Tips and Ideas for Your PC

Which Is Better - Windows 7 Or Mac Snow Leopard?

2011-02-14T01:01:00.002+01:00

Which Is Better - Windows 7 Or Mac Snow Leopard?
By Henrik V Blunck

Windows or MacOS X is the question that many have asked through the years. Some are very adamant about their choices, but in this article I will be brutally honest, and tell you the single key to success with whichever of these operating systems you choose.

The advantages of each operating system:

Microsoft Windows 7

MacOS X Snow Leopard

Linux

Microsoft Windows 7
For those with long traditions in using computers the world of Windows is a big journey ever since the MS-DOS command line operating system. Back then you had 640 kilobytes of "normal" memory - and then an area between 640K and 1 megabyte called Expanded memory etc. All those things are fantastic when you are a real techie that enjoys computers, technology etc.

The world of Windows has undergone a greater devekopment, many feel since the days of Windows XP to the Windows 7 we know today - and Microsoft deserves a lot of praise for actively listening to users. Their operating system is today very efficient in handling memory, and far better on a laptop than Windows Vista ever was. Increasing your battery life by at least 30% are impressive numbers.

Apple MacOS X Snow Leopard
It is a fact that people who have never used a computer before, then the simplicity of Mac will be highly attractive. There is no discussion about C or D-drives. There is no boot up screen with lots of confusing information coming up - which could cause confusion. When you turn up a Mac computer you see an apple as the logo from the Apple Inc. company - and then you get your desktop.

For a newbie everything is very intuitive. That has been one reason why some computer users insist upon buying a Mac when they need a new computer.

Linux
Linux is the outsider with a growing audience - and deserve to be mentioned in this article because they were part of the avalanche that caused Microsoft to start listening. When a growing number of people began looking for more than was presented by Microsoft on average desktops, it became clear for everyone that surviving consisting in dumping the backwards compatibility that caused Windows to show blue screens when things went bad.

Users who had machines that gave problems were happy to find that they could suddenly use the same hardware and run programs that were previously out of reach. Rather than updating your hardware you could now run office suites on your machine without any problems, for free.

In Conclusion
When you hear techies sit in a room, you will often hear technical explanations in this regard. Some are as fanatic about their choice of operating system as religious people are about the doctrines of their specific church affiliation. It has been a question of religion for many.

Using a computer is about productivity, getting things done - and getting the operating system that fits you. Try different machines among those your friends have. If you love the design of an Apple Mac the choice is either MacOS X or Yellow Dog Linux. Most will want to use the MacOS X operating systems that comes with your system for free.

If you prefer a PC the choice is between Microsoft 7 or a whole host of Linux distributions. The price of the Windows operating system has decreased considerably, and today it is no longer necessary to look for a Linux distribution to be productive.

When you look at operating systems today, they are all identical. Graphical user interfaces, the use of a mouse and everything working well. So in that respect the users are the big winners because developers have listened to customer feedback.

I thank you for reading this article, and recommend you check my blog on Apple Macs over at http://www.blunck.dk/loves-apple-mac. If you wish, you may follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/henrikblunck

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henrik_V_Blunck
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Do You Need a Mac to Have an iPod?

2011-02-01T01:01:00.003+01:00

Do You Need a Mac to Have an iPod?
By Henrik V Blunck

Apple produced both the Mac in the forms of either iMacs or MacBooks (along with the Mac Mini for multimedia purposes) and the iPod. Therefore, some think you must have a Mac to get the full use of your iPod. This article should help shed some light on the subject.

First of all you need to identify which iPod you have:

iPod Shuffle

iPod Nano

iPod Touch

iPod Classic

With the first two types of iPods you don't have any screen. These iPods are purely for sound files - music, podcasts etc.

With the last two types of iPods, you have a screen which means you can play multimedia files such as videos, quick time videos etc. The iPod Touch has a touch screen where you can also run a multitude of programs.

How Do You Get Content for Your iPod?
The important tool you need is iTunes. This program is automatically installed on a Mac computer, but Apple has also created a Windows version which enables you to download things for your iPod when using other operating systems. iTunes can be downloaded for free from Apple's website when you click iTunes in the top menu, and then choosing the green button "Download now".

What you do is you simply connect your iPod to a USB-port on your computer, and then iTunes will do what is called a synchronization of content on your iPod with multimedia on your computer. The first time you connect your iPod you will be given the option of whether to synchronize all multimedia files or only files you specify. What fits best is dependent on two factors: what you need to bring with you - and the amount of memory you have available.

Once your files are synchronized, you click the arrow next to the iPod - and you can then remove the USB-cable from your computer.

Be Mindful of Updates
Some few have advocated using other tools to transfer files - and they are welcome to do so. But I would highly recommend using iTunes because it's free, and fully ensures your software (the so-called firmware) is fully up-to-date since this is checked automatically every time you connect your iPod. Having the latest firmware ensures full functionality of your iPod in much the same way as you would also update drivers for your sound card when new versions become available. This ensures that any bug found - and repaired - by the Apple team is also removed from your iPod. Content you have downloaded to your iPod will remain on the iPod, and firmware only occupies a very small amount of memory, a few megabytes.

I thank you for reading this article, and would recommend checking out my blog on Apple Macs over at http://www.blunck.dk/loves-apple-mac/
If you wish, you may follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/henrikblunck

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Henrik_V_Blunck
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Freeware Alternatives to Microsoft Word

2011-01-28T22:52:00.003+01:00

Freeware Alternatives to Microsoft Word
By Henrik V Blunck

There are indeed other sources for alternatives to Microsoft Word - even as freeware. The best thing about freeware is that you don't have to pay a fortune to get the program. But you should also be mindful that you don't have any support lines available as you would when buying the Microsoft Word program. On the other hand you have lots of online sources for some of these alternatives because many geeks (actually a compliment for IT-nerds) offer help online when you search using Google, Bing or Yahoo when you encounter a problem.

Let¨s take a look at these alternatives:

Google Docs

Zoho

OpenOffice

Lotus Symphony

Google Docs
Google Docs is a system that is available online. You don't have to install anything but can run the software directly from your browser. A very nice system when you're travelling with a lighter laptop or don't want to mess with installations and updates.

Zoho
Zoho is, just as Google Docs, an online system and includes numerous tools. When you check out their website, you're bound to be pretty impressed. You should check out their website to get a taste of all the many features - http://www.zoho.com.

OpenOffice
OpenOffice is my personal favorite among installed office suites. It takes up less than 400 megabytes and is very versatile when it comes to functionality. I have used the original Microsoft Office suite for numerous years, but as soon as I discovered OpenOffice I changed horses. Here is an office suite that is regularly updated, fully compatible with Microsoft office documents - but it could even save in the PDF-format long before Microsoft Word could do that.

One very smart thing is that you can get OpenOffice for all three operating systems on users' desktop operating systems: MacOS, Windows and Linux.

Lotus Symphony
Lotus Symphony was previously a commercial product but you can get it for free now. To my taste it feels as though it's only a demo in the sense that Lotus Symphony is purely a word processing system whereas the other systems mentioned are complete office suites.

It would feel as though you would be cheating yourself by selecting a different program just for running word processing very similar to the previously commercial version.

In Conclusion
If I was to recommend you a system I would still go with installing OpenOffice, but I would also say Zoho was the interesting alternative if you didn't want to install anything, but wanted to be constantly up-to-date without bothering with having to update your software. The online office systems will most definitely be a thing of the future.

Thanks for reading this article. I hope you enjoyed the information, and I would welcome your feedback if you were helped by this article or need any clarification. It would also be nice to know if you have questions that could give ideas for new articles on a similar subject.

I administer numerous blogs, and you can find an overview of these over at http://sites.google.com/site/blunckmeister/
You might also want to see my many interesting hubpages over at http://hubpages.com/profile/h_blunck

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Bluetooth Dongles - What You Must Know Before You Begin

2010-08-15T21:37:00.002+02:00

When it comes to installing Bluetooth dongles in a USB slot, there are certain things you should know. This is equally important whether you use Windows XP, Windows Vista or Windows 7. Some of these dongles come with an installation CD.

Leave that CD in the box, but do insert the bluetooth dongle straight away into an available USB slot. One of my friends had a problem with his bluetooth dongle, and my father had similar problems. My friend uses Windows Vista, and my father uses Windows 7. On this HP Mini 110 compact netbook I am running Windows XP.

Your Windows operating system will install the driver automatically - and it will download an updated driver...

What you need to know is that many dongles may lie for several months at the retail shop, and during that time the driver may be updated several times. When you try to install the CD first, you will be trying to put an old driver onto your system, and that is NOT something I would advise you to do.

So you ONLY need the CD if your operating system doesn't automatically recognize your new equipment. There will be ample time to feed your CD into the machine so be patient when installing new hardware.

Please ensure you tell others about this blog so they can also be helped in all areas with their PCs.

Has Your FireFox Browser Been Crashing Lately?

2010-06-23T08:21:00.003+02:00

Has your FireFox browser been crashing lately? If you were anything like me, you probably suspected it was a java-error or maybe some webdesigner that created a crappy Flash presentation.

It was none of that.

You could also have suspected you were having memory problems. Or maybe needed to do a defragmentation of your hard drive.

That would not have solved it either.

Are you meaning to tell me it was the FireFox browser itself that needed an update?

Yes. Bingo. :-)

PC World has written an article they shared on Twitter entitled "Mozilla Patches 9 Firefox Bugs, Adds Plug-in Crash Protection".

I am so happy they decided to share this on Twitter because it really helped me. So if you're on Twitter [who isn't? ;-)] you might want to follow PCWorld by clicking right here: http://twitter.com/pcworld.

If you want to follow my tweets, you may also follow me from my profle: http://twitter.com/henrikblunck. That can supplement the RSS-feed of this blog. :-)

Use a USB Key to Move Data

2010-06-20T15:59:00.001+02:00

Instead of having to burn a DVD when you want to move files from one computer to another, you might want to buy a USB key so you can move data more easily than having to burn your data in 4,7Gb chunks.

Nowadays, even 8Gb USB keys are rather cheap, and you can move data much faster than having to go through the burning process with DVDs.

Have fun next time you're moving data. :-)

Where's the Movie Maker?

2010-06-20T01:53:00.003+02:00

I had great fun today when my sister asked where she could download Windows Movie Maker.

If she had gone to Google she would have had a download link from Microsoft in a matter of seconds.

"Why is that funny?" you may be thinking...

Well, because she could also have found it from her installation of Windows. But why do people want to go the most difficult way to get help?

Why not use a search engine when it is so readily available?

This might not be fun when you're in the sh*t. But it is necessary to say that you CAN solve many of your problems by looking around you, and search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo actually live from your being creative to find solutions... :-)

Dual Boot Your PC

2010-06-15T23:58:00.002+02:00

There are two options when you want to run both Linux and Windows on your PC.

Installing both systems

Using a Live distribution of Linux on a Windows PC

Installation of Both Windows and Linux on One PC
If you want to run both Windows and Linux on the same computer, you MUST install Windows first, and then have a partition with free space available for Linux. Linux can co-exist with Windows, whereas trying to install it the other way around will fail.

[If in doubt about partitions, I recommend you read my article "How to Reformat a Hard Drive"]

Running a Live Distribution of Linux on a Windows PC
If you want to test Linux without reinstalling your system, you could choose a live distribution of Linux such as either SUSE or Knoppix. When you insert your boot-cd or boot-dvd your system will load Linux, and when you are finished with testing your distribution, you simply reboot and take out the live distribution while the BIOS performs its self-test. You will then be back to running Windows without any changes to your original files.

If you need to share documents between systems, you might want to get a USB key so you can save data in Linux, and add them to your Windows system afterwards.

Please write a comment if any questions come to mind as you read these articles.

Testing Your Webpages In Several Browsers

2010-06-15T16:15:00.003+02:00

Testing your webpages in several browsers is important if you want to know how your webpages are seen by visitors to your website.

One way you can do this is by installing several browsers on your system. They can all exist on the same system. I would recommend at least having the following browsers on your computer:

Mozilla Firefox

Safari

Opera

Another way is to use the website BrowserShots to get a view of webpages under different operating systems also. In that way, you save the effort of having three different computers to test all systems.

BrowserShots can be found right here: http://browsershots.org/

When Photoshop Is More Than You Can Afford

2010-06-15T15:50:00.002+02:00

When Photoshop is more than you can afford, you will be happy to know that there is actually a freeware alternative that runs under Windows, Linux and MacOS X.

That program is called Gimp and you can read more about that graphic program over at http://www.gimp.org/

I have used Gimp for many years, and you can really do a lot of the things you need for everyday graphic manipulation in that program.

Obviously, for the professional users there is no getting around getting the full-blown Photoshop, but Gimp will serve you very well.

Format Program on Your USB Key

2010-06-15T15:00:00.004+02:00

Some need to format a partition, but might not always be able to find the format utility. If you are helping someone with a problem that needs formatting, you can now download a HDD Low Level Format Tool as freeware from http://www.brothersoft.com/hdd-low-level-format-tool-75265.html.

If you need help in finding out how to format a hard drive, I would recommend you read this article I recently wrote on EzineArticles: "How to Reformat a Hard Drive" (just click the title to read the article, which will open in a new window or a new tab).

On the subject of hard drives you might also want to read the following 4 articles:

How to Choose a Good External Hard Drive

Choosing a Hard Drive - ATA Vs SATA

Buying an External Hard Drive - Know What to Look For

External Hard Drives Or CDs - Which is Better For Storing Data?