[melbourne-pug] Windows thoughts

[Mike Dewhirst]

On 2/07/2010 4:18pm, Sam Lai wrote:
>
> You have an XP license then. Why not just wipe Windows 7 and install
> XP?

As I said earlier, death, taxes and ... I can't escape it if I want to 
help my clients (ie stay in business!).

So I think keeping a WinXP VM and a couple of linux VMs lets me target 
all platforms I'm needing to. It will be a while before I'm up to speed 
with this blasted Win 7 though.

>
>> 7. UAC - what were they thinking? I admit it is necessary and also
>> that the Unix/Linux security model takes getting used to in the
>> beginning. But it is worthwhile putting the effort in for Linux
>> because it is stable. It's a good return over a long term
>> investment. I don't trust MS to get UAC right for quite some time
>> so why should I invest my meagre brainspace in their ever-changing
>> ideas?
>
> Not really. UAC is largely only enforcing what Microsoft have been
> recommending as best practice since 2000/XP launched.
>
> Running as the admin user was never recommended practice; neither
> was applications writing into locations other than the user profile
> directory. These are two most common reasons elevation is required.
> Next would probably be making OS-level queries/changes, but the
> additional pain here is just including a manifest so Windows
> requests elevation from the user before launching your app.
>

OK - I don't develop as root on linux and there isn't any problem there.

I guess I'll have to come to terms with group policies and tweak them so 
I can write and test code and install stuff without needing to reach for 
a stiff whisky. Then, just like Linux, I'll create unprivileged users to 
test it. I wonder if there is a "best practice" setup for this sort of 
thing? Might have to go googling.

It would be nice if there was a sudo in Win7 because this laptop has a 
fingerprint reader which saves a lot of typing :)

Mike

--

> That said, you have said it yourself - UAC is a good thing in the
> long run. They have to start somewhere. Given that the changes to
> UAC between Vista and 7 were minimal (main change was the reduction
> of prompts for common user tasks, primarily when using Windows
> Explorer), the changes in Windows 8 are likely to be additive, rather
> than code-breaking.
>
>> Unfortunately some are looking at Windows 7 and as I discovered you
>> cannot buy a Windows laptop without it!
>
> Yeh, that's pretty disappointing. Although understandably, once you
> have that advantage with PC manufacturers, obviously throwing it
> away would be an incredibly poor business decision. Are Dell still
> continuing their Linux preload experiment?
>
> Has anyone successfully gotten their Windows licence fee refunded in
> Australia? It has taken over 4 weeks and my DOA laptop refund still
> hasn't been completed from manufacturer X; congrats to those who
> manage to wrestle a refund for Windows out of any manufacturer.
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