About multitasking, what's best : AmigaOS, Linux, or Winblows XP ?

[stopthegop]

In Linux and Windows you can kill process at will

haha!  Welcome to Fantasy Island.  That works like maybetwo times out of ten.   Its almost always a reboot.  If I had a dime for every time I've had to reboot windoze I could retire rich, about 10 times over.  

[stopthegop]

Hmmm... maybe a hardware issue? I shut down errant processes all the time, and aside from the occasional momentary hang, it's fine. Come to think of it, I don't think I've had to reboot windows due to a (software) crash in years.

Congratulations.  You own the only reliable Wintel box on Planet Earth.  I'm not talking about just one box that I own, I'm talking about literally thousands of different servers and workstations that I've worked on.  I do Field support work (15+ yrs) for a very well know storage systems company -- robotic tape libraries, disk arrays, etc..  In my experience, when customers report hardware problems (tape drives not being recognized, LUN mapping problems, unable to initialize robotics, unknown path to host, storage unit unavailable, etc, etc, etc...).  I could go on for days..  But the problem is almost always software, in spite of what Microsoft or anyone else says.  My experience is mostly with Veritas (sorry, Symantec) NetBackup,  Legato, Tivoli TSM, Comvault, BackupExec, Amanda, and some non-public proprietary storage applications.  Netbackup on a lean unix box is the best of many bad choices (read: windoze/linux).  

[stopthegop]

So what? How often do you actually do that? I don't exactly think that's a good test of how good an OS is at multitasking.

Its merely one example.  And why isn't a good test?  

[stopthegop]

Well dude I'm not saying Windows is flawless, or that I love it, but what I am saying is that in my experience, if it's setup properly and maintained on good hardware it's a pretty stable OS... I don't think it's a fantastic multitasking OS, but as far as handling errant programs it's leagues better than Amiga OS (and Mac OSX, IMO). I don't work in the industry per se, but I maintain all of our work machines as well as constantly setting up various builds for friends and family, and no one I know is having continuous crashes and reboots unless there's a software configuration problem or hardware failure. Personally I spend about 99% of my time using my PCs and maybe 1% fixing problems. Obviously, as a tech, you will be dealing with problems all day, but it's kind of along the lines of the "if the Ford garage is full of Fords does that mean Ford is a bad car" analogy... On the other hand, I don't see any reason why your home rig should be rebooting and crashing all the time unless there's a problem somewhere, beacause "by nature" Windows just isn't THAT bad.

You're right about garage analogy.  Its a good point.  I'll be the first to admit a personal bias against Windows simply because I have to live with it and all its nuances and flaws for 50-70 hours per week -- flaws which tend to be minor in a home environment but which can have a huge impact in a production server environment and just drive one to drink.  When I get home, the last thing in the world I want to see is a PC.  My Amigas are my sanctuary so forgive me if I get a little defensive about what the OS can and can't do, etc..    

[stopthegop]

See what I'm getting at? There is no single reference point to make a comparison.

I disagree.  I think the fact that we're even having this discussion is proof that the Amiga is something very special.  I mean this is a hardware platform that hasn't had an update since before win95!  I haven't seen anyone talking about how badass Windows 95 was.

[stopthegop]

Windows and Mac are top heavy with software.  Its really just that simple.  To quote one of my favorite books on hardware, "How to Control Your World with Your Computer":

"I've always believed the best software programming language is solder".

[stopthegop]

If we all designed a operating system to run on a 286 and ran it on a 3ghz machine it would feel GREAT.

Not true. It would still be just plain old DOS.  Just faster.  I could drop a 400 small block into Grannie's station wagon, but you'd still have...grannie's station wagon.  

[stopthegop]

I just plain can't do that with the Amiga. I use my a300 lightly, and it gurus all the time.

Comparing AmigaOS to WindowsXP is like comparing a model T to a honda accord. Sure, they both get you to where you need to go, but the Accord will run for 120,000 miles before anything serious goes wrong.

The reason your A3000 crashes on you is because, conciously or not, you're probably trying to use the Amiga in the same way you use your wintel box.  If your Amiga had unlimited memory, a faster system bus, and updated chipset all those "queen-size" applications would run much better and more efficiently than on a PC simply because the basic architecture (of the Amiga) is superior.  Amiga's don't have the brute power that brand new PCs have, but they don't really need it because they get such better mileage from what they do have.  Big windoze applications -- bloated, resource hogs that they are -- run "well" on PCs because of sheer horsepower of the hardware.  They run in spite of XP, not because of it.   I see no elegance whatsoever in Windows, and especially not in Linux.  MacOS doesn't count unless you like the feeling of working in Crayon while simultaenuously being insulted with dumbed-down system nags.  .  

[stopthegop]

unsigned char * lol = 0 ;
for(int i=0;i<8192;i++){*lol++=0;}

Just tried it with the free compiler lcc on my Dell Laptop with XP.  Gave me a blue screen.  Which is why I'm writing this post from Ibrowse on my Amiga..  

[stopthegop]

You are a liar

wrong again

[stopthegop]

I just tried running the same program on my HP Jornada w/ Windows CE and it returned fine.  I think the registry is corrupted on my XP box which is why it crashed.  Actually, I already knewthe registry was corrupted.    But the registry being corrupt kind of underscores my whole point about the problem with software OSs in general, especially in a networked world, and especially Windows OS.  The registry is totally vulnerable, yet Windows is completely and utterly dependent on it to work.  That is a bad design.