[AccessD] A rare experience

[Jim Lawrence]

I do not know whether my experiences will relate to yours. (A lot of this information I am sure you are completely aware of but not everyone is. This is, of course, a bit of rant.) 

Becoming a Linux environment only user has a few complications...no more than an MS Windows user, it is just that many Windows errors happen below the surface and it is not until an error can not be recovered from, that the system finally bails, all together. The thing I like about various Linux environments is that via logs and system monitors it is easy to trace dogging, failing and memory abusing application components and subsequently research reasons and solutions within the Linux community. The number of times I have had to roll-back upgrades, I can't remember. Of course, I love to play with new toys and apps and conflicts are inevitable.  

I have found that most of our applications fail due the graphic issues. Graphic cards are going through some major changes, speed, the separation between the graphic component's CPU (GPU) and the system's CPU and applications with a variety of graphic requirements. From VGA to 4K.    

There are many solutions and it depends on your desktop environment. Virtual drives and/or stand-alone subsystems; ...and there are dozens...DOSBox and WINE are a couple of the most obvious apps. The industry is trying to resolve this issue with many different applications. Docker (advanced KVM), Electron apps, Flat packs, Snap packs and so on. Not only do these applications allow very diverse operation environments to coexist but allow a static secure sandboxed product to run anywhere without fear of product being crushed by some base operating system upgrade. These systems are really awesome and allow incredible flexibility. Nowadays, you can run Windows 10 on a Linux host (MS has been trying to kill this gray-market Container for some reason? But it may be worth hunting up if it is a requirement.) or Linux OS on a Windows 10 host. Linux is probably a few years ahead of Microsoft but MS is fighting to catch up and they are making major strides. 

IMHO, running a Linux OS within a Windows 10 OS is like towing a full sized semi behind a family sedan; a full-sized semi can easily carry a dozen sedans...of course, but it is only Linux-lite. It should be noted that any Linux distro is a full function server. This means it can host hundred of users, a database of any size, can run multiple file systems and chip sets (over fifty CPUs) and runs all of the major super computers in the world and most of the IoT apps.   

With all these advancements there are some serious downsides. 64bit computers only, 16 to 32 GB of RAM minimum, a 6 plus core minimum. These Virtual, Isolating and Emulators environments can be very expensive on resources.

Jim

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Colby" <jwcolby at gmail.com>
To: "Access Developers discussion and problem solving" <accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Sent: Monday, September 4, 2017 9:35:49 AM
Subject: [AccessD] A rare experience

To this day I play Empire Deluxe, a war game I have played since the 
nineties.  Today it had a page fault.  That has NEVER happened.  Which 
caused me to think about how rare it is, in the windows environment, to 
have a program which just never ever closes unexpectedly.

Until today.

New something with a Windows 10 update?  One in a million instruction 
path in the program?  God telling me I am wasting my life playing this 
game?  All of the above?

No Se but it does give one pause to think about many different things 
all at the same time.

-- 
John W. Colby

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