WinUAE exposing how crappy Windows is

[LoadWB]

Well, Windows really encourages such sloppyness.

uh, what?

Program installers in *nix (make install, apget, and such) can, and sometimes do, scatter crap around the system.  Some Solaris packages do not remove all of their parts.  And Amiga programs can do the same damned thing.  Oh, and so can, and do, some Mac programs.

The operating system is irrelevant against sloppy, lazy, or incompetent programmers.  Morons are morons irrespective of the logo on the machine.

A simple Amiga programm doesn´t need an install process at all.

Cool.  I guess I can remove Installer.  Less facetiously, yes, a simple program with a simple binary or two can just be copied into place -- we do it all the time with programs like lzx, SGrab, etc.  More complex programs can be done manually as well, but Installer sure does make the process much simpler.

[LoadWB]

I think its safe to say your case is an exception. The place I work at has a constant flow of PC issues with their (mostly) XP stations. Stations are restored from images pretty routinely to keep everything chugging along.

I would say not.  I have workstations at several sites which are running XP loads which are now over four years old.  They have not replaced the machines due to budget constraints, but we have upgraded most of them to 1GB of memory.

In my professional experience -- and before anyone jumps on the "dfense of microshaft shyte" bandwagon, know that I support and work on several operating systems, so shove it -- when any of these machines have had to be reloaded, and especially numerous times, we finally tracked the problem to bad hardware.  In could, in fact, quantify the problem if I went through my notes of the past eight years to specific percentages of failures which were hard drives, RAM, and motherboard, in that order.  In a couple of cases a bad video card was the culprit.

A lot of people will quickly blame a driver when it crashes.  Frankly, it is an amateur mistake and pretty common.  The driver will crash, the updated driver will crash, so the assumption is the driver is crap and replacement hardware is installed.  Voila, accidental solution.  But what really happens is the failed hardware causes the driver to crash, and usually only happens, especially in the case of video cards, once Windows activates the advanced features of the device.  So, then it looks like Windows did it.

15 years professional experience in this industry and I can tell you with full confidence that there are a good number of people out there who will curse and swear at the wrong things, presenting themselves as experts, but each is really a rank amateur with not a real clue of how things work.

Those kinds of people make me a good deal of money.

[LoadWB]

I what way do you mean?   The reg files are just one big .txt file basically.  That is why it's slower for the OS to search through the bigger it gets.

Actually, the Windows registry is a modified binary-tree database which uses the Jet database engine to operate, much like just about every other system database: Active Directory, DHCP server, DNS server, etc.  With the exception that at boot, ntldr determines the size of the SYSTEM hive and loads it in its entirety into paged pool memory.

[LoadWB]

So search times are Θ(log n) in the average case and Ω(n) in the worst case?

n is the number of registry entries.  So the more n the slower it is.

Relevant to my point how?  Yes, I took those classes in CS as well (with flying colors,) and, really, search performance in a memory-based registry file is almost irrelevant in terms versus computing power available.  In any case, we can only theorize to the performance of the registry unless we run our own tests against it since Microsoft is well known for not publishing performance benchmarks.

But in any case, my point was not to argue semantics of search algorithms but rather to displace misinformation which seems to flow freely in bashing circles -- irrespective of what is being bashed.

[LoadWB]

On Amiga, the mere act of installing an app doesn't appreciably increase boot time, in my experience.  Ofcourse if that app RUNS at boot time, boot time will increase.  But just installing it and running it once doesn't make much difference to the boot time afterwards, nor does it affect the start up time of other apps.

Yes and no.  I make Assign and a few other commands resident at boot time because of the obscene number of assignments which happen throughout the boot due to the types and number of programs I have installed.

Part of the problem with Windows is the Internet cache.  Its database is ALWAYS active, so if you have a full and cluttered Internet cache, which is 10% (or 20%, I cannot recall which) of your hard drive by default, that is quite a lot of space.  24GB for a 120GB hard drive at 20%, and so on.

Then there is Windows Search, which should be uninstalled if you have it.  I actually caught it preventing programs from being installed.  Seriously, Microsoft?  I will say this about Microsoft, they cannot do search, never have and never will.  Back in the day when their support site used Inktomia for searching it worked and worked WELL.  Then Microsoft programmed their own search and it cannot find crap.  Outlook search cannot find crap.  I use Google to search Microsoft's KBAs now.  Ridiculous.

[LoadWB]

It's the 2010 and we are still dealing with crap design decisions from 1980's.  If there were virtual goats Windows would blow them.

Tell me about it, brother.  I work with Solaris a lot, which is based on System V Unix.  I cannot tell you how irritating it is to work with design decisions from the 60s!

[LoadWB]

A typical Windows Tech day is reformat, Reinstall OS, Reinstall all the Apps, re-setup all the apps.

Interesting.  Do continue.  What, pray tell, brings you to this conclusion?  And, please quantify your terms: what is typical? what is a tech? and what time period constitutes a day?

Because, let me tell you, supporting several hundred Windows machines, this most certainly is not my typical day.  Ever.  In 15 years.  In fact, it is fairly infrequent that I come across a Windows installation so hosed that this is necessary.  I would say, perhaps once a month, one out of several hundred Windows machines, and never the same machine more than once.

Every OS Sucks
http://www.deadtroll.com/video/ossuckscable.html

[LoadWB]

A tech that works on "personal" computers.  

I'm guessing your "several hundred" Windows machines are used in a business environment where people are not "as likely" (though I'm sure it happens) to be installing random software, surfing porn, and just generally fucking around.  And are more likely just used as Dumb terminals running software off a server somewhere.  


If you set up Windows and never change anything, which I'd bet is the typical box at your work, then Windows is fine.

However if you actually "use it" Windows has a lot more problems.  Since you work in a little box outside of the reality real techs work in, I'll forgive you for not knowing what the real world is like..

Wrong on all counts, smart ass.  I support business and home computers, and I will refrain from making specific statements which would serve to prove your conclusions to be false on other grounds.  Just as you make biased and ungrounded assertions on topics about which you do not know enough to make such conclusions, you make an assumption about what I do, and are patently incorrect.

I would provide you with the opportunity to spin the wheel again, perhaps even make other statements about my life about which you know absolutely squat, but you will most assuredly shoot wide and miss by far again.

[LoadWB]

I'm just saying, we all have a different perspective which is based on the corner of the world we see.

I did a Yellow Pages search for "computer repair" in Tallahassee, FL

94 computer repair businesses came up in an initial search.

I'm sure they are all just like the Maytag repair man though.  Sitting their with nothing to do because Windows is so super sweet.

THEIR -- THERE (inb4 grammar Nazi. Communications is paramount to the survival of a society, and part of communication is the proper use of the communications protocols.)

Interestingly, I field calls and inquiries at least a couple of times a week asking where someone can get their Mac repaired locally, and I can only direct them to one place.  They huff and sigh and moan and complain.

The reason you will find 94 business listed for Tallahassee, FL, performing computer repair (I notice your search was not limited to Windows repair,) and your search will likely not turn up several dozen other businesses like my own, is that we have literally thousands of businesses in Tallahassee.  Computers break.

As I stated before, in many cases it is a hardware issue.  What will be the ultimate demise of your Amiga?  Hardware.  What is the ultimate demise of most computers which I contact?  Hardware.  But, the question often becomes, why does modern hardware fail so much?  The simple answer is that we, as consumers, often demand to stay on the bleeding edge of technology.  The bleeding edge is very sharp.

I did work last week at the airport.  I replaced an AT&T Paradyne modem manufactured in 1993 which ran a 9.6k frame-relay circuit for an aviation ground computer network.  The replacement modem was another AT&T Paradyne manufactured in 1995.  But why use such old technology?  Because it is tried, true, well-tested, and found to be exceptionally reliable.  The same could be said about the Amiga and other "retro" or "classic" machines -- they are hardened technology which just work (though, not limited to such machines as quite a bit of older PC hardware is the same.)

Much the same that 160GB 2.5" laptop hard drives were considered unreliable and had high failure rates when they were introduced.  Now, 160GB 2.5" laptop hard drives are considered the low-end staple, and they are known and expected to have full life spans.

But, back to my counterpoint.  We have thousands of business in Tallahassee.  Each of them has at least one computer.  The majority of them run Windows, and some of them run Mac.  Irrespective of the operating system, all of them need technology support to a large degree because these business are run by people who have much better things to do during their 18 hour work day than do necessary upgrades or installations on their computer, irrespective of the easy learning curve.  Much like I do not have the time, motivation, nor desire right now to change the oil in my car or learn how to work on it when it does not run -- I have experts to whom I defer while I continue to run my business (interchangeable with "life" for other peoples' circumstances,) much as the same shop which works on my car defers to my expertise for technology.

[LoadWB]

There are people who need to test everything that seems interesting and get lots of crap on their computers that are not easy to clean up.

Nothing like this ever happens in AmigaOS, Linux, MacOS, Solaris, SCO Unix, AIX, FreeBSD, NetBSD, Be, GEM/TOS, etc.  Clearly, this is a Windows-only problem.