On 10/5/2011 10:26 PM, Jeff Liebermann wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 12:08:26 -0500, wrote:

I use "BSODs" generically for any unrecoverable error that the 3 Finger
Mickey (or "Kill") won't fix.

Well, since you haven't been using Windoze much, you probably haven't
had much experience with its stability. In my day job, I fix
computahs, mostly running various Windoze mutations. I get very few
unrecoverable errors, hung processes, comatose peripherals, or general
weirdness, if the machine is in fairly good shape. No points for
static electricity fried RAM, overheating CPU's (AMD early Athelon),
buggy apps that won't die (Acrobat Reader 10.x and Skype), overly
aggressive backup programs (Memeo), or various sync programs that
fumble over their own semaphores (iTunes, MS ActiveSync). If I try
hard, I can hang a Windoze box running any of the aforementioned. If
I run alternatives, or run them in a VM sandbox, no problem. If
uptime is your standard for reliability, then I can offer several
weather stations running Windoze 2000 that typically stay up for
months. For my personal assortment of machines, I only reboot after
an update, or after a sufficiently large number of config changes to
make sure I still have a working system. When a customer drags in a
system that is acting "erratic" and tends to hang, it's usually either
malware or the all too common bulging capacitor problem. Cleaning up
the malware and replacing the bulging caps usually stabilizes the
system. Incidentally, I only reinstall windoze from scratch if the
malware has made such a mess that it would take me longer to fix than
to reinstall.

Funny, but my experience has been a lot different. Every month after
Patch Tuesday, the phone lines would light up, as people's computers
would stop working, or specific programs would stop. Some times it was
because Microsoft would turn off something that was supposed to be a
security problem, which just happened to be a needed feature for a
program. I had one computer that every time it reached a certain place
in the upgrade cycle, it would hose the OS, requiring a reinstall. Had
to take a perfectly good computer off line. Even aside from instability
issues - and a computer that might work one day, and not the next for no
good reason is unstable - there were issues like killing DVD codec for
Windows media player. Yeah nothing like a serving of ****ed off users
wondering why they couldn't play that demo DVD at their important meeting.

The fact is, my Windows computers had one problem after the other, while
my Mac's just tended to chug along, and their users said we could take
them from them after prying their cold dead fingers off them. Same for
me. I supported Windows, I did as much of my work as possible on the Mac.

There was 1 (one) case where an update made a problem for the mac users.

Windows? Couldn't even count.

Now that I'm retired, I will only be doing computer support for my
family, and as my Windows Desktop just died last week, I'm going to be
replacing it with a yummy 27 inch IMac, and the laptops will all be
running Linux.

Free at last! Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last!

All apologies to MLK

- 73 de Mike N3LI -