A Completely Unrelated Series of Thoughts... Part 6

[Izret101]

98 SE.

[logical123]

98 SE.

Totally.

And XP crazy fast? Never heard of a Windows machine EVER being fast. I had 98 SE installed on a 2.5Ghz processor and it was STILL slow. Fast and Windows are 2 words that really ought not be in the same sentence together, in my opinion.

[Izret101]

I am Christmassy now.

[Mr. Ksoft]

98 SE.

Totally.

And XP crazy fast? Never heard of a Windows machine EVER being fast. I had 98 SE installed on a 2.5Ghz processor and it was STILL slow. Fast and Windows are 2 words that really ought not be in the same sentence together, in my opinion.

You're doing it wrong then.

Look, I'm not a Microsoft lover (in fact I'd love to switch to Linux if it weren't for a few programs that do not have equivalents in Linux and my iPod which has too flaky of support) but really you CAN make Windows XP fast.  You just have to be careful as to what you do to it.  With my fresh start here, I'm being very selective as to what I install and if I install something for a single use I actually remove it when I'm done.  Additionally I've been cracking down on programs that run themselves (and sometimes several extra processes) in the background.  I also have tweaked up my services and startup configuration (turning off unnecessary stuff).  And it does seem to be working, as the computer is still booting in <20 seconds (from XP logo screen to the desktop being usable) and the main OS is extremely snappy.  I'm basically running with 29 processes AFTER I have my usual programs open (Firefox, uTorrent, Pidgin, Winamp, along with firewall, antivirus, and my printer's required tray program) which is pretty insane.  On my last install, which was the one from the factory (didn't have an XP disk then) this same setup was running around 59 for some reason!!
The only lag I've had so far is when I was encoding a video and trying to surf the web at the same time, but that's understandable because my computer is probably not the best for video encoding.

Also for comparison, at least with boot times, a fresh install of Ubuntu on here takes about 3-4 minutes to boot each time.  Windows seems to be miles ahead of it there.  (Although Linux is better overall IMHO)

(BTW, your issues with 98SE on modern hardware are probably caused by the modern hardware.  You probably didn't have drivers for your video card, as anything from the past five years or so doesn't seem to have 98SE support.  I know that when I just installed XP my integrated graphics were driverless and this pretty much meant that the entire OS looked like it was crawling along due to it doing all graphics operations in software.  You could see windows redraw themselves as you dragged them around.  Installed the driver, though, and that's gone and it's fast)

[Sirgin]

I am Christmassy now.

Haha!

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

98 SE.

Totally.

And XP crazy fast? Never heard of a Windows machine EVER being fast. I had 98 SE installed on a 2.5Ghz processor and it was STILL slow. Fast and Windows are 2 words that really ought not be in the same sentence together, in my opinion.

You're doing it wrong then.

Look, I'm not a Microsoft lover (in fact I'd love to switch to Linux if it weren't for a few programs that do not have equivalents in Linux and my iPod which has too flaky of support) but really you CAN make Windows XP fast.  You just have to be careful as to what you do to it.  With my fresh start here, I'm being very selective as to what I install and if I install something for a single use I actually remove it when I'm done.  Additionally I've been cracking down on programs that run themselves (and sometimes several extra processes) in the background.  I also have tweaked up my services and startup configuration (turning off unnecessary stuff).  And it does seem to be working, as the computer is still booting in <20 seconds (from XP logo screen to the desktop being usable) and the main OS is extremely snappy.  I'm basically running with 29 processes AFTER I have my usual programs open (Firefox, uTorrent, Pidgin, Winamp, along with firewall, antivirus, and my printer's required tray program) which is pretty insane.  On my last install, which was the one from the factory (didn't have an XP disk then) this same setup was running around 59 for some reason!!
The only lag I've had so far is when I was encoding a video and trying to surf the web at the same time, but that's understandable because my computer is probably not the best for video encoding.

Also for comparison, at least with boot times, a fresh install of Ubuntu on here takes about 3-4 minutes to boot each time.  Windows seems to be miles ahead of it there.  (Although Linux is better overall IMHO)

(BTW, your issues with 98SE on modern hardware are probably caused by the modern hardware.  You probably didn't have drivers for your video card, as anything from the past five years or so doesn't seem to have 98SE support.  I know that when I just installed XP my integrated graphics were driverless and this pretty much meant that the entire OS looked like it was crawling along due to it doing all graphics operations in software.  You could see windows redraw themselves as you dragged them around.  Installed the driver, though, and that's gone and it's fast)

Yeah, I had a similar experience after my last reformat on my old PC. I slimmed everything down, stopped a shit ton of processes and even now, as it's been getting spywared and God knows what else being my sister's machine, it's still pretty zippy after about 3 years.

[logical123]

Switch to OS X, problem solved. Boot time, 9 seconds.

I win.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

Switch to OS X, problem solved. Boot time, 9 seconds.

I win.

Game time, 0 seconds.

I play video games.

[BadEnoughDude]

I picked myself up a Christmas tree tonight. I paid way too much for it, but feel like it was worth it

The wind chill right now is -22. It's fucking cold out. The high for tomorrow is supposed to be -5. I assume wind chills will be somewhere between -30 and -40. I really hope that they cancel classes.

[The Metamorphosing Leon]

It's downright balmy here. I do enjoy a few moments of going outside and not freezing to death every now and again.

[BadEnoughDude]

-36 windchill right now.

[logical123]

wooteth. Only 4 days and a half day until 2 weeks of sleeping in late.

[NES_Rules]

wooteth. Only 4 days and a half day until 2 weeks of sleeping in late.

I've been on break since Wednesday, and I don't go back until January 12th

[Ghost Soldier]

No break for the slaves of the system.  I'm here monday thru friday regardless what holiday it is.  On a good note I get paid time and a half and watch dvd's all day.

[Sirgin]

Switch to OS X, problem solved. Boot time, 9 seconds.

I win.

Game time, 0 seconds.

I play video games.

Ouch.