[WriteLog] Operating system--followup

[gbaron]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: writelog-admin@contesting.com
> [mailto:writelog-admin@contesting.com]On Behalf Of W0UN--John Brosnahan
> Sent: Wednesday, December 11, 2002 10:19 PM
> To: writelog@contesting.com
> Subject: RE: [WriteLog] Operating system--followup
>
>
>
> Again, I appreciate all of the feedback and comments.  Many of them on
> the reflector and many just to me personally.  Tough to reply to
> all of them
> individually--but I wanted to respond to the issues that have
> been raised--
> as well as thank the group collectively.
>
> Win XP--I am not happy with the activation and registration hassles but I
> am certainly willing to do it--either by phone or the internet.  But I
> really do
> RESENT the jumping through hoops if you make significant changes
> in the hardware once the software is activated.   I am a HAM and an
> experimenter.  I tend to buy things and play with them--it is all
> about the
> learning process--and I have heard many stories about the hassles of
> trying to convince MS that you have just changed some hardware--and
> not trying to run the OS on a second platform.
>
> When I buy something I don't want hassles with trying to use it.  This is
> why I boycott "pay-before-you-pump" gas stations.  All I can do is vote
> with my money.  If filling up my tank with gas is a hassle then I
> will shop
> somewhere else.  Same with an OS--once it becomes more of a hassle
> than it is worth then I will change to something that is more customer
> friendly.
> A very good friend of mine is a professor in Electrical Engineering and
> Computer
> Science at a major university.  He is a ham and an active
> contester.  And he
> has an MS-free home.   Running Macs and Linux systems. It is possible to
> "stop the madness".    ;-)
>

Not if you want the applications that run only on windows and that is where
it is today.


> What I was referring to in my comment about "phoning home" is the reported
> property of XP that it sends information on your system and configuration
> at future dates--ala "spyware".  I don't know exactly what XP
> does--maybe no
> one does entirely--it is just too complex.  But I am
> uncomfortable with the
> reports that I have seen about this OS behavior.
>
> Another example of what to me seems like a hassle is to have everything
> enabled and then you have to know enough to turn things off.  I don't know
> what all is enabled in XP that I need to turn off.  I don't know
> enough about
> cookies for instance to know for sure just what risk they pose to my
> system's security versus what benefits they provide.  What I do know is
> that today I was trying to us MS Word to type up a simple invoice.  I made
> a column for hours and a column for task description.  The first
> time I filled
> in the hours column it was for 10.3 hours.  As soon as I did a

Most want this and that is why it is that way. You can turn them off but you
have to learn WORD and you are in the minority. That is why most want it the
other way, so they do not have to learn it completely, the thing you do not
want to do!


> carriage return
> MS Word insisted on numbering the next line 10.3.1.  Some sort of auto-
> paragraph feature I guess.  And when I backed up to delete it the cursor
> just jumped over the paragraph numbering.  I did find a way to delete it--
> but in 10 minutes of looking through the pull-down menus I never found
> a way to turn off that "feature".   I find it really annoying when things
> make assumptions about what I want for features and it is hard to turn
> them off--or at least hard to find out how to turn them off.  Much better
> is to have features that I can turn ON when I want them.
>
> I do know that I like the improved security of running Eudora and Netscape

Actually OUTLOOK is far more secure that Eudora or the others. It doesn't
even let you access an executable attachment. No access no virus. The
problem is you may want to access it, so just use outlook express at that
time or one of the many workaround executable but then you give up the
security. Don't get me wrong, I HATE that feature but love OUTLOOK so use it
anyhow.
AS for EUDORA, and PEGASUS, I gave both a good try but the interface STINKS
in both.


> over running the equivalent programs from MS.  (Netscape is about to go
> away and be replaced by Mozilla.)
>
> My time IS valuable--I am getting older and I am starting to count how
> many years I have left for tower climbing--and after the pain I feel from
> firewood splitting this week--it may not even be years.  I have a great
> location -- it is very remote and is very quiet.   But it only
> has access to
> the internet over landline and 26.4 KBaud at best.  I resent my limited
> internet time being wasted by pop-up and pop-under ads using up my
> bandwidth.

Get STOPZILLA, no more ads and ADAWARE no more spyware!


>
> So I am trying to find a the most reliable OS that also is the most
> hassle free.

That would NOT be LINUX, bereave me I have tried it and it is NOT hassle
free and is NOT stable, period. Even if it were you have now an OS with no
applications.


  I don't need an upgrade path in the near future.   If my
> software runs under an OS and does what I need then I will continue
> to run the same hardware/software for that application until long after
> it is no longer supported by the factory.

Not a bad idea at all, if not broke, don't fix! The problem is WIN98 is
broke.



>
> I want to be able to do digital mode contests with Writelog--something I
> have never done before but always been interested in.  And I may possibly
> want to add a sound card to a motherboard that already has sound--so
> I can use one for a voice keyer and one for recording.  I believe this is
> possible with Writelog and XP or 2000 pro--but if not then I will
> run another
> computer to do the recording.  To be able to do both the logging and
> recording on one computer it is probably necessary to have faster than
> average hardware--and RAM is so cheap right now (512 MB of PC133
> for $34 after rebate) there is no reason not to go overboard on RAM as
> well.
>
> Although I THINK that XP is probably more of the way to go than 2000 pro
> I am getting closer to deciding to use 2000 pro anyway--assuming there
> isn't some "gotcha" that I haven't found yet--because I have a
> copy that is
> already paid for.  And because it is less of a hassle for
> hardware changes.
> And because I feel better about what it WON'T do when I am not looking.
>

I used WIN2000 for a long time and it ran all of those programs and was much
more stable than WIN98, not as good as XP but very good.


> As a general purpose machine--video editing, etc--the answer would be
> XP or XP pro.   But for a dedicated logging program I am not as sure
> that it makes that much difference and I already own the 2000 pro.
>


Right you are.

> Feel free to convince me that I am wrong!    ;-)
>
> I do understand that it may be easier to network XP than 2000 pro--but


Networking in 2000 is very nearly as good and as easy.

> I have been successful at networking multiple OS platforms both with
> ethernet and with 802.11b--so hopefully I can network some 2000 pro
> systems if I get serious!
>


You will have no significant problems.

> Thanks for all of the input--the discussion has been very useful--even
> though not entirely definitive.  There does seem to be a feeling that the
> "best" OS is the one that the writer is using--whatever it is.
>
> I wonder how many people would put up some money in advance for
> a Linux port?  Maybe if there was enough interest backed by hard currency
> someone would take the plunge.

It will not happen, just one port is not going to be enough. I ma afraid
this chicken has to come before my money egg. There is no real reason to put
up money because my myriad of other applications won't run. Besides,
WriteLog has a myriad of design flaws already, how are you going to support
2 oses when the first one is not even done correctly yet.


>
> Again, THANKS--
>
> 73--John   W0UN
>
> BTW  I also resent that if I buy XP TODAY I will still have to download
> the service pack to make it current.   At 26.4 KB this is really painful.


Yes , you will and it is about 100 megs, on the other hand do it once or
order the cd so you can use it on all your XP systems, even with my broad
band it is a bit painful.

>
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