Browsers & email clients

[Teatime FatCat]

Originally Posted by Paoli69

With you on that TTFC!!!! As you can tell, computers are neither mine nor Fat Cat's specialty

I keep getting in trouble for eating my mouse! Old habits die hard!

[Pete]

Or free without banners, just have a search on the net

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Zainub Razvi

DOS, i think we were taught about it at school, but I use to hate using it, so I don't remember correctly. I came across DOS quite a lot when I had Windows 98, especially when running a few games (of cds), its kind off like a black screen with strange things written on it

LOL - leaves me wondering where were you taught - and by whom!

There's actually no very good reason why anyone taught in the last 15 years should have learnt anything more about DOS than they did about punched card readers,really... but I think there have been some IT bods who have either thought {a} we had to learn it so you will as well; or {b} this GUI stuff (windows) is not real computing.

DOS did underpin Windows 3.1, 95 and 98... and all the pretty icons did was hide it: you clicked on buttons.. and behind the scenes the computer translated that click into a written instruction just as if you had typed it - not very special.

The reason NT was superior (and why 2000 and XP are superior) is that they are written from scratch.. as if nothing called DOS had ever existed. There's a quirky little program that runs under Windows to emulate DOS.. but in truth any direct connection with DOS was actually jettisoned back in 1991.

Ernest: Windows 2000 Professional is basically NT version 5. XP is the same thing.. but in the "home" version it's stripped of large chunks of important stuff. THe "Pro" version is OK.. at a price.. but to my mind the real choice these days is 2000 (for applications) and XP media centre edition (for PC based home theatre).

Of course.. if you know what you're doing you can run showshifter on 2000 (or MythTV on Linux) and get the best of both worlds - but the latter might not be for you if you didn't like DOS :-)

[Ernest]

Originally Posted by Rachael

There's a quirky little program that runs under Windows to emulate DOS.. but in truth any direct connection with DOS was actually jettisoned back in 1991.

Microsoft was was hoping to get rid of DOS completely with XP, I know windows made DOS command not needed for the average PC user, but it still lurks there.
Go to start click on run, type "command", and this will open a DOS window.

Originally Posted by Rachael

Ernest: Windows 2000 Professional is basically NT version 5. XP is the same thing.. but in the "home" version it's stripped of large chunks of important stuff. THe "Pro" version is OK.. at a price.

I agree, but windows 2000 was not for the average PC user was it?, I mean towards XP it seemed very dull, as I see it, and I will stand corrected, I think 2000 was for office networks, and commercial use.not for PC gaming ect.

I just use mine for surfing, and downloading the odd CD for my son, XP home is fine for me, and most of all easy.
I remember DOS, and it was not with fond memories.

Zainub, If you want to know about DOS, and I can't see why , there is a book "DOS for dummies"clear as mud.

[Rachael]

Originally Posted by Ernest

Microsoft was was hoping to get rid of DOS completely with XP, I know windows made DOS command not needed for the average PC user, but it still lurks there.

I believe that's just a DOS emulater, Ernest.. handy for things like "ping" and "tracert"... but it is most certainly not kernel-level access an OS that "underlies" XP: I don't know too much about it... but it's a development of what existed iin NT4... where it was part of a relatively unstable 16 bit sub-system (NT being 32 bit).

Originally Posted by Ernest

I agree, but windows 2000 was not for the average PC user was it?, I mean towards XP it seemed very dull, as I see it, and I will stand corrected, I think 2000 was for office networks, and commercial use.not for PC gaming ect.

What's wrong with using something stable and decent at home

The only disadvantage of NT4 that I ever encountered was a lack of USB support.. but 2000 gives you that and pretty well everything else you might want: it's damn near bombproof. XP comes into it's own principally through wizards for those who don't know what they are doing.. and media handling (media player 10 only runs on XP, and XP does have very basic build in video-editing and the like: no substitute for proper applications under 2000 though).

Of course.. I've not used PC games for decades... since I used to write them myself in basic - yikes, 20+ years ago.

[Ernest]

Just a little bit of DOS maybe, creating a boot up floppy, but I get your drift.

Wndows 2000, is never used in the home I don't think, it may have better features, but what would that mean for the PC gamer.
I like windows to be stable, I have not used windows 2000, but I would have no problem, but I would have no need for the extra cost.

Yes Rachael, time marches on, writing in basic, LOL you finish, then it dont work, then you have to check all the way back, tooo much, I did it once with my son, oodles of writing basic, with a little sprite at the end, and lines for obsticles, you had to navigate.No thanks.

[Zainub]

LOL - leaves me wondering where were you taught - and by whom!

I don't blame my teachers or school, it was all my fault, or laziness perhaps, I only wanted to learn how to use MS Office and get connected to the internet.