W2K: Why is it so great?

With sources saying that Windows 7′ll be coming in about a year or so, why am I still running Windows 2000, an OS that’s 3 releases old already.

• Because it doesn’t have the activation headaches that XP and Vista have.
• Because it doesn’t have the baby-fied interfaces that XP and Vista do.
• Because it runs better on older and newer hardware alike!
• Because it still runs most of the apps XP does!

The Windows XP activation window

The crap XP interface

Plus, according to Microsoft, the Windows 2000 (Pro) system requirements are:

• 133 MHz or more Pentium microprocessor (or equivalent). Windows 2000 Professional supports up to two processors on a single computer.
• 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM recommended minimum. 32 MB of RAM is the minimum supported. 4 gigabytes (GB) of RAM is the maximum.
• A 2 GB hard disk that has 650 MB of free space. If you are installing over a network, more free hard disk space is required.
• VGA or higher-resolution monitor.
• Keyboard.
• Mouse or compatible pointing device (optional).

And, according to Microsoft, the XP (Pro) requirements are:

• Pentium 233-megahertz (MHz) processor or faster (300 MHz is recommended)
• At least 64 megabytes (MB) of RAM (128 MB is recommended)
• At least 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of available space on the hard disk
• CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive
• Keyboard and a Microsoft Mouse or some other compatible pointing device
• Video adapter and monitor with Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution
• Sound card
• Speakers or headphones

And finally, Microsoft’s posted Vista (Home Premium+) requirements:

• 1-gigahertz (GHz) 32-bit (x86) processor or 1-GHz 64-bit (x64) processor
• 1 GB of system memory
• Windows Aero-capable graphics card

  Note This includes a DirectX 9-class graphics card that supports the following:

  • A WDDM driver
  • Pixel Shader 2.0 in hardware
  • 32 bits per pixel
• 128 MB of graphics memory (minimum)
• 40-GB hard disk that has 15 GB of free hard disk space (the 15GB of free space provides room for temporary file storage during the install or upgrade.)
• Internal or external DVD drive
• Internet access capability
• Audio output capability

2000 is the optimal choice for those of us who: want the best performance on their machines, don’t want the DRM that XP/Vista has, and/or don’t want the crappy interface XP and Vista have. 2000 runs most of the latest software. Either without modification or with. Hell it even runs COD4!

Windows 2000.. THE BEST software to come from Redmond.

Andrew T. likes Windows 95. I’ll agree 95 is a great OS, but it has NOTHING on Windows 2000. 2000 is based on the NT kernel, and as such is much more stable. 2000 is only a year younger then XP so it should run most (if not all) of the apps XP does. And let us not forget the fact that it has no activation schemes. That alone makes 2000 a viable system. And as I like to say, “2000 is todays 95″. So, I’m thinking of doing a “Windows 2000 series” on my blog. Wadda ya think?

EDIT: Oh yes, and I’ve decided to start an IRC channel for those Windows 2000 (or classic Windows OS users) on AustNet (the same network the others used for their chat). Its #Windows2000.

I feel good, yet bad.

I got a few new computer goodies for Christmas: a new TV tuner, a new VIA Envy24 based sound card and another Gig of RAM. The sound card and RAM run fine, with the sound rivalling my friends high end Creative. And the RAM boosting my systems performace. But the TV tuner? I had many problems just installing it!  I stuck it in an available PCI slot and tried installing the drivers. No go. It told me the hardware couldn’t be found. Shut down and take a look. Whoops… didn’t stick it in all the way. Reboot. It detects it! Install the drivers. Drivers installed. So now why don’t we take it for a spin in VLC Media Player? The damn thing is tinted BLUE! Should I just forget about the $20 I spent and buy another one, or tinker with it until it works?

Merry Christmas (Or whatever you celebrate)

Hi. Today’s the 25th of December: Christmas day! I’d just like to say “Merry Christmas!” and thanks for reading my blog. There will be more on today’s experiences later. But, for now lets just celebrate or sleep. Your choice of course.

New monitor… dying graphics card.

As I’ve probably repeated five hundred times in the past week alone, I’ve got a new monitor for Christmas (and I got it early too ) So I plug it in… set it up.. get it to look nice. Play some of my games on it. Overall a great monitor. So whats the matter exactly? Well… whats the good of having a great monitor if you have a crappy graphics card? My 8800GTS seems to be overheating. Idling at 84* Centigrade… So do I have to get a new graphics card too? If I do, it’ll be ATI, I can guarantee.

Reasons Why I Don’t Like Freenode.

Freenode is an IRC network that specializes in open source software discussion. That means several high profile software projects have their offical channels on there ( excluding Mozilla, which has their own IRC network). Now at first I thought that was a good idea, and I still think it is. But the administrators on there are fascist, prudish, and repressive. And then they go and make it EVEN more fascist by moderating their “social channel” #defocus.

There are other alternatives of course. You can use OFTC, DALnet, EfNET, Undernet, your own IRC server, or not even use IRC at all! And, if you wish to know, I called an IRCop a well very nasty word, far more nasty then “fuck” or “shit”.

I really hate my computer right now.

Last night I burnt 6 CD’s full of music and as you can probably guess they all didn’t work quite correctly. I tested them after the fact and they stuttered and didn’t sound that great. I guess it could either be the burner which was 48x while the CD’s 52x, or the Integrated sound chip, which had problems like this before (in the summer when it was really hot). Since I rarely use the 48x burner and I’ll be getting a new sound card (along with some other computer goodies) for Christmas, it’s all good, but somewhat annoying. Only 6 days left. Goodie.

Switching to Linux? Nope.

As I stated in an earlier post, I said that I wanted to switch to Linux before 2009. Will that be happening? Nope. I do think Linux (and basically all the UNIX-likes for that matter) are superior server systems, I just can not say that for the desktop side of the story. The full featured desktops are bloated, whil the not-so-bloated desktops are sparese and dare I say it(?), Windows 3.x like. Why can’t they create a Windows NT 4.x GUI, with similar system requirements of course. I am technical literate, but I don’t like having to open up a conf file to edit a simple menu.

Plus, we come to the topic of multimedia. In this regard Linux is actually fairly strong. But not strong enough. It doesn’t have the driver support Windows has. I also like the Wine Windows environment emulator, it’s grown more robust in recent years, and has support for Win16 apps on x64 systems, something Windows doesn’t have. But, 2008 won’t be the year of the Linux desktop for me, and most likely not 2009, but hopefully 2010 or beyond.

I hate mini backspace key keyboards.

You know the type. They have a large Enter/Return key but a small backspace key and a misplaced “|\” key. But other then that I have virtually no qualms with this keyboard. It was cheap. Had those ingraved Vista Win key’s (which were the best part of Vista, IMHO). And of course most importantly: PS/2.  I also have a USB Compaq keyboard I got for free that works and has the standard Enter/Return keyboard layout. But the keyboard and mouse are the least upgraded parts on my computer, for the reason that it takes me a LONG time to get used to a new keyboard or mouse.

We have forums now!

Yes, I know this is probably the most unoriginal idea ever, but I just had to do it. And yes, I know many of you probably post on multiple forums, and are wondering what’s wrong with those forums. Nothing is actually wrong, but I just don’t think they’re well suited for what I want. A generic discussion platform for geeks like you and me to complain about whatever we wish in a STOP Error blog-like way! Anyway visit the forum and register!

Plus, I was thinking of disabling the WordPress comment system and link to a forum thread for commenting/discussing the blog entry but it seemed too complex for such a small blog.