On Thursday 21 June 2007 12:39, Arno Lehmann wrote: > Hi, > > On 6/21/2007 11:50 AM, Kern Sibbald wrote: > > Hello, > > > > Recently, I bought a Windows Vista laptop ($$$ -- hint), so that I could test > > the Bacula FD on it. > > Me too :-) > > > First a few comments on Vista: > > > > Good things (at least for users): > > 1. It has nice looking graphics > > Have you noticed the memory consumption of the 3d window manager?
Yes, on my machine, the Windows Vista "experience" is rated as 2.0, and from what I read, anything lower than 3.0 is lousy. I guess the only guys that will be happy will be the hardware companies. > > > 2. It has a lot of features > > ... which is not necessarily an advantage, IMO. > > > 3. They sure are packing a lot of "3rd party" software into their kernel > > (e.g. virus checkers, disk repartitioners, encrypted folders, > > automatic file backup, ...). I wouldn't want to be > > an independent Windows utility software vendor. > > Quite true, though I think that today this not yet a problem. The virus > checker, for example, is more or less a joke. IMO, again. That is the impression I get since they like to insist at every boot that you should have a virus scanner (I just don't want to pay for one, and haven't been burned so haven't looked for free ones yet). > > > 4. You right click on many menu items to get a lot more functionality. > > 5. They have installed the software in a much more reasonable set of > > directory names (shorter and no spaces). If I am not mistaken, most > > the old XP directory names are there too (sort of -- see below). > > > > > > Not so good things: > > 1. It is pretty big pig -- it squats in 500MB of memory, uses about 60GB of > > disk, and it took over an hour to boot up the first time, and quite a long > > time the second time; after defragging the disk, it boots in a reasonable > > time. > > 2. Although the new directory structure has more reasonable directory names > > (shorter and no spaces), they have provided "junctions" to the old names > > for compatibility. Unfortunately few third party programs such > > as Bacula know about junctions, so they get confused, and typically > > this manifests itself as references to files/directories that do not seem > > to exist ... > > Only migrating configuration files from existing applications is a pain... > > > 3. VSS (Volume shadow copy) is not compatible with the older > > code used by Bacula. > > That's bad, though I knew it :-) > > > 4. System services can no longer interact with the desktop, which means that > > the Bacula tray monitor does not work. > > This is the right behaviour from a security-conscious point of view. Yes, I agree. > > > 5. There are a number new levels of security, which means that after > > installing Bacula, you cannot edit the conf files without explicitly > > finding the right dialog and changing your permissions on the files. > > 6. Due to junctions not being really downward compatible, the Bacula menu > > links to the conf files complain that the file does not exist. By the > > way, junctions have been around for a while, but were apparently never > > used in a default install. However, on Vista, there are a lot of > > junctions in the default install. > > 7. The new hard disk is 100GB the pre-loaded software uses 36GB. > > 8. Due to the need for swap space (2GB RAM) and snapshot space, the largest > > size available to load Linux along side of Vista is 28GB -- i.e. as > > mentioned above, the system needs 60 GB of disk, and this is a virgin > > system (with the Bacula FD loaded). > > I set aside 32 GB for linux, but will install it later... Yea, not bad. I only end up with 28GB :-( Of course, this computer comes with just about every Microsoft product pre-loaded, but they only work 30 days without paying for them and obtaining an activation key. I suppose if I run out of Vista disk space, I can always start deleting these things. > > > So where are we with Bacula: > > 1. After 6 hours of upgrades to my WinXP system (62 SP1 updates, then SP 2, > > then install .NET Framework, then install Windows SDK, perhaps I will have > > the new VSS code loaded, > > 2. *perhaps* as their documentation claims, it is now a simple recompile with > > new header files (I doubt it very much). > > I'll keep my fingers crossed... Well, there are zillions of errors with the new headers, so it isn't as easy as they claim. That said, I hope I can "kludge" it. > > > 3. Junctions are another story, and I have no idea how much work that is > > going to be. > > Should work somewhat similar to soft links, I guess. Yes, and it would be nice if Yves can help me out on junctions ... > > > 4. Even if the new VSS works, it will only work on WinXP, Windows server 2003, > > and Vista, which means that in VSS mode, it is unlikely that the Bacula FD > > will support older systems (Win98, WinMe, WinNT, ...) as it currently does. > > Not a serious issue I think. Yes, and I was repeating more or less what I read in the Microsoft documentation, but after a bit more thought, I'm not sure why we cannot continue to support them. Of course, VSS doesn't work, but it never has on those older systems. > > > 5. Time estimate: since I'm not getting paid for this: none. > > Let's see if some experienced windows programmer needs practice with > Vista :-) Yea, that would be a big relief for me. > > Arno > > > Best regards, > > > > Kern > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express > > Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take > > control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > > _______________________________________________ > > Bacula-devel mailing list > > [email protected] > > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-devel > > -- > IT-Service Lehmann [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Arno Lehmann http://www.its-lehmann.de > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express > Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take > control of your XML. No limits. Just data. Click to get it now. > http://sourceforge.net/powerbar/db2/ > _______________________________________________ > Bacula-devel mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/bacula-devel > ------------------------------------------------------------------------- This SF.net email is sponsored by DB2 Express Download DB2 Express C - the FREE version of DB2 express and take control of your XML. No limits. 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