Do we really need another "Windoze" operating system?

There is a huge resistance to Vista, with it's bloat and it's antipiracy stuff for digital rights and the registration block for stopping people from making bootleg copies of Vista.. Companies that review mother boards, let us say 20 motherboards, will have to buy 20 copies of vista as Microsoft considers a mother board change a new machine and you cannot transfer it = huge problem for them.

Digitalk rights management will bother everyone. WTFAT to tell me what to do with my legal copies.

http://inquirerinside.com/default.aspx?article=34949

so what will happen? many companies will simply carry on with XP and migrate licenced copies from old to new machines and not get the new Word etc. They are at the point where they can keep what they have for another 10 years. So I see a failure on the part of MSFT to stuff this down throats of all of us and a change in attitude

I've been using Solaris 10 (released last year) with Star Office 8 on an old Ultra 30 (512 MB Ram 200Mhz CPU about 1996 vintage), I also use various versions of Windows. Recently I was unable to copy/move a sheet between two spreadsheets in OfficeXP, it reported it was out of disk space and refused to perform the operation, I had over 20GB free. After rebooting and playing around and getting nowhere I tried the operation on the old Ultra 30, it did it without working up a sweat, go figure. I think it has something to do with the size of the Windows swap file not exceeding 2GB.

Try Disk Cleanup and if it ever finishes "calculating" be sure to go to the "More Options" tab and click on "Clean up" under system Restore.

I had the same problem and invested so much of my time trying to solve it that once I did I felt it was my life's work to inform the world.

Other option is to drop it from 500 ft on Bill Gate's roof.

I am no fan of Macroshaft.

And there is some scam in all of this.

Microsoft should have been split into two companies: operating systems and applications software.

I find little differences between Office 97 and 2003, yet there are some improvements for sure. But the excessive "bloating" and increasing use of wizards undermines much of the "improvements" at least in my opinion. (I prefer WordPerfect and PerfectOffice)

However, I take issue with the 8088 word processing being as good or as fast. You know better. Each software package, and each printer needed a specific driver. Incorporating any graphics into a document, when you could do it at all was a very iffy process, and all too often printed out in a way far different than what was displayed on the screen (as often did text only documents). The text based video cards or primitive graphics cards and very low resolutions of the day needed far less CPU horsepower, but were very poor except for the most basic graphics. WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) didn't really mature until the advent of the GUI (Graphical Use Interface). The early versons of windows, up to 3.11 were entirely dos based, while 95 and 98 represented transitions toward the true virtual machine of the NT platform. For the most part, 2000 and XP continue the stable NT platform with a friendly face (3.1, 95 and 98 style) and some "enhancements". Many things about Macroshaft and Windoz piss me off but they are what they are and my complaints about lack of competition, alternatives and the monopolistic hold of Windoz aside, it is still a much better world.

We are so used to relatively crash proof systems and take so much for granted that what we see on our screens will print out exactly the same way, it is very easy to forget how it used to be.

We use our computers in a much different way than we did in the 8088 days ... True desktop publishing instead of basic word processing, and for music, photos, videos, etc etc and I certainly wouldn't want to go back to the monochrome or CGA (600x200, in 16 colors) days either. We now routinely download files of tens of Megabytes ... bigger than the entire capacity of my first hard drive even of 40 MB in many cases. Many individual files on my HD are hundreds of MB, and I don't mean software files.

Besides Windoz versions being progressively bloated, the biggest problem today is the necessity to run so much security sofware, which requires a faster machine than otherwise would be needed.

But all things considered its a much better world than it was, and also much more productive. Office computers today are infinitely more productive than they were back in the 8088 days, and businesses have saved billions as a result. Look how many print shops went out of business and the disappearance of secretaries and typing pools. As an engineer, I needed computer upgrades for increasingly powerful 3D Solids CAD programs, and they have drastically shortened the design cycle of products. But, I do many other tasks on the computer as well and I know that high resolution (1280x1024 or above, in 32 million colors or more) graphics requires a lot of storage and a lot of horsepower to make it all work.

Yet, it hasn't escaped me that if an old program, running on an old computer does all you need and want, it will still run today just as fast as it did then on that same computer and you don't need to upgrade. I assume that was not the case with you, and you wanted to do more, hence the need for your upgrades.

Its very clear that its a game played by Microsoft,Intel and other chip manafacturers and Hard ware manafacturers to insure their Bread is assured for their generations to come and fool the world in the name of New technology and relive your and our hard earned $ robed and generate a communuity of educated fools called software developers who works with their brains corrupted.

murali

Hi Greg, I appreciate your comments, especially the ones that agree with me! I didn't say that there had been no improvments since Dos - there have. I appreciate the convenience of clicking on icons to open a program, and the drag and drop in explorer. I also like the fonts in Word that can be different sizes, and the bold, underline, etc. When I said that 8088 machines were as fast in word processing, I was refering to those written in assembly language. I realize that noboby wants to program that way anymore. I personally use BASIC which is plenty fast in todays machines. You said there were improvements in word 2003 over word 97. Name one. You said that it improved productivity. Bull. See Guest comment #29. At work I modify old documents with new dates, etc. They never print out right without a lot of horsing around. The last few lines are alway missing until I go to page setup, change the margins to apply until the end of document, ignore the fixes, go back and fix the page breaks, then go to paper and set it back to where it was before the margins changed it. I have to do this on almost every document, and I had to discover this formula by myself. This is NOT productivity. As far as upgrades, they are forced on me at work by IT and upper management. At home I upgrade when I need to. Win 98 got me the optical mouse and flash drive for my son. Win 2000 got the Lexmark all-in one scanner to work for the first time, but there would have been the right driver for win 98 if win 2000 hadn't come along, you see. I still have a computer running win 95 that I use for BASIC programs. I have never had the famous Crashes that I have heard so much about, but then I don't play games much. I think most of the upgrades of computers were to support new games with better graphics. I agree with you that Macroshaft should have, and still should be split up into smaller companies.

Well... I do think that Vista will go a long way towards the downfall of MS. However bloated it may seem, the majority COTS apps seem to only be able to run on Winblows, ie games and the such. Also with more countries switching over to Unix/Linux based systems, such as Korea, expect to see a flood of very useful apps hitting the market that are not for MS OSs.

Word is incredibly powerful, though when you first open it up, be sure to remove all the autoEvery things that are set up for you, because obviously they think you are too stupid to know how to type. There has been a huge improvement in the area of macros and plugins that can be used. Now it is easy to use secondary software such as Mathmatica, Maple, Eclipse, ect inside of word with out opening other software for modeling or editing.

I agree that Word has some nice features, but a very large measure is because being a near monopoly, all the other software makers have to "get along" with it.

Personally I hate it. I use it to stay current because most businesses use it, but most of the time I am in WordPerfect.

Word wants to "force" you to do their way, and they make some things that should be incredibly easy, incredibly difficult and unintuitive.

You write:

Word wants to "force" you to do their way, and they make some things that should be incredibly easy, incredibly difficult and unintuitive.

I could not agree more! Long ago, I used Ami Pro, which was bought by Lotus, and I found that it had plenty of features, but was also intuitive and easy to use. But like you, I am forced into using Word because my clients do.

Ken:

Earlier today I made graph to include in another post. I figured, ok, let me use Excel, then I should maximize my chances of being able to get it into the editor here directly or through Word (BIG MISTAKE). Now, there must be some simple way, (and someone will no doubt gleefully tell me how simple it is) but I couldn't find it. First I had tried directly copying and pasting, dragging and dropping ... no good ... it would "come in", but not display or froze the editor. Next I figured that since I can import "pictures", let me convert it to one, but after numerous tries of numerous ways, I couldn't even export it as a graphics file. I did try at some point going the HTML route, and that almost worked, but pulled in the formatting text also. The Adobe writer route gave me error messages. I stuck with it because I wanted to figure it out , but finally I gave up and went to WordPerfect. I pasted it in, saved it as a wpg graphics file, opened it up in Corel PhotoPaint, converted it to a jpg, lowered the resolution(for a small file size), resized it and DONE. Came right into the CR4 Editor and I was on my way. Meanwhile while trying different ways to get it out directly from Excel, I inadvertently changed the graph settings and the first data point no longer was displayed but I didn't notice that until it was in here, and by that time I just put a note above the graph with the first value.

I didn't try the Powerpoint or MS Publisher routes, but my whole point is MS brags about how creative they are and how they advance computing and look at the grief I went through. If WordPerfect has the ability to export an Excel graph as a graphic, right on one of the pull down menus then why the hell couldn't MS do that? I think it can, ( I don't claim to be an expert on MS Word, but I'm no novice either) but even assuming that, why make it so damn hard? Its such a useful thing, it should be in the toolbar! WordPerfect could do that in the 90's. To top it off, had I used QuattroPro in the first place, (which is what I usually do), I could have exported the graph out in a variety of formats (bmp, jpg, png, etc) right off of the chart menu! And that's besides having greater control over how you want the graph set up and its appearance.

Regards,

Greg

I think it was called Wordstar and the other 51/4" disk container Datastar- I ran those on my first home PC 18 years ago and was probably my best computers- I advanced to join a "bulletin board"- Them were the days my friends....but they ended with Windows?

Yea! I now have powerful processing capacity on my desktop and my laptop and it keeps on evolving to my word processors are writing things out for me- so if this message sounds like I'm NOT in alliance with your beliefs....it's that d%$#&* Microsoft Office 2000.

Cheers.

Pondman:

Been there too! While I mostly used Multimate, I occasionally used Wordstar because the keystroke commands were kind of standard in a range of products, like Borland's Turbo Pascal, and Turbo C. Lotus 1-2-3 was great too. The BBS's were quite the thing on my 1200 baud modem, and I loved my Epson MX-80 with Graftrax. They were the "good ol' days", but I sure as hell would hate to go back!

I use MS Office as little as possible.

The new Vista bloat + WPA stuff has me bummed.

The new OS + Office will run about 400$

Recently, i tried Xandors (KDE / Debian) on my old PC (PIII 600M), and

for the most part it works fine.

I love all of the included apps, esp. Open Office.

I have even used Wine to install and run LTspice,

a Windows app that has no Linux port.

With all of the apps + OS its about 1/3 the bloat of XP.

I havent booted XP for a couple of months now.

I cant see migrating to Vista.

Not much point to it. I am a convert

Now, i just have to learn where Linux puts every thing!

You are right and wrong at the same time...

Windows XP will kill a computer that is not up to par with its "reccomended" requirements.

Programs are bloated.

DOS did start very quick and got setup easy.

that was good then

Your are wrong about...

Windows XP is rather bullet proof. Windows 95 died the day you installed it

DOS while it booted up fast had almost no ability to interface hardware

New Hardware can push the "bloated" programs around

Most people abandoned DOS and the Dial-up modem because they wanted a program that KNEW what they wanted to do.

I love Office 2007 beta. I using AutoCAD 2007, Inventor 11, Orcad 10, Corel X3 in Windows XP without trouble. My old PIV 2.8 never hung up. Windows 95 with "Recent Documents" and the posibility of make icons of our work and applications for see all in desk was focused in direct (and fast) access. Windows Vista with Windows Desktop Search is focused in search in ours biggest drives populated of many things for an document with no name and some text. Windows change as our work style change. Then, windows add some new features, and our work style change. Is the time, and never run back. We can two options. Ride with the time or sit and wait to be an museum part.

Langdom:

I agree with most of what you say, especially the "Ride with the times or sit and wait to be a museum part" thing. I am not one to cut off my nose to spite my face.

However, to even imply that Windows leads, or leads the way is ludicrous. They are a monopoly in the worst senses of the word. Rather than lead, they carefully target anything that might conceivable be a future threat, and absorb it, kill it or "cooperate" with it until they can do an end run around it. If you think their latest scheme involving the desktop search feature was added for your convenience, I have a bridge to sell you. It is a transparent attempt to absorb the search engine features (Google etc) into windows so the default setting for searches will merge computer and web functions "seemlessly" into the operating system, and guess whose site or sites you will end up at? They did the very same thing with "Internet Explorer" to destroy Netscape's browser because they feared that an extended browser interface could pose a threat to windows itself. They crippled Sun Java for much the same reason. The same with media content players, with their own "Media PLayer". The new desktop search engine in Vista is to marginalize Google and other search engines, websites and such to keep good old Macroshaft as your home page and future advertising provider. Because they overcharge so much for their operating systems, they have unlimited cash to go after anyone who may get in their way of controlling the entire computer environment. Monopolies never "lead", they only coerce along paths that are in their own best monopolistic interests.

Yet, as I said, not being one to cut off my nose, I use windows and despite my feelings about them, I am grateful for the overall modern computer experience. Plus, I use it to assist me in earning a living.

I have many fond memories of my HP-75C portable computer and then my Leading Edge 8088 IBM compatible desktop with its 640K RAM (1 MB with a memory manager like QEMM), 2 360 K 5 1/4" floppies, built in Hercules compatible graphics, and a 13" monochrome monitor. I upgraded the 8088 to an NEC V-20 chip for a little bit extra in speed, and upgraded the BIOS so I could add a hard drive. They were both wonderful machines, but I would never, ever want to go back!

Saturn rockets went to the Moon on OS-9 a Unix like kernal. Radio Shack sold it's Color Computer with 64kb of RAM and OS-9. I don't know if GM cars still use OS-9.

I liked it. For me OS-9 was small, fast, versatile and rarely crashed. But OS-9 wasn't owned by Bill Gates or Steve Jobs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OS-9

In 1999, nineteen years after the first release of OS-9, Apple Computer released Mac OS 9. Microware sued Apple that year for trademark infringement, but a judge rejected the claim, dismissing the suit in the following year. The judge said that there is little chance for confusion, but one still periodically finds postings to the news://comp.os.os9 newsgroup from Macintosh users who are, at the very least, confused about the purpose of that group.

What does that have to do with anything? I mean seriously man, throw a zinger like that out in the FAH forum and they will rip some part of your body off!

But on a more on-topic note, As for really needing something... All we need is air, food, water and shelter. For commerce, YES we need another windows OS. Does the at home person who only uses their computer to check e-mail and go on CR4? NO.

P.S. Is there a set term on how long you can hold the rights to software??? Just a question.

What is the FAH forum?

Copyright is 50 years from writing for a corporation and 50 years after the death if the author is a person

I am wondering if there will be compatability problems with what microsoft call "Legacy" hardware and software. I have had problems with Windows XP in this respect. If Windows 98 can recognise my plotter why can't Windows XP, afterall, it's the same machine?!!

AL

Microsoft wanted all makers to deal with MSFT in driver production to "validate" their drivers = pay MSFT some money. On older legacy machines many manufacturers declined to do this. Often you can find unapproved drivers on some makers sites. When you install you get a popup asking if you really, really, really want to install this unapproved driver etc.

by going to googlegroups and searching for your plotter you may find some solutions

Did you migrate to windows XP or did you get a new machine. Also, You may want to see if there is an option pertaining to that in your BIOS. I have a machine that you have to configure that in the BIOS.

Also, as far as compatability issues, I heard from a reliable geek :) That windows vista was supposed to be comaptible, but the real question is security.

Note: After Zotob, When you install XP does the "Built on 2000 security" on the ads while you wait window run a chill down your back???

I have a small home office network set-up. I run sometimes up to 20 machines at one time reviewing and testing games and applications. I built my own server with ten 100mhz MBs', and all are cable linked in a mainframe assembly I built just for this purpose. I have added an a/c cooler to the system and use six different OS's to talk with the whole mess. The biggest obsticle is the way Gates has shut down certain security updates on the older software. As of now, the Win98se is no longer supported in the development of hacker proof security updates.

It seams since Millinium2000 was a major crash and crap OS, this had forced the quick refining of XP. I have more hack problems with XP-Pro then I ever had with 98se. I have been experimenting with a mix of Lnx and Apache as my mainframe back bone and running four different win configurations as my shells. I find the whole deal on having to upgrade a motherboard just because the OS requires a min on processor speeds and ram to run the stinking mess.

I found that the Windows CE OS is really great if you have a hankering to automate anything. Like voice opperated lights, power blinds, environmental and security applications, remote monitoring on external systems, such as sprinkler system, security cameras and intrusion alert. The CE program is a simple robotics interface to do all sorts of helpful task. I have a gaming center for my children and their friends when they visit. The best thing was actually being able to set-up a fiber optics node to the house, instead of having to depend on the communications people like ATT and your local cable source.

Having the fiber come directly to the house enables for my own network and gaming mainframe the actually speeds required to run a stable of games out to the web. Real fast blink the eye you missed it type of gamming. So much for over comming the reigns of Bill Gates and his monopoly on OS and apps. Just my 2cents to the fire.

WOW!

Secondly

WOW!

Thirdly, Do you think that another windows OS would help or are you happy with the way things are right now?

Plus, has anyone noticed that software is getting more and more like "That machine in your living room is NOT your computer. You MAY NOT move it, you MAY NOT Change the settings, you MAY NOT Change the hardware, you MAY NOT use it!"

Is that where we are headed?

Are the days of the computer enthusiast dead? (If so, I want off this ride!)

I'm talking like where it was stated that vista vont go from machine to machine, you need to activate and the way some dell's tell you that you have been inside them. If this new OS REALLY REALLY means it, who will buy it? And has good ol' bill forgotten his roots? He would turn a blind eye on someone who is trying to spread his product around in 1993 because when 95' came out more people would want that... Why is he taking the loyal windows user and screwing him via his home computer?!?! Who would do that? If there is a business owner in the room please explain why, I need some direction here!

Just something to think about.

Nucleartractor-

I have definitely noticed that the industry wants to control how I use my computer, and they generally don't have a clue as to what I use my computer for. Vista scares me because it will take more control away from me. I have one machine running XP with Office 2003, but I still do most of my work on my old Win 98 machine (some CAD, lots of DAC and data analysis). A lot of the software I use is not portable between the two machines. Even Excel 2000 macros don't always work in Excel 2003! The only reason I use Microsoft at all is Excel (at least through version 2000) is absolutely the best piece of software I have ever seen. Word processors? I would really like a Word Processor (like the old WordPerfect 5.1) that really let me have control over formatting my documents- I hate the fact that Word thinks it knows better about where I want my pictures to appear than I do- the program keeps moving them about. I probably spend about 20 percent more time formating my "public" documents than I used to with the old WordPerfect 5.1. At least with the faster processors, screen updates can now almost keep up with my typing when I am in a creative mode...

Recently, two of my laptops died of old age- one running Windows 95 and one running Windows 98. Looking at replacements, I decided I did not like what was available- Windows XP and no RS 232. I have looked at Linux, but it is being developed in an obscure community that has a rather wierd idea about how computers are used- what I am looking for is rather difficult to implement on a Linux box (my first computer, by the way, ran Berkley V, or an HP version of that Unix implementation). My solution?

If I have to change, let's get radical. I now use a Palm Tungsten E2 for my field work- data collection, note taking, etc. It handles about 90% of my work. The only thing lacking is a Palm-based o'scope, but I am sure that is coming...Palm OS gives me control of how I use my computer, with a variety of languages available for developing applications (most of my applications are one-offs- I'm not at all concerned about formating presentations until much later in the game). Palm OS is fast. Major problem? My eyes aren't as strong as they used to be, and I find myself squinting more...

Charlie

I heard a rumor that ebay has teamed up with google to start making new software for Linux. The ramifications are obvious. Has anyone else heard this?

ebgoogleaylinux?

Just blasted through quickly, but yes, I agree with all you say. If I could find the applications I use in Linux or apple, I'd jump in an instant. Soon, I will, I hope.

An orchestrated sham and scam on human being. Works on Peter principle. Higher the inefficiency higher the promotion. We are only adding to global warming by generating more e-waste by forcing down on upgrades of boards and chips. God! why don't you save us from these scamsters!

"Works on Peter principle. Higher the inefficiency higher the promotion."

The Peter Principle says no such thing!

It essentially says that "people will tend to rise to the level of their incompetence". That in no way implies that the more incompetent (or to use your word "inefficient") the higher they will rise, rather that they will only continue to rise until they exhibit incompetence and then will rise no further.

What the Peter Principle says is that over time, people will get promoted within organizations based on their fulfilling the duties of each position with enough merit to earn a promotion to the next higher level. At some point, they tend to reach a level where they are no longer competent enough to get promoted anymore, so they stay there. That means that over time, organizations tend to be staffed by people in positions that are displaying some level of incompetence. Standard ways of dealing with this when it becomes necessary are to "bump the person upstairs" to a position that is nominally higher, but where thay are now "out of the way" from screwing things up, or what he called "the lateral arabesque" where they are shifted to an equal position but one that again gets them "out of the way".

It is a good observation on his part and explains much about bureaucracies.

Before XP was released in the days of Win98, I remember reading about the hardware industry's complaint that the software wasn't demanding enough to require the need for faster machines. That is what drove the development of XP.

In college, I used to run a multi-config of 98 and 2000. 98 was perfect for gaming and 2000 for maximum multitasking. I must admit, now I don't mind XP. Yes it requires forking over good $$$ for a powerhouse CPU, but it does do everything that the average home user would require.

Of course you are 100% right that older word processors on old machines will work just fine (like Lotus Suite on that old 286.) But where would the computer industry be if everyone was still satisfied with their old machine? The real devils are within corporate marketing. They dictate what material items everyone wants and by looking at how people burn free cash, their winning.

I agree totally with your position on this subject. I started out programming in the 1960's with Fortran and have been using computers ever since. Certainly the changeover to PC' environment was an improvement as it allowed faster turnaround than submitting cards to a center only to get results back a day later. DOS was (and still is) a great system. During my working career I used all of the Windows systems. The reliability of the platform has drastically improved (i.e.: from the days when rebooting seemed necessary 4-5 times a day because of system "hangs", but the amount of bloatware and bloating of the software is untenable. I still prefer to use Win98. The Office suite has as you say gotten much worse. I guess primarily to help those who cant spell or have poor grammar. Excel has improved the ability to do specific calculations more easily (and without thought); however, this often results in users not truly understanding the software calculations or their true meaning or use. For example, I have found very few individuals using statistical software calculations that really know how the calculations are made (if done by hand) or what the results truly mean.

To be honest, I wish they would just break Microsoft up. They need a little competition if they are ever going to get better. I have been a Microsoft supporter for years, but lately they seem like they've lost their drive. They've become this bloated, bureaucratic institution obsessed with gaining traction in new markets while allowing their core market, operating systems, to stagnate. Now I hear they've completely redone Word. Why?

It's not microsoft's fault, if you want to give them a run for their money, then go buy your self a copy of lotus smart suite, I preferr that to microsoft office for many applications, because it passes back control to me as far as what I want to do and not what microsoft thinks I want to do with my time. If you make a linux operating system that will allow windows executables to run on it and not hurt them when they pass through the system (a Damn Small quirk) then you know what, I will buy it from you for a nice sum of money just because then I can have my simtower (and take a few windows programs with me) to that system. One of the biggest flaws of windows is it know what the average user wants to do. But then it applies that to the unique user. So now, you are only able to use 90% of your system while the operating system is using the other 10% anticipating your next move, and when your computer dies, you lost 10% of your money to a team of know it all's making these systems. But actually getting what you pay for out of a system is a very rare thing. Imagine a perfect world kind of thing.

Microsoft hasd a vision. Their vision is that eventually no-one will own any software at all. Instead they will rent time on web based software packages owned by guess who... Yes MS of course. You will be forced to buy a new PC every year or two because the new web based packages will not run on your old machine and of course it will have to run windows 56391.7. They are working slowly but steadily toward that goal. Kind of reminds an old timer like me of IBM. Remember IBM? Look what happened to them...

If you have such a huge problem with new Windows operating systems i would suggest just not upgrading its not like just because a new one came out means you have to upgrade it. It's not mandatory. If you don't like the new and innovating features of the new operating systems or how they require more disk space then just keep your current operating system, no one is forcing you to upgrade. As for the word processing programs, same thing, just keep your current processor its not that bad.

About all of that web based stuff and buy a new computer every year or two... What is a cellphone?

You are very right. Because that yields maximum profit. Profit is not a bad thing, just think about how fast the world economy will be going then, everything will be high tech jobs, dumps will be gleaming silver worlds from all of the discarded computers... bad for seagulls, good for people living close to it! But that is not really what we all need to be thinking of. What people need to think about is:

If you only needed that 286 for doom and windows 3.1, lotus 1-2-3 and ms word... You would keep it but there are other people out there that want to squeeze the life out of technology and can afford to kill their brand new vista ready vaio. I keep my copy of win3.1 handy, but I do the same with my windows XP disk. I think that vista could happen better, but this isn't about vista. I welcome another windows operating system. But I wish they weren't trying to make it look so flashy. I don't want to kill my video card on that! Heres and idea windows CR4 edition, you the people on the left work on the code, hey! creepy guy in the back with the photo printer! print some flyers! you people up front make some copies of it and we can all put it in the back of my truck and go into town and open a Windows CR4 Stand!

Not trying to be a smart ass, but if you want something bad enough, it takes a God to stop you.

Hello everyone,

I agree that "Each version was more bloated than the last one.And we have to buy buy new computers or put more memory in what they have. This is costing american businesses and consumers billions."

Good luck!

Jacky.

has anyone here actualy tested vista? most of the "bad" features of it are easily disabled

Any operating system that we need a sticker for that says "vista ready" will definetly suck the life out of a system before the beta liscense expired. I don't think people want to bestow that torrent of pain on their computer.

Funny, I remember when the term "micro computer" was cool. :)

hi,

I have no chance to test vista for my computer is too old, but i really want to test it, and see if it so great according with reporting.

Jacky.

The resistance to Vista uptake in business is huge. All large companies have bad experiences with the newly rleased Microsoft OS. Most will not buy until at least 1 year goes by. Most companies who produce videos want nothing at all to do with DRM on their machines because it will interfere with their design and production. Most consumers are unaware of it, but will soon learn to hate it.

A large business has spring up in windows 2000 licence stickers of the type that are stuck on computers, with the windows logo. same with XP stickers I would imagine.

This next year will be calamitous for Microsoft...in my opinion

The best way to disable it is not to buy it, unless you really need it for some specific reason.

And Macroshaft making it in so many "versions" .... ouch!

i've tried three diffrent betas of it and it looks like the've actually fixed things for a change and increades system requirements are nothign new for microsoft anyone rember the "made for windows 95" stickers?

I have one of those etched on the case of my AMD K6-2. I do love that little chip. Bulletproof to say the least. But I have to say, users have learned to love their computers. With the new OSes so Joe schmo can be checking his mail in Eudora while watching a video in IE 6 and right clicking everywhere. Then, when he goes to work with his Packard bell legend 2000 286, he immediately begins to miss his fast 56 K modem and his IE 6 and the ability to right click. then he goes home and sees how fun XP is to use compared to WFW 3.11 and that when he gets a vista box, it will be just like that old 2005 Vaio is just a hunk of ancient history.

Too lazy to sign in,

Nucleartractor.

Windows Vista - codename "Longhorn".

Figures...

The simple answer is no, but unfortunately, it's not that simple. Due to Microsoft's monopoly of the OS market (you can argue that as much as you want, but by definition it's a monopoly: their product drives the market), you will eventually have to follow suit with their actions. Until hardware manufacturers as well as software developers begin making products that work regardless of the OS (and stand up to MS), they will remain part of the problem.

For me, I use windows because I have to. My company uses it, it came with my laptop that was "designed for XP", etc, etc. However, their are plenty of alternatives for most general uses of a PC. For example, I have edubuntu (Linux based OS) loaded on an old Wyse WT8440XL Winterm (AMD K6 400Mhz) and it runs great. I can surf the net, work on Excel, Word, or PowerPoint docs (OpenOffice 2.0) and do many other things. The OS and all of the software was free, which is a plus. The same package from Microsoft would run near $1,000.

As for Vista, I see no reason to think of buying at least until ~2009. I am happy with both 2000 and XP, and from my playing around with Vista on a friend's new laptop, it seems no different except for the GUI. Whoopty-doo! Besides, Microsoft just got XP working half way decently. dru-