In the Year 2005...

[sudsmaster]

Well, I guess it's a sign of how tired I got of working with computers... my Win2000 Pro system was running on a Pentium 3 with 256 MB ram, taking forever to boot up, and giving error messages I couldn't get rid of. So back in 2005 or so I bought a replacement Pentium 4 motherboard, 1 GB ram, and a Geoforce FX graphics controller. Well, it sat and sat and sat. Finally the Pentium 3 computer was going through major issues - ERD quality - and I got it back, but the other day it started to fail to connect to the internet (has happened many times before). All my usual fixes didn't work, and rather than re-install the OS (again), I decided finally to build the "new" Pentium 4 replacement.

Wow, what a difference. I think the extra ram and the video board really help. I can watch U-tube videos now without any jerkiness. It's even better than on my Toshiba dual core Pentium notebook.

Meanwhile I bought another motherboard - an Intel dual core with 4 GB ram - that I'll be putting into another chassis one of these days, months, or years.

Forward into the past! LOL.

Only wrinkle so far: ABC.COM insists a system must have XP or higher to watch their crappy videos. So maybe the duall core system will be running the copy of XP I've had kicking around in shrink wrap for the past five years.

 

[sudsmaster]

Well, in addition to the lack of support for win2000 by ABC.COM, I found that the media player supplied for W2K doesn't support direct ripping of CD's to MP3's. I worked around it by using Nero, but that brought up a new problem... Nero slows system to a crawl when it's up and running. Pretty awful.

So.... might be upgrading this system to XP... or might wait for Windows 7, which is supposed to be a big fix for Vista.

 

[j2400]

I'm not sure I'd hold my breath waiting for Windows 7. Sure, they say it'll fix Vista, and be the greatest thing ever. They say that with every new version of Windows. I'm sure even Windows ME--said to be the worst, at least until Vista came along--had its share of hype.

I also wonder about CD ripping in the future. It appears thst Windows is becoming more and more about Digital Restrictions Management.

 

[sudsmaster]

Yeah, I made a CD copy of an old language tape for my teacher... and the latest software went out without asking and checked on the internet and came back and said it was copyrighted material. Since it was from an analog tape, there was no way the copyright info was on the audio stream.

I remember a lot of complaints about XP when it first came out. Part of the reason why I'm still using W2K at home. But what an uproar last year when Microsoft announced it was ceasing to ship new XP any more. Not really happy with Nero, it's a resource hog and not all that intuitive as well.

I have Vista on my notebook, and it's not that bad, really. But then I haven't run anything else on that machine so who knows? I think part of the issues with new revs of Windows comes from people who are doing an upgrade in place on their existing hardware. Of course a new OS is probably going to run slower on same hardware, because it's fatter and has more features, etc. But Windows 7 is supposed to run faster than Vista, we'll just have to see.

 

[jeffg]

If all you need is CD and DVD data burning (no video DVDs), check out DeepBurner Free. It's Nero -- without the bloat. No codecs, no background services, no additions to your Win2K/XP startup programs etc, and it's free for home use.

For years I put up with conflicts between Nero's crap codecs and other software on my system, until I stumbled on DeepBurner last year. I haven't installed or used Nero since.

DeepBurner - Powerful CD and DVD Burning Package

 

[jeffg]

Sorry, meant to also recommend Exact Audio Copy for ripping CDs under Win2K. Also blissfully bloat-free.

Exact Audio Copy

Exact Audio Copy is a so called audio grabber for CDs using standard CD and DVD-ROM drives. The main differences

www.exactaudiocopy.de

 

[phillygrl]

If you want CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning, check out ImgBurn. It's freeware, very small, and works. ImgBurn supports all the Windows OS's - Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, XP, 2003, Vista, 2008 and 7 (including all the 64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also run on Linux and other x86-based Unixes. I've been using it for over a year, and am glad to be rid of Nero.

Lisa

The Official ImgBurn Website

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit... and it's free!

www.imgburn.com

 

[j2400]

I've heard comments that Windows 2000 was the best Windows ever. More than one person, I'm sure, is sticking with it as long as possible.

Software does seem to get slower as time goes by. I've noticed it on this computer (a PIII.)

I just saw a small thing on Windows 7, and it does appear that Digital Restrictions Management will be a big part:

Draconian DRM Revealed In Windows 7 - Slashdot

TechForensics writes "A few days' testing of Windows 7 has already disclosed some draconian DRM, some of it unrelated to media files. A legitimate copy of Photoshop CS4 stopped functioning after we clobbered a nagging registration screen by replacing a DLL with a hacked version. With regard to...

tech.slashdot.org

 

[DADoES]

Brenda has test-run a beta of Win 7, doesn't like it. She also detests Vista. Unfortunately being that she works on computers, she has to deal with Vista.

 

[j2400]

Sometimes, I think the only people who really like Vista are:
-Microsoft
-Computer magazines, who need something to write about. ("10 Exciting Things You Can Do With Vista!")
-Microsoft's Competitors. I'm sure both Apple and user friendly Linux distros are seeing more once loyal Windows users switch.

 

[sudsmaster]

Thanks for the suggestions, Jeff. I found another program, Audiograbber, on the internet and it seems to be pretty good. I'll take a look at the two you mentioned. Nero without the bloat would be good. I can't believe how it slows down my system.

One thing I like about Windows 2000 is the lack of licensing. If I have a system crash, or need to move a license, no problem. With XP and Vista, you have to register the machine with Microsoft, and if the system crashes and you have to reinstall, as on a new drive or another system, then it's a phone call to Microsoft to get "permission".

I'm probably going to build another system here and stick the copy of XP I have on it. It will have an even more powerful processor but so far I don't have a good video card for it. I'll have to use the video built into the motherboard, which is probably not that good. We'll see.

 

[sudsmaster]

PS-I worked in IT for 15 years. Started out with DOS 2.x and really missed the textual interface when Windows came along. I could do many things much faster with the command line.

 

[j2400]

The lack of activation is a big selling point in favor of Windows 2000. I've heard horror stories where some call center activation person refuses to activate a copy of XP that's being reinstalled on the same computer it's always been used on.

As for ripping CDs, I made an interesting discovery. With Linux, and the right combination of software, one can rip tracks of a CD using the file manager. Essentially, it's like copying any other computer file.

I'm not sure who supports it--this was an accidental discovery (I think in Ubuntu 8.10.). It's not a feature I really use (I seldom rip CDs, and almost never do anything with MP3), but it's something that seems to work across a range of software. (Basically, the more fully featured systems.) To date, I haven't seen it in light weight software configurations, which is what I use most of the time, due to the ancient nature of my hardware.

 

[DADoES]

I swapped an XP hard drive out of a system with a bad mobo, to another with completely different hardware. It reactivated online without any phone calls.