Probably the dreaded shutdown problem with some versions of 98. That was never a very good O/S anyway but streets ahead of its younger sibling ME.Over Christmas I upgraded from Mandrake 8.2 to 9.2 and from Windows 98 to 98SE. The former was no problem. The latter was a real palava. Umpteen reboots; then installing all the manufacturers hardware drivers, then visiting the microsoft site to get all the OS updates - then reinstalling all the software. First time round I got as far as the microsoft site, but could not work out what updates I needed, and crashed. Machine then crashed everytime I tried to reboot it. Bottom line Linux took several hours, most of which time it did not need me present. Windows took over a week to get running stably. I still have one problem. If I shut down it is fine. If I shutdown and reboot it hangs. Why ?
And this is why there are problems. On the whole the drivers provided with the hardware work well with Windows and all is fine.
I get a lot of calls from Linux users who have to have a modem or network card with 'x chipset' or without some features.
Look in the mandrake hardware database http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/hardware.php3 The list there is comprehensive and contains some very new cards (the latest ATi All in Wonder for example) And in my experience there are drivers around for non-listed products -eg motorola winmodems, but they aren't part of the standard distribution so they need a certain amount of expertise to get up and running.
N these cases there is a point that those 30 minutes may stretch to a n hour or so if the software was changed. Given that most nurses are overworked anyway would this make sense?My wife is a nurse. She spends about 30 minutes a day at work on email, intranet, word and excel using Windows2000. The NHS is spending a fortune on the microsoft licences (one per very part time user) for functionality they could have had for free. I read in the press they are trying to negotiate a discount. About B****y time too.
.True. The 'yesterday I could not spell technician today I is one' syndrome takes over. I have a customer who has the M$ certification and did not realise that converting a system t run on NTFS would not affect the floppy drive file system. Basic stuff like that makes it a mockery.True, but the training of staff and the employment of specialist IT staff to do this more than balances the books.
And how many "IT Specialists " really understand their Windows NT/2000 network? I was just upgraded at work from NT to 2000, and now I get a 3 minute wait every time I try to pull up a file open dialogue from within MSoffice. However the Unix (Solaris) side of the same network is fine. If you understand networking concepts it is just as easy to establish and maintain a network under any variety of Unix as it is NT; That knowledge is necessary to put a reasonably secure system together. Most of the IT support staff I come across are not that knowledgeable!
Only in some areas.
The problem isn't networking, but maintaining the desktop. Under linux every user is likely to set himself his own environment, making the users more efficient but giving IT a headache because they believe its their duty to impose uniformity. Until recently Linux desktop was not very good (inferior fonts, no decent office packages etc). So Microsoft have had a massive head start, but Linux is probably catching up now.
Does that matter to them if they are not caught?
To be honest here many companies have a single copy of W98 or W2000 and install it on multiple machines. They have not upgraded to XP because of activation. They operate illegally but it is cheap. I could make a fortune by reporting these because there is a reward!
If they switched to Linux they would be operating quite legally ;~)
I suspect this may go deeper than being a M$ problem.. But I do like a good argument.
So do I. But I don't think there is actually any disagreement ofsubstance. One last point though. Microsoft don't actually deliver the goods. The public wants a machine they can switch on and use without understanding its inner workings. Microsoft claimn to provide that product. That's fine when it works. When it doesn't ... Ask Dilwyn about his printer. By hiding the workings, they make manual intervention and correction all but impossible.
I have built several wireless systems and not had a problem yet. At one point at home I had three machines talking and they were XP on my laptop, 2000 on the desktop and 98SE on my wife's machine.
XP is an improvemnent, but still isn't perfect. I wasted several days trying to get a wireless network running on XP. The first time I installed the card it crashed one machine, but the other was fine (same procedure, same card). After several attempts, both machines seemed to recognise their cards, and eventually I even established a network. Top speed established 6 baud! I did transfer one file once, before giving up and getting my money back on the cards. With Linux, the user friendly installations like Mandrake provide you with all the automated wizards, to detect and install your hardware but if they don't work, and you are prepared to go through a learning curve, you can read the configuration files (plain text not registry gibberish), and put it right yourself.
--
Roy Wood
Q Branch. 20 Locks Hill, Portslade, Sussex.
Tel: +44 (0) 1273 386030 fax: +44 (0) 1273 430501
web : www.qbranch.demon.co.uk
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