Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with OS

Which OS for my Netbook?

lemonfridge — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:08:52 -0800

What OS for my Samsung NC20? I'm receiving a Samsung NC20 for xmas, which will become my primary PC for web-browsing, iTunes, Picasa etc.

I've already ordered myself a CD/DVD drive to use with it, and a 2Gb RAM upgrade.

Which OS should I install on it? It comes with XP Home, but I have the option of putting Windows 7 on instead (Ultimate 64bit version).

Should I go for 7, XP, or something else entirely (not keen on Linux, but maybe a dual boot?)

The processor cost of upgrading

WhackyparseThis — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 06:21:49 -0800

Upgrading from OS X 10.4 to 10.6: Does it use more CPU? I have a Mac Mini 1.66GHz that suffers from overheating problems when placed under stress. I'm looking at upgrading for the extra utilities such as Time Machine and Quicktime Pro, but i am concerned that a newer OS may place more pressure on my weakened computer. Does 10.6 run the computer harder than 10.4?

Will Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit utilize 8GB of RAM?

omaralarifi — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 07:08:46 -0800

Just for confirmation, will Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit utilize 8GB of RAM? I already own a laptop with windows vista ultimate 64-bit with 8GB installed. I just want to confirm if Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit will utilize 8GB of RAM or I should buy a 64-bit version.
I am not welling to buy an upgrade version but a full retail version.

Buggy finder OS x 10.5.8

cg2 — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 09:43:43 -0800

Buggy finder in OX 10.5.8 Recently my finder has gotten really buggy - even though I have disabled spaces and expose they will spontaneously launch. Also when I open folders in the finder they will flash repeatedly before stopping and letting me click into them. I also have a hard time renaming files by clicking into the file name on the finder. Does anyone have any ideas??? Thanks!!

I need help upgrading my windows OS 6.1 to 6.5

omaralarifi — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:38:18 -0800

I want to upgrade my HTC Touch HD GSM Windows OS from 6.1 to 6.5. What is 1.56.OliNex simple comprehensive English? what is the difference between upgrading through HSPL and USPL? I don't really know the meaning and the difference between HSPL and USPL, and which one is recommended and less risky? I went to xda-developers.com and couldn't comprehend there well.

Need formula to calculate a lease rate factor from a %.

thinktwice — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 18:05:45 -0800

Need formula to calculate a lease rate factor from a %. I'm not quite sure why I can't get a straight answer on this. So here goes.
Equipment lease have some variables.
Term in months/yrs i.e. 24, 26, 48, 60, 72
Advance payments 0,1,2 (mostly first month or first and last)
end of lease term option $1 Purchase Option, FMV, 10 PUT etc...
Rate factor (usually expressed as a 4-6 digit decimal)

For the purposes of discussion of this specific problem we will be using a 36 month lease, $1 Purchase option, 2 advance payment lease, and 11% rate. Equipment price will be $10,000 as when we get the monthly payment the rate factor can easily be obtained by moving the decimal 4 places to the left. i.e. $300.00 gives a rate factor of .0300.

Using a FinLease calculator from ParanzaSoft we get a monthly payment of $318.91 or rate factor of .0319

Using the FinKit calculator from the same company we get a payment of $321.57 or .0322 factor.

Whatever calculation FinKit is using seems to more closely model the bank's actual rate sheet.

I am wondering why there are such large discrepancies, even within the same software company's different products, and if there is more straightforward method using Excel. (read not with a HP17b - if so is there a HP 17b emulation method in Excel or, more importantly, for OS X)

I would interested in the following formulas
$1 purchase option, FMV @ 10% and 20% residuals.

I have asked several people about this and get wildly differing responses. No wonder we have a financial crisis on our hands.

What is the server OS market share?

espertus — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:35:37 -0800

Where can I find estimates of server operating system market shares? To be concrete, I'd like to know what percentage of web servers, either by absolute numbers or popularity, use Linux, Windows, etc.

Really weird Snow Leopard font problem

ferdinandcc — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 21:51:19 -0800

I just upgraded to Snow Leopard, and since then, some of my fonts are MAJORLY screwed up in iWork '09 (Pages, Keynote and Numbers). Specifically, my entire extended family of Hoefler Text.

Here's a screenshot of what my Hoefler Text fonts look like inside Pages:
http://www.ferdinandcc.org/hoefler1.png

(The menu should read as follows: Engraved, Engraved 2, Roman, Roman Alt, Roman SC, Regular, Italic, Alt, Italic SC, Italic Swash SC, etc.)

And here's Hoefler Text in action (Hoefler Text Regular appears fine, but Italic looks screwed up):
http://www.ferdinandcc.org/hoefler2.png

The fonts worked just fine under Leopard, and also work fine in my other apps I've tested them in (TextEdit, Pagehand, Scrivener), and they also show up just fine in Font Book and Fontcase.

Here's what I've tried so far to repair the issue:

1. I reinstalled the fonts. Didn't work.
2. I used AppZapper to get rid of all traces of iWork, then reinstalled iWork off the disc. Didn't work.
3. I repaired disk permissions. Didn't work.
4. I entirely deleted ALL Hoefler Text font files out of both my user/library and my /library. This is where things got really weird. When I deleted Hoefler Text, it quit appearing in Font Book, TextEdit, etc. but in Pages, et. al it was still there!
5. I purchased FontDoctor and scanned my font folders. No problems there. However, when I copied all my Hoefler Text fonts to a folder on my desktop and then scanned that folder alone, it said the fonts were incompatible with this system (but if that's the case, then why do they work in every other application on my Mac, including Font Book?)

Note: the file type is PostScript Type 1 outline font.

These fonts are very important to me, as they're part of my organization's corporate branding guidelines and are used in all our documents and publications!

How do I select what I toggle to in OS X's pop-up windows?

helios410 — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 18:39:36 -0800

Mac OS X Filter: In Finder, when a pop-up menu shows up, say to empty the trash or cancel, I toggle through the buttons/options by pressing tab, but how do I actually select what I toggled to with a keyboard shortcut? '

jumpy mouse disease

krautland — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 12:47:01 -0800

my logitech mouse is jumping around frantically on os x. it's behaving completely normally one second and then it's off somewhere entirely different the other. lots of details inside. I purchased a logitech RX720 mouse a while back without realizing it was meant for windows only. being the hackjob that it is logitech's own control center refused to accept it accordingly and the site didn't provide any drivers. not to worry, macs still let you use such mice, they just don't have customizable a right button. alas, I wanted that right button, so I installed steer mouse, which I was assured was much better. fast forward a week of perfect behavior and my mouse is back to jumping around.

here's what I've tried thus far:

- I have changed batteries.
- I have uninstalled steer mouse and just used 10.4.11 to run the mouse.
- I have changed the surface below the mouse (it's an optical mouse. I tried a black mousepad, a yellow folder, a white piece of paper).
- I've tried to look for obvious smudges though I avoided looking into the laser hole for obvious reasons. or am I being overly cautious?

I'm ready to throw this dreck into the can and accept that this mouse (which sadly I can no longer return) needs to be replaced. other mice previously worked well with my mac book pro. I don't know what the issue is.

you are this little logitech mouse last hope. share ideas of suggest a painless death for it because I am ready to go postal on it.

Choose Details in OS X

reenum — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 17:43:43 -0800

Mac OSX Filter: How can I change the details displayed for files in a directory while in list view? This may be a really easy question, but Google has failed me thus far.

When I used XP and viewed directories as lists, I could go to View and then click on 'Choose Details' to pick which file info I wanted displayed.

I can't seem to figure out how to do this on Mac OSX.

The reason I want to do this is because I listen to a lot of podcasts, and the title in the file info is often more instructive than the filename.

Is there any way to 'Choose Details' on Mac OSX?

Help me update my PC / Windows literacy for the 21st Century

KMH — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 04:26:02 -0800

I used to feel pretty confident with computers / IT in general (80s child). Now I need a boost to get back up to speed, especially digging around in the OS / filesystem. Recommend me a good book / website / hands-on project? I want to improve my general PC knowledge, focussing on the real "under-the-hood" day-to-day stuff, like managing my Windows configuration, playing around with files, building my own website on my own domain etc.

The background is that back in the day (15 years ago!) I felt I knew more than average about computers; I had an Amiga back when they were more cutting edge and could play around with the set-up, etc. I could learn all I needed from Amiga Format and fellow geeky kids.

At university I did Physics, and we learned C++ and basically built a very, very simple memory unit and so forth, so I'm sure I have the "smarts" for this stuff. Plus I passed ECDL with no problems, I work with IT all the time, just not "under the hood".

It just seems the computer world has moved on a bit, and while I'm sure I could handle the ins and outs of Windows / DOS / etc etc, I feel I've missed the boat and there's way too much detail.

I own a fairly decent Inspiron laptop, but is it my imagination or is Windows just not self explanatory? Where is the manual? PC magazines don't seem to help much either.

Can anyone recommend a couple of books, websites, (cheap/free) online courses or whatever to get me back up to speed with this stuff???

Seeking a permanent solution for my Wacom tablet woes.

iamkimiam — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 17:09:30 -0800

Sometime around the beginning of this year, my Intuos2 Model 0608-U 6"x8" Wacom tablet driver stopped loading upon login and restart. I reinstall it every time I login/restart. All of the tips, tricks, workarounds suggested by both Wacom and Apple do not work. I am running Mac OS 10.5.7. Is there anything left to try? The tablet works after I reinstall. I have tried uninstalling, disk repair, permissions, reinstalling (various versions of the tablet driver) in all possible combinations. Is anybody else having this problem? What has worked for you?

I'm looking for a permanent solution that does not cost $$. I will reinstall indefinitely if I have to, but it is getting tiresome. Thanks!

I once was found, but now am lost - iPhone location-based fail!

onshi — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:45:45 -0800

When in my basement apartment, iPhone OS 2.0 could locate me within 10m of my actual coordinates; OS 3.0, on the other hand, thinks I'm 700m down the road. What gives? Presumably it was -- and is -- using wifi to locate me, as no GPS signal should be available in underground. Any and all ideas appreciated.

Please help with an easy Filemaker problem!

smersh — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 20:38:16 -0800

How do you create repeating fields in Filemaker so that I can organize my karaoke songs by disc instead of by artist? I'm bought a few karaoke games for the PS3 and I want to create a database for people to be able to flip through to find the song they want.

My knowledge of Filemaker is a bit limited, but I know this is possible: Basically, I want to create a database that lists each song and artist by disc so that it's easy to find what a person wants to sing next.

The Music Library template that Filemaker 10 comes with is close to what I want, and I've modified most of the fields to suit my needs.

Here's my problem:

On the right-hand side of the Music Library template, it has the option to type out the track names. If you press return, it'll automatically create another field to write another song name. I want to use that AND create a field for Artist name as well.

I just can't figure out how to auto-create the Artist field over and over in the same fashion as the Track field.

I hope this is making sense to you (it should if you check out the template and create a couple of tracks). Basically, I want to create a field for Artist, then Track name and then have those two fields repeated. Right now, the template is Artist-centric. This way, it'd be disc-centric (essential since there's twenty artists on one disc).

Thanks for the help

How to partition 2 Hd for 2 Os

madeinitaly — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 01:29:14 -0800

I am getting a new computer, and the infinite possibilities on how to partition two hard drives to put two operating systems is keeping me up at night. Hello everybody. This is not a "how to" question, but just a "how would you recommend" one.

I currently have all my data in a 320 Gb FAT32 hard disk. This drive contains all music, videos etc that are accessible from my two operating systems (XP and ubuntu 9.04) who live on the 80Gb hard disk.

I am getting a new system (without OS) and I put a 1Tb hd there. I want to install the 320GB in there as well.

My initial thought would have been to install the two OS (win7 rc and ubuntu 9.04) on two partitions of the 320 Gb and use the 1TB for the data, but I have been told I might miss out on performance, as the new SATA drive should be much faster than my old IDE.

So I was planning on booting the first time with ubuntu live cd and transfering all the data from the 320 Gb to the 1Tb (and format it NTFS or FAT32), then splitting the 320Gb into two partitions, one with W7RC and one with Ubuntu - using all the 1TB for data.

Is this the best way? How else would you partition the Hdds and split the OSs ? Do I need to install W7 in the first physical HD? and which one should it be?

Any suggestion appreciated!

PS: I would just use Ubuntu if I could, but so far no luck with iTunes (which i need for the iPhone), I will try virtualbox but my current system is not powerful enough to do it. And I got a 780g chipset (ATI radeon) for the new one which i heard is supported so-so by Linux. If Win7 is good i might abandon Ubuntu in the future.

How much is "some" in C programming?

joshrholloway — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:45:51 -0800

How much of C do I need to learn before moving on to Cocoa, and what's the best resource for learning it? I'm very interested in programming for the Mac and iPhone, but I have no real prior programming experience. On the recommendation of an AskMeFi answer, I bought the latest edition of the Hillegass book. However, it states something like "this book was written for those who already know some C programming and something about objects." So how much is "some"? What resources will best help me learn the parts of C I need to know before moving on to Cocoa? I want to hit the ground running, so if there is a good crash course out there, what is it?Are there any video resources?

What's a good simple and cheap media or file server setup?

wastelands — Fri, 29 May 2009 08:15:38 -0800

Advice for a server newb who needs help getting started with a simple media/backup/torrent server? I've got a 438 GB movie collection an on external 500 GB USB hard drive right now, so I need to upgrade. I was thinking of buying two 1 TB external drives and using rsync for a poor man's RAID 1 setup. But for good drives plus shipping, that's nearly $250, and I thought, why not just setup a real file server? And maybe get a Bit Torrent thingy going too, so I could turn off my main computer at night and keep transfers going? Heck, I'd probably come up with other useful things for the server to do too.

But I don't know where to start. For hardware, looking at, say, a Dell Inspiron 530 ($379), it's too powerful and too expensive for what I'd use it for.

And for the OS... Windows Home Server? Ubuntu? I don't know what'd be easiest.

Ideas? Thanks!

What are the pitfalls of installing my OS on a 1TB hard drive?

Sully — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:38:43 -0800

Due to a virus corrupting my USB drivers, I've been thinking about a fresh WinXP install. But I'm thinking of getting a 1TB hard drive (my current one is 250). My question is, are there any potential pitfalls in having a HD that is so big? Other than the fact that it might fail six months in and I lose a large chunk of stuff. The reason why I want a huge HD is that I like the feeling that I don't have to worry about all the crap I might put on my desktop, or how many videogames I want to install.

Kerb-what?

liquado — Wed, 13 May 2009 21:14:25 -0800

Please hope an OS X/Open Directory/Kerberos n00b -- I can't reset the directory administrator's password in OS X Server 10.4. I'm helping a local school with some connectivity issues between their 10.4.11 server, and their swanky new 24" iMacs with 10.5.6; all kinds of permissions issues that are, according to Apple, related to an unconfigured DNS/Open Directory situation.

I know basic OSX Server configuration, but I am very unfamiliar with OD. I'm following these instructions from Apple successfully so far, but I'm hitting a brick wall were either:

a) someone has set the username/password for the diradmin user prior to my attempt to do so, or

b) the password has never been set, but the server is not allowing me to set said password.

Assuming the former, I found these instructions on resetting the diradmin password, but...I'm stuck at, "Open Workgroup Manager using your administrator username and password and navigate to the Open Directory Master node." I see no node. There's no node, dammit!

If it's the latter, any ideas why it will not allow me to set the password from the server admin OD panel? It asks for it to be set up each time, but doesn't appear to set it.

Any advice SUPERLY appreciated.

Kid Friendly OS for windows pc

Mr_Chips — Mon, 11 May 2009 17:57:08 -0800

Recommendations for an Operating system for Kids ages 3-6 i have an older PC that is running XP that my 3 year old and soon to be 6 year old use. I set up a login for them that doesn't allow them to do too much damage, and i bought a mouse that allowed me to make any button they push do a left click only, but they tend to get a little crazy pushing buttons and clicking away, and often get "stuck".

I am wondering if XP has a setting or if there is a different operating system that i can load up that is easier to navigate for little kids.

Zebra label printer. Mac OS X. Solution?

reeddavid — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 11:19:40 -0800

Need OS X print drivers for the Zebra Z4000 thermal label printer. Does anyone have a working solution cheaper than this $225 driver from Peninsula Group in UK? CUPS does not support zebra (and besides, I need some product-specific functionality in order to configure the size, length and type of labels). This printer was discontinued in 2004 and was replaced with the Zebra Z4MPlus, which was subsequently replaced by the Zebra ZM400. I can't find Mac drivers for any of them besides the aforementioned expensive option. I think Endicia might be able to print postage labels on this printer, but I want to be able to print from other applications as well.

How, why, and what OS for my old notebook...

SuperErin — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 14:08:56 -0800

What OS should I put on my aging laptop? How do I do it? I have an old hp pavilion ze5700 that was given to me. It's as slow as Christmas, and has recently started shutting itself down... :P

I have another computer, but I'd like to keep this one around for emergencies, travel, whatever. I was thinking of just wiping everything out and installing a new OS, Linux I guess. I've never done this before, so I have some questions. I'm no technophobe, and am a quick learner, but am new to this aspect of computers, so...

Which Linux should I use? I see there's a Damn Small Linux, and that it's fast, but is that too minimal? How do I get rid of Windows and install Linux? Will things like my wireless connection still work, or do I need to add a program or something for that?

I would appreciate answers, tips for newbies like me, or links to websites that would help. Thanks in advance for the expertise!

still a pc.

jak68 — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 16:08:17 -0800

Is there any way today to run a mac application on windows? (without the whole mac OS, preferably, though I'd consider that too). I figure since both are using intels now, and windows runs successfully on macs, and universal binaries for many mac apps are out now, and there's rosetta and other ways to bridge ppc and intel worlds for apps, if there was some way that you could run (within I guess an emulator or virtual machine) a single mac app (via a universal binary maybe) on windows (either xp or vista).
If the ansewr to that is a resounding no, then I'd ask, well is there any way to run mac os on windows the way they've been running windows on intel-based macs?
Thanks!

A light OS for my mom?

mateuslee — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 08:23:43 -0800

What is the best light OS for my mom that is very easy to install? My mom has a very simple laptop with limited memory and RAM (not sure on the details from here). It isn't old, but she bought it at Walmart without knowing that it may not have been a good choice despite its sleek appearance.

Anyway, Vista was apparently unusable, so my cousin installed Ubuntu, though she is uncomfortable with it (it asks her about what Kernel to start up with each time she turns it on, and this is enough to make her uneasy and results in frantic phone calls to me)... also, she is uncomfortable with Ubuntu.

I am looking for something light and simple to use/install, I was thinking about Google's OS, though who knows if it is even out yet... Something that resembles Windows a bit and will allow her to do mom-type things (surf the net wirelessly, upload pics from her digital camera, and basic OO Word Processing).

I can burn her the disk and mail it to her with specific instructions, but the most important thing is that installation should be easy and that once installed, Ubuntu will be overridden.

Any ideas? Thanks a lot guys.