Xp vs Win7 and Ubuntu 9.1

[ZetaVu]

Ok, since I was getting sick of all the SS bashing/begging posts resulting from Zack's message, figured I'd start listing my notes on my recent install upgrades. I'm loading both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.1 on my main non-htpc machine. HTPC will stay on xp for as long as I can keep it functioning, but looking to the future was curious what might be my standard, so I started here listing changes/shortcomings of basically the two options.

First - What Windows 7 broke (I'd say features and problems, but I have yet to find an improvement from Windows 7. Ok, the media center is flashy but nothing better than what media portal gives me.) Most programs from xp worked fine in 7, here are some that don't and some m$ downgraded features

Windows explorer! Now, I gave up on vista because it was a load of crap, and W7 is basically vista with an attempted crap reduction. Windows explorer is hopelessly broken. The toolbars are taken away (cut, paste, properties, refresh, all the useful icons you could add). I've tried QTTabBar, which adds the toolbar and tabbed browsing (which is nice) but W7 even broke that (and the dev is MIA) Even worse, I had an addin called Folder Size that worked in xp, that's been broken since vista. Plus all the library and homegroup crap I don't need.

Next broken program, peerguardian. Some people claim it can work in x86 but I have yet to get it to work more than once per boot.

Then of course, H.264 hardware acceleration in BTV, that one sucks, otherwise I could use BTV with the WMC.

Firewalls, most were broken (Comodo, etc) but Sphynx has a free addon for windows firewall that gives program control (I also use a hardware router).

Autogk - has issues, trying to use Handbrake instead

Lastly, some of my PDA software won't install, so I lose Quicken syncing, (SPB Finance) not sure what else.



Ubuntu 9.1 - What doesn't work right yet

I've been able to get freeware alternatives to most programs, some of the special ones I can run through wine like Quicken, Videoredo, here are what I haven't been able to work around yet

Beyondtv - would really line a link version
Winamp/Ipod - Amarok isn't bad but doesn't have the ipod support I can get with the winamp plugin.
Weatherpulse - great taskbar weather app, lets me setup multiple locations, hourly, daily weather, multiple animated doppler, no ads, none of the linux weather apps come close
PSE Elements - Craig got me hooked on this, use it to tag pictures. Wish there was a way to do this in metadata like id3 or metadat in movies like BTV Negotiator can edit.

Better video support. Vdpau is being integrated into most players now which cust down on cpu a lot. Even so, there's a lot of catch up for video performance between linux and windows, mostly driver related.


So, that's my current list of gripes, I'm sure I'll add to it, hopefully some of you have some suggestions.

[Joey Z]

so how do I get BTV to run on ubuntu? thats been my only reason that I have not ditched MS.

[ZetaVu]

At this point you don't. DIYGuy had some luck getting the link to start installing on wine if you got net and directx to work, but that was several builds ago. I was planning on getting link functionality from another app, keeping an xp server with btv. Long term if you're going ubuntu, need to start learning linux htpc packages.

[ZetaVu]

Ok, win7 update. I've been able to fix or replace some of the bad stuff, sadly BTV and its lack of H.264 hardware acceleration with W7 is the only major negative. How about that SS, I've been able to get everything BUT BTV to play fine with W7, that's saying something, but we'll devote a separate thread to that.

First off, windows explorer is hopelessly broken in my opinion. No tabs, no toolbar, no folder size. So, I've hidden it away and am working with FreeCommander now. There are still a few quirks that need ironing out, like adding more columns in detail view, but it has dual panes, tabs, a detailed toolbar (more than xp Windows Explorer) and built in folder size (although you have to recalc manually). It takes some getting used to but its now my Firefox equivalent to exploring files.

Peerguardian has been replaced with Peerblock (same company, different name) and it seems to work fine in W7.

AutoGK works fine (did not work in RC), although it does revert to basic colors for the first step. I like handbrake but Autogk is just too damn convenient.

PDA apps, I'll get around to those, all but one work now and that one just needs me to track down a dll file I think.

As far as Ubuntu, I'm still waiting for the new XBMC to come out for Karmic, I started my myth test build since 0.22 is out but that will take some time. Have not gotten around to the latest wine yet to see what works, what doesn't.