On Fri, Apr 19, 2002 at 10:17:46AM -0500, Doc wrote:
> On Fri, 19 Apr 2002, John Allain wrote:
>
> > I encoded some family geneology into set of frame HTML
> > pages once. It turned out to be something line 600 small html
> > files, 300 KBytes or so. When I went to put it on a floppy, it
> > took over 30 Minutes to write!
>
> OK. This is completely off topic, but it has bugged me for years.
> You guys are more likely to know, and care, than any other forum I hang
> in. I use a Linux PC as my daily workstation, file server, DNS, MOP
> server, etc. Given hardware limitations, it's stable enough.
>
> I can start a lowlevel format on a floppy, go and surf the net, read
> my email, compile software, or play a game while (45-75 secs) that
> happens.
> Do that in Win<anyversion> on the same hardware, and I might as well
> go make coffee. Same comparison applies to printing large documents.
> WHAT is M$ doing that operating a floppy disk drive takes ALL of a
> 1.4GHz CPU and 512M of memory? I wanna know!
I remember this behaviour from Windows 3.1 - format a floppy and you
might as well go grab a book. Enter OS/2: start formatting a floppy and
do something else on the machine until it is done (which didn't take
long). I suppose that:
- since Windows 3.1 couldn't do real (preemptive) multitasking (only
cooperative), it basically stopped everything else,
- this code was carried through to whatever flavour of Windows is sold
currently (hell, I had system error boxes with the Windows 3.1 widget
set pop up at me on some lusers Win9X machines),
Fortunately for me, I first switched from Windows 3.1 to OS/2 (Warp 3 at
the time, still have the red box around somewhere) and from that to Linux,
currently using only $UNIX (of several flavors) for my own needs and
touching Windows only when paid to do so and absolutely unavoidable.
I regularly marvel at some of more the boneheaded things Windows does - if
one were to write a dedicated sabotage program, one couldn't do better.
Regards,
Alex.
--
We're gonna be body guards for teen rock-stars. Wouldn't the cause of freedom
be better served if we killed them instead?
-- Schlock from the ''Schlock Mercenary'' comic strip
Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 15:18:51 BST