WinME sucks. Hard. I need to tell people I don't fix their ME or XP garbage.

Okay, I agree about ME being something which should have been put down at birth but XP isn't that bad IMO.
It's vastly more stable than the 9x/ME series and has more hardware drivers than W2K. If I had to run a Windows server then I'd still use W2K however.

W2k3 is accually really soild, as far as i can tell, its been running for 3 months without a hitch under my desk. It is just server thou its not doing anything and its all firewalled.

If it's not doing anything then I'd say it's quite likely that it's stable Hopefully Microsoft don't have the 47.5 day (something like that) bug in W2K3!

I need to tell people I don't fix their ME or XP garbage.

You can and should tell people you won't fix their ME crap, but you'll have a hard time telling people you won't touch their XP machines. That's going to be the standard for a few years, and you might as well tell everyone you won't touch their computers (see a previous thread about refusing to help friends and family with computer problems ).

But yeah, it's universally held that ME is total crap. I have yet to meet a user or tech person who doesn't think do.

at one of my jobs we had a saying for me
many errors

but, on the whole, i rather like xp

From my experiences ME basically ran and looked the same as 98SE but was buggy as hell and also slowed your PC down.

What actually did ME add significantly over 98SE? I'm trying to think of it and can't
I guess USB started to get built in around the time of ME and that's about it?

I just wish people would upgrade to something better. I know people that are still using Win95 which is fine if the computer does what they want. It's just that nobody and this includes Microsoft supports it anymore and finding patches for bugs/security holes is hard!

What actually did ME add significantly over 98SE?

Windows Movie Maker

OK ok ok. XP may not be crap, I just haven't played around with it enough to give it a real shot. It just turns me off that I have to spend 30 minutes every time I sit at one just to make it not look totally silly. Plus I hate the way the networking works. Plus hate the whole concept of step back x days as a fix option. Plus I hate that to use a 2k printer, the user has to have admin rights on the 2k box. At least on the one network I set up it did. It was the only way I could get it to work. It's getting to the point that linx is easier to administer. It may be complex to set up, but at least it makes sense. And when you make a change, the changes stick. I'm sorry to gripe, I'm just sleep deprived and ornery. Besides, the computer I'm working on has symantec NIS installed and it's total shite too. Everytime you install it the autoupdate fails. Blech. I'm going to get a job working at a doughnut shop or something. I'm sick of thinking and beating my head on my desk.

Amen. I'm still running Win98SE at home and haven't had any issues. Ever. I just can't bring myself to "upgrade" given my options. The only thing I don't like about 98 SE is the 2 gig file size limit. So I can't rip DVD's to Divx, no big whoop. That's why I have a 2k box sitting on my KVM.

Try before you hate So far im at the, I love XP for workstation and bsd for server stage. XP has really given me no prolems (well, major ones).
Plus..
OS Name: Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Original Install Date: 4/15/2002, 5:41:30 AM
System Up Time: 14 Days, 1 Hours, 57 Minutes, 5 Seconds

... and still running strong. Games and all.

-Greg

System Up Time: 14 Days, 1 Hours, 57 Minutes, 5 Seconds

It's been that long since the last major security flaw requiring a patch and a reboot to fix?

2 questions...

One: where did you find that info? I have no idea what my up time is and I'm curious...
Two: Do you always install your OSs at 5:40 in the morning? Course I think I did mine at 3 something.......

It's been that long since the last major security flaw requiring a patch and a reboot to fix?

Seriously, Windows XP is a hell of a lot better than any other version of Windows when it comes to requiring reboots. Sure, some of the patches require a reboot, but most of them don't.

And if it does require a reboot, it comes up quicker than any other version of Windows.

And if it does require a reboot, it comes up quicker than any other version of Windows

I know you meant "it comes up quicker than any useful recent version of Windows", but I bet Win 1.0 would beat it running on today's hardware

I've seen win3.1 run on a pentium166. Ran blisteringly fast, and did exactly what the guy needed it to do: type up bowles club newsletters.

I'm impressed with XP, particularly the speed of the boot up, but there are a few things that bug me, least of which is the stylings.

I just get irritated by the way things move around in every release of the OS. I have to troubleshoot network settings for win98/ME/2k/XP and the same thing is either in a different location, or called another name. It's a pest. Even versions of office move things.

Just a quick word up to the tech support at intel. We've had some issues with new servers at work and the tech support nailed the problem quickly the first time.

I've seen win3.1 run on a pentium166...

I have one (win3.1 on a p120) sitting on my desk right here at work! I use it several times a week, 'cause there're just some things that work better on it (mostly some older Netware stuff).

I hibernate my XP laptop every time, bring it back up at home or at work (different dhcp'd subnets), or just with dialup, and rarely have to actually reboot it. I do close most of my apps before hibernating, though.

-jk

I have one (win3.1 on a p120) sitting on my desk right here at work! I use it several times a week...

I had one of those back in the day. It came with 3.1 and 95 didn't come out for quite a while. It got upgraded to 95 then became a linux server and worked flawlessly till it was decomissioned a few months ago. The P120 always seemed like the bastard half breed of a pentium, as everyone else had P133's.

I hibernate my XP laptop every time, bring it back up at home or at work (different dhcp'd subnets), or just with dialup, and rarely have to actually reboot it. I do close most of my apps before hibernating, though.

You're missing out on all the fun there. Leaving all your apps running and having them all running when you start it up is great.

Matthew

You're missing out on all the fun there. Leaving all your apps running and having them all running when you start it up is great.

Well, I gotta say that I haven't left this bbs in weeks! But most of my sysadmin type apps get really grumpy if they can't see the servers they were monitoring when I hibernated. It just ain't worth the bells and whistles going off.

-jk

It just turns me off that I have to spend 30 minutes every time I sit at one just to make it not look totally silly

I understand what you are saying there, and until last week I would have agreed with you without reservation.

However, one of my many personality flaws is the entrenched belief that "...if it isn't what I'm used to, it can't be any good." I recognize this aspect in myself and try to guard against it.

My computer at home died a couple weeks ago, and I decided reluctantly to go ahead and upgrade to Windows XP (I had been running Windows 98). I knew I was going to *hate* that XP interface, and was determined that the very first thing I would do with it would be to switch over to the "Classic" interface that emulates Windows 2K.

That was untiil I talked to the man at the computer store who sold me the XP operating system. He was one of the beta testers for XP, had it for months before it was released. He (and just about all of the beta testers) hated the XP interface -- but in the beta edition, Microsoft turned off the ability to use the Classic interface, wouldn't let them do it. Finally, after a couple of months of testing, they were given the updated version where they could run in Classic mode.

He immediately switched over (along with just about all the other beta testers that he knew and communicated with) and was happy for about a day... until he realized (and these are his words) how unintuitive the Classic interface was and how much easier and more logical the XP interface was. He switched back, and told me that once again all the other beta testers he knew switched back as well and would never consider using the Classic interface again.

This is a guy who knows more about computers (hardware and software) than I will ever learn in my life, so I am willing to give his opinion some weight. As a result, I am sticking with the XP interface, so far hating it, but fully expecting to gain a deep appreciation of it once I get over my "...i'ts different form what I'm used to..." mindset.

Oh... regarding Win ME.... the company that provides the softare that runs our radio stations supports Win 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, and XP. They specifically exclude Win ME from their supported operating systems.

tanstaafl.

I knew I was going to *hate* that XP interface, and was determined that the very first thing I would do with it would be to switch over to the "Classic" interface that emulates Windows 2K.

There are two things here. 1. The Fischer Price interface look. The huge buttons, bright colors, etc...

Then 2. the start panel that rearranges the old start menu quite a bit.

I personally always kill the graphics, but keep the start panal because I do like it better then the old menu. To kill the graphics, use the appearance tab in the display control panal to change to classic. This keep the start panal and such.

2. the start panal

sounds kinky.

Dammit guys, I'm starting to give in. A little. I guess most of it really is that I'm VERY used to doing things a certain way. You know that irritating mouse option that always moves the mouse cursor to the OK button on a new window? My hand does that automatically. I just know where to expect the button to be. And all of a sudden, it's NOT where I expect it to be. In all honesty, my only two gripes are the look (which I know I can turn off) and the networking (that I just haven't quite wrapped my head around the way the wizards work). I mean, what's with this home wizard disk thing? What does it do? Do I need it? Why oh why would you EVER disable the administrator user? Why does MS insist on taking up valuable screen real-estate with such a big ass start menu?

True, they're all just preferences. I'll probably get over them in time. I just have to bring myself to upgrade at home when I get the chance. It's just hard to convince myself to wipe this machine. There's a lot of blood sweat and tears invested in the way things work here. So maybe I should just hope for a catastrophic disk failure to force me. Nah.

Well, first off, if you know what you're trying to do and you see a wizard, hit cancel as soon as possible. The other thing to realize is that they made the "classic control panel" one click away from the new control panel for a reason.

Matthew

That was untiil I talked to the man at the computer store who sold me the XP operating system.

....and then....

This is a guy who knows more about computers (hardware and software) than I will ever learn in my life, so I am willing to give his opinion some weight.

That must be one unusual computer store, I have never met anyone (staff member that is) in a computer store who knew anything useful about computers.

Tonight for completly unrelated reasons I explored the customization options available for the start panel. If you havn't yet, check out all the many options available. Now My Documents cascades along with recent documents, Outlook Express has been banished, along with the dell crap.

Oh, and did everyone know you can specifiy which icons get auto-hidden next to the clock? That was welcome news to me.

Matthew

That was welcome news to me.

Gee, you guys obviously don't right-click on things enough. First thing I do with a new OS or app is right-click on seemingly blank bits of screen to see if anything interesting happens.

1. The Fischer Price interface look. The huge buttons, bright colors, etc...

I like the "Fischer Price" interface look. My only gripe is the size of the window captions, and that's a 30 second fix.

Oh... regarding Win ME.... the company that provides the softare that runs our radio stations supports Win 95, 98, 98SE, 2000, and XP. They specifically exclude Win ME from their supported operating systems.

Smart people. I don't know what happened with ME, but I suspect that it was released on a Friday afternoon, after a long pub lunch. I doesn't (AFAICT) add anything to Win98 SE apart from a bunch of instability.

That must be one unusual computer store, I have never met anyone (staff member that is) in a computer store who knew anything useful about computers.


He is the owner of the store. He started out as a hobbyist in a little hole-in-the-wall shop, and proved to be knowledgeable enough that people came to him for their computer hardware in great numbers, forcing him to move to a bigger store and hire a couple of employees. He is now (after about two years) in his third location, bigger than the previous two locations combined, and he still puts in 12-15 hour days there himself. I don't believe that he stocks or sells anything that he hasn't personally tried and approved.

Classic American success story.

tanstaafl.