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Pepping Up Windows
PhairOh writes "Toms Hardware has an article about improving Windows with free and Open Source Software. It features everything from the obvious like Gimp and OpenOffice and also some interesting choices like Virtuawin. From the article: 'The average Windows user tends to be less than satisfied with Windows. And that's no surprise, either, given the rather woeful state of its default applications.'"
I like WinDir Stat. It gives a nice colourful representation of your disk usage by directory and by file allowing you to see ther really big files on your system like .Vob, or clusters of really small ones like .jpg.
It's really a fun little thing to look at and use.
IS this an on topic first post?
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Support Indy Music. Buy
MS already has a power toy for multiple desktops.
r toys/xppowertoys.mspx
I've been using it for awhile, it works pretty well.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powe
... PuTTY
I thought WinDirStat looked cool so I checked it out, and lo and behold it's based on a similar Linux (KDE) application: kdirstat. Downloaded it just now ... very cool.
Dlugar
Computer Go: Writing Software to Play the Ancient Game of Go
Why Windows?
Note that I'm not trying to convince you to use Linux, but I do want to correct some things:
- hibernate works.
Works fine on most laptops running Linux as well, though if you want to use the BIOS-driven hibernation, you may have to create the hibernate file from Windows. Personally, I really like the new Linux software suspend, in which the Linux kernel does the hibernation. It's faster and more flexible (including working on machines that don't have hibernation support). It's not, at present, easy to set up, though.
- sleep works.
Interestingly, in my experience, this actually works *better* with Linux than with Windows. My colleagues running Windows don't use sleep mode much, because our machines (various Thinkpad T40 series laptops) sometimes don't wake up. So they all shut down their OS. With Linux, I just close the lid, and have done so with several generations of laptops.
- laptop undock works.
Having never seen the point of docking stations, I can't comment here.
- wireless automatic network connection/disconnection/hunting works.
I think there are tools that solve this, but I can't really comment because I just use the command-line tools and script things to work the way I want them to. You may have a point here, I'm not sure.
- windows automatically searches for new network parameters when waking up on a foreign network.
You mean like DCHP? So does Linux. Actually, there are some nifty tools on Linux that will attempt to guess how to configure the network interface even when DHCP doesn't work.
- changing display resolution doesn't require a logout/login.
Doesn't on Linux any more, either. Changing color depth still does, though.
- my iPod works.
I don't have an iPod, but this claims to work on Linux.
- I can read the unfixated CDRs that my Sony camera produces.
I don't have a camera that does that, so I can't really comment. That said, I would be very, very surprised if Linux couldn't deal with that as well.
- I can use IE to view those few sites/use those web apps that require it and use firefox for everything else.
Yeah, those sites suck. I run IE under WINE on my Linux box to deal with that. Works fine, even though I mutter through my teeth every time I'm forced to do it.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Having never seen the point of docking stations, I can't comment here.
Are you high? A caveman can see the point of a docking station. It's a simple concept: when in the office, dock the laptop and use a traditional monitor, keyboard, mouse, usb, network, speakers -- anything. No hooking up a hundred different cables each time you come into work: just drop it in the dock. When it's time to go on-site, pop off the dock and go.