Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
Hi Tim, > Instead of Linux Mint, I went with Lubuntu (Ubuntu light). I first > installed Linux on an older Lenovo with 512MB of memory. Linux Mint > would hardly start, but Lubuntu worked great. I borrowed my wife's old Dell Inspiring laptop and put Mint 17 32 bit on it. With Cinnamon desktop it was quite slow, so I switched over to LXDE and it runs like a dream now. I mainly use it for PCB design using Kicad and/or Fritzing. That's one laptop nicely recycled! Plus it boots up in a couple of minutes whereas XP eventually needed bout 10 minutes to boot. That used to drive her mad. Cheers, Norm. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
Evening Dilwyn, Ah yes, I do recall something about your past problems with Windows! I wasn't aware you had Packard Bell kit though, Curry's "own brand" stuff, or junk as we IT professionals know it. I had one of those briefly some years back. Took it back to PC World as unfit for purpose and got a full refund. I had a panicked call for help from my brother up in Elgin, back home, as his HP laptop had been upgraded to Windows 10 and now refused to start. He'd managed to brick it! As he didn't have any rescue disc or originals, he was basically "seduced"! That's the joy of having a recovery partition, when the disc is wiped, it's wiped! He ended up buying new laptop which had windows 10 pretty loaded, and when I next get up to Elgin I'll be recycling the HP with Linux Mint! Good luck with your kit! Cheers, Norm. -- Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity. ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
On Sat, 16 Jan 2016, at 05:25 PM, Dilwyn Jones wrote: > > Yes, there is lots to hate in any OS, I know Mac users who whine about > > this and that never working, updates that break things and those damned U2 > > albums that appear every 5 minutes like a virus! I know Linux users who > > whine about other stuff. I have been known to shout at QDOS myself from > > time to time! > > > > :-) > Careful, Norman, you might just tempt me to Linux at this rate. > > You know the damage I've done to Windows... you wouldn't want to inflict > me > on the Linux community would you :o) > > I've tried upgrading 3 separate Windows 7 machines to Windows 10 now. In > all > cases, despite passing the compatibility tests, none would work after the > upgrade, and in each case the rollback to Windows 7 failed too, in each > case > necessitating a full reformat and reinstallation of Windows 7. After > reinstalling Windows 7 on one of them, I tried the update again thinking > that as it was a clean machine it should work. Oh no it didn't. > > No wonder Windows 10 upgrade is "free" - nobody in their right minds > would > buy it as an upgrade. > And yet I am now upto machine 7 upgraded without an issue. Who made your machines out of interest? Graeme ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
Packard Bell (desktop), Zoostorm (netbook), another machine consigned to the attic due to lack of space down here, whose brand I can't remember off hand. Plus an Intel Compute Stick supplied by eBuyer in December with Win10 32-bit preinstalled, but died during the first Windows update and has just been replaced as faulty. It's a similar spec to the netbook and shares the Aurora's monitor nicely since that has an otherwise unused HDMI connector. If I can get it working, it'll make me a second PC good enough for basic web browsing, streaming maybe, and of course QL emulation. My son's laptop upgraded to Win10 OK with only a graphics driver issue, solved with a simple update to the driver, he has had massive problems with a self-build desktop PC of his but as he had more time on his hands than I do - he's persisted and tackled the issues one by one until the machine is now sort-of working even though he can be heard threatening to throw it out of the window almost daily, weeks after he first started updating. His main issues seem to revolve around connecting to the internet after the update and the machine going into constant restart loops after each Windows 10 update. We've also had problems like Start menus disappearing and software being uninstalled or disabled after updates. Basically, we found we were having to waste so much time fixing stupid issues there was little time left for actual computing! Thankfully, where Windows 10 works, QL emulation seems to have carried on working just fine, which is the positive part of the saga. That seems to be reflected in user comments in magazines and online forums, that where Windows 10 works, people love it, but far too many people seem to find it doesn't work on updated systems and so go back to Windows 7. Would be interesting to find stats on what percentage of updaters rolled back to Windows 7 or 8. Sadly, these days, our QLing is surprisingly dependent on other operating systems. Dilwyn Who made your machines out of interest? Graeme ___ QL-Users Mailing List - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.7294 / Virus Database: 4489/11412 - Release Date: 01/16/16 - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.7294 / Virus Database: 4489/11416 - Release Date: 01/16/16 ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
On 01/16/2016 09:25 AM, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Careful, Norman, you might just tempt me to Linux at this rate. Which would not be that bad to do. I've been running exclusively Linux at home for about 3 years. The only major problem I have is that I can't print to a printer attached to a Windows system. Instead of Linux Mint, I went with Lubuntu (Ubuntu light). I first installed Linux on an older Lenovo with 512MB of memory. Linux Mint would hardly start, but Lubuntu worked great. SMSQmulator works fine under Linux. Q-emulator and QPC2 work fine under Wine. I even use EightyOne (ZX81) under Wine. There is a native ZX81 and Spectrum emulator ZesarUX. SZ81 is a native ZX81 emulator. Pasmo is a Z80 ASM cross compiler. Z88dk is a Z80 C cross compiler. I can really do all my Sinclair programming on Linux. I'd suggest finding a spare system, install a distribution of Linux and just experiment with it. Tim Swenson ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
On Sat, 16 Jan 2016, at 06:25 PM, Dilwyn Jones wrote: > Packard Bell (desktop), Zoostorm (netbook), This unfortunately explains your failure :-( Friends don't let friends buy either of these manufacturers :-( G ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
That makes me feel a lot better...I think :o) The third machine was a Dell laptop, fairly old, purchased second hand, but supposedly capable of Win10 upgrade. After I sent the first email, I remembered it was the one I sold late last year. Dilwyn -Original Message- From: Graeme Gregory Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2016 6:54 PM To: ql-users@lists.q-v-d.com Subject: Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10 On Sat, 16 Jan 2016, at 06:25 PM, Dilwyn Jones wrote: Packard Bell (desktop), Zoostorm (netbook), This unfortunately explains your failure :-( Friends don't let friends buy either of these manufacturers :-( G ___ QL-Users Mailing List - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.7294 / Virus Database: 4489/11416 - Release Date: 01/16/16 - No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2016.0.7294 / Virus Database: 4489/11416 - Release Date: 01/16/16 ___ QL-Users Mailing List
Re: [Ql-Users] QPC2 <> W10
I was sure I'd replied to this email a while back, but now I don;t see it. Here goes again! > Yo! Norman. Does QPC2 still work under current versions of Wine? Yes, pretty much perfectly. I have no problems. Accessing the Floppy Disc hardware obviously doesn't work though - as far as I remember Marcel telling me, a long time back, it uses direct sector access and that's to the inbuilt hardware of a Windows box as opposed to an emulator's USB floppy. (Wine Is Not an Emulator!) Still, I believe I can use floppy images now at version 4. I haven't tried that yet though. > My only valid Linux installation ATM is on RasPi - too slow to be worth testing. It won't work. Wine is x86/amd-64 only. The Pi is ARM, so WINE isn't even available in the repositories. Almost every year I reconsider whether its worth emigrating to Linux, but its just such a hassel. Really? I moved over to "The Dark Side" way back in 2001 just after Simon's article in Linux Format which mentioned my Web Site at the time. Anyone wishing to switch simply has to pick up a copy of the latest Linux Format (the cover DVD has Mint 17.3 (32 and 64 bit versions) and OpenSuse Leap (64 bit only) on it) and a large section inside on migrating simply from Windows to Linux Mint 17.3 - which is what I use for business and pleasure. You'll be surprised at how simple it can be to switch. Other Windows migrants like "Mageia" but I haven't tried it. A colleague at work had to sort out his ageing parents recently. Their XP system had a hard disc failure and they had lost/binned/destroyed the original CD - assuming it actually had one, it may have been a recovery partition on the now defunct hard drive. Anyway, they were "dyed in the wool XP users, couldn't use anything else, didn't like change etc" - what could he do? Windows 7 cost too much, Windows 8 would have baffled the aged ones, so I suggested Linux Mint 17 with the Cinnamon Desktop. He was a bit dubious, but did it anyway. He also told them it was an upgrade to Windows. They loved it! And, even better, have not had to call him out for any problems. However, each to their own. However, most Linux distos (aka distributions) nowadays come with a "live DVD" where you simply insert the DVD and reboot. As long as the computer boots from the DVD, you get a "try before you (don't) buy" system that will not touch the hard disc nor will it write anything over your Windows stuff. Oh, and you can read your Windows files just fine too. If you decide to install, they are very careful to make sure that the allow you to use your Windows system by giving you the option on the boot menu, unlike Windows which assumes it is the only OS, and wipes the ability to boot into Linux. And tho different, to me there seems to be as much to hate in both systems. (Apple can hardly be considered an option for grownups and has silly hardware restrictions.) Makes me wonder whether I might outlive QDOS/SMSQ I think that Linux is vastly more secure than Windows. Security is built in, not bolted on after the fact. Does Windows still come with an administrator user which has no password? It did at XP and that little fact was buried on page 16 of a small booklet full of adverts and not much else when I got my first XP laptop. Yes, there is lots to hate in any OS, I know Mac users who whine about this and that never working, updates that break things and those damned U2 albums that appear every 5 minutes like a virus! I know Linux users who whine about other stuff. I have been known to shout at QDOS myself from time to time! :-) Cheers, Norm. -- Norman Dunbar Dunbar IT Consultants Ltd Registered address: 27a Lidget Hill Pudsey West Yorkshire United Kingdom LS28 7LG Company Number: 05132767 ___ QL-Users Mailing List
