I try to keep below the radar, and never click on any links, hi hi.
As far as the government goes, do you know more than half of all government agencies are still using Windows XP computers?
All of the computers I had built-up for me have Asus MoBo's! I've been pleased with them.
I've never had a keyboard with lights other than the 3 usual LEDs on the top right. It tells me if the caps lock is on.
They have all worked just fine no matter what Distro I have used. The scroll lock key is used by my KVM, but still works normally too. In fact, if I tap the scroll lock key twice, all 3 LEDs flash so I know it is waiting for me to change computers.
I did have one BioStar MoBo once, and nearly everything about it was identical to Asus, which made me wonder if Asus is who made it.
ASUS Zephyrus S19
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
It's not just a matter of lighting up the number keypad. The surface on which the unlit keypad is located has a dual purpose. One is for number entry which is only possible when that area lights up to look like a number keypad. There is a button switch that can be pressed to turn off the backlighting and change the function to a normal touch pad. In other words that screen has a dual purpose. My issue is that one of those functions is no longer working. The truly amazing part is that it does work in all the Linux systems I plug into that laptop. Apparently it's all tied to some firmware embedded inside the laptop somewhere. Their firmware does not play nice with Windows 11.
As an interesting addition to this story, it should be noted that none of the Linux OS's I plug into the ASUS laptop have audio. I've tried Debian and Ubuntu with the same results. Those very same Linux on a Stick OS's do have audio when plugged into the tower. The tower, as you might recall, uses an ASUS motherboard - 5 years older than the laptop, but still. And, obviously, I do have audio on all the versions of Windows I've installed on that laptop.
These problems are totally insane because they are so fundamental that there should not be an issue. Yesterday ASUS made a mistake. They sent me a survey wanting to know how I felt about the way my problem was handled. I told them in no uncertain terms. I have not told them yet about the Linux audio problem. I'm waiting to see what they say about my survey because they did ask for permission to contact me if they deemed it necessary. I granted that permission.
I don't know how you determined what OS the government runs on their computers, but it would not surprise me that some still use XP. Windows XP is no more or less vulnerable to attack than Windows 11. Of course the mechanics is different but the security on government computers comes from the network to which they are connected. That is true because most of the desktops are just terminals connected to a server somewhere and all the damage reports we get involve servers, not desktops. The problem is the networks are being breached by people using desktops and falling for phishing schemes. There are also a lot of disgruntled government workers (no surprise there) who could not care less about observing secure computer practices. Thus way more then 50% of the hacked servers are done with valid login credentials. It's up to the network admins to determine if any given individual should be doing what they are doing at any given time - it's called Zero Trust. So, you see, be it XP, VIsta, Windows 7, or Linux the problems with security are the people using the systems and not the systems themselves.
A lot of the above security issues are being mitigated by using virtual machines in the cloud. The role of network administrator is elevated in those situations, and the news headlines often tell us how well they are being protected. The shortage of good help is very obvious these days.
As an interesting addition to this story, it should be noted that none of the Linux OS's I plug into the ASUS laptop have audio. I've tried Debian and Ubuntu with the same results. Those very same Linux on a Stick OS's do have audio when plugged into the tower. The tower, as you might recall, uses an ASUS motherboard - 5 years older than the laptop, but still. And, obviously, I do have audio on all the versions of Windows I've installed on that laptop.
These problems are totally insane because they are so fundamental that there should not be an issue. Yesterday ASUS made a mistake. They sent me a survey wanting to know how I felt about the way my problem was handled. I told them in no uncertain terms. I have not told them yet about the Linux audio problem. I'm waiting to see what they say about my survey because they did ask for permission to contact me if they deemed it necessary. I granted that permission.
I don't know how you determined what OS the government runs on their computers, but it would not surprise me that some still use XP. Windows XP is no more or less vulnerable to attack than Windows 11. Of course the mechanics is different but the security on government computers comes from the network to which they are connected. That is true because most of the desktops are just terminals connected to a server somewhere and all the damage reports we get involve servers, not desktops. The problem is the networks are being breached by people using desktops and falling for phishing schemes. There are also a lot of disgruntled government workers (no surprise there) who could not care less about observing secure computer practices. Thus way more then 50% of the hacked servers are done with valid login credentials. It's up to the network admins to determine if any given individual should be doing what they are doing at any given time - it's called Zero Trust. So, you see, be it XP, VIsta, Windows 7, or Linux the problems with security are the people using the systems and not the systems themselves.
A lot of the above security issues are being mitigated by using virtual machines in the cloud. The role of network administrator is elevated in those situations, and the news headlines often tell us how well they are being protected. The shortage of good help is very obvious these days.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Aha, so Linux works where Windows don't, hi hi! And Yogi actually admitted it, hi hi.
As far as I know from having my laptops and netbooks, they all use a different audio driver than what is used on desktop computers. If you install a Distro from scratch on a Laptop it often will put the correct drivers for the Laptop on it.
But if you did it on a stick using the Laptop, there's a good possibility, then you won't have sound on the Desktop, unless the generic driver in the Kernel works.
I was at our local DMV waiting to get my license plate renewal sticker, and the desk behind her is the County Clerk where I would pay for my Property Taxes if I didn't mail them in previously.
They were down, so I had to wait for them to boot back into the Main Server, where ever that may be.
The computers, as they booted up, first came up with the Windows XP screen, followed by the State of TN background image. Once that was up she hit a couple buttons and a log-in screen came up for DMV on the front computer I was near, I didn't see what came up on the County Clerks computer because she had already hit the button.
Another friend said they were at the County Courthouse when they saw a clerk boot up a computer and it too came up with a Windows XP screen during the boot process then it too changed to the County logo and log-in spaces.
But as you said, they are only used to connect to the Main Servers somewhere.
There are a couple of programs I use that are not on my computer at all. I have to connect to a website, then to the program I want to use, and after I log-in, it comes up on my screen just like it was installed on my computer.
I think this is the way everything will be before long!
As far as I know from having my laptops and netbooks, they all use a different audio driver than what is used on desktop computers. If you install a Distro from scratch on a Laptop it often will put the correct drivers for the Laptop on it.
But if you did it on a stick using the Laptop, there's a good possibility, then you won't have sound on the Desktop, unless the generic driver in the Kernel works.
I was at our local DMV waiting to get my license plate renewal sticker, and the desk behind her is the County Clerk where I would pay for my Property Taxes if I didn't mail them in previously.
They were down, so I had to wait for them to boot back into the Main Server, where ever that may be.
The computers, as they booted up, first came up with the Windows XP screen, followed by the State of TN background image. Once that was up she hit a couple buttons and a log-in screen came up for DMV on the front computer I was near, I didn't see what came up on the County Clerks computer because she had already hit the button.
Another friend said they were at the County Courthouse when they saw a clerk boot up a computer and it too came up with a Windows XP screen during the boot process then it too changed to the County logo and log-in spaces.
But as you said, they are only used to connect to the Main Servers somewhere.
There are a couple of programs I use that are not on my computer at all. I have to connect to a website, then to the program I want to use, and after I log-in, it comes up on my screen just like it was installed on my computer.
I think this is the way everything will be before long!
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
You may not have noticed it in my past editorials, but I DO give credit where credit is due. The audio problem to which I refer, more than likely is not related to which operating system is trying to be heard. It so happens Linux does have audio displayed in the sound bar inside the sound settings panel. I installed and re-installed Pulse and Alsa and everything else the gurus in the Ubuntu forums could think of. It looks like there is audio but it's not getting to the speakers in Linux. It works fine in Windows.
The exact opposite is true with the touch pad. The number pad functionality doesn't play in Windows 11 but it does well in every Linux distro I've tried so far. Again this doesn't seem like an OS related issue. I'll try to give you my thoughts without being too too technical. LOL
This ASUS laptop is like the MSI laptop it replaces in the sense that they both have an nVidia card installed in addition to the motherboard which is Intel silicon. Both the nVidia and the Intel chips have audio and video capability. If you recall my rantings of last year, they had to do with the fact that Linux did not recognize this dual capability and failed to boot. This year it's the audio doing what the video did previously, and I'm thinking it's for the same reason. There is some third party software installed which goes by the name of Optimus. This software controls which of the two cards will serve the video and the audio. It can be selected manually if you prefer one or the other, or you can let Optimus switch things on the fly to whichever card it thinks is best for the moment. Debian seems to have figured this out and now most of their derivatives boot as they should and install Nvidia drivers automatically. Apparently the guy who fixed that was deaf. He never noticed that the audio was doing the same thing.
The dual function touch pad, in my opinion, is an ASUS firmware problem. They are still trying to figure out Windows 10 and don't have enough staff to write the proper drivers for Windows 11.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
I certainly don't know what the Tennessee DMV is up to, but I can make a guess. The local computers you saw booting up may very well have Windows XP at their core. But what is that operating system actually doing? It's logging into a remote server (probably a Linux server) where all the business is being transacted. Heck, you don't even need XP to do that. Raspberry Pi would be good enough. LOL
The exact opposite is true with the touch pad. The number pad functionality doesn't play in Windows 11 but it does well in every Linux distro I've tried so far. Again this doesn't seem like an OS related issue. I'll try to give you my thoughts without being too too technical. LOL
This ASUS laptop is like the MSI laptop it replaces in the sense that they both have an nVidia card installed in addition to the motherboard which is Intel silicon. Both the nVidia and the Intel chips have audio and video capability. If you recall my rantings of last year, they had to do with the fact that Linux did not recognize this dual capability and failed to boot. This year it's the audio doing what the video did previously, and I'm thinking it's for the same reason. There is some third party software installed which goes by the name of Optimus. This software controls which of the two cards will serve the video and the audio. It can be selected manually if you prefer one or the other, or you can let Optimus switch things on the fly to whichever card it thinks is best for the moment. Debian seems to have figured this out and now most of their derivatives boot as they should and install Nvidia drivers automatically. Apparently the guy who fixed that was deaf. He never noticed that the audio was doing the same thing.
The dual function touch pad, in my opinion, is an ASUS firmware problem. They are still trying to figure out Windows 10 and don't have enough staff to write the proper drivers for Windows 11.
That's my story, and I'm sticking to it.
I certainly don't know what the Tennessee DMV is up to, but I can make a guess. The local computers you saw booting up may very well have Windows XP at their core. But what is that operating system actually doing? It's logging into a remote server (probably a Linux server) where all the business is being transacted. Heck, you don't even need XP to do that. Raspberry Pi would be good enough. LOL
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Now that you mention it. I did have a problem with audio on my netbook.
If I brought up a window that displayed the music as a pattern, it was definitely running and playing, but no sound from the internal speakers. I opened the Sound controller and found the sound output was set to the Headphones jack. It only gave me two options, Line Out and Headphones. I switched the option to Line Out and the internal speakers started working. I checked the side of the netbook and their was no Line Out jack, only a Headphones Jack. Then I remembered, I had switched to the headphones jack to be able to use the audio input on Debi's little Bose speaker box. Amazing sound difference. And obviously I never switched the setting back.
I hope you figured out your sound problem and got it up and working again.
You would be surprised at just how many things you think need high security are still using XP Machines.
65% of the machines in the Department of Defense pay MS millions of dollars to keep their XP machines running.
48% of Government Offices are still using XP, normally to connect to Mainframes and Servers.
33% of Companies between 100 and 1000 employees still use XP for data entry purposes.
And 3% of the computers used in the Pentagon remain running as XP machines for access to older archives.
IBM in conjunction with MS is providing clones of the XP system with drivers for older IBM storage devices, to convert and transfer data to newer formats. The original format used in most government records centers of operation were Univac 1, most of this data was converted over to IBM 1401 storage systems, and later to Digital Equipment's PDP.
Over 1,200 people are working at transferring the old abandoned and unreadable government records onto new cloud servers.
Where another team of experts are sorting and organizing the data to a meaningful and usable state.
Much of this data contains genealogical census information originally stored on IBM punch cards as file data, which never made it onto the tape drives. There is about 50 more paragraphs of all the types of old data they are managing to recover, that was considered lost forever, and still important to maintain in a usable fashion.
NASA was the only group that managed to recover all of their data and convert it to new formats, and did so by 2012 when they could finally abandon all the old equipment that was very expensive to maintain until all the records were handled.
If I brought up a window that displayed the music as a pattern, it was definitely running and playing, but no sound from the internal speakers. I opened the Sound controller and found the sound output was set to the Headphones jack. It only gave me two options, Line Out and Headphones. I switched the option to Line Out and the internal speakers started working. I checked the side of the netbook and their was no Line Out jack, only a Headphones Jack. Then I remembered, I had switched to the headphones jack to be able to use the audio input on Debi's little Bose speaker box. Amazing sound difference. And obviously I never switched the setting back.
I hope you figured out your sound problem and got it up and working again.
You would be surprised at just how many things you think need high security are still using XP Machines.
65% of the machines in the Department of Defense pay MS millions of dollars to keep their XP machines running.
48% of Government Offices are still using XP, normally to connect to Mainframes and Servers.
33% of Companies between 100 and 1000 employees still use XP for data entry purposes.
And 3% of the computers used in the Pentagon remain running as XP machines for access to older archives.
IBM in conjunction with MS is providing clones of the XP system with drivers for older IBM storage devices, to convert and transfer data to newer formats. The original format used in most government records centers of operation were Univac 1, most of this data was converted over to IBM 1401 storage systems, and later to Digital Equipment's PDP.
Over 1,200 people are working at transferring the old abandoned and unreadable government records onto new cloud servers.
Where another team of experts are sorting and organizing the data to a meaningful and usable state.
Much of this data contains genealogical census information originally stored on IBM punch cards as file data, which never made it onto the tape drives. There is about 50 more paragraphs of all the types of old data they are managing to recover, that was considered lost forever, and still important to maintain in a usable fashion.
NASA was the only group that managed to recover all of their data and convert it to new formats, and did so by 2012 when they could finally abandon all the old equipment that was very expensive to maintain until all the records were handled.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Your narrative about data being recovered from government archives verifies what we all knew or suspected all along. The people running the government, and financing its operations, are out of touch with reality. Almost 100 years after those data punch cards were invented and commonly available, they are finally deciding to convert the data to modern tech storage. The good news is that they didn't toss the originals. The bad news is they paid to preserve it unnecessarily.
The lack of audio on my Linux On A Stick probably will be around for a long time. At this writing I believe it is an issue with the ASUS firmware, and they still haven't gotten around to making Windows 10 work as it should. I've not contacted ASUS about this problem, but I probably will somewhere down the line.
Being an old old troubleshooter by trade the first thing I looked at was the Mute Audio function. The audio can be muted in more than one way in Linux (or Windows for that matter). There is the main audio controlled in the sound settings and then there is the mixer, which may or may not be installed. Well nothing anywhere was muted. The next obvious silencer is a hardware switch. The Realtec audio coming off the mother board can be disabled. Well, it was not. The audio coming off the nVidia card likewise could be disabled. Well, that was disabled after I made a few command line adjustments. I wanted to deal with one card at a time. Then there are the codecs and Alsa and Pulsa drivers ... all reinstalled to their latest versions. The system sound control panel has a built in speaker test located under the audio channel selection menu. I could only select speakers in some Linux versions, but others had headphones in addition to speakers. Speakers were the option of choice but the stereo speaker test failed regardless. At that point I noticed the audio was being displayed in the audio level bar under the test box. That told me audio was getting all the way to the output of the codec, but not making that last connection to the internal speakers. I tried four different versions of Linux, all with the same results.
At this point I wanted to see what this Linux On A Stick that had no audio when in the laptop would do in the ASUS tower; the machine on which I am writing this to you. Lo and behold! Linux has audio in the tower but not in the laptop.
Thus I concluded the problem is not within Linux or Windows but something in the laptop hardware, or firmware. All that ASUS laptop hardware and firmware works flawlessly in the Windows environment so that I know the hardware is not broken. So ... what's left? My guess is the ASUS firmware in the laptop is malfunctioning. When I have the urge to bang my head against the wall, I may open up another trouble ticket with ASUS.
The lack of audio on my Linux On A Stick probably will be around for a long time. At this writing I believe it is an issue with the ASUS firmware, and they still haven't gotten around to making Windows 10 work as it should. I've not contacted ASUS about this problem, but I probably will somewhere down the line.
Being an old old troubleshooter by trade the first thing I looked at was the Mute Audio function. The audio can be muted in more than one way in Linux (or Windows for that matter). There is the main audio controlled in the sound settings and then there is the mixer, which may or may not be installed. Well nothing anywhere was muted. The next obvious silencer is a hardware switch. The Realtec audio coming off the mother board can be disabled. Well, it was not. The audio coming off the nVidia card likewise could be disabled. Well, that was disabled after I made a few command line adjustments. I wanted to deal with one card at a time. Then there are the codecs and Alsa and Pulsa drivers ... all reinstalled to their latest versions. The system sound control panel has a built in speaker test located under the audio channel selection menu. I could only select speakers in some Linux versions, but others had headphones in addition to speakers. Speakers were the option of choice but the stereo speaker test failed regardless. At that point I noticed the audio was being displayed in the audio level bar under the test box. That told me audio was getting all the way to the output of the codec, but not making that last connection to the internal speakers. I tried four different versions of Linux, all with the same results.
At this point I wanted to see what this Linux On A Stick that had no audio when in the laptop would do in the ASUS tower; the machine on which I am writing this to you. Lo and behold! Linux has audio in the tower but not in the laptop.
Thus I concluded the problem is not within Linux or Windows but something in the laptop hardware, or firmware. All that ASUS laptop hardware and firmware works flawlessly in the Windows environment so that I know the hardware is not broken. So ... what's left? My guess is the ASUS firmware in the laptop is malfunctioning. When I have the urge to bang my head against the wall, I may open up another trouble ticket with ASUS.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Hollywood has the same problems as our government. How many original films have been lost do to not copying them to newer formats before they turned brittle and crumbled to death.
ASUS makes motherboards. Windows makes operating systems. The operating system has to be compatible with the motherboards. Now MS and Apple, and others work with those who make the CPUs to add things they want added to them.
But if the OS isn't working right on a particular brand of MoBo, maybe the software or OS wasn't designed properly?
There might be the possibility you got a bad MoBo and something is not connected inside those little black chips?
I have a computer here that the video went out on. The computer has the video on the mobo.
I was going to try to use a plug-in sound card, but couldn't find any for a reasonable price, and it would probably take drivers also. So I just said the heck with it.
ASUS makes motherboards. Windows makes operating systems. The operating system has to be compatible with the motherboards. Now MS and Apple, and others work with those who make the CPUs to add things they want added to them.
But if the OS isn't working right on a particular brand of MoBo, maybe the software or OS wasn't designed properly?
There might be the possibility you got a bad MoBo and something is not connected inside those little black chips?
I have a computer here that the video went out on. The computer has the video on the mobo.
I was going to try to use a plug-in sound card, but couldn't find any for a reasonable price, and it would probably take drivers also. So I just said the heck with it.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
You likely are correct about lost films in Hollywood. On the other hand some of the classics have been colorized and enhanced to make them look better than the original. It's neither here nor there for me. I'm not a movie fan and couldn't care less if Gone With The Wind is gone forever. Frankly Scarlett, I don't give a damn.
I eliminated the OS's as a source of the audio problem because they both do have audio. No operating system, as far as I know, is tied to any hardware. The kernels have generic drivers for both audio and video, which is what a kernel is supposed to have. Everything else is processed outside the kernel via firmware and hard wiring. The Linux On A Sticks that have no audio in the ASUS notebook do have audio in the ASUS tower. Both the notebook and the tower have two paths, as I described earlier. The notebook has software in it (Optimus) that will automatically select which path should be used for optimal performance. Either the Nvidia card or the motherboard are working at any given time, but not both. There are CLI commands to select those paths manually, which I did, and thus eliminated the possibility of the switch being the problem. It's not likely that there are loose wires or connections given that Windows audio functions perfectly and they use the same hardware as does Linux. So, I'm pretty certain it's the notebook itself, and given there is a problem with the number keypad due to firmware issues, I'm guessing Linux audio is suffering from the same problem.
So, I opened a trouble ticket with ASUS. They were quick to respond by telling me they don't support Linux but will take my input so that their people know an interest in Linux exists. She suggested I get with the software manufacturer to resolve the problem. That left me wondering who manufactures Linux, but then she as much as admitted they know nothing about it. So, I wrote back and thanked for for being honest. It would have been nice if they told me in their advertising or even in their operating manuals that it's a Windows only machine, but they didn't. I told her that I'm disappointed with ASUS policies and that I will keep this incident in mind when I purchase my next computer. I also advised her to keep a record of THAT comment.
That's two strikes against ASUS. They still rank high as far as documentation, but they are keeping it a big secret that they don't give a rat's ass about Linux. I think it's odd that such a large company that sells so many computer components would favor Windows, such an inferior operating system, over Linux. Maybe they don't support Linux because ASUS doesn't make servers. Whatever their excuse is, they have lost some stature in my mind.
I eliminated the OS's as a source of the audio problem because they both do have audio. No operating system, as far as I know, is tied to any hardware. The kernels have generic drivers for both audio and video, which is what a kernel is supposed to have. Everything else is processed outside the kernel via firmware and hard wiring. The Linux On A Sticks that have no audio in the ASUS notebook do have audio in the ASUS tower. Both the notebook and the tower have two paths, as I described earlier. The notebook has software in it (Optimus) that will automatically select which path should be used for optimal performance. Either the Nvidia card or the motherboard are working at any given time, but not both. There are CLI commands to select those paths manually, which I did, and thus eliminated the possibility of the switch being the problem. It's not likely that there are loose wires or connections given that Windows audio functions perfectly and they use the same hardware as does Linux. So, I'm pretty certain it's the notebook itself, and given there is a problem with the number keypad due to firmware issues, I'm guessing Linux audio is suffering from the same problem.
So, I opened a trouble ticket with ASUS. They were quick to respond by telling me they don't support Linux but will take my input so that their people know an interest in Linux exists. She suggested I get with the software manufacturer to resolve the problem. That left me wondering who manufactures Linux, but then she as much as admitted they know nothing about it. So, I wrote back and thanked for for being honest. It would have been nice if they told me in their advertising or even in their operating manuals that it's a Windows only machine, but they didn't. I told her that I'm disappointed with ASUS policies and that I will keep this incident in mind when I purchase my next computer. I also advised her to keep a record of THAT comment.
That's two strikes against ASUS. They still rank high as far as documentation, but they are keeping it a big secret that they don't give a rat's ass about Linux. I think it's odd that such a large company that sells so many computer components would favor Windows, such an inferior operating system, over Linux. Maybe they don't support Linux because ASUS doesn't make servers. Whatever their excuse is, they have lost some stature in my mind.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
I had about 40 old 8mm cartoon reels, and 10 or so 16mm with sound.
Some of the old 8mm's came with a 78 rpm record you could play along with the film.
After the intro part of the film, when the film made a flash in the corner, that is when you started the record.
Most of these were made back when each individual frame was hand drawn, so it was cool to be able to stop the film and advance one frame at a time. And even though still basically hand drawn, the later ones were done using a different filming technology, I think using layered films for each image.
I had to throw all of them away when I moved. We opened the case to put them in the auction and just pulling on a piece of film to see it caused it to crack and fall apart.
On Desktops, Asus supports all OS's from Windows to Mac to most Linux distro's.
I guess Laptops are a different story? Many laptops are built specifically for the OS that comes installed on them.
I'm sorry you are having a sound issue with it.
I do hope you get it worked out though.
Some of the old 8mm's came with a 78 rpm record you could play along with the film.
After the intro part of the film, when the film made a flash in the corner, that is when you started the record.
Most of these were made back when each individual frame was hand drawn, so it was cool to be able to stop the film and advance one frame at a time. And even though still basically hand drawn, the later ones were done using a different filming technology, I think using layered films for each image.
I had to throw all of them away when I moved. We opened the case to put them in the auction and just pulling on a piece of film to see it caused it to crack and fall apart.
On Desktops, Asus supports all OS's from Windows to Mac to most Linux distro's.
I guess Laptops are a different story? Many laptops are built specifically for the OS that comes installed on them.
I'm sorry you are having a sound issue with it.
I do hope you get it worked out though.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
I think we talked about this once before. There is no such things as a computer dedicated to a specific operating system. There could be exceptions to that if you build your own silicon chips and optimize them to run with the machine code you also invented which in turn will run that operating system you also invented. Even then it's just a matter of interpreting one code to emulate some other. In the case of Linux, Windows, iOS, and Android there are processors that do better with one or the other OS. But it's theoretically possible to run all four on any given motherboard. Maybe you would not be able to run them simultaneously, but there is nothing I know of that is intrinsic to the hardware that will limit which OS can be run.
Having said the above, I know for fact that some OEM's do booger up their computers so that only WIndows, for example, can be run on it. It's done with firmware, not with hardware. Change the firmware and you can defeat whatever that OEM was so clever to install. And that is where I am at with this ASUS notebook.
If you recall my first rant it was about the spiffy numeric keypad that doubles as a touchpad pointer depending on what switch you flip. That functionality apparently is something ASUS invented so that they can brag about it. The computer I bought from them came with Windows 10 Pro installed and everything they talk about in their literature has to do with Windows 10. I did in fact find it odd that they never mentioned in any of their blurbs that this particular notebook was Windows 11 compatible even though it is. It has all the hardware Micorsoft demands, but ASUS was more focused on the gaming aspects of the machine than on the operating system. Well, that number keypad worked as intended on Windows 10, but stopped working when I upgraded to Windows 11. The fact that their customer service told me to go back to Windows 10 is very revealing. It tells me some kind of conflict exists between the two versions of Windows and their engineers are not competent enough to figure it out. Before they told me to revert to the old OS, they shipped me an updated version of the keyboard firmware. Installing that update broke the Caps Locks key and never fixed the number pad issue.
When I bought the motherboard for my tower, ASUS made some explicit statements in their literature that they cannot guarantee Linux will run off that mobo. Even if it does run, they refused to support anything Linux. I did not like that policy, but at least they were up front about what their intentions were. As it turned out Linux runs well on that mobo and I never had problems that needed outside assistance.
My previous post mentioned that I expressed my disappointment in their lack of support for Linux. Admittedly I didn't see anything anywhere which claimed they would support it, but the nerds in the ASUS community forums bragged about how they are doing it. That's why I bought this machine. (yes, I know I could go to those forums and ask them about audio. But I want to know what ASUS has to say first) The person who read about my intention to buy something other than ASUS next time around wrote back to say she too was sorry I am having these kind of problems. However, she said she will be talking it over with their tech support (which apparently she is not) and get back to me within 48 hours. All this just reinforces my impression that this was intended to be a single use computer. It's flexible enough to do other things besides run games in Windows 10, but ASUS isn't willing to support those "other" things.
My original goal was to turn this new ASUS notepad into a clone of the old MSI laptop. That would involve installing Linux alongside of Windows, and replacing the Windows bootmanager with rEFInd bootmanager. I had my douibts about rEFInd but I read some encouraging words from it's author. He explains how it can be done which could open up a whole new bag of worms regarding secure boot. Apparently Windows would like you to secure boot, but it works perfectly well without it. Thus, perhaps there would be no rEFInd issues given that I already turned off Windows secure boot.
I'm not willing to install Linux on the notebook (yet) and decided that if I can get my favored versions of Linux to reliably run on a USB flash memory stick, that will hold me over. Ubuntu was a no brainer because Micorsoft is already in bed with them and all the bugs have been worked out. They also can run Fedora because the security keys are well established for that. That strongly suggests Mageia will not be a problem on a Windows machine. After a lot of trouble doing so, I finally got Mageia to boot from a USB flash memory stick. So now my two favored Linux distributions can run off the notebook, if they are on a USB memory stick. That's close to where I want to be, but not exactly there. LOL
There is one final issue I wish to resolve, but don't have much hope for it. One of my other favorite Linux distros is something called Parrot Linux. It is distributed using the btrfs format which Windows 11 is known to have problems with. But, this is not booting inside Windows. Unfortunately the Windows bootloader must be used to boot anything (until I can change that by installing rEFInd). Thus, I can't boot Parrot Linux on the notebook and I don't really know why. I went to the Parrot tech support forums, and it's a joke. We here at Brainformation have more activity than they do in the tech support forum. Plus all posts are moderated and take several days to appear on the timeline. Most of the questions are unanswered, but those which did have answers seems reasonable. So, I don't expect any help from the tech support for Parrot. I also posted on a Stack Overflow website, which is a general Unix/Linux kind of place. They had a few posts about problems similar to mine which is why I decided to ask there. So far a dozen people looked at it, but nobody responded. This will not be a show stopper if I can't boot Parrot on the notebook. It does boot on the tower and from a virtual machine. I just wish it was more portable.
Having said the above, I know for fact that some OEM's do booger up their computers so that only WIndows, for example, can be run on it. It's done with firmware, not with hardware. Change the firmware and you can defeat whatever that OEM was so clever to install. And that is where I am at with this ASUS notebook.
If you recall my first rant it was about the spiffy numeric keypad that doubles as a touchpad pointer depending on what switch you flip. That functionality apparently is something ASUS invented so that they can brag about it. The computer I bought from them came with Windows 10 Pro installed and everything they talk about in their literature has to do with Windows 10. I did in fact find it odd that they never mentioned in any of their blurbs that this particular notebook was Windows 11 compatible even though it is. It has all the hardware Micorsoft demands, but ASUS was more focused on the gaming aspects of the machine than on the operating system. Well, that number keypad worked as intended on Windows 10, but stopped working when I upgraded to Windows 11. The fact that their customer service told me to go back to Windows 10 is very revealing. It tells me some kind of conflict exists between the two versions of Windows and their engineers are not competent enough to figure it out. Before they told me to revert to the old OS, they shipped me an updated version of the keyboard firmware. Installing that update broke the Caps Locks key and never fixed the number pad issue.
When I bought the motherboard for my tower, ASUS made some explicit statements in their literature that they cannot guarantee Linux will run off that mobo. Even if it does run, they refused to support anything Linux. I did not like that policy, but at least they were up front about what their intentions were. As it turned out Linux runs well on that mobo and I never had problems that needed outside assistance.
My previous post mentioned that I expressed my disappointment in their lack of support for Linux. Admittedly I didn't see anything anywhere which claimed they would support it, but the nerds in the ASUS community forums bragged about how they are doing it. That's why I bought this machine. (yes, I know I could go to those forums and ask them about audio. But I want to know what ASUS has to say first) The person who read about my intention to buy something other than ASUS next time around wrote back to say she too was sorry I am having these kind of problems. However, she said she will be talking it over with their tech support (which apparently she is not) and get back to me within 48 hours. All this just reinforces my impression that this was intended to be a single use computer. It's flexible enough to do other things besides run games in Windows 10, but ASUS isn't willing to support those "other" things.
My original goal was to turn this new ASUS notepad into a clone of the old MSI laptop. That would involve installing Linux alongside of Windows, and replacing the Windows bootmanager with rEFInd bootmanager. I had my douibts about rEFInd but I read some encouraging words from it's author. He explains how it can be done which could open up a whole new bag of worms regarding secure boot. Apparently Windows would like you to secure boot, but it works perfectly well without it. Thus, perhaps there would be no rEFInd issues given that I already turned off Windows secure boot.
I'm not willing to install Linux on the notebook (yet) and decided that if I can get my favored versions of Linux to reliably run on a USB flash memory stick, that will hold me over. Ubuntu was a no brainer because Micorsoft is already in bed with them and all the bugs have been worked out. They also can run Fedora because the security keys are well established for that. That strongly suggests Mageia will not be a problem on a Windows machine. After a lot of trouble doing so, I finally got Mageia to boot from a USB flash memory stick. So now my two favored Linux distributions can run off the notebook, if they are on a USB memory stick. That's close to where I want to be, but not exactly there. LOL
There is one final issue I wish to resolve, but don't have much hope for it. One of my other favorite Linux distros is something called Parrot Linux. It is distributed using the btrfs format which Windows 11 is known to have problems with. But, this is not booting inside Windows. Unfortunately the Windows bootloader must be used to boot anything (until I can change that by installing rEFInd). Thus, I can't boot Parrot Linux on the notebook and I don't really know why. I went to the Parrot tech support forums, and it's a joke. We here at Brainformation have more activity than they do in the tech support forum. Plus all posts are moderated and take several days to appear on the timeline. Most of the questions are unanswered, but those which did have answers seems reasonable. So, I don't expect any help from the tech support for Parrot. I also posted on a Stack Overflow website, which is a general Unix/Linux kind of place. They had a few posts about problems similar to mine which is why I decided to ask there. So far a dozen people looked at it, but nobody responded. This will not be a show stopper if I can't boot Parrot on the notebook. It does boot on the tower and from a virtual machine. I just wish it was more portable.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Might be right about that Yogi, but then your next comment said it all.
I think I mentioned the computer we bought then took back the next day.
Mainly because of false advertising on the box. Yeah it was an off the shelf unit.
They left slots and ports off the motherboard, only had exactly what it needed to run.
I later found out from someone else who bought the same machine from the same place, that it could not be upgraded.
And all he wanted to do was change the OS from XP Home to XP Pro, and it wouldn't even allow that.
When I was going to the Local LUG group here, they had a list the hung on the wall before a meeting of several brands of computers by their release names and numbers, and said if you have one of these, forget running GNU/Linux. Their BIOS won't allow anything other than the originally installed version of Windows.
There was a note that named a few machines where they had the files to Flash the Bios in order to install GNU/Linux.
It does seem odd that Windows 10 and Windows 11, even with all the basic requirements available would not work right.
I know how you love Windows, but personally, I've had horrible results with Windows, and so has my wife and all she want's is a Windows machine, but one that works. She's still on Windows 7 as we speak, and on a ten year old hand-me-down machine, while her shiny new Windows 10 machine sits up here running Linux Mint 19.3 just fine!
Seems like you just like trying to find out why and which Linux Distro's are not compatible with Windows only machines, which now require secure boot, another ms brainstorm that a lot of people are bypassing, especially gamers who want their machines running as fast as possible.
There are thousands of Linux Distro's out there, mainly because any good programmer could write their own version and put it out there for folks to try. Those that are worth their salt get moved up the list of ones to try, while other fail miserably, as they should.
When Debi's cousin's husband was alive, he used to reprogram the computer chips for cars. He probably got asked to do about 25 or so a year for guys who wanted power over gas mileage. Cars are tuned to give the highest gas mileage possible, and the computers handle many other things as well. More so these days than in days of yore of early cars with computers in them.
Unfortunately, after I had a new motor installed in my original Blazer, he said mine had a special computer in it, not the cheaper one used in most Blazers. He didn't have enough data on that particular unit to make changes to it. Back when we were talking about that, the computer in my car was like 1400 bucks while the normal computer was around 600 bucks to replace. If I moved down to that computer, I would lose many of the luxury features I enjoyed. Like the ability to display engine codes and other things on the upper display, which you normally need another tool to plug into the port to see.
I did buy a little Raspberry PI for 30 bucks, but never knew what to do with it, so sold it for 35 bucks to someone who wanted one. The extra 5 bucks was to cover the shipping costs I paid to get it in the first place.
As long as my Debian Box does what I want it to do, I'm a happy camper!
I think I mentioned the computer we bought then took back the next day.
Mainly because of false advertising on the box. Yeah it was an off the shelf unit.
They left slots and ports off the motherboard, only had exactly what it needed to run.
I later found out from someone else who bought the same machine from the same place, that it could not be upgraded.
And all he wanted to do was change the OS from XP Home to XP Pro, and it wouldn't even allow that.
When I was going to the Local LUG group here, they had a list the hung on the wall before a meeting of several brands of computers by their release names and numbers, and said if you have one of these, forget running GNU/Linux. Their BIOS won't allow anything other than the originally installed version of Windows.
There was a note that named a few machines where they had the files to Flash the Bios in order to install GNU/Linux.
It does seem odd that Windows 10 and Windows 11, even with all the basic requirements available would not work right.
I know how you love Windows, but personally, I've had horrible results with Windows, and so has my wife and all she want's is a Windows machine, but one that works. She's still on Windows 7 as we speak, and on a ten year old hand-me-down machine, while her shiny new Windows 10 machine sits up here running Linux Mint 19.3 just fine!
Seems like you just like trying to find out why and which Linux Distro's are not compatible with Windows only machines, which now require secure boot, another ms brainstorm that a lot of people are bypassing, especially gamers who want their machines running as fast as possible.
There are thousands of Linux Distro's out there, mainly because any good programmer could write their own version and put it out there for folks to try. Those that are worth their salt get moved up the list of ones to try, while other fail miserably, as they should.
When Debi's cousin's husband was alive, he used to reprogram the computer chips for cars. He probably got asked to do about 25 or so a year for guys who wanted power over gas mileage. Cars are tuned to give the highest gas mileage possible, and the computers handle many other things as well. More so these days than in days of yore of early cars with computers in them.
Unfortunately, after I had a new motor installed in my original Blazer, he said mine had a special computer in it, not the cheaper one used in most Blazers. He didn't have enough data on that particular unit to make changes to it. Back when we were talking about that, the computer in my car was like 1400 bucks while the normal computer was around 600 bucks to replace. If I moved down to that computer, I would lose many of the luxury features I enjoyed. Like the ability to display engine codes and other things on the upper display, which you normally need another tool to plug into the port to see.
I did buy a little Raspberry PI for 30 bucks, but never knew what to do with it, so sold it for 35 bucks to someone who wanted one. The extra 5 bucks was to cover the shipping costs I paid to get it in the first place.
As long as my Debian Box does what I want it to do, I'm a happy camper!
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Part of my argument against the existence of a "Windows Only" computer has to do with what you alluded to regarding changing firmware in automobile engine computers. You know, I'm sure, that before any operating system boots the computer goes through a POST routine to check what hardware is on the system and determine if any of it is bootable. There are a few companies that write that generic firmware, but there are thousands of OEM's who alter it to suit their individual wants and needs. Those alterations to the firmware determines what can or cannot boot. As it happens there is an open source version of BIOS that is easy to install. Being what it is, the open source version does not have all the bells and whistles that any unique computer has which means you might lose some functionality to gain control over your system. Regardless, if you change the BIOS firmware, you can boot any operating system written for the processor on the motherboard.
Few people know you can do that, and even fewer know how to do it.
Once past the POST in BIOS the operating system starts to power up. The kernel in all operating systems doesn't know about any special devices attached to the system. Thus it becomes necessary to come up with a controller that the kernel can talk to, and the controller in turn will do it's special thing; such as turn my touchpad into a number keypad. That's the general theory. I don't know why Windows 10 can do it but Windows 11 cannot. The people at ASUS who added this special controller to the computer must know in order to be able to do it in the first place. You could easily think that it's due to the security feature present in 11 and not in 10, but I turned that off. Plus even when it is on the security code does not change and should work the same way regardless of the Windows requirements. Well, it doesn't. And I can't think of any reason why it doesn't other than look at the development engineer who came up with this keypad/touchpad in the first place.
Linux audio is much the same problem that I describe in the above paragraph. The ASUS engineers in that case distance themselves from anything Linux. I can only guess at the reason why, but as far as I can determined it's an ASUS specific problem. I could be wrong about that, but that's an adventure for some future time.
Seems like you just like trying to find out why and which Linux Distro's are not compatible with Windows only machines, which now require secure boot, another ms brainstorm that a lot of people are bypassing, especially gamers who want their machines running as fast as possible. There is some truth to that observation. I must assure you, however, that I don't enjoy debugging Linux to determine their shortcomings. Plus disgruntled gamers can turn off the secure boot if it's an issue for them.
The situation with my notebook is not an indictment against Microsoft. They are doing what needs to be done to make their system safe. The rules of engagement for doing a secure boot were not invented by Micorsoft, although they have developed methods to maximize their effectiveness. And that is where I find Linux to be lagging in the development curve. They must follow the same secure boot rules as Microsoft, but they don't. In fact many Linux distro's simply deny there is a problem and avoid secure boot altogether. Making Linux secure involves encryption keys that must be purchased and integrated into the operating system. The total bias against Microsoft that comes out of the Linux community seems more important to uphold than the security of their operating system.
I have run into problems with Linux which have nothing to do with booting but are ignored for whatever reasons. The recent issue I talked about using Samba to discover Windows Network Shares is a classic example of faulty Linux software. The file manager present in many of the popular Linux distros (all the ones Ubuntu based) still use an outdated, deprecated, version of Samba to talk to Linux servers that do not use that version of Samba for security reasons. Windows, by the way, must do exactly what Linux needs to do in order to find network shares via Samba. The difference is that Windows uses the correct version of Samba while the malfunctioning Linux OS's do not. Why is that? Again, I can only guess. But it looks very suspicions that the issue revolves around Windows shares and not Linux shares. You don't suppose there is any bias in that situation, do you?
I can go on and tell you about the installer used in many Linux OS's that was broken and crashing any dual boot system Linux shared with Windows. In fact I did tell you in the past, in great detail. And I won't mention the bias built into Debian's strict adherence to FOSS which shuts out anybody with an nVidia card in their computer. Well, it did, but they seemed to have fixed THAT problem now. You don't see any of this because you work in a very tightly knit niche and don't ask much of Linux other than the basics. I'm not talking about software that is run on Linux. The problems I have talked about here are operating system specific, and the reason why I say Windows just works.
...
...
...
Well, I might say that about Windows, but I will make a small confession here just because it is interesting and slightly relevant. Somewhere about the middle of this post Windows went into a BSOD mode. This is very disturbing because it is happening more often and probably means the SSD is failing. Regardless, that blue screen does a memory dump so that it can be analyzed later on. Then Windows must be rebooted in order to recover. Well, I was crying not because of the BSOD, but because I feared losing all that text that was not posted yet. To my shock and amazement when Windows was done booting I opened my browser (Waterfox) and up came the text editing box exactly at the point where I left off before the crash. I can't tell you why that happened, but given all the problems of a similar nature you described in the past, I expected the worst. I didn't get logged out of the site, but the whole system crashed ... and recovered. Completely. So, when it's not crashing, Windows just works.
Few people know you can do that, and even fewer know how to do it.
Once past the POST in BIOS the operating system starts to power up. The kernel in all operating systems doesn't know about any special devices attached to the system. Thus it becomes necessary to come up with a controller that the kernel can talk to, and the controller in turn will do it's special thing; such as turn my touchpad into a number keypad. That's the general theory. I don't know why Windows 10 can do it but Windows 11 cannot. The people at ASUS who added this special controller to the computer must know in order to be able to do it in the first place. You could easily think that it's due to the security feature present in 11 and not in 10, but I turned that off. Plus even when it is on the security code does not change and should work the same way regardless of the Windows requirements. Well, it doesn't. And I can't think of any reason why it doesn't other than look at the development engineer who came up with this keypad/touchpad in the first place.
Linux audio is much the same problem that I describe in the above paragraph. The ASUS engineers in that case distance themselves from anything Linux. I can only guess at the reason why, but as far as I can determined it's an ASUS specific problem. I could be wrong about that, but that's an adventure for some future time.
Seems like you just like trying to find out why and which Linux Distro's are not compatible with Windows only machines, which now require secure boot, another ms brainstorm that a lot of people are bypassing, especially gamers who want their machines running as fast as possible. There is some truth to that observation. I must assure you, however, that I don't enjoy debugging Linux to determine their shortcomings. Plus disgruntled gamers can turn off the secure boot if it's an issue for them.
The situation with my notebook is not an indictment against Microsoft. They are doing what needs to be done to make their system safe. The rules of engagement for doing a secure boot were not invented by Micorsoft, although they have developed methods to maximize their effectiveness. And that is where I find Linux to be lagging in the development curve. They must follow the same secure boot rules as Microsoft, but they don't. In fact many Linux distro's simply deny there is a problem and avoid secure boot altogether. Making Linux secure involves encryption keys that must be purchased and integrated into the operating system. The total bias against Microsoft that comes out of the Linux community seems more important to uphold than the security of their operating system.
I have run into problems with Linux which have nothing to do with booting but are ignored for whatever reasons. The recent issue I talked about using Samba to discover Windows Network Shares is a classic example of faulty Linux software. The file manager present in many of the popular Linux distros (all the ones Ubuntu based) still use an outdated, deprecated, version of Samba to talk to Linux servers that do not use that version of Samba for security reasons. Windows, by the way, must do exactly what Linux needs to do in order to find network shares via Samba. The difference is that Windows uses the correct version of Samba while the malfunctioning Linux OS's do not. Why is that? Again, I can only guess. But it looks very suspicions that the issue revolves around Windows shares and not Linux shares. You don't suppose there is any bias in that situation, do you?
I can go on and tell you about the installer used in many Linux OS's that was broken and crashing any dual boot system Linux shared with Windows. In fact I did tell you in the past, in great detail. And I won't mention the bias built into Debian's strict adherence to FOSS which shuts out anybody with an nVidia card in their computer. Well, it did, but they seemed to have fixed THAT problem now. You don't see any of this because you work in a very tightly knit niche and don't ask much of Linux other than the basics. I'm not talking about software that is run on Linux. The problems I have talked about here are operating system specific, and the reason why I say Windows just works.
...
...
...
Well, I might say that about Windows, but I will make a small confession here just because it is interesting and slightly relevant. Somewhere about the middle of this post Windows went into a BSOD mode. This is very disturbing because it is happening more often and probably means the SSD is failing. Regardless, that blue screen does a memory dump so that it can be analyzed later on. Then Windows must be rebooted in order to recover. Well, I was crying not because of the BSOD, but because I feared losing all that text that was not posted yet. To my shock and amazement when Windows was done booting I opened my browser (Waterfox) and up came the text editing box exactly at the point where I left off before the crash. I can't tell you why that happened, but given all the problems of a similar nature you described in the past, I expected the worst. I didn't get logged out of the site, but the whole system crashed ... and recovered. Completely. So, when it's not crashing, Windows just works.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Lot of stuff to chew on there Yogi - Don't know if any of it needs a follow up commentary. Seems you hit all the main points very well.
I do realize in the Linux world, they are not to interested in what goes on in the Windows world. Their goal was never to try and take over the desktop market, so anything to do with same is usually a back burner item.
When I was running MAC computers in my own business, the TOPS Network worked perfectly, out of the box. And this is back in the MAC SE and MAC + days I'm talking about. Nothing on a MAC could be converted over to any Windows format back then either.
I do agree, Samba leaves MUCH to be desired, hi hi.
Technology has come a long way since those days, that's for sure, and all the new stuff is so super complicated there will be a day very soon when nothing will be repairable because of the high-tech way they are making things all in one black box. The black box would be cheaper to replace than trying to have it fixed. Many things are like that already.
Why pay 135 bucks to have a 39 dollar power supply repaired, hi hi.
Windows was well known for its crashes back in the 95 and 98 days. Type too fast and it would crash or lock up, hi hi.
And considering how complicated computers are today, and all the things they are doing in the background and all simultaneously, WOW, I'm surprised they are as stable as they are.
I have a problem with lo-T switches that I'll address separately. But ran a log from both of my routers to see if there was some idea of what was going on. I never realized I had TWELVE devices all using WiFi, and it may be more than that if I isolate all the things plugged in up here to hubs, on the hard wired LAN, hi hi.
I do realize in the Linux world, they are not to interested in what goes on in the Windows world. Their goal was never to try and take over the desktop market, so anything to do with same is usually a back burner item.
When I was running MAC computers in my own business, the TOPS Network worked perfectly, out of the box. And this is back in the MAC SE and MAC + days I'm talking about. Nothing on a MAC could be converted over to any Windows format back then either.
I do agree, Samba leaves MUCH to be desired, hi hi.
Technology has come a long way since those days, that's for sure, and all the new stuff is so super complicated there will be a day very soon when nothing will be repairable because of the high-tech way they are making things all in one black box. The black box would be cheaper to replace than trying to have it fixed. Many things are like that already.
Why pay 135 bucks to have a 39 dollar power supply repaired, hi hi.
Windows was well known for its crashes back in the 95 and 98 days. Type too fast and it would crash or lock up, hi hi.
And considering how complicated computers are today, and all the things they are doing in the background and all simultaneously, WOW, I'm surprised they are as stable as they are.
I have a problem with lo-T switches that I'll address separately. But ran a log from both of my routers to see if there was some idea of what was going on. I never realized I had TWELVE devices all using WiFi, and it may be more than that if I isolate all the things plugged in up here to hubs, on the hard wired LAN, hi hi.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
The Linux vs Windows discussion is never ending. Just about from the first time I ever heard of Linux the ideas of it being better than Windows and "free" have dominated the discussions. Then there is the Windows security problem. not to mention the complicated registry, all adding to the superior quality of Linux. Those ideas have always fascinated me but I've never had any opportunity to explore them in detail until I retired. Even then I found better things to do than argue with people who are highly prejudiced. I've done a few deep dives over the years and have convinced myself that all those claims in favor of Linux are bogus. The exceptions might be found in server administration where Linux seems to excel. But even there the reason for its success has to do with the audience more than the technical superiority. System administrators love Linux because it gives them purpose, meaning, and direction. Read that to mean there is always something to fix that can only be done by an engineer with an advanced degree in computer science.
I'm not going to try and convince you that Windows advocates are totally unbiased. They suffer from the same kind of self-glorification that the other guys do. As you can tell from reading my lengthy adventure blogs herein, I now feel comfortable enough with Linux to deal with any perceived shortcomings. As it stands at this moment, I still do not have a compelling reason to make any version of Linux my go-to computer system. There are a few I like, but not any I love. Windows is a lot easier to deal with, albeit not problem free. Of course that is all my own personal bias behind that comment.
I made some comments about your Lo-T issues in another thread. I'll stick to my own problems here, for the time being anyway.
Speaking of ... you may recall one of the problems I was experiencing with the new ASUS note book and it's dual purpose touchpad. Basically it was not working in Windows 11, but odd as it might seem it was working in the Linux On A Sticks I mounted. The irony there is intense because when I mentioned to their customer support folks that I was also having a different problem with Linux, their reply was that they don't do Linux. Turns out that might be a good thing.
Regardless, I must give ASUS points for their tremendous efforts at technical support. Their solutions suck, but the effort they put into it is far superior to anybody else in recent memory. One of the programs they include with the notebook has to do with self-maintenance. There is a lovely diagnostic utility in there and the latest drivers always come down with a notification in the app. That's how the touchpad problem got worse and included the Caps Lock key. I applied the most recent driver specifically created for the touchpad and it did not work. It just made things worse. I was told to go back to Windows 10 to fix that. Wrong answer in my book, but I concluded they were just a bunch of jerks and left things alone. Yesterday I got a notification about updating an SDK firmware package. As far as I know an SDK has to do with software development and not with running an operating system. Be that all as it may, I did the upgrade and it fixed everything. No, it did not fix Linux, but now the touchpad is also a numeric keypad at the touch of a button - as it was designed to be. It all works in Windows 11 now. The tendency was to blame Microsoft for all this, but obviously the problem originated in ASUS engineering, or lack of it.
I'm not going to try and convince you that Windows advocates are totally unbiased. They suffer from the same kind of self-glorification that the other guys do. As you can tell from reading my lengthy adventure blogs herein, I now feel comfortable enough with Linux to deal with any perceived shortcomings. As it stands at this moment, I still do not have a compelling reason to make any version of Linux my go-to computer system. There are a few I like, but not any I love. Windows is a lot easier to deal with, albeit not problem free. Of course that is all my own personal bias behind that comment.
I made some comments about your Lo-T issues in another thread. I'll stick to my own problems here, for the time being anyway.
Speaking of ... you may recall one of the problems I was experiencing with the new ASUS note book and it's dual purpose touchpad. Basically it was not working in Windows 11, but odd as it might seem it was working in the Linux On A Sticks I mounted. The irony there is intense because when I mentioned to their customer support folks that I was also having a different problem with Linux, their reply was that they don't do Linux. Turns out that might be a good thing.
Regardless, I must give ASUS points for their tremendous efforts at technical support. Their solutions suck, but the effort they put into it is far superior to anybody else in recent memory. One of the programs they include with the notebook has to do with self-maintenance. There is a lovely diagnostic utility in there and the latest drivers always come down with a notification in the app. That's how the touchpad problem got worse and included the Caps Lock key. I applied the most recent driver specifically created for the touchpad and it did not work. It just made things worse. I was told to go back to Windows 10 to fix that. Wrong answer in my book, but I concluded they were just a bunch of jerks and left things alone. Yesterday I got a notification about updating an SDK firmware package. As far as I know an SDK has to do with software development and not with running an operating system. Be that all as it may, I did the upgrade and it fixed everything. No, it did not fix Linux, but now the touchpad is also a numeric keypad at the touch of a button - as it was designed to be. It all works in Windows 11 now. The tendency was to blame Microsoft for all this, but obviously the problem originated in ASUS engineering, or lack of it.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Well, I'm glad you got your touchpad/numerical entry problem solved.
From what I understand, SDK is a program used to control hardware things so they work with the OS. They are unique to the hardware system they are running on too. Think of them like a compiler and debugger, and also a program generator to fix things that don't work with some software packages or OSs.
The computer Debi is using was her sons gaming computer for a long time. He too had to install SDK from Alien in order for it to recognize his gaming console and multi-button mouse. When Debi added her new keyboard and mouse, I couldn't get it to work, and she called her son and he told me how to uninstall SDK and associated files it installed. After I did, all worked well again for her.
I did hear that by around 2025 none of the existing Windows computers will be functional as Windows computers. They won't be upgrade able either. But they will be a dime a dozen for folks who want to run Linux, because otherwise they will be useless.
Here is something you might be interested in, Windows 12, due out this year in 2021.
https://windows12update.com/
Of course Redmond claims it is a hoax, hi hi.
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/04 ... umors.aspx
I agree, it is probably a Hoax, just like Windows 10 will be the last Windows EVER, hi hi.
From what I understand, SDK is a program used to control hardware things so they work with the OS. They are unique to the hardware system they are running on too. Think of them like a compiler and debugger, and also a program generator to fix things that don't work with some software packages or OSs.
The computer Debi is using was her sons gaming computer for a long time. He too had to install SDK from Alien in order for it to recognize his gaming console and multi-button mouse. When Debi added her new keyboard and mouse, I couldn't get it to work, and she called her son and he told me how to uninstall SDK and associated files it installed. After I did, all worked well again for her.
I did hear that by around 2025 none of the existing Windows computers will be functional as Windows computers. They won't be upgrade able either. But they will be a dime a dozen for folks who want to run Linux, because otherwise they will be useless.
Here is something you might be interested in, Windows 12, due out this year in 2021.
https://windows12update.com/
Of course Redmond claims it is a hoax, hi hi.
https://redmondmag.com/articles/2020/04 ... umors.aspx
I agree, it is probably a Hoax, just like Windows 10 will be the last Windows EVER, hi hi.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
i can't say that any of the information in those two articles is a hoax, but I can say at the very best it is all misleading. The first article describing Windows 12 lists a whole bunch of "new" features that I have been using for a couple years already. Some of them appeared in the beta tests that I am part of before they were incorporated into Windows 10. I didn't see much in that article that wasn't already publicly available on a genuine Windows platform.
The second article was a little more honest in its approach. I too have not heard of a Windows 12 coming from Microsoft. However, I am part of the cutting edge release channel that is testing features not dedicated to any given operating system already in existence. That means some of the stuff they're putting into this development channel release of Windows is experimental. It may or may not end up in a stable release. I've not been able to identify a whole lot of that new experimental feature list, but none of what is being toyed with is mentioned in any of those articles.
Looking at the author byline, Brien Posey, of the second article you will note that the article was published in April of 2020. Windows 11 was not announced yet, but much of what is described ended up being features of Micorsoft's Windows 11. Brien Posey makes an excellent observation about a lite version of Linux being dressed up to look like Windows 12 (sic). Well, I believe if you dig deep enough into these very forums you will fine a post by me linking to a lite version of Linux dressed up to look like ... XP. In other words, the implication is that Windows 12 is a stripped down version of an unspecified Linux distribution with a desktop that resembles Microsoft's cash cow. Brien also comes clean when he tells us Windows programs probably won't run in that system without some help from an emulator or virtual machine.
It is not unlikely for Micorsoft to eventually release a Windows 12. The 2025 date you mention is the end of support life for Windows 10. Saying that it will be disabled is an outright misrepresentation of what will likely happen. I am sending this message to you from a Windows 7 machine that is way past it's end of support date, meaning it's more than 10 years old, and it it STILL functioning as it was designed to function. It simply doesn't make sense that Microsoft would somehow disable all the old versions of Windows. What I think your information is suffering from is the misunderstanding of the requirements attached to Windows 11 regarding secure boot. If you don't have the right processor and the TPM module on your motherboard, Windows 11 will not work thereupon. That is by design and well documented. However, all previous versions of Windows will work on those un-secured machines. And, just to add some clarity, I am running Windows 11 on two laptop computers that have secure boot disabled. Micorsoft would like you to have secure boot capability, but they are not demanding you use it.
Well, you have enlightened me about SDK. Back in the old days when I was working elbow to elbow with highly trained programmers and engineers the acronym SDK meant Sofware Development Kit. That was a package of several programs used for developing software applications. It had to be installed on some computer, be it Linux, Apple, or Windows in that it was just another program. The output of the SDK was a binary file that could be run on the appropriate microprocessor. I did a cursory search for some other interpretation of those letters but could not come up with anything from Google. Since you have experience with it, I am sure there is more than one meaning. I simply have not heard it used the way ASUS used it on me.
The second article was a little more honest in its approach. I too have not heard of a Windows 12 coming from Microsoft. However, I am part of the cutting edge release channel that is testing features not dedicated to any given operating system already in existence. That means some of the stuff they're putting into this development channel release of Windows is experimental. It may or may not end up in a stable release. I've not been able to identify a whole lot of that new experimental feature list, but none of what is being toyed with is mentioned in any of those articles.
Looking at the author byline, Brien Posey, of the second article you will note that the article was published in April of 2020. Windows 11 was not announced yet, but much of what is described ended up being features of Micorsoft's Windows 11. Brien Posey makes an excellent observation about a lite version of Linux being dressed up to look like Windows 12 (sic). Well, I believe if you dig deep enough into these very forums you will fine a post by me linking to a lite version of Linux dressed up to look like ... XP. In other words, the implication is that Windows 12 is a stripped down version of an unspecified Linux distribution with a desktop that resembles Microsoft's cash cow. Brien also comes clean when he tells us Windows programs probably won't run in that system without some help from an emulator or virtual machine.
It is not unlikely for Micorsoft to eventually release a Windows 12. The 2025 date you mention is the end of support life for Windows 10. Saying that it will be disabled is an outright misrepresentation of what will likely happen. I am sending this message to you from a Windows 7 machine that is way past it's end of support date, meaning it's more than 10 years old, and it it STILL functioning as it was designed to function. It simply doesn't make sense that Microsoft would somehow disable all the old versions of Windows. What I think your information is suffering from is the misunderstanding of the requirements attached to Windows 11 regarding secure boot. If you don't have the right processor and the TPM module on your motherboard, Windows 11 will not work thereupon. That is by design and well documented. However, all previous versions of Windows will work on those un-secured machines. And, just to add some clarity, I am running Windows 11 on two laptop computers that have secure boot disabled. Micorsoft would like you to have secure boot capability, but they are not demanding you use it.
Well, you have enlightened me about SDK. Back in the old days when I was working elbow to elbow with highly trained programmers and engineers the acronym SDK meant Sofware Development Kit. That was a package of several programs used for developing software applications. It had to be installed on some computer, be it Linux, Apple, or Windows in that it was just another program. The output of the SDK was a binary file that could be run on the appropriate microprocessor. I did a cursory search for some other interpretation of those letters but could not come up with anything from Google. Since you have experience with it, I am sure there is more than one meaning. I simply have not heard it used the way ASUS used it on me.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
I figured Win12 was a hoax, but then so was Win11 for a long time. After all, they did say Win10 was the end.
Yes, I realize we can still use old computers, like Win95 and Win98 and on up the line. But most cannot be used on-line anymore. The way I understood it was no new Windows OS will work on anything except brand spanking new computers designed for the new OS.
My wife Debi is using an old Win7 machine that belonged to her son. It was built as a top end gaming computer for its day, so had plenty of power in it.
I may have it wrong, but SDK was used to create like driver programs or ways to make hardware work on machines without those capabilities. All I really know about it is there were files associated with it, and it also, that had to be removed from Debi's computer when she got a new wireless keyboard and mouse.
Yes, I realize we can still use old computers, like Win95 and Win98 and on up the line. But most cannot be used on-line anymore. The way I understood it was no new Windows OS will work on anything except brand spanking new computers designed for the new OS.
My wife Debi is using an old Win7 machine that belonged to her son. It was built as a top end gaming computer for its day, so had plenty of power in it.
I may have it wrong, but SDK was used to create like driver programs or ways to make hardware work on machines without those capabilities. All I really know about it is there were files associated with it, and it also, that had to be removed from Debi's computer when she got a new wireless keyboard and mouse.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Your understanding is pretty close to being correct. It's the details that are missing in that statement that make it misleading.The way I understood it was no new Windows OS will work on anything except brand spanking new computers designed for the new OS.
First of all, there may in fact be a honest to goodness operating system called Windows 12, but it's not the Windows Microsoft invented. It's somebody's imitation of an existing product. The author of the second article you quoted mentions that he has seen it or used it in fact, but it's a Linux OS. Then again, I've not tried to find it for my own edification so that it might indeed all be bogus information. The article is more than 18 months old.
Yes, Microsoft can be said to have lied to us about Windows 10 being the last OS. That depends on what you call an operating system. In addition to saying it's the last OS from Micorsoft, they also claimed that as of Windows 10 they are now calling it Windows As A Service. It's no longer an operating system in that case. It's technically a service. There are a lot of examples of why that might in fact be a true statement, but there is no doubt about the confusion Microsoft themselves propagated by calling their latest brainchild Windows 11. While there was and is some confusion, there is a good reason for them to do it.
Windows 11 is not like any other desktop operating system that ever came out of Redmond. It still retains the same Windows As A Service function as did Windows 10 in that it does exactly the same things, plus a few more. So why change the name if it's so close to being the same as its predecessors? The reason for that, believe it or not, is to clarify that Windows 11 is something different. Using it requires the client to have special equipment that previous versions of Windows did not require. The name change is intended to inform the general public that they are buying into two different things when they have a choice between Windows 10 and Windows 11. Furthermore, Windows 11 will not work on any hardware that is not made to its requirements for security. Those high security computers are recent developments - within the past 3 years. Thus you can't install Windows 11 on any computer in your house. You can't even put it on a virtual machine because those VM's do not have the necessary security requirements built in.
My old MSI laptop was the first of a generation to be built with hardware that can run Windows 11. At the time I bought it, Windows 11 was not even announced yet. The security module was a new addition by Intel to mitigate certain security problems, and Microsoft took that module to a new level of performance. Thus you don't need "brand spanking new computers" to run the new Windows 11 OS. Then again, anything more than three years old won't cut it. People who have nothing better to do than bitch about Microsoft took the facts and twisted them around, or perhaps were not aware of the facts.
I have mentioned this before, but it is fitting to say it again. All those secure hardware requirements that Microsoft is imposing upon people who want to run with Windows 11 are optional. You can turn them all off and Windows 11 will still work. It may not be as secure as Microsoft wants it to be, but that is your choice. While I've heard and read a lot about how brutal Microsoft marketing is, nobody seems to want to admit that you don't have to use the system the way it was designed to be optimal. If you don't want the protection built into the software and the hardware, you don't need to use it. But then, you might as well just run Linux (which is what a lot of folks are doing).
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
Here's one thing to think about. If ms didn't leave so many gaping holes in their OS, it wouldn't be so vulnerable.
There are tons of malware type programs out there, using the same names as solid good programs a few folks want.
But if you download them from anywhere other than the original developers, you can easily get one that installs a virus, malware, or worse onto your computer.
Trying to circumvent the stupidity of some people is a paramount task that I don't see as being possible.
Not unless ms controls ALL the software, which they don't.
So I guess we'll just have to wait and see if Win11 is as secure as they claim it will be.
There are tons of malware type programs out there, using the same names as solid good programs a few folks want.
But if you download them from anywhere other than the original developers, you can easily get one that installs a virus, malware, or worse onto your computer.
Trying to circumvent the stupidity of some people is a paramount task that I don't see as being possible.
Not unless ms controls ALL the software, which they don't.
So I guess we'll just have to wait and see if Win11 is as secure as they claim it will be.
Re: ASUS Zephyrus S19
I won't defend Microsoft's shortcomings in their program development. I worked in an environment like that for many years and am familiar with all the problems. Their software development process was fixed for many years but it changed when Gates left the company and Windows 10 became a reality. The current version of Windows is vastly improved over previous editions partly due to the different methods they are now using to develop software. For example, they never had a publicly available beta channel until about 5 years ago. When the real world is debugging your software for you, many more insights are possible than when it's totally done in house. You don't have to wait around for the pundits to bless Windows 11. It is already demonstrably better than what Windows was prior to version 10. It's not bullet proof. No software used by more than one person is.
The fact that Micorsoft allows third party software developers into their operating system has been criticized ever since Apple computer rejected that concept. It all had to do with licensing and the different approaches to such taken by Apple and Microsoft. Now with mobile devices being so prevalent even Apple computer is seeing the benefits of opening up their products to outside vendors. If you doubt any of what Microsoft is doing, you simply need to look at their financials to see that they are one of the largest corporations on the planet. People are buying their products and it's not due to some shyster sales techniques. There is a lot more competition than there was when Microsoft was under Bill Gate's control so that a few other companies emulated what Gates created and became successes in their own right. You can argue that Microsoft is not the best, but they certainly are one of the very few leaders in the industry.
You are right about the stupidity of people. That has been a problem for many years. But that's not what Windows 11 is up against. Today there are state actors, that is people paid by the governments of other countries, who are attacking our networks 24/7. Since Microsoft has a fairly large presence on those networks it is in everybody's interest that they dedicate some energy to security. Hopefully somebody is doing something similar with all those Linux servers out there.
The fact that Micorsoft allows third party software developers into their operating system has been criticized ever since Apple computer rejected that concept. It all had to do with licensing and the different approaches to such taken by Apple and Microsoft. Now with mobile devices being so prevalent even Apple computer is seeing the benefits of opening up their products to outside vendors. If you doubt any of what Microsoft is doing, you simply need to look at their financials to see that they are one of the largest corporations on the planet. People are buying their products and it's not due to some shyster sales techniques. There is a lot more competition than there was when Microsoft was under Bill Gate's control so that a few other companies emulated what Gates created and became successes in their own right. You can argue that Microsoft is not the best, but they certainly are one of the very few leaders in the industry.
You are right about the stupidity of people. That has been a problem for many years. But that's not what Windows 11 is up against. Today there are state actors, that is people paid by the governments of other countries, who are attacking our networks 24/7. Since Microsoft has a fairly large presence on those networks it is in everybody's interest that they dedicate some energy to security. Hopefully somebody is doing something similar with all those Linux servers out there.