Company is gone, kid is back in school and I am faced with a dilemma: Ubunti, Solaris or Fedora? you see I am sitting here surrounded by machines. If you have read previous blogs you know at least one is parts only now, however. There is this little Pentium - one of the first coprocessors. It is a machine that was proprietary, it is an AST. Yep they are gone, but the machine is still running.
It was great box in the heyday of machines, now about all one can say is it still runs. And it does. So I decided to give it a new lease on life by reformatting it with a *nix, except which one? So I went asking people who use *Nix variations. I heard good things about them all. Then it hit me.
When a new feature comes out in a *nix product all the users get excited even if it is not on a product they use presently. I heard about Fedora from people who run Suze, Ubunti from Fedora users, Suze from a Ubunti user, and Solaris - well I have a soft spot for Sun.
When a new feature or even a new operating system comes out for windows users and administrators alike seem to approach with caution and trepidation.
Microsoft are you listening? People look forward to new products from those others because they work. Because they help them do their job better. Their job is to run IT so the users can do their job better. Not so they can spend days even months working out how to get an app to run.
Showing posts with label Vista. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Vista. Show all posts
Friday, August 29, 2008
Friday, February 22, 2008
The Vista Rebellion
"Service Pack 1 for Windows Vista is an important update for Windows Vista. Windows Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1) contains many security, reliability, and feature updates for Windows Vista. A program may experience a loss of functionality after you install Windows Vista SP1. However, most programs will continue to work as expected after you ..."
read more | digg story
It seems that Microsoft hasn't "gotten" it yet. There is a rebellion taking place and they are missing it. You see many users and developers hate Vista. Ok, maybe it is not so much Vista as the way in which Microsoft Corp seems to be railroading us into using it. Except they seem to have backed off that a bit.
I use a lot of utilities, freeware and shareware. I believe in supporting those who make a good tool or a neat gizmo. Vista has been out for over a year. Yet, a lot of both commercial and shareware apps do not support it. Why? Because we have finally had enough of being told what we MUST do.
I hit my first instance of that way back when helped develop proprietary software. We had hired a consulting firm to help us with a 'quick start' on an app we had to port over to Windows 95, The were a Microsoft Solutions provider so guess what they suggested we use? Yep a Microsoft product. It was a database app so they suggested Access. Except... When we attempted to recreate a lot of the queries we had built in Paradox for DOS we got a "query is too complex" Message.
Fine for use we knew how to work around it but for users who needed to create different reports, we needed an easy solution. We mentioned this to the Consultants who said, "They will have to deal with it." My answer was "no, they do not they can buy another company's product and services." For years, it seemed the companies, end users and even developers did not believe this. Finally the last straw seems to have been reached. The high-handed way in which Microsoft decided everything must be Vista started the rebellion. People refused to buy it. Developers refuse to develop for it. Microsoft seems to have relented a little.
Now the service pack. Guess what every one of those companies listed have put forth the effort to build a product that works on Vista or did in some way prior to the service pack. They spent money on developers' salaries, testing, hardware and software. Now they will not work. Zone Labs already has their fix out as does Trend Micro, but at what cost? And what happens when SP2 is realeased?
The companies who are listed above at least put forth the effort to create a package that works with Vista. Now Microsoft in their usual high-handed manner lists them as not working on the fixed O/S and says contact them for more information. It doesn't care if your preferred firewall doesn't work, if your emergency virus removal doesn't work. Why? Because they are Microsoft. Never mind that the consumer of THEIR product probably put out money for the packages.
Like it or not, there is a recession on. That means people do not have that extra money to spend. That means the next O/S upgrade that costs consumers up front and has hidden costs such as this will refuse to buy. Get the message Microsoft - We do not HAVE to there is always *nix and OS 10.
read more | digg story
It seems that Microsoft hasn't "gotten" it yet. There is a rebellion taking place and they are missing it. You see many users and developers hate Vista. Ok, maybe it is not so much Vista as the way in which Microsoft Corp seems to be railroading us into using it. Except they seem to have backed off that a bit.
I use a lot of utilities, freeware and shareware. I believe in supporting those who make a good tool or a neat gizmo. Vista has been out for over a year. Yet, a lot of both commercial and shareware apps do not support it. Why? Because we have finally had enough of being told what we MUST do.
I hit my first instance of that way back when helped develop proprietary software. We had hired a consulting firm to help us with a 'quick start' on an app we had to port over to Windows 95, The were a Microsoft Solutions provider so guess what they suggested we use? Yep a Microsoft product. It was a database app so they suggested Access. Except... When we attempted to recreate a lot of the queries we had built in Paradox for DOS we got a "query is too complex" Message.
Fine for use we knew how to work around it but for users who needed to create different reports, we needed an easy solution. We mentioned this to the Consultants who said, "They will have to deal with it." My answer was "no, they do not they can buy another company's product and services." For years, it seemed the companies, end users and even developers did not believe this. Finally the last straw seems to have been reached. The high-handed way in which Microsoft decided everything must be Vista started the rebellion. People refused to buy it. Developers refuse to develop for it. Microsoft seems to have relented a little.
Now the service pack. Guess what every one of those companies listed have put forth the effort to build a product that works on Vista or did in some way prior to the service pack. They spent money on developers' salaries, testing, hardware and software. Now they will not work. Zone Labs already has their fix out as does Trend Micro, but at what cost? And what happens when SP2 is realeased?
The companies who are listed above at least put forth the effort to create a package that works with Vista. Now Microsoft in their usual high-handed manner lists them as not working on the fixed O/S and says contact them for more information. It doesn't care if your preferred firewall doesn't work, if your emergency virus removal doesn't work. Why? Because they are Microsoft. Never mind that the consumer of THEIR product probably put out money for the packages.
Like it or not, there is a recession on. That means people do not have that extra money to spend. That means the next O/S upgrade that costs consumers up front and has hidden costs such as this will refuse to buy. Get the message Microsoft - We do not HAVE to there is always *nix and OS 10.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Progress!
Vista is succumbing to my wiles! Yep I broke down and bought a 3.6 USB drive. Plugged her in, pulled the drivers onto a floppy and installed on the 98. Off she goes. So I start pulling data over.
Now for next thing I hate. The account I am using on Vista is a Admin equivelent account. I start by copying my files over. I run some tests, all looks good. Well, some minor annoyances, but hopefully I will figure them out. I suspect it is ME not Vista on those. POSSIBLY the application, but since app. was not meant for Vista or even for XP really, it's my problem to make it work.
I copy my daughter's school stuff over and go to drop it into her directory. I get the must confirm admin screen. That is annoying. Then i decide to break her stuff down by years, freshman, sophmore, etc. So I go to create the directories under her documents, it defaults to mine. I mutter a lot and force it to comply with my wishes. I move the files, I check one. Guess what? I can look at it but I cannot alter it. Now guess who shows as author? Yep, me - mainly because I type faster than she does and like most students she tends to wait until the night before an assignment is due to write it. So I go to change rights on the file and think hmm I wonder, Sure enough I do not have any but view rights to anything, so I check the directory, same. Odd I made the stupid thing, but no matter.
I reassign rights (just add myself as an all instead of as a view only) and tell it to apply to all child objects. It laughs and tells me it cannot because directory is in use. Well yeah kinda, is up in another window, but the OBJECTS are not in use. FINE. I pick a lower dir and reassign my rights. I click apply and yes and click through all the required if you started this message. EVERY SINGLE subdirectory and object within them returns a failure to reassign message. So I go in and look. They show they reassigned. I try to edit one. It laughs at me. So I sit there and reassign each object manually, clicking through. That works.
Uh Microsoft, let's talk about 2 things both apply to security. First I am signed in as and Admin equivelent. You know, that little click through of if you initiated this action is KINDA useless in many instances. Let's face it if I was dumb enough to leave the machine logged into a supervisor account, and some dishonest person came along and started doing stuff under my login you THINK they are going to be deterred by that? It is annoying.
Second. It's nice tht you are keeping me safe from documents that show to be authored by myself. Now I appreciate that perhaps WORD and the OS do not really communicate. I mean why not bring your business model into your software packages? (One day maybe I will bore y'all with old stories about beta testing MS stuff) BUT, i made the freaking directory, assigned rights and copied the files over. I STILL have to manually alter that with multiple click throughs for each document copied? There are times I miss Novell.
Now for next thing I hate. The account I am using on Vista is a Admin equivelent account. I start by copying my files over. I run some tests, all looks good. Well, some minor annoyances, but hopefully I will figure them out. I suspect it is ME not Vista on those. POSSIBLY the application, but since app. was not meant for Vista or even for XP really, it's my problem to make it work.
I copy my daughter's school stuff over and go to drop it into her directory. I get the must confirm admin screen. That is annoying. Then i decide to break her stuff down by years, freshman, sophmore, etc. So I go to create the directories under her documents, it defaults to mine. I mutter a lot and force it to comply with my wishes. I move the files, I check one. Guess what? I can look at it but I cannot alter it. Now guess who shows as author? Yep, me - mainly because I type faster than she does and like most students she tends to wait until the night before an assignment is due to write it. So I go to change rights on the file and think hmm I wonder, Sure enough I do not have any but view rights to anything, so I check the directory, same. Odd I made the stupid thing, but no matter.
I reassign rights (just add myself as an all instead of as a view only) and tell it to apply to all child objects. It laughs and tells me it cannot because directory is in use. Well yeah kinda, is up in another window, but the OBJECTS are not in use. FINE. I pick a lower dir and reassign my rights. I click apply and yes and click through all the required if you started this message. EVERY SINGLE subdirectory and object within them returns a failure to reassign message. So I go in and look. They show they reassigned. I try to edit one. It laughs at me. So I sit there and reassign each object manually, clicking through. That works.
Uh Microsoft, let's talk about 2 things both apply to security. First I am signed in as and Admin equivelent. You know, that little click through of if you initiated this action is KINDA useless in many instances. Let's face it if I was dumb enough to leave the machine logged into a supervisor account, and some dishonest person came along and started doing stuff under my login you THINK they are going to be deterred by that? It is annoying.
Second. It's nice tht you are keeping me safe from documents that show to be authored by myself. Now I appreciate that perhaps WORD and the OS do not really communicate. I mean why not bring your business model into your software packages? (One day maybe I will bore y'all with old stories about beta testing MS stuff) BUT, i made the freaking directory, assigned rights and copied the files over. I STILL have to manually alter that with multiple click throughs for each document copied? There are times I miss Novell.
Friday, June 29, 2007
God Deliver us from Microsoft
The old friend the 98 machine is very very sick. It started with a pulse through the phone lines that zapped the ports for my modem. LUCKILY it did not hit the CPU (I ran a soft modem on that machine for many reasons)
For those of you how do not know what that means here is a very basic explanation There are two ports for phone lines wired into the motherboard one in and one out. The modem is actually software, so they access the CPU. Now when you are online and doing other things it is SLOW, but if you are online and your machine is running minimal, the thread (part of CPU process) assigned to the modem can be pretty quick for dial up. It all depends on your CPU. BTW it sucks for gaming on MMPORGS, but there are nights when I have a clean connection I can outpace the DSL users with a clogged pipeline. (Cable always has me beat hands down though.)
So I was VERY happy that the CPU, motherboard and drives were undamaged - well until the repair dude from HELL got a hold of my machine, but that is for another Blog. So the upshot is no modem on the old machine. I have data files I need to get from the old machine to the new Vista machine. Now BITD (back in the day) all machines came with a floppy drive. No more. Both have CDRW, Actually the new one has a DVDWR but is supposed to read CDs. Repair guy from hell hosed my periphs on the 98 so I spend a night fixing them. Now have the 3.5 and both CDs work, the read only and the RW. Guess what? The Vista machine doesn't like CDs written from the 98, so no data xfer that way.
What about a null modem cord? Used to be you could null modem using a serial conn or if desperate do writes to the printer port to send via parallel. No problem since machines are right next to each other atm so no 30 foot (maybe it was 15 feet) limitation. Seems Vista only allows wireless networking between machines. Of course the 98 never heard of Vista, so off I go to read support forums both at Microsoft and from people who have a clue. Seems like only way to connect the two machines are through a wireless router or MAYBE USB to USB data xfer cables. Now the data xfer cables have a databridge on them , so a cable for just any old usb to usb type A (aka male plugs) will not do. Don't try this with your camera upload cord in other words.
I go pricing, they run from 10.00 to 50.00 most are USB 2.0 (98 is 1.0) some are 98 compat. Cool EXCEPT it is like the old PC anywhere or other old style master/slave machine setup (for those of you old enough to remember). Yep you have to install the software and drivers on both machines. ALL of the packages I found work with 98 OR with Vista, none work with both. Ok so back to sneakernet methods.
Flash drives! There we go flash or jump drives are slow, but SHOULD work. Guess what I need to down load a driver for 98. I do, I grab a CD I make sure it runs in the 98 machine, I go to burn the file onto the CD. DRIVE not ready. Hmm SO I grab a CD the VISTA machine likes. Burn and pop it in the first CD drive on the 98, nope. I pop it in the second, nope again.
So I have come to this conclusion. Microsoft does not want anyone to preserve their old data. Never mind it may be crucial to running their business, TOO bad. Unless you are willing to jump through hoops and perhaps pay through the nose. you are SOL. so thanks MS it really helps us small business owners.
Oh and my plans for the old friend? Unix, what else. At least I'll be able to copy data files.
For those of you how do not know what that means here is a very basic explanation There are two ports for phone lines wired into the motherboard one in and one out. The modem is actually software, so they access the CPU. Now when you are online and doing other things it is SLOW, but if you are online and your machine is running minimal, the thread (part of CPU process) assigned to the modem can be pretty quick for dial up. It all depends on your CPU. BTW it sucks for gaming on MMPORGS, but there are nights when I have a clean connection I can outpace the DSL users with a clogged pipeline. (Cable always has me beat hands down though.)
So I was VERY happy that the CPU, motherboard and drives were undamaged - well until the repair dude from HELL got a hold of my machine, but that is for another Blog. So the upshot is no modem on the old machine. I have data files I need to get from the old machine to the new Vista machine. Now BITD (back in the day) all machines came with a floppy drive. No more. Both have CDRW, Actually the new one has a DVDWR but is supposed to read CDs. Repair guy from hell hosed my periphs on the 98 so I spend a night fixing them. Now have the 3.5 and both CDs work, the read only and the RW. Guess what? The Vista machine doesn't like CDs written from the 98, so no data xfer that way.
What about a null modem cord? Used to be you could null modem using a serial conn or if desperate do writes to the printer port to send via parallel. No problem since machines are right next to each other atm so no 30 foot (maybe it was 15 feet) limitation. Seems Vista only allows wireless networking between machines. Of course the 98 never heard of Vista, so off I go to read support forums both at Microsoft and from people who have a clue. Seems like only way to connect the two machines are through a wireless router or MAYBE USB to USB data xfer cables. Now the data xfer cables have a databridge on them , so a cable for just any old usb to usb type A (aka male plugs) will not do. Don't try this with your camera upload cord in other words.
I go pricing, they run from 10.00 to 50.00 most are USB 2.0 (98 is 1.0) some are 98 compat. Cool EXCEPT it is like the old PC anywhere or other old style master/slave machine setup (for those of you old enough to remember). Yep you have to install the software and drivers on both machines. ALL of the packages I found work with 98 OR with Vista, none work with both. Ok so back to sneakernet methods.
Flash drives! There we go flash or jump drives are slow, but SHOULD work. Guess what I need to down load a driver for 98. I do, I grab a CD I make sure it runs in the 98 machine, I go to burn the file onto the CD. DRIVE not ready. Hmm SO I grab a CD the VISTA machine likes. Burn and pop it in the first CD drive on the 98, nope. I pop it in the second, nope again.
So I have come to this conclusion. Microsoft does not want anyone to preserve their old data. Never mind it may be crucial to running their business, TOO bad. Unless you are willing to jump through hoops and perhaps pay through the nose. you are SOL. so thanks MS it really helps us small business owners.
Oh and my plans for the old friend? Unix, what else. At least I'll be able to copy data files.
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