Operating System for GEO-600 cards

[Thomas 0]

I love Linux...I can't imagine my network without my linux box controling it. But it's not ready for the average user. Alot of distros have excellent installers (a few years ago that wasn't true) but installing software itself isn't the most fun thing in the world. And configuring it is painful, but we're getting better gui tools to do it with. Having said that, the major reason is compatbility. People have/need software that doesn't have a native linux port. Given time, linux will be a truely viable threat to MS on the desktop.

[rory 0]

(full disclosure: I work for Microsoft, but I speak for myself here. My only interest is in getting my GV600 card to work at its best, and this forum has helped me immensely in finding the right card for my needs. I'm hoping to return the favor answering computer questions, my area of expertise)

 

Activation is a 0 cost option (online). No need to call international, you can activate online (or thru local subsidiaries).

 

The only time you might need to speak with a person, is when you replace so many components in a system that, de facto, is a new PC. I personally replaced pretty much everything (apart from the motherboard), and never had to reactivate, on many PCs. If you replace the MB, you are much better off, anyway, to reinstall from scratch, as the old drivers can really cause trouble.

 

In general, if you have a legit copy of XP, WPA is a non-issue.

 

Ok once its online then thats not a problem, we have cable internet

 

Like I said, I havent used any new XP Cds lately (quite a while) besides what has come with the computer such as the Dells, etc, they never even ask for product Keys anymore.. which is pretty sweet as those darn keys keeep getting longer and longer..

 

PS. I use the same Windows ME i bought when it first came out .. i like speed ....

 

Oh yeah, while on the subject, why has MSN started charging to add URLs to their search? Or am I missing something here, tried the Overture thing but it just led to a payment plan or something.... they arent alone though, I think Lycos is doing that also ..

Edited September 24, 2004 by Guest

[rory 0]

I love Linux...I can't imagine my network without my linux box controling it. But it's not ready for the average user. Alot of distros have excellent installers (a few years ago that wasn't true) but installing software itself isn't the most fun thing in the world. And configuring it is painful, but we're getting better gui tools to do it with. Having said that, the major reason is compatbility. People have/need software that doesn't have a native linux port. Given time, linux will be a truely viable threat to MS on the desktop.

 

Wasnt there another OS gaining popularity a couple years back, BOS or BSD or something like that?

[Thomas 0]

It's not the length of the cd-key that bothers me...it's the font they use. G and 6 look the same. Same for 8 and B. It's little things like that make me realise the contempt MS has for it's customers.

[rory 0]

why dont they sell a stripple down version of windows, for us speed freaks, in other words we dont all need to have the features they have running as services etc, they can get rid of IE while they are at it, as ever since windows 98 came out with IE built in, the windows OS just got slower ....imagine windows 95 on a 2 or 3 GHz PC If the hardware can support it. ... yeah occasional blue screen or freeze though ... why dont they just copy Mac like they did before!

 

and please, get rid of MSN Instant Give me Spyware, have had to disable it on many XP systems lately and its a pain when it keeps popping up with Outlook express, just extra work.. (had to clean major spyware/trojan bots off 10 PCs this week, and format one as it was quicker then the time it took to kill all the running recreating bots and find their reg keys, and hidden files spread all over the darn HD) these users just love to use IM and they let their kids go messaging every night so, i know ill be back ..

 

MS should install Spybot Search & Destroy as a service instead of messanger ..

Edited September 24, 2004 by Guest

[Thomas 0]

I'm guessing you mean BSD. BSD is still around. It's a Unix varient that is both older and fairly compatable with Linux. BSD isn't as dynamic, BSD is for when under no circumstances is the hacking of the computer acceptable. There is one distro of it that has gone eight years without a remote expliot in thier default install.

 

In theory, Longhorn will be what you ask for Rory (kinda) with the downside that many, if not all existing copies of our software will not run on it. And you can uninstall IE. It's not fun, but doable. Just take your time. And since you bring up IE, let me just plug www.getfirefox.com . Very few expliots, free, built in popup blocker, all the extentions you could ever want......

[rory 0]

is this the same as Netscape, Mozilla?

 

but if it still supports java, then I can still get my favourites changed to porn sites and shortcuts on my desktop when i visit those casino sites !

Edited September 24, 2004 by Guest

[Thomas 0]

Firefox is basicly mozilla light. Smaller, faster, but not all of the bells and whistles thrown in. Mozilla has a built in IRC client, Mail client, Calender Client...firefox is just a web browser. And a darn good one.

[rory 0]

ill give it a try, and let you know how it goes ... ill put it to the ultra test!

[robca 0]

As i said, I'm online as "me" not as a Microsfot employee

 

I have a Product key sticker in front of me (a new one). I have to say that the font looks pretty good, and there's no way I could confuse B with 8. It might have been the case in the past (and, probably, somebody pointed that out and got changed). If your sticker is confusing, please PM me and I'll send feedback to the right folks. There's definitely no sinister intention in making it hard to enter the product key . Ideally WPA should be completely transparent to the user.

 

As for the "stripped down" windows, actually Windows server 2003 (granted, more expensive than XP) does a very good job at running fast on stripped down HW, and allowing you to tweak all the services. As aperson who used ot work on the embedded part of our business, I can assure you that performance is sometimes counter-intuitive, and not always smaller is faster, especially on PC platforms, where there are significant optimizations available. Very likely, the old win 9x code would run much slower on today's hardware, as could not take advantage of the newer instrtuctions on a modern CPU.

 

Hope this helps...

[Thomas 0]

Try reading it with your glasses off, or from more then a few inches away. It's not bad when the sticker is still on the jewel case or the OEM copy. But try reading it off of a dell or HP that needs a reinstall.

[rory 0]

side by side on the same PC (My PC), (2.2Ghz Celleron, 512DDR RAM) windows ME tweaked runs faster than windows XP stripped down. Though granted windows XP doesnt 'always' have to shut down when there is an error like with ME, which is nice, and that along with driver issues i prefer now that my clients or people I know use XP, as it makes things easier and they dont always notice the speed difference, and they are mostly using new faster hardware anyway.

 

I havent had a freeze on ME since i installed this new hardware, maybe going on a year now. I also run ME on a 600Mhz 120MB SDRAM Compaq latop, used it since the hurricane last 2 weeks as had to rebuild my PC, and it was fast, but like you said that is old hardware, I know fir sure XP would slug tremendously on that one.

[rory 0]

Try reading it with your glasses off, or from more then a few inches away. It's not bad when the sticker is still on the jewel case or the OEM copy. But try reading it off of a dell or HP that needs a reinstall.

 

I reinstalled a Dell recently with the Dell XP CD, but never had to use the product key, whats up with that, it was fdisked and formated also..

[Thomas 0]

Robca is right in many ways. 98 for instance has some limitations. It can't "see" more then 512 megs of ram. XP has better native support for NTFS and you get better read/write then ME and FAT32. The NT family has better driver support and it shows up with video card intensive tasks. And of course there are the testing questions, which tweaks did you use, which tweaks did you not use, ect. And ME is much closer to XP then 98 was. Try that test with Win95.

[rory 0]

dont know about 95, through that CD out a long time ago!

But I remember, when I upgraded my system to I think it was a 450 AMD back in the day, I had to get a fix for the Mboard to work with the 450, or win 95 to work with it or something like that ..

 

PS. I use every tweak known to ME. Reason I stuck with ME while people were still using 98, ME was much faster with tweaks.

[Thomas 0]

Eh, I've hit my happy spot with windows with w2k. For me it's my sweet spot. But my gentoo box has my heart.

[rory 0]

And of course there are the testing questions, which tweaks did you use, which tweaks did you not use, ect.

 

-Take off everything besides Systray in MS config Start up. Get email with antivirus so no need to use an antivirus, I dont, havent got a virus in over a year. Install Spybot Search & Destroy - its free

 

-Use Hardware Firewall - eg. router - not Zone Alarm

 

-Use Tweakui, under mouse, menu speed to fast, under general only leave on Beep on errors, and always show keyboard indicators, in IR,

uncheck allow Active Desktop and make changes to active desktop,

 

-Disable any screen savers,

 

-in Control Panel System, Performance, File System, change to Network Server, in Same, Troubleshooting, Disable System Restore,

then delete all System Restore Files/Folders,

 

-Add Remove, take off Desktop themes, MSN IM, Accessiblity, Imaging, Winpopup,

 

-Automatic Updates, Disabled,

 

-Power Options, up to you I take off hibernating for sure

 

-In Any Folder likeMy computer, Tools, Folder Options, use windows classic desktop, use windows classic folders,

 

-Display Settings, 16Bit not 32

 

-Install a Process Viewer so you can kill things that CTRL-ALT-DEL will not

 

-Disk Cleanup and Defrag the bugger

 

this is generally all I do and get a faster running OS out of ME than the same or more stripped down & tweaked XP, Basically dont let anything else run besides what is really needed, same goes for all windows OS's.

 

PS. I have also been using Microsoft Personal Web Server since day one, even though MS sais it is not supported in ME, there is a way to install it, simple actually that it will install without a problem and run error free.

 

Rory

[rory 0]

Eh, I've hit my happy spot with windows with w2k. For me it's my sweet spot. But my gentoo box has my heart.

 

Yeah I worked on a couple win2k computers and it seemed more stable and faster than XP, never used it myself, dont have a 'copy' of the CD

[robca 0]

You know, Microsoft has an operating system like the one you want: stable, based on the XP kernel (hence compatible with all drivers), modular, and infinitely tweakable: XP embedded. If someone wanted to build a dedicated system (commercial line, I mean), XP embedded would be a good choice, and would result in faster/more stable systems, as only the needed components can be installed and tested (so that fewer patches would be needed, as only the installed components need to be patched). Not to mention that customers won't be able ot play as much with it, lowering the chance of installing programs that make the system unstable

 

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/usewinemb/xp/

http://msdn.microsoft.com/embedded/howtobuy/default.aspx#prctbl

 

Not sure when someone would reach the break-even point (licensing&development cost), but it might be worth looking into

[cctv_down_under 0]

MAAAAN, stop giving away trade secrets