Tony Nixon wrote:
> <snipped>
> Work decided to upgrade to Win 95 and a new Pentium speed blaster. With
> all the new bloatware it uses, I think the fan runs faster than the
> computer, and it just seems to be a tin box full of problems.
>
> I wonder if things are now advancing at such a rate that no one fully
> understands how to get a PC to run reliably any more.
> <snipped>

  Not IMHO;  Methinks it's just that a simple act of Win95 exorcism,
followed by Dos 6.22 and WFW 3.11 installation, will cause your machine
to work rather better <G>

  Humor aside, it's not speed or complexity of the hardware - or
software - that's the problem - The problem's in poorly written
software, from my perspective (Compare a 486DX4/100 running Linux on
32Mb RAM, running NetScape - versus the same application on a P2-333
with 64 Mb RAM and tons more hard drive space <G>  Major efficiency
gains from better-written, better-debugged software...)

  I'll admit readily to being biased (I remember S-100 days all too
well, when ZCPR3 was king), AND, I know darn well that the problem
(IMHO) is that products are (still!) being rushed to market "in order to
beat the competition", not "Once they're Soup".  So the levels of
delivered BUGS (aka "misfeatures" or whatever this week's name is <G>)
is way way higher than it should be.  Evidence for my argument:  Dos 4.0
<EG>; Win 3.0;  Win98's initial release on most any laptop <EG>

  I've NEVER seen Win3.11 move which port a mouse "was on" driver to
fight with the modem driver or a sound card driver, over who has control
of the serial port or IRQ (Win95 does it apparently randomly, on some
machines.)  Don't tell me someone messed with the registry either (not
while I was watchin' <G>)  Not that WFW 3.11 is perfect (It gets major
fits when I attach my laptop to the LAN here & then detach it - it keeps
taking 20 seconds longer than average, as it looks for the laptop, "It
must be still here on the LAN someplace!" until it times out <Ack!>  And
I still like Dos best, so far (I'll love Linux, most likely, as I move
over there.)

  This is a major part of why I like working on avionic or other
"Zero-tolerance" type software where you actually test for bugs and
attempt to stamp 'em all out (And why I like the Open Source movement,
despite some concerns on how software contractors will survive if it
becomes the rule rather than the exception!)

  Now if we could get to where none of us ever had to re-design the
wheel from the ground up...

  (My machines range from tiny Siig 286's to 386 & 486 boxes, mostly Dos
machines, the LAN servers are WFW 3.11, some P5 workstations running WFW
3.11 usually, a Win95 workstation, and the PC110's and a couple laptops
- Only Dos is guaranteed to be on any machine at any given time, in fact
my fastest newest Pentium box doesn't have windows on it right now.)

  Mark