New Laptop On The Way
Just finished ordering my new Dell XPS M1530 (I was able to resist my buddy Ray's insistence that I get a Mac everytime I talked to him about laptops). Here are the specs: XPS M1530 Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7250 (2MB cache/2.0GHz/800Mhz FSB)
Operating System Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition System Color Midnight Blue
Memory 3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz (2 Dimms)
LCD, Color and camera High Resolution, glossy widescreen 15.4 inch LCD(1440x900) & 2MP Camera
Video Card 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT
Hard Drives Size: 160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
Software - Adobe Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Combo or DVD+RW Drive Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write) Sound Card High Definition Audio 2.0
Wireless Networking Cards Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-card
Productivity Microsoft Works 8. DOES NOT INCLUDE MS WORD
Software - Antivirus McAfee SecurityCenter 15-months
Primary Battery 56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
Accident and Theft Protection 1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection (CD Shipped Separately)
Adobe Adobe Photoshop + Premiere Elements Bluetooth Options Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0+Enhanced Data Rate)
I'll mostly be using it for developing, but I really wanted something with some power and durability. Any thoughts on this particular config?
RSS
I loaded apache on the machine and I can open the httpd.conf file, make changes and when I try to save it prompts that I'll be overwriting the file. I check ok, and then it claims it can't find the file.
Good luck with Vista.
DW
Quick example--I could reproduce a case where if I opened a file in notepad and edited it, it wouldn't let me save it because I didn't have permission, but if I saved the file to my desktop and then dragged it into the directory in which I was originally trying to save it (the one to which I supposedly didn't have sufficient permissions), it would copy the file right over with no complaints.
Just remember you can always upgrade to XP. :-)
@Dan - I've run into that problem with the conf files, it comes down to permissions but throws a wonky message.
That being said, I run Ubuntu as my primary OS, and it works flawlessly.
I used to run Vista as my secondary for dual boot (play games), and even for that it was a rediculous nightmare. I quickly switched back to XP, and was much happier. Especially for gaming - the performance increase on XP was stupid. Tho' no DX10 (but I don't have a DX10 card)
Mac and Windows are highly overrated (and over priced!) :P
I have an Apple MBP. My wife has Vista. I have flatly refused to help her with her PC problems anymore. I'm starting to wonder if Vista is a legitimate cause for divorce. (Just kidding!)
All in all though, I don't mind it. I really like IIS 7 - therefore I don't use Apache and can't confirm/help with the Apache conf file issues.
@johnb - wondering why you chose Vista Ultimate - I've looked at the differences in versions and just don't see the big difference. I believe I read that Ultimate has a few features that aren't in Home Premium like RDP - yet I *do* have RDP (and use it frequently with my VPS). Also, Windows Fax and Scan is supposed to be in Ultimate and not Premium - yet I can (and often do) scan via Windows Photo Gallery (works just fine).
I'm not an MS fanboy, but Vista has treated me OK - true it is a horrible memory hog but the 4gb I have on my desktop seems to handle it nicely. Ironically the machine originally had 2gb and when I upgraded to 4 there was very little performance improvement (to the naked eye).
So bottom line is, I'll have CF8, IIS7 (which I can run multiple sites with), CFEclipse 3.3 (which looks mighty nice on Vista), MySQL, SQL Server 2k5 Express - not too shabby of a development environment for the price (free).
I do think it might be time to look into an online SVN repo though if I'm going to be developing on multiple machines though.
I have the same laptop and it's great. Vista is great also. IIS, CF & Flex run on it out of the box perfectly.
One of my favourite features is the HDMI and remote control, with Vista Home Premimum, hook it up to your TV for the ultimate media centre.
My only gripe, is that it gets very hot, not sure you could actually use it on your lap.
For those who are having problems with editing a text file in Vista, it might be because you've installed Apache to the Program Files directory, in which case you need to run Notepad in Administrator mode, then when you go to save a file it won't have a problem with permissions.
@todd: Regarding Vista Ultimate, it allows you to use your PC as a Terminal Services server so that you can connect /to/ it via Remote Desktop from another machine. All versions of Vista can run the RDP client though (unless Vista Home Basic doesn't come with it? But you could probably get it from the MS Download Center).
I was tempted to buy a Mac, but the MBP is AUD$1000 more than I'm willing to pay (over 35% more!)... Apple will learn one day I guess, hardware doesn't have to be crazy expensive :P
Of the few Windows machines I've owned, Dell has been the least troublesome by a long way (I still have a Dell laptop but it runs Red Hat these days).
As for Vista. I hate it some days and I can live with it on other days. It is stable, I'll grant, but it is a resource hog and it's idea of file system permissions is totally broken.
Justin - thanks for clarifying the RDP thing. Makes sense.
I guess my bottom line was price - and for the price ($1300 shipped) I think I got a good deal on a solid machine. What sold me on the XPS was a trip to Best Buy where I actually got to put my hands on some of the top of the line machines. The XPS just seemed the most well built and solid. Nice monitor, nice keyboard, nice slot load cd/dvd. Just nice everything...
Also - for those who use Vista - what is your Windows Experience Index- and what are your thoughts on that scoring system? My desktop is a 4.2.
Mine is 4.8 what is the limiting factor, one of the measures would have gotten 4.2 which was it.
The weird thing is when I drill into the details it says I do not have a dual core proc...
Vista doesn't let you do ANYTHING without confirming it first.
And the security model is totally all over the place, in terms of what is asks permission for and what it doesn't.
At least on Linux it makes sense, rather than:
I'm copying a file from my folder to another folder -> why are you asking me permission to do this? it's my file system! It's not a root file system.
It's more a case of:
I'm editing my display setting, ah, that makes sense, you're asking me for my password... as I have to edit my config files.
Vista doesn't do that. I use it daily and copying files doesn't ask permission.
And remember if you don't like the warnings, turn them off.
Back when I briefly used Vista, it would bug me for the most inane things. Including file copying.
And if you turned off the warnings/configured your self as a super user, you would still have to right click certain applications and 'run as administrator' - which still makes no sense.
The security model was a good idea, just very badly implemented.
I agree the security model is flawed and I turned it off after about a month.
Right Click, Run As Administrator
sudo something
The thing I don't like, is that if I make myself an administrator I should have permission to do what I like, but with UAP on it still prompts you for some things.