"It Never Crashes" it does...

[Ceroc Addict]

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Computers are the most complex home tool in most houses today! That is safe to say. I don't know where computer users got the idea that a computer should never be problem free.

I think this statement's a sad reflection on how the computer industry managed to hoodwink the average consumer.

If consumers had demanded quality (i.e. took back their computers, or at least refused to get new ones) when they crashed, the industry would be forced to churn out stuff slower (i.e. actually have more quality control) and stop using consumers as crash test dummies.

Microsoft should have stopped existing before the term "Blue screen of death" became a commonly understood (and accepted) expression.

Kap

P.S. Funny sidenote: The browser on the linux box I'm on actually crashed as I submitted this post.

[contoursvt]

Cars never break down, TVs never fail, VCRs never chew up tapes, toasters never toast unevenly..etc....

Considering WHAT computers to and the complexity, I'd say its much more reliable than any of the stuff above.

Incidently, my G3 has kernel panics more often than my XP box has blue screens. I've had 3 kernel panics in 1 year and I've had zero bluescreens in 6 months on my new PC. Bluescreens by the way are mostly caused by bad drivers and nothing else. I'd have control over those drivers. Kernel panics might be caused by drivers as well but I have no control of those, OSX is shipped with what I need so if it crashes for some reason, I'm pretty much screwed until apple fixes it. Not so great.

The sad thing is that I use my PC now for 99% of things and the G3 for 1% but even with that kind of ratio, I'm getting less blue screens vs kernel panics. Not trying to be biased but I do have both and this is my experience so far. XP and Win2k are far more stable than anyone gives credit.

[nixgeek]

I think it's a matter of how well you know to configure a system and use the proper "etiquette" for managing your computer, be it a Mac or PC running whatever. And yes, the only times I've had crashes on Windows (XP and 2000) have been because of drivers. For the most part, my systems (Mac/Win/Linux) have been pretty stable and run for a good while.

But it's this "etiquette" that not everyone has when it comes to computer maintenance, as we see moreso in the Windows world with users' lack of updating their systems. Sure, most of that is automated, but it's only helpful if you have an "always on" connection. Dial-up users either have to have their computers dial overnight or they have to update manually when they are connected, while hoping they don't get disconnected.

I see the fault lying on both parties. One for users not being proactive about learning or keeping their computer in top form, and another for the corps not making all of this easy for the end user. If people didn't take preventative maintenance on their cars and the companies didn't make these cars safe to begin with, imagine what hell it would be to cross the street!

I hope this is making sense, especially since I'm typing this with one eye open at 12:11 AM...

[contoursvt]

I think what you said does make a lot of sense. In my own case, maybe because windows is my primary OS, I like it more and put more attention and effort into system maintenance compared to my G3 so maybe thats why its more stable and vice versa. Guess if you love it, it will love you back LOL

[Satcomer]

Originally Posted by contoursvt

Guess if you love it, it will love you back LOL

That's true with almost everthing in your life. Just ask an old man like myself.

[aicul]

Originally Posted by Satcomer

Computers are the most complex home tool in most houses today!

After my wife... But then again I wouldn't consider her a tool.

[rubaiyat]

I've had my W2k PC for 4 years and that is exactly how many crashes it has had. None of them requiring anything more serious than a restart. I have lost count of how many forced reinstalls I have had to do with my Mac and all the flavors of OSX.

Each time I have lost yet another lot of files, settings, data.

Just got back up and running after yet another what I call blue screen of death in Panther. I get through all the login only to end up with a blue screen with nothing but a live cursor on it.

"Safe Boot" didn't work, Disk First Aid as always wwas useless, and I had all sorts of hastles trying to reinstall Panther. I finally gave up after working on it over a day, and upgraded to Tiger. I just hope Tiger doesn't go flakey on me because it was not a clean reinstall, just an upgrade on top of what was left of the Panther install.

The big trouble with Apple's, less than perfect, Unix is that if you don't work on the same install that gave you trouble you don't get back your User stuff.

I'd love to have a reliable rescue CD, even DiskWarrior as good as it is, is painfully slow and doesn't do everything I need.

[ngcomputing]

OS/X itself might not crash, but applications running under it surely will. Since I switched in November '04 I've must have "Submitted A Report" to Apple at least 100 to 200 times.

XP tends to crash more often than OS/X, however, OS/X applications tend to crash way more often than XP apps.