Longhorn
This new operating system from Microsoft.
Do you think MS will ever get it right?
win3.1
win95
win98
win2000
win millium
winxp
And all those network operating systems.
I know changes for the better are required for reliable pc's.
There are people out there like myself using win98 for most of my pc needs.
It has issues, but when you learn certain tricks to get it to be reliable, you don't always need the latest & greatest. win98 doesn't always like changes & it doesn't always need the most recent drivers. Also the update flashes from MS. can cause more head-achs. IF IT AN'T BROKE, DON'T FIX IT. My pc needs to be re-formatted about twice a year. Know what I mean? the registry grows and grows, plus website spyware / hackers / trojons / worms etc etc.. Have been most of the reasons for my pc problems anyway. Like anything else all things need cleaning. Formatting a pc from dos, not those utilitiy programs seem to be the best way to have a clean system once again.

enyalives

I don't see any "killer apps" included w/ Longhorn. The new file system sounds promising but I'll wait and see if MS can pull it off w/o killing old apps. I wonder if programs like Norton Systemworks can be patch upgraded or if you will have to buy a new version.

I'm pretty happy w/ XP. It's reasonably stable and has fewer issues than previous versions, though I still have a soft spot for 98. I'm sick of the constant forced upgrades from MS though. I want to try a *nix OS but my wife won't let me mess with her "baby", so I'll have to wait until I get a second system. Maybe I'll just by Apple; it already has a version of BSD on it.

I wonder if Longhorn is bills favorite restaurant? LOL.

You know, I don't know what to expect. First of all, I am not a big Windows supporter. Everything that I do on my own time is in Linux. However, I think that there was vast improvements from NT to 2000. This is from a business perspective mind you, but 2000 is actually a very stable O/S compared to NT. As for XP, it adds a lot of features (mostly eye-candy) that make it more pleasant to use but as far as usability advances I haven't found much.

Windows 98 was still built on top of DOS. It still is a decent O/S for low-end machines, but what a pain in the a$$ for networking!

Anyway, I am not holding my breath for Longhorn. DRM is going to be intertwined all through it (from what I have heard) and I am quite satisfied with 2000/XP.

What is DRM? Digital Rights Management?

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J de Silva
Learning Journal | GIDForums™ | GIDNetwork™ | GIDWebhosts™ | GIDSearch™

I like what I have read from your replies.
We all help each other learn. Yes, XP is eye candy. "98" can be a pain for networking / modems / and all kinds of new hardware ( plug n play )
As far as 98 being an extension of dos? We'll I know this much.
DOS WAS DEAD AFTER WIN 95, THATS WHAT I WAS TOLD.
But now I dis-agree, because I have seen virus attacks do the most damage at the lowest level. Even go into your Bios or cmos. With XP you can still edit files like Win ini files. I hope Longhorn proves to be better at running programs & not just looking nicer with all its visual video hogger!!
I still have alot of games that won't run on XP. That's why I use 98.
Somthing to think about. IF DOS IS NO LONGER USED? THEN ANSWER THIS QUESTION:
During bootup of a pc using 98 / 2000 / NT / XP
How come you can go to a dos prompt C:\ D:\ whatever your path is?
and type the delete command del *.*
Now reboot the pc and see what happens.
Dos is dead hu? WIN98 / 2000 / NT / XP ETC....
These operating systems are not running out of thin air.
They still live in a dos enviroment of directories or folders.
Otherwise you would not be able to hurt the operating system bootup, because you should not be able to get to a dos area & from a dos prompt run a dos command. Sorry about the side track on the original thread. Just somthing to think about. Yes the del *.* won't work unless you booted the pc with a bootup floppy. because thats where the program is like the format program or fdisk. But if those were on the hard drive, they would work. My point isn't really that anyway. My point is where the operating system lives.
Dos will only be dead, when it's little world of directories c: d: e: etc... are no longer used.

This really depends on how you define DOS. Windows 95/98/ME used DOS as DOS run under the OS. But in Windows XP there is no DOS as this OS uses IE in much the same way as DOS was used in 95/98/ME. Now as for the commands DOS isn't much more that a 16-bit code as XP doesn't have DOS it uses the command prompt in that same way as it's able to run almost any 16-bit code but with one very important exception:
- No direct access to the hardware components of the computer. As you said DOS isn't dead you can boot form a DOS disk but if you do a VER you’re using Windows ME as the DOS version. So for dead I personal am mixed when I redo my computer I may sometimes use DOS boot disk but that's not normal for me as I normally use Windows XP disk format utility.

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If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker that came along would destroy civilization.

Yes, Digital Rights Management. I have mentioned before that I am against piracy. However, I don't like the tone and intent of DRM from what I have heard.

Your so right dude, thanks for the info. I like to hear other peoples minds.
That's how I learn. XP does partition & format the hard drive fine.
However, I am sort of like you. Mixed on using commands to format & somtimes using Western digital's program that I got with my hard drive.
Depends on my mood and how much time I have to manually format / partition.
cya

What you are talking about is the shell. All windows environments have a shell that has the familiar "dos" commands. But an O/S is much more that just the shell, it is file I/O, memory management, etc.

Windows 95 & 98 were GUI's built on top of the old DOS O/S. They were basically extentions of Windows 3.11. When you get into NT, 2000 and XP, these are entirely based on the NT O/S, which is vastly different (and much much more complex - not to mention better) than the DOS O/S. There is still a shell in which you can use DOS style commands, but DOS is no longer used perse in these O/S'es.

About booting from a disk. The disk has the O/S on it whether it be DOS, Windows or Linux. It doesn't matter what O/S you have installed on your computer when you boot from a disk (either floppy or CD) it will load and execute the O/S on the disk.

Cheers,
d