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D'Artagnan1673 · 07-29-2002, 06:40 AM

I am about to wipe my HD clean and put Windows XP on my workstation.

Wish me luck finding all those nice little drivers......

Gav · 07-29-2002, 06:47 AM

XP has a Device driver databas on it (I use W2k myself). Everything should work fine, then it's just a case of fine tuning your driver issues (like DirectX) to the latest releases.

Sanky · 07-29-2002, 07:12 AM

Yeah you should have no probs unless your systems rather old, in which case its worth checking for hardware compatibility. You can do that through the MS site.

Really though you should be fine.

D'Artagnan1673 · 07-29-2002, 07:35 AM

Well, I am up now!!!! Like you said, nothing to it really.

Now to move all of my stuff back over

shyHeidi · 07-29-2002, 10:27 AM

I put XP on my grandpa's computer yesterday and none of the hardware or software works now (it didn't all before either). He needed it 'cause he bought a burner that wasn't compatible with win98... when I tried to install the drivers for the burner, the driver disk said it was for win98 and win98SE, didn't work on XP... go figure.

reptile · 07-30-2002, 01:42 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by shyHeidi:
I put XP on my grandpa's computer yesterday and none of the hardware or software works now (it didn't all before either). He needed it 'cause he bought a burner that wasn't compatible with win98... when I tried to install the drivers for the burner, the driver disk said it was for win98 and win98SE, didn't work on XP... go figure.<hr /></blockquote>Your grandpa bought a burner???? Whow!
I wish my grandparents got to terms with their cellular phones!!!

AndrewH · 07-30-2002, 12:53 PM

Just another reason why I love mac.... it just works.

The best technical support you can give to a PC user is this: <a href="http://www.apple.com/store" target="_blank">apple.com/store</a>

And here comes the flamewar.... any other mac devotees out there to back me up?

D'Artagnan1673 · 07-30-2002, 01:01 PM

Oh my, we are really opening up a can of worms with this argument.

I am going to be dead honest in my evaluation of the two breeds.

Macs are by far more elegant and cooperative with their users. Because of their non-proprietary nature, there is generally little to go wrong with them. However, the "real" world uses PCs, and will continue to do so.

I am much more proficient on a PC since its what I learned on, but I can still appreciate the Mac for what it is capable of doing. However, no one outside of advertising and education uses them. They hold a small nitche and will continue to do so for some time, imo.

damianip · 07-30-2002, 01:07 PM

Friends don't let friends install XP.

Stick with Win2K: it's a bit more managable.

Paolo

veeco · 07-30-2002, 02:26 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by D'Artagnan1673:
Macs are by far more elegant and cooperative with their users. Because of their non-proprietary nature, there is generally little to go wrong with them.<hr /></blockquote>Macs are non-proprietary? I guess you meant "because of their proprietary nature..."

AndrewH · 07-30-2002, 02:29 PM

Yes, if you really must have Windows, go with Win2K. It uses an entirely different codebase than ME and the previous 98/95 series, and doesn't have all the quirkiness/random errors/security holes that XP has. Plus, it's much less of a resource hog.

Have you considered Linux? If your HD is big enough, you can partition and install a dual-boot system, with your fav. flavor of Linux on one half (I like Red Hat for Intel systems, Yellow Dog for PPC's) and Windows on the other, so that you're not totally lost. Once you have experience on both, you can make a choice. In my experience, there's no general-market software that doesn't have a Linux equivilant (which is of course free) and you can't beat a free OS either. Plus, you have the luxury of a system that is light years more stable & secure than Windows.

Just a suggestion.

AndrewH · 07-30-2002, 02:32 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by veeco:
Macs are non-proprietary? I guess you meant "because of their proprietary nature..."<hr /></blockquote>While the internal hardware (i.e. RISC CPU architecture) is proprietary, you could really say the same for Intel's chip monopoly. There are many many 3rd party peripherals available, and the OS is based on UNIX and open-source. I would definetly classify macs as non-proprietary.

[ 07-30-2002, 05:32 PM: Message edited by: AndrewH ]

veeco · 07-30-2002, 05:37 PM

x86 chips have been made and are still being made by tons of other vendors: AMD, Cyrix, to name a few.

While it's true that Macs have a somewhat open source OS, a lot of it is not open source. Aqua isn't for instance (and that's too bad because I think it's a great piece of software).

The specs for the Macs are not widely available and there are not many Mac clones available (I am unsure as to there were even recent Mac clones done in the last year).

On the other hand, you can go to any Fry's or computer electronics store and build your PC from the ground up. Granted, that's not what Mr Lambda wants to do, but still, that's a big argument for the "non-proprietaryness" of PCs against Macs.

Now I don't have anything against Macs. I think they are great computers, they have great software, and probably fit their user's needs very well. They're just more proprietary than PCs, and therefore harder/more costly to upgrade, fix, support, debug, whatever.

AndrewH · 07-30-2002, 06:03 PM

I prefer to pay the extra for the quality control that comes from the hardware being produced by the same company every time. As a matter of fact, I haven't had to call Apple once since I installed OS X, as I haven't had but one crash/lockup/freeze, or even a 3rd party peripheral problem. Never even had to install drivers.

The one gripe i do have with Aqua's proprietary nature is that Apple (even though they provide, free of charge, a development environment that rivals Visual C++) forces us programmers to learn Objective-C (a not so common language) to program in Aqua. I definetly would like to see native support for other languages in the future.

Other than that, I wouldn't give up my Mac for anything. (Cept maybe some shiny new FIE equipment....mmm.....)

D'Artagnan1673 · 07-30-2002, 09:24 PM

Yes, I did mean to say that Macs are highly proprietary. I was undoubtedly thinking of several things at once.

counter riposte · 07-31-2002, 03:47 PM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by damianip:
Friends don't let friends install XP.

Stick with Win2K: it's a bit more managable.

Paolo<hr /></blockquote>I'm actually thinking of upgrading from 2K to XP Pro. Should I stick it out to the XP vers. 2, after all the kinks are worked out, or go for the upgrade?

D'Artagnan1673 · 07-31-2002, 09:04 PM

My general rule of thumb is to never upgrade if you can avoid it. I prefer a clean install of an operating system vs. upgrading. Still, being 2k is very close to XP, you may not run into too much trouble donw the line.

I am simply of the opinion that upgrading OS's make them less stable in the long run.

counter riposte · 08-01-2002, 08:40 AM

OK XP Users,

Aside from the fact that it's a new platform, what are the benefits of installing XP over maintaining 2K?

D'Artagnan1673 · 08-01-2002, 08:50 AM

Thats hard for me to say, considering that I was weened on NT 4 and only slighly know 2000.

As of yet, all the difference that I can see is that XP has a "comic", Apple-like apperance and things are better organized. Another benefit of XP over 2000 is the wonderful wallpapers you have to choose from.

I also like that "My Computer" has the feel of the Apple System Profiler, something I absolutely love about the Apple systems.

damianip · 08-01-2002, 08:51 AM

<blockquote>quote:<hr />Originally posted by counter riposte:
OK XP Users,

Aside from the fact that it's a new platform, what are the benefits of installing XP over maintaining 2K?<hr /></blockquote>My problem is that I've not seen a compelling reason for the upgrade. However, I'm not a gamer and all my apps run just fine on Win2K.

I'll probably only upgrade if I run into a driver shortage for a new peripheral or some new "killer app" (haven't seen one of those in years) which will not run on Win2k comes along.

Also, don't upgrade to a new OS. Flatten and re-build to the new OS. Don't bring along the old baggage.

Paolo