The car that parks itself

I still don't get it! I really don't!

Win95 retail (über buggy!) with no prollems. Win95 OSR2.5 no prollems (except with experimental USB support) Win98 no prollems. Win98SE no prollems. WinME slight network card issue, diagnosis bad drivers. WinXP no prollems.

Maybe Geoff's right - something's wrong here. Why do I not encounter issues?

Nick. Just wants to be normal.

Maybe it's that "below the equator" effect with water in a drain or something, but seriously.... Nick, up here in the U.S., everybody I have ever known uses IBM style computers cuz they have to, but admits that they suck. That's why when I finally needed a computer, I bought an Apple. ALL my friends said, "You won't be able to do this or that" but they all had never tried so didn't know, and were wrong. One of my best friends is Novelle (sp?) certified and a former network administrator at a major company and even HE admits openly that all IBM clones running MS Windows stuff suck. He's actively involved in the Linux movement now. You apparently have different machines down unduh, but I'm glad yours works.. GW

Nick Trouns> I still don't get it!

You failed to mention the only OS thats worth a damn from Microsoft.=20 Win2kPro is the only way to go.=20

I'm thinking of starting my own OS system called Doors XP. My software=20 company will be called Bighard. The operating system will do something=20 entirely new, such as not crash. What you guys think?=20

What is "crash"??

GW Mac OS 8.6

B> You failed to mention the only OS thats worth a damn from Microsoft.

Combo of being lucky and the additional software. I'm a computer tech, and 90% of the same people who had problems with windows 3.1 crashing had problems with win95 crashing and now find ways to blue screen 2000/XP. XP/2000 is better than 9x which is better than 3.1 but a lot of it does come down to the user. Car analogy - haven't you noticed that some people just seem to have more car problems than others - no matter what kind of car it is?

Aight boy... I've used Mac's before. Instead of giving me a bluescreen I had those things just flat out stop doing anything for me and the only way I could get going again was to hit the reset button so dont think mac's are so high and mighty. :P

The Mac Classics at my old middle school used crash all the time. Open up PhotoShop and most of the time it would freeze without warning! Arn't Macs great :-)

I assume you meant MS where you typed "Windows". Quite true, the idea that a company (IBM) would implement a hardware strategy for everyone to copy and then a company (MS) is supposed to make software to work on all the mix-n-match hodgepodge clones is the reason I am opposed to those computers. I wouldn't buy a generic "name brand" car, I don't want a generic name brand computer. If I wanted to have to install, reinstall, fix, ~whatever, computers all day I'd be in that newsgroup.

What's sad is that more styles of computer did not succeed. At least in cars we can argue Jap vs GM vs Ford vs English vs German. In computers it's this same one vs that same one vs another same one vs Apple.

GW

B> Lol

Boy-oh-boy, we're really straying far from the topic of this group. But it's not really the hardware or their drivers that are at fault for most of the Windows system crashes, it was Windows itself responsible for it. The early editions of Windows were full of amateurish programming, putting more emphasis on prettiness rather than stability. I know there's an urban legend out there that device drivers are most responsible for Windows' crashes, but really if Windows were anything other than a glass house, any problems in the drivers should not cause the whole system to come down.

As for brand-name vs. generic PC's, it's the brand-name PC's that suffer the most instability, because they often tend to use proprietary hardware made by their manufacturers that don't conform to industry standards. For example, Dell equips its PC's with a standard ATX power supply, however, it screws around with the PS pin placements on the motherboard so that the only way to upgrade the PS is to buy it only from Dell; if you were to replace the PS with a standard ATX PS in a Dell, you'll likely fry your motherboard. Compaq used to equip their PC's with their own RAM; the RAM would be standard packages, except they have a id chip in it that id's it as "Compaq memory". There are other examples of this type of silly proprietariness from the brand-names. Oh let's not forget IBM's PS/2 line of PC's from the early

90's, those were the ultimate proprietary PC's.

Anyways, to bring this back to topic. I understand some manufacturers are creating generic cars that they sell to their competitors to resell for them. For example, Toyota sells the Matrix to Pontiac where it becomes the Vibe. :-)

Yousuf Khan

Well no its nvidia vs ati; amd vs intel; asus vs msi etc etc etc. Why get stuck with a limited number of systems like mac puts out? If anything ibm clones are more diverse than the car industry and because of that prices are very competitive in the pc market.

I only recognize two of those names but from an outside user perspective (mine) chips are irrelevant. The OS is the computer, to me. This feels like the argument I had with the guy where I said the Grand Am and Alero were the same thing. Certain defining parameters make some analogies unclear to unlike minds.

By "stuck" you seem to imply that I would be going somewhere (or trying to no avail), but I'm not. I bought it four years ago, have no clue what the inside looks like, or what the parts are called, and haven't needed an "upgrade" every six months as reported by CNN.

Intelligent minds can disagree. GW

B> > > did not succeed. At least in cars we

While intelligent minds can disagree, it seems foolish to be uninformed and still argue. I prefer to build my own boxes. It's hot-rodding for rainy days. A little research will result in not having hardware/driver/OS issues. For me, these are my favorite Microsoft OS's;

3.11 Windows for Workgroups 98SE 2000 Pro

If you don't mind using used parts you can build a PC/IBM clone box for under $300. Runs millions of apps, games, and freeware available. I dig tinkering with Linux but, and the big BUT is, drivers. Once again, gotta research before building, just like anything. Mac's are real nifty, if you want to throw away lots of money on a system that won't have diddly in the way of software available, and is not upgradeable for squat.. Been following this thread and finally had to throw my .02 in.

You have hit at my core dislike for the whole IBM breed You think something you pay for should need upgrading. As a car guy I really can't imagine what sofware I would need that I don't have.

GW

FBR wrote:

To the second question: If it worked just fine, of course I would. Why spend money for something fancy? I'm using Netscape 4.7 for this conversation. Oh, and 10X?? Not sure what catalog that's in but my Mac was $1300 about the time IBM clones dipped to $999. That's 1.3X I paid more, for something different, that has not needed any upgrades in four years shoot me. What do all these Windows upgrades do? Does it read your mind now? My god!!, I'm still having to type. ;-)

Usenet, the web, and email are the same on my end as they are on yours.

GW

FBR wrote:

And I am sure all websites look just fine. /sarcasm

How many years ago was that, 4 you say? Try 2500 for Mac Vs 300 for equivalent PC now.

Better drivers, higher performance, cheaper parts. More options that a Mac will never see.

I still prefer to type but if I feel lazy I can use ViaVoice and never touch a keyboard.

At this point I can only assume you are trolling. BTW, guess dial-up will always be your standard rather than DSL or cable?

Four cyl? Dang, I forgot all about those. That is rare. Must be the Iron Duke 2.5L ? GW

1970 GTO 4 spd w/Hurst; 400cid; 3.90 (12 bolt) Safe-T-Track. 2002 Blazer 5 spd w/Hurst; 262 cid; 4X4; 3.55 Positraction

FBR wrote:

*looks around the room* Let's see: Two PCs - the one I'm on now and a Compaq server. The server is a coffee table. This is a 440LX P-II 333. Solid. Two Macs - LC-II and an ancient Powerbook. Neither work. Both from the '92 era. FIVE Commodore Amigas. All working. Two 500s, two CD32s and a 1200. 1200 lives on my kitchen table and gets used relatively frequently for Telnet access and gaming.

Three varieties. And that doesn't include my old stuff out in the back shed. :-)

And for those who care - the AmigaOne is available now, and Workbench 4.0 is in Alpha stages. And will spank the pants off the only other readily-available Motorola powered machines on the market. Tee hee Geoff! The AmigaOne G3 700 can emulate your Mac faster than your Mac really runs. :-)

Nick.

Remember GMs reply to Bill Gates' rants about the automotive industry? 'Who'd buy a car with the hood welded shut?'

That's precisely what a Macintosh is. No need to know whats under the bonnet because unless you're throwing mass dollars around you can't do anything special to it anyway.

Hell look at my old PC. It was my first *REAL* PC after a string of old Amigas and C64s back when I was 14. A 386 at purchase time. Now, there's a freakin' Pentium II 266 sitting under that ancient housing's steel hood.

Love to see a hotrodded Macintosh... hmmmmm...

Nick.