!Re: Nuke Redmond!

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu Apr 6 14:56:56 2000

Richard Erlacher wrote:

> 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.

I don't know about #1. It is unclear to me what you mean by #2. #3 is where
the big problem IMNSHO comes from. A number of software conflicts arise
where the consumer would have no chance of finding out or knowing about
until *IT* happens and the troubleshooting procedures arise. A recent
example would be a client was opening a newsletter file in MS Word 2000, and
most of the time the system would promptly (bad pun) crash. This started to
happen only after a new scanner was installed. Coincidence ??? The problem
turned out to be the *new* system needed an updated video driver. The MS
Knowledge Base showed no similar problems with Word. It was only when I
searched for the problem driver (I had no idea at the time what it was for)
that the problem came up, and then only under another application. Another
example would be a system crashing and I found the problem by (educated
guess) uninstalling a number of utilities.

It appears to me that problems like the above are a function of the OS
design. The mentality "get it to market" and "let the consumer do the final
beta testing" are one cause of the problems. And of course, things were
changing very rapidly and it is somewhat understanable that a product that
worked with the most common scenarios and most of the time with the rest
would get put out to market.
Received on Thu Apr 06 2000 - 14:56:56 BST