6 Apr
2000
6 Apr
'00
11:56 a.m.
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 I
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.
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 the
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