Computer Operating Systems

It is essentilal to keep screwing things up to purpetuate 'growth' which is a big myth of capitalism.

Growth is fine if it is productive.

Same as they say that the financial sector is the most profitable industry in the UK. Well it is not an 'industry' it creates nothing! It just moves money arround, every oneman's gain is someone elses loss.
Industry is where raw materials are turned into something else adding value.
In your example, they are not adding value just forcing you to spend unecessarilly. That's why we get boom and bust... we create an artifical boom why whipping up a froth of funny money. Like all these idiots who moan about inflation but go whoopee when house prices rise.
It's all like the emperors new clothes.

At the moment there are tons of TV ads for 'payday loans' at 2,400% and such like...all just encouraging people to spend what they haven't got, and preying on the poor and gullible. That's how we got into into this mess in the first place.

There should be a limit on interests rates and the government should be encouraging real manufacturing industry not flim flam artist who rip off the public, make obscene proffits then laud themselves as great philanthropists...yes it's Billy boy I'm talking about.

Del
(rant mode off)

"Well it is not an 'industry' it creates nothing!"

It creates wealth....

The banks create book entries, not wealth. Study up on money and banking and you either become a banker or you get pissed off by the truth of it.

Wealth is created by the productive application of human effort, and a book entry has no value except to the banker who did it.

Furthermore, the banks use fractional reserve which is just new-speak for fraud. They "loan" (via a book entry) 9 times what they may actually have (0 + paper), and call it a debt. YOU now owe them for money they lent you but didn't have until YOU signed the paperwork! Fraud.

Profit however is not so crazy. If you are A and you have "a" and I am B and I have "b", you and I can trade "a" and "b" and both be happy. Profit in a pure microeconomic sense is gain for both, and that is a form of wealth creation. Both you and I are better off after the trade than before.

This does not happen when trading with bankers!

GREAT ANSWER DEL!

My sentiments exactly.

When I first started college I thought banking was where I wanted to go.

It did not take long to realize that I simply was not willing to make the moral compromise(s) required to be successful in the banking industry.

Unchecked greed and corruption has grown rampant which coupled with short term strictly profit driven decisions in industry has brought us to the edge of worldwide total economic collapse.

To me all OS software should be required by law to be rearward compatible with no expirable date.

It is entirely too expensive for any business and/or industry (as well as individuals) to be forced every few years to upgrade their operating systems and infrastructure hardware just to stay compatible with the latest profit driven IT fad.

I agree with progress and well understand the need for capital generation however any/all "new" software versions should have to stand on their own merit of performance improvement and never be allowed to simply hold the user hostage based on IT profit.

I advocate "open architecture" for all industrial controls so that any PLC based control system would be capable of competently communicating with any and all other PLC based controls withour error.

I realize this sounds extreme but IT costs are the single most expensive part of overhead costs in industry today and they are increasing daily.

I keep asking myself; "Who will buy the products we manufacture if we keep raising prices, increasing process automation, and decreasing personnel until we reach the point that most of the population is out of work?

I always thought that anything above 10% was considered usury, and I see that there is actually an organization that says "10% is enough".

Newer versions of software nearly always contain changes. Some of those changes will be considered improvements by some of the users. I know that many of us, and I suspect most of us, are unaware of most of the changes to any given piece of software. I know for sure there are many features in my preferred CAD program that I have no idea how to use. I have a friend who always uses an older version of the same software, and I'm usually frustrated when I try to help him, because a new feature that has become habitual for me is not available in the older version.

Now whether these new features are worth the maintenance fee is clearly a personal question.

The newer versions of Operating Systems and other software clearly can do more than the preceding ones. My first dot matrix printer could only produce Capital letters, numbers, and a very limited number of special characters. :)> If I recall correctly, my first computer could only deal with whole numbers in the range of -32767 to 32768,

XP will still work the same as it does, and I'm sure there will be a community of software aficiondos that will still write support....Microstuffed will just discontinue support for XP....So no need to panic....

That might and might not be true. I'm certain MS would like to see everyone "upgrade" to a newer version. Unfortunately, MS is pretty much a monopoly. Except for Apple, if you don't like it too bad. If you want to compute, you have to use our OS.

GA for that one buddy! You can get under the hood and fix it yourself if you want. That makes for a very long lifespan for the software you run on it too. And unlike Widoze, it isn't broken before you load it. And if it does have a flaw, then everyone gets to know about it before it does any damage.

Build your business on a house of cards like Windoze and you get forced changes. Build it on a good open foundation like Linux and you get stability.

The Curtain Falls on XP

24 November 2011 at 11:46

"After an unprecedented reign and at least two reprieves, 10-year-old Windows XP will be officially retired in April 2014. At that time, all support from Microsoft will end. Although more than two years in the future may seem like a long time, it could prove uncomfortably short to companies that have not yet implemented a migration plan. Only a relative handful of companies adopted Windows Vista, and only now - two years after its release - is Windows 7 having a significant impact. There is one piece of good news, though. Business versions of Windows 7 can run Windows XP as a virtual machine to ease the transition." GlobalSpec Engineering Management 24/11/2011

I know people who still run windows 95 on their computer. They must have problems too with drivers and stuff. What about Linux? Personally I am switching to MAC, and I like it a lot better. But it doesn't run for free either.

I shared similar frustrations with forced payment for constant changes that provided little or no useful user benefits. Of course those forced changes keep MS profits rolling in.

As AH suggested, look at Linux. It is frightening for many to think of abandoning Windoze, but switching to Linux may be an option for you.

This is not directed at you specifically... but I suspect that many who complain about Windoze would become happy Linux users if they diverted "half" their complaint/frustration energy towards really LEARNING to use Linux.

I switched to Linux in 2008. Kept a dual boot WinXP/Linux for about 6 months, then nuked the Windoze partition completely. No regrets today and >99% reduction in software frustration (at home*). DON'T expect switching to Linux to be easy. It is a LEARNING process that requires some effort. Not everyone can handle such a change, but those that make the effort will usual benefit.

If you're the type of person who gives up after 5 minutes and has the disposable income to spare, go for an Apple system. In my experience Macs function quite similar to Linux PCs. The big bucks you shell out for Apple computers gets you the prettiest** hardware, a rock solid OS, and typically the best customer support in the industry.

I really liked WinXP until SP3 broke my system. I have also liked the various Macs I've played with. However, I have no need for pretty hardware, unlimited customer support, or the 2x-5x cost over a similar new Windoze PC. In fact, I prefer to run Linux on "recycled" computers where my only costs are for an internet connection and voluntary donations to favored Linux developers.

I suggest you wean yourself off the MS teat sooner than later. It will be far less painful if you make the effort now. One day XP will be so old and full of security holes that you will not be able to use it unless it is isolated from the internet. Anyone tried using Win95 online lately?

If you choose a non-MS option, your MicroSoft Migraines will become a distant memory.



* I still get calls every week to help friends fix their "broken" Windoze machines. Some problems (<10%) are actual hardware failures, but most are Windoze or virus/malware problems. Shareware/freeware = you get what you pay for. IMO these problems are unacceptable for a retail OS.

** From an aesthetic and Engineering POV, I think Apple's hardware designs are elegant!

I still do computer work but not as much as I used to. The reason is that most of it was like scrubbing toilets because, like you said, most problems are windows/malware problems.

My Linux systems seem to run themselves and require very little maintainence.

Changing OS's would make all my software obsolete. Programs like Autocad won't work on the new OS's. Of course Autodesk doesn't mind. They can introduce a new version of their CAD software. The current cost of Autocad is around $3000 and any newer versions will undoubtedly cost much more. Prices are set by how much you are willing to pay, but people like me on SS can't go out and buy the latest. I guess I will have to dedicate Autocad and other programs to an XP machine in a closed circuit (no internet access).

There are multiple conversion software programs available on the market that are way cheaper than the migration costs you mention.

The new Apple OS is LINUX based and it has cleared up all of the old APPLE issues.

AUTOCAD provides APPLE versions of their software as well as TrueView which allows some rearward compatability but I am not sure if it allows forward compatability with older versions. (A call to their helpdesk or a post to AutoCAD Users International might shed some light on the subject.)

I maintain a Windows 95 OS Stand Alone machine at home specifically for running P-Spice analytical software because the cost for an upgrade finally exceeded my will to pay the exhorbant fees. (It still functions exceptionally well.)'

The company I currently work for is trying valiantly to upgrade to Windows 8 but the "crashes" we constantly suffer in our process operations because of the MS code conflicts has thus far prevented it from happening.

A complete changeout of our entire control infrastructure is economically out of the question and even if we could afford to do it would take so long to accomplish that by the time we finished migration to the new OS it would be obsolete and we would have to start over.

LT-Spice is the same thing, free, and available on both Windows and OS X.

It can run under Linux using Wine, too.

Anonymous; Thanks a bunch for the LT-SPICE tip!

It will be very convienient and time saving to have the capability to analyze circuitry in the field.

You are most welcome.

I am reluctant to change from XP myself. I have ACAD 2000 (why do I need to buy a new version when it does everything I need?), a whole slew of Rockwell products, Mathcad, etc, etc. To move to Win 7 or Win 8 is going to create havoc and require purchasing a lot of very expensive software.

My biggest concern for losing XP support from Microsoft is the availability of future print drivers - but then I just need to be sure new printers I buy have universal print drivers.

An employee of mine has adopted Win 7, but runs the XP as a vitual machine. He is dead set against Win 8, because Microsoft has locked down the code and as a developer he objects to paying them a royalty to be able to have his code run.

He has recently experimented with Linux. Results are promising. Again, he is running virtual machines for XP, win 2000, win 95. Some old software is running great with the VM.

"Create a need and fill it" is what most advertising is all about.

Linux is making it increasingly difficult for Microsoft to create a need for their operating system. My phone doesn't need it, my tablet doesn't need it, my laptop doesn't need it, and my desktop doesn't need it.

And after really reading all of Microsoft's end user license agreement, I don't need it.

Actually I hate Microsoft, they should at least leave our school children out of their plans for world domination. But then, how else could a company that produced Millennium Edition, Vista, and Windows 8 survive?

my past boss had been read some book about Mr. Kates and told that (it's over 10ya now) they mostly dance for u.s. mega corporations (it's to sell their sh¡t 2'em) and it's like the MC boss (a total brain damage) has it's own understanding of common sense - so the rest of the world has to eat that sh¡t

i haven't read that book - may be they wrote it so it sold