MS says in several places that no personal info is required.
I guess the trouble is I always thought the Registration and Activation go hand-in-hand. I don't like the Activationrequirement and any information collected by MS that is not DIRECTLY related to Windows or a Microsoft. I think they are crossing the line on that. But I am good at BS'ing Personal info during registration so that doesn't bug me.
I've lost count of the number, but this is a big one. I decided to upgrade the computer a little. Got W2k, decided that I should up the RAM. No problem, I bought some a little while back. It's PC133 and the MB's bus is PC100, but that's not a big deal. I checked the Dell website and it concurred. It didn't work and I thought it was just bad ram. It was sitting around for a few months and may have gotten messed up in my recent move.
So, I went out to Best Buy today and took advantage of the tax free weekend and got a 256 chip. It was the cheap generic kind, but I thought I'd give it a try. Only problem is, Dell uses Intel motherboards and some types of SDRAM aren't compatible with Intel's boards. And I didn't realize this until I got home stuck the chip it and it wouldn't boot. Tried reseating it, swapping them, etc. Nothing worked. I then decided to put both 256 chips. And it booted! But W2k thinks I've only got 16 megs of ram. Have you ever sat through a boot of w2k with only 16 megs of RAM? Don't do it.
Was this possible problem ANYWHERE to be found on Dell's support site? Nope! I had to google search nearly everything I could think of before I stumbled upon a little tidbit about x4 SDRAM vs x8 and x16 SDRAM. WTF? So, I'm still stuck on 64 megs.
Ok, maybe it's not a Windows issue, but it's a problem with the platform that's for sure.
Oh, this one is classic. The computer just started rebooting. No warning. Nothing. It was seemingly out of no where. Thinking that I dislodged something when I was working on the RAM, I opened it back up and looked around. Nope. Everything was where it should be.
I decided that I should just reformat the HD and start from scratch. I did and it seemed to work. The rebooting problem went away. After reinstalling all the programs and all that good stuff, I decided to get the printer set up. So I installed my laser printer's drivers. I used the NT drivers thinking that 2k is built on NT. The other choices were 95, 98 and ME. (This is an older printer.) Ok, the drivers installed fine. Then, when trying to configure the printer for sharing, the computer rebooted. I then decided it seemed to be something with the printer driver that was causing it. I then tried using a generic HP driver and that solved the problem. Good grief.
The printer driver causing the computer to reboot? What's that about?
There's a default winblows driver dll file for hp printers (in system32 folder), we installed a new printer on a print server (with 43 printers already connected to it), this original file was replaced by HP one, which resulted in total IP printer screw-up, no one was able to print to any of IP configured printers.
After 3 calls to Microsoft, HOURS of troubleshooting, few levels of support and 3 days later, we got the problem solved.
WTF?
I've got more stories, there's not even a day without some windows weirdness here....
Would you rather have the little OS X progress bars, where everything flies for the first 99% of the bar, and that last little sliver, it's like time gets compressed as it optimizes the Christ out of something.
How is it in Fall River, up in Taunton, we dont have that problem with our macs.
OS X has its share of gripes though... what if a .pkg installer puts a Read Me file, owned by Root, in your hard disk? I don't want that. I never read the Read Me. But unless you know Terminal (I do, but most common OS X users don't), you can't get rid of it. Pretty freaking stupid if you ask me.
Basically, any problem that REQUIRES you to mess around in the command line is just as bad as having to sort through the Windows registry.
Is that a problem with OS X or a problem with whoever made the installer?
Still, it's not like any of these systems are near perfect. They all have their share of quirks, inconsistencies, lack of foresight, hacks, screw-ups, and discretions.
BTW, I just had a run-in with a co-worker here who wants to install certain software, but for some reason needs to mess with the registry to do so. How's that for a bad installer!
OS X has its share of gripes though... what if a .pkg installer puts a Read Me file, owned by Root, in your hard disk? I don't want that. I never read the Read Me. But unless you know Terminal (I do, but most common OS X users don't), you can't get rid of it. Pretty freaking stupid if you ask me.
Just show info on the file, pull down the section for Ownership & Permissions, authenticate, change the permissions, and trash the file the usual way.
You havn't been forced to use the Terminal for those operations since 10.1.
I guess there could be some way of autenticating if necessary while emptying trash. That'd be good, since some really stupid installers still put stuff there not owned by the user.
Yeah, like Apple's iPod Software Update installer. In fact, I normally only see root-owned ReadMes thrown all over the place with Apple's installers. The rest are fine.
Yeah, like Apple's iPod Software Update installer. In fact, I normally only see root-owned ReadMes thrown all over the place with Apple's installers. The rest are fine.
Give me one example. And the CLI is NOT the same as the Registry.
I already gave an example... when I installed the iPod Software Updater recently, it put a root-owned read me file in my hard drive. To delete it I had to use the CLI (easy for me, difficult for someone who doesn't know about it).
As for comparing the CLI to the Registry, perhaps the CLI is easier but at the same time, an average user is going to be lost with either one which is why I say they're equally bad.
Keeping OS 9 around is a good idea for problems with root-owned garbage installing itself on your hard drive, if you don't know how to use the Terminal.
I already gave an example... when I installed the iPod Software Updater recently, it put a root-owned read me file in my hard drive. To delete it I had to use the CLI (easy for me, difficult for someone who doesn't know about it).
As for comparing the CLI to the Registry, perhaps the CLI is easier but at the same time, an average user is going to be lost with either one which is why I say they're equally bad.
I don't know what you're talking about, because I've used the iPod updater too, but a readme here and there won't destablize your system like one errant registry entry could.
Comments
Originally posted by xmoger
MS says in several places that no personal info is required.
I guess the trouble is I always thought the Registration and Activation go hand-in-hand. I don't like the Activationrequirement and any information collected by MS that is not DIRECTLY related to Windows or a Microsoft. I think they are crossing the line on that. But I am good at BS'ing Personal info during registration so that doesn't bug me.
Anyway, I use a Mac 99% of the time. No worries.
So, I went out to Best Buy today and took advantage of the tax free weekend and got a 256 chip. It was the cheap generic kind, but I thought I'd give it a try. Only problem is, Dell uses Intel motherboards and some types of SDRAM aren't compatible with Intel's boards. And I didn't realize this until I got home stuck the chip it and it wouldn't boot. Tried reseating it, swapping them, etc. Nothing worked. I then decided to put both 256 chips. And it booted! But W2k thinks I've only got 16 megs of ram. Have you ever sat through a boot of w2k with only 16 megs of RAM? Don't do it.
Was this possible problem ANYWHERE to be found on Dell's support site? Nope! I had to google search nearly everything I could think of before I stumbled upon a little tidbit about x4 SDRAM vs x8 and x16 SDRAM. WTF? So, I'm still stuck on 64 megs.
Ok, maybe it's not a Windows issue, but it's a problem with the platform that's for sure.
I decided that I should just reformat the HD and start from scratch. I did and it seemed to work. The rebooting problem went away. After reinstalling all the programs and all that good stuff, I decided to get the printer set up. So I installed my laser printer's drivers. I used the NT drivers thinking that 2k is built on NT. The other choices were 95, 98 and ME. (This is an older printer.) Ok, the drivers installed fine. Then, when trying to configure the printer for sharing, the computer rebooted. I then decided it seemed to be something with the printer driver that was causing it. I then tried using a generic HP driver and that solved the problem. Good grief.
The printer driver causing the computer to reboot? What's that about?
There's a default winblows driver dll file for hp printers (in system32 folder), we installed a new printer on a print server (with 43 printers already connected to it), this original file was replaced by HP one, which resulted in total IP printer screw-up, no one was able to print to any of IP configured printers.
After 3 calls to Microsoft, HOURS of troubleshooting, few levels of support and 3 days later, we got the problem solved.
WTF?
I've got more stories, there's not even a day without some windows weirdness here....
Originally posted by Steve
Would you rather have the little OS X progress bars, where everything flies for the first 99% of the bar, and that last little sliver, it's like time gets compressed as it optimizes the Christ out of something.
How is it in Fall River, up in Taunton, we dont have that problem with our macs.
Basically, any problem that REQUIRES you to mess around in the command line is just as bad as having to sort through the Windows registry.
Still, it's not like any of these systems are near perfect. They all have their share of quirks, inconsistencies, lack of foresight, hacks, screw-ups, and discretions.
BTW, I just had a run-in with a co-worker here who wants to install certain software, but for some reason needs to mess with the registry to do so. How's that for a bad installer!
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
OS X has its share of gripes though... what if a .pkg installer puts a Read Me file, owned by Root, in your hard disk? I don't want that. I never read the Read Me. But unless you know Terminal (I do, but most common OS X users don't), you can't get rid of it. Pretty freaking stupid if you ask me.
Just show info on the file, pull down the section for Ownership & Permissions, authenticate, change the permissions, and trash the file the usual way.
You havn't been forced to use the Terminal for those operations since 10.1.
I guess there could be some way of autenticating if necessary while emptying trash. That'd be good, since some really stupid installers still put stuff there not owned by the user.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
Yeah, like Apple's iPod Software Update installer. In fact, I normally only see root-owned ReadMes thrown all over the place with Apple's installers. The rest are fine.
Give me one example. And the CLI is NOT the same as the Registry.
As for comparing the CLI to the Registry, perhaps the CLI is easier but at the same time, an average user is going to be lost with either one which is why I say they're equally bad.
Originally posted by Luca Rescigno
I already gave an example... when I installed the iPod Software Updater recently, it put a root-owned read me file in my hard drive. To delete it I had to use the CLI (easy for me, difficult for someone who doesn't know about it).
As for comparing the CLI to the Registry, perhaps the CLI is easier but at the same time, an average user is going to be lost with either one which is why I say they're equally bad.
I don't know what you're talking about, because I've used the iPod updater too, but a readme here and there won't destablize your system like one errant registry entry could.