Date: Mon, 25 Oct 2004 20:33:40 +0300 From: Giorgos Keramidas <keramida@ceid.upatras.gr> To: Bart Silverstrim <bsilver@chrononomicon.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Serious investigations into UNIX and Windows Message-ID: <20041025173340.GA1859@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> In-Reply-To: <EB833F3E-26A9-11D9-9E91-000D9338770A@chrononomicon.com> References: <8e.18645afb.2eae7275@aol.com> <20041025163640.GA1244@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> <DB369798-26A5-11D9-9E91-000D9338770A@chrononomicon.com> <20041025170700.GA1638@orion.daedalusnetworks.priv> <EB833F3E-26A9-11D9-9E91-000D9338770A@chrononomicon.com>
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On 2004-10-25 13:18, Bart Silverstrim <bsilver@chrononomicon.com> wrote:
>On Oct 25, 2004, at 1:07 PM, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>>On 2004-10-25 12:49, Bart Silverstrim <bsilver@chrononomicon.com> wrote:
>>>On Oct 25, 2004, at 12:36 PM, Giorgos Keramidas wrote:
>>>>On 2004-10-25 11:15, TM4525@aol.com wrote:
>>>>> You're also missing my point on this. You don't have to get into
>>>>> the guts of windows to make it work. You dont have to be a
>>>>> programmer to tweak all of the applications, in fact I know more
>>>>> than one "windows tech" who knows how to set things up but really
>>>>> has no idea what the settings mean.
>>>>
>>>> This is not really an advantage though, if you ponder a bit the
>>>> implications it has. It basically means that your average "Windows
>>>> tech" knows nothing about the guts of the system (he doesn't need to,
>>>> according to your description). Then, when a day comes that
>>>> something breaks *badly* his best suggestion is "throw away the
>>>> entire thing, and start over with a bootable CD-ROM of Windows XYZ".
>>>
>>> And this differs from your experience in the Windows world...how? :-)
>>
>> I'm not sure I understand your question. Rephrase or make it more
>> specific, because answering to such a vague question is pointless.
>
> Just a side comment from the peanut gallery...
>
> I was referring to the fact that in most cases, the solution in the
> end most often IS to just reformat and reinstall because there's so
> much cruft/crap/crud in the registry and Windows directories that that
> is the best solution, unless you want to spend an extra couple days
> trying to sort everything out.
Ah, I see. You have a point there.
I was referring to problems that require a bit of esoteric knowledge about how
things work but not really a reinstallation of the entire system, i.e.:
- the reinstallation of a device driver
- trouble shooting by skimming through system logs
- network-related and/or connectivity problems
A typical example of the common Windows-technicial mindset is what happened to
me just yesterday. A friend called me to ask about a problem with his
wireless network connection. He asked me if I had a bit of time, as a last
chance before reinstalling Windows 2000 on his personal workstation. It
turned out that the USB cable he used to connect his external NetGear adapter
had "issues". We swapped a new cable and all works now.
This is only just *one* example of the method the typical Windows tech uses
around here to fix problems. Reinstall it all and hope that the problem (sort
of "magically") goes away. The time and resources wasted to reinstall a
perfectly working system is absolutely unbearable as a thought to someone who
has worked a while with UNIX systems and has spent the time to learn how
things actually work -- something that our local Windows fan, TM4525@aol.com,
seems to somehow consider a disadvantage of UNIX.
I beg to differ...
- Giorgos
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