[KLUG Advocacy] Windows stability

[Adam Williams]

>I would just like throw in my 0010 cents...
>I've noticed that Windows installations that * I * do are much more
>stable than those done by OEMs or the average user.  Also, I tend to
>believe (maybe incorrectly) that machines that I built from scratch are
>more stable than most.  (I've seen some rock solid ibm and dell boxes
>but my homebuilt ones seem to beat most others.)

I concur, the "default" installation of XP, at least on HP & Compaq 
workstations (what we have here) is terrible.  Mostly this is due I think 
to the tremendous amount of crap accesories installed by default.  
Unfortunetely it is really hard to install "just XP" on one of these boxes 
(no actuall install media, just a restore CD).

>XP is definitely more stable but it bugs the crap out of me.  Maybe I
>haven't used it enough, but the simple act of changing an IP address

Right, some seemingly basic tasks are still really way to hard - and the 
command line interface is downright painful.  It would be nice if one 
could make it "get out of the way" more than seems possible.

>seems like such an order.  I like the switch user feature but I don't
>like the automatic "cleanup" of your desktop (it seems my mozilla icon
>on my in-law's computer gets deleted everytime I visit).  

I've never encountered the "cleanup" thing, maybe I'm just lucky.

>I can see things going downhill very quickly once DRM starts being
>inserted into windows boxes.  Guess who the majority of file sharers
>are?  Guess where they'll be looking once they cannot get their free
>movies and mp3s on Windows...

Well, assuming there not all in jain and the Universities don't just clamp 
their firewalls.