197 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
197 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
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= F.U.C.K. - Fucked Up College Kids - Born Jan. 24th, 1993 - F.U.C.K. =
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My Win95 Experience
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The other day at work I had the (mis)pleasure of installing
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Windows 95 on a new computer. I have delayed writing this until a
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version was made available to almost anyone, and was considered a
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'stable' release. I installed the version released to retail stores
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to preview it to customers. The following is a log of my install
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and comments to go with it. Judge for yourself if you want to install
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it.
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The install was done on a Packard Bell Pentium 75, with 8 Megs of RAM,
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a quad CDROM, using the CD version of Win 95.
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-5:16 pm
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Put the CDRom in, and run the setup program. I chose 'Custom' Install.
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It gave me several screens of little bits about what it was doing, and
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why I was waiting. The first major screen where I had something to do
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gave me a list of features and asked which I wanted to install. I went
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through and flagged EVERY available feature. It kept increasing in
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'space required' as I chose options. As the last feature was chosen,
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Win95 reported that I would need 57.X megs to do the install. Now I
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understand why Microsoft recommends the user of their new OS to buy
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a new hard drive. On top of that, the install program suggested the
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space required was above and beyond that of the essential OS files.
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While it copied these files I was hit with Microsoft propoganda saying
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"What you want to do will be more fun" and "Win95 is the easiest Windows
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yet". Does that mean that Win 3.11 was not easy?
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It goes on to claim it offered "New Improved Interface", that it would
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be "Faster and more efficient", it would offer "Smoother Multitasking",
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"32 Bit Networking", and "Faster printing and disk access"
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Lets see.. Smoother Multitasking. Once again this implies that the old
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operating system was not smooth at all (which it wasn't). But from the
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sound of it, Microsoft is ditching Win 3.X in all respects. Faster
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printing and disk access... is this software operating system going to
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break the hardware barrier on printers? Physically speed up your hard
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drive? Nope. With an improved FAT (File Allocation Table) it may increase
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some disk access, but with larger hard drives, you are still limited by
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a small physical 'read/write head' and a large disk for it search through.
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-5:40 pm
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Thirty four minutes had passed, and it was still loading. Each minute
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or so, new propoganda for the user to read. "Faster video revs up action"
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and "DOS games run better and more reliably". These two sentences seem
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somewhat misleading to me. For the past year, the hardware market has
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been flooded with new and better video cards. On top of better video
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cards, the stores have been flooded with 'windows accelerator cards'.
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That alone should tell you how Microsoft codes their operating systems
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and operating platforms. Faster refresh rates, higher resolutions, more
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memory, and the market is hot. If software can do all of that, why not
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sooner? I imagine Microsoft finally removed enough bugs out of their
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original OSs and produced a close to bug free video routines.. if what
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they claim is true. This line regarding DOS games running better doesn't
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make much sense either. DOS games were meant to be run out of DOS. People
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were scared of that fearsome 'c:\' so they launched DOS apps and games
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through the windows platform. These same people are the ones that are
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a constant nuisance to customer support/service.
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'Plug and play' flashed across the screen at one point. Unfortunately,
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I haven't read much in the way of tech docs or specs on this feature yet,
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but from what I have read, if you have a PCI bus, and Win95, you are now
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able to do 'plug and play' upgrading. This quote comes to mind...
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"I'll believe it when I see it" - John Dvorak
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Start watching out for "Designed for 95" logos on hardware hitting the stores
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soon. This sign designates that it was designed for Plug and Play in
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the Win95 platform. Isn't the idea of Plug and Play to put in any device,
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and have it recognize it without specific drivers?
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I next read "communicate with everyone". Hmm.. Does this happen through
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the (anti-trust?) Microsoft Network? Or do I have to go 4 and 5 layers
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down in the 'Start' structure to find my own provider's icon before I can
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do that? "Connect directly to multiple e-mail systems" comes across next.
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I take it this means that with my own software (still buried) that I can
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do it. However, if I choose to use The Microsoft Network (MSN), it is
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"Affordable, and easy to use".
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-5:45 pm
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I am 78% done with first setup/install step.
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-5:46 pm
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Version Conflict! My version of winsock.dll is more current than the one
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we are trying to install! That makes me feel really good.. here is this
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state of the art OS with advanced networking features, easy access to
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the (yawn) Information Superhighway, and they have an old version of
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an essential file for connection. I specified to keep my own version
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and proceeded.
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"To get most of.. you need to register". Notification of updates,
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access to tech support, and info about other services available from
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Microsoft are a few reasons to do so. This implies that without registering
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you will not get any technical support, even if you purchase the product.
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"With online help you will: learn to use common tasks, get answers to
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questions asked by 3.1 users..." Wait, what good are answers to questions
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about Windows 3.1? Isn't this the new and improved Windows?
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-5:49 pm
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"Preparing to restart your computer..." and it reboots for me. Watching
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the boot sequence, I notice only three errors during bootup!
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"This will take a few minutes..."
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-5:54 pm
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Sound! Same dull windows entry sound as Windows 3.0 and beyond. Another
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great way to introduce the 'new and improved'. "Now setting up..."
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-5:59 pm
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Here it asks me for registration information.
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"Your fax number:" I left it blank and tried to proceed, only to get this:
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"Please put your voice number in... In some countries you are legally
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required to provide this info". What the fuck? Is this a mock threat
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to get me to register? Are the gestapo going to bust down my door if
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I don't?
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I did not take this step, but this has to do with registration.
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According to literature FROM MIRCROSOFT, the program WILL inventory your
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hard drive, and report the contents to Microsoft's databases. Furthermore,
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it will not let you register for the Microsoft Network until you allow this
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procedure to take place, after it tells you what it is doing.
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-6:02 pm
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"Click to restart so changes take effect.." One click, the computer
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reboots and instead of the familiar (and welcomed) 'Starting MSDOS',
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I get "Starting Win 95". By now, the changes should have been made and
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the new OS fully installed... only three errors (still) during boot.
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After all this, I find out what they call this release:
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"Win 95 June Release"
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"Finalizing settings.."
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-6:05 pm
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Done!
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All this... for the install of the new OS. Worth it? You judge.
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Interested in un-installing it? Read on...
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I also had the pleasure of removing Win 95 from another computer. The
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actual process was quite simple, and it left all of my files alone.
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Of course, it also left three other hidden directories with files in them
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for me to clean up. That was the one smooth thing about the whole thing.
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Have any TRULY good points about the OS? Bad experiences? Interesting
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rumors? Verified rumors? Mail me.. let me know.
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DisordeR
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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= Questions, Comments, Bitches, Ideas, Rants, Death Threats, etc etc... =
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= Internet : jericho@netcom.com (Mail is welcome) =
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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= Chemical Persuasion 203.324.0894 Celestial Woodlands 214.252.6455 =
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= Goat Blowers Anon 215.750.0392 Hacker's Haven 303.343.4053 =
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= E.L.F. (NUP) 314.272.3426 Misery 318.625.4532 =
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= Dungeon Sys. Inc. 410.263.2258 Psykodelik Images 407.834.4576 =
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= Paradise Lost 414.476.3181 Black SunShine 513.891.3465 =
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= Digital Fallout 516.378.6640 PSYCHOSiS 613.836.7211 =
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= Bad Trip 615.870.8805 (Your board here!@#!) =
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= Plan 9 716.881.3663 Phallic Paradise 801.944.7353 =
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= Purple Hell 806.791.0747 Logikal Nonsence XXX.XXX.XXXX =
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= PuRe EViL (NUP) 905.XXX.XXXX The Keg 914.234.9674 =
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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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= Files through Anonymous FTP: FTP.NETCOM.COM - /pub/je/jericho/FUCK =
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= FTP.FC.NET - /pub/deadkat/misc/FUCK =
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= FTP.WINTERNET.COM - /users/craigb/fuck =
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= FTP.GIGA.OR.AT - /pub/hackers/zines/fuck =
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= ETEXT.ARCHIVE.UMICH.EDU - /pub/Zines/FUCK =
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= http://www.ora.com:8080/johnl/e-zine-list/zines/fuck.html =
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