OpenEuphoria

• Posted by Feb 20, 2004
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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