I have read many good questions on the posts contained herein. I have also read MANY MANY complaints about Windows. So in response to all of your comments or complaints about Windows, or MS in general, here are a few thoughts for you to ponder: 1. Microsoft is the leader of the computing world today. Period. 95% of the software that you can go to the store and buy will only run on MS Windows machines. 2. Almost ALL of the problems that one experiences in Windows are caused by 3rd party programs, not by the OS itself. 3. Hardware plays a major role in the stability of an operating system. If you have cheap "value" hardware, chances are you will have more frequent problems. 4. Messing with system files WILL create problems if you don't know what you are doing. 5. There is NO perfect OS, nor will there EVER be. People are not perfect, nothing is perfect, so why would you expect perfection from something written by a person? Secondly, writing an OS is NOT easy. There is a LOT of code writing involved in creating a good OS, and it is very easy to overlook bugs. 6. Don't bash an OS you've never used before. Need I say more? 7. If you really hate something, don't use it. Common sense here, folks. Please, if you want to argue with my points, by all means do so. But before you rant and rave, consider the truths which I have set forth. Sincerely, Shawn

yes yes, i will admit those are truths. but here is my .02$ 1.Microsoft is the leader of the computing world today. Period. 95% of the software that you can go to the store and buy will only run on MS Windows machines. 1a. can you spell m-o-n-o-p-o-l-y? 2.Almost ALL of the problems that one experiences in Windows are caused by 3rd party programs, not by the OS itself. 2a.I still blame the OS, it should be able to read proper code. 3.Hardware plays a major role in the stability of an operating system. If you have cheap "value" hardware, chances are you will have more frequent problems. 3a. Whatever happened to "more compatibility"? 4.Messing with system files WILL create problems if you don't know what you are doing. 4a. So what do you suggest? "Safe computers"? or perhaps computer locks? Or perhaps you shoul have to be a certified MS windows engineer before having the password to your system files? 5.There is NO perfect OS, nor will there EVER be. People are not perfect, nothing is perfect, so why would you expect perfection from something written by a person? Secondly, writing an OS is NOT easy. There is a LOT of code writing involved in creating a good OS, and it is very easy to overlook bugs. 5a. You would think a multi-billion $ cow such as microshaft would test there own OS and work the bugs out of it instead of make another stupid copy cat that uses the exact same kernal. 6.Don't bash an OS you've never used before. Need I say more? 6a. lol,,,,,, no comment. 7.If you really hate something, don't use it. Common sense here, folks. 7a. Refer to 1a. -mario marighela

1/b 95% MONOPOLY 2/b windows ME is not able to run even its own Windows Media Player 7. Also cant run software that did well under previous versions of windows. 3/b windows ME does not work with the hardware that previous windows versions worked good. 4/b windows ME runs without messing (tweeking) much worse than previous versions. at least the msconfig thingie is needed to make it run half decent 5/b there is no perfect windows operating system because microsoft does not have any ACCOUNTABILITY to his customers. Microsoft even charges $35 per incident to repair its own bugs. 6/b i used windows 3.1 95, 98 and never had urge to bash them. After using windows ME for 4 months cant help it, just have to bash it. 7/b No choice, either use windows ME, or loose waranty on the new computer. That is MY consideration of YOUR truths about ME Regards Miroslav Vadovic

Please, me thinks that you work in Redmond. I just got a Dell high end computer with Windows ME-------an unmitigated disaster. Cant even do basic networking! No fixes work and Redmond is befuddled! There goes your equipement argument. As far as your argument about Microsoft controlling 95% of the operating system market----well guess why----can you spell predator! Your point about nothing being perfect is absurd. I dont want perfect, just let the software run as advertised-------

I forgot to mention my modem/windows ME compatibility problem on the new computer. Tech support is baffled about it too... I manage to make it work, but never at advertized speed for 56k modems. That was never an issue with windows 95/98. Also cant make my fax/answering machine software work under windows ME. The writing on the box about compatibility and hardware requirements on the windows ME box is pure bull**it. Maybe bait and switch? Regards Miroslav Vadovic

Here is an answer I wrote for a Windows user in the BeOS forum, this is what he asked: "I am just trying to get som information on beOS. What is so "superDuper" about beOS? What is so great about it that will make me drop Win98? What can I do with it that I can't do or do as well on any windows system? Thanks..." Here is my answer: The Be Operating System is designed with the futurist user foremost in mind. Media creation/consumption may be BeOS's true forte, but no one can live inside a system devoid of email, spreadsheets, and word processors. Those applications are stapled in almost every user's daily diet. Just because BeOS is billed as the MediaOS, that doesn't mean it's somehow sub-optimal at handling more mundane chores. Hardware manufacturers of the world can churn out speedy hardware faster than we (or our wallets) can keep up with. But what good is a 1 GHz machine if the operating system you run on it keeps on crashing because it's so tangled and bloated with old code from programmers who never collaborated much. Why order a spanking new Porsche only to install Buick seats and a Volkswagen suspension. Operating systems like MacOS and Windows were not designed to be fully modular, BeOS is. Preemptive multitasking in BeOS is implemented automatically and transparently, unlike Windows and MacOS. BeOS uses pervasive multithreading, meaning that it will break up large tasks into lots of tiny tasks, thereby increasing the flow rate of data through the system while reducing the time that tasks must wait for the processor. Windows does not multithread much at all. BeOS makes use of 8 processors simultaneously and symmetrically out of the box, only Windows NT can do four (not as well), and for an extra couple hundred dollars. BeOS’s symmetric multiprocessing is distributed evenly and automatically, so if one CPU is busy the current task will be sent to others, therefore BeOS uses around 99.9% or greater. Moreover, Windows does not take full advantage of the multiple CPU’s in fact only 80% (approximately) at best, which is a big difference when the rest is being wasted. Drivers are installed unadorned to the user in BeOS, the drivers are not peculiarly installed from a large database usually unnecessarily taking up space like on Windows. Instead they are automatically detected and initialized in the first boot sequence. Although almost unknown to Windows users, not always are there drivers available for every piece of hardware. But this is not the fault of the developers for BeOS, since there are not very many. Many third party and independent developers have been working to make the most widely used hardware compatible for BeOS. Most hardware companies do not want to make drivers for BeOS on their own (which is understandable). However, BeOS is compatible with most of the popular hardware. Check with BeOS’s website for compatibility lists. [A personal note, 90% of the systems I have installed BeOS on, it was sucessful.] And sure, most of the programs that you use in Windows or MacOS are not available, and that's probably not going to change. There are well over a million software titles for Windows and Macintosh, and less then a percent will be ported to BeOS. The real reason is not because of the massive amounts of software, but how the code is written. Windows is DOS, except with more dynamic link libraries or DLL's (most are no longer used). For Windows users, this is good (even though it's big), because they can use almost any program written for a Microsoft based operating system. Since its modular and POSIX compliant, almost any UNIX or Linux based software can be easily ported with the fully functional C/C++ compiler that comes with BeOS called IDE. The full version of BeOS comes with plenty of sample code. BeOS is reliable, you can run BeOS without restarting, Windows 9x must be restarted at the least once a week so it can clear its registry, or once a day for peek performance, MacOS is about the same. Windows NT 4, and 2000 can be run for a long time, however it is recommended to completely restart the machine once a month. The Professional version alone costs about $50 and has many package deals with the Gobe Productive 2.0 office suite, or with the BeOS Bible by Scot Hacker, or both for about $120. The price for BeOS is very affordable compared to Windows ME full version, which is more then twice as much, and Windows 2000 is more then three times as much for the basic version. BeOS R5 is downloadable from http://free.be.com/ and runs alongside Windows. It is almost 50 megabytes and it is free. No version of Windows can be downloaded (legally at least), and only an older version of MacOS such as 7.5.3 is available from Apple's FTP server.

There are many more important things in life! For the Guys! http://www.wickedweasel.com/main.htm For the Girls! http://village.fortunecity.com/eclipse/383/bradd.html For Bill Gates! http://www.amishrakefight.org/gfy/ For Microshaft! http://www.euronet.nl/users/frankvw/IhateMS.html For the Sleepy! http://www.homefurnish.com/blackwelders/woodbed/menuwbed.htm ********************************************* I hope that this adds a little light in the normal M$ day!!???