Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and reliability
increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.

--
Lance Birch
Remove the smiley to e-mail.
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/parallax/359/

Post a reply to this message

Actually, I forgot something too.  How does NT use and manage memory above
128 Mb compared to 95 and 98?

Thanks again!

--
Lance Birch
Remove the smiley to e-mail.
http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/parallax/359/

Post a reply to this message

Lance Birch wrote:
> 
> Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
> Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and reliability
> increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
> the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
> Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
> ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.
> 
> --
> Lance Birch

Lance,

   I have a friend who's been a 3D studio user for years through all
of its permutations. I seem to recall that he'll only run MAX on 
NT. Either it won't run on 95, or it's very crash-prone on that system.

Post a reply to this message

I have been using NT4.0 ever since it came out.  It runs 32 bit application
about
30% faster than 95, has better memory management ( I have 128 Meg) and
supports
multiple processors.  There is a good article in this month's issue of Byte
magazine,
saying that even '98 is not as good as NT for serious computing.  I run
POV_Ray on it
ever since version 3.0 came out.  Some renderings I tried take up to 100 Meg
of ram
and they run without a glitch.  The only thing is that some games don't run
and it
does not support a lot of no-name brand hardware.

Stephan
remove "not" to e-mail

Lance Birch <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote in message
<6kv7mp$57a$1@oz.aussie.org>...
>Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
>Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and
reliability
>increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
>the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
>Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
>ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.
>
>--
>Lance Birch
>Remove the smiley to e-mail.
>http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/parallax/359/
>
>

Post a reply to this message

"Lance Birch" <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote:

>Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
>Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and reliability
>increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
>the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
>Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
>ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.

Lance - I have used NT 4 for about six months (P2/266, 128mb RAM) and there's
no way I would even remotely consider going back to Windows 95. With the type
of development and application use that I do, I would often see Win95 crash
several times a day. In the six months I've been running NT, it has crashed
perhaps five times. Occasionally (maybe once every few days) it gets into a
funny state and I'll choose to reboot it, but hard crashes are very unusual.

For applications like POVWIN (which is pure 32-bit code) NT will be faster than
95 since it doesn't have to deal with all the Win16 baggage that 95 does.

Post a reply to this message

I only see two possible reasons to use 95 or 98 over NT:

Either you have hardware that doesn't run in NT or you want to play all the
newest games. In the hardware department, NT is getting better and better
(more compatible drivers developed each day), but it is not very compatible
with many games.

For serious computing, NT goes *way* first!

If you can afford it, install double boot: NT for working with your
computer, W95 for playing :-)

Johannes.

Post a reply to this message

It's nice if you can get it working - IRQ juggling was ... let's just say it
wasn't easy. : )

I can't really compare the speed of 95 and NT, as I've got a coupla
machines; a P2-266 with NT, a 166 with 95, a 120 with 95 and a 486/sx 33
laptop running Windows 3.1. Haven't ever put 95 on the P2-266, nor NT on the
other machines.

All I know is the Pentium II is FAST. :) :)

Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and forces
you to restart.

Never used 98. [shrug]

-aardvarko

Lance Birch <:-)Lan### [at] tpgicomau> wrote in message
<6kv7mp$57a$1@oz.aussie.org>...
>Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
>Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and
reliability
>increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
>the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
>Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
>ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.

Post a reply to this message

Johannes Hubert wrote:
> 
> I only see two possible reasons to use 95 or 98 over NT:
> 
> Either you have hardware that doesn't run in NT or you want to play all the
> newest games. In the hardware department, NT is getting better and better
> (more compatible drivers developed each day), but it is not very compatible
> with many games.
> 
> For serious computing, NT goes *way* first!
> 
> If you can afford it, install double boot: NT for working with your
> computer, W95 for playing :-)
> 
> Johannes.
How about the fact that it costs ~200 dollars, OEM.

Post a reply to this message

In article <6l1vlg$8oe$1@oz.aussie.org>,
	"aardvarko" <aar### [at] geocitiescom> writes:
>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and forces
>you to restart.

Not the OS my friend, the _processor_ ;)

/Michael

Post a reply to this message

In article <357370fc.8075051@news.povray.org>,
	new### [at] DESPAMpovrayorg (povray.org admin team) writes:

>I would often see Win95 crash
>several times a day. In the six months I've been running NT, it has crashed
>perhaps five times. Occasionally (maybe once every few days) it gets into a
>funny state and I'll choose to reboot it, but hard crashes are very unusual.

You need to reboot Windows machines!? And they crash?!?!

/Michael, Unix-user, admirerer of long up-times ;)

Post a reply to this message

d93### [at] efdlthse (Michael Lundahl) wrote:

>In article <357370fc.8075051@news.povray.org>,
>	new### [at] DESPAMpovrayorg (povray.org admin team) writes:
>
>>I would often see Win95 crash
>>several times a day. In the six months I've been running NT, it has crashed
>>perhaps five times. Occasionally (maybe once every few days) it gets into a
>>funny state and I'll choose to reboot it, but hard crashes are very unusual.
>
>You need to reboot Windows machines!? And they crash?!?!

Unfortunately, yes .. with all Microsoft's efforts, they have yet to reach the
level of reliability of, say, the FreeBSD machine that runs this news server,
or kernels such as QNX or even [ugh] OS-9 (which is what I do a lot of work in
- uptimes of several years are not unknown).

Nevertheless, they are on their way ; the NT kernel design is very nice. In
general, when I get problems with NT, it's because one of the higher-level
components gets screwy (in particular, the GUI). Unlike Unix, where you can
just CTL-ALT-BKSP exit from and restart XFree86 if it goes ga-ga, with NT there
is no such option (though perhaps there should be).

Post a reply to this message

Andrew M <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:

>How about the fact that it costs ~200 dollars, OEM.

I was going to mention that myself. This is the primary reason why I had to
choose not to make the new POVWIN rendering engine an NT-only service. Many of
our users simply can't afford the high cost of NT.

Post a reply to this message

>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and forces
>you to restart.

An app (presuming it's a user-level app) cannot (to my knowledge) induce a stop
(i.e. bugcheck). Only a faulty kernel-mode component (i.e. ring 0) can do this.


This generally means a bug in a device driver. It is possible, of course, for
an app to induce a bugcheck (AKA BSOD, the 'Blue Screen Of Death') if it is
communicating with a device driver in such a way as to flush the bug out. Also,
some apps come with their own kernel-mode drivers (though this is uncommon).
However, the same principle applies there - the bug is in the device driver.

Post a reply to this message

Yes, but since NT 4.0 moved a lot of the GUI stuff into ring 0, there
are potentials for applications to do this.

There was the one where a 4-line Windows App could cause a BSOD 100% of
the time. Then the Internet Explorer/F00F bug combo was also a good
one...



povray.org admin team wrote:
> 
> >Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
> >STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and forces
> >you to restart.
> 
> An app (presuming it's a user-level app) cannot (to my knowledge) induce a stop
> (i.e. bugcheck). Only a faulty kernel-mode component (i.e. ring 0) can do this.
> 
> This generally means a bug in a device driver. It is possible, of course, for
> an app to induce a bugcheck (AKA BSOD, the 'Blue Screen Of Death') if it is
> communicating with a device driver in such a way as to flush the bug out. Also,
> some apps come with their own kernel-mode drivers (though this is uncommon).
> However, the same principle applies there - the bug is in the device driver.

Post a reply to this message

povray.org admin team wrote:
> 
> Andrew M <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
> 
> >How about the fact that it costs ~200 dollars, OEM.
> 
> I was going to mention that myself. This is the primary reason why I had to
> choose not to make the new POVWIN rendering engine an NT-only service. Many of
> our users simply can't afford the high cost of NT.

You mean so there is no windows 95/98 verson?  What about ports to other
OSes? $200 buys a hefty amount of processing power, like it could buy a
moniterless K6 200, maybe even a 233 or 266, for a renderfarm. Or it
could upgrade me to K6 300 plus 30 bucks to spare.

Andrew McDavid

Post a reply to this message

povray.org admin team wrote:
> 
> An app (presuming it's a user-level app) cannot (to my knowledge) induce a stop
> (i.e. bugcheck). Only a faulty kernel-mode component (i.e. ring 0) can do this.
> 
> This generally means a bug in a device driver. It is possible, of course, for
> an app to induce a bugcheck (AKA BSOD, the 'Blue Screen Of Death') if it is
> communicating with a device driver in such a way as to flush the bug out. Also,
> some apps come with their own kernel-mode drivers (though this is uncommon).
> However, the same principle applies there - the bug is in the device driver.

Just as another data point...

I've been running NT (3.51 and 4.0) for about four years, on several
different boxes, using it for intensive development work as well as many
other applications (including POV-Ray) (not counting editors and web
browsers, the program I run most often is probably EGCS). In all that
time, I've had exactly three system crashes (and one of those was under
an early beta of NT4, so I don't think it's fair to count it), plus two
occasions when the OS was malfunctioning badly enough that I rebooted to
fix it. My record for contnuous up time is about two months. (The usual
reason for rebooting is badly written installers that insist on a
restart.)

So don't take those "blue screen of death" tales too seriously. Yeah, it
happens, but an average of one system crash per year is good enough for
me.

-- 
Ross Smith ..................................... Wellington, New Zealand
<mailto:r-s### [at] ihugconz> ........ <http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~r-smith/>
   "Remember when we told you there was no future? Well, this is it."
                                                         -- Blank Reg

Post a reply to this message

Andrew McDavid <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:

>povray.org admin team wrote:
>> 
>> Andrew M <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
>> 
>> >How about the fact that it costs ~200 dollars, OEM.
>> 
>> I was going to mention that myself. This is the primary reason why I had to
>> choose not to make the new POVWIN rendering engine an NT-only service. Many of
>> our users simply can't afford the high cost of NT.
>
>You mean so there is no windows 95/98 verson?  What about ports to other
>OSes? $200 buys a hefty amount of processing power, like it could buy a
>moniterless K6 200, maybe even a 233 or 266, for a renderfarm. Or it
>could upgrade me to K6 300 plus 30 bucks to spare.

Where was it stated that there is no 95/98 version ?

Post a reply to this message

povray.org admin team wrote:
> 
> Andrew McDavid <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
> 
> >povray.org admin team wrote:
> >>
> >> Andrew M <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
> >>
> >> >How about the fact that it costs ~200 dollars, OEM.
> >>
> >> I was going to mention that myself. This is the primary reason why I had to
> >> choose not to make the new POVWIN rendering engine an NT-only service. Many of
> >> our users simply can't afford the high cost of NT.
> >
> >You mean so there is no windows 95/98 verson?  What about ports to other
> >OSes? $200 buys a hefty amount of processing power, like it could buy a
> >moniterless K6 200, maybe even a 233 or 266, for a renderfarm. Or it
> >could upgrade me to K6 300 plus 30 bucks to spare.
> 
> Where was it stated that there is no 95/98 version ?
	You said you decided _not_ to make it an NT service.  I was just
wondering if that meant, if you had decided otherwise, there wouldn't
have been a 95/98 verson?

Andrew M

Post a reply to this message

>>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
>>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and
forces
>>you to restart.

>Not the OS my friend, the _processor_ ;)

If it halts the processor. then why does the option "Automatically reboot"
in System Properties under "When a STOP message occurs" work?

It must be... uh... the FLOPPY DRIVE that automatically reboots it! Yeah! ;)

-aardvarko

Michael Lundahl wrote in message <6l37to$a37$4@oz.aussie.org>...

Post a reply to this message

>An app (presuming it's a user-level app) cannot (to my knowledge) induce a
stop
>(i.e. bugcheck). Only a faulty kernel-mode component (i.e. ring 0) can do
this.
>
>
>This generally means a bug in a device driver. It is possible, of course,
for
>an app to induce a bugcheck (AKA BSOD, the 'Blue Screen Of Death') if it is
>communicating with a device driver in such a way as to flush the bug out.
Also,
>some apps come with their own kernel-mode drivers (though this is
uncommon).
>However, the same principle applies there - the bug is in the device
driver.

DeBabelizer does sometimes when it hits a faulty TGA file. Beats me. :)

Also Total Annihilation (an awesome RTS game) STOP's the system if you let
it install DX5 and then try to run it; it's pretty stupid to install a
Windows 95 version of DirectX. :|

-rdv

povray.org admin team wrote in message
<3577695e.43768355@news.povray.org>...
>>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
>>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and
forces
>>you to restart.
>

Post a reply to this message

Andrew McDavid <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
>	You said you decided _not_ to make it an NT service.  I was just
>wondering if that meant, if you had decided otherwise, there wouldn't
>have been a 95/98 verson?

Ah, I see. Yes - we had considered a NT-only version, but decided not to
because not everyone can afford to purchase NT. If it had been more available
things may have been different. There's probably a half-dozen other reasons
that it's not NT-only, too, but because of the cost it didn't even get past
first base.

Post a reply to this message

In article <6l8g03$33j$1@oz.aussie.org>,
	"aardvarko" <aar### [at] geocitiescom> writes:
>>>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
>>>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and
>forces
>>>you to restart.
>
>>Not the OS my friend, the _processor_ ;)
>
>If it halts the processor. then why does the option "Automatically reboot"
>in System Properties under "When a STOP message occurs" work?
>
>It must be... uh... the FLOPPY DRIVE that automatically reboots it! Yeah! ;)

Ok, you got me wondering... but... ever heard of the BIOS? ;)

/Michael

Post a reply to this message

Just a little question : does it exist a NT-only version of PovWin ?
Maybe its a little faster, more secure, etc... ?   I'm wrong ?
Where may I download it, if affirmative ?
FD

povray.org admin team a écrit dans le message
<35781705.124961064@news.povray.org>...
>Andrew McDavid <tot### [at] inamecom> wrote:
>> You said you decided _not_ to make it an NT service.  I was just
>>wondering if that meant, if you had decided otherwise, there wouldn't
>>have been a 95/98 verson?
>
>Ah, I see. Yes - we had considered a NT-only version, but decided not to
>because not everyone can afford to purchase NT. If it had been more
available
>things may have been different. There's probably a half-dozen other reasons
>that it's not NT-only, too, but because of the cost it didn't even get past
>first base.

Post a reply to this message

"Frédéric Déchamps" <FDe### [at] wanadoofr> wrote:

>Just a little question : does it exist a NT-only version of PovWin ?
>Maybe its a little faster, more secure, etc... ?   I'm wrong ?
>Where may I download it, if affirmative ?

There's no real point in having a NT-only version - the Win32 version is fully
32-bit and there's little we could do (while keeping it single-processor) to
make it faster on NT.

Post a reply to this message

There seems to be a lot of interest in NT judging by the amount of messages.
Since you decided not to make a NT only version,  I am wondering if you
could make
the rendering engine multi-threaded which would not cause any problems in
Win95/98 but would run almost twice as fast on a 2 CPU NT platform.  Is the
programming difficult to do?  I don't know how many of the POVRay fans own
that kind of machine.  It seems to be getting a lot cheaper these days.  I
have one
myself.


povray.org admin team wrote in message <3580426c.8338169@news.povray.org>...

>There's no real point in having a NT-only version - the Win32 version is
fully
>32-bit and there's little we could do (while keeping it single-processor)
to
>make it faster on NT.

Post a reply to this message

On Mon, 15 Jun 1998 20:46:06 -0400, "Stephan Vogt"
<sno### [at] mindspringcom> wrote:

>There seems to be a lot of interest in NT judging by the amount of messages.
>Since you decided not to make a NT only version,  I am wondering if you
>could make
>the rendering engine multi-threaded which would not cause any problems in
>Win95/98 but would run almost twice as fast on a 2 CPU NT platform.  Is the
>programming difficult to do?  I don't know how many of the POVRay fans own
>that kind of machine.  It seems to be getting a lot cheaper these days.  I
>have one
>myself.

I've looked at this, and sad to say, it would be a horrible job to get
it to run multithreaded, due to the proliferation of global variables
used in unsavory ways.  You're better off just running two copies of
POVRay and using a script or batch file of some kind to coordinate the
rendering.

Post a reply to this message

Michael Lundahl <d93### [at] efdlthse> wrote in article
<6lbgc7$9oh$1@oz.aussie.org>...
> In article <6l8g03$33j$1@oz.aussie.org>,
> 	"aardvarko" <aar### [at] geocitiescom> writes:
> >>>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT
generates a
> >>>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and
> >forces
> >>>you to restart.
> >
> >>Not the OS my friend, the _processor_ ;)
> >
> >If it halts the processor. then why does the option "Automatically
reboot"
> >in System Properties under "When a STOP message occurs" work?
> >
> >It must be... uh... the FLOPPY DRIVE that automatically reboots it!
Yeah! ;)
> 
> Ok, you got me wondering... but... ever heard of the BIOS? ;)
> 

	Bollocks! The BIOS has nothing to do with it, it's not the processor
stopping, processors don't just stop, it _is_ NT. NT isn't anywhere near as
stable as Microsoft would have you believe, in fact, if you've got dodgy
software, it'll crash far more often than '95.

-- 
Scott Hill
Sco### [at] DDLinkscouk
Software Engineer (and all round nice guy)

"The best trick the devil ever pulled was convincing people he didn't
exist..."
								- Verbal Kint.

"the Internet is here so we can waste time talking about nothing in 
 particular when we should be working" - Marcus Hill.

Post a reply to this message

On Thu, 04 Jun 1998 20:29:48 +1200, Ross Smith <r-s### [at] ihugconz>
wrote:

>
>So don't take those "blue screen of death" tales too seriously. Yeah, it
>happens, but an average of one system crash per year is good enough for
>me.

Situation:
	First manned mission to Mars;

	"Ah, Houston, we a have a BSOD"

Post a reply to this message

> I've been running NT (3.51 and 4.0) for about four years, on several
> different boxes, using it for intensive development work as well as many
> other applications (including POV-Ray) (not counting editors and web
> browsers, the program I run most often is probably EGCS). In all that
> time, I've had exactly three system crashes (and one of those was under
> an early beta of NT4, so I don't think it's fair to count it), plus two
> occasions when the OS was malfunctioning badly enough that I rebooted to
> fix it. My record for contnuous up time is about two months. (The usual
> reason for rebooting is badly written installers that insist on a
> restart.)
 
Two months of continuous uptime? Two months for NT is unusual from what
I have heard, though two months is still not very much. Is this on a
home system, or a business system? From what I have heard NT is neither
stable nor secure for most business and engineering uses - it's a big
headache for system administrators. It is no replacement for Unix, and
it is insanely expensive. For some interesting perspective on the NT vs.
Unix question see:

http://www.kirch.net/unix-nt.html
http://www.isdmag.com/Editorial/1998/CoverStory9807.html

jb

Post a reply to this message

Jon S. Berndt wrote:
> 
> > I've been running NT (3.51 and 4.0) for about four years, on several
> > different boxes, using it for intensive development work as well as many
> > other applications (including POV-Ray) (not counting editors and web
> > browsers, the program I run most often is probably EGCS). In all that
> > time, I've had exactly three system crashes (and one of those was under
> > an early beta of NT4, so I don't think it's fair to count it), plus two
> > occasions when the OS was malfunctioning badly enough that I rebooted to
> > fix it. My record for contnuous up time is about two months. (The usual
> > reason for rebooting is badly written installers that insist on a
> > restart.)
> 
> Two months of continuous uptime? Two months for NT is unusual from what
> I have heard, though two months is still not very much. Is this on a
> home system, or a business system?

Business (software development).

> From what I have heard

You keep using that phrase. Perhaps there would be less OS bigotry
around if people were a bit more skeptical about hearsay. I have several
years of software development on both Win32 *and* Linux (and OS/2 and a
little Irix) behind me (and, I hope, several more in front of me :-) ),
so I think I can claim to know what I'm talking about. The rumours of
NT's death (blue screen of) are greatly exaggerated.

> NT is neither
> stable nor secure for most business and engineering uses - it's a big
> headache for system administrators. It is no replacement for Unix, and
> it is insanely expensive. For some interesting perspective on the NT vs.
> Unix question see:
> 
> http://www.kirch.net/unix-nt.html
> http://www.isdmag.com/Editorial/1998/CoverStory9807.html

Not relevant, since they're talking about servers and I'm talking about
workstations. I'd be the first to recommend Linux over NT for a
*server*. But for my desktop box, the one I cut C++ on all the live long
day, no amount of money would persuade me to use Unix.

-- 
Ross Smith ..................................... Wellington, New Zealand
<mailto:r-s### [at] ihugconz> ........ <http://crash.ihug.co.nz/~r-smith/>
   "Remember when we told you there was no future? Well, this is it."
                                                         -- Blank Reg

Post a reply to this message

Ross Smith wrote:
> 
> You keep using that phrase. Perhaps there would be less OS bigotry
> around if people were a bit more skeptical about hearsay. I have several
> years of software development on both Win32 *and* Linux (and OS/2 and a
> little Irix) behind me (and, I hope, several more in front of me :-) ),
> so I think I can claim to know what I'm talking about. The rumours of
> NT's death (blue screen of) are greatly exaggerated.

Well, I knew the phrase "from what I've heard" would raise a red flag. I
used NT several years ago writing a C++ graphing class. I had more
problems with MFC than I did with NT, as I recall. Then, too, I was
using a workstation, not a server. However, the "from what I've heard"
referred to "reliable hearsay" (I can hear the groans now). I've talked
to three system administrators specifically about NT in the past two
months and they were not too hard on NT, but when compared to Unix, NT
lost out all around.
 
I _do_ use Windows 95 at home and at work as well as several flavors of
Unix. I develop in C++ at home under Win95 and Windows 95 is quite
forgiving. I also really enjoy programming under Windows. And the big
complaint I have about programming under Unix is the lack of a really
good IDE. But when I program under Windows I can't help shake the
feeling that Windows is a big fat kludge. What is it that they say ...
"Windows is a 32-bit GUI built on a 16-bit OS for an 8-bit processor for
a 4-bit something-or-other by a two-bit company". When I compare it to
the GUI running on the Mac or even the Amiga I see a Windows as a
bloated, inefficient GUI. Granted, it has a lot of capabilities that the
former two do not have...

jb

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Lance Birch wrote:

> Hi, I was wondering whether anyone here uses NT 4.0...  I've just bought 3D
> Studio MAX and I was wondering whether there is a huge speed and reliability
> increase.  I've heard that it is better than Windows 95 but that it's about
> the same as Windows 98 (except 98 doesn't have Multi-Processor threading).
> Does anyone here know about NT and 98?  This may not be the best place to
> ask but I couldn't really find anywhere else.  Thanks.
>
> --
> Lance Birch
> Remove the smiley to e-mail.
> http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/parallax/359/

 Maybe a slightly more terse explanation will help:
I run NT 4.0 on a 233 MHz Pentium II box, and have run 95 on the same machine
(no Windows 98 in my immediate future). I have tinkered with 3D Studio on both,
and find NT to be a little faster, though not worth the expense of shelling out
the $$$ for it unless you're dedicated to 3D! The crashproofness just doesn't do
it for me with NT. The operating system itself is more robust than 95, but
program crashes aren't reduced.
Go with a fast processor and stick with 95, or throw out some money for NT and
try installing a few boards in it; Fun fun fun!

Andy

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Michael Lundahl wrote:
> 
> In article <6l8g03$33j$1@oz.aussie.org>,
>         "aardvarko" <aar### [at] geocitiescom> writes:
> >>>Also, the STOP's are a pain. Whenever an app crashes badly, NT generates a
> >>>STOP; just what it sounds like, a STOP halts the operating system and
> >forces
> >>>you to restart.
> >
> >>Not the OS my friend, the _processor_ ;)
> >
> >If it halts the processor. then why does the option "Automatically reboot"
> >in System Properties under "When a STOP message occurs" work?
> >
> >It must be... uh... the FLOPPY DRIVE that automatically reboots it! Yeah! ;)
> 
> Ok, you got me wondering... but... ever heard of the BIOS? ;)
> 
> /Michael

Ancient post, but, as I recall the stop instruction stops the machine
until an EXTERNAL interrupt occurs. Hitting the power or reset button
for one thing. Other hardware events can also unstop the processor.
--min

-- 
Lewis A. Sellers: writer and contract Multimedia Website Developer
mailto:lse### [at] usitnet (The Fourth Millennium Foundation)
http://www.public.usit.net/lsellers/ & http://www.intrafoundation.com
http://brain-of-pooh.tech-soft.com/users/critters/bios/sellers_lewis.html

You can bug the living bejesus out of me live on ICQ @ 491461
(If I don't get back to you within a month, I'm out of prozac in some
dark corner somewhere screaming things quite unintelligable but -- most
curiously -- thick with a sumerian accent.)

"The comedy is over" -i pagliacci

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On Wed, 18 Nov 1998 15:20:23 -0500, Lewis Sellers <lse### [at] usitnet> wrote:

>Ancient post, but, as I recall the stop instruction stops the machine
>until an EXTERNAL interrupt occurs. Hitting the power or reset button
>for one thing. Other hardware events can also unstop the processor.

You're thinking of the HLT instruction, which is an Intel thing.  At 
least the first person in the exchange you quoted was thinking of a 
system stop, also known in some circles as a Bugcheck or a Blue 
Screen of Death, which is an NT thing.  Most BSODs are the result of 
a protection fault at the kernel level.  The only thing you can do 
when you get a BSOD is restart the machine (unless you're running a 
kernel debugger)  Unixes get these too - they call it a Kernel Panic.

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