Windows 7 Anyone?

[gore]

Dude WTF, do you know how many times I've asked people on here for help with Windows software and not once gotten that link?

My start was with Windows 95 back in 1999 when I got my first computer, but the last 5 years or more I've been only using Windows for certain things that require it. So when I have to use it for something other than DooM, I generally have to ask.

I'm STILL looking for an actually GOOD Windows Email client. I don't ever check email on Windows anymore. Too risky. The options out there for Windows are just terrible. I did like Outlook for a while, but, for some reason, it literally stopped working. My ISP changed their servers and now, the only things that work are the Unix clients. And not even the text based ones, the GUI ones only.

It sucks.

I did like Eudora too. I want to point out I really liked how Eudora did things, but that, is basically not supported right now, so I stopped using it. nd Outlook.... All I have is the Office XP one, which is outdated as crap now, and I can't buy Office....

I've heard that the new Outlook Express replacement "WinMail" is supposed to look very nice and actually work well, but I don't have a machine that would even run Vista, so that isn't plausible.

In a way I kind of wish Apple would port the Mac OS mail client that comes with Mac Os X to Windows. I'd use that for sure. It's well laid out, looks good, and from what I've read, does the job very well.

For now I've been using this:

On that OLD desktop with BSD, I use Sylpheed and Claws.

On THIS machine, I use Sylpheed again, and Thunderbird, but I don't really like Thunderbird that much. It's bulky....And mail clients should be MAIL clients.

I miss using Mutt. Comcast pisses me off sometimes. They have that "Our users are ALL morons" attitude now, so you can't use Mutt or Pine to do email anymore because they don't have built in SMTP like GUI clients do, and you have to use Sendmail or Postfix to send email with those.

Would be nicer if Comcast actually allowed you to take a test and if passed, unblocked your cable modem to allow traffic once you've shown you aren't a spammer and can't be infected by the crap they think you are when they see outgoing smtp traffic...Jerks.

I used Mutt for two years happily. Now I'm stuck with whatever has a GUI only, which doesn't allow me to check my email over SSH anymore.

Kmail shows promise, but KDE4.2 is so damned bulky it might as well be Vista too, so I can't run that very well, and Balsa started to lag too, so that was out, and what is left isn't much heh.

[Cheap Scotch Ron]

That can't be Bob Dylan....

OMG, gore. I am truly sorry for your illness. I didnt realize you were sick.
I am on my way to Michigan with my record collection and a bottle of scotch. We will have you fixed up in no time.

If anything I should be the confused one.

Yup, no "if" about it. I'll try to fix this as well. Please turn off your automatic updates. I will need to patch your brain manually. Nurse, twist one up and pass to the left.

Regards,
Your murderous raging (or something) old salt,
Captain Ron

P.S. OS's are like women, I like 'em in all shapes, sizes and colors. It's the variety that floats my boat.

[Cheap Scotch Ron]

Gore, try squirrelmail or evolution. We use squirrelmail for remote and evo on the suse desktops.

[nihil]

To return to the topic, Windows 7 has the same recommended hardware requirements as Vista.

1GHz processor
1GB RAM
128Mb video

Windows operating systems are intended to be installed on new equipment and tend to reflect what is currently available. That is how MS, chipset, peripherals, and OEMs make their money.

I can run Vista (Home Premium) perfectly adequately on a $27 video card and even a $17 one if I downloaded the Vista software from the manufacturer's website.

If you want to play games or do fancy graphics then you really need a specialist rig, and there is nothing new in that. It is the applications that need the power not the OS. Gaming and CAD rigs are nothing new.

I fixed a Vista machine the other day. It had a 1.8GHz single core processor and 512MB of PC3200 RAM with a 128MB video card. Worked just fine for office and internet tasks. You just don't need Aero for that sort of requirement.

If you want to run Windows on old kit then you need a version that suits like 98SE and 2000.

[Linen0ise]

I'm playing with Windows 7 right now. I just discovered this version has the ability to burn cd/dvd including iso images. If another program takes control of burning process, the windows feature can easily be restored. Windows 7 should have the default ability to read .pdf documents and zip/rar files since it participates on a network.

[Linen0ise]

I miss using Mutt. Comcast pisses me off sometimes. They have that "Our users are ALL morons" attitude now, so you can't use Mutt or Pine to do email anymore because they don't have built in SMTP like GUI clients do, and you have to use Sendmail or Postfix to send email with those.

How is this Comcast fault? The bottom link may help you out.

https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...n-pine-188044/

I used Mutt for two years happily. Now I'm stuck with whatever has a GUI only, which doesn't allow me to check my email over SSH anymore.

You sound fustrated but I believe you have a configuration problem.

Kmail shows promise, but KDE4.2 is so damned bulky it might as well be Vista too

you not alone.... What I learned off the internets: kde 4.x breaks KDE 3.x. Reinstall KDE 3.x but make sure you backup the entire .kde directory hidden in your profile or home directory. Backing up linux home directorys in linux is the same procedure for Windows. If you are a power tech then you know what I mean.

I'm on a raided system. My hack is to make a drive fail on purpose and remove it. Then I can hack linux anyways I see fit. If I do not like the new solution or new installation of Linux, I can instantly restore my previous installation using a LiveCD without mounting Harddrives and reverse the raid process in under 6 minutes for a 500GB drive by reformatting the "test" harddrive and then readding the failed drive above. Make sure the failed harddrive is the primary in the raid before adding the formatted "clean" drive. It will replicate. No need to fool around with boot loaders and partitions.

People who are not in the know will swear this is not how you do it. I tell people don't always believe what you read in textbooks.

[gore]

Actually in this case, it is Comcast. I know because I'm not just guessing, I actually talked to some techs who work there. I live in Southeast Michigan so a lot of people around the area work for them, and I went as far as the forums for Comcast to see what was going on.

The first thing I learned was that they had changed their email system to not use the standard ports, which I thought "Oh, this should fix it no problem"....But it didn't.

I'm not sure if you've ever dealt with them, but they used to be a great ISP, and now, if you aren't running standard Windows, they basically don't even try to help, even when you say "I really only need what you would do with Windows, I can translate that to Unix myself".

What I found that made me blame them was when I went to the forums though. They have TWO sets of instructions....If that wasn't bad enough, BOTH were written by their staff members....

I pointed out that I found two full sets of instructions for setting up email, and that both were written by Comcast staff and BOTH were totally different.

One set told me that ports 465 and ....I can't recall the other one...But anyway, one said that I should use two specific ports to make it work.

I thought OK, and tried. Nothing. I look again and notice ANOTHER set of instructions... This time, again, non standard mail ports are listed, but they are totally different, and it says to use TSL or no SSL or something to that effect. And I thought that was weird too and I try again. Nothing.

I load up Kmail just to see if I can get anything done, and before I've set up the custom ports they have to use, I sent a test message to see if I could get an error message to see maybe which ones to use.

Instead, I get a message saying it was sent and worked fine.

I go back to the forums and point out that not only does Outlook, the one they actually support, not work...But Kmail, which they don't support, not only works, but works on the standard ports they said not to use.

I asked about it and a staff member who actually tried to help checked my account and said it was strange because nothing was going on with my account, and that the way I did it shouldn't have worked at all really.

I decided to try using their instructions, both sets, on two separate accounts, on two different mail clients. Basically, their instructions didn't work at all, because of course, there are two.

Using The Novell Client, I could just have it check what the server supports, so I did, and that seemed to work, for a while, and out of no where stopped. I re-checked the settings, and nothing.

Then, I thought it was weird that somehow the SAME mail client on two machines, with the SAME settings, only worked on one of them.

Comcast said it was probably an error on my part, so I went and open both configuration things, and checked each part one by one. They were exact.

As for using Mutt, it used to work without a problem at all. Then Fetchmail stopped working. Fetchmail actually said I was probably using Comcast and that they had done an upgrade which made it not work anymore, so I started using getmail instead.

They did another upgrade and then I could only grab my mail, and use Mutt, but I couldn't send mail, because, of course, they assume if you're sending mail with a server that you're a spam bot and close you up.

Hell, on FreeBSD, the first time I sent a test message to see if it was working I got a mail from Comcast saying they closed port 25 on my end, because mail was being sent and they said I was infected with spyware and spam bots or whatever, and if it was a mistake I should make sure I can still send mail because it may have broken my client's ability to send mail.

Stuff like that adds up to a bigger annoyance. Now I can only use certain clients because they of course think everyone is running Windows and that everyone who sends mail themselves with sendmail is infected.

[Cheap Scotch Ron]

hey gore!, we agree on something...

www.comcastsucks.org

Our local ISP at home got bought out by comcast last spring. The migration was a frickin nightmare, and I experienced similar issues with the servers at my house. This port blocking on residential accounts really sucks. I tried to get a commercial account at home (they dont block ports on commercial accounts), but they would not do it even though I have other commercial accounts with them.

So, f@ck'em. I got a DSL line at home. It's not as fast, but it works. I cant wait for Verizon FIOS to become available in my neighborhood.

CSR

[Negative]

Gore's arguments just make me want to get into Windows even more.

[gore]

Ron:

If you still had them I'm sure I could annoy them for you. The last tech who came here to fix the phone made the mistake of showing me how to open the control panel for the cable boxes that shows the IP and all info they use to diagnose the things. I had forgotten how, but, with me, I know it's just a matter of asking the right way for the control again. You use the remote and press a button with the power button and it pops up.

And neg that's really rude. If we weren't friends that comment would be cause for putting a statue of La Dame Blanc on your lawn.