Flutterby™! : an XP machine

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an XP machine

2002-01-31 17:43:33+00 by Dan Lyke 7 comments

Well, I guess I'm going to break down and do it. I need a Windows XP[Wiki] machine. I have a license for XP[Wiki], given to me by Microsoft[Wiki](so my conscience is less troubled), and I don't want to pollute any of my existing working machines with it. So I'll be motherboard shopping tomorrow, and this weekend doing a few shufflings to get a Linux[Wiki] box off to my Dad and an XP[Wiki] box so I can diddle with .NET. Alas, this is going to mean descending once again into the hell that is Visual Studio[Wiki]; obviously I've got mixed emotions about this project actually coming to fruition. Maybe in the midst of all this I'll get printing working on Linux[Wiki] and move Charlene away from the Windows ME[Wiki] box.

[ related topics: Free Software Dan's Life Microsoft Open Source Work, productivity and environment ]

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:56+00 by: meuon

I blew less than $20 for turboprint, and now my Linux box loves my HP1220C

You can get it for free also.. but it was worth a couple of dollars.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:56+00 by: Dan Lyke

I'm totally for spending money for good software. Does it do reasonable dithering? The other reason I keep the Windows machine is that I haven't wanted to sit down and tune drivers for the 6 color Epson printers.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:57+00 by: Dylan

*ahem* If during all this shuffling you find yourself with an extra 3d accelerator card you don't need, I'd be happy to "recycle" it for you.

It ain't easy being so selfless you know.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:58+00 by: Mike Gunderloy

  1. VS.NET is much more usable than VS6, though of course taste in IDEs varies widely.
  2. You don't need WinXP for .NET. Win2K works perfectly well and is far less annoying than WinXP.
  3. If you do go WinXP, you know you need Pro, not Home Edition, right?

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:59+00 by: Dan Lyke

I have a full-on MSDN[Wiki] available to me, so yes, I'll be installing "Pro". And XP is my only option for the same reason.

I've also heard that they've got real command line utilities now, so I'm guessing that after the novelty of point-n-drool wears off, Emacs[Wiki] will be my IDE of choice. Editors are like good flannel shirts, even when they develop holes it's hard to throw 'em away.

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:59+00 by: ghasty

I actually have XP on a machine here no...but it's only on the "tivo" machine cause it's pretty. and yes, It's got some weirdness...takes a while to find actual network dialogs that you recognize instead of wizard questions like "do you use the internet a lot?"

#Comment made: 2002-02-21 05:34:59+00 by: Mike Gunderloy

Um, if you have full MSDN available you still have Win2K install disks as well as XP. The reasons I use 2K instead of XP: (1) Product Activation offends me (2) the only significant changes in XP are gratuitous eye candy that slow things down (3) With 2K I can install the server OS, which allows me to play with some bits that aren't in the pro versions.

And yes, you can run it all from the command line now, at least if you're working in VB or C# (not sure about C++). In fact, if you don't care about the IDE you can just download and install the .NET Framework SDK, which has all of the command line tools and compilers (which of course the IDE is just a wrapper around) as well as the class library.