Re: Windows BSOD vs. AS/400

["John Taylor" <john.taylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-midrange-l@midrange.com [mailto:owner-midrange-l@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of M. Lazarus
Sent: Monday, July 31, 2000 9:39 PM
To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
Subject: RE: Windows BSOD vs. AS/400

> As far as printers are concerned, even for the printers that are not
defined by native /400 drivers, we can
> use WSCST objects to define the printer to the OS.  No crashes needed.  If
the Win OS would provide a
> good tape API, then the tape vendors would not have to write at the
microcode level.

Sorry Mark, but creating a WSCST object is not even remotely comparable to
creating the driver. Workstation customization only allows you to change the
behavior of the existing driver. It supports only those functions that are
currently supported by the workstation controller, display, host print
transform function, and the device itself.

> While it's not totally immune, the fixes are created and delivered quickly
and pretty easily. I don't think that
> could be said as readily about Windows.

Debatable. My experience is that MS support is currently much better than
IBM support. Granted, this was not the case a couple of years ago, but it's
true in my experience today.

> What I'm saying that the hardware API specs can and should be well defined
by MS for vendors to tap
> into.  Then if they go outside the spec, tough luck.  On the flip side, MS
s/b open to hardware innovation
> and work w/ the vendors to support the new hardware as quickly as
possible.

Dave Shaw already addressed the API issue, but no one has mentioned the HCL.
To the credit of Microsoft, they do provide a "Hardware Compatibility List"
that reports which devices have been tested to work correctly with their
operating system(s). This list is a representation of the vendors that have
worked with MS in order to provide stable, well behaved drivers. If you
stick to the hardware on this list, the reliability of your workstations
will improve dramatically.

Regards,

John Taylor
Canada


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