As PLCS programmers, what do you honestly think of windows XP

I know I am supposed to like it because it is supposed to be the best thing since sliced Bread, but I hate it. It doesn't play well with others IMO.

I don't mind it, it has never crashed on me YET, but still....it does leave some things to be desired!!! ( IMHO )

David
beerchug

I prefer Win 2K its more stable OS.
The 98 interface is also more friendly to me.

Arik

XP runs slower than 2000 on my Dell laptop but otherwise I like it ok. Actually my internal modem started working again after moving from 2000 to XP. With 2000 I would quite often get the Blue Screen of Death when I tried to use the modem.

i Don't deny that it is a better OS for long term uptime, But I use alot of old programs that really freak it out and the compatability mode rarely helps.

I annalogize it to the spoiled kid who kicks the other kids out of the sandbox.

On my 4 year old P3 laptop I went from Win98 to Win2K to Win XP.
I am really happy how it runs, especially with fast new HD and 384M of memory.
I got some programs working in WinXP I could not get in Win2K, but same time I lost few control packages - especially when it comes to serial comms.

I find it to be the most stable Windows yet. Have never had the blue screen of death with it yet. Probably will now.
Have been able to get most programs going with it compatability mode including Logicmaster 90, Actsip (Hitachi), Siemens. Have been having a few troubles with Syswin (Omron) but some of that could be a combination of XP and a USB serial port.
It will not allow old DOS programs to attack the interrupts direct, as they did with DOS to try to get some performance out of the computer. That is my only real complaint.
beerchug

I find it to run very stable and boots much faster than Win2k.
The interface is terible but fortunately you can swith everything
to "Windows Clasic" so nobody can tell it's XP without really
looking under the hood.
Be careful when switching OS. Make sure all application will run
and all drivers re available. Some of the applications are picky
and do not like XP Home such as most hated RSView32 Studio or
Machine Edition (I just had to mention it ).
Many application can be convinced to run normally if you right click
and choose compatiblity mode to particular flavour of windows.

Hey thrillkill,

I like XP, but not sure I'd like it for my plc lappie. I use it at home, with various other os', and it's nice when several people have to use the same machine. Plus, the system restore feature, ntfs, etc.. make it pretty darn stable, imo. I've had that computer up for literally months, and never had to restart.

I do use win 2k on another machine, and that's just as stable. It's not quite the resource hog as xp is on RAM, but given the NT kernel, it's rock solid. But you hit it on the head, it does have some driver isssues.

I usually just use windows 98 for my PLC lappie. Most of what I do was designed for the 9x kernel, and it's nice to be able to drop to dos for some serial communications and to see what's going on.

I've seen some of the PLC stuff try to break into the Linux market. I'm not an ubergeek, but that may be interesting to see, since you can recompile the kernel, etc.. and literally write your own drivers, but the PLCs confuse me enough, don't need my OS to do the same to me

Hoot

It all depends on what software you have to run. If you are forced
to use A or B application that run only on C operating system,
you don't have much choice. Having choice makes the whole thing
quite a bit different:
I used to have laptop with Win98 too and thank God those days
are over. Even simple thing required reboot. For me it is very
important to use my time efficiently and Win98 just didn't cut it.
I don't remember how many times I had to reboot because it was
just too slow or because I had to change IP address or because
this thing was stuck at something. Not to mention when it
rebooted by itself or how many times I had to reload OS from
scratch...
With XP and 2000, I load PC with software and let it run...
The desktop machines usually run for months before I decide
to apply some security patch and reboot. When I'm on site to
work on some machine and have to change my network settings
to get online, not a problem, it's done on fly. And sometimes
I have to do it couple times a day.
It's not just the Ethernet, USB finally makes sense too.
When on remote site and someone loans you a digital camera to
take few pictures, you don't need drivers CD, just plug it in
and voila. When in office, I plug my big monitor and take
advantage of dual display to work on CAD.
Adding new networ printer? Not a problem just select generic
TCP/IP port and type in address.
And when you want to install some software, number of titles
running on XP is far greater than what you get to run on Win98,
not to mention that only handfull of recent software packages
will even install on 98. And if something sometimes still doesn't
work and you have to call your IT person or technical support,
guess what is the first thing they all will say...
("Win98 is not supported anymore by anyone including Microsoft,
little green people, men in black and us... get yourself
something modern before we try to help...")

Just to add to Panic's statement...

Microsoft will officially stop supporting windows 98 this month.

Got your order in for longhorn, yet?

Hoot

For engineers y'all can have some DA problems when it comes to PC's and Windows...I have used all the above and technically dont see a difference overall EXCEPT for the average user any NT based system is more difficult to locate what once was simple...device manager being a good example.

I was a beta tester for all 3, to this day I still think 98se was the route to use for ease of use etc..not WIN NT but security issues and $$$ made them go the NT route, which XP is derived from/

I can guarantee that if you had used AB, Siemens and other products just a year of so ago and had an XP computer you wouldnt even think about having this discussion. I had an XP system before any of the major plc players offered programs that would work on them...that was a major pita.

The next version will deviate from XP/NT more than this did from 98se...lets see what y'all say then.

XP at home and W98SE on the road.

It take no chances.

WinXP as such is a good operating system compared to other windows version, but some engg applications still run only on the other versions. So unless everything becomes WinXP compatible, I wouldn't prefer using it.

For that matter, even the newer laptops that come on the market these days doesn't suit the engg applications. I bought a laptop just last week and it doesn't come with a floppy drive or a serial port which was both necessary for me(it is supposedly "outdated"). So I had to connect those to the USBs..

Pierre said:

XP at home and W98SE on the road.

Click to expand...

I agree with Pierre, I use XP at home, '98 SE at work.

Paul