by 0 with SMTP; 20 Feb 2004 12:23:18 -0000 by anchor-post-34.mail.demon.net with esmtp (Exim 3.35 #1) id 1Au9gb-000DcF-0Y for EUforum at topica.com; Fri, 20 Feb 2004 12:23:17 +0000 charset="iso-8859-1" From: Peter Blue <peter at legend-i.demon.co.uk> Subject: Re: Euphoria.NET Hi All, On Thursday 19 Feb 2004 11:57 pm, you wrote: > I use Windows XP, and as soon as Longhorn comes out, I'm getting it. If > eu will not support Longhorn, then I guess I'll have to go with C#. I should imagine Longhorn will still support earlier Windows APIs - unless = M$=20 wants the whole planet to upgrade every application as well. > I don't know anyone in real life that uses anything other than Windows, > and most use XP. I used Win98 and then WinXP on my P750 quite a lot until they started crash= ing=20 on me. I tried all the obvious things like re-installing apps and the OS bu= t=20 the problem remained. Even with backups, files were being corrupted or lost= . Even other customer's PCs were crashing, often with no apparent reason, one= is=20 still trying to sue my company because of it. We have had many other=20 occurances of Windows letting us down big-time. Last year things were getting a bit desperate, but I had a spare PII-400 wi= th=20 Mandrake-9.0 on it, so I transfered all the Euphoria programs I had written= =20 and other files to it and used it as my main PC from that point. Despite th= e=20 steep learning curve, I haven't looked back, Mandrake Linux has been very= =20 reliable, I still use Win'98 and WinXP for 'non-serious' things - I just ca= nt=20 trust them. As a test I installed Win98SE, WinXP and FreeBSD-4.8 onto a spare AMD K7-80= 0=20 on separate partitions. Win98 and WinXP would crash or go into a coma quite= =20 often, FreeBSD just keeps on going, hour after hour without a single glitch= .=20 Don't forget, this is on the same hardware. So, here are my conclusions :- Win98 (In use for about 4 years. Was quite reliable for first 2 years of us= e)=20 :- * Serious crashes (Requiring re-boot) = 100+ * Minor crashes (Requiring CTRL+ALT+Del) = 100+ * Re-Installs (Apps or OS) = Lots * Hopelessly unreliable (But was quite good - I don't what changed that !) * Drives lots of older, expensive hardware like a Miro DC30 video capture c= ard * Does not have Micro$oft's CrippleWare * Easy to fix when it breaks WinXP (In use for about 1 year) :- * Serious crashes (Requiring re-boot) = 100+ * Minor crashes (Requiring CTRL+ALT+Del) = 100+ * Re-Installs (Apps or OS) = 5 ~ 10 * Quite reliable until the first crash, then starts to degrade rapidly * Improved "security". It opened a back-door on my router !! * Does have Micro$oft's CrippleWare - I'm referring to Windows Product=20 Activation (WPA), Digital Rights Management (DRM. Who's rights, ours or=20 theirs ?) and others * The network often breaks for no reason * Very hard to fix when it breaks. Mandrake Linux 9.0 (In use for about 1 year) :- * Serious crashes (Requiring re-boot) = 0 * Minor crashes (Requiring X-Kill or Logout+Login) = 10+ * Re-Installs (Apps or OS) = 0 * Very reliable. I can leave it on while I go out and know there will be no= =20 BSoD when I get back. * Most programs work OK, but some minor ones don't * Still a bit on the "Nerdy" side * Hard to fix due to lack of know-how on my part but doable * File sharing was hard to setup SlackWare Linux 9.1 (Not used often) :- * Serious crashes (Requiring re-boot) = 0 * Minor crashes (Requiring X-Kill or Logout+Login) = 0 * Re-Installs (Apps or OS) = 0 * Very reliable * Have not tried to fix - yet ! FreeBSD 4.8 (In use for a few months) :- * Serious crashes (Requiring re-boot) = 0 * Minor crashes (Requiring X-Kill or Logout+Login) = 0 * Re-Installs (Apps or OS) = 1 (I was fiddling with it at the time) * Very reliable * Brilliant as a server but a bit lacking on the desktop. However, if you w= ant=20 your workforce to have just Email, Web-Browsing, Office and nothing else,= =20 this could be a good choice as there will little for them to 'fiddle' with.= * Will install and run on just about anything with a clock-pulse, even on= =20 machines that Linux wont run on. * A bit tricky to fix but doable. I'm not saying Linux or FreeBSD are perfect, but I know I can trust them. A= nd=20 Euphoria works seamlessly on both. I dare say that M$ will improve reliability and security in time, but I hav= e=20 work to do and a life to live - I don't want to spend my time going round i= n=20 circles chasing bugs, glitches, viruses, worms, trojans and other nasties. Thats my =A30.02 worth. Peter Blue www.yes-property.co.uk www.legend-i.demon.co.uk