Windows XP bad? HAH.

I really like Windows XP. On my new system, it runs fantastically, and I love how much I really can tweak it to death (this was my complaint about the Windows 9x family--too "user friendly" :p). My complaint, though, is on the "Big Brother-ish" aspects to it. I think most people freak out over Product Activation, and they should. It is a huge pain in the ass, and I honestly think that is why most people and businesses I know run Windows 2000 still. Rather than feeling like you are in control of your computer, you feel like Microsoft is--even though you spent a lot of money on that computer and software!

And I can only imagine it getting worse, especially as Microsoft slowly starts implementing more DRM crap in its future Windows versions. You wonder why Longhorn is making a new hard drive format? I'm sure for whatever performance gains there will be, it will be fully DRM-compliant, and you'll lose control over your own system really. A captive commercial audience really. I can only fathom what will come after Longhorn. It has been in Billy's master plan to turn all software into a utility-like subscription service; no more packaged software.

So I really can imagine why people are apprehensive to Windows XP. For all of its performance and stability improvements, there is still something very devious about it. It's definitely a precursor to what is coming, and, honestly, I don't like it.

Melon
 
man that is true i fear what will arise when longhorn is released they say it will impliment palladium they say for it to give better web services but i doubt very much they just wanna control your ass ---- were having our day at the moment the RIAA will have theyre day very soon
 
Here's what I think to be a little weird: yes xp is a much more stable operating system than it's forebearers, and it is quite a bit faster in web and graphics based operations, but since I had the audacity to upgrade my motherboard, and tripping xp activation, this stable system built in it's own INSTABILITY!!! Today, I went to the Windows update site. It said I had a new network card driver, which I attempted to download. Well the aborted attempt trashed my existing driver. Hey, it happens. So I uninstall the trashed driver, reboot, and I get an ACTIVATION NOTICE!!! So now I have to abort out of that, reinstall the network card driver to get back on the net, re-activate the re-activation, which of course does not take over the net, so I have to call MS, and speak clearly seven sets of 6 digit numbers, which of course doesn't take, so then I have to wait on hold (hold music: Ravel's Bolero- how appropriate. Bo Derek was so right), so then I have to re speak the seven sets of 6, and then type in a new set of 7x6 to get the operating system to work after it told me that it needed to screw itself up.

I ask you: Is this REALLY more stable?

Isn't activation just another BSOD in sheep's clothing?

kip
 
hmm... about your comment about the activation thing... first of all, before upgrading anything big hardware wise, there's a file that you should of backed up (don't remember what that file is right now, but it's in the Windows directry) that basicly keeps the info there... then after upgrading your hardware, you replace the old database file (yea, it's a database file) with the one you backed up and everything should go back to normal ;)

btw... if anyone knows what the file name is, could you tell me, too lazy to look for the mag that tells you what the file was called -_-'
 
there is a wpa (windows product activation) file that holds the info generated by the hardware id numbers, which xp uses to decide whether to put me through 45 minutes of useless agony (see above). You can copy that file, and if you're NOT changing any hardware, just doing a re-format, you can get around the trouble of having to call in after reformatting the exact same configuration (thanks, MS) However this does not allow you to change the hardware and fool xp into thinking it's using different hardware than it really is. Doesn't work that way...(if it did you could fool xp into operating on multiple computers with one "good" wpa file - nope)

kip

ps I do like xp, just having to re-activate cause I went over the line by uninstalling a net card driver ticked me off today.
 
XP is by far the best Windows O/S out there... (well apart from 3.1 :p)

I get all that kinda thing too "XP sucks" etc

A mate of mine was running 2k an I said "try XP, its so much better" an his reply was "nah, it sucks" and "q3 runs s**t on XP" and finally "cuz this lad said so" rofl.

I laughed an said "If its so poor, then how come I use it? You know how fussy I am... and you know I aint gonna have crappy stuff installed on me puter"

With that, he shut up and about a month later, I went back to his house to find his PC running WindowsXP :p


I also remember my mum when I said I'd install XP on her PC (Celeron 433, 384Mb RAM, 30Gb HDD). She said "Its a new Microsoft thing... if its like 98 was when it first came out, I'll wait a while for the clever people to learn it and then when I get stuck, I have plenty of people to ask" So I said... "well I use it on my PC, and I've found loads more stuff" and her comment was "does it have Spider Solitaire on it like Windows ME?" lol... as soon as I said yeah, she said "OK, go for it. Just dont lose any of my documents an stuff" heh... about 16months later... she still runs the original WindowsXP Installation (since updated with SP1) and its as quick and stable as the day it was installed.

So... Some people think WindowsXP is not stable ay? lol... if they say so :p

but like knigitz said... MS wouldnt have spent all their money on something that was worse than a previous O/S
 
all i can say to these people are that they are ignorant and they wouldnt know a good OS if it F**ked them up the ass

:happy:
 
Great topic, i'm also sick and tire of hearing negative comments about Microsoft. I have a laptop that i use mainly for word prossecing and internet. I had win98se installed running without any problems, I recently did a clean installation of winxp pro and i'm amazed how much faster and stable it is. Now let me just say that i used Mandrake Linux, IBM OS2 and somewhat Apple OS, so i'm not here to kiss Microsoft a**.
These are the laptop specs.:)
Pentium 233MHZ with MMX no L2 cache
2.1GB hard drive
24X cdrom
Zoom PCMCIA modem (not a winmodem)
TFT screen 800*600 24bit color
Neomagic sound card
2MB Video Card :D
144MB ram (2 64MB slots and 16MB on board ram)

These are some applications i run at startup
Sygate firewall pro
AVG virus protection
StrokeIt, mouse gestures
Fastnet99 hosts app
Task Manager (minimized)

I use Open Office suite, IE6, Netscape7.01 and several other small utillities,I no that i can't run Autocad or the latest and greatest game but with those specs i am amazed how much faster it is than any other OS i tried on it.
If the laptop doesn't break down i will use it for the next four years. ;)
 
man there is no gettin around it xp is by far the best microsoft has done yet ...not to mention alot better than mac osx. i havnt had to reboot in 2 weeks now only dos couldv given me that before .
 
I too hear of peoples problems with XP, my dad for example is very adiment about upgrading to XP, he is still on ME. However he is running older hardware that dosnt sit very well with XP.

Anyway being only 17 I have only worked with Windows 95 (came with 1st computer), Windows 98 (sent to us from our retailer where we got 1st computer as free upgrade, or summit like that), and now I am on XP Pro. I have to say I like it, the interface, the useability it does seem to make things a whole lot easier.

However I dont like the product activation, and the whole big brother idea, and the £120 odd it cost just to get a licence. Therefore I have run a slip-streamed WinXP Pro w/ SP1 that I downloaded of the internet, and I also run anti-spy ware to disable may of the product detection etc over the i-net.

If longhorn has this palladium crap then Im not getting it, i wont even download it. Many people use Windows because it is the easiest to use etc, but Longhorn could be a step to far.
 
windows can only use pallaium if the hardware supports it hopefully none will but if intel had palladium and amd didnt intel would go bust unless they sneeked it in under our noses then windows longohrn activates it nasty thought
 

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
Xie wrote on Electronic Punk's profile.
Impressed you have kept this alive this long EP! So many sites have come and gone. :(

Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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Rest in peace my friend, been trying to find you and finally did in the worst way imaginable.

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