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I've had an even worse problem: spontaneous reboots, caused by a bad graphics driver, which caused source code files on my system to be corrupted, etc. This is on Win2K.
This was not a driver under development - it was the production ATI Rage drivers that came with my Dell. I was trying to debug graphics code and it turned out that certain types of memory leaks took the system down like a sub.
Fortunately a driver update solved the problem,but nobody at Dell could help me.
Point is: it might be hard to crash the new versions of Windows, but it's not impossible.
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I have installed Win2000 4 times. I had very bad luck with it. The OS would work for a while but on some gloomy morning I would turn on the computer and during the time of loading all of OS's VXDs and DLLs I would get an error message that the system registry file is corrupted. Dead. I wasn't able to recover from it. None of Windows recover utilities helped me. When I experienced this problem the second time I even had a back up of the file. So I went into this "terminal" mode and copied the corrupted file over. But still I had the same problem. That was a few months ago. From then on I stick with WinMe. It crashes time to time and svrmgr32 process sometime takes up to 5 minutes to startup, making my OS start so much longer. But at least it does not unrecoverable die on me.
Well this is my experience. If only HP-UX had a better user interface and cheaper hardware. I made this OS mad (didn't actually kill it, never have, never seen happened) only ones while debugging a multithreaded server and the debugger tried to return out of a method that was suppose to return a value but didn't and HP aCC compiler let it built.
Chhers,
Marat
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You can't blame the flakiness of Windows completely on Microsoft. The hardware/driver manufacturers had a BIG hand in the stability problems.
Like I said, Windows as a concept is a good thing for everyone, but I think Microsoft is no longer concerned with making Windows better than it was. They're more interested in the money they can extort from their users.
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> windows != qualityOS...never has been and probably never will be
Never is a very strong word - even when you are talking about  Microsoft.
Even a blind dog finds a bone once in a while.
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I think Windows (as a concept) is a "good thing" (tm). It provides a common programming platform for developers, and it provides a somewhat standard user interface for end-users, and shields end-users from the intricasies of the DOS command line.
What I *don't* like is being told that I have to rent the OS, or that everything is a freakin web page. Before XP, we could upgrade pretty much when we wanted to. Once Microsoft gets everyone on the XP bandwagon, that choice is completely out of our hands. I also don't like the way Microsoft bullies its competitors, or failing that buys them out and shelves their products.
I don't know anyone that can truthfully say that the idea behind Windows is bad.
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Before XP, we could upgrade pretty much when we wanted to. Once Microsoft gets everyone on the XP bandwagon, that choice is completely out of our hands.
Sorry, but could you please explain what you mean. Upgrade hardware, windows or...?
- Anders
Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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When you make a significant change to your hardware configuration, you have to get a new activation key for XP. When Microsoft decides it doesn't want to provide activation keys for XP any more, your investment in the OS including hardware upgrades because it didn't support one or more of your existing devices) goes completely down the dumper, and you haven't got a thing to say about it.
Aren't you keeping up with the industry?
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I can see what you mean.
Personally I don't think it's going to be a problem, I mean, MS isn't stupid.
- Anders
Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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No, they are not stupid. So when they have Windows WQ to sell you, do you think they will give you a key to activate XP, when they could just say 'we don't support that OS anymore, you'll need to buy the new one'
Product activation is a response to the fact that our OS and Office software pretty much do everything the average home user is likely to want, so they are going to have to go to a model that *forces* us to buy the latest piece of bloat full of useless 'features'. XP looks pretty nice, but I don't have any reason to leave my beloved W2000, and I like the fact I can choose when I do so. John is right, it's in M$ best interest to make that no longer the case.
Christian
Secrets of a happy marriage #27:
Never go to bed if you are mad at each other. It's more fun to stay up and fight.
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Hmmm, I don't know if they would stop the option to activate XP, when they stop supporting it.
I guess only time will tell...
- Anders
Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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One would hope in that situation they would release the activation key generation program to the public so they could generate their own activation keys.
Sure, that'll happen. 
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Better get used to the idea that everything is a freakin' webpage  It's the future..
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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Why must the future suck ? Why must we have Bill Gates version of the future, no option ?
Christian
Secrets of a happy marriage #27:
Never go to bed if you are mad at each other. It's more fun to stay up and fight.
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Why are you being so short-sighted? (Don't know if that word is allright, I'm not English. Sorry if it's not)
First of all, it's not Bill Gates; it's the company Microsoft.
Microsoft just happen to deliver good software (mostly) that meets a lot of customers requirements. Ain't nothing wrong with that?
Ofcourse there is an option; nobody forces you to use Microsoft products.
The only thing I agree with you, it the secret of a happy marriage
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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Microsoft deliver mediocre software that gets better over time as they make the sort of investment in it that should occur before release. Do you use templaes much ? Tried to use VC++ with no service pack ?
I'm surprised there are viable options to M$ in your part of the world, over here that is not the case if you want to find work. There are probably only slightly more people employed in Australia to write Mac or Linux code than there are OS/2 programmers.
And if you've never gone to war with Active Desktop ( your desktop is a web page ) then I am in awe.
Christian
Secrets of a happy marriage #27:
Never go to bed if you are mad at each other. It's more fun to stay up and fight.
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Microsoft deliver mediocre software that gets better over time as they make the sort of investment in it that should occur before release. Do you use templaes much ? Tried to use VC++ with no service pack ?
Ever tried to use MacOS X or Linux 2 years ago? MacApp on the Mac, Gimp on Linux, etc. Every software has some bugs and 'diseases', no application is perfect when it's released. That's where servicepacks and updates are for.
Active Desktop is indeed something I had some fights with. And ofcourse there are a lot of things in Windows where I'm not happy about, but generally speaking, I think it's still a lot better than any alternative out there.
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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Active Desktop is indeed something I had some fights with. And ofcourse there are a lot of things in Windows where I'm not happy about,
So we agree then that having everything a web page is not necessarily a good idea, but you wanted to argue because I was mean about Microsoft ?
Christian
Secrets of a happy marriage #27:
Never go to bed if you are mad at each other. It's more fun to stay up and fight.
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So we agree then that having everything a web page is not necessarily a good idea, but you wanted to argue because I was mean about Microsoft?
No, not at all. Actually, I don't want to argue at all 
What I was trying to say is that Active Desktop at this moment is not the way it should be. The idea of turning your desktop into a webpage is a great idea, it's just too slow and too instable the way it is at this moment.
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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> Of course there is an option; nobody forces you to use Microsoft products.
I'm not anti-Microsoft, but that line is the most commonly used bit of BS in any discussion group.
Nobody forces me to buy a car either, but how far do I get without one?
If I didn't have to earn a living or communicate with others, maybe I could live without it.
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Nobody forces me to buy a car either, but how far do I get without one?
I'm sure you'll get quite far with a bicycle, motorcycle or by foot.. in the same way that you could make a living and/or communicate with others if you were using Sun's Solaris, Linux (or any other Unix-wannabe-with-GUI), Unix, MacOS, whatever.
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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I sure hope not. The web as we know it will be dead in a few years - it is just distributed paper in it's current form. Could be far more powerful if this web services (really network services - has nothing to do with the 'web') thingy takes off. I think it will in a big way.
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Oh please god no!
I'm from the old school, html is good for documents - Visual C++ and proper windows (HWNDs) are good for applications.
I'm currently working for a company that has decided to write all there future inhouse applications using HTML/JavaScript/Java Servlets. What would have been a nice quick project in VB/VC has turned into a complete nightmare for them. I mean I could understand if the application was to be used remotely but it's launched and interacts with a FoxPro 5 app for goodness sake.
Lots of buzz words and little brains make for a dangerous combination.
Sorry just had to get that off my chest. It's been annoying me for a while.
(Now if I could only get them to rewrite it in .NET using C# and ASP.NET with ADO.NET and FISHING.NET and FOOTBALL.NET and TENNIS.NET and BASKETBALL.NET and NET.BALL .... oh you get the idea)
Michael
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Oops, maybe I did not express right what I was trying to say.
Ofcourse, there is no other language than C++ (talking about little brains  ). But we can't avoid having HTML as the interface to the user. It will be the future, and it is so much more clear to the user, because it almost all looks the same.
Like the other .NET ideas of you
--
Alex Marbus
www.marbus.net
But then again, I could be wrong.
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.. I love companies like this.
The more places whose marketing departments are allowed access to the keys for mission control and the self distruct button the better chance I/we have in creating MS#2, Sun#2, etc.
I'm more than happy to teach them as many buzzwords as possible, but they don't usuallly need the help.
C++/C# Student.
Wither Thee VB.Net.
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I guess that's because you don't know what you talk about.
Sorry, but I just had to say it.
I'm *so* tired og hearing people say stuff like that.
If you really hate windows that much, why do you program for it 
- Anders
Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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