THIS OPERATING SYSTEM WORKS

Fiedor Report On the News #251 ^ | 11-18-01 | Doug Fiedor

[forest]

Over the years, I’ve had the bad and the ugly. Finally, mostly by mistake, I got the good.

Years ago, I laid out a thousand bucks for Radio Shack’s TRS-80 -- later called “Trash-80.” We actually did real work on that little computer. That is, after a week or two of programming, one was used for a few years in a major medical institution as a very fancy calculator. That machine did, in fact, save medical personnel many thousands of hours of work.

Later, I spent $5,000 on a fancy DOS machine with two floppy disk drives and a big printer. I still have a copy of the DOS 1.2 disks and the manuals someplace. That, with the MultiMate word processor, became a very well used computer.

Later came the more familiar DOS 3, 4, 5, and 6. Then Windows 3, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME -- and always, the “Blue Screen of Death.” The fact is, if I had a buck for every time I rebooted over the years because of software errors, I could probably buy a new Lincoln Town Car today.

The truth is, these operating systems worked most of the time, but they could also do some very strange things at very inappropriate moments. In fact, the frequency of complete system lock-ups often seemed to be directly in proportion to the importance of the work being done. It often seemed that way, anyway. Writing grants or articles on deadline always seemed to crash Windows. Normal e-mail chitchat never did. Go figure!

One major problem, of course, was that Microsoft kept changing the operating system. So, as soon as we learned one operating system and got most of the problems ironed out, the new one was out and it had its own new set of peculiarities -- and yet a new set of reasons for causing system crashes. So, the whole learning procedure began anew.

To say that I wanted yet another new operating system would be like taping a “kick me” sign on my shirttail! But, I needed a computer. Bummer. So, what to do?

Looking around, everything available had Windows XP installed. I wanted Windows 98. Besides, my Internet provider clearly states that the modems we use are not supported by the new Windows XP operating system and will not work. Double bummer!

Then, a “deal” on a computer popped up. A new computer was available that had everything (and more) that I wanted at a very reasonable price that I was willing to pay. But, it also had the Windows XP Home operating system installed. On the other hand, having a copy of Windows 98 at home, I was in a position to correct that anomaly. So, I bought the beast and took it home.

Well, inquisitive minds want to know. So, I thought I would give the new Windows XP system an evening of my time just to see what all the hype was about. But, I wanted it operating on the Internet -- no matter what my ISP said.

Out of the box, there was a keyboard error. A little message implied something about “fixing it” and I agreed. Keyboard error disappeared. Then I had no sound.

So, I went into the trouble page and it asked a few questions about sound. Suddenly, sound worked.

This was getting interesting!

So, what the heck: I loaded the software for my Internet provider. As they said, I had no driver for my modem. So, I told XP that I had a generic cable modem. That’s when something very strange happened:

I fooled around for another minute or so, and apparently XP was also doing its thing in the background. Because, suddenly a little message popped up informing me that I was on line.

Loading a browser confirmed that, indeed, XP had created a path to the Internet and my connect speed was well over 1,000 Mbps. There has never been a problem with anything since.

At one point, I was listening to a radio program on Netscape Media Player while I was typing in a word processor, had both Netscape and Explorer open and the silly browser for my Internet system opened when I clicked on a link from e-mail. That’s a lot, even with 512 MB of Ram. But, still nothing crashed.

I have now spent a week with the new Windows XP Home edition. I planned to list all the problems I found with Windows XP here, then reformat the hard drive and use Windows 98 from then on. But, there were no problems. Nothing crashed. Nothing didn’t work. Nothing needed extensive setup. The system just works as I intended. No fooling around was necessary.

I’m keeping XP. But, certainly not because I want another operating system to learn. I’m keeping it simply because it has caused me zero problems in its first 60 hours of use. What’s not to like here?

The impression is almost that all those other Microsoft operating systems were little more than aggravating toys and now we get to use the real thing. So, my next step will be to network the two computers -- which is also a function that comes with the XP system. That done, I will revert to being a computer user and leave all the “system management” problems to Windows XP. Because, the computers will then be doing every little thing I want my computers to do. Fast, too!

Truly, this was the fastest I have ever gotten a computer set up and running properly. Within two hours, all my software was installed and I was on the Internet reading news. I expect there may be some sort of problems develop in the next couple weeks, but I have no idea what they might be because everything I use installed properly the first time and works great.

Sure, I have heard a few gripes about XP. I don’t have any yet, though. Someone also mentioned “Product Activation” -- calling Microsoft for permission to use your own operating system. However, I was already up and running before that was mentioned to me. Too late now. . . .

The downside, as I see it, is that when XP makes repairs/changes, it does not inform the user what it did. The upside is that everything works and I didn’t have to do any fooling around whatsoever to make things work properly. For the latter reason, so far, I like XP Home a lot -- and I have never said that before about any operating system in the first week of use. Never!  

 END

[Dan Nunn]

I've been using Windows XP on my Dell laptop since October 24 and I've had nothing but problems. I got the BSOD three times the first day.

Hmm, I don't believe you. Why? Because XP doesn't get the standard Blue Screen errors that Windows 9x gets. You see, by default (you can change it), when XP encounters a fatal error (which is next to never, I've only had it happen thanks to my nVidia drivers), it automatically reboots. No blue screen at all. The only "blue screen" that XP would ever get is called an "NT STOP" error that you get when you boot up. That's a rarity and a very serious problem such as unable to find critical system files. I'm sure that's not what you're talking about. So, do I believe you? No.

"Stick with the tried and true, stable Windows 2000. Don't muck with Windows XP. It's as big a turkey as Windows ME."

Well, Windows 2000 is stable. XP is based on 2000, however, so if you have any problems with XP, it's based on drivers. XP does take a lot more memory than 2000 though, so if you're using older systems, I'd advise for 2000. But comparing it to ME is absurd.

On another note, Redaht 7.2 is outstanding. I recommend a KDE 2.2.1 desktop over Gnome, however. Out of the box, it works better on a Cyrix PR233 MHz CPU with 96 MB RAM (yeah...I know, ancient technology) than Windows XP on a 850 MHz Pentium III with 384 MB RAM.

ugh, not Linux again. Yeah, I'm sure it works better. Of course, you can't run anything you used to run on it. Have fun playing "XBill" and writing documents in some crappy office suite by the makers of Java, while I'm playing great 3D games and using the superb Office XP.

[LuvItOrLeaveIt]

I've been running XP Pro (original installation) since October 29, and it has crashed once.

I've been running it since October 24. It crashed three times the first day. As I've been tweaking it, it's gotten better. It crashed once daily the first week, and only twice during the entire second week.

It's been seven days since I last crashed.

On another note, I've got an exposed Redhat Linux 6.2 box acting as a DNS server running BIND. It has never crashed nad I haven't even rebooted in 2 1/2 years!

[Justa]

I think he means his connection type was "over 1000 MBps.

[Paleo Conservative]

Windows XP DOES NOT require a Passport account. You were sold a bill of goods. It will ask you a few times if you would like one, but it is NOT required in any way.

Try getting online support without a Passport account. There are security bugs in Passport. I would recommend against storing any credit card numbers in its online database.

[damnlimey]

"speed was well over 1,000 Mbps."
Read the article,I think 1000Mbps is an incredible achievement!

[MadIvan]

Question - I am considering getting a laptop with XP Home on it (really good deal) - will Office 2000 run on it? I don't need anything more than Office 2000.

Regards, Ivan

FreeBritannia.co.uk

[capt. norm]

You're right. Windows 2000 (alias Windows NT v5.0) was put together by the NT group and it is rock solid.

[Dan Nunn]

The things I really can't get past are the "phone home" feature

It does this once. Just once. All it sends is a unique hardware key configured to your system. They can't reverse this key and get out what hardware you have. It's a one-way hash.

and the idea that I can't mess around with my hardware setup without going through them.

Honestly, how often do you switch your hardware? I switch my hardware more than most people I know and I've never had to re-activate. Just in the past two months I've added an nVidia GeForce 2, SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum, and a Hauppague WinTV tuner card. No reactivation is necessary. In fact, you need to change 6 components within 120 days to trigger activation. And even then, if you're connected to the internet, all this means is you click "Next" about three times.

I also hate when software does things for me such as "fix" my OS.

I'm still not sure what you mean by this - how does it "fix" itself? I do notice a lot of behind the scenes operations by XP, but I am happier because of it. For example, there is a customized Start menu that rearranges the order based upon how often you use the applications. There is a desktop icon wizard that offers you the option to delete specific icons on your desktop which it knows you have not used often. All of these have the option of being disabled, obviously.

[Doug Fiedor]

I simply turned it off and turned it back on. It came back up in a flash, with none of that horrible "Windows was not properly shut down" stuff.

Same here. The "super-duper" video card on the new computer crashed the old monitor I had hooked to it. While checking things before getting a new monitor, I turned the computer on and off twice (shut down impropperly three times in a row).

When I installed a new monitor, up came XP as if nothing happened! No "scandisk," no nothing. It worked immediately.

However, I noticed that if I turn the computer on before the monitor, XP reverts to the DOS setup. That's a bit strange, but interesting to know.

[SolitaryMan]

Considering that MAYA Single Node-locked License Price is $7500.00, I figure you can run just about any computer you want. So why not go with SGI or SUN? You have any examples posted online?

[BellStar]

Ok what is the big difference in office XP and home XP?

[EdZep]

What’s not to like here?

I just got my first time in on Windows XP yesterday, on a 1.6 GHz P4 Sony Vaio desktop system. The speed (lack of) was appalling. Just poking around, opening control panels, various software, etc. Very bad. Uh... that's after I removed some background applications from startup, and rebooted. And, I did note that performance improved somewhat when I turned off all the glitz visual features that make XP look different from Win2000 and Win98.

The useful speed of this 1.6 GHz machine was far lower than my 850 MHz PIII with Win2000. And, it's far lower than any Win98 system I've seen, running on PII or PIII 350-450 MHz.

Socialists in Congress? Click on the zeppelin, Grasshopper.

[Justa]

The only Blue Screens I've heard about with XP have been when the machine's bios shadowing was enabled. Unfortunately XP's protected memory requires access to those address ranges and will likely crash if bios is shadowed in them. The video bios can usually be shadowed safely, beyond that one's risking a Blue Screen.

[MadIvan]

It's a laptop from an English manufacturer - looks good, they are putting 512MB of RAM and a Pentium III 1100 Mhz processor along with XP. I just don't want to pay for the Office suite all over again, especially since I have Office 2000 already and no complaints.

Regards, Ivan

[Utopia]

Check out the mac option. With Firewire and iMovie you can produce/edit videos real fast. As for word processing packages, Microsoft Office for the Mac is quite solid. Any good Mac Word Processor can save to windows format. Still, if you want more, you can get Virtual PC and have Windows running in a separate window on your Mac and just drag-drop to it.

Mac hardware is just superior. There are plenty of software options to assist in compatibility. Macs are worth a second look. They sure turned my head ...

.. bravely ran away ...

[Dan Nunn]

Microsoft requires a Passport account for online support so they can get in contact with you easily. It's much easier on them if they just have your Passport ID, which has your email, rather than recording each one on an individual basis. Honestly, if signing up for a single ID which takes all of two minutes is that big of a deal, I can't imagine what a real problem would result in. Also, Passport doesn't store your credit card number in their database. There are a few fields of personal information that Passport handles, such as your name, street address, etc., and you can choose what Passport sites can see. Credit card information is not even on that list.