Martin Hill wrote:
From: Andrew Nielsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
At 09:28 +0800 10/6/05, Martin Hill wrote [in relation to UI responsiveness]:
I'm with you on that one Craig. That's one pet peeve of mine as well. (but
the Dell on my desk is another matter entirely *blech*)
Wow, the Dells I use all work really well and are plenty responsive
under Windows XP. Just that there's no Unix underneath so they're a
little bit limited in some ways but then they run software that I
can't run on Mac OS X so it's swings and roundabouts. For now :-)
My Dell is about a year and a half old and was re-ghosted a week ago and yet
draws windows and the like onscreen slowly in that horrible cludgy Windows
way. My wife has a late model 3GHz Dell with 512MB of RAM on her desk (also
re-ghosted a couple of weeks ago) which she tells me even after the clean
install suffers distinct pauses to clicks on buttons etc. She tells me most
of her client's PCs are worse than hers (responsiveness-wise) and these are
lease PCs that would all be less than 3 years old.
Mind you all these corporate PCs are configured with Novell scripts,
Zenworks and network user directories so that could be causing some of these
symptoms - but it does highlight the fact that many PCs are by no means
perfect in this area.
I think a more major problem with XP is in multi-tasking with lots of
windows open (which I think Craig alluded to). Anandtech and others have
also highlighted this problem which Mac OS X seems to handle much more
gracefully.
-Mart
I agree, the only Windoze box I know that doesn't regularly 'pause' is mine.
IMO this is because it has comparatively nothing installed and has
deliberately limited capabilities and is Windoze 2000.
Also, networking it with OS X increases it's stability no end compared
to having it on a Windoze network.
I cant remember the last XP PC I have fresh installed or assembled that
didn't crash (to some degree) on it's first day.
Often before any changes have been made!
Mmm, crashing out of the box, doh!
"My wife has a late model 3GHz Dell with 512MB of RAM on her desk (also
re-ghosted a couple of weeks ago) which she tells me even after the clean
install suffers distinct pauses"
This sounds a little like Ghosting and clean installs are being confused
here.
Remember that Ghosting (or Imaging) preserves an installation "as is"
which will also preserve any faults, inadequacies, conflicts, viruses,
errors... well, you get the idea.
If a computer *needs* imaging it is because it cannot be trusted with a
custom configuration that takes time and effort to create.
So I of course recommend creating it on a more trustworthy computer
instead of *relying* wholly on silver bullets.
Unless of course your IT department is run by the Dark Side, resistance
will then be useless.
Push for better quality coffee instead, better chance of a win I say ;)
Good Luck
Paul
