Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Compaq DOA, Microsoft NT setup cruel and unusual punishment

Author:Roberta Glazer
Posted:8/26/1999; 5:18:39 AM
Topic:Next clonemaker, Compaq
Msg #:9923 (In response to 9880)
Prev/Next:9922 / 9924

A few observations...

First, every time I've called Compaq, I've been issued a case number at the very start of the call. If we get disconnected, all I need to do is call back with that case number, and I get reconnected with the person with whom I was dealing. Nothing lost there. In addition, I can't see how it's the clonemaker's fault when someone's portable phone battery runs out... so while that must have been frustrating, it certainly isn't part of why Compaq and Windows NT are evil and must be destroyed.

Second, there probably was no need to remove the network card -- you can always choose to not install networking during the WinNT installation, yet still have the card in the machine. When you DID get the machine up and running sans networking, though, again it's not exactly Compaq's fault that you found out you had some bad floppy disks lying around...

Third, and most importantly, every desktop machine that I've received from Compaq (100+ EN desktop models) has come from the factory with WinNT preinstalled on it. VERY MUCH the experience that I "turned it mother on, clicked on a few dialog boxes, and was on the net" (to paraphrase Dave). Same thing with Compaq's laptops and servers, as well as Dell's desktops and laptops. Why your server came without an operating system is beyond me, but it's not the norm.

Fourth, my experience with Linux just last week was ENTIRELY idiotic. First, I got a "sig11 failure" or some such nonsense in the middle of the installation, and the entire process ground to a halt. No explanation, no warning, no path to follow to restart the installation gracefully. (It was one of those events, like back in the DOS "Abort, Retry, Fail" days, where the error overwrote the GUI installation routine with garbled error text.) So, I restart the entire installation from step 1. This time, it completed, but it didn't keep my netmask; I had to figure out how to reset THAT. THEN, I decided to upgrade the GnuRPM package to v0.9 (because the version I installed, 0.8, kept dumping core on me every third package install), and it told me it needed a newer version of some other package. I went and found that, tried to install it, and it needed a newer version of ANOTHER package. I went and found THAT, and -- guess what? -- it needed version 0.9 of GnuRPM. Nice little loop I was in.

Lastly, I wanted to thank Dave for the complement -- I didn't realize that my past 300-400 installations of WinNT make me an immortal....

Roberta

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