6 Apr
2000
6 Apr
'00
12:57 p.m.
please see remarks embedded below
Dick
----- Original Message -----
From: <allisonp(a)world.std.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 06, 2000 10:56 AM
Subject: Re: !Re: Nuke Redmond!
Well, I avoid this by refusing to support a system that uses Netscape. It's
probably throwing out the baby with the bathwater, but I've never seen a
system that uses Netscape working well with Windows.
I
I had several of them. They weren't cheap, but the boards from Matrox,
Vectrix, et al, were out there. There was even a cheap card from Trident.
the
Yep! It's just another oversimplification, but if it achieves the desired
result, it's believed to work.
> The folks I see having problems with their
MS-OS-based systems generally
are
> the ones that (1) hand around the
"chat" rooms (where their computers
get
> "social diseases"), (2) try to squeeze
more performance out of their
> computers by violating the components' specifications, (3) try to get
their
> computers to do other sorts of things for which
they (or their software)
> weren't intended. Now, that's not to say it doesn't happen otherwise,
but
from where I
sit, that's what I see.
Or an app like Netscape falls over and takes out the OS. For a cpu with
protected mode, and an os that mutters things about that it seems odd that
an app failing kills the os!
> > Someone mind explaining why if I install software on a Microsoft
system
or
> make
*very* minor changes I've got the reboot the @*& #$)@ thing?!?!
many OSs have this, VMS does under fewer cases though as do NT4.
Linux/freebsd is better than UNIX(and kin) three years ago.
> Well, the cost differential was larger than the cost of the PC machines > used to demonstrate what a poor choice the uVAXII
was as a platform
during
> my last stint in the aerospace industry. THE JPL
guys liked the uVAX-II
so
> they used it to replace the Apple-][ that was
originally designed into a
> military-oriented project. I wouldn't argue that the uVAX-II didn't do
> better than the Apple-][, but their ESDI interface didn't outperform
SCSI,
What EDSI? DEC never had one! The RQDX3 is MSCP/ST506 MFM and not
considered a perfromer but, MFM drives really arent either.
EMULEX made an MSCP-compatible ESDI controller and that was the PATH the DEC
junkies at JPL wanted to pursue. Imagine the red faces when I showed them
the (also EMULEX) SCSI setup worked MUCH better! Of course, I nearly lost
my job for causing such a stir. When I pointed out that the SCSI approach
saved $1k on each drive and on the controller as well, while providing
potentially 2.5x the performance (though the system couldn't really
capitalize on the improved performance) it caused more red faces.
> which they claimed it did, and the high-res graphics cards we were told
to
> use in the uVax-II cost as much as the entire
uVAX-II with all the other
> peripherals. A comparable card from the same vendor but designed for
the
PC/AT cost
only $600.
Back then (1988) I could not get a 1280x1024x8 card for a PC. I was
however running one on the GPX. I might add with a 21" color tube.
> Not all cases are so extreme, but it's the extremes that tend to be
> remembered. It's also no surprise that DEC seems to have gone out of
their
> way, during the early days of widespread internet
use (1985-1988). to
make
> their LAN boards incompatible with anyone
else's. They also tweaked
their
protocols to
weaken their own networking system so people wouldn't be
tempted to mix and match.
IP was not the rule until years after DECnet phaseIII and when IP started
to become more wide spread there was PhaseIV and PHASEV decnet which was
routable, capable of doing IP over decnet and a lot of other tricks that
PCs needed. PCs under winders were doing lanman then.
> I guess it just says that when there's a tool that gets the job done, it
> makes sense to learn how to use it as opposed to sticking one's nose in
> air because it seems too
"unsophisticated". What's more, people pay for
the
> process of getting the job done. They don't
want to pay for doing it
the
"hard" way.
All the world is a nail when all you got is a hammer.
Allison