4 ms·

Of course not. However, the blue screen of death was so prevalent that it set windows apart from other OS'es. Kernel panics on linux are pretty rare. And I've

by axod 17y ago

Of course not. However, the blue screen of death was so prevalent that it set windows apart from other OS'es. Kernel panics on linux are pretty rare. And I've never seen OSX just die at the OS level. edit: Just remembered, I have seen OSX die, on my mac mini if I try to play backed up DVDs and output dolby5.1 in frontrow sometimes it just blows up and says "Your computer requires a restart" :/ eugh. Still, works if you use other players, and something easy to avoid.

unalone 17y ago
Ooh! Ooh! I managed to crash OSX! I kept my computer running for a week straight, no sleep, and had iTunes shuffle to a new song once every 10 seconds, and for each song scrobble to Last.fm and also download album art and lyrics. At some point it borked out. I know Windows gets a bad rep for crashing—I use XP on my Macbook and I've had no crashes yet—but beyond crashing, I'm astonished at how grotesquely unstable it is. I use an app on it that takes up the full screen, where one window generates the full screen window, so Alt-F4 doesn't work, and I can't open a task manager because it just gets auto-hidden by the screen. That's incredibly bad practice, but I've seen it done by multiple Windows designers because it, unlike OS X, doesn't offer a rigid set of guidelines for its functions. Beyond crashing and messing up, Windows is just incredibly un-smooth. Perhaps they fixed it with 7, I don't know yet, but when I use XP or Vista I'm struck by how hard it is for me to treat its window metaphor with any respect. I can't rely on windows to move when I click and drag them, they don't have any particularly good window hierarchy in place, and everything is so choppy and clunky, even with a good mouse, that I find myself resenting the system. That compared to OS X, which is the smoothest system I've ever used. Everything in it adds up brilliantly. I still like XP—or, I do until there are more Mac emulators available—but I completely get axod's argument, and agree with it. Microsoft killed computers' reputation, and are primarily responsible for why people I know think computers are so impossible to deal with.
- joe_bleau 17y ago
  I go months without rebooting win2k, but I've also seen it blue screen simply by removing a USB/serial adapter with the port still in use, which is obviously a third party driver problem. You might try setting the "Always on top" option for taskman, so that other app windows can't cover it up. I've _never_ had a problem with taskman being obscured by another window.
  - unalone 17y ago
    That's how it's set up. It still gets covered because the full-screen is being constantly redrawn. So I can click on it, because it's above the black screen, but I can't see where to click, because the black is always above it, frame by frame.
icefox 17y ago
I have only ever seen Linux kernel panic once in the 13 years I have used it. It was such a rare event I took a photo of it. :)

by axod 17y ago

unalone 17y ago

Ooh! Ooh! I managed to crash OSX! I kept my computer running for a week straight, no sleep, and had iTunes shuffle to a new song once every 10 seconds, and for each song scrobble to Last.fm and also download album art and lyrics. At some point it borked out. I know Windows gets a bad rep for crashing—I use XP on my Macbook and I've had no crashes yet—but beyond crashing, I'm astonished at how grotesquely unstable it is. I use an app on it that takes up the full screen, where one window generates the full screen window, so Alt-F4 doesn't work, and I can't open a task manager because it just gets auto-hidden by the screen. That's incredibly bad practice, but I've seen it done by multiple Windows designers because it, unlike OS X, doesn't offer a rigid set of guidelines for its functions. Beyond crashing and messing up, Windows is just incredibly un-smooth. Perhaps they fixed it with 7, I don't know yet, but when I use XP or Vista I'm struck by how hard it is for me to treat its window metaphor with any respect. I can't rely on windows to move when I click and drag them, they don't have any particularly good window hierarchy in place, and everything is so choppy and clunky, even with a good mouse, that I find myself resenting the system. That compared to OS X, which is the smoothest system I've ever used. Everything in it adds up brilliantly. I still like XP—or, I do until there are more Mac emulators available—but I completely get axod's argument, and agree with it. Microsoft killed computers' reputation, and are primarily responsible for why people I know think computers are so impossible to deal with.

joe_bleau 17y ago
I go months without rebooting win2k, but I've also seen it blue screen simply by removing a USB/serial adapter with the port still in use, which is obviously a third party driver problem. You might try setting the "Always on top" option for taskman, so that other app windows can't cover it up. I've _never_ had a problem with taskman being obscured by another window.
- unalone 17y ago
  That's how it's set up. It still gets covered because the full-screen is being constantly redrawn. So I can click on it, because it's above the black screen, but I can't see where to click, because the black is always above it, frame by frame.

icefox 17y ago

I have only ever seen Linux kernel panic once in the 13 years I have used it. It was such a rare event I took a photo of it. :)