Nuke Richmond

From: ajp166 <ajp166_at_bellatlantic.net>
Date: Sat Jan 13 15:19:59 2001

From: THETechnoid_at_home.com <THETechnoid_at_home.com>


>In Windows - ANY version, the applications are like different flavors of
>bullion and spices. They dissolve in the operating system and become
>virtually indistiguishable from the solute. If you make the mistake of
>mixing two incompatible flavors, you can't get only one flavor out of
the


This is indeed a secondary thing I dislike about MS. Though it's not
quite soup if the app your running is not MS. MS apps mingle with
the OS and make mush though I've pulled them out completely
with some work. The problem is more MS than the OS as things like
IE, OE and Office do not uninstall completely. They leave bits about
as reminders they were there. If your willing to hit the registry and
files system they can be removed bit it's a PITA. Its the price you
pay for ActiveX, COM, VBS and all the other MS hacks.

>> OS/2 V3 Close to NT maybe better on multitasking, security is
???
>
>OS/2 is significantly better than NT in the multitasking department and
>has no serious bugs I am aware of. OS/2 shippes (desktop versions) with
>essentially no SPECIAL security like NT does. It does have 'hooks' for
>this security and you can buy IBM or third-party software to latch into
>them and provide strong security. Warp Server versions are good
examples.


The lack of security in networked systems to me is a weakness. Even as
a home user now that I have DSL I have to thinkk about security so not
having
it is not a flaw but a weakness. Then again it's also V3 and rather old.

>I love these kinds of customers. They hire me, tell me what they want to
>do, but not HOW TO DO IT. Being who I am, I'd put Warp Clients on the


While I'm not told to use W95 or NT at work I ahve 40 users and 4 servers
and jumping to FreeBSD is a nontrivial task if the server is running
middleware like COLDfusion on Paradox databases.

>impartiality (or apathy) makes them practical. They put Windows on the
>desktop as clients to thier Warp servers to lower training requirements.
>Since these machines aren't being strained much, they serve thier
purpose,
>since the servers work fine, everybody is happy.


Exactly. In my case the servers are NT4 and NT3.51 and down time
is nearly unheard of. They are lightly loaded so it's fine.

>> WinNT4 I use it, best of the MS lot I've worked with.
>
>Much better than any other MS os except maybe DOS for stability. It has
>warts as does anything else, but it's biggest wart is the SOUP thing
which
>is death.


Its a problem but if you understand it it doesnt have to be. For example
I test
a lot of software that may be used. Rather than worry the uninstall
process
I image the disk (10gigs is under $100!!!), do my testing and go to the
image
to restore. The Unix approach is like VMS and I like it better but using
an
image accomplishes the same end as effectively. Copying apps from one
system to another under Winders is painful but it's COPYRIGHTED and
not supposed to be so that's not an issue at work.

>> Linux It's getting too loaded with MSisms
>
>Linux is kinda messy and poorly documented. I like it, but that is just
>me.


Yes but if you were building a work system that makes for a lot of
training and documentation as part of the work done. As an engineer
I've learned if it's not documented it cant be reproduced and didn't
exist.

>NetBSD is best I think. Then again, I don't spend my days trying to
keep
>brilliant kids from trashing my systems so someone may have a more
>informed opinion.


FreeBSD do do security regression testing so I find them the most secure
or at least I can identify the holes or other flaws.

>I just got into VMS recently so don't really have an opinion - YET :-0


Its an interesting OS. If your unix inculturated or used to say IBMisms
(non PC) then it may bug you. It is robust, uses the hardware well
and is reasonable enough. I like the grey wall (docs, lots of DOCS).
Part of it's robustness and all come from being married to a specific
processor (VAX) and 20+ years of maturity.

Then again if MS didn't morph the OS every 5 years to something
vastly different with a ton of legacy addons it could be better. Instead
we have Win3.1, W9x, WNT3/4,win2000 codebases and each trying to
eliminate the apps for the previous.

Oh, to me the OS is like razors. Give the handle away and sell the
blades. Problem is people keep changing the handle to keep
other guys from making blades for it. The latter is the Microsoft way.


Allison
Received on Sat Jan 13 2001 - 15:19:59 GMT