I think the bug is in the modem firmware, and not Windows (or other OSs that report 115Kbps). If I recall correctly, the 'Hayes compatible' way is to report the modem speed (DCE) where some modems report DTE without an init switch.
Occassionally you will run into someone that has actually switched modems because Modem A reports 19.2Kbps, while Modem B reports 115. --
Re:Mozilla... Is it even worth the download?
on
Mozilla M6 released
·
· Score: 2
The cache and password issues you mention seem to have been fixed in IE5 (although you need to change the password policy in the security settings).
Note that on Windows NT, Netscape does use a cache shared between all users, where IE does not.
IE has the nice feature of allowing you to enable features (JavaScript, Cookies, ActiveX) selectively for "Trusted Sites" versus general untrusted Internet sites. --
Considering that you have to manually set the memory allocation for programs on the MacOS, how did IE arbitrarily grab 70MB of RAM? (This is an honest question - I didn't think that was possible.)
On an old Quadra 950, I'd take MacIE over Netscape any day, I do know that. Friends with newer Macs favor Netscape, but they also allocate 50MB of memory to it. --
Yes, your work has scripts to install things, but you also probably have a standard set of software packages, a standard set of hardware, and techinicians to fix anything if it breaks.
The complexity of managing and QAing a bunch of Windows auto-installation scripts for 50 software packages on 10 hardware plaftform is mind boggling. (Oops, Netscape 4.61 just came out - better go back and retest everything!) Unless you think "DLL Hell" is a good "out-of-box experience". --
Not that MCA wasn't a good bus, but considering that OS/2 and PS/2 were two prongs in the same strategy to lock up the microcomputer market, it shouldn't be a surprise that OS/2 ran better on PS/2 machines than ISA ones. In fact, early versions of OS/2 *only* ran on PS/2s. (Furthermore, EISA machines were still cheaper than PS/2 and had similar throughput.)
I recall some PS/2 non-intel 486 machines (Model 50?) that were dead slow compared to Compaq Prolina 486/33s. This was Windows 3.1, of course. --
Absolutely true. When IBM created the original "open" PC, it was only open because IBM was trying to get to market quickly so they used off-the-shelf designs. It never occurred to them that someone might clone it (although it certainly occurred to Intel and Microsoft.)
In my opinon, the key event in PC hardware history was in 1987 when Compaq chose to dump the IBM-licenced MCA PCs that they were about to release and instead release the Deskpro/386 with an ISA bus (and to go on and develop the EISA bus). If Compaq had chosen to go MCA, others probably would have followed (including Intel's motherboard division), and ISA would have died out after a few years. --
Aptivas of course aren't commercial computers, so they'll probably be Windows only for a while.
The documentation that used to come with IBM PC systems was particularly horrible, I agree. (Somebody should have told them that PC users generally don't know what an "IPL" is!) --
Re:Journalism (or "How I Learned to Love to Flame"
on
IBM & Microsoft Rift
·
· Score: 2
Don't forget that OS/2 pretty much bombed out of the corporate market in the 1990-2 period. By 1994 and the "Warp" timeframe, it was pretty much over but the shouting.
(The flame wars years later on comp.os.os2.advocacy, "Team OS/2", MS employees posting FUD. etc.) --
but I believe if IBM had been allowed to create OS/2 properly and recoupe money for it, that by now OS/2 would be everywhere
Yes, if IBM had been allowed to do what it wanted, we'd all be running OS/2 on our overpriced, slow, and proprietary IBM brand MCA hardware. But the 5250 emulation would be very good.
I think the answer to (1) is that Digital Research chose not to sue Microsoft.
(2) IBM and Microsoft got access to each other's products before the breakup. Hence Windows 3.1 code in OS/2 and OS/2 code in Windows NT.
(4) Netscape is hardly W3C compliant either, so perhaps we should ban the term "web browser" and use "Graphical Program for viewing Internet Content" and other such obnoxious terms like the MS Lawyers are doing right now in court.
(5) Why would Microsoft steal GPL code, when they can (and have) legally use(d) BSD code?
As for software licences, Microsoft's are not that dissimilar to anyone elses. --
If Linux continues to chomp at the server market (especially the holy-grail SMB licences), I could see a really cheap/cut-down version of NT/2000 Server aimed at small and midsized businesses. I doubt you'll seem much movement on the Desktop OS licences, though. --
ZD has been pretty critical of Microsoft in it's trial coverage.
The truth is ZD is secretly owned by computer users who by-in-large use Microsoft stuff or stuff that runs on MS stuff and like to read articles about that stuff and consume advertisments about that stuff. Big consipricy! --
You misunderstand what is going on. OEMs can offer good deals on bundled software percisely because it is bundled and they are getting a volume discount. Your scheme has no economy of scale. If they forced you to buy software at retail prices, you probably could buy it cheaper somewhere else.
If you are a big customer, the OEMs/System Integrators will put any damn disk image on the machine that you give them. If you are a small customer, find a clone shop - they usually will preinstall what you want to get the business. If you are an individual, do it yourself or pay someone to do it, because the fact that every computer doesn't magically come with the exact software you want is your problem, not the vendors'. --
What are you talking about? IBM *still* preinstalls OS/2 on commercial computers.
They used to have a duel boot configuration with Windows 3.1 and OS/2 (which booted in to OS/2 by default), but the stopped because the customers were sick of deleting 100 MBs of OS/2 stuff off of every computer. (And the OS/2 customers were probably sick of deleting the Windows stuff.)
Actually, IBM is infamous for never cutting off a technology with an installed base. Why do you think OS/2 is still on the market?
IBM also made PCs with optional Microchannel slots for years after PCI came out. 10 years of support for something as unpopular as MCA is hardly "dropping" it.
Bringing up Taligent and Kalieda is not fair, because they never made it to market after years of trying.
And FWIW, if you read the news you'll have noted that the NSA has worked with Netscape, Microsoft and Lotus to guarantee exported software can have a "backdoor" built in precisely for economic intelligence spying.
Please don't repeat this myth.
It's public knowledge that US companies can only export 40-bit encryption. Lotus, Netscape, and Microsoft have gotten around this by exporting 64-bit encryption and escrowing 24 bits with the NSA. All of their products are advertised as 40-bit. True 64-bit encryption is of course avaiable for US customers.
--
Re:KOM is nothing like OLE, Baboon is based on OLE
on
The KDE Future
·
· Score: 2
Could you provide a link describing how this works?
Well, if you want similar or better functionality relative to Windows (embedded browser, object embedding), it only stands to reason that you're going to have similar system requirements. (If someone has disproved this, please let me know, because I haven't seen it.)
Take comfort in the fact that at least you have other options. --
You can disable the IE/MS Office monstrosity by changing a setting in View+Options (auto launching a MS Office doc actually bypasses certain anti-macro security). Or just right click.
Speaking of security, it sounds like KDE is building a MS OLE clone. It would be interesting to hear what they are doing to prevent Melissa virus-like applications.
{Melissa worked like this: Word document was sent to Outlook user. User opened document with embedded Word. Auto-run macro in document scripted Outlook to send document to a bunch of people. } --
Confusing the issue is the fact that IBM refers to "NetBIOS" as both the API and the wire protocol (NetBEUI). Microsoft will sometimes use the term "NBT" for NetBIOS-over-TCP/IP.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the bug is in the modem firmware, and not Windows (or other OSs that report 115Kbps). If I recall correctly, the 'Hayes compatible' way is to report the modem speed (DCE) where some modems report DTE without an init switch.
Occassionally you will run into someone that has actually switched modems because Modem A reports 19.2Kbps, while Modem B reports 115.
--
The cache and password issues you mention seem to have been fixed in IE5 (although you need to change the password policy in the security settings).
Note that on Windows NT, Netscape does use a cache shared between all users, where IE does not.
IE has the nice feature of allowing you to enable features (JavaScript, Cookies, ActiveX) selectively for "Trusted Sites" versus general untrusted Internet sites.
--
Considering that you have to manually set the memory allocation for programs on the MacOS, how did IE arbitrarily grab 70MB of RAM? (This is an honest question - I didn't think that was possible.)
On an old Quadra 950, I'd take MacIE over Netscape any day, I do know that. Friends with newer Macs favor Netscape, but they also allocate 50MB of memory to it.
--
Yes, your work has scripts to install things, but you also probably have a standard set of software packages, a standard set of hardware, and techinicians to fix anything if it breaks.
The complexity of managing and QAing a bunch of Windows auto-installation scripts for 50 software packages on 10 hardware plaftform is mind boggling. (Oops, Netscape 4.61 just came out - better go back and retest everything!) Unless you think "DLL Hell" is a good "out-of-box experience".
--
In ftp.exe for sure, possibly elsewhere.
--
Not that MCA wasn't a good bus, but considering that OS/2 and PS/2 were two prongs in the same strategy to lock up the microcomputer market, it shouldn't be a surprise that OS/2 ran better on PS/2 machines than ISA ones. In fact, early versions of OS/2 *only* ran on PS/2s. (Furthermore, EISA machines were still cheaper than PS/2 and had similar throughput.)
I recall some PS/2 non-intel 486 machines (Model 50?) that were dead slow compared to Compaq Prolina 486/33s. This was Windows 3.1, of course.
--
Actually, considering that that AOL is an ISP, it's probably illegal to form a cartel and block their traffic.
Anyways, how would you feel if AT+T Worldnet, Prodigy, and UUNet decided to block your ISP's traffic?
--
Absolutely true. When IBM created the original "open" PC, it was only open because IBM was trying to get to market quickly so they used off-the-shelf designs. It never occurred to them that someone might clone it (although it certainly occurred to Intel and Microsoft.)
In my opinon, the key event in PC hardware history was in 1987 when Compaq chose to dump the IBM-licenced MCA PCs that they were about to release and instead release the Deskpro/386 with an ISA bus (and to go on and develop the EISA bus). If Compaq had chosen to go MCA, others probably would have followed (including Intel's motherboard division), and ISA would have died out after a few years.
--
Aptivas of course aren't commercial computers, so they'll probably be Windows only for a while.
The documentation that used to come with IBM PC systems was particularly horrible, I agree. (Somebody should have told them that PC users generally don't know what an "IPL" is!)
--
Don't forget that OS/2 pretty much bombed out of the corporate market in the 1990-2 period. By 1994 and the "Warp" timeframe, it was pretty much over but the shouting.
(The flame wars years later on comp.os.os2.advocacy, "Team OS/2", MS employees posting FUD. etc.)
--
but I believe if IBM had been allowed to create OS/2 properly and recoupe money for it, that by now OS/2 would be everywhere
Yes, if IBM had been allowed to do what it wanted, we'd all be running OS/2 on our overpriced, slow, and proprietary IBM brand MCA hardware. But the 5250 emulation would be very good.
--
I think the answer to (1) is that Digital Research chose not to sue Microsoft.
(2) IBM and Microsoft got access to each other's products before the breakup. Hence Windows 3.1 code in OS/2 and OS/2 code in Windows NT.
(4) Netscape is hardly W3C compliant either, so perhaps we should ban the term "web browser" and use "Graphical Program for viewing Internet Content" and other such obnoxious terms like the MS Lawyers are doing right now in court.
(5) Why would Microsoft steal GPL code, when they can (and have) legally use(d) BSD code?
As for software licences, Microsoft's are not that dissimilar to anyone elses.
--
If Linux continues to chomp at the server market (especially the holy-grail SMB licences), I could see a really cheap/cut-down version of NT/2000 Server aimed at small and midsized businesses. I doubt you'll seem much movement on the Desktop OS licences, though.
--
ZD has been pretty critical of Microsoft in it's trial coverage.
The truth is ZD is secretly owned by computer users who by-in-large use Microsoft stuff or stuff that runs on MS stuff and like to read articles about that stuff and consume advertisments about that stuff. Big consipricy!
--
You misunderstand what is going on. OEMs can offer good deals on bundled software percisely because it is bundled and they are getting a volume discount. Your scheme has no economy of scale. If they forced you to buy software at retail prices, you probably could buy it cheaper somewhere else.
If you are a big customer, the OEMs/System Integrators will put any damn disk image on the machine that you give them. If you are a small customer, find a clone shop - they usually will preinstall what you want to get the business. If you are an individual, do it yourself or pay someone to do it, because the fact that every computer doesn't magically come with the exact software you want is your problem, not the vendors'.
--
What are you talking about? IBM *still* preinstalls OS/2 on commercial computers.
They used to have a duel boot configuration with Windows 3.1 and OS/2 (which booted in to OS/2 by default), but the stopped because the customers were sick of deleting 100 MBs of OS/2 stuff off of every computer. (And the OS/2 customers were probably sick of deleting the Windows stuff.)
--
Actually, IBM is infamous for never cutting off a technology with an installed base. Why do you think OS/2 is still on the market?
IBM also made PCs with optional Microchannel slots for years after PCI came out. 10 years of support for something as unpopular as MCA is hardly "dropping" it.
Bringing up Taligent and Kalieda is not fair, because they never made it to market after years of trying.
--
I have to learn to stop relying on my memory. Thank's for the correction.
--
As for Rot-13, I've met people who can decode the newspaper "CryptoQuip" in about 30 seconds.
--
And FWIW, if you read the news you'll have noted that the NSA has worked with Netscape, Microsoft and Lotus to guarantee exported software can have a "backdoor" built in precisely for economic intelligence spying.
Please don't repeat this myth.
It's public knowledge that US companies can only export 40-bit encryption. Lotus, Netscape, and Microsoft have gotten around this by exporting 64-bit encryption and escrowing 24 bits with the NSA. All of their products are advertised as 40-bit. True 64-bit encryption is of course avaiable for US customers.
--
Could you provide a link describing how this works?
--
I suggest you boot up Macintosh System 6.0 sometime and verify that it does not have the functionality of MacOS 8.x, Windows 9x, or KDE.
Ye olde MacOS was lean, but it was also in non-portable assembly language and ROM chips.
--
Well, if you want similar or better functionality relative to Windows (embedded browser, object embedding), it only stands to reason that you're going to have similar system requirements. (If someone has disproved this, please let me know, because I haven't seen it.)
Take comfort in the fact that at least you have other options.
--
You can disable the IE/MS Office monstrosity by changing a setting in View+Options (auto launching a MS Office doc actually bypasses certain anti-macro security). Or just right click.
Speaking of security, it sounds like KDE is building a MS OLE clone. It would be interesting to hear what they are doing to prevent Melissa virus-like applications.
{Melissa worked like this: Word document was sent to Outlook user. User opened document with embedded Word. Auto-run macro in document scripted Outlook to send document to a bunch of people. }
--
Confusing the issue is the fact that IBM refers to "NetBIOS" as both the API and the wire protocol (NetBEUI). Microsoft will sometimes use the term "NBT" for NetBIOS-over-TCP/IP.
--