OT: Myths Persist Forever

From: James B. DiGriz <jbdigriz_at_dragonsweb.org>
Date: Fri Apr 19 17:48:48 2002

Douglas H. Quebbeman wrote:
>>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),
>
>
> I can cut/copy text from any GIU program and paste into any text window.
> I can cut/copy text from any text windows into any GUI program.
> I can format floppies while running IE5.5, Outlook98, and OE5.5, with a
> Modula-2 programming environment running and a copy of the CDC 6000
> emulator running the Chippewa Operating System.
>
> Under Windows 2000. On an 800MHz P-III w/256MB of RAM. Not a killer
> machine.
>
> Windows sucks for anough real reasons that it's really not necessary
> to perpetuate myths and half-truths....
>
> Ok, My Milage May Vary... -dq
>
>

Win2K is "Windows" only by virtue of the marketing dept. It's really NT,
which is a lot closer to OS/2 and/or VMS than Windows, internally. I
have a copy of 3.1 Advanced Server which will be topical in the not too
distant future. Never even installed it, by the time I got a capable
machine I had moved entirely to Linux, but I believe it will format in
the background no problem.

I remember Amiga users in the late '80s proudly demonstrating floppy
formatting while online, rendering graphics, running a vidcam, copying
files on the HD, and playing games. Tending to shut the DOS crowd up for
a while. (Eventually the response would be a total non-sequitur like,
"Well, who really needs multitasking, anyway?")

jbdigriz
Received on Fri Apr 19 2002 - 17:48:48 BST

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