[extropy-chat] when will computers improve?

[David Lubkin]

At 11:39 PM 12/19/2003 -0600, Kevin Freels wrote:

>OK. I don't play games or use educational software. I am guessing that you
>are referring to the older DOS based stuff and really simple program
>leftovers from Win3.x. I remember some games that ran "outside" the Windows
>environment. Or am I way off base here.

No, I'm talking about 32-bit Windows software like Scrabble, ChessMaster, 
and a lot of foreign language software.  They genuinely require the 
single-user OS variants, usually for graphics.  (Sometimes I've found 
software that doesn't list NT or 2000 but works anyway.  This is the stuff 
that flat doesn't work.)

>Maybe I shoudl be asking if the "normal" stuff works on Win2k like 
>PaintShop Pro 6, Norton Anti-virus, Acrobat Reader, Office 2000, 
>ZoneAlarm, etc. I don;t want to upgrade and find that I need to buy a 
>bunch of new software.

These are all things I use, and they all work fine and won't need to be 
upgraded.  Although I do recommend Norton SystemWorks Professional Edition 
for monitoring your system.  (I'm not 100% happy with it and am open to 
suggestions for alternatives.  I suppose I should check if they've fixed 
what I can't stand.)

>Also, you mentioned that I wouldn't need the disk for the upgrade. What I
>was envisioning was a scenario where my whole system is lost and I have to
>reformat the hard drive and re-load Windows. If I buy the upgrade, I would
>have to load Win 98, then the Win2k upgrade. Given the age of my Win98
>disk(4 years old) and it's condition from being put in and out so many times
>when installing drivers and crap, I am probably better off buying the full
>version.

That is a valid point but I think you should be able to borrow a friend's 
Win 98 disk to reinstall off, or make a copy of if either of you has a CD-R 
drive.  After all, you own a licensed copy.  You are allowed to do this 
under copyright law.  Why pay more?

One thing to watch out for on buying a Windows CD off eBay or equiv.  When 
I was actively tracking what Microsoft was up to, I paid them a couple 
thousand a year for an MSDN (Microsoft Developer's Network) 
subscription.  Which gave me a copy of every OS, every development tool, 
server, database, office product, etc., in every version, in every language 
they sell.  It's very convenient, and is one thing they've done a pretty 
good job on.

The one caveat, which has bitten me, and may bite you, is that you don't 
get a bootable CD with, say, Windows 98 in English.  You get a CD that 
contains every single language version of Windows 98.  This is fine most of 
the time.  But if you have a blank hard drive, you have an awkward time 
installing the OS since you can't boot off the CD.

I've handled this different ways.  On one system, the simplest way was to 
pull out MS-DOS 6.22 on floppies, then install Windows 3.1, and on, 
recapitulating phylogeny.

Don't do this.  Confirm that the CD you buy is bootable.

>The fact that I don;t have to call in to register it really sums it up for
>me. I've had a friend who went through 4 hard drives ni 2 months (came to
>find out he had the computer sitting right on top of a heating vent!)

Interesting.  Years ago I went through two monitors in short order because 
we had a cat who'd curl up on it when she could -- blocking the cooling 
vents and getting cat hair in the innards.


-- David Lubkin.