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XPect the Worst [Derbyshire on Windows Upgrades]
National Review Online ^ | October 30, 2001 8:40 a.m. | John Derbyshire

Posted on 10/30/2001 7:38:52 AM PST by SlickWillard

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1 posted on 10/30/2001 7:38:52 AM PST by SlickWillard
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To: bwteim
Another grumpy Windoze user...... heh heh. Cheers, CC :)
2 posted on 10/30/2001 7:42:31 AM PST by CheneyChick
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To: SlickWillard
I know EXACTLY how this man feels- My work and computer history is very similar to this. I used to be able to take a computer apart until I had nothing but individual computer molecules and then put it back together and make it do somethign fun and different....nowadays I dread each and every time I have to install something new.
3 posted on 10/30/2001 7:48:42 AM PST by Mr. K
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To: SlickWillard
Installed XP on my main computer at home from Windows 2000.....no problems so far.

I haven't tried loading Need For Speed 5 yet. NFS5 is not compatible with Windows 2000 but I needed the stability rather than the gaming capacity. Hopefully I can get both now.

4 posted on 10/30/2001 7:49:37 AM PST by lormand
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To: SlickWillard
For a user, Macs work pretty well. Honest.
5 posted on 10/30/2001 7:50:53 AM PST by Question_Assumptions
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From yesterday's Chicago Tribune:

Apple's best reason yet to pitch your Pentium
James Coates

October 28, 2001

With the arrival of Windows XP, Microsoft's superb new personal computer operating system, there rarely has been a more appropriate time to consider dumping Bill Gates' enormously popular world of Windows and moving over to the Macintosh minority.

That's right, now may be the time to pitch your Pentium. Maybe you should whisk Windows into the recycle bin and get yourself one of the equally powerful computers based on the PowerPC chip line offered by Apple Computer Inc. of 1 Infinite Loop, Cupertino, Calif. The reasoning is as simple as second-grade show and tell, friends and neighbors. Since Microsoft pitches the move from all other flavors of Windows to Windows XP as an elemental change that will alter our computing lives forever, why not go hog wild?

How about a sea change that really will alter our computing lives forever? Why not move to Mac OS X? (MORE....)


6 posted on 10/30/2001 7:51:11 AM PST by CheneyChick
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Comment #7 Removed by Moderator

To: SlickWillard
Wow. John's quite the whiner.
8 posted on 10/30/2001 7:54:14 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny
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To: CheneyChick
Hmmmm...my Linux machines keep running and running...

I've shared much of this path the author has walked (I was doing Vaxes while he was doing mainframes), and I must say that the neat stuff is still there just as long as one doesn't get caught up in the "suit stuff".

I do, however, miss the days of "Creative Computing Magazine" - when it seemed there was a new breakthrough every week!

9 posted on 10/30/2001 7:56:29 AM PST by The Duke
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To: SlickWillard
In case I ever feel the urge to do some heavyweight programming, I have VB6 and Access installed

Access is to heavyweight programming what turnips are to peas.  IOW, there is no connection other than they are in the same kingdom...
10 posted on 10/30/2001 7:58:53 AM PST by Frumious Bandersnatch
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To: Northman
LOL, look out, Northman - you're about to be overrun with Apple snobs with cafe latte and ponytails in tow! Btw, I also installed XP, and think its great. So I'd better get some of the name calling out of the way: I'm a microsurf, a windoze user, a l00zer, a n00b, etc., etc. Yawn. Let people use the damn computer they want to and quit griping about people's choices, people.
11 posted on 10/30/2001 7:59:33 AM PST by egarvue
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To: SlickWillard
I think that Mr. Derbyshire should go out and get Michael Myers A+ book. This stuff isn't that hard, all Derb has to do is apply himself to learn it.

If he hadn't put the ME on his system that would have helped too. My 98 still works just fine. The only reason I'll put XP on is that I got a good deal on XP Pro because I work for a channel partner of MS.

12 posted on 10/30/2001 8:00:33 AM PST by GreenLanternCorps
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To: Mr. K
Me too. I'm right with Derbyshire, except that I'm using Win98 at home and have absolutely NO INTENTION of ever upgrading anything. As it is, I just recently bought a new HP Photoshop 1000 printer (only because my old HP inkjet died.) Come to find out, I can run either the HP printer OR my old flatbed scanner -- BUT NEVER BOTH. I have to unplug the one to use the other (and eliminate the flatbed driver, plus jump through two more hoops just to print.)

ARRRRGGHHHH!!!! There is no end to my hatred for Bill Gates, Microsoft and the WHOLE #O*(#$)(OIF COMPUTER INDUSTRY. I want my life back.

13 posted on 10/30/2001 8:00:46 AM PST by Aristophanes
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To: Frumious Bandersnatch
True. Us Access/VB programmers never claimed to be heavyweight programmers. But at least it keeps a roof over my kids heads, and food on the table.
14 posted on 10/30/2001 8:01:07 AM PST by egarvue
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To: SlickWillard; snopercod
I was reading this article ... not having noticed, at first, who had posted it to Free Republic.

Pretty soon, I thought, Gee, I should ping SlickWillard.

But then, guess who . . .

I work on the things every day, and I try and tell my bosses and customers (they're really the same), about how incredible are the many more fiascos which Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, et all, have dreamed up.

The lack of thoroughness is astonishing.

In the last two weeks, I have called and talked to the hard drives special section of technical support at I.B.M. And their responses to me have been that I know more about the drives than do they!

I constantly run across instructions manuals which have conflicting information: Given devices A and B, one manual says to turn ON, first A, then B; while the other manual says to turn ON, first B, then A.

Software which is supposedly compatible with Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional, must actually be run by using a Windows '98 startup floppy diskette.

The list of incompatibilities with the PC structure as a whole, is fissionable in reaction.

Whatever "standards" once meant, is now meaning-less, literally.

And then, when I am desparate for at least something interesting in the news, in traffic, I turn on the radio and hear the Maja Rushies lecturing us about how Microsoft is "innovative?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Computer industry experts have forgotten:

The purpose of computers and computer programs, is to substitute for human effort.

The darned things do not work; rather, they just consume.

For the inputs, very little outputs.

15 posted on 10/30/2001 8:04:31 AM PST by First_Salute
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To: SlickWillard
I heard the same whining from users who swore never to upgrade from DOS to Windows. Wonder if they're still staring at a C Prompt.
16 posted on 10/30/2001 8:05:23 AM PST by Leroy S. Mort
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To: SlickWillard

17 posted on 10/30/2001 8:06:25 AM PST by Diogenesis
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To: SlickWillard
Wow, people sure turn into victims when they turn on a PC. My 63 year old mom hasn't had as hard of a time as this guy, and she just got her first PC a year ago. I haven't heard this much whining since Gore2000.
18 posted on 10/30/2001 8:07:40 AM PST by SoDak
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To: SlickWillard
"HP is still "researching" how to get a label saying "part number X" on to a disk that actually contains part number X."

It's like that pretty much anywhere you work nowadays. Public education coming home to roost. I expect that unless some miracle happens, we won't be able to build cars or get a Space Shuttle off the ground in the not too distant future.

19 posted on 10/30/2001 8:08:30 AM PST by Harrison Bergeron
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To: CheneyChick
Another grumpy Windoze user...... heh heh. Cheers, CC :)

Yes and if Apple hadn't decided to emulate Sony Beta and kill itself off, more of us might be enjoying Apple machines.

Closed system? Outrageous prices?
Some of us have to spend our own money and don't have an unlimited supply.
We also have better things to do with it given a choice.

20 posted on 10/30/2001 8:09:22 AM PST by Publius6961
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