XP is garbage

[Joerg]

Hello Graham,

Our realtime test sets all run DOS.

No bugs in DOS AFAIK !

Yep, I have yet to find one.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Joerg]

Hello Tom,

Do you know what XP actually stands for? It stands for...eXPerience.

Hmmm, I always have to brace myself when in front of an XP computer so I
don't let of an eXPletive...

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[John Larkin]

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:47:05 +0100, Pooh Bear
<rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

Each new Dell has 2 identical hard drives. I bought TrueImage to clone
the drives; one master setup on one pc gets cloned to all three other
drives. I wanted to also image the pristine setup to DVDs, which
TrueImage is supposed to do, too, but that doesn't work. So I ordered
two more identical hard drives and I'll image onto them, pull, and
stash them in storage for when something breaks.

Why don't you use a RAID controller and mirror the drives in real time ?

Because all that will do is give me reliable storage of a damaged OS.
It's not so much disk failures I'm concerned about, it's os corruption
and loss of files. If I back up my project and email and datasheet
files often to DVDs, and I have a configured baseline OS I can
reinstall, I can get back on line fast after any disaster. If I have
to reinstall Windows and all my apps, and reconfigure all the settings
and stuff, it would take a week or two.

I sure wish I could image the hard drive to a DVD or two. TrueImage
bombs... anybody know of something that works?

John

 

In <425AFE69.317F6031@hotmail.com>, on 04/11/05
at 11:47 PM, Pooh Bear <rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> said:

Why don't you use a RAID controller and mirror the drives in real time ?

Because mirroring only protects against hard drive failure, and how many
times does that really happen? Having a backup is much preferred with
windwoes because it can seldom be repaired, requiring the install all over
again.

www.dfsee.com is a pretty nice program for making image files, and cloning
drives and partitions. Once your stuff is all installed, and virus/adware
free, make a compressed image and store it on another drive, or even had
dfsee chop it into CD sizes, and then when things vomit all over itself,
as it most certainly will, just blow it off, and restore the image or
clone.

There are ways to get around windwoes problems, but it takes a bit of a
dance

JB

 

[Joerg]

Hello Jeff,

Lindows is now called Linspire (lawsuit).
It was gunning for a Windows-like look & feel
and by default is about as insecure as Windoze.

That doesn't sound encouraging. Then I ask myself, what good does it do
if it doesn't offer a significant stability advantage?

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

In <1113261264.466087.165480@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, on 04/11/05
at 04:14 PM, "JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> said:

What ever happened to Linux with a Windows extension (Lindows?)?
Joerg

Linux with a Windows extension == Linux + wine
(wine == reverse-engineered Windows API library)
wine steadily gets more inclusive.

Lindows is now called Linspire (lawsuit).
It was gunning for a Windows-like look & feel
and by default is about as insecure as Windoze.

Lindows ain't too bad, if you buy the subscription, and have a broadband
connection to get all the apps for it. Just like with any linux, you have
to create a new user once its installed, or you are root, and as you say,
insecure as can be.

They gave it away for a while, a few months back, I tried it, and its no
better, no worse than most other distros. It is a bit nicer, having some
names make sense, and utilities that we all get used to having are right
there, rather than having to be dug up, and put on the menu bar by hand.

JB

 

In <1113262552.233044.292030@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, on 04/11/05
at 04:35 PM, "JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> said:

Not the fault of the browser or the OS.
The problem is moron site owners.

Its not always an invalid page. Often the idiot programmer looks for IE,
and if its not IE, he/she simply refuses to show pages, offer links, etc.

There is crappy code (boy is there every!) and there are programmers who
are twelve years old and only know how to use FrontPage. There are more of
the latter, than the former, although they are certainly intertwined.....

My bank won't let me in with Mozilla/Firefox in OS/2 or Linux, so when I
need to use it, I just set it to IE, and everything is there. Ebay often
displays pages better when it thinks I am a microsoft users. Its a mess
for sure but it doesn't help having wet-behind-the-ear boneheads setting
up the pages, and locking people out. I have found more than a few
occasions, that contacting sales or other upper management folks for most
corporations, and explaining the issue of locking out customers, usually
gets someone a kick in the butt, and not long after, the web site is open
to all.

Most officers in the company have no idea that their front doors are
locked to a lot of customers, and they respond quite positively to gentle
prodding.

JB

 

Lindows is now called Linspire (lawsuit).
It was gunning for a Windows-like look & feel
and by default is about as insecure as Windoze.

That doesn't sound encouraging. Then I ask myself, what good does it do
if it doesn't offer a significant stability advantage?

stable and secure are two different things. Linspire would likely be as
stable as any Linux distro, but generally speaking, is stability an issue
anymore with XP and 2000, on the large scale that is was with Win9*?

I don't do XP, but win2000 is a rock, and when an app does go over the
edge, the task manager always seems to come up, and let me kill it.

Not that I am touting M$, by any means. Linux, and that old OS/2 thing
make it look like a tinker toy in that department.

JB

 

[Pooh Bear]

bigcat@meeow.co.uk wrote:

c) including a fast track miniOS, a little like DOS, enabling parts of
apps to run at top speed bypassing the main OS,

Have you ever seen 32 bit DOS in operation ?

Was stunningly / blindingly fast. Microsoft clearly wanted to kill that one
very quickly. You could do *real* pro non-linear video editing on a 486 !


Graham

 

[Joerg]

Hello JB,

stable and secure are two different things. Linspire would likely be as
stable as any Linux distro, but generally speaking, is stability an issue
anymore with XP and 2000, on the large scale that is was with Win9*?

Oh yes, it is an issue.

I don't do XP, but win2000 is a rock, and when an app does go over the
edge, the task manager always seems to come up, and let me kill it.

2000 is kind of ok but they won't let me have it on new laptops. Can't
self-install either because some crucial drivers are only available for XP.

But I do crash 2000 once in a while, requiring a hard boot. XP behaves
much worse. The only rock-stable OSes I know are DOS and QNX.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

[Chris Carlen]

John Larkin wrote:

On Mon, 11 Apr 2005 23:47:05 +0100, Pooh Bear
rabbitsfriendsandrelations@hotmail.com> wrote:

Each new Dell has 2 identical hard drives. I bought TrueImage to clone
the drives; one master setup on one pc gets cloned to all three other
drives. I wanted to also image the pristine setup to DVDs, which
TrueImage is supposed to do, too, but that doesn't work. So I ordered
two more identical hard drives and I'll image onto them, pull, and
stash them in storage for when something breaks.
Why don't you use a RAID controller and mirror the drives in real time ?


Because all that will do is give me reliable storage of a damaged OS.
It's not so much disk failures I'm concerned about, it's os corruption
and loss of files. If I back up my project and email and datasheet
files often to DVDs, and I have a configured baseline OS I can
reinstall, I can get back on line fast after any disaster. If I have
to reinstall Windows and all my apps, and reconfigure all the settings
and stuff, it would take a week or two.

I sure wish I could image the hard drive to a DVD or two. TrueImage
bombs... anybody know of something that works?

John

That would be an interesting candidate for a Knoppix CD.




--
_______________________________________________________________________
Christopher R. Carlen
Principal Laser/Optical Technologist
Sandia National Laboratories CA USA
crcarleRemoveThis@BOGUSsandia.gov
NOTE, delete texts: "RemoveThis" and "BOGUS" from email address to reply.

 

[Joerg]

Hello JB,

Most officers in the company have no idea that their front doors are
locked to a lot of customers, and they respond quite positively to gentle
prodding.

Semiconductor manufacturers are often blissfully unaware of the
design-ins they are losing because of it.

Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com

 

In <d3f4g1$krv$1@blue.rahul.net>, on 04/12/05
at 12:24 AM, kensmith@green.rahul.net (Ken Smith) said:

BTW: I have found that well written windows apps run just fine under
"wine". Unfortunately only about 1% or less of windows apps are well
written.

Have you ever seen or tried Crossover Office from codeweavers.com?

I used it a few times and it was remarkably decent at running a lot of
windows apps. photoshop, quicken, and most things I use. Its just a well
developed and supported app using wine as the core. The only problem was
my machine didn't have the CPU or RAM to get along smoothly. I would think
a high end PC would make good use of it. They have a 30 day demo on their
web site.

Just an FYI

JB

 

In <1113268990.624221.62420@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com>, on 04/11/05
at 06:23 PM, "JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> said:

Lindows ain't too bad...Just like with any linux,
you have to create a new user once its installed,
or you are root, and as you say, insecure as can be.
JB (learning @ learning.com)

I read about it on Slashdot and about choked on my beverage
when it said that it didn't put the new user (owner) in a sandbox where
he had to create a user account with reduced permissions before it would
let him at the system.

Not true at all.

OS X pops up sudo dialogs for priviledged tasks.
It seems that Apple is getting it right.

Then by a Mac for pete's sake.

its no better, no worse than most other distros.
It is a bit nicer, having some names make sense

Yeah. I thought that was interesting--rename all the apps
so when you go to a real *n?x box, nothing works the same.

Hey Jeff, I used it. I have no idea what slashdot is talking about. Making
users is exactly the same process as it is on any linux box.

There are not differently named apps. The difference is there is a task
manager already there, rather than digging it out, and a few other
utilities that most windows users are used to having handy in a lame
attempt to make the switch less painful.

There is no such thing a a real *nux box anymore, as they are ALL
different. Apps don't work across the board, they have to be compiled for
the specific distro and often become unusable when the next revision hits.
Its all quite a joke, and most laughable.

As was said at the front of this linux stuff, Linux is splintered, and has
no future outside of the hard core hacker willing to invest hundreds of
hours every time a new distro hits. I ain't touting it. I have tried at
least a dozen apps, and the only thing that sucks more than linux itself
is the people who live and die by it, and go ballistic when you say
anything negative about it.<shrug> Others enjoy it, so I posted what I had
actually seen by using it, not just some quotes from a microsoft loving
web site.

JB

 

In <1113270424.744548.318740@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com>, on 04/11/05
at 06:47 PM, "JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> said:

I sure wish I could image the hard drive to a DVD or two.
TrueImage bombs... anybody know of something that works?
John Larkin

The granddaddy of cloning tools:
http://64.233.187.104/search?q=cache:QKe5Cy6porsJ:service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ghost.nsf/pfdocs/2002030414141625+norton-ghost+to-a-dvd

Click on Tested DVD drives.

There are as many opinions, as there are users. Run and hide from Norton
Ghost. It will fail you when you need it most.

Let the objections begin, but remember you have been warned by someone who
has waited years and years to see if Norton/Symantec could ever get it
right. Not so far.

www.dfsee.com At least the author will help you quickly, and kindly.

JB

 

In <Pe-dnXTJpMy5oMbfRVn-1w@comcast.com>, on 04/11/05
at 08:16 PM, "Joel Kolstad" <JKolstad71HatesSpam@Yahoo.Com> said:

"JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> wrote in message
news:1113261264.466087.165480@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com... > Lindows
is now called Linspire (lawsuit).
It was gunning for a Windows-like look & feel
and by default is about as insecure as Windoze.

No wonder it's so popular.

Getting your average computer user to perform the equivalent of 'su' in
ANY operating system takes an act of Congress, I think...

That was the reason for the 'sort of' windows gui, so folks don't need to
go to the command line. Seems like most distros now let you create a user
which is more secure, and when you try to access something that requires
su, they just pop up a window and ask for the root password.

Few windows users are prepared for working under the hood in a linux
system

JB

 

[Joel Kolstad]

"JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> wrote in message
news:1113261264.466087.165480@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...

Lindows is now called Linspire (lawsuit).
It was gunning for a Windows-like look & feel
and by default is about as insecure as Windoze.

No wonder it's so popular.

Getting your average computer user to perform the equivalent of 'su' in ANY
operating system takes an act of Congress, I think...

 

[Joel Kolstad]

"Joerg" <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> wrote in message
news:XjE6e.587$J12.214@newssvr14.news.prodigy.com...

The only rock-stable OSes I know are DOS and QNX.

....and unfortunately I suspect that QNX's days might be numbered with so
many companies now switching to Linux for their embedded OSes... :-(

 

[Guy Macon]

Chris Carlen wrote:

The different distros all have
their own way of doing things, so no apps work the same across all of
them. They customize the vanilla apps such as OpenOffice and Mozilla to
integrate with their desktop and config tools, so you can't upgrade the
apps with drop in packages direct from the originating projects.

You just haven't looked in the right place. There is a Linux distribution
that never customizes apps - they are exactly as they would be if you
got them from the author and did a default install.

See [ http://www.slackware.com ].

Each version gets worse, in direct proportion to how much more
"smart" it tries to be. I am considering going back to Slackware
with which I started 9 years ago, but I can't afford another 1-2
months of tinkering to get it all set up.

I know the feeling; back then Slackware needed a lot or twaeking.
The latest version installs and runs with a minimum of tinkering.

And no matter what I do, more and more of the web sites that I simply
must use to run my life, have show stopping quirks or issues unless IE
is used. Or even more depressingly, they work with an alternative
browser such as Firefox on Windows, but not on Linux.

Alas, you are right. I still keep a Windows 200 box on my local
network to run IE and PowerBASIC.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

"j.b. miller" <invalidjbmiller@cogeco.ca> wrote in message
news:3_B6e.763$K24.697@read1.cgocable.net...
The old adage..if it ain't broke, don't fix it applies to operating
systems!
I still use W98,1st,rock stable,no blue screens of death,etc.

I think Windows 98 in general is far less stable in Win2K and XP. In
particular, ANY PROGRAM WHATSOEVER can willy-nilly can and write anywhere in
the PC's memory, to its I/O ports, etc... yikes!

Windows 98 is also pretty hard to 'secure.' For an individual user, that
typically doesn't matter, but for actual companies, security is a Big
Deal...

I haven't had the problems others have with XP, although I'd say that about
the only thing I really like in XP that isn't in Win2K is the automatic
grouping of the window "buttons" down on the taskbar based on the program
that spawned them all. Something like a SPICE program popping up a half
dozen different windows really clutters the Win2K taskbar -- not so in XP.

Oh, and XP's "remote control" is pretty cool. Much more reliable, in my
expereience, than stuff like TightVNC that you might get for W2K.

---Joel Kolstad