On the Other Hand . . . {was: Re: tame running? -- Solution to "jerky cursor" problem!}

["J. R. Fox" jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

I had inquired:

> > One always has to ask -- no NEW bugs, problems, stability issues introduced with
> > the latest one ? (Computer consultants will tell you it's usually not the best idea to
> > be one of the first people using one of these, unless it's in a spare, experimental boot
> > partition.)

Robert Holmgren replied:

> Excess of caution, IMO (OS/2 habits don't apply). 3.5 months is long enough.
> Several days is enough with this M$ stuff, given the number of downloaders.
> Besides, what choice do you have? The real situation is that the M$ operating
> system code is completely out of control. It is so bloated, and has so many
> disparate contributions from different areas of the company, that nobody
> (literally) has an overall understanding of it anymore. Its taken M$ ten or
> twelve generations of code, starting with v3.0, to get the thing under control
> and debugged. Finally, with W2K (v5.0) and WXP (v5.1), it pretty much works
> correctly. Each new OpSys and Service Pack is really just a bug fix plus new
> functionality built on old code. The scary thing would be if they tried to
> write a new OpSys from scratch. You'd have to wait ten years to get it to the
> debugged state of W2K SP4!
> -----------------------------

Robert:

Rather than compose a new message restating the same thing, I'm going to re-use a message I
just sent to someone who helped me recover from a computer disaster that began last Sat., when
I tried to install SP4. It turned my computer into a giant paperweight, a situation I only
managed to recover from last night.

Jordan

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for your assistance, Steven.

In trying to fix things, I generally favor a strategy of measured escalation: the
least drastic idea, then a step beyond that, and so on, trying to put off for last
the riskiest or most irrevocable. Sometimes it works, and sometimes I wind up
painting myself into a corner anyway.

In this case, it was not necessary to zap & recreate the MBR. Apparently, there
was some unknown damage to Boot Mgr. When I deleted BM, then restored a
DI image of it, I was surprised to find that the Boot Mgr. menu came back up,
just as it had been, and Warp 4 booted again. (Note to Ray: this is another
example of why I'm such a proponent of Drive Image.) After 5 days of failure
with everything else I was trying, I'm sorry I didn't try this much earlier. Next up
will be to see if the other two OS/2 boot partitions also work, then to make damn
sure this time that I have the DFSTART partition-data backup set for *this*
system in place.

On the other hand, the W2K partition that got trashed by SP4, and brought
down everything else bootable except for DOS, is a total loss. I've now given
up on trying to fix it. I'll have to wipe it and rebuild it from a five month old
backup, losing plenty in the process. What an utter piece of CRAP Microsoft
has foisted upon the world ! I have never even heard of any remotely comparable
damage occurring in OS/2, by the simple act of applying a software update.

Jordan


P.S. for the Xy-List: We may be devotees of the greatest DOS program -- and one
of the greatest-ever software programs, period -- but take it from me: in late 2003,
you wouldn't want to have to time-warp and function in a Text Only, 640K, VGA,
NO Net Access world. After 5 days of it, I was climbing the walls.