IT
HAS GONE TOO FAR!
Microsoft has dominated the computer industry, and it's about time people know why this is a bad idea. I strongly feel that Microsoft's practices have crossed the line from fair competition to just plain monopolizing.
I'm going to separate the jokes and stories on my pages from the hard facts and the evidence that Microsoft software just doesn't cut it.
The famous Windows 95! The Operating System of the future! But the performance of the past. Windows 95 just seems so slooooooooow! Of course, Microsoft recommends a 486SX/25 with 8MB of RAM or more just to run it...God forbid if you want to run applications with it! I've seen systems like this attempt to run 95, with poor results. It totally thrashes the hard drive, even while it's idling. Applications seem to run slowly and drag down whenever they're swapped. And what's with this "32-bit" software, anyway? Isn't it supposed to be faster?
It is. 32-bit software can access, transfer, and handle up to 32-bits of data at any one time. Of course, there's a catch. The operating system and the software BOTH have to have 32-bit code to enable these features.
Windows 95 IS NOT 32-bit!!
HOW?! Well, a quick look into Symantec's Norton Utilities' System Information tells me the following:
| 16 Bit Libs (Libraries) | 1.52 MB |
| Windows 16 (Win16 Sys) | 11.5 MB |
Then why is Windows 95 sold as a 32-bit Operating System? Why is it even CALLED a new Operating System? To be 'compatible,' Microsoft decided to keep the old MS-DOS standards of COMMAND.COM, IO.SYS, and MSDOS.SYS.
My other beef includes vulnerabilities of Windows 95. By now, most people should know about the port 139 error. If not, here it is in a nutshell. Windows can get, from a network, information that is marked as "Urgent." When this "Urgent" flag is sent, Windows quickly puts the current network tasks aside and accepts the "Urgent" information. Now, the problem comes when the "Urgent" flag is sent, BUT NO DATA FOLLOWS. Windows 95 and NT (and Windows 3.11 for Workgroups) gets confused and a "Kernel Panic" occurs: the user gets a "Blue Screen" with an error message, and all open programs crash. In Windows NT, the whole SYSTEM crashes. Either way, a reboot is the only way to fix the problem. People who IRC are most susceptible to this problem, since "Nuking" (getting people disconnected from IRC) remains a popular method of entertainment to many. The Windows NT patches are available from Microsoft as part of the Service Patch 3 for NT 4.0, and as an individual download for NT 3.51 A word of warning though: the NT patches can't protect from an attack by a Macintosh. It also seems that even with the patches, NT can't protect from a Windows 95 attack from a computer that has a certain registry change. There is a small patch available for the Windows 95 users, although it wasn't made for microsoft. The Microsoft release of the Windows 95 patch is also available here.
Windows itself is not totally original. Apple has sued Microsoft over Copyright infringement for the user interface. Sure, it sounds silly, doesn't it? Still, even if it isn't true, it seems pretty fishy on how, all of a sudden, Microsoft "innovates" the idea of a graphical interface. Also, let's not forget about the law suit in which Microsoft was actually *condemned* for stealing Stac Electronics' *SOURCE CODE*!! Read the article here. Plug-And-Play (more like Plug and Pray to me and lots of other people) was innovated by Apple and IBM. With the release of Macintosh, Apple supported the ability to successfully plug in a peripheral (such as a printer, modem, scanner, what have you) and the system would automatically recognize and use the device. IBM released the MCA bus (Micro Channel Adapter) where you could install a card, and it would automatically recognize the device and ask for any relevant drivers (1985). Later, the information about the peripherals were included on the ROM. Crude, but it worked. Windows 95's Plug and Play is SOFTWARE, which means undoubtedly, errors may abound. And while we're on the talk of PnP and the like, what about FAT32? Where a cluster on a 4.x gigabyte hard drive would take 32k, while on FAT32, it only takes 4k? Well, even Microsoft doesn't support it's own software. Windows NT will NOT RECOGNIZE A FAT32 partition! FAT32 is nothing more than FAT16 (normal FAT filesystem) with a few extra changes. It still fragments easily and doesn't recognize errors before they cause problems (file fragments, etc). VFAT came with Windows 95 OSR1 (OEM Service Release 1, what the manufacturers preinstall on their computers) and all other versions of Windows 95. It's nothing more than falsified long file names with a "character attribute" that is saved in an ini file somewhere (anyone have the name / more info, email me).
There are other solutions!!
OS/2 Warp is able to run many DOS and even Windows programs. It even has the ability of running 32-bit Windows 95 programs! You don't hear that much about OS/2 because few companies make programs that are made specifically to run under it's PM (Presentation Manager, OS/2's GUI) environment. Why? For a long time, from OS/2 1.0 to OS/2 3.0 (also called OS/2 Warp), there were problems supporting hardware. Manufacturers would tell a user to ask IBM for drivers, IBM would tell the user to ask the manufacturers, etc. With the release of OS/2 4.0 (code named 'Merlin' during it's development), several extra CD's (!!) were shipped, chock full of drivers. OS/2 3.0 runs with a minimum requirement of 4MB of RAM, 4.0 with 8MB. OS/2 4.0 was the first Operating System EVER to have Java support built into it's desktop! Java is a full-featured language that works REGARDLESS of which operating system is in use. MacOS, Windows 95, Unix, it doesn't matter. Everyone (but Microsoft) is talking about it!
And if you're used to "Ye Olde Commande Line," take a peek at IBM's PC-DOS...it provides an alternate, yet compatible DOS command line interface. And if you like full functioned, FREE command line interface, Caldera produces OpenDos, a free alternative to IBM and Microsoft's DOS. There's also a project called FreeDos, which is like Caldera's OpenDos, but it also provides you with the source code for changing the environment and writing your own drivers (if you have enough experience and know enough!).
If you're looking for something with pure, raw, unadulterated
POWER, take a look at Linux. It's
a free, downloadable (if you can wait to download about 100+ MB), and readily
available UNIX ports. Linux can run on PC's, PowerPC's,
and virtually ANY machine possible. You can customize the system
to your own needs, take out features that you don't like, add those that
you need, and even write your own drivers (if you know enough!).
In fact, while Microsoft is busy raising a ruckus about the 32-bit "Operating
System," there is already a 64-bit
Linux available for the Alpha.
There are numerous distributions of Linux, which
are merely compilations of the kernel (the main interpreter between
the user, hardware, and software) and other software. Some popular
compilations include Slackware,
Redhat, and Debian.
Any one of this distributions (and others) are freely available from Sunsite.
If you don't feel like bothering with Linux too long, there are versions
of it that can run off of the CD-ROM and two distributions called DosLinux
and Monkey
Linux that "Drop into DOS" so you don't have to worry about repartitioning
and losing all information on your hard drive. On my system, in a
shift away from Microsoft, I have Slackware 3.0 mostly installed, with
bits and pieces from other sites. It's a Frankenstein system, but
it works. Eventually, I plan to kill it off and install a clean Redhat
4.2 or a Slackware 96 installation ...but that is in the future. Let's
not forget about GNU project, which aims
at delivering a full-blown, free, UNIX compatable environment.
A nice list of OS's that may interest you is available at Paul Hsieh's OS Page.
Allan F. Caetano (afc@mandic.com.br)
-- info about Stac Electronics suit, reminder about GNU
Sorry, I've gotta finish this site! Kupo! 