'Ubuntu takes on XP in the gadget arena'

[Eric Dunbar]

On 2/16/06, Martijn van de Streek <martijn at foodfight.org> wrote:
> On Thu, 16 Feb 2006, Jonathan Jesse wrote:
>
> > I'll post to the contrary on this with specific numbers.  I work for a
> > company that has about 50 PCs (note: I know not as big as the one you work
> > for) but we haven't seen one blue screen on any of these Windows XP
> > service pack 2 boxes.  In fact I haven't seen a blue screen since Windows
> > 2000 Professional.  The only time I saw a blue screen on a server product
> > (2000 or 2003) was when we had hardware problems.
>
> I ride the bus to work (and back) every day, and a few months ago the bus
> company installed TFT screens with 'travel info'.
>
> They crash more than they work (about 1% of buses I take have a working
> screen, the others have blue screens, plain hangs, or 'illegal operation'
> dialogs that appear to come from very basic Windows services..)
>
> (though the consultants who sold them this will be getting rich off the
> support contract, I guess)

My favourite experience with broken Windows NT was at Toronto's
Pearson International Airport in 2003 (around August 21st IIRC).
Whatever virus was wreaking havoc at the time managed to get into
their Windows NT system and bring the arrivals/departures screens to a
screeching halt -- a few people got a little nervous about their jobs
I'm sure when it was discovered that these machines hadn't had
security patches applied properly.

PS Yes, old Windows (don't know about XP) can be unstable and
non-functional if not handled properly, but, then again, so can Linux.

PSS It sounds like the bus company needs to hire a new company to
provide thier computer support services... someone's asleep at the
switch.

Eric.