Re:Windows 10 or Ubuntu

mlines wrote: You are right, Android is a Linux derivative. In fact, you would be hard pressed to find something nowadays that is not a Linux derivative....

It sounds like your Windows 10 PC is the same as mine now. The Disk sub-system cannot keep up with the demand, during an update three separate things are happening.


So you can see the disk activity queue rapidly increases to 100%. To stop this you could:

1. Change to SSD - runs many times faster
2. reduce the Anti-virus security level to reduce or remove real time scanning down to an off-peak file scan.
3. Turn off Windows 10 indexing. Benefit, faster file access. Downside, Windows searches take forever!

Now turning off indexing sounds like a plan......if I knew what it was. lol
I doubt I will go SSD - I have two 500gb drives already installed with 800 free.
I think I have the AV (windows' own free) set for idle checking.

facade wrote: Can't you upgrade to Win7?

I find it to be far,far,far,far,far better than the adware infested machine locking win 10.

I have a laptop that came with win 10, and every single time I turn it on it is completely unusable due to these background updates- and it does have an SSD. It is fine if I turn it on the day before I need it and leave it on overnight.

The latest incarnation of win 10 has the facility to reschedule the updates but they still have to happen.

The reason Windows 7 doesn't bother you with updates is that it has gone out of mainstream support, so Microsoft no longer produce updates for it. It was a great OS for its time, but W10 is technically a far better product. The only times W10 can be a pig are a) if you're running on slow hardware, or b) don't use the computer regularly, as it will then need to pull down a bunch of updates at once next time you use it.

What's the 'adware' issue you have?

Gadget wrote: From what you've been saying it sounds as though your PC may be fairly old (having spinning disks and optical drives does tend to date computers in this age of cloud storage), which is going to be the main cause of your poor performance when needing to apply updates.

If you just use your computer just for web browsing, email, and office apps, you have a reliable broadband connection and don't need to use the computer offline, then a Chromebook would be an excellent choice. Again, like Android it's Linux at it's core, but this shouldn't be seen as a negative.

If you need more flexibility but don't want to update your hardware, then Ubuntu might perform better on your existing hardware. Installation and use is usually straightforward, however I'd always be reluctant to recommend the use of any Linux distro (other than the heavily modified OS's like Android or ChromeOS) to someone non-techy who just wants a system to work, they're a better fit for enthusiasts and techies.

Finally, you could choose to upgrade your hardware and stick with Windows 10. We're in a nice place at the moment where frequent upgrades are no longer as necessary. I always build my own PCs and used to factor on a motherboard/CPU/RAM swap every couple of years, but the emphasis on CPU performance has dropped away, so my 7 year old i7 CPU is still beefy enough and the only upgrade I've made in the last year was swapping my old 512gb SSD for a 1TB one.

RainerK wrote: For me with a SSD, 16 GB is not required. The computer runs OK with 2GB and 4GB is better.

I do not notice a difference above 4GB. I think this is because the SSD is so fast in swapping. I do not use a video editing program and I think then this might make a difference if there are 4GB or 16GB.

I use my PC for gaming & video editing amongst other things, so 16gb is really the least I'd want and I'll probably goto 32gb when I next upgrade motherboard/CPU/RAM.

Gaming is exclusively console in this household. PC is mostly ebay and forums but I do mess with pictures and Open Office a lot. I need to know I can print or email without hiccups.
As for W7, my gaming PC (I know it seems like I contradicted myself) uses that but it is not fully supported is it. I bought it thinking I might go gaming but hated the techno babble and the must have tech so left it as a spare PC.
My PC situation is a mess isn't it!! lol

Gadget wrote: don't use the computer regularly, as it will then need to pull down a bunch of updates at once next time you use it.

Apart from when out shopping, my PC is on from 6am to past midnight daily.

My family of four have no issues with Win10 but we have all SSD, and i3 or better professors and minimum of 4Gb ram.
there is no adware or antivirus software except windows defender and whatever is inside. the least experienced users have webmail only and I run a strict policy of not allowing any use of other software than what I have approved, and of course touching dodgy links from email or web or opening any attacements is not allowed.
4 years now with very little problems. Not noticing the updates.
Sometimes the network sharing something gets out of wack from some updates making the network disk inaccessible until i get the settings right again, and one PC i made myself five years ago sometims gets a hardware issue with the LAN.

I have friends that have trouble with slow PC but they press every "funny" attachement or link they can reach and have loads of stupid software.

At work I got a very powerful PC for 3D design. tried to stress test it the other day with Netflix movie, NRK(norwegianBBC) live HD TV, HBO-streaming, and two youtube HD-videos simultaneous and was flopping around a large gearbox in the 3D program.
Not a glitch and this PC is 3-4 years old. It is win 10.

Gadget wrote:
What's the 'adware' issue you have?

Apart from a menu full of pay games that I don't want that keep coming back even after I delete them, it continually bothers me about onedrive, asks me to sign into microsoft, tries to start skype, pops up helpful little windows* advertising windows "features" and now keeps bothering me with signing into teams. And Bing is not my home page, yet it always starts if I use explorer or edge.

I pay good money for a VPN to keep my computing private, without sending everything off to microsoft.

*I know, there is a setting buried deep deep in menus to turn them off,, but it keeps turning back on every time there is a big update- every couple of months. It is like trying to stop a Samsung Tv starting off of Rakuten TV adverts..

[quote="facade" post=210603 it continually bothers me about onedrive, asks me to sign into microsoft, tries to start skype, pops up helpful little windows* advertising windows "features" and now keeps bothering me with signing into teams..[/quote]

Yup, that's another!

Is the other alternative Apple.

Apple is an alternative, but an expensive one!

Gadget wrote: Apple is an alternative, but an expensive one!

I am beginning to see why. LOL

mlines wrote: 3. Turn off Windows 10 indexing. Benefit, faster file access. Downside, Windows searches take forever!

I Googled it and don't really get it. For one thing I don't do windows searches.........or do I?

On other thing I would consider is how to get help. If the persons that help you in case of trouble are used to Apple, I would go for an Apple. I it is windows the Windows.