On 15 Apr 2002 at 7:06, lester@... wrote:

> 90% of the time I am trying to work out why Windows is not
> doing what I want, and not having access to any sensible
> source information is the main problem. In the good old days
> I had the Windows 3.1 Device Drive Toolkit, and I could pick
> up things from that source that helped understand what was
> wrong.
>
> Where I do have the source, I can fix problems a hell of a
> lot quicker. SO perhaps that aspect should be included in
> the 'Cost of Ownership' calculations?
>
> Another thought is - what do we do when NT4 and W98SE
> licences run out - at least with Linux I can just carry on
> adding kit to systems without having to worry, or re-write
> all of that code every time Microsoft decide that they are
> not getting enough money in <g>.
>

You want to talk about Microsoft, my main complaints are two-fold, one is that
anything network related always refers you to your network administrator, but what if
you are the $#%@! network administrator? Second is that if anything goes wrong,
there isn't a lot you can do to fix it, other then blow it away and start again.

Linux never does that to you, there is always a way to coax it back into operation,
and there is always enough publicly available information that you don't need to
spend $2000 on an MCSE just to get a Win98 and WinME computer to talk to each
other.

Okay, so I had a rough weekend, and it's Microsoft's fault, my main computer's
registry decided to self-destruct Friday at 4pm, and I spent most of the weekend
getting it operational again.

Paul






Paul Schmidt, President
Tricat Technologies
paul@...
www.tricattechnologies.com