Grindingly Slow Laptop!

One of the best reasons for using Windows is that it seems to stop you being an OS bore.

Not true... Windows XP is really good, don't confuse it with the travesty that is Vista. Macs are great but the interface and way the windows work needs to be much simpler and intuitive for my taste (as I have bleated on about previously).

I heard our secretary today telling a colleague that Snow Leopard will be arriving on Tuesday, followed by the Ram. For a minute I thought I was in a Narnia-like parallel universe, until I realised he was just upgrading his Mac-book.

eventually they will run out of big cats... I wonder what will be next?

I don't know how anyone can brag about owning Apple products and ignore the suicides and working conditions in the sweatshops that produce 70% of Apple products. If this happened in the UK someone would be in Court or Jail by now. Youtube

Algernon. Did you even read the comments below that video? Or were you in too much of a rush to post it? 12 suicides out of a population of 500,000 workers in the Foxconn factories. That's a rate of 2.4 per 100,000 people. The national suicide rate in Britain is over 6 per 100,000 people. link. And strangely you don't seem to feel the same vitriol to HP, Dell, Sony and Nokia, all of whom use Foxconn for manufacturing.

And while you may consider it a 'sweatshop', many people don't. Foxconn pays much higher salaries than the Chinese average. People want to work there. No one is forcing them.

I'm not arguing over this just puzzled why people would want to praise Apple products when it's well documented and details are ignored about hazardous and unhealthy conditions at the factories in China where its components are assembled.

I don't use Apple products so I haven't really looked into it too much. I noticed it last week on a page about a UK Company/Authority was prosecuted for not doing proper risk assessments right along the line for a supplier they were using. I can't find the actual page now, seemed strange at the time that a UK company gets prosecuted for doing similar to Apple.

Couple of other links:
CNET

Cultofmac

Don't you get it yet? Apple are a high profile company and thus an easy target. Why isn't anyone bitching and moaning about HP or Dell using the same manufacturer? Because no one would care.

When you buy a Chinese-made M42 adapter, or lens cap, or camera bag, or the shirt on your back - where the hell do you think these things come from? I'll tell you where - a Chinese factory with (compared to the UK) fairly unpleasant working conditions. Why aren't you complaining that those companies would be prosecuted in the UK?

If I may suggest that you try and avoid make sweeping "factual" statements about Apple, and then 75 minutes later add a postscript saying you don't actually know much about it. It makes you look foolish. If you "haven't looked into it much" then stop bloody posting about it as if it was fact!

Like I said previously I'm not looking to argue with anybody.
Just curious as to why you Apple Fanbouys can't seem to see the wood for the trees, especially when Apple themselves admit to quite a bit of it CNET

Edit: This is the one about Lincoln College being fined for work carried out by a contractor they used. link
"Lincoln College pleaded guilty to breaching Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1999 at Lincoln Magistrates' Court today for failing to conduct a sufficient risk assessment. As well as the fine, the college was also ordered to pay £9,500 towards prosecution costs."

Not trying to argue with anybody eh? That's a strange way of going about it - state you're not looking for an argument, then call me a fanboy.

That's like me saying to you "I'm not looking to argue with people from Lancashire, but all people who live in Lancashire are idiots".

I presume from your righteous attitude that not a single thing that you own is made in a Chinese factory? Is that correct?

This argument needs to stop now. It's pointless to start throwing insults at each other and there's no place for that on Pentax User.

Discussion is to be encouraged, but it should never be made personal.

Back on track... Seriously OP make sure you delete all temp and temp internet files on a regular basis they will slow your PC down dramatically.

Also ban any comments on Elinchrom, as clearly not made by pentax and lighting fanboys just want to brag about how much bigger thier lights are than the Pentax flashes.

From lights to computers, to lens and filters.... like it or not there is a lot of differing opinions and techniques, but if people are willing to share.... then why not look at what does and does not work?

seriously you can't think that what happens to the digital files when they come out of the camera is irrelevant to digital photography? I found a workflow that is easy and reliable, and if that bothers some, it might steer some others away from the headaches and problems associated from buying something that won't work.

I didn't become an apple fanboy because I had too much money and too little brains, I became an Apple customer because I had a horrendous experience with Microsoft and switched. I became an apple fanboy, because the products and services fit the needs and worked well. I see somebody having troubles and offered the one solution I KNOW FOR CERTAIN WILL WORK.

You might as call to ban me for offering composition or exposure or camera technique advice while you are at it.
Lighten up, it's supposed to be fun!

Off topic posts continuing the argument removed.

Ubuntu installed... and it's like a rocket! Thanks to Matt for the tip. It was troublesome to install on the laptop as the damn thing wouldn't boot from the CD after I changed the boot sequence, but I installed it *within* windows in the end. (None of these problems on my XP set up, so it must be another Vista annoyance...) So Vista's still there when it's needed - you get to choose which OS to boot to...

It's quick and as simple to use, perfect for t'internet etc.

The only thing that annoys me is it seems to need to ask me for the password for a lot of things! I also gave up trying to install VLC but the bundled media player is actually pretty good anyway...

Windows 7 and Vista were no longer fully compatible with the Linux partitions. (Funny coincidence.) So best way for those is to partition the hard drive using Windows before your start with Ubuntu. (It's essential for W7.)

But glad to hear you got it running under WUBI.

It's not until you see how fast your machine can be that you realise the huge overhead of Windoze.

VLC should simply install through Ubuntu Software Center. What was your issue?

Same with GIMP (which is no longer part of initial install).

Darktable will be a bit more work, but let me know if you need instructions/links.

The password request is something you just have to get used to with a real operating system (vs a tarted up loader ) but is still preferable to the learning curve of a real root account that you have to log into and out of yourself. But look at it this way: is the extra logins/authentication more work than installing, running and maintaining a firewall, an intrusion detection system, a virus real-time protector, a malware scanner, malware removal tools, ... all of which burn CPU cycles to?