I think Conor's point is that he likes an argument, but doesn't actually have a clue about what he's arguing about - which is really nothing new unless it's about cars. Sometimes.
He probably really things that Macs might make you a bit fruity or something, but doesn't want to wade in with the "I just don't like them" argument - which really, is easier to respect than a bunch of erroneous crap half-assedly dragged together using Google.
Richard
XP has something like that. I could probably make good use of it, actually, though I'm stuck in the dark ages and just do it manually, via a little list (plain text file) reminding me what I need to install and what settings to fine-tune. Works for me :-)
Personally, with Windows I like a new, clean install of every application when I reinstall/replace a system.
But still, does XP really have something like that? Something where you plug a your old computer in on a network or as a target disk (or, I think, just a disk drive with a clone of the old system on), and your new install brings everything over - music, documents, preferences, mail, calendars, user settings - the whole damn lot?
(And if it does, does it end up doing things like copying hosed/bloated registries - my primary reason for updating or reinstalling Windows, as reviewing stuff means lots of hardware/software being installed/uninstalled).
For the more antagonistic types, this isn't an accusation of XP having something inferior. I am interested in this - I can't find anything about such a system on Google, only stuff about migrating Enterprise crap and so forth.
Richard
You've just reminded me one of the reasons why I prefer to do it myself. That way there's no dodgy remains of anything in the registry, or unwanted cookies, etc etc.
I think so - I'm just going on my vague memory of one of the many things it flashes up when installing. Something I never bother to read these days, as I've made a little note of how long I'll need to wait before the installation needs my intervention, meaning I can do "useful" things.
Heh, I just said something like that! Exactly why I prefer to do it my way - I know *exactly* what's been done. I simply save a couple of specific bits of the registry that refer to my Outlook Express folders, keep those folders (well, .dbx files), plus all my documents etc, on a separate hard drive, so when I do a fresh install of Windows, all I need to do is restore the registry key to do with Desktop/My Docs etc locations, restore the registry keys for the OE folders/rules, and bingo, everything's back in place.
I don't know to be honest - like I said - only way I'd see it where I saw it before would be by reinstalling XP.
I spend about as much time using The GIMP as I do photoshop, yet I can get more work done in that time in photoshop. Also as I shoot raw and convert to
32bit tiff for handling purposes GIMP won't read my files.
X11 forms no part of a GUI at all.
GEM wasn't text mode.
It hasn't needed one. XP rocks.
Windows File and Setting Transfer Wizard (note updated version on windowsupdate is not compatible with older releases).
Run on old machine - it's on the XP CD or you can copy it to a floppy / usb stick - it makes a compressed archive of all registered documents, user preferences etc for the currently logged in user. Run on new machine and it sucks it back in. Works quite well but very very slow on old machines. Handy way of moving user profiles across from one user to another.
Must be run for every user on the system AFAIK.
It also works across network or parallel links.
Possibly.
Erm, you probably do, actually. Depends if they're running DHCP or not.
OK, Mr. IT Genius. Tell me how I'd find that out, given that everything apart from a handful of applications is admin access only.
which apps are available?
Exploder, Word, Excel, Powerpuke.
IE?
Well, yes.
IE = Exploder, as in 'Internet Exploder'.
The Mac doesn't have this issue, because of the way it works - not to say that a duff plist couldn't cause some annoyances, but not the same level of stuff that registry bloat results in.
But that's not to say that an XP equivalent would need the whole registry - it could presumably tie the apps and data it is moving to current, relevant entries.
Richard
Ahhh - thought you meant explorer, as in windows explorer. A completely different kettle of tripe.
He did say "GEM like" DOS-shell like would have been more appropriate.
Richard
It does seem unstable, yes ;) *runs away*
Richard
Sycorax Rock.
AFAIK, Windows doesn't transfer applications. Which makes the whole idea a tad pointless, IMHO.
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