An XP review

[Centurian]

I am sure I will get alot of flames for this.  

The other day my wife bought herself a copy of XP. As luck would have it her computer crashed and burned before she got home with XP. So I told her to get online and find herself a computer she liked and order it. She ordered a Dell which comes with XP included.

Now here we are with an extra copy of XP. I know I could have just taken it back and gotten my money back (it was only a hundred bucks) but I decided to check it out and see just exactly what I felt was wrong with XP. That way I would have a more objective view when I bitch about it. Up to this point I had only worked on other peoples comps who have it.  So I installed XP side by side with Redhat on my Athlon 1600XP.

It installed without any problems at all. I am still using Grub as my boot manager. Xp made no attempts to change the boot manager or overwrite the mbr.

The install took about 15 minutes to complete but remember I do have a very fast computer which was built specifically to be fully compatible with linux. BTW I upgraded it from W98 rather than going with a fresh install.

Now I expected to have problems by the ton because of everything I have heard about XP and what I have seen.

To the contrary once installed it did a very nice job of setting up everything. Everything works great but that was not good enough for me I wanted to immediately see what was going on. So I headed into My Computer to find out what the real errors/issues were.

I found them.

In the system properties area.

System Restore was on by default.
Automatic Updates was on by default.
Remote Assistance was on by default.

I turned all of them off and instantly XP ran even faster.

Now MSN messenger may be a bit confusing because it auto loads on startup and when you open MSN messenger it tries to set you up with a passport account. Just hit cancel and the MSN messenger screen will pop up. Go into options and turn off load on startup. Now it will not load on startup and you dont have to worry about it. Once you turned MSN Messenger off it no longer bugs you to get a .NET account.

I have been running it now for a couple days and it has not once tried to access the internet without my permission.

Overall I find XP very fast and efficient. I really don't like the idea of it requiring registry within 30 days but other than that I can't find any issues with XP once I turned off the above mentioned problems.

There are some programs that must be upgraded in order for them to work with XP which is a pain in the ass but it isn't a real issue.

No don't get me wrong I still love my Redhat but I like using XP and I see no security issues with it.

[RudeCat7]

Phoning home is meant to be "discreet".

I've spent $100...on linux books....cuz once I figure out all this Linux shit, I'm set for life...
If I were you, I would've at least tried to get some of my money back, because if M$ says, "fuck the EULA pay us!" then you can say "Fuck the EULA, I'm downloading the 'Devil's Own'!"

So if M$ can breach the EULA by not upholding it's rebate agreement, then the public can do whatever they want!

So if you HAVE to use winderz, screw m$ at the same time!!!!!!!

And don't give it an internet connection.  

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by Centurian:
I am sure I will get alot of flames for this.        

The other day my wife bought herself a copy of XP. As luck would have it her computer crashed and burned before she got home with XP. So I told her to get online and find herself a computer she liked and order it. She ordered a Dell which comes with XP included.

Now here we are with an extra copy of XP. I know I could have just taken it back and gotten my money back (it was only a hundred bucks) but I decided to check it out and see just exactly what I felt was wrong with XP. That way I would have a more objective view when I bitch about it. Up to this point I had only worked on other peoples comps who have it.  So I installed XP side by side with Redhat on my Athlon 1600XP.

It installed without any problems at all. I am still using Grub as my boot manager. Xp made no attempts to change the boot manager or overwrite the mbr.

The install took about 15 minutes to complete but remember I do have a very fast computer which was built specifically to be fully compatible with linux. BTW I upgraded it from W98 rather than going with a fresh install.

Now I expected to have problems by the ton because of everything I have heard about XP and what I have seen.

To the contrary once installed it did a very nice job of setting up everything. Everything works great but that was not good enough for me I wanted to immediately see what was going on. So I headed into My Computer to find out what the real errors/issues were.

I found them.

In the system properties area.

System Restore was on by default.
Automatic Updates was on by default.
Remote Assistance was on by default.

I turned all of them off and instantly XP ran even faster.

Now MSN messenger may be a bit confusing because it auto loads on startup and when you open MSN messenger it tries to set you up with a passport account. Just hit cancel and the MSN messenger screen will pop up. Go into options and turn off load on startup. Now it will not load on startup and you dont have to worry about it. Once you turned MSN Messenger off it no longer bugs you to get a .NET account.

I have been running it now for a couple days and it has not once tried to access the internet without my permission.

Overall I find XP very fast and efficient. I really don't like the idea of it requiring registry within 30 days but other than that I can't find any issues with XP once I turned off the above mentioned problems.

There are some programs that must be upgraded in order for them to work with XP which is a pain in the ass but it isn't a real issue.

No don't get me wrong I still love my Redhat but I like using XP and I see no security issues with it.

XP isn't really a bad OS at all. The reason people here flame it is because they have never used it, don't know how to disable the troublesome stuff((Messenger, Sys Restore, Auto Update and Remote Assistance isn't really troublesome for some people, I prefer to leave the stuff disabled though ;P) or they feel that it is bad and threatening because it is more widely used and more widely supported by software developers than any alternative OS.

It is really a big step up from previous home incarnations of Windows(the Win9x series) and it is a step up from the old workhorse OS(Windowes 2000).

I'm sure that you can agree that Windows XP is alot easier to use than Linux(for the consumer side) and it has *ALOT* more available apps and games for it. Chances are you won't see many crashes at all with XP either. If an app crashes it will not cause your OS to BSOD(therefore it won't take out your OS and cause a reboot), XP will just close out the offending app and you will still be up and running. In the worst case scenerio where an app freezes just press CTRL+ALT+DEL and use the management console to close out a frozen app. The Linux is more stable argument is pretty much BS if you know how to properly run your XP box.

PS. XP doesn't spy on you the way the uninformed idiots of this forum try to say it does. I've kept close tabs on my firewall logs, etc. and I've never causght XP trying to phone home without my permission.

[ October 17, 2002: Message edited by: Zombie9920 ]

[Zombie9920]

BTW, if you want to gain some more hard drive space go to your Power Mangement properties and disable Hibernation...you will regain as much hard drive space as you have Ram. I like Hibernation myself so I leave it enabled. If you actually use Hibernation hold down the Left Shift key in the shutdown menu and Standby will be replaced with Hibernate(until you let go of Shift).

[RudeCat7]

quote: PS. XP doesn't spy on you the way the uninformed idiots of this forum try to say it does. I've kept close tabs on my firewall logs, etc. and I've never causght XP trying to phone home without my permission.

 

When you update your SpyPack 1 you have no choice!    

I have Xpee (at work, for yuks) stuck in a little itty bitty 1.5gig partition, and no wan/lan connection. No phone home detected either!    

But look out! I have discovered Qcad, which uses the industry standard *.dxf format, this could prove to be interesting.....Maybe I can live my life without Autocad. Hmmmmmmm.......  :cool:

[Fett101]

quote:Originally posted by Centurian:
but I decided to check it out and see just exactly what I felt was wrong with XP.

Oh Joy!

[Doctor V]

I believe that if somthing isn't broke, don't fix it.  Linux isn't broke, why use somthing else.  If you can do everything with Linux that you can with Windows, like security, and don't want to pay M$ for their marketing, why not just stay with Linux.  It gets the job done for sure.  Wether you believe the spyware issues or not, you have to feel opressed by XPs EULA for sure.  With their EULA dosn't sound good to you, why accept?  M$ wants all people to be their little puppets (like Zombie, Win XP Luser, etc), and XP is just another one of the strings.  XP does not give complete control (Palladium will do that), but it does as much as it can to lock people in.  Happy Upgrading...

V

[Calum]

quote:Originally posted by Doctor V:
I believe that if somthing isn't broke, don't fix it.  Linux isn't broke, why use somthing else.

i don't agree. if you apply this concept across the board, then all the people who think the world ends at their windows will never change either! I advocate an open mind. Some people have tried a few operating systems before they decide on one, two, or a few that they prefer for certain tasks, same with programs. You should never just use something because it came with the computer, unless you have tried a few other options.  

quote:If you can do everything with Linux that you can with Windows, like security, and don't want to pay M$ for their marketing, why not just stay with Linux.. It gets the job done for sure.  

linux cannot do everything that windows can do, however windows cannot do most of what can be done with linux, or at least windows cannot do those many things reliably or comfortably in a lot of cases, however depending on what you use them for, they could both conceivably get the job done.  

quote:Wether you believe the spyware issues or not, you have to feel opressed by XPs EULA for sure.  With their EULA dosn't sound good to you, why accept?  M$ wants all people to be their little puppets (like Zombie, Win XP Luser, etc), and XP is just another one of the strings.

Now we are talking. Yes, linux and many other systems are in most ways more reliable and more versatile, not to mention more customisable than windows is, my main reason for being against Microsoft is the many things they do, or fail to do, which exploit their customers. i think it is the height of bad service and it breaches people's rights, so i disagree with their licencing and their practices. Also, i don't think zombie468462378 is a puppet, just because he chooses to use windows, he is however too stubborn for his own good, but that is what happens when people excercise their free will, they sometimes choose things we ourselves would not.  

quote:XP does not give complete control (Palladium will do that),

complete control to who?    

quote:but it does as much as it can to lock people in.  Happy Upgrading...

V

i think often people get into arguments about X is better than Y because, and it's not really relevant. when talking about operating systems, it depends about 95% on how the system was set up. this is only played down these days because windows is so fussy about being set up in a particular way. Also, usability is an issue that depends entirely on the user. As i say, while i do think that the linux, gnu and bsd families of systems are in many ways sounder and sturdier than windows, in any form, i will say my main reason for being 'anti-microsoft' is their politics and their agenda.

[Doctor V]

Complete control over who?  Complete control over your computer.  I agree that the 'if it's not broke don't fix it' cliche should not be applied to every situation, but I really get pissed off when I see someone who has a perfectly good running system (be it running on Win2K, Linux, BSD whatever), run out and, for no logical reason whatsoever, fudge out hundreds of dollars for their precious little copy of XP.  As far as I'm concerned there is no reason to get XP.  I don't think theres anything XP can do that W2K can except lock you out if you don't pay, and automatically install whatever updates M$ wants without your approval, these are *bad* things.  They don't think 'I want to do ____ so I should get XP'.  The just think 'XP is the newest Windows, so I want it.' or 'I like that XP ad, so I want it'. or 'Everyone else has XP so I want it too.' etc.  Reasons not to get it are numerous, way too many to state here, there have been plenty of posts describing those already.  Even if someone is helplessly locked into M$ and can't use any of the alternatives (but anyone could use a mac), they don't have to go to XP.  The reason people use XP is M$ marketing, and only M$ marketing.  No intelligent person would switch to it (apologies to anyone offended).  People are suckered into using it.  Suckered into the hideous M$ upgrade cycle that anyone can easily get out of by just plain thinking.  This increases the M$ monopoly which hurts everyone.  Zombie482769127&%$%&$&%('78658596759, I want to know if you tell me one thing that can be done with XP that can't with Linux that is useful to customers.  Don't say XP can run XXXXapplication blahblah, tell me what the application does.  I bet there is an alternative for everything.

V

[Doctor V]

quote:Originally posted by Centurian:

The other day my wife bought herself a copy of XP.

No she did not.  She licenced a copy of it with M$.  The software that is running on your computer is property of M$.  It belongs to them, not you or your wife.  Neither you nor she are allowed to change it nor use it however you want.  Its M$ property on your comp.  M$ on the other hand does have the right to change it just about however they want, and they don't have to tell you.  Why should they, its their property, you have no rights to it.

Now, I understand you own a copy of RedHat.

V

[Calum]

quote:No intelligent person would switch to it (apologies to anyone offended).

that was nice of you to say that, but if somebody is offended by this statement, then frankly, they deserve to be.

[RudeCat7]

X11:

I want to add one thing to the annoyances:

when you exit, you have to wait for IMGICON to exit before shutdown. I don't know why.

And then xpee asks: "do you want to wait, or do you want to terminate this program now?"

Why would you make waiting longer an option?  :mad:

[Centurian]

Heheh. Yes I know everything that all of you have said. I have been an active user/programmer/artist since 1989.

Now lets get back to the review. As I said I do like XP it is a very nice and efficient OS. It does however have a serious problem that I do not like. It "DOES" call in.

I went through about 10 firewalls before I found one that was 100% configurable and fully controllable by the user. I finally found Outpost which works great with XP and gives the user complete control over what is going up and down your line.

First make sure you have turned off XP's default firewall because it will try to override any other firewall.

Next run the install for Outpost. Once installed it will ask you to reboot. When you reboot the first time you connect to the web it will tell you the following info.

SVCHOST.EXE is trying to access the web.
Protocol UDP
Address 239.255.255.250

Create a rule and do a partial block. Blocking SVCHOST from accessing 239.255.255.250.

Now your computer will NOT be able to call in.

IMPORTANT DO NOT completely block SVCHOST! Just block the address I posted above. Without SVCHOST you will not be able to access the internet at all.

IMPORTANT DO NOT use a cheap firewall like ZoneAlarm or any other that automatically lets SVCHOST have its way. Use Outpost or another firewall where you have complete control.

I don't know what 239.255.255.250 is but SVCHOST continually wants to send something there.

Now having said that I find Windows XP to be a very pleasant experience to use. It is extremely easy to use and all the included tools work very well together.

So in closing I would definitely say that XP was worth the money if you can afford to spend the extra hundred or so for an OS. I do recommend turning off the callin as I posted above though.  

[ October 21, 2002: Message edited by: Centurian ]

[distortion]

quote:Originally posted by Zombie9920:


The reason people here flame it is because they have never used it, don't know how to disable the troublesome stuff((Messenger, Sys Restore, Auto Update and Remote Assistance isn't really troublesome for some people, I prefer to leave the stuff disabled though ;P)[ October 17, 2002: Message edited by: Zombie9920 ]

i really don't think that is true. i see quite a few of the people who post here have to use it for work or school. my parents use that OS, and i have to fix that thing everytime it crashes. early today it wouldn't let anyone use it because it claimed that too many users were logged in. it was just stuck there on the login screen. (no one was logged in at the time).

its stuff like that makes me greatful i run linux.

[Zombie9920]

quote:Originally posted by Centurian:
Heheh. Yes I know everything that all of you have said. I have been an active user/programmer/artist since 1989.

Now lets get back to the review. As I said I do like XP it is a very nice and efficient OS. It does however have a serious problem that I do not like. It "DOES" call in.

I went through about 10 firewalls before I found one that was 100% configurable and fully controllable by the user. I finally found Outpost which works great with XP and gives the user complete control over what is going up and down your line.

First make sure you have turned off XP's default firewall because it will try to override any other firewall.

Next run the install for Outpost. Once installed it will ask you to reboot. When you reboot the first time you connect to the web it will tell you the following info.

SVCHOST.EXE is trying to access the web.
Protocol UDP
Address 239.255.255.250

Create a rule and do a partial block. Blocking SVCHOST from accessing 239.255.255.250.

Now your computer will NOT be able to call in.

IMPORTANT DO NOT completely block SVCHOST! Just block the address I posted above. Without SVCHOST you will not be able to access the internet at all.

IMPORTANT DO NOT use a cheap firewall like ZoneAlarm or any other that automatically lets SVCHOST have its way. Use Outpost or another firewall where you have complete control.

I don't know what 239.255.255.250 is but SVCHOST continually wants to send something there.

Now having said that I find Windows XP to be a very pleasant experience to use. It is extremely easy to use and all the included tools work very well together.

So in closing I would definitely say that XP was worth the money if you can afford to spend the extra hundred or so for an OS. I do recommend turning off the callin as I posted above though.      

[ October 21, 2002: Message edited by: Centurian ]

I've had that IP blocked for a while in my firewall config. That is the IP for Alexa(a spyware registry key). If I were you I'd go to http://www.lavasoftusa.com and download+run Ad-Aware. I bet Alexa will be detected. Delete that bitch and your worries will be gone. ;P