Originally posted by: thedealmaker
I want to know how many brave souls out there actually install this beta onto their prime computer. There are already enough bugs in their real version, I can't imagine how bad it is for the beta version.
I have used pc for more than 13 years. In the old days, there was no such thing as beta version. Either it works or not or minor bugs. Nothing like this in the past. I remember that Microsoft was one of the first companies that start the whole update thing to fix bugs. Afterward, all companies followed suit.
:lol: if anything, software was just as buggy back in the "good old days". There was of course much simpler software back then on PCs (pre-Win 3.1), but feature for feature the bugs were about the same as now. Patching WAS a lot different back then... it's involved upgrades or mailed disks since email and the internet wasn't available to the general public. And there were many versions of software that were released in ALPHA condition... I don't know how you can't remember keyboard crashes in WordPerfect (and a lot worse) if you've used computers for 13 years.
I built my first system 15 years ago. Hardware stability (when not wrecked by unskilled fiddling) has improved more than I can imagine. Compared to Win95/98, software conflicts have decreased in Win2K and WinXP. Even with the beta SP2 RC1 installed my system is still rock solid -- and I did install it on my main system.
A lot of people blame their unstable hardware problems on Windows. Sure, Windows does have bugs (and I dare you to name ONE OS that doesn't), but when you install buggy device drivers written by the manufacturer, have unusual software conflicts, damage to files caused by hardware/software (not Windows)/buggy device drivers, is that really Microsoft's fault? The inexperienced user wouldn't know why their system crashed or why something doesn't work (even though the blue screen gives a very big hint, usually with device driver name or address that can be looked up), it's always Microsoft's fault.
I'll tell you what... for most of the problems that people have with their computer (including Macs), there is little MS or Apple can do (edit: in the operating system, at least) to solve problems with bad memory, overheated components, poorly seated heatsinks, degraded TIM/paste, dusty heatsinks, buggy device drivers or other software MS or Apple didn't write, or misc flaky hardware.