🚀 go-pugleaf

|> >>|> various other features. Also, no one mentions Plug & Play. Gamers will 
|> >>|> love this for not having to screw around with their new hardware on new 
|> >>|> machines. And, even if you have an older system and/or older hardware, 
|> >>|> Windows 95's Plug and Play will STILL help to make things easier for the 
|> >>|> average user, with better detection and some diagnostics for address, 
|> >>|> IRQ and DMA conflicts. This is better than what OS/2 Warp can muster. 
|> >>|> I'll be getting my preview copy of Windows '95 very soon, and I'm sure 
|> >>|> I'll never look at Warp after I start running Win '95.
|> >>|> 
|> >>|> Derrik Pates
|> >>|> dmp...@silver.sdsmt.edu
|> >>
|> >>Plug and Play sounds real nice, but I think nobody needs it. Why? There are
|> >>basically two kinds of computer users. The first kind knows all IO port addresses
|> >>and stuff, and as such doesn't need P&P. The second kind knows next to nothing
|> >>about the inside of a computer, and they probably buy a computer that has
|> >>everything installed. Even if they buy something new (say a soundcard or CDROM),
|> >>the suppliers of the hardware usually want to install the new item for them at
|> >>a minimal charge. Therefore they don't need P&P either. A very small group of
|> >>computer users may not fit in either catagories, but why not let 'the
|> >>professional' handle your stuff if you're not completely sure what you need to
|> >>do? Installing a P&P device still means opening your PC and inserting it, so it'll
|> >>probably be too difficult for somebody without some knowledge on the hardware
|> >>itself.
|> >>And what if two P&P devices do not work together for some reason? Surely you can't
|> >>change jumpers or something, as they're meant to configure themselves. The only
|> >>solution would be to remove one of them and buy another one, defeating the entire
|> >>idea of P&P.
|> >>
|> >>In short, I don't thing P&P is that big an issue, and we don't need it either. If
|> >>you don't like looking at the inside of your computer, don't mess with it I say.
|> >>Leave the upgrading to people who know what they're doing (by the way, personally
|> >>I know my way around the inside of my PC quite well).

|> >No way.  Just because of a) the people who know computers know about dma and io, doesn't mean they 
|> >have to go through the same pain in the ass to configure a device.  And b)people who don't know, 
|> >how in the hell do you think they learn about the inside of the computers and dma and io, and not 
|> >to mention learn how to save thier money?  Do you think they buy some cutesy little cdrom that 
|> >says "see inside of computer.  see disk spin", or maybe, just maybe, they actually try to tough it 
|> >out themselves, and get it right, and get a great satisfaction + knowledge?  Jeesh, "I think P&P 
|> >is useless".how dumb

You're missing the point. Right now I have in my computer a scanner, an SB16 with
its own Midi port, a video grabber, a modem and a CDROM. Most of these use their
own IRQ, DMA and IO address, but I can install them all at once with my eyes
closed coz I know what I'm doing. If I am to believe the mags about upgrading it
is near impossible. Some time ago I removed my IDE and serial/parallel ports and
inserted one of those EIDE cards with new serial ports. No problem: take old
one out and insert new one. Plug and play anybody? In contrast, my roommate with
a 'Plug and Play' P60 with PCI bought an EIDE PCI card that was supposed to be
Plug and Play. NOT. After replacing the PCI IDE with the EIDE his harddrive
didn't work any more, so he quickly put in the old one. Plug and Play? Not really.
In theory this shouldn't happen. It's fine if they try to make things easier to
the computer novice, but I stick with my claim that even P&P devices are way to
difficult to install for complete novices. Incidently, I thought that Win9x has
encountered much delay because it should support P&P. It would be quite
hilarious if they a major factor for the delay would prove to be useless  :-)

Yet another Hfl 0.02,

Richard van Meurs (vme...@cs.utwente.nl)