I'm not the only one that hates XP

[mstechca]

LINUS DOES!

**broken link removed**

This came from page 4 of the reasons why techzone thinks linux is better than Windows. It can be found at this URL:

https://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=344&page=4

edit: I wanted to show a picture. Maybe it is just too big. Just go to the url I mentioned instead.

 

[danielsmusic]

yes, you are not the only one that hates windows.but most of us have to use it it playes most of are games.

 

[ThermalRunaway]

I hate Windows, but I hate Linux just as much. Linux is a poor operating system for the exact opposite reason that Windows is. Infact I reckon the two OS's are at opposite, extreme ends of the scale.

In my opinion, AmigaOS was as close as we came to a good operating system. Obviously it's capabilities cannot be compared to the modern operating systems of today, but had Commodore not made a total screw up of things and had Amiga been allowed to continue to develop, I believe I'd be using that system now, rather than Windows.

Brian

 

[upand_at_them]

The reason why AmigaOS can be better is that it was designed for specific hardware. Windows is designed to handle lots of different configurations.

Mike

 

[danielsmusic]

i dont exactly hate xp or linux i think windows is slow but stable.
linux is fast but not as stable. ms-dos is the fastest os out don't you think?
but does'nt do much.

on the other hand windows me and 98 are lighting fast but very unstable making it slow. opinons anybody?

 

[Exo]

i dont exactly hate xp or linux i think windows is slow but stable.
linux is fast but not as stable. ms-dos is the fastest os out don't you think?
but does'nt do much.

on the other hand windows me and 98 are lighting fast but very unstable making it slow. opinons anybody?

MS-Dos might have been fast but at what cost?
Developers needed to write a device driver for every piece of hardware out there...

Look at the old wordperfect, it had thousends of printer drivers in it, and chances were yours wasn't in it !
The same for games, most only supported the soundblaster, forcing all manufacturers to just make their cards soundblaster compatible, no room for any new ideas ! (like 3d sound we have now and on-card mixers)...

At least windows incorporates all of that into the operating system/directX, so developers's life has become easyer, giving them more time to work on the program in stead of another driver...

windows isnt as unstable as many of you think, it's mostly up to badly written drivers (hardly microsoft's fault). and virusses and spyware wich , again, is not MS's fault...

If someone brakes your car's windows, you dont blame the manufacturer for installing bad windows.... (nice analogy )

 

[danielsmusic]

i use dos to do windows xp core operations. like change the bootloader. :twisted:
and to recover any bad files autoexec.nt just in case it goes bust from a virus which very often happens...:x

i use windows 98 and xp. windows 98 can run my games and xp does'nt crash

are you sure it is the drivers all my drivers are on disk and work fine in xp and 98 crashes :?

 

[Exo]

Why don't you run your games on XP ?

if anything, xp is faster thanks to the NT driver system.
But, if you want speed you need to turn off crap like 'system restore'...

 

[danielsmusic]

my games won't run on xp becaude of the fact you need drivers if you want to access a hardware port, most old games are made up of sevral different programs making up the whole game. they communicate by writing binary to the the virtual port and then reading it. it is faster than a tmp file. windows 98 lets the game do this.

 

[Exo]

Ah, you mean old games...
Right, those can't be run on xp...

New games do fine, counterstrike: source @ 70 fps on my oldie

 

[danielsmusic]

yea new games do. but red alert 2 don't i like playing that. 8)

 

[eblc1388]

Look at the old wordperfect, it had thousends of printer drivers in it, and chances were yours wasn't in it !

This is the bit I don't understand. I think it went the wrong way.

If every printer comes with an associate file, in text form, saying what paper sizes it can take, how much distance it will moves in both directions of the printhead....in short what the printer is able to do and the command to do just that.

Then, we don't need separate printer driver for million kinds of different software, be it Autocad or Wordperfect. The software designer just read this file and then do its work. Simple.

What's the catch?

 

[danielsmusic]

probly how the printer decodes the messege it gets for the text or images.

 

[Exo]

The catch probably is what's cheapest for the manufacturer...

Manufacturer A can do it the cheapest with a certain command set
Manufacturer B can do it the cheapest with a completely diffirent command set...

So both will do it their own way so they can make a cheap printer, and expect the pc to just send the correct data...

 

[eblc1388]

So both will do it their own way so they can make a cheap printer, and expect the pc to just send the correct data...

No problem for them doing it their own way. If each printer has a file describing what command to use to perform a particular action, then the pc can work with that and send the correct data.

We are talking about printers here. Mostly 90% of printer activities are common to all printers.

 

[Exo]

well, it works thay way doesnt it
the driver Is a file that discribes what commands to use .

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

There seems to be a misunderstanding of how most modern printers work?.

Historically a printer had either a parallel or serial interface (or both), and contained all the processing power required to print the image. You essentially send a signal to the printer, switching it to either text or graphics, then simply send the data in the correct format to the printer, which did all the processing and produced the image.

In order to reduce printers to the "throw away" prices they are now, a new scheme was introduced!. This was to drastically reduce the manufacturing cost of the printer by eliminating the printers processing power, essentially making it a "dumb printer" and using the processing power of the PC to control it's entire functioning.

This applies to most modern printers, certainly ALL low cost ones, and requires complex programs running on the PC to control the printer, it's no longer just a case of a simple printer driver!.

 

[danielsmusic]

that true but would'nt the printer need to process the info it recives to convert it to colours

 

[mstechca]

As for Windows, 1/2 the bugs come from Microsoft, because Microsoft made the DLLs and VXDs which were requied to start Windows. Funny thing is that Microsoft wants us to update our OS all the time even though there are (or may be) bugs.

To me, DOS is an operating system. (dos = disk operating system) :wink:
Windows is just an extended version of dos, because it turns command line processing into a point-and-click interface, PLUS MS had the nerve to rewrite many of the system interrupts (hence, virtual mode).

Ya know what, I think I'll just trash Windows, and make my O/S that can run Windows and Linux programs faster than any other O/S.

I already make an extra-crude system on a floppy. As soon as it boots up, a small message appears and my system hangs (works as intended).

 

[Exo]

As for Windows, 1/2 the bugs come from Microsoft, because Microsoft made the DLLs and VXDs which were requied to start Windows.

DLLs and VXD's are required because a pc isnt a toaster nor a playstation. You need a way to cope with the fact thats there's a zillion diffirent configurations out there.

The only way to do that is by supporting dynamic linking of code (DLL's) and drivers (VXD).

Funny thing is that Microsoft wants us to update our OS all the time even though there are (or may be) bugs.

Funny? i would expect an update that fixes a bug ...

To me, DOS is an operating system. (dos = disk operating system) :wink:
Windows is just an extended version of dos, because it turns command line processing into a point-and-click interface.

Windows 95, 98 and me are indeed, to some degree, just dos with a GUI. But it goes much deeper then that. Those windowses are based upon 16bit dos code but DO run in full protected mode with 32 bit code support. (and 32 bit drivers)
If you open a dos window in one of those windowses you get a 'virtual real mode window'. Not something microsoft invented, but intel, as it's a processor mode.

The processor still runs windows and is in protected mode, but the dos box is getting a virtual 80386 compatible processor with 1Mb of ram in real mode. Things go wrong when a DOS program running in that mode wants to go into protected mode too.

PLUS MS had the nerve to rewrite many of the system interrupts (hence, virtual mode).

That makes no sense to me ? what do you mean by this ?

Ya know what, I think I'll just trash Windows, and make my O/S that can run Windows and Linux programs faster than any other O/S.

fat chanse , it's time some ppl started realising how insanely complicating writing a x86 OS realy is.

Microsofts biggest problem has been the fact that it required to offer backward compatibility. And they had to offer new OS'es with all the 'bad traits' of previous versions still in there.

that changed to some degree with windows XP, wich uses NT technology and therefore is no longer a 'dos with graphic interface'...
Windows NT and XP are true 32 bit operating systems, not based on dos.
If you open a dos box in NT/XP it's a dos emulation you see, rather then the real thing.

I have a second (well second, third, fourth, ... ), older pc over here (PII 350 with a Matrox G200 and a soundblaster aWE32), wich has windows XP installed.
The pc is a compaq, not a clone.
The fact that it is older allows me to use a set of 'matured' drivers. Also it's not connected to the internet.
I'm honest when i say i can leave it running SuperPI for weeks without crashing. It's just badly written drivers by companies like ati and nvidia , who are too busy fighting a GPU war, and virusses that make windows XP unstable.

on my PII XP is rocksolid and FAST ...

I already make an extra-crude system on a floppy. As soon as it boots up, a small message appears and my system hangs (works as intended).

And that would be your own os?
chanses are that it is a dos formatted floppy wich already turns your claims of a selfmade OS into dust.

@Nigel:
I thought most modern printers worked with postscript ?