has anyone noticed a trend?

Hello,
has anyone noticed a trend of good hardware but abismal software?
creative,logitech,HP etc
HP make very good printers but the installation package is bloated and fails to work quite alot.
same story for creative stuff and logitech mouses. i installed setpoint yesterday and it worked and i setup custom options. today all it shows is the tools menu for updates but the main tab isnt showing. if they can make decent hardware why cant they hire better programmers? its not like they dont have enough money to.

also just think it took microsoft 5 years to create vista and its been out for 1.5years and still has quite alot of issues. where as people are creating new versions of linux distros so fast its hard to keep up and they work alot better.

 

Has been that way for quit some time. Hardware capabilities seem to stay a step or two ahead of the software coding. Example, motherboards which can hold 4 gigs, or more, of RAM. As well as dual and quad core processors which are not being fully utilized. Don`t even get me started on Creative. The last time I used one of their cards I installed only the drivers and was quit content. Then again I usually have my speakers off and using a headset when playing games.
Concerning printers, I tend to stick with HP, only installing the drivers. Then again I do only the most basic printing. Mostly txt docs. Have little to no need for the included bloatware that comes with most hardware installs.

 

Hey thunderZ,
for my all in one hp printer i found a basic driver for my older machine running windows xp. the printer worked but the scanner didnt so i had to use the bloated install package just to get the scanner to work. really quite annoyi
i remember the old days when you could just plug and play most printers with xp.
but the newer printers you have the use the cd. i mean my currrent hp printer has the ink status on the screen so i have zero need for the bloated software except that its the only way to get the scanner working. even tryed the non bloated drivers on a fresh install of windows 2000 pro on my even older pc and the scanner still didnt work with the basic print and scan driver.

For my creative soundcard in my old pc sometimes the audio just stops working and needs a reboot for it to work again.
i only have the basics installed for my creative x-fi in vista.

btw is 64bit windows xp working well for you?

 

Many manufacturers offer a drivers only download direct from their website. HP does for some of their products. You may want to have a look.
Concerning your sound issue, that was the exact problem I experienced on the Wifes` XP PC when I had and older (supported ?) Creative card installed. Instead of rebooting I would just go into Device Manager and uninstall\reinstall it. Finally got tired of doing that and bought a generic 5.x sound card. Have had no problems since. And her surround sound finally works 100% of the time.

I have had a good time playing with XP64. Had to do some digging for security apps. in the beginning. Wound up using a couple well known programs I was not familiar with so never really felt quit as comfortable. All my other normally used programs ran without a problem as XP64 provides a 32bit folder they are installed into by default. I will be investing in a new HDD (WD Raptor) soon. Will be going back to 32 bit then.

 

Hey,
i may look on manafacturers website for direct links to drivers only.

are you getting the new raptor?
aparently the 500GB-1TB drives are just as fast and also have the advantage of massive capasity. i think its worth checking before buying a raptor.
this is ment to be a fantastic drive link always reccomended in the hexus hardware forum.
your lucky you can go back to windows xp 32bit im stuck with vista lol. not as bad as it used to be thou.

 

I always build my towers with 2 hdds. The primary is a comparatively small one by todays standards, under 100 gigs. Have read about the new VelociRaptors, I will stick with the older 74 gig Raptor probably partitioned into 3. The secondary drive is 500 gigs or more and used for storage and back-up. For my usage\needs this setup has always served me well.

 

atm i have two hard drives in my pc.
first drive for system and data.
drive two for backup.
may get a third drive just for data.
i was thinking of getting a faster drive for my boot drive.

 

My thoughts exactly on purchasing the Raptor. The VelociRaptor being an even faster option with some other sata drives running a close second. Just do not want\need the storage space on my primary drive.

 

the only problem with the older raptor is that people say they can be really noisy. the new ones fix that issue and produce less noise and heat.

 

We are fortunate that we have a dedicated room (small office type setup for our two towers). The Wifes Antec tower has 5 fans not counting the 1 on the PS. My mid-size modded generic tower has 3 over sized fans adapted using funnels + dual fans on the 750 watt PS. You tend to get used to the sound of them after a little while, sort of blends into the background. Although on start-up my friends have made comparisons to helicopters taking off. Had read complaints about the noise and heat of the Raptor so in anticipation I bought an off brand of one of THESE. It keeps my current primary drive several degrees cooler then my secondary drive. We will see how well it works with a Raptor soon.

 

I told my wife that raptors would eat all the malware and she believed me after watching the Jurassic Parc movies. So she was willing to pay a little more.
I wasn't a complete liar, because my boot-to-restore removes all the malware and I gave her a demo.

 

Wished I had thought of that. Unfortunately my wife listens a little more then I thought she did when I start rambling on about any\all things computer related. Guess I will just have to keep saving pennies. ssshhhhhhhh. She does`t know about my payPal account already growing for the purchase of a new lap top since my faithful ol`T21 Thinkpad went to hardware heaven.

Which model did you get?

 

WD Raptor WD740GD HDD 74gb 10000rpm SATA 8mb Cache 4.5ms (about 2 years ago)
WD offers also alot of freeware to test your HDD or zero your HDD.
I prepare my wife gradually, if I need something. She has to be in a certain mental state to open her wallet.

 

The exact one I am planning on. Actually had been looking at the original 32gig. Can`t find them anymore. The 74 is faster though as it uses 2 platters somewhat like a self contained RAID.

How is the noise?

 

I guess heat is not a problem,depend on your cooling stuff,from experience they create more noise (second generation),at heavy seek/read/write operations its just like a machine gun.But with normal use i hear no difference as compared to other kind of disks.

 

I don't hear anything, but I have to admit that my hearing isn't 100%, but still good enough to hear any normal noise.

 

I just recently purchased a Canon A590IS.
The camera itself is fantastic but the software that
came with it leaves MUCH to be desired.

Useless bloatware.