your regaulr account and back in to the Administrator account

 

6) Demote your regular account by removing it from the "Administrators" group, reverse of what you did in step 2.

 

That should do it. Good luck!

 

-L.

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Mapsource is coming soon. ..

 

.. since January 2006, or was it since September 2006. <_<

 

Hell I am amazed

 

.. how long Garmin takes to port this little software package

.. how patient Mac users are while waiting for further announcements

 

Why not porting QLandkarte to Intel Mac in the mean while?

 

Oliver

 

Actually, it was Mac support that was promised. The updates and stuff are all avaiable and work fine.

 

Yes I agree, Mapsource is whats needed, but there are plenty of apps to create route , tracks, etc that one could get by other things in the mean time. I only used Mapsource to load the maps and all of NA fits on a 2GB chip so I dont need to do this on a daily basis..

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My only gripe (so far) with Vista is this:

If the laptop fell asleep and we push the space bar or whatever to 'wake it up', first a screen appears that tells us that Windows is resuming.

Then it goes black for another 5 seconds, then the 'resuming' screen for several more seconds, then waa-laa, the desktop appears, no wait, now the screen blacked out again.

Finally the desktop appears, but the cursor indicates that the PC is 'thinking' for many more seconds, during which you can't open any apps, and if you try, you've only delayed your productivity another minute or two while the PC ponders this newest request.

 

Still better than XP I think.

 

I though 98 ran fastest of any of the MS crap I've used.

 

I love Linux, but there are a few things I haven't been able to iron out so I can't use it on my primary machine.

 

I do love the gimp for image processing!

~k

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I don't know if VMWare server is what you need, but they recently changed their licensing model and it's now free. See http://www.vmware.com/products/server/

 

The non-free copies don't let you create new installs... IE, it's a player for existing installations. That works great if you're playing a installation of a free operating system because it's legal to distribute those. But it doesn't work if you want create a windows installation (since no one can legally give you an already installed one).

 

VMWare Server certainly does let you create installs, unless they've changed this in the last 3-4 weeks. I have it installed on my Linux laptop at home and two machines at work. It doesn't have as many features as VMWare Workstation, but it works fine for what I need. I've installed a variety of Windows OSes into it for test purposes at work and a single XP image on my personal laptop so I can check email at work from home.

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