SwampGas
05-22-2004, 12:55 AM
Part of my new thing is to face fact, suck it up, and come clean over a lot of things that went wrong in my life. I've patched up a lot of friendships, said "I'm sorry" to a lot of people, said "I forgive you" to a bunch and life started improving. It's time to patch things up with Microsoft and Dell (no pun intended).
WFWG was a big step for me, albeit necessary because my BBS was multi-node. It was called a GPF (general protection fault) back then....but it was basically the same you get today: blue screen of death or a lockup. It's when the program tries to read/write/allocate memory outside of its space or when Windows does that to the page file. It wasn't bad, though....and there was an acceptable amount of GPFs.
Win95 came out...and it was a true multitasker. It really helped with the BBS, although it now required a LOT of tweaking. More and more problems related to the OS. Internet wise, it was a bit easier since Windows came with a TCP/IP stack now....networking in WFWG was impossible with that Gd awful winsock program.
In 1997 a friend of mine started giving me beta copies of Win98. Wow...pretty big improvement. However, even after Win98SE came out, NOTHING worked. Windows required a reinstallation every month. It was slow, inefficient, pain in the neck. Programs crashed without cause. Services would get corrupted without touching them. Microsoft couldn't keep up with the bugs and patches. I lost my faith and swore off MS.
A friend of mine gave me a copy of XP Pro and I did a fresh install. This was a HUGE improvement. Programs worked. Services were easy to manage. It looked like a Fischer-Price toy, but it was easy to handle...even for the hardcore nerd like me who hates fluff. I've been using both XP Pro and Home on various machines and haven't had any complaints. The auto update daemon from MS makes handling updates extremely easy. Networking is simple, sharing is simple...everything seems to "just work". IMHO, MS has redeemed itself. I'm happy with running Windows. All my copies are legit now.
Over the years I've been a big DIY kind of guy. I hated buying premade systems....all sorts of horror stories and adventures when I had to fix a friend's busted Compaq or Gateway. Sometime in the mid to late 90s I swore off premade PCs.
I bought a Dell laptop about a year ago...it's been good to me. I've been using nothing but Dells at work. 4600, 4600C, 8300, 8300N, et al. We have a rep at Dell from which we order our machines at work....price is more than fair, service is excellent. It comes with copies of all the software and drivers. It's built solid...hardware works nice, the case is awesome (I LOVE the split design and the screwless PCI card holder).
The website is a Gdsend. Type in the service tag and it shows everything about your system. If you spill soda on your tag or your dog urinates all over it, you can have the website scan your machine to get the info....including the service tag. It's very easy to install drivers and I like the way they present it on the site and the way the installer functions. IMHO, Dell has redeemed itself.
I recommend Dell with XP to everyone I know. Sure, it needs a little work out of the box....but to the soccer mom or grandma it works fine. During a reinstall, it gets quickly and easily. I can't say enough good things about my experience with Dell and XP.
I think the IT industry and I have finally made amends.
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WFWG was a big step for me, albeit necessary because my BBS was multi-node. It was called a GPF (general protection fault) back then....but it was basically the same you get today: blue screen of death or a lockup. It's when the program tries to read/write/allocate memory outside of its space or when Windows does that to the page file. It wasn't bad, though....and there was an acceptable amount of GPFs.
Win95 came out...and it was a true multitasker. It really helped with the BBS, although it now required a LOT of tweaking. More and more problems related to the OS. Internet wise, it was a bit easier since Windows came with a TCP/IP stack now....networking in WFWG was impossible with that Gd awful winsock program.
In 1997 a friend of mine started giving me beta copies of Win98. Wow...pretty big improvement. However, even after Win98SE came out, NOTHING worked. Windows required a reinstallation every month. It was slow, inefficient, pain in the neck. Programs crashed without cause. Services would get corrupted without touching them. Microsoft couldn't keep up with the bugs and patches. I lost my faith and swore off MS.
A friend of mine gave me a copy of XP Pro and I did a fresh install. This was a HUGE improvement. Programs worked. Services were easy to manage. It looked like a Fischer-Price toy, but it was easy to handle...even for the hardcore nerd like me who hates fluff. I've been using both XP Pro and Home on various machines and haven't had any complaints. The auto update daemon from MS makes handling updates extremely easy. Networking is simple, sharing is simple...everything seems to "just work". IMHO, MS has redeemed itself. I'm happy with running Windows. All my copies are legit now.
Over the years I've been a big DIY kind of guy. I hated buying premade systems....all sorts of horror stories and adventures when I had to fix a friend's busted Compaq or Gateway. Sometime in the mid to late 90s I swore off premade PCs.
I bought a Dell laptop about a year ago...it's been good to me. I've been using nothing but Dells at work. 4600, 4600C, 8300, 8300N, et al. We have a rep at Dell from which we order our machines at work....price is more than fair, service is excellent. It comes with copies of all the software and drivers. It's built solid...hardware works nice, the case is awesome (I LOVE the split design and the screwless PCI card holder).
The website is a Gdsend. Type in the service tag and it shows everything about your system. If you spill soda on your tag or your dog urinates all over it, you can have the website scan your machine to get the info....including the service tag. It's very easy to install drivers and I like the way they present it on the site and the way the installer functions. IMHO, Dell has redeemed itself.
I recommend Dell with XP to everyone I know. Sure, it needs a little work out of the box....but to the soccer mom or grandma it works fine. During a reinstall, it gets quickly and easily. I can't say enough good things about my experience with Dell and XP.
I think the IT industry and I have finally made amends.
<P ID="signature"><marquee direction=right scrollamount=10>http://www.zophar.net/personal/swampgas/hsrun.gif</marquee></P>