Posted on 10/04/2005 5:33:08 AM PDT by Halfmanhalfamazing
Windows was broken and Microsoft has admitted it. In an unprecedented attempt to explain its Longhorn problems and how it abandoned its traditional way of working, the normally secretive software giant has given unparalleled access to The Wall Street Journal, even revealing how Vice President Jim Allchin, personally broke the bad news to Bill Gates.
(Excerpt) Read more at smartofficenews.com.au ...
But it took so long to bake it. And I don't think that I can take it.
It sounds like MS is on the right track and I wish them great success.
C'mon...if you've been using Windows XP for the past couple of years, you haven't seen a blue screen for a while.
And while an open-sourced OS might work in your one-off home office solution, it's another thing to use that (and keep it up-to-date) in an enterprise solution.
I've been using WIN2K and XP for several years now and have NEVER seen a blue screen.
Don't feel 'communist' for supporting open-source. The thing about software is that, while in some senses it's a product and rather like a device, in other senses it's more like a mathematical proof. (In theoretical CS there is something called the Curry-Howard isomorphism which says valid programs in any given programming language correspond precisely with theorems in a certain formal logical system.)
Open-source is the way to get the kind of 'peer review' which check mathematical proofs to get all the bugs out. (However much problem peer review creates in authority based fields like the humanities and social sciences where it lets crap like Ward Churchill's stuff get published, or the natural sciences, where it works well to preserve quality, but encourages a 'herd mentality' that sometimes suppresses innovation, it works really well in mathematics.) Proprietary software is akin to a mathematician leaving out the details and saying 'trust me'.
The market is still trying to discover a business model which takes this feature of software properly into account, and in the long run, despite the money they've spent on their legal department, it won't be MS's model.
Oh yes I have!!
Surely, you're in the small minority of users.
Have you ever had it spontaeneously reboot? There is a registry setting that can make XP reboot on a 'stop'. many people who have made the claim you made changed their tune once they disabled this feature.
BS and more BS.
I get the BSOD at LEAST once per week - often once per day. It is intermitant and other than the typical disclaimer from MS (Driver Problem), there is NO WAY to detect what is happening. It would be VERY nice if MS could at least identify WHICH driver is causing the problem(s), helps to narrow down the search just a bit.
BTW - all drivers are up to date - all cards changed, cables changed, power supply changed - all for "nothing" (except of course the $$$ and time spent trying to fix the problem - and NO, the PC shop couldn't solve it either)
SO, before you shill for MS - get a clue. People don't complain just to complain and MS's reputation is far from silver.
to the article - I have been saying for years that MS should "start from scratch" on the next OS - far too many problems in the current version(s) which have never been satisfactorily solved. If they've done this on Longhorn (or whatever it's called) GREAT!
How comforting.
Whoa, there, ex-pat. I'm not shilling for MS, and I think that 15+ years' experience in the IT field has given me more than enough "clues." People do complain all the time, which is their right, I suppose. I just feel their complaints are misdirected.
Some users seem to expect that their OS should slice, dice and julienne -- if your PC keeps giving you a BSOD, you must have an unusual configuration, or something isn't installed correctly. I have access to a corporate helpdesk, and I know plenty of home users who, as long as they're on a semi-recent version of Windows (2K SP4 and greater), have very few problems related to the OS.
D-base 2 rules!
Sure sounded like it when you claimed "...if you've been using Windows XP for the past couple of years, you haven't seen a blue screen for a while."
I've been working with computers since 1978, and, as an IT professional since 1990. I too have some "clues" about MS and the quality of thier OS's.
MS has earned ever bit of the scorn that they have received over the years for thier less than stellar performance in providing stable operating systems.
As to the "unusual configuration" - motherboard, harddisk, mouse, printer, monitor, graphics card & ethernet card - all approved by MS and at the correct patch levels - Windows XP SP2 and all patches. Thats it.
However, you raise an interesting point - the Joe Sixpack user, who only wants the stupid PC to work will have no idea what to do when the BSOD comes and MUSt spend a great deal of money to have a technician troubleshot the system. If he is savvy enough to insist that all components of the system are MS approved - he still has NO guareentee that the system will continue to function in one years time as updated drivers can crash his system and he will have no way of finding out which one is causing the problem.
If MS had followed common standards of programming - a lot of these problems would never have occured as the OS would not accept the hardware / driver without compatablity! Furthermore - that the system can not identify which driver was attemting to perform a specific operation which caused the crash to occur, but CAN take the time to dump the system, etc...) is nothing more that a sign of MS not caring about the trouble thier OS causes.
The ONLY thing that has improved at MS over the years as far as the consumer is concerned is that the Help Desk Support now actually takes the time to attempt to solve the problem - unlike 15 years ago when you were just SOL if you had a problem - of course DOS was pretty easy and the user had actual documentation to consult if the system wouldn't boot. Now, if it won't boot, even an experienced user (not IT) is stuck with boxing it up and sending it in . . .
As usual you a re clueless to the midrange / mainframe market and the ROI and TCO figures - but here's a clue - any MS configuaration that could, in theory, satisfy the same needs (uptime, transaction speed, etc...) exceeds the costs of the midrange mainframe systems by exponential figures.....
I generally don't like open source. First, when was the last time you screwed with the code on a os program? How many times have you added functionality to the MySQL code base? OK. If you're like 99.9999 percent of users, you won't. So what's the benefit of open source? It's free. Oh, but it's "Peer Reviewed". Give me a break. Who are the clowns who gave the developer of the install for Fedora 3 a pass?
The only upside to open source software by its nature is that it's free.
So, because YOU have had a good experience with XP, my bad experience is worthless???
I runa a small business and have a total of 6 PC's of various fabrications. Two on XP Pro, the rest on XP - all at current levels of SP, patches, etc.....
Three of the PC's (all different) have worked for over a year with ZERO problem.
My "Office PC" occasionally craps out (lost connections to the printer requireing new install), but nothing "serious" (just annoying)
My "home PC" is the one I described earlier - and the corrupt registry is one of it's favorite problems - I know the revoery process "by heart" and regularly save a copy of a current registry manually to save time and booting.
My other "home PC" refuses to install windows 2000, windows XP Home / Pro - won't copy the files from the CD (an old version of Linux works just fine, so I use that for my "learn Linux" box)
Laptop is "flaky" but laptops are anyway "flaky" (no crashes, just annoyances . . .)
So, "XP is rock solid" is, IMHO a bunch of BS. Is it better than it's predecessors - sure - is it what it should be for the price - no way. I hope that the "new" developement methods will fix this - but, after dealing with MS headaches since at least 1985, I have little faith.
The only thing I take exception with in your previous post is your tagline!!!
As a former US Army CI Agent - I can personlly testify that the military has been draining the swamp of terrorism since at least 1985!!!!
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