Re: Platform Phunnies -- Was: Frame Crash - Internal Error: 6004, 6016882, 7541026, 0

[larry.kollar@xxxxxxxxxx]

Dov Isaacs wrote:

>with no exceptions, none of these applications run nearly as reliably 
under
>MacOS 9.x as they do under Windows 2000.

Granted, although I've had W2K crash so hard on a laptop that it crashed
the dock too. Hey, if you're going to die, do it with style. :-) But
W2K is noticeably slower than W98 (which was Sir Crashalot). You pays
your money (whether to MS or Apple) and you takes your choice.

Keeping a Mac in proper tune isn't nearly as automatic as it ought to
be, no argument there. There's the monthly (or more often) desktop
rebuild, weeding out extensions that are not (or are no longer) helpful,
and so on. The good news is that none of it is difficult, and anyone
who is interested can learn the essentials in 15 minutes or so.

Certain apps can seriously destabilize your system. Netscape has been a
culprit in the past, so has MS Word. I'm seeing a LOT more crashes since
we went to Lotus Notes here, but I suspect a bad interaction with
another application.

Getting the right OS is also helpful, and that doesn't necessarily mean
the latest for older machines. My previous work desktop was a 6100/66
that was rock-solid with MacOS 7.6.1 (I'm talking less than one crash
every two WEEKS, almost always a Netscape problem) and my home system is
a beige G3 that I can't ever remember seeing crash since I upgraded it
to OS 9.0.4. My work system (blue G3 with 8.6) is a bit flaky, and I'm
hoping an upgrade to 9.x will help. I've installed OS X on an iMac at
home, and the new interface takes some getting used to -- but it's
already getting rave reviews from my son (who uses the iMac a lot).


>I am hoping that with MacOS X, this
>situation won't be so lopsided and that "think different" won't continue 
to be
>"think incompatible."

Geez, are you trotting THAT line out again??? When XP doesn't work right
with Frame, "it's a minor problem and we hope MS will release a patch
soon."  When it's MacOS, suddenly it's "think incompatible." I've been
tempted to say "think incompatible?" every time you mention a problem
with Frame vs. XP, but I've resisted so far. :-)


>[A clean install] is indeed an opportunity to properly reorganize and
>streamline a computer system cluttered with years of [cruft]...

>Lest you think that Macintosh users are immune to this type of problem, 
you
>are seriously deluding yourself if you believe that you can simply update
>a MacOS 9.x system by creating a new system folder and dumping the old 
one.

That's how I went from 8.1 to 9.0.4. The way it works, you keep the old
folder (renamed "Previous System Folder") around for a while and copy
over the extensions, control panels, and preferences that you find you
need. You dump the Previous System Folder after a couple of months. IIRC,
the procedure is even documented in Apple's horribly sketchy printed
manuals.

I think MacOS X will make upgrades even easier. It keeps preferences
in the user's home directory, and extensions are gone (except for
low-level drivers and so on). Thus, those files don't get displaced
when you upgrade the OS.


>The days in which application programs simply put all their programs into 
a
>single, easily identifiable, independent folder outside the system folder 
are
>regrettably long past.

Why is that? I believe it's a design problem, and not of MacOS.
Straight ports from Windows have been the bane of Mac users since I
can remember. Granted, things like extensions or DLLs have to go into
the System Folder, but I'm not convinced that most apps *need* to do
what amounts to wedging pieces of themselves into the kernel (one
thing I'm looking forward to with OS X is an end to those antics).
DLLs make sense if you have several applications sharing the same
code -- you could use them to open up an API to third parties, but
AppleEvents provides that hook. That leaves shared data. If it's
clearly named, I don't have a big problem with putting it in the
System Folder.

Surprisingly, the latest versions of Microsoft Office provide a
reasonable compromise: drag the folder off the CD, run any Office
program, and Office sets itself up. If something goes missing, it
asks you for the CD and replaces it for you. You still wind up
with 'way too much crud in the System Folder, but at least you
don't have to keep track of it.

--
Larry Kollar, Senior Technical Writer, ARRIS
"Content creators are the engine that drives
value in the information life cycle."
    -- Barry Schaeffer, on XML-Doc


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