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Radio
Broadcast Technical Consulting and Sales |
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Public Speaking |
September 5, 2000 |
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Mark Persons gave a talk on the Microsoft Windows Millennium operating system for X86 computers |
The speech was before the Lake
Country Computer Club in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota. More
than 50 people turned out to hear the talk, which was well received.
Here are the notes, from the speech. |
I
am a living proof that working on computers makes your hair turn gray.
I started in computers in the late 1960�s and knew digital had
potential, but didn�t know what form it would take.
On
my last visit to this club, I built
a computer from parts and made it run.
For
Microsoft�Like the big bang�in the beginning there was DOS.
Let�s get our terms straight. New
users often confuse an operating system with a program.
Operating System
� Software that runs a computer and creates your desktop.
Program,
otherwise known as an Application, might be Word word processing, Excel
spreadsheet, Access Database, Front Page HTML editor, Quicken, Quick Books, Print Artist,
or a game like Doom.
Why
would I, Mark Persons, in Brainerd, MN be a beta tester for a huge company like
Microsoft? They picked me because I build
machines rather than purchase pre-packaged units and because I had complained
enough about how previous versions of Windows ran.
My
beta testing experience with Microsoft ran from November of 1999 to June of this
year. In the process, I ran through five versions of the software
and received the final code as a gift from Microsoft for my efforts.
Beta testing is done on an extra computer�not on one you need and use
daily. Beta software has bugs and
problems are to be expected.
Do
you remember Windows 3.0 from about 1990? I
do. You could installed it from 5 floppy disks before CD ROM�s
were invented. I remember
many times typing a document and having the computer reboot in mid sentence.
Why
does this happen?
Windows
is built on DOS. As I
mentioned, DOS is a stable operating system for a single application.
Windows is a GUI Graphical User Interface on top of DOS.
When you run Windows and an application, there is the potential of
conflict. Microsoft has worked hard
at smoothing out that wrinkle.
Probably
the big operating system killer is memory.
Windows will use a fair amount of memory.
Applications you run in windows will use memory.
Sometimes poorly written applications will ask for and get memory that
Windows is already using. That is
when everything goes wrong. Macs
can have the same problem.
Windows
98 was slated to be the last edition of Windows based on DOS.
However, clever programmers in Redmond Washington came up with enough new
tools and bug fixes to warrant releasing a major upgrade�Windows ME.
Millennium Edition.
On
a separate track, about 6 years ago, Microsoft developed another operating
system called NT�New Technology. They
recognized that, for business applications, they needed a graphical user
interface that was not based on DOS. The
latest version of that is called Windows 2000 which looks and acts very much
like Windows 98.
Recently,
I built three computers with Windows 2000 for our business office in Brainerd.
It is sometimes called Windows 2000 Professional to distinguish it from
Windows 2000 Server which is just now becoming available. Regardless, the results have been excellent.
Our machines run 24 hours a day. Since
February, we have rebooted only one machine once because it was misbehaving.
However, I reboot every machine about once a month just to be sure the
reliability remains high.
Joke
of the night: If at first you
don�t succeed, sky diving is not for you.
If
you are a gamer, Windows 2000 is not for you.
Windows
2000 does not support as much hardware as Windows Millennium.
Windows
2000 will not support my digital camera at this time.
It
is hardware picky�this includes motherboards
Most
DOS applications will not run in Windows 2000�.Windows 2000 has a DOS
emulator, but will not support many DOS functions that call for an application
to directly talk to a serial port, printer, or other device.
Applications that violate the Windows 2000 rules of conduct are
automatically shutdown without causing harm to the operating system.
Why
would I want Windows 2000? For
rock stable computer operation in the office environment.
Typically, we have six to eight applications running simultaneously on
our office machines without problems.
Windows
2000 has excellent memory management skills preventing applications from trying
to use the same memory blocks at the same time.
The other issue is that it reclaims memory that had been used by
applications that are no longer using it. This
high degree of memory management skill prevents a system from slowing down to
the point where it needs to be rebooted. Those
of you who run computers 24 hours a day know what I mean.
The
downside is that Windows 2000 needs lots of Random Access Memory.
Our office machines currently have 192 MB of RAM and that is barely
enough. When a machine uses
all of the available RAM, it starts using Virtual Memory on the hard drive.
Because hard drives are mechanical and slow, you notice the machine slows
down. If you are like me, you want
a machine to be FAST.
What
does Millennium have?
Big
time support for gamers�the best so far.
Computer
networking. In 1991 we
installed Lantastic networking in our office.
It cost $500.00 for two nodes.
Windows Millennium has a home networking wizard to make it easier for
those new to networking. Network
cards are now just $25 each.
Millennium
has a new video editor called Movie Maker
It
has upgraded video and audio player called Windows Media Player version 7
Millennium
has System File Protection which restores system files that have been
accidentally deleted or replaced by new program installations.
Here
is another one�System Recovery feature allows you to go back to a previous set
of system registry files.
Internet
Explorer 5.5
Internet
sharing (also a part of Windows 98 Second Edition)�we did that a year ago.
We are using a Linux now with firewall protection.
(WIA)
Windows Image Acquisition programming interface is a generic interface to many
new scanners and cameras.
Problems:
When Microsoft introduces a new operating system or upgrade, you usually
need to double your computer hardware capabilities to keep the same kind of
speed. Everything they add requires
more horsepower. Examples include:
Menus
that grow rather than pop up
Features
like power options that put the computer to sleep when it is not being used
Intellimouse
with a wheel
High
colors�nice icons�there is a new Windows desktop color.
At
Microsoft�hardware if free. They
don�t buy it�you do
What
are the hardware requirements for Millennium?
Microsoft
says 150 MHz and 32 MB of RAM
My
take on it is that 300 MHz with 64 MB of RAM is adequate and 128 MB of RAM is
better
Windows
95 required about 100 MB of hard drive space
Windows
98 about 300 MB
Millennium
requires 650 MB of hard drive space
Windows
2000 is a 1 GB operating system
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page last edited 11/27/2008