Does Windows rot over time?

[MRD]

I agree, I'd rather have a virus than have Vista's DRM. 2K was the best Windows to date imo.

 

[mateo]

2-4-6-7 for me.

A straight-up Windows install, or one-time installation of many apps, works out fine. It's when you start messing around with trying various applications and uninstalling stuff that it first starts to go haywire. Also, if you use resource-intensive apps and keep a long 24/7 uptime, it can't properly handle/release resources and gets bogged down.

This, of course, depends on killing XP bloat right after the install, and routine defrag maintenance.

 

[MadSkillzMan]

i agree with the temp directory comment whole heartedly.

i think windows is that one odd mutant OS that will be phased out soon enough. I mean i gotta hand it to apple, they dropped their crappy OS style and picked up a UNIX-like system. i feel at home on this thing with Console sitting on my desktop. Seems to me if willie gates switched over windows to unix based, most of these problems would be solved....but then us geeks would all be "haha you had to follow everyone else"

its neat, its like you can learn a linux, be able to function on unix, BSD, solaris (i can to an extent) OSX, IRIX (haha 3D anyone?) but you sit down to windows, and its alien

oh i know what else contributes...how all DVDs have to install their own little tags for it to play..god my parents computer must have about 20 copies of that player (cant think of the name) cause they wont play other DVDS

hahah now me, i stick a DVD in mine, dont care how copy protected...bust out DVDPlayer, life is happy...dont evenget me started on DRM

the one thing i hate right now about osx, is in iTunes, i cant really install codecs to deal with .ogg and .FLac files

 

[Captain Newbie]

I exclusively play DVDs on my Mac because I don't want to bother with fighting the crippleware to get it to play. I remember being really TICKED OFF when I was presented with the first one of those...

*nix is universal, in the above sense--you can learn enough to be competent (read: dangerous) on one system, and transfer that knowledge to others.

 

[MadSkillzMan]

yea ive got CDs that DO NOT play on iwndows...well my sisters do lol havent bought one since 6th grade..so..1998 lol wow

 

[Captain Newbie]

yea ive got CDs that DO NOT play on iwndows...well my sisters do lol havent bought one since 6th grade..so..1998 lol wow

Coldplay recently posted an article on their site about how to disable the anti-play protection that is implemented on their latest album. When the artist themselves does something like this, it means that something needs to change

 

[Neuromancer]

Well I voted... NO its the best OS ever... because it is, BUT

Windows bogs down over time due to registry changes.

Unfortunately even registry cleaners do not "clean the registry" What you really need to do is get yourself an uninstaller application. This monitors ALL the changes that a program makes to your system, and fixes them when you uninstall.

The fact that you need to format every 4 months implies 3rd party software though. I know people that have not had a problem in 4 straight years of running XP. They are the silent majority however as they tend not to hit up the tech support forums :lol:

Are you running a lot of BETA software? Remeber that anything BETA is more then likely going to cause problems. That is why its a beta release and not an actual release.

 

[Nickds7]

I've had windows xp installed on a machine for years. You just simply have to take care of the system. Windows xp is a high maintenance operating system.

 

[MRD]

Are you running a lot of BETA software? Remeber that anything BETA is more then likely going to cause problems. That is why its a beta release and not an actual release.

You can run beta/unstable software to your heart's content in linux, and it won't cause the system to bog down, crash, or need a reformat. It's an OS-design weakness.

 

[DragonTattooz]

Well, I didn't read this whole thread, but I gotta believe you are doing something wrong. I switched to XP when I built this computer 2 1/2 years ago. I have done one repair install and that was about 2 weeks ago- BUT it was my fault that I got a BSOD, not XP's fault, because I was messing with some stuff and killed my 'puter.

Now, my son on the other hand, needs to reload Windows every couple of months on his laptop. I believe his problems arise because he turns off Norton all the time and he "forgets" to run Adaware and Spybot- I've also recently been introduced to the WONDERFUL world of CCleaner. But, alas, I can't get him to run CCleaner on a regular basis either. Point being that I know his problems are self-induced.

Oh, and BTW, I HATE Microshaft, but the truth is the truth and I'm just trying to be objective while stating my own experience.

 

[MRD]

The stability of an OS has a lot to do with what you use it for. My mother has been running the same stable install of windows 2K for something like 4 years now. No reinstall has been needed, no repairs, etc. She's on a K6-2 also, and she can't see any reason why she'd want to upgrade, it runs everything she needs just fine.

However, my mother uses 3 apps:
1) Microsoft Word 97
2) A grading program (she's a teacher) called Gradebook 2 SE
3) Firefox (she goes to yahoo to check email, and that's mostly it)

She doesn't stress the system at all, so it just works. No hardware changes, no driver changes, no overclocking, no new software installs.

Also, she's behind a hardware firewall. She doesn't use antivirus software and has never had a virus of any kind.

So it all depends what you do with a system. My mother will be using that system in 20 years probably, she sees upgrading as pointless and unnecessary. She wouldn't pay 50 cents to upgrade to XP, Word whatever it's on, etc. She really is entirely indifferent.

 

[JigPu]

You can run beta/unstable software to your heart's content in linux, and it won't cause the system to bog down, crash, or need a reformat. It's an OS-design weakness.

Who needs beta software when you've got Murphy's Law?

My mom killed Linux within 10 seconds of sitting down in front of a fresh install RIGHT after I finished the whole "linux dosen't crash" speil as should be epxected!

(...though that is one of only two times I've ever seen Linux crash, so I've got to agree about it's stability )
JigPu

 

[Captain Newbie]

You can run beta/unstable software to your heart's content in linux, and it won't cause the system to bog down, crash, or need a reformat. It's an OS-design weakness.

I feel that I need to play devil's advocate here.

Because Linux is a monolithic kernel, a *kernel mode* process that runs amok can and will, just as it will on Windows, create a big problem and result in the system getting hung. This said, because Linux is NOT the layer of hacks that Win32 is, it happens less frequently.

Haven't managed to crash my Linux boxes yet, and I've experienced only one kernel panic on OS X.

 

[MRD]

There is a great deal of controversy still as to whether a monolithic kernel is in fact inferior. Windows is essentially a monolithic kernel (technically a hybrid kernel, but it's mostly monolithic). The only reasonably common OS that isn't primarily monolithic is GNU Hurd.

I don't really think the stability or instability of windows/linux has much to do with basic kernel design. I think it's more an issue of more ancillary design issues.

I think part of the problem with Windows comes from its slow evolution from DOS, which was very prone to crashes (no protected memory for one thing). They worked hard to maintain back compatibility, and tried to take the slow evolution road. Linux just built a secure, stable system from the ground up based on much more modern ideas of coding without the same relics from the past holding them back. Also, the fundamentally insecure state in which Windows exists by default (yes I know you can make it pretty secure if you try) opens it up to a lot of spyware and other 3rd party malicious software.

I wonder how stable windows would be in a world without such evil software, in a world where security was unnecessary.

 

[Chrome-]

I have had Win2K systems run for 12 months or more, in the past.
Never could go a week with WinXP.

Strange, I've had systems run for months straight on Windows XP.

As for Windows Vista, not going to go there. I'm just going to stick with Windows XP or some other OS. Vista is going to be terrible. Then again, it may not be as bad as we're all thinking, but I believe it is going to be horrible.

 

[VinnyTAMU]

Why not just use a disk imaging software to creat backups. I use Acronis and wipe my computer clean about every month to 3 weeks. Therefor I always have a fast running computer.

 

[diehrd]

I simply think the O/S and its troubles are 99% user faults.

Fathers system 2 years on ME no problems..now 2 years on 2000.

My XP builds have nevrer bounced back on me unless they have been infected,,I had 2 people go from dial up to broadban with out using a firewall.Cant blame XP there ! Had one rig with over 11,000 Spyware infections and 400 Virus infections become unable to surf the net ( Porn kills XP if you are brinless)

And my personal rigs using XP never go down,I mean never UNLESS I really try to tweek my overclock . And then who is to blame ? Me !

 

[MRD]

one rig with over 11,000 Spyware infections and 400 Virus infections

Holy crap. That's unbelievable. I thought it was bad when spybot found 5 tracking cookies.

 

[Captain Newbie]

Holy crap. That's unbelievable. I thought it was bad when spybot found 5 tracking cookies.

Computer Over. Virus = very yes.

The only reasonably common OS that isn't primarily monolithic is GNU Hurd.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Sorry, whenever I hear about RMS's pet project, I laugh.

I think it's more an issue of more ancillary design issues.

True. Microsoft made some decisions (consciously) to do things that are bad and wrong. They deliberately broke portability (but then again, nobody with a PowerPC actually WANTED to run Windows anyway), they implemented layer upon layer of hacks, and generally did a lot of wrong things.

I wasn't trying to start a kernel-design discussion really. But whatever, it's all good.

 

[JigPu]

Computer Over. Virus = very yes.

Flagrant System Error > BSOD

True. Microsoft made some decisions (consciously) to do things that are bad and wrong. They deliberately broke portability (but then again, nobody with a PowerPC actually WANTED to run Windows anyway), they implemented layer upon layer of hacks, and generally did a lot of wrong things.

Yup. You'd think that with NT they would have worked a bit harder (though admittedly NT totaly destroys 9x...) on making things perfect since compatibility was of little concern, so this definatly earns them negative points.

JigPu