>> last, it should be easy to interchange general PC parts without >> trigerring a hard OS reinstall. XP will refuse to boot say if your >> motherboard chipset changes from VIA to Intel (even if the rest stays >> the same!) kaya nga na imbento ang drivers eh! bakit bumalik sa >> jurassic >> age? > > are you sure about this? you mean you have to reinstall XP if you change > your motherboard? I thought plug and play solved this a long time ago. > Anyway, that kind of sux... but not majorly so.
This is not supposed to be the case. Windows 2000/XP have a pretty good driver-base support such that it detects hardware changes when it reboots and attempts install the appropriate drivers when necessary. Plug and Play is something indeed in both MS Windows and GNU/Linux. In fact, transferring a hard disk containing MS Windows 2000/XP to another completely different system will cause the system at startup to change hardware profiles when possible. The "limitation" with MS Windows XP, if at all, is that it attempts to digitally fingerprint the system. So if there is any abrupt change in the fingerprint, it complains. It does not so much as drop support by not installing the drivers -- on the contrary -- it simply prevents it from doing so. I do not exactly know the rationale behind this, but I guess it is supposed to aid Microsoft's continuing journey to curb piracy. MS Windows 2000/XP have a far longer list of driver support than either MS Windows 98/98SE for certain device categories. It does not support as much "consumer" devices as MS Windows ME, probably. -------------------------------------- Gino LV. Ledesma Ateneo Cervini-Eliazo Networks (ACENT) email : [EMAIL PROTECTED] web : http://cersa.admu.edu.ph/ phone : (63)(2) 426-6001 ext. 5925/5904 _ Philippine Linux Users Group. Web site and archives at http://plug.linux.org.ph To leave: send "unsubscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe to the Linux Newbies' List: send "subscribe" in the body to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
