Sunday Poll

[fdv]

It's been a while since we've had a poll, I think...?

Anyway, here is one, but unusually serious (for me) checking in on OS use and possible alternatives and who knows about their options because I am curious to see how things have changed since I ran a similar poll maybe a year ago.

[Tomcat76]

Hey FDV...

Can you insert "None of the above" or something like that in the second poll? I get an error message as soon as I click "Vote"...

[visitor]

This has nothing to do directly with HFSLIP, but we have gone to Windows (XP) Fundamentals foe Legacy PC's - without IE & without OE.

We run older systems here that were previously best served by Windows 2000. Because of the interface limitations of MP3 players we have bought in recent years, we have needed to move to an XP environment and Windows Media Player versions 10 & 11.

Edited June 3, 2007 by visitor

[Oleg_II]

Well, I have Windows 2000 without IE and heavily reduced on my working and home computers (7). Working fine for office needs and my home purposes. I introduce it to some of my friends and know for sure there are a few more computers out of here are running Windows 2000 without IE

But I was interested in WinPE and BartPE enviroment at the beginning of this year and I found that XP can be run complitely in RAM after some modifications. It can be loaded from CD or USB device like BartPE build but much faster and more flexible cause you can do with it everything you want to do with a full OS. It's amazing and I liked the feature very much!

Unfortunately running XP in RAM needs some reducing (working system shouldn't be bigger than 500MB - when using NTFS compression it could be a bit bigger but still need reducing from the full installation). And it's a hard task to reduce XP and leave all the features I want without bugs.

I tried nLite, xplite and Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's (made from XP files) - all of these methods are good but have some drawbacks... Unfortunately there is no FDV's fileset for XP like for W2k Maybe even XP has some drawbacks for me comparing with W2k.

(Note: W2k can be run in RAM too but it needs a commercial driver that has, I'd said, a very nasty limitations so I don't like it. I don't mind to pay for a program that I like but as there is no such program and we have a "free" solution with XP, I'll try to use it.)

By the way, Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PC's is really interesting. If you have a chance to try it - do it! It's nearly the same as XP Home Edition and work fine on old computers. You can choose to install or not IE, Media Player and some other features. I'd like it for my purposes but M$ made it based on WinPE2003 that let me have at least a separate installation CD and a lot of memory on a computer for installation (not sure, maybe not less that 512MB). I still don't exclued it from my choices and myabe I'll use it for RAM boot with some modifications.

I tried Vista - interesting but I'd better install Linux if I have to change my OS

I tried Linux (one was pre-installed on a new notebook) - very interesting but maybe I'm too old to learn new things And there are some problems with Wi-Fi on Linux yet... Maybe I'll give a try to other distributive in the future, I personaly like Slackware cause it's very customizable

[tain]

Hey FDV...

Can you insert "None of the above" or something like that in the second poll? I get an error message as soon as I click "Vote"...

It gave me the same error, so I added that option.

[anonymous_user]

Currently I use a nlite'd copy of Windows XP although I was using Server 2003 (also nlite'd) for a months.

I tried Vista but it was too slow for my liking. Bye bye.

Ive also tried Ubuntu but I couldnt get UT2004 to run properly, so bye bye to it too.

Edited June 5, 2007 by anoymous_person

[CharlyBrown]

Windows XP Pro 32bit on 4 of 5 computers. On the last one there is Windows XP pro 64bit & Linux. Some time ago it was running with Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition (32bit). Reason: It's a dual Opteron with 4GB RAM. With 32bit Windows it can't handle the complete 4GB of RAM. With WinXP x64 it's not stable running demanding 3D applications. Neither with windows XP x64 nor with Windows Server 2003 the Soundcard (X-Fi Elite Pro)

work as it should. *grrrr* Of course it isn't better with Linux (no drivers at all) but well, that's another story.

Windows XP pro 32bit is the best overall package right now. Especially for my usual work. There are some applications that can not be replaced and that do not even exist for Linux. :-(

Never the less I am using it every now and then. It's somehow funny to use but sometimes it just too time consuming.

[trickytwista]

xp in use all the time... tested vista out and wasnt impressed by all the bloat.

[Kiki Burgh]

i have XP (but still look forward to SP3) ... and would you believe it, i still use 98SE ... Oleg, i read about MS Windows for legacy machine & i liked it then ... i didn't realize it's already out ... soon as i get my hands on a copy i would try to revive old units i have & see if i could maximize its use ... have to wipe it clean though (not to mention remove cobwebs on & in it ... he! he!)

[johndoe74]

yeah i have that thing, isn't really much - just a cut down version of XP - i guess they got inspired by nlite

[Super-Magician]

I don't think you'd have much use for Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs. It's really watered down and as it says on Microsoft's website, it's "not a general-purpose operating system." Plus, you must have a prior Software Assurance license agreement.

[Oleg_II]

Except for licencing it doesn't support Dial-Up modems (or I didn't find how to unable it yet). And it's not limited in other ways. Simply XP without some bloat.

Well M$ Office won't install just as that... But there is a small trick and it installs smoothly

Nearly the same technics is used to run VMWare and maybe a couple more programs that are not installing first.

The answer is easy - just add files from real XP that are needed and missing in WinFLPC.

Interesting feature - it doesn't have File Protection function at all.

I'm not telling that it is a perfect OS but for those who like modified (HFSLIPed or nLited) systems it could be interesting as it's modular and less resource requirering by nature.

Edited June 13, 2007 by Oleg_II

[fdv]

Oleg, what version of IE does Win Fundamentals report? I mean, I guess it doesn't have IE in it, but what version do the DLLs and Explorer have?

[Oleg_II]

fdv

No, it has IE but you can choose install it or not (well, it will install IE core anyway). WinFLPC doesn't have Outlook Express by design.

mshtml.dll v6.00.2900.2802

All files come from WinXP SP2. Nothing new and specific in fact The differences are in file list (some are missing) and Regestry hives only.

Edited June 14, 2007 by Oleg_II