blog: version 2.3 released

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Mar 03, 09:31

here's the comment area for today's blog post found at
http://zabkat.com/blog/xplorer2-v2.3.htm

wasker · Post by **wasker** » 2013 Mar 03, 19:23

At first I was "Wow! Nikos is using W8!". And then I see that it's in Virtual Box session.

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Mar 04, 06:08

that would be windows vista v2

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2013 Mar 04, 08:05

Considering that Win8 is apparently about to be traded in for Windows Blue rather soon (like really soon), and switching to a forced Apple-style paid-release/download cycle - Sinofsky may be wearing that albatross pendant a little while longer...

Post by **nikos** » 2013 Mar 04, 08:10

I haven't heard about this in developers' media and it is unlikely that MS would release anything radical without telling the developers first. Perhaps it's just a glorified service pack, if it isn't some figment of imagination like in vanessa's little head

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2013 Mar 04, 08:24

They're concentrating on new markets, like phone development and their own "app stores" (America is a strange place). And, in case you haven't noticed, they are trying to kill off the desktop, so you're not the kind of developer they want to brainwash!

If they do release it soon (as in this year) no doubt there will be a backlash - but at least ReFS isn't likely to be changing radically...

Thracx · Post by **Thracx** » 2013 Mar 04, 19:04

nikos wrote:..Perhaps it's just a glorified service pack, if it isn't some figment of imagination like in vanessa's little head

They might be moving towards a more frequent, but less drastic, release cycle.

Kilmatead wrote:...And, in case you haven't noticed, they are trying to kill off the desktop...

They aren't trying to kill off the desktop - they are just now finally realizing that the 'Desktop' is a 'finished' piece of software. You, nikos, and myself have what we want from Windows and don't need anything else from our OS, past minor driver updates and hardware compatibility. :P

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2013 Mar 04, 19:32

Thracx wrote:You, nikos, and myself have what we want from Windows and don't need anything else from our OS,

Somehow I always got the impression that Nikos would have been happy enough if there were never any updates beyond August 25, 2004, when SP2 was released for XP.

I was kind of happy in DOS 3.0 - if for no other reason than the Borland C IDE was still in existence, and there was no such thing as the Win32 API to pull your teeth out with. (And men were men, hip-hop nonsense "music" didn't exist, and children still listened to their elders.

)

drac · Post by **drac** » 2013 Mar 04, 19:48

Yes, I liked DOS. It did what one needed done to use a computer and it kept the riff-raff away (the non-techy people). I did not use Windows at all until Win 95. Now THAT was a good version of Windows. I also liked XP and Win 7.

As much as I liked DOS and especially that it took a techy to use it, I do enjoy the benefits of a good version of Windows. I occasionally have to revert to the DOS box inside Windows - and though I am often overcome by a wave of fond memories - I would not want to go back there. Sure it was a happier and simpler time, but it was also a more limited world.
.

Thracx · Post by **Thracx** » 2013 Mar 04, 19:52

drac wrote:Yes, I liked DOS...and though I am often overcome by a wave of fond memories - I would not want to go back there. Sure it was a happier and simpler time, but it was also a more limited world.

Well Said :=]

Kilmatead · Post by **Kilmatead** » 2013 Mar 04, 20:01

I once had a professor who said exactly the same thing when I expressed a fondness for the 14th century - he said "Experiencing the plague might influence your nostalgia a bit."

I just shrugged and said, "The Decameron." Strangely enough, he agreed.

(Of course, the benefit there is that not only would the plague keep the riff-raff away, but they tended to stay away permanently! Ah, the good old days. <Sigh>)

fgagnon · Post by **fgagnon** » 2013 Mar 05, 02:57

drac wrote:Yes, I liked DOS ...

eventually, at version 3.x, so did I -- having started with CP/M on an 8080 IMSAI (or was it an Altair Z80 box?) , and only after I had gone through "Color BASIC" on a 64KB CoCo with tape (not disk) drive and eventually forsook for a PC clone that had two 5-1/4 inch floppy drives and a whopping 20MB hard drive. It originally ran PC-DOS 1.0 and evolved to MS-DOS 3.3 which seemed to be as good as things would ever get - especially when Windows 1.0 behaved so horribly.

FrizzleFry · Post by **FrizzleFry** » 2013 Mar 05, 07:28

8.3 filenames... yuck!

Thracx · Post by **Thracx** » 2013 Mar 05, 13:41

fgagnon wrote:...a whopping 20MB hard drive...

I think my original computer had a 75MB hard drive - maybe I was in DOS 4/5 era?

drac · Post by **drac** » 2013 Mar 05, 20:12

I used to work for one of the first companies that sold those 20 MB hard drives (in the US). The company was named Prizm Computer Products. I later worked for another company, Great Lakes Computer Peripherals that also sold 20 MB hard disks - though I think we eventually got to 40MB or more.

I also used CP/M on an 8080, though the first micro computer I did assembler coding for was a 4004, then an 8008. Prior to that I worked on mainframes and then mini-computers (PDP-8, PDP-11). The PDP-11 was one of the best of the computers of that era - at least from a programmer's viewpoint.

Kilmatead, I don't understand the reference to "The Decameron" in that context. Wasn't that book full of stories (10, actually, hence the name) of bad things that went on in the 14th century? I would think that would make it a negative example of that time.