Operating systems

[melonman07]

Howdy, I have several older computers that run Windows Home Vista . I'm curious to know if there are other operating systems in use by folks programming their scanners. I currently own a Pro-668 and use the computer to program it but I've been thinking of installing a different operating system. My thoughts have been on Linux , knowing some distributions are very radio friendly. Any Linux users ou there?

Kevin

 

[jaspence]

Linux users

I have been in computers for almost 40 years. Most radio programs fail in Linux due to driver problems for the usb cables. I use DOS for a couple of older radios, but find Windows 7 32 bit the most forgiving when dealing with cables and drivers. Everyone will have other experiences depending on the radio they are working with. I have a collection of about 60 HTs and scanners, each one can have problems with different hardware situations. I have found that for Windows 10, some of the low end 32 bit systems are a little more forgiving, but you will often have to upgrade your cable and driver for Windows 10.

 

[rbm]

I currently have 12 computers.

Three are still running Windows XP.
The other 9 are running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit.
(I went through the growing pains with Windows 7 when it came out and I will not do that again for Windows 10)

I keep the Windows XP systems going because of some older software that I depend on.
(One is a laptop that does everything I need it to do.)

All 12 computers are used to program (and log) more than 40 Uniden scanners with no problems whatsoever.
It would take a long time to program that many scanners using just one computer

Rich

By the way, you can buy a refurbished. Dell Optiplex Mini-Tower Intel Quad Core i7 computer for around $350 from Newegg, Amazon and other places.

They typically have Windows 7 Pro 64bit installed and with anywhere from 4-12GB of ram and 500GB to 2TB hard drives.
They won't set the world on fire, but they will warm it up a bit.

At Newegg:
DELL Desktop Computer OptiPlex 990 Intel Core i7 2nd Gen 2600 (3.40 GHz)
8 GB DDR3 2 TB HDD Windows 7 Professional 64-Bit
Item#: N82E16883160959
$354.99 Free shipping. ..... Sale Ends in 4 Days (Mon)

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[marksmith]

Have 6 computers. All on win7 professional except one on win10. I specifically have all the radio software on one of the win7 machines. None of the existing win7 machines will be upgraded, and I am leaving the win10 computer for all things non-radio, as it is just not worth the driver and other configuration fights.

I know I can make win10 work, and have done it. Just that win10 will fight you every step of the way, and even after you get it working great, win10 will do an update, decide it knows better, and override your work. After a few times of this happening I decided the hell with win10 when it comes to scanner or other software that requires specific drivers.

Mark
536/436/HP1/HP2/996XT/996P2/396XT/325P2/PSR800

 

[DJ11DLN]

I have an old Dell tower still on XP Pro, and had an HP56 laptop with Windows 7 Home Premium. That one was stolen last fall and, needing a laptop, I got a new one with (of course) Windows 10.

While I cordially detest much about Windows 10 (some days I want to use the laptop for target practice), getting scanner and radio programming software, as well as the related cables, working on it just wasn't much of a problem at all. I was expecting to have to default back to the XP Pro machine for these chores. The ability to run the software and have the cables function was a pleasant surprise. Though Win500 did run faster on the 7 machine, as it does on the XP Pro, despite both having far less processor and memory than this one. But it runs and doesn't generate errors so all is good.

Too bad the rest of this miserable excuse for an OS isn't as agreeable.