#NT Myths…
Oh, you want to talk about NT, huh? <g> OK, let's talk about my last four
weeks at the office.
Under recommendation of the guy who I dumped responsibility for all computers
on, 3 of us switched from os/2 to nt. Our new file server is going to be an nt
server, and right now os/2 can't talk to it.
Got in 3 new 90's with 32 meg ram, 1 gig IDE drives. One of us wanted to set
up as dual boot, couldn't do it. Kept on crashing during install. About 2
weeks later, we found a message in an internet newslist which described a
solution. Apperently was a conflict between the CD-ROM driver and large IDE
drives. He's now up and running, but has held on to his old computer just in
case.
I set mine up using NTFS as opposed to FAT. Install went well, and then later
I accidently deleted a file that NT wanted. Next reboot – blue screen. OK,
boot from floppy and repair the damage. Nope, can't do. There is no such
thing as an NT boot floppy. Violates security. Re-install, run emergency
repair disk (you have updated yours to reflect all your current registry
information, haven't you?).
OK, I'm back up and running again. Let's run a dos program that uses SVGA or
extended text modes. Nope, can't do it. Violates security, can't have direct
access to hardware.
Oh well, at least we have our NT server. The data is safe, being backed up on
a 4mm tape drive. What's that, we are getting system errors during our backup?
3 PCI scsi cards later, we find one that is actually compatible with NT.
Whew, all of us are now up and running, and the server is happy to. Except 2
of us, and probably the third, are going back to os/2. Too many of the
programs we need to run, or strongly prefer over the windows version, required
extended text mode or SVGA. A version of os/2 that talks to our new server is
suppose to be out soon, until then we'll just use our old server. I figure
this experience has cost the company about $25k time-wise.
So couldn't we have called Microsoft tech support for help? Well it costs $150
(or is it $250?) per incident for tech support. I understand they have just
set up a 900 number for support, something like $2.50 per minute, which should
help. There is an NT forum on CIS, but actual support from Microsoft there is
pretty hit and miss. Not enough support people for the volume of traffic,
although additional MS people donate their time to help answer questions.
NT is somewhat in the same boat as os/2 in terms of drivers – there isn't as
much demand for NT as there is for Windows, so companies don't write drivers.
I don't really care which operating system I use, as long as I can get my work
done. I'm not crazy about os/2 either, but it allows me to do what I need to
do at this time.
Recommendations: take it slow and measured, keep your emergency repair disks up
to date, start collecting messages from the NT forum so you can build a
database of fixes to common problems, consider staying with FAT until you are
comfortable, and remember that C2 security is supposed to make you feel safe.
PS: there is nothing like that feeling you have when after you've done an
emergency repair and discover that you can't log onto your own machine. Your
old password just won't work. Hint: just hit return when it asks for the
password!
LAM