anyone tried or seen XP lately?  anybody worried about the "competition"?  i
thought not...

i installed XP on my box (may the Source save me...) out of curiosity and to
make sure all my knowledge was still up to date (i also heard it was faster
than 2K).  it is.  XP is Win2K with fluff.

regardless, if anybody is interested in seeing this new toy (i call it that
because that's what it is) please reply.  i'll bring my box to the clinic on
thursday, and "repair" the installation so you all can see the defaults.
i'm not sure where the 'ol computer is going after this (probably back to
Debian/Win2K), but XP isn't coming along for the ride, so this is the only
offer i'm going to make.

it's not *nix, so don't read any further unless you're interested in my
views on XP.  i thought this might be kewl for all you *nix and BSD
"missionaries" out there who like to see before they "preach".

---------------------------
Justin ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
---------------------------



some interesting things about XP :

you can now disable the delete confirmation dialogue.  no more "save you
from yourself".  i'm surprised it took them this long.  of course, this
makes things worse for my two finger "delete", "enter" approach because i
end up executing some pr0n movie right after i delete a document off the
desktop...

if you check user permissions, several strange accounts (which are not
available or even seen), including guest, have some powerful permissions.
"guest" is disabled by default, tho.

MSN messenger starts automagically (and won't go away...)  for that matter,
most of the built-in programs have subtle (or not so subtle) hints towards
using Passport.

the default "start" menu is cluttered and confrusing.  if you leave the
(mac) graphics enabled, it will remain that way no matter what you get rid
of.

extra themes and "skins" are only available using a third party program
called WindowBlinds (as far as i can tell...) so you're stuck with the basic
three, unless you get "Plus", which adds three more.  yay.  either way, my
roommate and i were very disappointed that we couldn't get it to look like
OS 9.

XP has new, more suspicious services available for you to disable, including
the ubiquitous "Cryptographic Services".

while faster in some applications (and boot-up), XP seems a bit flaky with
my programs.  Win2K, while an M$ product, was quite stable and forgiving in
it's approach (even before SP1...), and i never found myself restarting the
system because the display resolution was taking over a minute to change...
matter of fact, i've restarted more times in the last four days than i have
with Win2K in four months.

about the only exciting thing i found with XP was the ability to "lock"
toolbars so they stay in the exact same position.  no more active programs
and quick launch icons crowding the address bar...

in conclusion, if any of you IT'ers are stuck with M$ products on
workstations, use 2K or NT 4, not XP.  otherwise, you're in for a world of
trouble.  i spent nearly an hour disabling all the extraneous crap that
comes with it.  then again, if eavesdropping on your employees is your game,
XP is for you.

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