Hans-Christian Andersen
hans.andersen at phulse.com
Mon Jun 4 11:01:32 CDT 2012
John, These are mostly just observations of other people lately and my experience supporting it at my company. I haven't been a Windows user since 2005 or so, but it was also the reason I left Windows back then. I'm not sure it is specific to gaming. As a recent example, my wife's Win7 laptop had very few games installed (its graphics card was the Intel GMA sort, not powerful enough to run most games) and really only just a handful of additional applications. She mostly used it for surfing, but its now un-usable. No blue screening, just lots of pausing, freezing and general slowness to the point of frustration for her, but there is nothing obviously wrong with it. This is probably the 4th reinstall of Windows on that laptop (HP) in the last 4 or so years, but she's got a new laptop now, so I may just throw Linux onto this machine to extend its life. I'm not saying that every Windows machine will eventually be completely crippled, but I always known them to develop quirks over time and become a less stable system overall (not stability in terms of blue screening, but in the sense that it is not behaving as expected ie. applications not starting, freezing or crashing), often for no identifiable reason. If this hasn't been an issue for you, then you are obviously doing something right, but it's not clear to me what is being done wrong in the cases I have witnessed/experienced. Hans On 2012-06-04, at 8:03 AM, John Bartow wrote: > Hans, > Wow, maybe you just really bad luck. Or maybe it's the gaming issue. I don't > play games on my computers and I have well over a hundred applications > installed. I rarely reinstall Windows on machines. Well, let me restate > that. Since Windows 2000 was released, I rarely reinstall Windows. I have > very few clients that had Windows Vista. The vast majority still have > Windows XP but as we replace their older equipment I'm moving them to > Windows 7. I've only had one Windows 7 PC actually blue screen crash. I > remember because it's so odd that I hear of any blue screen crashes. Even > then they were hardware issues. > > I have nothing against Linux, UNIX, Macs. It's just that I have no baggage > with NT based Windows either. DOS based Windows, now that's another story... > > -----Original Message----- > From: dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com > [mailto:dba-tech-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Hans-Christian > Andersen > Sent: Monday, June 04, 2012 3:33 AM > To: Discussion of Hardware and Software issues > Subject: Re: [dba-Tech] So long, Norman > > Gustav, > > Where do I even begin? It is entirely possible that either you have been > blessed or I and those close to me personally and professionally have been > cursed, but I have never known a Windows system to be stable for very long. > Usually after 6 or so months it starts developing "quirks". The occasional > slowness or crash or not being able to connect to some device properly etc. > Something just feels off. Then, after that, it's just a question of eventual > disintegration. There are no obvious hints as to what the problem is. Your > anti-virus software manages to find some ugly tracking cookies, but nothing > beyond that. Your hard drive seems fine and SMART doesn't flag anything. > Your system is all up-to-date and you aren't running out of disk space and > memory seems fine. After a while, sleeping/hibernating your computer returns > it to a very slow system where Windows just seems to frequently stare off to > space occasionally for no reason and your USB device (i.e. mouse or whatnot) > refuses! > to connect. No applications are running and so you shrug your shoulders > and figure a clean reboot is the best option. This is often the best > solution, returning your system to its normal speed and state, but for how > long? > > Granted, if you only install a minimum amount of applications and do not > surf the web, you can probably keep Windows pretty stable, but you would not > be the ordinary Windows user then. Most users will be installing many things > over time: applications, games, etc and all the DLLs & other dependencies > that come along with that. Windows is a fickle beast to such users. It works > well for a while, but just the slightest thing will push it over the > critical edge and you never know what that might be. > > If this does not ring familiar to you, then I don't know what to say. This > has been my experience personally and through people who needed technical > help with Windows, including managing a corporate Windows network and > terminal services on Windows Server 2008. The smartest thing you can do is > take a snapshot of your newly installed system with something like > DriveImage XML, making sure to keep your data on a separate partition from > your system partition, and restore your system ever so often. I'm not saying > this as a newcomer to Windows. I've been a PC users since the days of DOS, > but personally decided to jump ship before Vista came out. Saying that, I've > still been managing Windows machines since, so I am familiar enough with > Vista and 7. > > Speaking of terminal services, I've currently got a system with 25-30 or so > connected users, which has a WINSXS folder filling up like crazy with > multiple copies of the same darned DLL files over and over again to the > point where it fills up 15 gigabytes. This server is static in the sense > that no new software has been installed in over a year or two, yet this > directory keeps growing all the time for whatever brilliant reason. My guess > is that Windows Server just keeps on thinking that its probably best to play > safe and duplicate DLLs every single time the same application (office, > firefox and IE) is launched (remind me again what a DLL is for? <sarcasm>). > > Does anyone if it is safe to simply wipe this directory? And do you know why > this is happening specifically? > > Hans > > > > > On 2012-06-02, at 11:52 PM, Gustav Brock wrote: > >> Hi Hans >> >> I don't get it. I've never had the need to reinstall a workstation. Except > once, where multiple local SQL Server installations completely messed up > themselves on my four year old Vista. Which learned me to not install any > SQL Server other than SQL Server Express locally. >> >> /gustav >> >> >>>>> hans.andersen at phulse.com 01-06-12 19:03 >>> >> >> Congratulations on the upgrade. :) >> >> And just in time to dodge the incoming Windows 8 debacle as well. >> >> I remember that feeling of liberation. It totally changed my outlook on > computers. It was back in the days of XP, when Microsoft announced that > Longhorn was going to be called Vista and they were going to cut out all the > best features that they had been touting and promising for years. I switched > over to OpenSUSE back then, but it was still early days for Ubuntu and Mint > didn't exist yet. I remember being amazed having a laptop that had new life > breathed into it. It was stable and fast and didn't need reinstalling every > 6 months to a year. After being a heavy Windows user since 3.11, this was a > new experience for me. :p >> >> By the way, don't under-estimate how powerful WINE is at being able to run > Windows applications on Linux natively. It's not perfect, but it's able to > handle quite a lot of applications rather well. So, if there is any > particular application or game that you miss from Windows and would > frequently use, give it a try. >> >> - Hans >> >> _______________________________________________ >> dba-Tech mailing list >> dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com >> http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech >> Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com > > _______________________________________________ > dba-Tech mailing list > dba-Tech at databaseadvisors.com > http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/dba-tech > Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com