Jay, You probably never worked in the IBM mainframe world. One of IBM's strongest points was that new versions of the operating systems (there were several different ones) did not break existing programs. Also, you are given ample warning (yesrs) when backward compatible features would be discontinued. After all if a business pays multiple millions of dollars for a software package or spent millions of dollars for in house development it is not good business to break those programs by an operating system upgrade.
Contrast that to Micorsoft which breaks a significant number of programs with each upgrade. Jim Bentley American Celiac Society [EMAIL PROTECTED] tel: 1-504-737-3293 ----- Original Message ---- From: Alastair Burr <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: RBASE-L Mailing List <[email protected]> Sent: Thursday, October 2, 2008 2:43:12 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Re: Somewhat off list topic -- Vista Jay, I have Vista Home Basic and yesterday (at long last) the auto update gave me SP1. If may be early days but SP1 seems fine to me - as has Vista from when I bought my new PC almost 18 months ago. IMHO it seems to me that the problems that users have had is with upgrading old hardware running XP to Vista. I reckon that upgrading PCs - right back from the start of Windows - has been problematical. Back in the late '90s at work we began only upgrading the OS when a new PC was purchased and it solved lots of problems. Clearly, there are going to be problems with people seeing the cost of hardware (even though it's cheaper now) as too much to warrant upgrading the OS. Indeed, that's why I hung on with W98SE for so long. I wished then that I could have afforded to buy new hardware earlier and, with hindsight now, even more so. Nevertheless, if you can't afford it... As for compatibility with older programs there are, as I see it, two types of problem. Firstly there the things that are never going to be upgraded - old multi-media CDs, DOS-based games, that sort of thing - which cost money at the time and cannot (always) be used on newer equipment. Then there is the replacement of programs that can, fairly easily, be upgrade to a current version. Cost may well be a factor but, while the supplier is still active, you are likely to get a better product. (Definitely so with RBTI.) For me, I suspect that some sort of switch in the OS could be used to remove support for whatever compatibility with old hardware & software could be incorporated. I suppose that happens to some extent anyway but not at the kernel level? That said, I still regularly use a DOS box for file movements as it's so much easier with a BAT file. With MikeB's help I'm moving forward but it's slow and time's at a premium. If there were some easy way in Windows to program the old DOS type of operations then that would be very useful. There's not the time to learn all the programming and it keeps changing anyway. I knew a bit of BASIC, I could write macros in DOS versions of Word but Visual Basic and beyond is too much to have to learn _properly_ and I just dabble. R:Base is different because it's changed relatively slowly as far as the commands' syntax is concerned - bit by bit is easy to keep up with and I like doing it. Regards, Alastair. ----- Original Message ----- From: Jay Ward To: RBASE-L Mailing List Sent: Thursday, October 02, 2008 3:55 AM Subject: [RBASE-L] - Somewhat off list topic -- Vista The last few items on the list have been about DOS and Vista compatibility so I have a few questions for the group. 1. We accept the fact that 7.5 has gone away since a majority of us are using 7.5. Why can’t we accept the fact that Microsoft should not go back for generations and create as much compatibility as possible? 2. Mac is a great system but compatibility isn’t always there. Why should Microsoft create compatibility? I ask these questions for several reasons. On Dec. 17 the formal beta for Win 7 is now due and it seems to be a good date. When the beta for Vista came out it ran fast, booted in under 15 seconds (64-bit version) and basically had no drivers. Over 2MM lines of code later we have Vista SP1 and we all complain about it. What would happen if Microsoft released Win 7 as incompatible but fast and solid, which I think Vista is? Would we accept it. We are all caught in looking backward and not keeping up at times. MAC has somewhere in the neighborhood of 1000 drivers. Vista is now up beyond 30,000 drivers to stay compatible. Do you think it is time to redo the system and make it small, fast and stable regardless? I only ask these questions since I will have Win 7 on the 18th of December if the date holds as I think it will and I do have some input into their planning. What say you? ________________________________ No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com Version: 8.0.173 / Virus Database: 270.7.5/1702 - Release Date: 01/10/2008 09:05
