Windows 10 - Deeper Impressions

[dencorso]

Well... there is OpenVMS, IIRR. Does it run on AMD64? I'm sure it was ported to Itanium... I'd love to be back ona VMS machine running CDE desktop... I surely miss that.

[ralcool]

11 hours ago, NoelC said:

Why do you want to use that metered connection trick?

To control updates?

Another reason?

-Noel

As simple as I am actually on a metered connection.

Typical of M$ to think anyone using an ethernet cable doesn't need the option. Since its only offered on a wireless adapter.

And yes, I don't need it downloading updates heavily without my permission.

Won't matter since in 2020 Microsoft will probably recommend not using Windows at all since its obviously full of bugs and costs money to maintain.

[rn10950]

3 hours ago, NoelC said:

Many decades ago the pundits predicted Unix would ultimately be The One that would take over..

Personally I think the ex-DEC basis for Windows NT is better, architecturally.  I can only imagine another derivative of Mr. Cutler's kernel might ultimately rise again after Microsoft drives theirs into the ground (and that's pretty much a foregone conclusion given what they're doing with Win 10 ).  I can't be the only one to think this.

-Noel

I definitely think that ReactOS has potential. I have messed around with it in VMs, and FWIW it's pretty good.

[dencorso]

I like it, too. But it seems to me that the Sun will go out before they have a XP level production OS. Not that I'm in a hurry, mind you, but...

[ralcool]

I'm convinced some companies just want to make life difficult.

Tried to install a simple Canon printer driver today on a XP machine.

No, it won't install because it isn't SP3... for a bloody printer driver! Tried to load the driver manually bypassing the installer... it crashes the machine.

So now I've had brought it back to the workshop to stuff about imaging the hdd in case of a major failure, and pray the SP3 update runs smoothly. 

Waste of my time.

[xpclient]

1 hour ago, ralcool said:

Tried to install a simple Canon printer driver today on a XP machine.

No, it won't install because it isn't SP3... for a bloody printer driver! Tried to load the driver manually bypassing the installer... it crashes the machine.

The print driver can require SP3 for any of the following components that SP3 added to XP: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_XP#Service_Pack_3

[NoelC]

I guess XP SP3 is kind of proven to be OK at this point.

You're lucky it even came close, though.  In all the years I had Canon scanners, pretty much the VERY NEXT OS released after I bought the scanner brought complete incompabibility.  Canon isn't known for caring much about compatibility.

You're touching on why it isn't viable to run an old OS forever:  Modern equipment compatibility.

-Noel

Edited July 11, 2016 by NoelC

[jaclaz]

@dencorso,

to be fair I have some difficulties in finding anything further from the concept of "freedom" than current implementations of both iOS and Android.

jaclaz
 

[JorgeA]

On Sunday, July 10, 2016 at 0:46 AM, helpdesk98 said:

information overload! beep boop beep! lol 

LOL, that flowchart sure was a handful. Took me a while to sort it out.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

13 hours ago, rn10950 said:

I definitely think that ReactOS has potential. I have messed around with it in VMs, and FWIW it's pretty good.

Here's my new leading candidate for that "if and when" it comes time to say good-bye to Windows:

--JorgeA

[dencorso]

11 hours ago, jaclaz said:

@dencorso,

to be fair I have some difficulties in finding anything further from the concept of "freedom" than current implementations of both iOS and Android.

jaclaz
 

@jaclaz: the original Bell Labs unix was about just working, not freedom. AIX, HP-UX, SunOS, IRIX and so many others never were free in any sense.
It was rms and others that later came up with the free lore. linux was concieved as a free OS. But if freedom were its core value, it wouldn't have licenced lots of code for Android and the IBM distribution of linux for System Z servers, nor Bash for Mac OS X, Solaris and others (now even MS), right? 

4 hours ago, JorgeA said:

Here's my new leading candidate for that "if and when" it comes time to say good-bye to Windows:

--JorgeA

Man, you get the trophy...  That's a helluva obscure linux distribution you've came out with!

[jaclaz]

@dencorso

I know how Bell Labs/System V was not at all about freedom, but Linux (and derivatives) should be.

The GNU approach on one side is a very good one in theory, in practice it creates more damages than needed.  as a matter of fact its license is either non-enforced or non-enforceable, noone can really be sure to comply with it, giving it's verbosity, complexity, different versions/revisions, etc. the whole "fork" approach is something that may have been good in the good ol' days but currently the main effect is of having a zillion versions of everything (none actually working as it should of course) and an increasing number of difficulties in dealing with real devices in real world.

Of course it is not the fault of the good GNU people, I am only commenting on the actual, real (terrible) situation we live in.

The BSD license is IMHO much better, still it allowed the abomination that Mac OSX represents, a "free" OS that gives you not any degree of freedom.

Android for certain aspects is even worse.

jaclaz
 

[helpdesk98]

I love the Windows update logo in the bottom corner!

[JorgeA]

Apropos of developers preferring to focus on the "shiny new stuff," here's an exchange between Leo, Mary Jo, and Paul about the "convenience rollup" for Windows 7 that Microsoft introduced the other day:
 

Quote

LL: In a nutshell, what's wrong with the tech industry today: we could do the best thing for customers, or we could do the thing that customers are gonna hate but will help promote our next product. In a nutshell -- it's not just Microsoft, everybody's doing that now. I hate it.

MJF: They did the right thing this time, so we'll give them kudos.

LL: They did, thank you.

PT: There is also something cultural at Microsoft where the glory is all in new stuff, it's not in making the old stuff work better.

LL: That's a big problem at Google, same thing -- you can't get anybody to maintain an existing product, they all want to do the shiny new thing.

PT: You know, back when we were doing the service packs -- this is a tough term to use, but the service pack team was always called the "B-team." It was like, everyone wants to work on the main OS and work on the new stuff for the next version. You don't want to maintain the old one.

--JorgeA

[JorgeA]

18 hours ago, dencorso said:

Man, you get the trophy...  That's a helluva obscure linux distribution you've came out with!

LOL thank you!  <taking a bow>

If you saw the movie "High Fidelity," you may remember Jack Black's character. He played a record-store clerk who prided himself in knowing (and, more importantly, in letting you know that he knew) the most obscure songs by the least well known bands in the history of rock music.

Now I, too, can claim some snob points of my own. 

--JorgeA