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Do you believe that Windows could be advanced further if Microsoft did not try to cater to a wider audience?
I can't help but think that the designers and developers of Windows are being held back by business suits who tell them to cater to a lower common denominator.
The only problem I have is that Microsoft is still offering a 32-bit version of Windows 10. The 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and later had backwards compatibility with 32-bit applications.Do you believe that Windows could be advanced further if Microsoft did not try to cater to a wider audience?
I can't help but think that the designers and developers of Windows are being held back by business suits who tell them to cater to a lower common denominator.
The number of businesses out there still relying on ancient 16-bit Windows (or DOS!) applications for their line of business would depress you. And it's not like saying "use DOSBox" or "use a VM" is a working solution since plenty of them are relying on ancient hardware drivers to connect with devices whose manufacturers are long gone.The only problem I have is that Microsoft is still offering a 32-bit version of Windows 10. The 64-bit versions of Windows Vista and later had backwards compatibility with 32-bit applications.
But, then again, you have to take a look at the use cases. In some cases, the businesses only care if the computer can run the email client, a web browser, Microsoft Office, and their internal applications. Watching YouTube videos and playing games isn't on that list. And, you don't need a powerful processor or lots o'RAM to do that.
I work in tech support. I am painfully aware of some of the legacy applications that are still out these that some of our customers run. Fortunately, it is outside my area of support.The number of businesses out there still relying on ancient 16-bit Windows (or DOS!) applications for their line of business would depress you.
The number of businesses out there still relying on ancient 16-bit Windows (or DOS!) applications for their line of business would depress you. And it's not like saying "use DOSBox" or "use a VM" is a working solution since plenty of them are relying on ancient hardware drivers to connect with devices whose manufacturers are long gone.
The number of businesses out there still relying on ancient 16-bit Windows (or DOS!) applications for their line of business would depress you. And it's not like saying "use DOSBox" or "use a VM" is a working solution since plenty of them are relying on ancient hardware drivers to connect with devices whose manufacturers are long gone.
That's wonderful, except why are these same companies even considering a new version of Windows? If those antiquated apps and hardware are doing the job, what's wrong with Windows NT 4.0 or whatever?
In other news, computers doing 2 billion operations a second are still fast enough for most things even though computers doing 15 billion operations a second exist. Is that a problem? No. Minesweeper doesn't want or need high resolution textures and volumetric fog. Microsoft Word doesn't want or need 8GB ram. An email client shouldn't want a high end processor.
George R.R. Martin writes his multi-million dollar "A Song Of Ice and Fire" series on a DOS machine.
George R.R. Martin writes his multi-million dollar "A Song Of Ice and Fire" series on a DOS machine.
That kind of busineses deserve to die away if they didn't upgrade their hardware in the past 10 years.
When working on Word files that get into the hundreds of pages with multiple sections and a large number of pictures, Word crawls with even 8GB of RAM. 16GB and 64-bit Word is a whole lot faster.
This is pretty narrowminded. You'd singlehandedly shut down the internal medicine and radiology departments of most hospitals if you enforced this. It's not feasible to buy multi-million dollar control rooms every few years just for the sake of swapping out some ports on a few devices.
It's often not an issue of product lifespan, but the refusal to replace software or hardware when it's working perfectly fine for its intended uses.Then at least the people responsible for procurement should be fired as they didn't do due diligence on product lifespan.
Back to the point, if some companies have almost 10 year and older systems with Pentium 4/D and Athlon 64/X2 processors and want to run Windows 7/8/10 on it, that's fine too. I'd just hate to work there. A system doesn't have to be 1337 to be (nearly) usable.
Then at least the people responsible for procurement should be fired as they didn't do due diligence on product lifespan. If you make a multi million investment you should make sure you don't have technological dead ends at half the planned product life.
If the control room is based on DOS at 2004 you're just doing it wrong!
Then at least the people responsible for procurement should be fired as they didn't do due diligence on product lifespan. If you make a multi million investment you should make sure you don't have technological dead ends at half the planned product life.
If the control room is based on DOS at 2004 you're just doing it wrong!
The stupidity of all of this is the argument that multimillion dollar machines have anything to do with this. They don't, period.
So, which distro of Linux would you recommend then? If it was up to me, then yes, if it's specialized equipment with long shelf life, I would prefer a hardened Linux distro over Windows.The stupidity of all of this is the argument that multimillion dollar machines have anything to do with this. (text deleted) MS does not make their next OS for 20 year old multi million dollar equipment they make it for the mass market. Every OS since the explosion of smartphones has seen this trend toward not needing any higher specs.
This is pure ignorance on display. You're limited to two or three vendors, and you have to make sure the product you buy plays nicely with the other multi-million dollar pieces of equipment you already have. Oftentimes, this creates lock-in to an extent not seen in the consumer market—GE makes Microsoft's Windows monopoly look like a blissful fairy land—and you're stuck with whatever they have to sell at the time.
In my experience when multi-million deals are at hand the vendor will bend over backwards to spec the product according to your needs. Its buyer stupidity to blindly take whats offered. If your hardware clearly exceeds the lifespan of typical software/OS then a proper maintenance plan has to be made with the vendor before the purchase.
It would be pretty dumb to pay millions for a device that stops working 8-12 years before its intended lifespan simply because nobody prepared for software support in the future. There is even an argument if Windows should be used at all in devices which require stability and long term support. I see Windows use in medical devices borderline criminal with all the security risks at hand.
In my experience when multi-million deals are at hand the vendor will bend over backwards to spec the product according to your needs. Its buyer stupidity to blindly take whats offered.
Looking down on things you aren't involved with and don't understand does not make you correct or endear you to being right.
I handle procurements projects all the time and work as a subcontractor for multi-million SAP etc. procurements so the area of interest is not completely unknown to me.
I handle procurements projects all the time and work as a subcontractor for multi-million SAP etc. procurements so the area of interest is not completely unknown to me.
Great--too bad your expertise doesn't extend to the specific market being discussed.
Don't know what to tell you. Your attitude that options somehow exist or different decisions could have been made is incongruous with the reality of medical tech companies. There are at best 2-3 options for a given product, and interoperability with existing equipment that is not being replaced is not guaranteed, further limiting choice.
I cannot replace a biomed tech's 8 year old Windows XP laptop because its serial port is necessary to interface with a nuclear medicine controller. USB to serial adapters do not work. The controller in question costs 3 million dollars to replace. Laptops cost $400. Thus we're stuck with it.
Hurray legacy.
To me that tells that the manufacturers of those machines are not really competing with each others and keep releasing sub-par solutions to their customers.
To me that tells that the manufacturers of those machines are not really competing with each others and keep releasing sub-par solutions to their customers. Serial port was already legacy technology 8 years ago and Windows XP is a consumer OS, why was it selected in the first place?
I'm fairly sure that you could get the interface easily working again with current hardware if someone had access to the source code. The person who did the procurement to this multi-million hardware was too short sighted to guarantee access to the source in the event of the manufacturer going bust or technology advancing.
It's only a matter of agreement.
So, which distro of Linux would you recommend then? If it was up to me, then yes, if it's specialized equipment with long shelf life, I would prefer a hardened Linux distro over Windows.
However, where is the after-market support then? And, if something goes seriously wrong, who do you sue? Remember, a lot of companies adopted OpenSSL, and last year, it was discovered that there was the HeartBleed vulnerability. That OpenSSL code was maintained by how many people?