Tenacious: A minute later, an image of a bomb appeared and suggested that I reboot with the extensions turned off, which I did, 7 times. I still can't get the Mac to restart, even with the OS9 Install CD loaded (in fact, I can't get the CD back out, either)
Paperclip time! :-)
I can't really think of a reason why the OS9 disc won't boot, though.
FrankB: What you need to do is hold down the command (apple) + option + P + R keys simultaneously, and you must do that right after the computer is turned on.
I still want to know why they don't print that stuff in the troubleshooting section of the manual. I remember the business version of the G3 tower came with several books on how to use the machine, set up SCSI, and so on, but they never even told you about the shift key and managing extensions.
Danamania:
HideTab
...etc
What's the advantage of this over "HideTab=true"? I don't see why everyone likes XML so much.
I also think preference files should be located in the application folder. Why do people insist on putting them in WinNT, System32, All Users/Documents, Preferences, Prefs:, S:, System Registry, etc... all that does is ensure everything is all mixed up, and you can't tell what is 1st party and 3rd party, and what is part of the system and what is an application. Maybe vendors like it that way.
If you want to uninstall the app and keep your config, delete every app file except the preferences. If you want a single, convenient place to browse your config files, ask the OS to compile the config files into a list. Dropping stuff all over the hard drive in random places is why filesystems are such a mess. There are still apps these days that drop their configs and logs in the root of the C: drive, for crying out loud.
Hammer: AmigaOS’s RAM-disk feature is useful for trialling software and temp related data.
So is a scratch drive or mount. But, you can't do that on Windows because files are thrown all over the place. If OS4 uses wizards to install software, like Windows, I don't think the RAM disk will be all too useful, either. I know of a lot of applications that store data in the temp folder, so flushing temporary files manually can really screw things up. Nothing like having 2+GB of files in the temp folder, and you can't remove them. Workstations tend to do this more than home computers.
Not to say I don't still want a RAM disk. ;-)
Karlos: People can say windoze has its codecs and so on, but lets face it, their implementation is terrible. A few media players use them and thats about it...
Codecs? Oh, you mean those things Windows says it needs and can't download them? MediaPlayer used to tell me it couldn't find a suitable compressor. Now it tells me, "ClassFactory cannot supply requested class", and when you go to Microsoft's website for more info, they tell you, this is an unknown error. Yeah! :-P
Roj: Let the Amiga hold on to all those "archaic" old design features that separate it from other operating systems.
No point to being an "alternative" OS if it's not unique. :-)
Kent: If the shutdown procedure isn't instant I wouldn't want it on any computer system I would willingly purchase.
No computer is instant if it supports any sort of caching or background processes that don't turn off unless the OS tells them to. What you're asking for is a non-multitasking system!
A machine without write-behind caching is a modal system, because you have to wait for the machine to finish performing a task before you can do something else. There's a reason OS's don't use hard drives like MS-DOS or AmigaOS, anymore.
80% of the computing world are 100% computer stupid and really don't know any better than what they are told.
That's the point. This is the information age, but nobody's interested in *correct* information. The people who sympathise the least with users are the people who know little to nothing about design.
Also, not everyone wants to spend 5 hours learning how to use a system. Fine for hardcore geeks, but not for normal people. That's why I hate Linux.
There are even magazines devoted to how the world could improve on effeciency even without computers.
Gee, I guess calculators are out, then. Ironic that most hand-held calculators are more useul than the on-screen variety.
That really depends on what you consider a computer. There's a computer in your microwave, a computer in the fuel injector in your car, a computer in your DVD player... You could easily say that desktop computers are the best example of the least intuitive computers. Besides servers, that is.
The ultimate computer system has no feel of a standard computer, rather an extension of your own personal habbits/thoughts.
Too many people confuse habits with preferences. Humans all like different things, but they all have the same natural reflexes.
Think about it... do you have to shut down your TV? What about your radio? Does your car have a button on the dashboard called "shutdown" before you can turn it off?
That's a marketing issue. TV's, radios, and cars are made and sold as closed units, which have a specific way of functioning. Computers have to be flexible to handle software written by many different companies. If you don't mind buying all your software from the company that writes your OS, you're all set. :-)
...shut down procedure...
It's not so much the "shutdown" that hurts, it's the "procedure". You could get around this by putting the machine in sleep mode, but a power failure would raise havok. If you use slumber, the machine still has to write its memory out to a storage device. We're a long way away from having machines with large amounts of built-in Flash RAM. Solid state media is too expensive and unreliable. The most you can do is make it "seem" like an instant shutdown, and that's where good design comes in. You can reduce the time it takes to shut down (like, a half second), but you can't remove it entirely.
Windows is the best example of what not to do. Does anyone really know what Windows saves when it shuts down?
Virtual Memory can be good if the OS is done right, put it in but don't make it a full-time feature.
Yup. Virtual Memory is supposed to be a crutch when you have no other memory available. It amuses me that the OS will instead "swap out" unused parts of the OS, then swap them back in when needed, even though there's plenty of RAM available... just a "precautionary" measure, I guess. I remember turning off virtual memory on a Win98 system, and the machine wouldn't even boot up without scrambling the display and eventually crashing, and that was with 64 megs of RAM.
I once had a computer science student tell me any OS that didn't perform kernel swapping was idiotic. Yeah, never mind the fact that the kernel is only a small part of the system, and if you have to swap out the kernel to free up memory, chances are you're REALLY in trouble and need to rethink your memory strategy!
Oh yes, a single registry file is extremely bad design as well. A program should be able to run without any additional settings/files outside the initial drawer.
Funny, how we're using registries at the same time we're moving towards object oriented programming and multiprocessing. Now that I've learned how OOP works (or is supposed to), I really appreciate it more. Not a lot, just... more. :-)
My big beef about the registry is putting all your eggs in one basket. I don't like the idea of critical system information stored in the same file as application data.
