Poll: What do you think of WinXP, given all the hype and rumors?

[Electrode]

I will start this off by saying that I'm more towards NOT using WinXP. Here's how I see it:

THE GOOD:
1. Looks like there are going to be some really major compatability updates.

THE BAD:
1. Activation! AAARRRGGGHHH!
2. The interface. It looks cute and pretty, but doesn't seem all that practical to me. In addition to making the OS more cumbersome to use, it will probably take a heavy toll on performance. I didn't care much for WindowBlinds, and this can only be worse.
3. Spyware!
4. "Features" that cripple the OS beyond hope. (ie. the sabotaged MP3 decoding)
5. Burned-in apps that not only suck, but conflict with better apps and prevent them from working.

These are only my beliefs and opinions. Do not flame me about this.

 

[jagr10]

There are lots of rumours going around about what it will have and won't have and no one knows for sure. I think i'll wait until launch and see what other people's take will be on it.

 

[Noriaki]

I dunno...the more I learn about XP the more I like it. I think it's going to be very tweakable...



<< 1. Activation! AAARRRGGGHHH! >>

Can't argue with that...though I don't think it's as bad as everyone says....



<< 2. The interface. It looks cute and pretty, but doesn't seem all that practical to me. In addition to making the OS more cumbersome to use, it will probably take a heavy toll on performance. I didn't care much for WindowBlinds, and this can only be worse. >>

... why does everyone always list the new UI as a huge negative...3 mouse clicks and you can turn it off. Besides in beta form WinXP Pro only runs about 15MB more RAM than Win2k Pro. And most of that is probably error monitoring and logging (debug mode) software running in the background. I don't think the new GUI has much of a performance impact at all.



<< 3. Spyware! >>

Uhmm? Not sure what you mean there...if you mean MS monitoring your hardware or something...it's not true. When you activate you pass them the PID and a Hash of some hardware Serial nubmers. It's a one way hash...they can't figure out what hardware you have from it.



<< 4. &quot;Features&quot; that cripple the OS beyond hope. (ie. the sabotaged MP3 decoding) >>

I still think that's just an ugly rumour. Every report I hear and my personal experience with one of the betas it was very easy to play all my Mp3s in both Winamp and WMP.



<< 5. Burned-in apps that not only suck, but conflict with better apps and prevent them from working. >>

Such as? CDRW software is really the only one they added...and if it's got a PacketCD writer it could be quite useful. Packet CDs would be a million times more useful if there was one standard format, and having the writer integrated into Windows Explorer is even better. For other writing I'll continue to use CDRWin...and I never had any trouble with it in the beta...

<Edit> Packet CD is also called Incremental CD and it's where you use a CDRW like a big floppy disk. Add and delete files as you like without cleaning the whole CD off or anything, would be quite handy to have integrated into Windows Explorer I think </Edit>

I'm no trying to sway you towards WinXP...but WinXP is the subject of a lot of nasty rumours...and I think you are falling prey to them...

The activation alone is enough for some people to stay with Win2k. But I really don't think WinXP is going to be that bad...there is a lot and I mean a lot of F.U.D. going on with regards to WinXP and I've been the victim of some of it myself....but really the more I learn the less these things bother me...

If you don't like the activation don't use it... I guaratnee within a week (probably much less) of WinXP release the crackers will have cracked it.
Activation is suppose to stop Joe user from picking up a copy of Windows and sharing his PID with his whole neighbourhood.
It's not going to stop crackers, nor is it even meant to.

 

[HexVector]

Well unless you have Win2k I would definatly upgrade. Just the stability and performance upgrade over 98/ME is making me want to be first in line. Who cares about anything else, if I don't like it I'll change it. You can revert to the old 'classic view' easy. If I don't like their included Cd-burner, I won't use it! I'm sure you can pick and choose the applications and features you don't want or at least uninstall them later, like any other OS.

 

[GuruMogens]

I like the focus XP have on the internet. You can acces multiple computers via My Computer, thats nice. I think it good, but only for the same things as winME and win2k, I havn't seen any great updates.

 

[Doomer]

After discovering that Win ME phones home for purposes known only to MS, XP doesn't stand a prayer's chance in Hades of ending up on my desktop.

What bothers me isn't the known &quot;features&quot; but the unknown ones. With more and more computers finding themselves permanently connected to the web, combined with the sad truth that very few people are willing to educate themselves to the extent that they are able to protect their privacy, (or even care, for that matter) the stage is set for a massive loss of privacy the likes of which we've never seen before.

Yes, I am paranoid.

 

[AdamDuritz99]

I'm gonna wait and see what the general public thinks first b4 i use it.

 

[Kadesh]

WINDOWS XP WILL DESTROY US ALLL!!!!!!!!!!!

Really tho, it has a better skinning engine, that's it. Everything else can be obtained using 3rd party apps on Win2k. Firewall? Zonealarm. MP3? Winamp. CDR? Take your pick. WindowsBlinds does skinning but eats resources so that's the only bonus.

The only good thing is that Windows XP will force a lot of people to upgrade their computer and that point is debatable.

------

About Packet CDs... That (UDF) has to be the most annoying filesystem ever. If you're lucky, it creates a small ISO partition that has drivers and stuff. I've found you can only find this thing in DOS and so you have to boot to DOS, copy the drivers, boot to Windows, install the drivers, reboot. CD's are not floppies and that is the ugliest hack to change that. I've wondered what UDF stands for and the best match I can find is Unusable Disk Format.

 

[pbharris]

don't know don't care. i have used my windows partition maybe 4 hours in the past year at home.
so long as every ISP and web site does not make one need windows (which i really doubt could happen) the i am happy with my linux box.

 

[Noriaki]

Oh no...Windows XP has raw sockets...

So a few hackers that have nothing better to do with their time have more machines to exploit. As if a hacker that wants to run DDoS can't find a linux/unix machine to do so with...

So they can spoof source...if it didn't work with MS set up a Linux box and run an IP spoofer there.

 

[coolVariable]

I've been running WinXP for 2 months now:

1. A whole lot more stable than Win2K (I've had 0 - ZERO - NADA - NULL- NIET - KEINE crashes!!)

2. Very nice GUI! Like most people I though iiiiihhh at first but now... it's the best ever!

3. Compatibility!!

4. Rumors! It is fun to hear all those rumors (mp3, spyware, etc.) and to know they are exaggerated and WRONG!

 

[Jorrit]

it's probably going to be a blessing for all via chipset owners, cause via+win2k sucks a great deal!

 

[ToBeMe]

Running it now.......and will run it when it's released.........right along with the others I run!

 

[DaHitman]

<< I've been running WinXP for 2 months now:

1. A whole lot more stable than Win2K (I've had 0 - ZERO - NADA - NULL- NIET - KEINE crashes!!) >>




SO I guess you are admiting that Win2K was unstable and crashed a lot?

 

[lucidguy]

The only reason I stayed with Windows all these years (DOS -> Win 95 -> Win 95 OSR2 -> Win 98 -> Win 98 SE) was DOS compatibility. I have a bunch of classic DOS abandonware games and a number of DOS apps that, to this day, have no equivalent on no other OS anywhere. I still greatly enjoy using them once in a while.

Now that MS is giving up DOS compatibility in favor of the NT kernel for all its operating systems, I have no reason to stay with MS anymore. My next OS upgrade will likely be to a Unix-like system. Linux or BSD.

 

[Shudder]

But XP looks to have some fairly decent DOS compatibility.

I like the multiple user feature. I don't like my roommate messing with my settings and such, so it'll be a nice welcome, I don't even have to shut down my programs when I'm done.. (browsers, etc).

I couldn't have cared less about XP a week ago, but lately I've been looking at it and it seems really nice.

I put down 10 bucks for the RC1 and 2 so if I dont like it, I'm only going to be out 10 bucks.. I can live with that.

 

[HexVector]

Of course you need loads of RAM to pull of that feature of that feature Shudder is refering to. Its a good thing XP, forcing people to upgrade their computers =] I'm guessing that hardware sales will spike a bit a week or so after its release. All those people buying it and finding out they need more RAM or whatnot...

 

[Shudder]

Yeah you need more ram but it is so CHEAP now I feel like I'm in a duel with both sides of my brain.. fun vs responsibility.. My finger's got that twitch, reaching for the holster, drawing out the wallet and firing off my CC numbers.

*cough* anyway. I've got 256 in there now, have a 64MB I want to replace with another 128 so I'll have 384 nice CAS2 ram. If my browser's taking up a bit of the ram and my roommate's game is slowed a fps or 2, I'm not going to lose sleep over it

 

[jj1492]

I just think it's shameless the way Microsoft ripped off Apple by copying the way OS X looks. Compare the two. Anyone with a high enough IQ to know that leather is not a viable food product can see that XP completely ripped off OS X. Not to say I love Apple (because I don't), but Microsoft sure loves to copy them. How about Media Player looking like Quicktime? Control Panel versus Control Panels is another good example. Quite frankly pisses me off. All the more reason why I am migrating to Linux.

 

[Noriaki]

oh jeez....MS copied Apple, but Apple copied Xerox. And in fact the new Metallic XP skin looks an awful lot like KDE's default. Whoopee...

Isn't it shameless how those microsoft guys stole using a keyboard to interface with the OS from Unix. And a few of the commands are even similar. How horrid.

But then didn't the whole PC world copy mac when we added a mouse?

Stop crying copy-cat.

OSX stole stuff from Unix, and Unix stole stuff from Win95.
Now MS is stealing stuff from OSX.

It's not a major issue.

I'm not pointing the finger at you specifically here....
but so many people say how useless a GUI is and that it doesn't help or matter, then they complain about MS stealing it.

It's skinable, if you don't like the default, get a new one, besides, it's functionality that matters, not look. Get over it...

 

[ToBeMe]

Geesh.......don't some of you ever get tired of whining &amp; crying?????
Here's a hint..........almost every company in business......especially in this field, has copied something from someone else! Get over it! If you don't want to use it.......fine, move on! There's LOT's of choices..........thing is, the ones crying about this will find something to cry about with anything they choose!

 

[DaHitman]

<< The only reason I stayed with Windows all these years (DOS -> Win 95 -> Win 95 OSR2 -> Win 98 -> Win 98 SE) was DOS compatibility. I have a bunch of classic DOS abandonware games and a number of DOS apps that, to this day, have no equivalent on no other OS anywhere. I still greatly enjoy using them once in a while.

Now that MS is giving up DOS compatibility in favor of the NT kernel for all its operating systems, I have no reason to stay with MS anymore. My next OS upgrade will likely be to a Unix-like system. Linux or BSD. >>



Did you know that Linux has spectacular MSDOS emulation built in.. You can run most any DOS program with 100% perfection. It's Windows programs that are just a little tougher to run... but they are about 90% there now.

 

[JellyBaby]

XP looks good to me though of course I can't make the final call until the final code ships. Hardware locking is a major concern though simply because I don't want to rely on MS being there and supporting XP whenever I need to use my PC. MS is not my momma.

Pretend my old Atari 800's OS had some form of hardware locking and I want to unbox it to play some Defender or play with some old programs I wrote. Well, Atari is gone. There is no support for it. I can't get a new activation code. I'm out of luck thanks to Atari's hardware locking. No thanks, Bill.

 

[Noriaki]

<< Did you know that Linux has spectacular MSDOS emulation built in.. You can run most any DOS program with 100% perfection. It's Windows programs that are just a little tougher to run... but they are about 90% there now. >>



You can even run DOS games under linux? That make direct hardware calls? Can it emulate an SB16 on Port 220, IRQ 5 or 7, DMA 1 or 3, etc etc? Even with a PCI sound card?

I like the sounds of this.....could you point me at a HOWTO or some such thing on how to get my DOS games working in Linux?

Also I know you can use an emulator such as Wine to run most regular windows programs...but what about games? They need DirectX libraries and what not...can you run those under Linux as well?

 

[DaHitman]

Hehe... sounds like your somone who has the same taste in old games like me.. I am really into old video games, and old console emulation... Linux also has super old arcade machine emulation availabe, and gamyboy, nintendo, sega, etc... all run great... you might want to check out that scene more too.


Well anyway...back in my old Linux days (92-93) ...before WINE even...

We used DOSEMU to run things like Quiken for DOS, Microsoft Word for DOS (still have a copy of Word for DOS 5.0 on floppy I used) , Quattro Pro, DBASE III, Q&amp;A (what I ran), etc... that is how we had some needed applications in Linux... if you needed something and it did not exsist for Linux, you could always run a good DOS version just fine in the excellent DOS emulation available.


Read more here...
DOSEMU How-TO
http://www.dosemu.org/

and here:
http://skyscraper.fortunecity.com/linux/864/textonly/computer/dos.html
http://www.pcquest.com/linux/emulating.asp

You can run old dos vga games...like DUKE NUKEM 3d etc...You can even run Windows 3.1 it does such a good DOS emulation job. It was a little slow back then, but I bet on a new fast processor its not so bad.