INFOWORLD GRIPE LINE BY ED FOSTER Bookmark this page

  
Display: Sort:
The suspicious death of XP support | 34 comments (34 topical) | Post A Comment
A nice waste of time[ Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#10)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 12:35:42 PM PDT

After dealing with Windows systems professionally for 17 years, all I have to say is that anyone who would spend that many hours and weeks trying to fix a busted Windows installation when it would probably have taken about 4 hours (assuming lots of time getting your apps just so) to completely reload Windows from scratch is not really thinking clearly.

It's true that not all users are equipped to do a complete reload, but anyone who's reading this column (and who has such a tricked out environment) could do that with much less trouble. As for the data backup, you would be much better served buying an external USB hard drive (250GB mini drive for <$150 at most stores) and just dragging a copy up there.</p>

And I concur with the other commenter: beware the brand new service pack! I would wait about six months before I tried it. (although I haven't had a problem with normal Windows Update in years).

Sometimes the low tech solution ("FFR: Fdisk, Fomat, Reload") is the best one.



[ Reply to This ]


Access 2000! What[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#13)
by Anonymous User on Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 06:21:25 PM PDT

Let's be fair, are you using any home apps that are 8 years old on your Linux box? Don't get me wrong, I prefer Linux for myself, but I don't expect to run Fedora 3 any more. All vendors who are profit making ventures have employees that they pay, the best talent will go to developing or supporting the new product, the noobs or not as motivated folks will end up supporting the thing that's on the way to EOL. I still run XP on one machine at home, have seen that type behaviour on one occasion on Windows 2003 server, we did reload it from scratch and restored data. Unfortunate, but.....

[ Parent | Reply to This ]


And They Said the Mainframe was Dead[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#14)
by joep42 on Tue Jul 15, 2008 at 11:39:33 PM PDT

Mainframes (big Iron) evolved from the late 1950's (think Univac, Honeywell and IBM) to the 1980's (about a 25 year period) where performance and uptime reached 99% plus.  Problems, like those often described in columns and forums like this could not be tolerated in the MVS-mainframe world.  Thousands of users were linked to mainframes through CICS and an outage took them all offline.  MVS not only had many sub-systems, it had to work with absolutely compatibility with third party software.   System engineers from IBM, 3rd party vendors and from within the company's IT departments stood ready to instantly respond to any problem that affected uptime and availability.  Programmers, sometimes called business consultants, sat with end users so programmers knew exactly what the user required to be productive.  The user (as we called them) was king.

My point?  The PC has been available to businesses and individuals since 1982 (about a 26 year period).  While the hardware has matured and become highly reliable, operating systems, software and 3rd party utilities are still playing in the sand lots by comparison.

System users should not have to be techies and be versed on the innards of their operating systems to be productive.  Nor should have they have to perform analysis whenever their OS (you pick it - Windows, MAC, Linux) bellies up or when their devices or internet connectivity disappears.  Is it the OS, a driver, a 3rd party application, a recent update?  After 26 years - you would think everything should work right out of the box and that the OS had enough intelligence to fix itself.

Finally, most people who write code today do shit it out of their ass to rush it off to market.  Companies hire and pay big bucks to programmers who know nothing of the end users or the product but they think they know what "slick" is.  For the money some of these companies make, you would think they would hire the brightest and the best.

Retired, I am still a consultant and recommend to my friends, family and clients if ain't broke don't fix it.  If you are running rock solid under XP-SP2 ignore SP3 till hell freezes over.  In tests I have conducted, SP3 fails to install in 4 out of 5 cases.  For those dependent on their system for business, avoid Vista - it is not ready for prime time in any form.  I am running Vista Home on 2 systems for over a year and a half and in addition to a lengthy learning curve for the new UI, Vista is still to quirky and undependable to be trusted with the corporate assets.

[ Parent | Reply to This ]



4 hours?[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#16)
by sconeu on Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 07:03:40 AM PDT

What planet are you on?

" it would probably have taken about 4 hours (assuming lots of time getting your apps just so) to completely reload Windows from scratch."

2 hours minimum to install windows (Win2K).  Then you add the latest service pack (assuming you remembered to burn it to CD before reinstalling). Then you add your AV.  Then your firewall.    Then you add the drivers.  One by one.  Rebooting in between each one.  Then you add your apps, most often rebooting between each one for some unknown reason.

When I wiped and reinstalled my system a few months ago, it took me 2 days (16 hours or so).  And it still isn't exactly the way I want it.

--
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the United States of America.
[ Parent | Reply to This ]



On my planet ...[ Parent | Reply to This ] (none / 0) (#18)
by Anonymous User on Wed Jul 16, 2008 at 03:53:54 PM PDT

... we don't imply that a person is an alien for expressing their opinion.

In regards to installing the OS, assuming you have your CD handy, it take about 5 minutes of your time to install WinXP (not Win2K). If you have to sit in front of the PC and watch the OS install instead of doing something productive, well...

Same goes for the other apps. I don't generally have any problems loading various device drivers in one reboot (that's what Windows does when it installs, after all). Unless you have old, weird hardware, current drivers are easy to download. You just have to make sure you have your NIC drivers on a CD before you do the wipe, or you won't be able to get to the Internet.

Of course there are variables, but even your 16 hours is reasonable compared to the WEEKS that the original poster claimed to have spent working on it.

I know some people aren't able to do all this. Just like I can't change my own spark plugs, and I pay someone competent to do it.

I do agree that Microsoft shouldn't push their SP3 on unsuspecting users when it's been out only a few weeks. It started showing up in WIndows Update just a few weeks ago, and I advise people not to install it unless they know for sure it will fix a problem they have (or in a year or so, when we know it's not poison).

Anyway, that's just my viewpoint, base on my own experiences.



[ Parent | Reply to This ]


The suspicious death of XP support | 34 comments (34 topical) | Post A Comment
Display: Sort:

Menu
· create account
· faq
· search

Login
Make a new account
Username:
Password:

 HOME  NEWS  COLUMNS  BLOGS  PODCASTS  TECHNOLOGIES  TEST CENTER  EVENTS  CAREERS  IT EXEC-CONNECT   About Awards Contact Us 

Copyright © 2006, Reprints, Permissions, Licensing, IDG Network, Privacy Policy.
All Rights reserved. InfoWorld is a leading publisher of technology information and product reviews on topics including viruses,
phishing, worms, firewalls, security, servers, storage, networking, wireless, databases, and web services.

 ComputerWorld :: LinuxWorld :: Network World :: CIO :: PC World :: Darwin :: CMO :: CSO
IT Careers :: JavaWorld :: Macworld :: Mac Central :: Playlist :: GamePro :: GameStar :: Gamerhelp
ITWorld Canada :: Computerwoche :: Techworld UK :: tecChannel :: IDG.se :: IDG.no :: IDG.pl

create account | faq | search