The registry is one of the worst ideas Microsoft ever came up with. One reason viruses and malware can be so hard to get rid of is because they bury themselves deep in the registry. Do you remember viruses being such a prevalent threat before Win95? And many applications don't remove the registry entries when uninstalled so it gets cluttered and slows the whole OS. That never happened before Win95. It's a good thing for Mac and Linux to not have adopted such an idea. The closest thing would be the /dev, /sys and /proc directories, which are pseudofilesystems, created on the fly and stored in RAM. In Linux, if there were such a thing, would likely be independent of KDE, XFCE, GNOME, etc, while each might have it's own gui interface to the utility.

Regarding backups, when I had a P2 I had a 4X4x2 CD burner. That is sufficient to store up to 600MB per disc of critical data (photos and documents), even if it takes 2 or 3 discs to save it all. If someone with a P2, no USB support and only a 4X cd burner needs to backup many GB of data, good luck to them. I've personally never seen a P2 with no USB and no possibility to add USB via a PCI card.

(1)Viruses don't make a gui unsafe. (2)The Windows OS is more than a gui. (3)Viruses make the Windows OS unsafe.

I have to disagree with this statement for the same reason mentioned by Jeebizz. A machine is only as intelligent as the operator. If you login as root, right-click on /boot from a Konqueror window and click Delete the computer will obey. A more accidental scenario: say you want to delete /tmp but your moving fast and click on /usr instead. Oops! Before you realize what you did /usr is gone! It's more difficult to accidentally type /usr instead of /tmp. I'll give a Windows example, too. You want to format a USB disk mounted as drive L:. K: is a HDD partition with all your music. You get distracted or rushed and select K: by mistake. Oops! Better dust off the CD player.

Jeebizz, I know what you mean. Where I live there are a few stores that deal in used games and systems. I managed to find a PS1 (the Turbo Grafx was tempting, too ) and I agree, the PS2/3 is compatible but it's just not the same. I hope I never have to throw away my Atari Jaguar/JagCD!

There was an interview with the Windows Vista kernel devs on channel9. The interviewer asked the devs if they wished that the registry would have never been developed. The devs said that it was the worst thing ever but they couldn't remove it because of backwards compatibility.

What the hell? So many people with the same problem. I had second to none friends at my lower school (most of them were all idiots, later turned into criminals and some got into jail) so you can imagine what amount of time I had put into my PSX. When I got older I never looked at it anymore and it was just standing in the way so I gave it away to a nephew. Man-o-man I regret that so much now! I am dying to play another game of Tony Hawk's pro skating 1/2, Croc, Ace/Air Combat 1/2, Abe's oddysee, Crash Bandicoot 1/2/3/Team Racing, Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Driver 1, Tomb Raider 1/2/3, Syphon Filter, <some snowboard game I can't remember>, Spyro the Dragon, DragonBallZ, Gran Turismo 1/2, <a sidescroller about a boy who lost his dog - very good game>, and lots of others. I asked the console back because he bought a PS2 but then he said he gave it away to someone else and I don't know that guy

Damn they don't make then like they used to do...

EDIT: Oh and I forgot to list all versions of Doom!
EDIT2: Why don't we get together and form a team of a lot of people and create such classics for Linux? I am currently learning ANSI C++ from Bjarne Strousoup or whatever his name is. But I am very creative so I can be a game designer. I can also think up concept art but I can't really draw like a pro.

What backwards compatibility ?!

In my travels and judging from all the computer users I have encountered from all walks of life I have simply deduced that;

Windows is for people who don't understand computers and think that they should be able to screw around with the computer without them really understanding whats going on (then they come to me to fix their computer and I charge them).

Linux is for people who either understand computers, or for those users who have learned that getting someone else who does understand computers to set everything up is the wise move.

Much like if you don't understand your motor car engine, do you set about screwing with it? no, someone else sets it up maintains it and you use it by way of an interface. I believe that computers are pretty much the same situation and that will never change (unless you want to loose most of your flexibility and functionality).

You see, a majority of users just want to use, they don't want to set everything up and they don't want it to break. I have set up many Linux based computers for end users and they are completely happy and comment that they never ever have troubles. They just use what they want to use and everything just works.

@greengrocer :I saw ur Operating systems tag ;I think u should try Debian Sid apt-pinned to lenny and experimental with upstart replacing system V init.Sid FTW!and almost all packages are latest like Gnome-2.20.3 which i runs on my sid system

Read again. When I mean cannot burn, it means IT CANNOT even read CD-RW, my friend. Yours is better at least you can burn.
(There is a 52X CD-ROM drive, try putting a CD-RW and double click on D drive [If you have only 1 partition, Windows] and it will says Please Insert the Disc. Why? Because it cant recognized such format!)

Huh? I thought PS2 and 3 are faster in terms of procesing speed than the previous version one??

Ok, but there again, command line has more options, more "flexibility", some folks say can even change some application geometry etc.
(Try changing wrongly, I bet the shape will look awkard, and probably not getting used to it.) It's the folks here stating that CLI can do more things, so I think that there is more chance to set wrongly
(NOT 100% of these cases are led from typos). I think at least GUI helped to hide those "more dangerous option" from novice. It is more friendly to use GUI , to me at least.
Ok, everything you do, you must be careful. Especially about deleting , whether CLI or GUI, both can be dangerous when you attempt to delete or format.

PS: Correct me wrong if you find any GUI option that will corrupt the system other than "Format (Edit) the Hard Disk/Partition" or delete /Windows ("/NT" or "/sys" or even "/usr" or "/proc" or "/boot" ) that sort.

To reply your query, it is likely to see like: Microsoft Office.
Microsoft Office 2003 had a backward compatibility of Windows 2000 or Windows XP (I think Vista is possible, but they dont sell it anymore.)

Microsoft Office 2007: Can be used with Windows XP Service Pack 2 or
Windows Vista (Any Version).

Now I ask you, if Windows Vista has no registry editor, YOU will see that it cant work on Windows XP (Be it Service Pack 2 or the future 3.)

Of course, some application does not use registry. But most of them are tiny ones that does only on some system monitoring .(Identify your CPU, motherboards that sort.)

Major Applications like Openoffice.org (Windows Version), Microsoft Office, Counter-Strike, Grand Theft Auto, Audacity (Windows Version), Skype (Windows Version) or even Firefox (Windows Version) uses at least 1 registry value. (I know it contains hundreds of registry keys and values at least, but I do not have the actual data or number of registry values and keys they have.)

If they removed Registry on Vista or the next release after Vista, I expect everyone the need to reinstall everything because all the current major programs needs registry values to work, without even one of the value, the program cannot even work correctly.

(Perhaps even settings were also needed to remake. Waste of time.)

Faster isn't always better when trying to use older software. I don't have a PS3, but with my PS2 my PS1 games seemed [just the slightest bit] accelerated, and the graphics weren't as sharp as on a real PS1. I may have missed an option in the PS2's setup for the graphics, but the overall experience just wasn't the same as on a real PS1.

That's not unusual. The physical medium of a CD-RW is made of a different material than CD-R so that it can be altered/rewritten. A disc drive needs to be able to recognize such a medium in order to read. I don't recall exactly how long ago, 5-7 years?, reading CD-RW from a read-only drive finally became a standard feature builtin to all CD read/write drives. Before that only the more expensive models could read it and would specify it on the packaging.

Fair enough. Yes, we CLI "gurus" do more things by typing than by clicking. And we occasionally change something wrong. Geometry for example, placing the top-left corner of a window off the screen, or xterm with a shape of 512X52 (very narrow). But it's easy to fix by replacing the same command with correct parameters.

That's probably true of the GUI hiding "dangerous" options. As the user becomes experienced and wants to learn more they can explore more options in their favorite applications and they can begin using this thing called a _commandline_ that they've been hearing about. If they like it, fine, if not they can keep using the GUI.

You'd like to know a way to screw things up without formatting an entire disk? Try this: Move NTOSKRNL.DLL out of C:\WINNT\SYSTEM32 and see what happens. You've been warned! It commonly is a target of viruses. An antivirus program could falsely identify it as infected and delete or modify it rendering it corrupt. Or just an improper shutdown due to a system lockup.

Historically, backwards compatibility in Windows, for both software and hardware, has been horrific. Service Packs fix some of the issues but that's a long time to wait. Vista is having major adoption problems because of compatibility issues. When Win9x appeared, many old Win3.x programs still worked (not 100%, but usable) and others didn't. Some hardware worked while others had to wait for compatible drivers from the vendor. Vista is the same. Only now we are so much more dependent on computer in the workplace that such incompatibility is unacceptable. On desktops, it's not "mission-critical" but it is an annoyance. Microsoft allows compatibility to a certain degree. You list many free apps as examples. How about commercial apps that cost a lot to upgrade? Office 2003 and XP might work fine in Vista. Does Office 2000? Do older versions of Adobe products? Does your company's 10 year old specialized application for work orders and purchases?

As for a new app being backward compatible with older versions of Windows, that's different. The app's installation will simply detect the os version and know what to copy where.

The programs would have to be redesigned to not need a registry.

IMO, Windows, especially Vista, is as backwards compatible as my underwear is reversible. If it does work it might not be comfortable or 100% functional.

Yes, especially when it gets full, because other programs tend to fill it up quickly, (Norton comes to mind). As strange as this sounds, in some way Win3.11 was superior in that aspect because everything was text files (.ini), and so made things relatively easy to tweak, and diagnose than the registry.

I can't remember the last time I ever burned a RW disc. I don't use those at all, because I have no reason to, especially for a backup, RW is a poor choice! Plus, it is cheaper just to burn WORMs than an RW, and can get more WORM discs for less than what an RW costs, (though I do also burn Dual-layer DVDs, which obviously cost more!)

Partition magic/gparted comes to mind. It is a GUI program to manage partitions, and one can just as easily screw it up if they don't know what they are doing, without a format command or fdisk.

There is an option under the PS2 to allow accelerated loading on PS1 games, however not all games would work properly after that, and some would just freeze up (Discworld II). Discworld I on a PS2 won't run correctly at all, parts of the dialogue in the game gets skipped every now and then! Plus, I have a game that won't even load on any PS2, Super Puzzle Fighter. That is a rare game that I bought from a GameStop for $50, (sure I could have got it somewhere else for less), but I really wanted it, but was very disappointed. My PS2 would not load it at all, and I couldn't even emulate it correctly on my computer.

My issue with the PS3, is although processing power is exponentially greater and can handle PS2 and PS1 games, the problem is that it is all done by software, and not hardware! Plus running really old PS1 games during the debute of the PS1 on a PS2/3 is hit or miss. Most likely anything pre-1998 will have problems or not even load.

Thanks for telling me this. I had been thinking that faster means it wont lag, so it should be sharp and "accurate" (at least you wont press jump, before you see it jump onto air, you see it land onto the oblivion or that sort.).


Ok I see, but I was only intend to say for the instance that this is a read-only drive, so even if you try to burn a CD-R, it just wont work regardless of OS choices etc.

The reason for me to query this is for the novice and sub-novice like me, who is top-novice but medium or low end user for a "rank" of experts. Also, it's for the sake of science.

Wow, i have not got the guts to try it (Since it looks like system kernel), but anyway, I only found NTOSKRNL.exe (not .dll) . I copy it and paste it on desktop
(Instead of moving out.),using AntiVir from AVIRA (An anti-virus software) to scan the copied version (On Desktop) and found that it claim there is no detection. (Of unwanted programs/virus. So it's safe.)

Actually, I dont really say target on free apps. I did take games (Non free) as examples. Adobe products? Great argument- I did not post that only.

Ok, but the functions available might be more limited compared to 9x.



Anyway, I was trying to say that CD readers means to read, cant burn CD-R or -RW. Neither can it reads on CD-RW. By the way, what's an WORM disc?? (Does it still existant? How much storage can it hole? Because I had simply never heard of WORM disc.) :$



Ok, fair argument, even if dont format or fdisk but just resizing without backing up, data might get lost.



Ok good explanation, the reason I would say this (No- I dont think the planet only I thought of it, many might have the same misconception as me, other than the fans of PS series. Ok- for the sake of science spirit ok?) is because PC games (Whether if a Mac game/Linux or *NIX games or Windows Game), mainly sees your hardware first. (Most of time, if not all, the new version of Windows can work correctly with the previous one other than Vista. It seemed like even games also needed to be patched before it fully supports Vista, XP, 2000 (ME) and possibly 9X (Depending what game you play, 9X support might be removed from the game makers.) If your apps cant work on newer Windows but the previous one supports 100%, you may try the Compatibility Mode where you can chose to use 256 colors, run as Windows 95,98,2000 or ME under Windows XP Service Pack 2 or even run as administrator mode (Some games/apps require it under XP.) Can Linux does anything similar?? (Just want to know for the sake of Linux newbies.)

Please state distro and Desktop Environment (KDE/Gnome/Xcfe??) and the version. Thank you for the co-operation for the readers worldwide.

Just a question. I have seen a few games that runs on both Windows and Linux. It just that I did not buy them as my PC is not that fast.
(CD-ROM 52X no burn, AMD K7 1.2GHz, 320MB RAM, Windows XP Service Pack 2, 20GB HDD - I think it is too less disk space, Defragmentation matters!)

So now if anyone had bought such games, can you tell me which installation is more easier. (The Linux one or Windows, assuming your PC is fast enough, using the latest patches or service packs or updates etc installed in Linux and Windows as of Jan 18 2008 [The date of this post posted.])
1 update/patches also cannot less other than software update bug. (Windows Update has a bug of asking users to install .Net Framework 3 updates when some users had installed .Net Framework 3.5, this is what I mean an exception of software update bug rule stated above. No other exceptions allowed. This is to ensure readers can have hassle free to install programs as some updates is true, making programs dont work as we called, software regressions.Please- state the details of such exception{s} if any occured on Linux or other similar examples in Windows.) Anyway, .Net Framework 3.5 works only on XP or above (2003, Vista or 64bit OS.) Therefore I did not state the OS version. Please state the OS and the version as well as Desktop Environment (KDE,Gnome or Xcfe etc??) when stating any such examples stated above. Thank you.

A while back, I bought Railroad Tycoon II for Linux from Loki Games. Installing it was the same as installing anything under Windows. Click "Setup" and away you go. Of course, without root access, it installed the game to your user account. Otherwise, if you were logged into the GUI as root, it could install the game system-wide.

All commercial software I've seen for Linux works in pretty much the same manner.

And with distributions like Ubuntu - where you pick the software you want from a list and click "install" to have the software and all of its dependancies downloaded and installed - I fail to see how anyone could possibly argue that Windows is still better in this regard.