OT:I really, really want to like Linux ...

[dennis]

You can always pin it to the start menu and/or the task bar.

Linux is designed by geeks for geeks. Windows is designed for users.

[Steve Walker]

Windows 3.1 ? Minimum requirement was a 286.

SteveW

[Jeff Layman]

Out of interest have you ever tried Mint with a Cinnamon desktop?

Er, no. Windows is designed to make Microsoft money. See the section "What will be lost?" at .

[Fredxx]

That's worrying for you.

The 286 allowed the use of extended memory. I expect you're getting confused with expanded memory.

The 286 under Windows 3.0 or 3.1 allowed a number of DOS and other programs to co-exist and allow switching between them.

Windows 1.0 and 2.0 were a total waste of time.

[Martin Barclay]

What utter f**cking bollocks.

[Fredxx]

It may have been for you. For me it was a way I could context switch between numerous DOS programs without having to close the current one and open the next.

Perhaps you weren't needing to use so many DOS applications? I would gain information from one for use in another. The alternative would have been multiple machines, or laboriously waiting for one to close and then open another.

For the mainstream, Windows only took off when applications were explicitly written for it.

[Tim Streater]

So was 3.x. Windows didn't become usable until 95 or 98, I forget which now.

[Bill]

In message , Tim Streater writes

I'm afraid that is nonsense. Windows (fwg) 3.11 was used in automated recorders and editors by major broadcasters from 1994 until at least

2005.

It just worked, mainly totally unattended.

[T i m]

It can happen.

But it didn't go though with it did it? I mean, I've seen that before and it's easy enough to postpone?

Ok, can't say I've tried of late.

Ok.

Quite.

Ok.

All the best with that then. ;-)

Ok.

Fingers crossed etc ...

Every cloud ... ;-)

Cheers, T i m

[T i m]

Of course you don't, you weren't there maaan. ;-)

Well, I can assure you Windows 286 was more functional than Linux (on the desktop) at that time. ;-)

We ran a network Fax manager on Windows on an Olivetti 286 (that cost nearly a grand at the time) and it just worked. Oh, and I didn't have to write any of the code myself and it all ran OOTB.

Cheers, T i m

[The Natural Philosopher]

T i m lives in a parallel reality, remember.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Oh I had a company full of windows 3.X shit

WE ran WORD slower than the old DOS machines ran word perfect.

>

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yep, Went back to MATE. Less eye candy more functionality.

Correct.

Windows: Designed to sell. Not to work...

[T i m]

Yup. We ran 3.1 over a NetBIOS (Lan Manager clone) (thin) Ethernet network (after upgrading from Amsnos to Corvus OmniNET 1 then the LM) and used a mix of Automenu and Windows 3.1 to swap between Windows and MSDOS apps (running some MSDOS apps under W3.1).

I looked after about 35 users and numerous gateways and servers, all mostly self built machines (when you had to know your IRQ from you DMA and your I/O port from your base memory settings) whilst also running the Telephone Help Desk for both ad-hoc and contract customers.

Of course you had the odd machine issue but it was mostly because they were being pushed hard by people who otherwise never saw a PC.

Harvard Graphics, Corel Draw, SuperCalc, Wordstar and Wordperfect, and Lotus123.

I mainly used my PC as a dumb terminal (Procomm Plus / PC Anywhere) over the dial-up / X.25 Packet Switching Network and also ran a BBS (on a genuine IMB PC XT) with a DigiComm multiport I/O card with a dial-in modem, a couple of ports connected to an X.25 PAD and a couple / redirected ports for local LAN use.

A Netbios and Netware server, the Fax Server and a couple of mail gateways from our MSMail to Lotus CC mail and the MSMail dial-up extender and had very little downtime ever (for the 5 years I was running it).

I wasn't sent on any courses, I worked it all out myself (no real access to the Internet at the beginning, only though someone's CompuServe account) and I could because most of it was easy or could be explored.

I also used to support my Dad on all his Macs from Apple OS7 to OSX and sometimes came across the odd one in the field (and they needed 'special' / non-standard serial connectors or summat). ;-(

Linux though, I never ever came across it, either when I was a field Tech (10 years) or any time afterwards really.

We popped round Mums tonight to feed the animals and watch a DVD (Blade Runner 2049) I'd just bought. It wouldn't work in Mums BD player (it played but with hesitations) nor on a spare DVD player I dug out (same problem). Linux on the MacBook would see it but not play it and would have been a small screen to watch in any case. So I dug out the old Compaq CQ60 running W10, found a VGA cable, plugged it in, mirrored the laptop screen on the TV, plugged the external speakers into the laptop and it played smoothly for the full 2.5 hours. Just like the good old days. ;-)

I did also look into the UltraViolet digital copy and got it playing but really wanted to download it and stick it on a DVD but couldn't see how (but further Googling suggested you couldn't)?

Cheers, T i m

[Jeff Layman]

I can run IrfanView under Wine, but I have found gThumb to be ok for my cropping requirements.

[Tim Streater]

None at all.

I only observed it from a distance, or intermittently, due to being busy getting work done on other platforms.

[Tim Streater]

Meanwhile I'd been using Word 4 on the Mac for several years before some of these joke versions of Windows came out. Then I started volunteering in a small office which by then had Win98, on which one could actually do stuff. It was OK, but crashy.

At work we then got NT4, which was generally stable and OK to use, although with all the usual Windows restrictions that T r o l l claims don't exist or don't matter.

[Jethro_uk]

Allied Mills (IIRC) ran a WfW 3.11 Networked installation. The PCs would boot up locally, load Novell, and then from the server load a copy of Windows. It was pretty much malware/virus proof, as any changes made to Windows were just lost on closedown.

If you wanted to install a program (which was my job for my company at the time) you had to get the admin guys to load it onto the server.

It was a good way to flush out shit software, as if you didn't follow the MS whitepapers on how to save settings and use the registry, your program wouldn't work.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Yeah. Novell worked a lot better than Windows for WankGropes for a long time

I too will say that excepting NT, Win95 was the first version I actually found reasonably usable...

[michael adams]

Get away! A business actually designed to make money, and provide employment for thousands of Microserfs ?

To make a lot of money in business and employ loads of people you need to design your product so as to make it usuable by the greatest number of people; including borderline idiots.

If you design a product which is only of use to self-proclaimed geniuses then you'll soon go broke as a) there aren't enough of them and b) Most are either skinflints or living on benefits

To keep making a lot of money in business rather than close the factory down and put all the Microserfs out of work you need to keep "improving" or "updating" your product so that people still pay you money. Except of course the smatarses still using a 20 year old OS's and softeware but then there's not much you can do about them.

Best to just concentrate your marketing effort on the early adopters i.e fashion victims, the paranoid, and the borderline idiots generally.

michael adams

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