It's good to see that my last post in this group generated some
activity.

In responce to some of the comments:

Yea, DOS does have its problems. but unlike Windows, when something
crashes, the "Three-finger-Salute" does wonders with out having to worry
about lossing things.

I am the "System Administrater" for a Linux WEB host, and after playing
with it as well as both Win95 and Win98 boxes in the same office, I can
say without hesitation that once I make the change to Linux, I will
never look back.

I realize the X environment still leaves something to be desired, but it
is open source. I've been looking at the problems associated with
programing under Linux and X, and, yes, it is daunting. But then that is
always the case when exploring a new world.

Ken Matassa

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"Ken Matassa" <kma### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:394### [at] pacbellnet...
> It's good to see that my last post in this group generated some
> activity.
>
> In responce to some of the comments:
>
> Yea, DOS does have its problems. but unlike Windows, when something
> crashes, the "Three-finger-Salute" does wonders with out having to worry
> about lossing things.
>
> I am the "System Administrater" for a Linux WEB host, and after playing
> with it as well as both Win95 and Win98 boxes in the same office, I can
> say without hesitation that once I make the change to Linux, I will
> never look back.
>
> I realize the X environment still leaves something to be desired, but it
> is open source. I've been looking at the problems associated with
> programing under Linux and X, and, yes, it is daunting. But then that is
> always the case when exploring a new world.

Hey, dual-boot!  I have a very stable setup here, and Windows (or in your
case, DOS) will never know that Linux exists, which is a Good Thing (tm).
However, Norton Utilities doesn't seem to like the changes to the MBR, but
if you install it after you install Linux, you shouldn't have a problem from
what I understand.

You'll probably find Linux very good at home as well as in the office.

Oh yeah, about the three-finger-salute in Windows...don't worry about it.  I
think Windows was designed to crash, so it doesn't get affected at all.
Hell, I've uncleanly rebooted over six times today and I'm not having any
problems, other then the crashing.  ;-)  Then again, I'm luckier then many
Windows users (unless it comes down to Partition Magic, which can be read
about in povray.off-topic).

I remember using Moray for DOS...that was the one thing that started me up
on POV.  It's a very good and stable program.  Then again, the Windows
version is as stable as Winamp unless you have a rouge plugin, but that's
always grounds for a crash.  Anyways, enough of my drifting off topic.  :-)

I'd like to conclude this long line of babbling with a suggestion.  Get
Linux.  You won't regret it.  And also, keep a DOS partition, that way you
can still use apps like Moray while being immersed in the power of Linux.
One thing to be weary of are driver problems.  For instance, I have to go on
the net with Windows because Linux doesn't work with my modem (which,
believe it or not, is NOT a WinModem and actually used to work, but stopped
for some reason).

Adios!

--
This message brought to you by:
-=< Ian (the### [at] hotmailcom >=-

Please visit my site at http://spectere2000.cjb.net! :-)

P.S. Did I drift off topic enough, or should I try for more next time?  ;-)

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Ken Matassa <kma### [at] pacbellnet> wrote:
: Yea, DOS does have its problems. but unlike Windows, when something
: crashes, the "Three-finger-Salute" does wonders with out having to worry
: about lossing things.

  Except if the program was writing something (and DOS was updating the FAT),
which can sometimes have disastrous effects.

: I realize the X environment still leaves something to be desired, but it
: is open source.

  The "problem" in UNIX is that it's not made to be user-friendly, but to
be efficient.
  The problem with Windows is that it's not made to be efficient, but to
be user-friendly.

-- 
main(i,_){for(_?--i,main(i+2,"FhhQHFIJD|FQTITFN]zRFHhhTBFHhhTBFysdB"[i]
):5;i&&_>1;printf("%s",_-70?_&1?"[]":" ":(_=0,"\n")),_/=2);} /*- Warp -*/

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> Hey, dual-boot!  I have a very stable setup here, and Windows (or in >your case,
DOS) will never know that Linux exists, which is a Good Thing >(tm). from what I
understand.

snip

> I'd like to conclude this long line of babbling with a suggestion.  Get
> Linux.  You won't regret it.  And also, keep a DOS partition, that way >you can
still use apps like Moray while being immersed in the power of >Linux. One thing to be
weary of are driver problems.  For instance, I >have to go on the net with Windows
because Linux doesn't work with my >modem (which, believe it or not, is NOT a WinModem
and actually used to >work, but stopped for some reason).
> 
> Adios!

I started to install Linux on my home system, olny to find that my bios
only supports hard drive up to 512 meg! Looked into upgrading the
rom-bios. Turned out to be a can of worms I didn't want to open. For
info, my system is:

486 DX/66, 93', AMD bios, 64 meg ram, VISa localt bus.

So you see, I have to build a new system before I can use Linux at home. 

Ken Matassa

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Ken Matassa <kma### [at] pacbellnet> wrote in message
news:394### [at] pacbellnet...
> I started to install Linux on my home system, olny to find that my bios
> only supports hard drive up to 512 meg!

Major bummer!

But couldn't you use a drive overlay program to allow support for bigger
drives?  That's what I did when I had a 486.

> Looked into upgrading the
> rom-bios. Turned out to be a can of worms I didn't want to open. For
> info, my system is:
>
> 486 DX/66, 93', AMD bios, 64 meg ram, VISa localt bus.

Heh, my old 486's specs:

AMD 486 DX2/80 (could only run in 40MHz mode because the processor got fried
a bit due to accidental overclocking), AMD bios, 12 megs of ram (not
joking), 1 GB hard drive.  POV'ing needed to be done on my dad's very fast
AMD 486 DX4 100 (keep in mind this was when Pentium ]['s were out!  *groan*)

> So you see, I have to build a new system before I can use Linux at home.

If you build a new system, you might actually find Windows 98 to be very
nice.  I know I did (when I had a 486, I used to use a DOS/Win3.11 setup,
but when I got my Acer Aspire Pentium ][, I found Windows 95 to run very
good)

-Ian

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On Fri, 23 Jun 2000 23:46:01 -0400, "Ian Burgmyer"
<the### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:

>AMD 486 DX2/80 (could only run in 40MHz mode because the processor got fried
>a bit due to accidental overclocking), AMD bios, 12 megs of ram (not
>joking), 1 GB hard drive.  POV'ing needed to be done on my dad's very fast
>AMD 486 DX4 100 (keep in mind this was when Pentium ]['s were out!  *groan*)

Whaddaya know, I had a SGS-Thompson 486 DX2/80 with 12 RAM and (hold
your breath) 40MB HDD.


Peter Popov ICQ : 15002700
Personal e-mail : pet### [at] usanet
TAG      e-mail : pet### [at] tagpovrayorg

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Peter Popov <pet### [at] usanet> wrote in message
news:8pn8lsc9gudvf75vdg3ooj122ukomc14vs@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 23 Jun 2000 23:46:01 -0400, "Ian Burgmyer"
> <the### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>
> >AMD 486 DX2/80 (could only run in 40MHz mode because the processor got
fried
> >a bit due to accidental overclocking), AMD bios, 12 megs of ram (not
> >joking), 1 GB hard drive.  POV'ing needed to be done on my dad's very
fast
> >AMD 486 DX4 100 (keep in mind this was when Pentium ]['s were out!
*groan*)
>
> Whaddaya know, I had a SGS-Thompson 486 DX2/80 with 12 RAM and (hold
> your breath) 40MB HDD.

Ouch.  40MB HDD?  Kinda funny, but the first hard drive we had (on our 8088)
was a 42.2MB IDE HDD.  Best at the time ;-)

By the time I "inherited" the machine and we had a Tandy Sensation 486, I
had an amazing 107MB HD.  Guess times change (A LOT!)  ;-)

-Ian

P.S. I remember when that little PC speaker was used for making kwel noises
and that if you really wanted anything better (who would?) then you'd
buy/build a parallel port DAC.  In fact, I think I still have scematics here
somewhere for one...

P.P.S. I made a QuickBasic program that plays the intro riff of the
Offspring's song Walla Walla through your PC speaker!  I then found a SUB
included with this one thing that lets you play sounds through an Adlib
device and I changed it to match that.  Oh man, I need a life ;-)

P.P.P.S. Ya know, Impulse Tracker's PC speaker output driver is VERRRY good!

P.P.P.P.S. Um. . .this is way off-topic, isn't it?

P.P.P.P.P.S.  Naaa...  ;-)

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"Ian Burgmyer" <the### [at] hotmailcom> wrote in message
news:395ca84d@news.povray.org...
<snipped ramblings>

Geez, I was sure hyper six months ago, wasn't I? ;-)

-Ian

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Warp wrote:
 
>   The "problem" in UNIX is that it's not made to be user-friendly, but to
> be efficient.
>   The problem with Windows is that it's not made to be efficient, but to
> be user-friendly.
> 

Quite right. Of course, the X desktops, KDE and Gnome, are both
improving rapidly. In fact, I have found that KDE's mail reader dosen't
have bugges like Netscape's, so I have been using it for some time now.

Ken Matassa

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