How old is your OS install?

[Silverline]

I just realised that this current install of Windows I'm on is now over a year old.

I'm still running perfect. I mean, I have crashes but only minor program crashes which are the program's fault (sup GTK). I reboot only when I feel like it or am doing something that requires a reboot such as changing hardware / updates etc. This install still runs as nice as when I installed it.

I'd attribute it to that I've looked after my PC. The best antivirus is common sense amirite? =p (really, I don't use any antivirus and neither do I use a firewall apart from the one built into my router).

What about yours?

I guess you should include how often it's used. No cheating by having a 6 year old XP install that you've only booted twice. I use mine pretty much quite alot daily.

Something incredible is that my parent's PC's XP Pro install is now 4 years old and still works. Well, technically; it runs at a snail's pace (Duron 1200 yet behaves like a P200) and is riddled with spyware -_-

[Uber_Tiny]

3/05/07 is the last time I restored my computer.

BTW if your trying to figure out how to get the info, you can click the link below for a great program that does not install anything on your computer. Good for putting on a pen drive!!

Link to site
Link to DL

I use Avira (aka: AntiVir) and it seems to keep my computer very nicely clean.

The only issue I have ran into is that my 250Gig HD is running out of space. All the photo shop stuff taking up so much...yeah that's it!! :bleh2:

[Darth Shaidar]

Nice app, Uber.

5/25/05 here. This install's so light, it doesn't need a reload either.

[VW_Factor]

I think the longest Ive gone since becoming a non-n00bish computer guy, is about 1 year. After that I usually nuke and pave just because Im bored, and to clean and tidy the useless shit that gets around on the HDD.

Anyway. This install is about a year, however I dont really feel the need to nuke it quite yet. Its an old install, however since Ive moved and such, I havent "junked" it up quite as much, and keep the updates going and all that jazz.

I seriously need to upgrade something in this machine. I dont feel like going C2D yet, however perhaps an upgrade in my video department is in order.

[Uber_Tiny]

I think the longest Ive gone since becoming a non-n00bish computer guy, is about 1 year. After that I usually nuke and pave just because Im bored, and to clean and tidy the useless shit that gets around on the HDD.

Anyway. This install is about a year, however I dont really feel the need to nuke it quite yet. Its an old install, however since Ive moved and such, I havent "junked" it up quite as much, and keep the updates going and all that jazz.

I seriously need to upgrade something in this machine. I dont feel like going C2D yet, however perhaps an upgrade in my video department is in order.

I'm looking to upgrade to a Q6600. They are seriously a work of art. The multi tasking capability's, fast, and they kick ass are the top of my list for them. As for the video department, what are you thinking of getting. 7900's are good if you can't get a 8800.

I have actually been slowely cleaning my system day by day. At one point I had 20Gig available and it's a 230Gig HD. But I also had a lot of "BACKEDUP" movies that have been recently moved to my new external 350Gig backup. I definitely recomend one for anyone. They help keep your puter clean. Tonight I get to remove the remaining 80Gig IDE backup I had. It's going out on me. then I get to defrag it over night and it should be good to go. I'm really just getting ready to reinstall when I finally get my new setup. Man I can not wait to get my hands on a Q6600 GO..

[VW_Factor]

I wish I could afford to upgrade to an entire new platform. But honestly, I think my cash would be better spent on just upgrading the video card. Likely a 8800 GTS either 640 or 320, and wait on the new platform. The video can be carried over to the new platform ATM, however, my investment in my RAM cannot.

Besides, I'd rather get a new video card, and tell my wife that I have a better rig than hers again.

[Uber_Tiny]

Besides, I'd rather get a new video card, and tell my wife that I have a better rig than hers again.

[Darth Shaidar]

I'm looking to upgrade to a Q6600. They are seriously a work of art. The multi tasking capability's, fast, and they kick ass are the top of my list for them. As for the video department, what are you thinking of getting. 7900's are good if you can't get a 8800.

Or pick up an X1950 for less ;)

I have actually been slowely cleaning my system day by day. At one point I had 20Gig available and it's a 230Gig HD. But I also had a lot of "BACKEDUP" movies that have been recently moved to my new external 350Gig backup. I definitely recomend one for anyone. They help keep your puter clean. Tonight I get to remove the remaining 80Gig IDE backup I had. It's going out on me. then I get to defrag it over night and it should be good to go. I'm really just getting ready to reinstall when I finally get my new setup. Man I can not wait to get my hands on a Q6600 GO..

That's funny, I've got the exact opposite situation on my rig - only ~20GB space used on a 250GB drive. I still want to get another HD though to play around with other OSes (Server 2008 Beta 3 & Ubuntu 7.xx/Fedora Core 7). I know I could just partition this one (especially with so much space left) but I don't pirate software and I'm not about to buy a copy of Partition Magic just to partition a drive one time. Also am not about to go through the trouble of backing up and reloading my XP install either. Meh, one of these days I'll get around to it...

[Uber_Tiny]

Or pick up an X1950 for less ;)

ban?

[Darth Shaidar]

[JonZ]

I have mine up for a year now and it time for nuke. Games and my pRon runs like crap :( Oh and my drawing applications too

I try to hold up till September where I will perhaps change my hardware.

[FiggyG]

July 30th for XP... just cuz I was troubleshooting it like crazy. Turns out, my video card is bad :(
July 20th for Ubuntu 7.04 (AMD64) and Vista 64. Hmm...

[RAY16]

I reinstall Windows about once every 6 months, although sometimes I break that cycle and do it sooner if I'm feeling particularly compulsive obsessive...

[Cjl64]

I actually do it fairly often.... i dont know.. i just like to do it.. i must be crazy. i cant remember how long i have had this install.. but its been at least 2 months... getting close to that nuke time again :confused:

Also... i dont do this because of stability issues... i just like the start over fresh after i have played through a few games and what not. Im nuts i know back off ...........

[RAY16]

I actually do it fairly often.... i dont know.. i just like to do it.. i must be crazy. i cant remember how long i have had this install.. but its been at least 2 months... getting close to that nuke time again :confused:

Also... i dont do this because of stability issues... i just like the start over fresh after i have played through a few games and what not. Im nuts i know back off ...........

Indeed. Starting fresh every now and then is nice, especially since most programs leave crap behind after uninstall. The crap programs leave behind starts to build up after a while, and it just makes me feel dirty... O_o

[Cjl64]

Indeed. Starting fresh every now and then is nice, especially since most programs leave crap behind after uninstall. The crap programs leave behind starts to build up after a while, and it just makes me feel dirty... O_o

Yup... those are my feelings too. Plus if you format often.. then you tend to have what you want backed up already so its not like its a real hassle to do it. I mean for me anyways... i dont do any work on my pc.. its just for gaming and forum whoring so its not like i really need to think all that hard when it comes to backup time.... I do however want to get some extra HD's just to store my crap. I have one 320GB with a 150GB partition. That partition is rather full and i actually have some files on there that i have backed up over the years that are from 1998 .... No. none of these files are really important... so yeah again another nuts move on my part.. but I could use the extra space for all the stuff i pull down with my 10mbit connection.

[JonZ]

I recently formated. Now I have dual boot. A windows for my daily applications like the Adobe stuffs and burning apps and all, and the other exclusively for gaming.

[FiggyG]

New motherboard, XP is 9/25/07, Vista 64 will be installed here in a few minutes, Kubuntu 7.10 installed... about 10/28/07.

[RAY16]

New motherboard, XP is 9/25/07, Vista 64 will be installed here in a few minutes, Kubuntu 7.10 installed... about 10/28/07.

I'm thinking about installing Linux on a new partition. Even though I hate Linux (although, I've never been able to let it stay on my PC for long 'cause of various annoyances, so maybe I just need to adjust to it), I always feel an urge to install it and check it out when a new version comes out. I hear 7.10 can natively write to NTFS partitions, which is neat because that breaks down one of the obstacles that was preventing me from liking the OS (I want to be able to write files to my Windows partition from inside Linux).

Compiz Fusion looks neat, too... I'll admit that the fancy effects alone tempt me to install it at least for a little while.

I'm curious, why do you prefer KDE over Gnome?

[FiggyG]

I like messing with my interface, Gnome doesn't let me do that. I find that with every version, they remove the ability to configure things. I can make KDE so sexy when I put my mind to it. On a previous install, I had a GF3D theme going. It looked damned close to the website I do have Gnome, Enlightenment, and Fluxbox installed too because um... I don't know why Yes, NTFS-3g is installed and enabled by default. My only problem is now Vista and XP don't read/write Ext3, so I have to remember to copy files over. Reboot into any OS takes about 20 seconds. Lemme know of any other obstacles and I'll try to help ya out. My big obstacle is gaming, or I'd have completely switched by now.

[Xerogen]

Made my comp and put vista on it a week ago .

[FiggyG]

Made my comp and put vista on it a week ago .

Nice setup

[RAY16]

I like messing with my interface, Gnome doesn't let me do that. I find that with every version, they remove the ability to configure things. I can make KDE so sexy when I put my mind to it. On a previous install, I had a GF3D theme going. It looked damned close to the website I do have Gnome, Enlightenment, and Fluxbox installed too because um... I don't know why Yes, NTFS-3g is installed and enabled by default. My only problem is now Vista and XP don't read/write Ext3, so I have to remember to copy files over. Reboot into any OS takes about 20 seconds. Lemme know of any other obstacles and I'll try to help ya out. My big obstacle is gaming, or I'd have completely switched by now.

Ugh... Installed Gutsy Gibbon yesterday and now it's already uninstalled. I guess Linux just isn't for me.

[me=RAY16]happily continues being a Microsoft drone.[/me]

[FiggyG]

Ugh... Installed Gutsy Gibbon yesterday and now it's already uninstalled. I guess Linux just isn't for me.

[me=RAY16]happily continues being a Microsoft drone.[/me]

I don't blame ya really. It's a tough pill to swallow when you can't do the things you really like to do: games. I've been masochistic enough to install Gentoo from Stage 1. You have to write all the config files yourself, compile everything... the only thing more hardcore than that is doing Linux From Scratch.

[RAY16]

I don't blame ya really. It's a tough pill to swallow when you can't do the things you really like to do: games. I've been masochistic enough to install Gentoo from Stage 1. You have to write all the config files yourself, compile everything... the only thing more hardcore than that is doing Linux From Scratch.

It's not just the lack of games, it's just the way the OS operates in general. To put it simply, it's just a pain in the ass to use. I can't get sound with my X-Fi because creative has no Linux drivers for it... and that's not a Linux problem, that's Creative being gay. But I re-enabled my motherboards Onboard audio (which does have Linux drivers), and I couldn't get that to work. I tried downloading the Enemy Territory: Quake Wars demo for Linux, but Ubuntu complained about not knowing how to execute the file (it was a .run file, which I assumed was an automated installer of some type), so I couldn't even get the demo installed much less running. And even if I had gotten it running I'd have no sound because Ubuntu refused to work with my onboard audio even though it apparently installed the drivers (my Realtek ALC883 onboard audio was listed as being the active audio output). Installing programs in general is a pain, and from all of the talk I hear talking about how Linux is faster... it sure as hell doesn't feel any smurfing faster.

I support the idea of a free, open source alternative to Microsoft's OS monopoly, but until the Linux community pulls their heads out of their collective asses and realize that the platform needs a little unification and standardization I'll be staying far away from it. There are too many Linux Distros out there that are all compiled a little differently from the others and all of those small differences create situations where you have to compile crap for each Distro separately and go through all kinds of convoluted bullcrap to get anything working. Hardware companies and their crappy Linux driver support don't help, either.

/rant

It's not a huge loss for me anyways, the only Linux-only program I really want to try is Ardour. There doesn't seem to be any free audio programs like it for Windows, which is a shame.

If I was just an average every-day website checker and email writer I probably would use Linux, but I do too much crap to be held back by all of the unnecessary complexities that Linux puts me through when I try to do even the simplest of things.

[FiggyG]

Ahh, I personally haven't looked into Xi-Fi and Linux. My big thing is gaming, but basically everything else I've got working no problem. I am however running older hardware too. Executing the .run file is typically easier from a console... There's still lots of outstanding issues. I can help you get around em next time ya have a need for running Ubuntu or any other distro.