On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?





--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had previously,
I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that way (it's just a
good basic picture viewer editor. Great for cropping rotating,
resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

On 05/07/2016 00:03, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had previously,
I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that way (it's just a
good basic picture viewer editor. Great for cropping rotating,
resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim. It opens fine in that! Everything except TWINUI.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 00:31:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 05/07/2016 00:03, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had previously,
I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that way (it's just a
good basic picture viewer editor. Great for cropping rotating,
resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim.

You are welcome. ;-)

It opens fine in that!

It's a nice little tool.

Everything except TWINUI.

Is that the Metro picture viewer app?

For playing videos I think VLC is the de-fact standard on most
platforms these days.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

Be it still or video what you can normally do is right click on the
item in question with your file manager (Windows+E), select 'Open
with' and choose Irfanview for the stills and VLC for the videos.

Cheers, T i m

On Tue, 05 Jul 2016 01:08:14 +0100
T i m wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 00:31:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 05/07/2016 00:03, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get
an error message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press
Enter: sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had
previously, I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that
way (it's just a good basic picture viewer editor. Great for
cropping rotating, resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim.

You are welcome. ;-)

It opens fine in that!

It's a nice little tool.

Everything except TWINUI.

Is that the Metro picture viewer app?

For playing videos I think VLC is the de-fact standard on most
platforms these days.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

Be it still or video what you can normally do is right click on the
item in question with your file manager (Windows+E), select 'Open
with' and choose Irfanview for the stills and VLC for the videos.

Cheers, T i m

You should be able to set up these as default, so just
clicking on them uses the correct application.

--
Davey.

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 01:15:15 +0100, Davey
wrote:

On Tue, 05 Jul 2016 01:08:14 +0100
T i m wrote:

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 00:31:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 05/07/2016 00:03, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get
an error message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press
Enter: sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had
previously, I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that
way (it's just a good basic picture viewer editor. Great for
cropping rotating, resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim.

You are welcome. ;-)

It opens fine in that!

It's a nice little tool.

Everything except TWINUI.

Is that the Metro picture viewer app?

For playing videos I think VLC is the de-fact standard on most
platforms these days.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

Be it still or video what you can normally do is right click on the
item in question with your file manager (Windows+E), select 'Open
with' and choose Irfanview for the stills and VLC for the videos.



You should be able to set up these as default, so just
clicking on them uses the correct application.

Yes, often via the process I described above, 'Use this solution every
time' sort of thing.

You can set it elsewhere of course.

Cheers, T i m

On 04/07/2016 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?





That is only a solution if you have a corrupt file that can be detected
by sfc! Other issues such as settings do not get fixed.

--
Rod

Does this happen both ways around, by which I mean if you attempt to load
the file into the program by launching the program first then going to open
and by clicking on the file.

My feeling is that either something has unregistered part of the opening
software, maybe a dll, or the actual open with designation is either wrong
or missing Unfortunately errors worded like this seem to be very common on
Windows escpecially after uninstalling something.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"David Lang" wrote in message
...
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked perfectly
before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?





--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

"David Lang" wrote in message
...

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim. It opens fine in that! Everything except TWINUI.

If it opens in irfanview, and irfanview can save files
then open it, do a "save as" and rename the saved file
as XXXX2.jpg and see if you have any luck that way.


michael adams

....

On 7/5/2016 1:08 AM, T i m wrote:
On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 00:31:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 05/07/2016 00:03, T i m wrote:
On Mon, 4 Jul 2016 23:45:34 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

Unless you like whatever picture viewer / editor you had previously,
I'd just install Irfanview and probably solve it that way (it's just a
good basic picture viewer editor. Great for cropping rotating,
resizing and a lot more if you want).

http://www.irfanview.com/

Cheers, T i m

Thanks Tim.

You are welcome. ;-)

It opens fine in that!

It's a nice little tool.

Everything except TWINUI.

Is that the Metro picture viewer app?

For playing videos I think VLC is the de-fact standard on most
platforms these days.

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-windows.en_GB.html

Be it still or video what you can normally do is right click on the
item in question with your file manager (Windows+E), select 'Open
with' and choose Irfanview for the stills and VLC for the videos.

Cheers, T i m


Another +1 for VLC. Google for VLC hot keys and you will find the
shortcuts for things like freeze frame, jump forwards, jump back, etc.
One thing it won't do (yet) is step back a single frame.

I tried Irfanview in the past but then gave up as it seemed a bit
complicated. I use Picasa for my basic photo handling and that has all
the simple tools (crop, brightness, compress, etc). I find export handy
for sharing images with family, facebook, etc.

On 04/07/16 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?


More details should be in the applications log in event viewer.

--
Adrian C

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 09:48:46 +0100, newshound
wrote:

snip

I tried Irfanview in the past but then gave up as it seemed a bit
complicated.

Well, it is a 'bit complicated' as it can do quite a lot of good stuff
but the trick is finding the bits you need and just using those to
start with. Crop, rotate, lower the resolution are pretty easy to use
but you do have to know what menu they are in first of course. ;-)

I use Picasa for my basic photo handling and that has all
the simple tools (crop, brightness, compress, etc).

Like you and Irfanview I found Picasa complicated and didn't like how
it tried to take over / look for all my pictures. Just in the same way
I don't want iTunes to organise / database my music.

I find export handy
for sharing images with family, facebook, etc.

Again, I don't do much of that and any picture sharing I might do is
likely to be via Dropbox or eMail. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On 04/07/2016 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

I've solved it!

I right clicked a picture, went to properties and where it said 'opens
with' I clicked 'change' and selected photo viewer.

Now all my pictures open with a double click instead of having to right
click & select 'open with'.

Bloody Microsoft!


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On 05/07/2016 23:00, David Lang wrote:
On 04/07/2016 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

I've solved it!

I right clicked a picture, went to properties and where it said 'opens
with' I clicked 'change' and selected photo viewer.

Now all my pictures open with a double click instead of having to right
click & select 'open with'.

Bloody Microsoft!


P.S.

Every picture viewer works except this piggin TWINUI whatever the f*ck
that is supposed to be.

--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 23:00:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 04/07/2016 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

I've solved it!

I right clicked a picture, went to properties and where it said 'opens
with' I clicked 'change' and selected photo viewer.

Now all my pictures open with a double click instead of having to right
click & select 'open with'.

I think you could also have done it as I mentioned elsewhere. If when
in the 'Open with' menu you can choose the app and (also) check a box
that says 'Always use this app' (or similar).


Bloody Microsoft!

Erm, it's possible that *something* changed it, like something else
you installed (accidentally or otherwise)?

Glad you got it sorted though (although I set all my machines (XP-W10)
to make Irfanview the default). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

On 06/07/2016 00:15, T i m wrote:
On Tue, 5 Jul 2016 23:00:07 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

On 04/07/2016 23:45, David Lang wrote:
On topic as I'm going to try & fix this myself!

For some reason every time I try to open a picture (jpeg) I get an error
message "Class not registered" and it won't open.

Bill Gates has suddenly decide to do this, everything has worked
perfectly before.

Found the following 'solution' online;

"Press Windows key + X, click Command Prompt (Admin).
In the Command Prompt, type the following command, and then press Enter:
sfc /scannow"

No issues found.

Any ideas?

I've solved it!

I right clicked a picture, went to properties and where it said 'opens
with' I clicked 'change' and selected photo viewer.

Now all my pictures open with a double click instead of having to right
click & select 'open with'.

I think you could also have done it as I mentioned elsewhere. If when
in the 'Open with' menu you can choose the app and (also) check a box
that says 'Always use this app' (or similar).

Don't seem to have that 'Always use this app' option, bu thanks.

Bloody Microsoft!

Erm, it's possible that *something* changed it, like something else
you installed (accidentally or otherwise)?

Quite likely accidentally :-(


Glad you got it sorted though (although I set all my machines (XP-W10)
to make Irfanview the default). ;-)

Cheers, T i m



--
Dave - The Medway Handyman

On Wed, 6 Jul 2016 09:06:16 +0100, David Lang
wrote:

snip

I think you could also have done it as I mentioned elsewhere. If when
in the 'Open with' menu you can choose the app and (also) check a box
that says 'Always use this app' (or similar).

Don't seem to have that 'Always use this app' option, bu thanks.


I didn't ask at the time because it generally doesn't matter but what
version of Windows are we talking about here OOI?

Cheers, T i m

On 05/07/16 23:01, David Lang wrote:


Every picture viewer works except this piggin TWINUI whatever the f*ck
that is supposed to be.


first hit in google.

https://www.slightfuture.com/technote/what-is-twinui

It's a known bug windows 8+ fixed exactly as you did.

--
Adrian C

On 06/07/2016 00:15, T i m wrote:
Glad you got it sorted though (although I set all my machines (XP-W10)
to make Irfanview the default). ;-)

I set all my machines to use Irfanview. I even paid for a licence.

--
Rod

On Wed, 6 Jul 2016 19:05:00 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On 06/07/2016 00:15, T i m wrote:
Glad you got it sorted though (although I set all my machines (XP-W10)
to make Irfanview the default). ;-)

I set all my machines to use Irfanview. I even paid for a licence.

For many people it is one of those programs, like Fortes 'Agent'
newsreader (well, for those left still using Usenet), or Imgburn.

I also bought Nero as that always seemed to do everything I needed.

Pan is a reasonable clone of Agent (but with a few missing features
that are nearly dealbreakers but it's useable) but I don't think there
is anything on Linux that matches Irfanview (or wasn't).

Cheers, T i m

On Wed, 06 Jul 2016 21:26:19 +0100, T i m wrote:

On Wed, 6 Jul 2016 19:05:00 +0100, polygonum
wrote:

On 06/07/2016 00:15, T i m wrote:
Glad you got it sorted though (although I set all my machines (XP-W10)
to make Irfanview the default). ;-)

I set all my machines to use Irfanview. I even paid for a licence.

For many people it is one of those programs, like Fortes 'Agent'
newsreader (well, for those left still using Usenet), or Imgburn.

I also bought Nero as that always seemed to do everything I needed.

Pan is a reasonable clone of Agent (but with a few missing features that
are nearly dealbreakers but it's useable) but I don't think there is
anything on Linux that matches Irfanview (or wasn't).

I use Pan. What, as a matter of interest, is it missing (IYO)? Just
curious...I can think of flagging threads that I am 'in' (used to love
that with the previous newsreader).




--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 6 Jul 2016 20:56:49 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

snip

Pan is a reasonable clone of Agent (but with a few missing features that
are nearly dealbreakers but it's useable) but I don't think there is
anything on Linux that matches Irfanview (or wasn't).

I use Pan. What, as a matter of interest, is it missing (IYO)? Just
curious...I can think of flagging threads that I am 'in' (used to love
that with the previous newsreader).

I use Agent in a pretty 'manual' way. I open the newsgroup I'm
interested in, check for new headers and open the threads that I am
interested in that are now highlighted in (as it happens), Red,
indicating a new thread (with or without new sub messages) or a new
message in the thread. The fields in said new Thread / message will be
in Red, making it very easy to spot.

It's also nearly instant in all things, even on the single core Apple
Mac running a very mature install of XP and with checks 1218218
messages (some headers, most header + message body) in this particular
newsgroup alone.

If I am happy I've read all I want to read, I can (then or any time
later, multiply the same day) check for new messages and all existing
messages will be rest to black and only new messages (or threads etc)
then appear in red.

Pan also just seems much 'cruder', as do many Linux apps to me (not
that that bothers me too much, as long as they work).

Maybe it's down to there generally not being such a 'common look and
feel' with more individuals writing apps at home (as it were).

There are also many instances of dialogue boxes that aren't applicable
.... likes saying 'Cancel' instead of 'Finish' (I think the default
Debian DVD writer has such).

With the advent of cheap SSDs and W10 I find myself booting into Linux
less often, and when I do it's only because I know I'm not going to
need much more that a web browser etc.

Most of that is because of things like Agent or that most of the other
things I use have no real Linux support, or no better support than on
Windows.

I try to keep my hand in with it though and I just installed Ubuntu
15.10 MATE on a PC I've just put together from my bits box to be able
to process (wipe and test) a load of drives I have kicking about
(narrow / wide SCSI, SATA and IDE). I currently have removable drive
bays for the IDE and wide SCSI fitted, have a narrow tray to fit and
will need to get a trayless SATA (I have them in many of my other
machines). I really need a full height tower case with at least 7
external 5-1/4" bays as I also have a full height unit that takes 3 x
2.5" SATA drives.

I had to download the driver for the Adaptec 2940UW for W7 but I'm
guessing Ubuntu should find it automatically. Shame Ubuntu is stuck in
640 x 480. Of course, the Linux nerds will blame it on 'my choice of
hardware' (too old, too new, not supported) ... strange that although
W7 just shows it as a 'Std VGA graphics adaptor' (it's onboard) I can
get up to 1600x1200 resolution?

I might swap out the motherboard as that is often the easiest way for
me to overcome such issues (with Linux).

Oh, and the Windows system updates install themselves as I shut my
machine down (and that's how I set most machines, especially for
others because I know if I didn't they would never get done). ;-(

Cheers, T i m

On Thu, 07 Jul 2016 00:47:19 +0100, T i m wrote:

I use Agent in a pretty 'manual' way. I open the newsgroup I'm
interested in, check for new headers and open the threads that I am
interested in that are now highlighted in (as it happens), Red,
indicating a new thread (with or without new sub messages) or a new
message in the thread. The fields in said new Thread / message will be
in Red, making it very easy to spot.

I just get Pan to hide messages I've read.

With the advent of cheap SSDs and W10 I find myself booting into Linux
less often, and when I do it's only because I know I'm not going to need
much more that a web browser etc.

I actually 'live' in FreeBSD...using Windows only very occasionally.

I had to download the driver for the Adaptec 2940UW for W7 but I'm
guessing Ubuntu should find it automatically. Shame Ubuntu is stuck in
640 x 480. Of course, the Linux nerds will blame it on 'my choice of
hardware' (too old, too new, not supported) ... strange that although W7
just shows it as a 'Std VGA graphics adaptor' (it's onboard) I can get
up to 1600x1200 resolution?

I haven't had that problem with old hardware, but then it isn't Linux
here. Not that that should make much difference, as it'll probably be an
xorg driver problem.

Oh, and the Windows system updates install themselves as I shut my
machine down (and that's how I set most machines, especially for others
because I know if I didn't they would never get done). ;-(

I tend to update rarely (e.g. annually) apart from security fixes. The
system is stable, so I leave it be.



--
My posts are my copyright and if @diy_forums or Home Owners' Hub
wish to copy them they can pay me £1 a message.
Use the BIG mirror service in the UK: http://www.mirrorservice.org
*lightning surge protection* - a w_tom conductor

On 7 Jul 2016 07:54:20 GMT, Bob Eager wrote:

On Thu, 07 Jul 2016 00:47:19 +0100, T i m wrote:

I use Agent in a pretty 'manual' way. I open the newsgroup I'm
interested in, check for new headers and open the threads that I am
interested in that are now highlighted in (as it happens), Red,
indicating a new thread (with or without new sub messages) or a new
message in the thread. The fields in said new Thread / message will be
in Red, making it very easy to spot.

I just get Pan to hide messages I've read.

Hmm, I'm not sure that's what I would want (in case I wanted to go
back and re-read something (and I often do). No, what I *want* is it
to work like I want it to work, like Agent works (as it happens).

With the advent of cheap SSDs and W10 I find myself booting into Linux
less often, and when I do it's only because I know I'm not going to need
much more that a web browser etc.

I actually 'live' in FreeBSD...using Windows only very occasionally.

I *could* live in Linux, if it wasn't for the myriad of things I need
that Linux simply can't do (like iTunes for instance). I don't use it
personally but (say) if I'm looking at an iDevice for someone it's
often handy to use it to back stuff up or check that it will work etc.

But then I'm a 'hardware guy' and even Linus himself admits that
dealing with the vast range of stuff out there makes it more difficult
for GNU/Linux to cope. Not an issue for servers or embedded devices
(like my TV or router) as their environment is static.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPUk1yNVeEI

Do you (for instance) use your PC to run car diagnostic interfaces
(and I know it is FreeBSD but I wonder how that would cope) that only
seem to come with Windows apps? Trust me, I have been trying Linux for
long enough now to know that whilst it's good ... and slowly getting
better, it's never going to reach the levels of compatibility and
support the range of games, apps and general programs of Windows
because it's userbase is just not big enough. And don't get me wrong,
I'd like it to have more / better support across all facets because
then it would be a credible alternative for me as well.


I had to download the driver for the Adaptec 2940UW for W7 but I'm
guessing Ubuntu should find it automatically. Shame Ubuntu is stuck in
640 x 480. Of course, the Linux nerds will blame it on 'my choice of
hardware' (too old, too new, not supported) ... strange that although W7
just shows it as a 'Std VGA graphics adaptor' (it's onboard) I can get
up to 1600x1200 resolution?

I haven't had that problem with old hardware, but then it isn't Linux
here.

The difference between me and many other Linux users is I'm not buying
a pre-installed Linux machine, I'm not seeking out 'Linux compatible'
hardware and I *am* playing with Linux across a vast range and
quantity of machines, more so than even most Linux geeks. So, if
anyone is going to come across a problem then it's going to be me! ;-(
[1]

I'll have to try FreeBSD again.

Not that that should make much difference, as it'll probably be an
xorg driver problem.

And that sends a cold shiver down my spine because I'm a 'hardware
guy', not a programmer.

*Even* when Linux has tried to make the handling of drivers as easy as
Windows, it (for me anyway) fails (catastrophically) more often that
it works. The number of times I've had to re-install Linux (not that
that it difficult) simply because I made the mistake of accepting the
'Default' video driver and the system wouldn't reboot (into the GUI).
At that point I know (from bitter experience) that the *quickest* way
to recover the situation is to reinstall. In Windows I would go into
Safe Mode and would still have a GUI.

Oh, and the Windows system updates install themselves as I shut my
machine down (and that's how I set most machines, especially for others
because I know if I didn't they would never get done). ;-(

I tend to update rarely (e.g. annually) apart from security fixes.

I was talking about the security fixes (as well) Bob. It seem every
time I turn on any of my Linux boxes (or see anyone running Linux
(that inevitably I have installed for them)) they are showing
outstanding updates. 'People' CBA but I'm guessing these update are
generally there for good reason.

The
system is stable, so I leave it be.

Well, there is the 'don't fix what's not broken' but there is a
massive gap between 'stable' and 'secure'.

I'm sure if I was more of a geek I could spend more of my time
'learning Linux' but I don't want to. 'Learning Linux' inevitably
means the CLI and 'programming' and that really isn't my bag. It's
also not something I've had to do with any OS in the past so I'm not
going to start now! I have no issues 'using' Linux, just as I don't
'using' OSX, Windows or Android, but I don't have to fight those to
work on my (inevitably 'Designed for Windows') hardware. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[1] Even doing that (running several machines) caused an issue for
Linux. I have an Aten 2 port KVM switch going between a Mac Mini (dual
booting OSX / XP) and a home made box dual booting W7 / Linux.

The mouse was fine (useable speed) in OSX, XP and W7 but was over fast
in Linux. Now, I could faff with some CLI stuff to reduced the speed
of the mouse (the GUI mouse utility wasn't sufficient) *but*, as soon
as I switch over to another machine and back the 'fix' was lost. After
being accused of lying (by the nutjobs on the Linux n/gs), and a load
of other attacks (because they had no defence) I found someone who was
able to access my Linux machine remotely and after a good couple of
hours programming and testing, managed to fix it for me. There is no
way I could ever have done that myself and I hadn't ever needed to
after nearly 30+ years playing with the things. ;-(

*Apparently* it was an issue because it was a 'gaming mouse' (it was
actually just a basic two button USB mouse) but because it was 'high
res', that was what Linux couldn't cope with. A wired mouse FFS. ;-(

p.s. This guy puts the extended point across (I'm not interested in
the points themselves particularly) in that there is often lots of
denial and protectionism that doesn't help the 'Linux cause'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_lhqg_p21k

It's not Linux I have an issue with, it's a tiny minority of Linux
geeks who seem to have an issue seeing the world though the eyes of
others when I'm looking for 'basic' help. Sound familiar (here) Bob.
;-)