re: Windows NT woes, switching to Linux

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

C'mon, old man.

>>>>> Ted writes:

	   The 1st public release trashed my hard drive---you've heard
       that story often enough already.

   You obviously didn't know what you were doing then.  I've been

"Mr. Transparent" is asking me to know what I'm doing when I install a
transparent operating system?  Ted, the AMI docs say "the AMI FastDisk
responds to both the BusLogic and AHA1542 interface protocols; the
Buslogic is to be preferred because it is implemented more
efficiently."  Windows NT offered a BusLogic driver.  Should I need to
know more?

   using NT on and off, and have developed one of the first apps for
   NT in Dec. 1991 shown at the SF MS Dev. Conf. (Winstock).  Did you
   seek help from knowledgable NT support resources, or did you bitch
   and moan on the Linux mailing lists?  Boy, I'm sure you'd get a lot
   of good support for NT there! ;)

Ted, you're about 0 for 3 on this one now.  Wanna give up while you're
ahead?  Fact is, MS admitted responsibility for that one.  (I suppose
Microsoft is not a "knowledgable NT support resource," though?)  My
AMI SCSI host emulates the (published) Buslogic interface.  (Ironic,
that, since AMI is famous for *not* documenting its cards to Linux
developers!)  Windows NT did *not* check for a true Buslogic card
before using undocumented firmware calls.

MS tech support opened by saying that it's my fault for not using a
true Buslogic card, but they backed down (reluctantly, after calling a
tech who told them I was right) when I pointed out that there is an
established protocol for determining what kind of card is present (of
course it's card-specific, but it still should be used; lots of cards,
not even the same kind of peripheral, respond to certain initial
probes---in case I selected 'BusLogic' from the NT setup menu when I
meant to pick 'Adaptec'), and that it's just as much a problem if
Buslogic changes the firmware for the "real thing".  MS is just lucky
that Buslogic decided to continue using the undocumented interface, or
they could have destroyed a disk controlled by a real Buslogic when
the firmware was revised.  Heaven knows MS itself uses that strategy
on people who try to clone its software.

The irony of the tech support stonewall is that I knew damn well I was
going to get no joy from Microsoft; there was no hardware damage, I
was backed up, it was just time-consuming.  All I wanted to do was
report a bug (this is a good thing, no?) and blow off some steam.

You can go with the low *but nonzero* error-rate that MS gives you,
and hope there's someone who knows what's going on at the other end of
the 0120-xxx-xxxx line on the rare occasion when something doesn't
work right.  Or you can go with Linux, where you can read the source.
If nothing else, there will be an author's address.  In 4 first
contacts to authors, I have received three replies in 2 hours to 2.5
days, and the 4th reply came 2 days after the vacation program (which
responded in under a minute ;-) said the guy would be back.  Win some.
Lose some.

In my post, I just said I was going with the latter option.  And why :-)
What's the beef?

   If you don't like or can't read what my mailer sends, then erase
   it.  No one is forcing you to try to comprehend what you cannot.

I don't mind it.  I just ignore it when reading, and delete it from
replies.  It only costs me 4--5 keystrokes.  But some people get this
list as a digest and have to page past it (as well as quoted material
that's often many times longer than the relevant text and your reply)
to get to the next message.  Other people get this list via ppp and
pay line charges for that stuff.  Comprehend it?  Why bother?  It's
just WYSIWYG garbage.  I can read your post quite well in my console
font.

-- 
                            Stephen J. Turnbull
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences                    Yaseppochi-Gumi
University of Tsukuba                      http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com

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