gdougherty wrote:But come on Bruce, as much as you've been around it, I'd think you'd also recognize that XP with good hardware and good drivers will run stable for weeks and months on end.
Indeed, but Windows is still a slobbering hawg.
Good drivers are easy on paper... much harder in real code. Daunting, in fact. VERY complicated.
When you have a bug in a Visual Studio runtime DLL, that bug is encapsulated in all your code. Oops.
My XP laptop runs my FOH data input at my events. Hand-built, very stable. And stripped down to a minimum.
Not every machine is stable, hardware-wise.
Some drivers are beyond awful, unless running under Vista. Leland and I went down that road.
Under Windows, the shared DLL nightmare is one reason why it crashes with a 3rd party plugin.
Real operating systems run the OS in the protected rings, and the apps in the non-privileged rings.
They do not allow every VB coder to write a DLL that incorporates itself into the system kernel.
This is easy to spot... "do you want to restart your computer now?" This is the tip-off.
In a real OS, the application knocks on the door and waits to be let in.
It is granted access and told to sit politely until it is ready to do work.
When ready, the app raises its hand and asks to use a system resource.
If the app misbehaves (storage violation), the OS picks it up and kicks it out. Bye, bye.
Under the Windows tinker-toy OS, the app is less a guest, and more like the brother-in-law from Hell.
It kicks in your front door without permission then makes itself at home.
Once inside, it commandeers your couch and puts its feet wherever it damn well pleases.
Then it wanders around the kitchen and helps itself to your beer, pretzels and snoops through your checkbook.
It mistreats your dog and squeezes your wife's butt whenever it wants to.
It is known for locking others out of the bathroom for long time periods.
When it gets bored, it goes upstairs and roots around in the wife's lingerie drawer and wears your socks.
When you try to throw the bum out, it burns your house down.
***
The above is humorous, but essentially accurate.
As you note above, a well constructed system will indeed run for months.
I use Server 2003 for SMTP and WEB, and it stays up until we have a (regular) power outage.
It never goes on Facebook, never Tweets, runs no applications, just file serving. Rock solid.
The trick to Windows is top-drawer hardware, and a fresh build from the CD.
Uninstall ALL the eye candy and unnecessary junk (MSN, Messenger, Fax, Media Player, etc, etc).
No antivirus, no media player, no IE upgrades, no sound drivers, no themes, no wallpaper.
My biggest worry is that when I'm dead and gone, my wife will sell my toys for what I said I paid for them.
