Forum:Tell me about your frustrations with computer software
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Note: This topic has been unedited for 5520 days. It is considered archived - the discussion is over. Do not add to unless it really needs a response.
Since we are (or more precisely, I am) on the balls with computer stuff, let's start a dicussion on nasty experiences with software, shall we? There isn't really any particular piece I hate to the point that I feel obliged to tell anyone not to use it, but there are certainly a few that has given bad enough an impression to deserve dishonourable mentions:
- FireFox 2.x
- On thing FOSS advocates never shut up about is FireFox. Well, it is one of the most prominent examples of a mozilla-based browser and, of course, lots of people use it and simply love it. Grab a popular Linux distribution, take a look at the default package selections and you are almost guaranteed finding FireFox right there and there. I, for one, though, simply find the presence of this particular browsing program and all the hypes and vibes around it obnoxious. Why? Because FireFox is a sack of poop! When FireFox was still in Version 1, it was all good and reliable, but when Version 2 came out it was simply an open-source disaster. It was never stable, and it ate up even more memory than IE did, but it never went beyond the paradigm of a plain ol' browser. Now, tell me what the point is for having something that eats up 200MB+ main memory just to browse a website or two if not even less. And don't even think about throwing that it's-free-and-libre nonsense at me when the actual thing itself in practice is simply as bad as its non-FOSS counterparts and even worse than its FOSS, mozilla-based companions. It was Version 2 that made me switch to SeaMonkey, and I shall always remember it as such.
- VMWare Server 1.x/2.x
- Don't get me wrong here - what is better than an enterprise-level hypervisor package that you don't need to pay a dime for? I like VMWare Server, and I am still using it even right now, but, to be honest with you all here, it does drive me up the wall sometimes. Aside from the laptop that I use regularly, I have a mini-server tower that I use mainly for the purpose of saving backup copies of important data in a series of RAID 1 arrays. On top of that, it is also a network firewall, a DNS/DHCP server and an ad-hoc, rigged-to-perform terminal server. The design of WMWare Server dictates that it can't run on bare metal (i.e. the box must have at least a copy of Linux or Windows XP/Vista installed), but that's fare enough. Many essential devices in my Athlon X2 box (yes, I am a cheapskate) do need proper drivers in order to run properly, and I doubt that other hypervisor packages like the XEN-based stuff or VMWare ESX would do me more good than trouble were they ever chosen in preference to VMWare Server. Anyhow, I got the thing running with hardware virtualization activated (I needed it in order to run a 64-bit version of Novell Linux Enterprise Server) as soon as I had the box assembled. The three guest OS's were also in order as well as the virtual network configurations. Now this is where the problem kicked in - all three guest OS's were competing over pretty much 100% of all CPU time, and, although it shouldn't, each one of them was eating up a average of 30% of CPU time even when it is hardly doing anything at all. A series of trial-and error ensued and it was found that the culprit was the dodgy hardware virtualization support (note that I spent a total of eight months to figure that out). So what I did was that I simply deactived virtualization from BIOS, restarted Windows XP + VMWare Server, restarted again with virtualization back on and viola - the problem was instantly gone. I was kind of unimpressed, but that the sort of things one must expect when the hardware of choice is not entirely mainstream.
- One thing I didn't mention above was that the VMWare Server I used was of the Version 1 series. Yes, I know that Version 2 has been out for ages but I have chosen not to consider using it for a good reason - that the underlying architecture of the virtual network portion was too unreliable to make the generally web-based package appealing. On the two test machines I used, it was shown that when the physical ethernet connection of the host computer was accidentally severed, all web-related features of VMWare Server 2 would instantly become non-functional. That means if I ever wanted to access a guest OS via the browser pluging when the ethernet was down, I would be greeted with nothing except a useless error message claiming that the geust OS did not exist or such. Well, what a way to stuff up a key software product, VMWare!
That's pretty much all I want to share with the other Uncyclopedians for the time being. Now, if you are willing, feel free to write about your own frustrations with computer software below. -- The Colonel (talk) 17:18, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
- Nerd. Sir Modusoperandi Boinc! 21:31, 6 January 2009 (UTC)
- Well, software sounds a bit like soft drinks...should I tell you guys about how my computer's cup holder broke, like, two weeks after I got it? The thing won't even fit my big gulp, and when I try to wedge it in there so I can sip it during one of my solitaire marathons, it breaks right off, the cheap piece of trash! When I called customer service, they tried to con me into thinking I had some kind of CD-driver-whatchamadoohickey, which I know is crap. If it drove, where are the wheels, huh? Besides, I know a cup holder when I see one. And the guy I talked to was foreign! The nerve! Anyways, I'm never buying from Dell again. - T.L.B.
WotM, UotM, FPrize, AotM, ANotM, PLS, UN:HS, GUN 22:49, Jan 6
Hey, that happened to a friend of mine with his PS2. Huh. Also, this topic is going to die soon.--BOMB
00:43, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- I have got a news flash for you all here: if there is a thread you don't like, just man up and walk off. There is no need to disrupt it (or "threadshit", as some may call it) just for the sake of being a bunch of pathetic little hipsters. Especially as administrators, that's just bad karma. Leave the thread as it is, and you will never know who comes around and decides to join in. Don't tell me how much all the users are useless and stupid. You are just doing a good job at shooting your own foot, and there is no one to blame for that. -- The Colonel (talk) 01:44, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- You want a story? On my new (new) computer I installed all the drives, disabled the two for RAID, then installed Windows. Once it was done, C drive was E drive. I enabled RAID, and the computer won't recognize the two RAID drives. Also, it's my new (new) computer, because my new computer had a mobo die after not working quite right for the two months I had it, updating the BIOS, having the system tell me it went fine, then on reboot being greeted by nothing. Also, the "file and transfer wizard" didn't. Worse, I bought Dead Space for PS3 not realizing that it was also on PC (and with a new PC that would play it oh so pretty). I played it for about an hour...and sucked. Me playing a shooter on the console is like having an epileptic play a game of blinking lights (partly because I have the mouse on the left, so the sticks on consoles are always backwards...and if it was possible to switch them around I'd also have to mirror all the other buttons). Also, I have four gig ram. On the new computer (first mobo), all gig "worked" (but XP doesn't see more that four gig, including the video card ram, so there was effectively three gig available), but on the new (new) computer, it won't boot with more than two gig (and there's no easy way to update the bios, and I fried the bios on the last mobo, so don't really want to tempt fate). I have too many fans in my last three computers, because with the three before that, I had burned out hard drives. I still have a stack of them, somewhere. I also had a Belkin mouse that, for some unknown reason, used its own driver rather than the Microsoft one...and Windows would forget it every few hours (necessitating a reboot), and I had a scanner that worked on a Win95 computer, worked when that computer got upgraded to XP, but did not work at all on a new computer that started on XP. Sir Modusoperandi Boinc! 02:23, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- Thanks for your contribution, Modus. Looks like life isn't all that bad after all. ;)
- By the way, did you send the dead mobo to the customer service? What did they say? -- The Colonel (talk) 02:38, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- I've sent an email to NCIX's customer service, and am awaiting a reply. Even if the warranty is still valid, all it gets me is a motherboard I don't want (I got a mobo from another manufacturer to replace it)...which will conveniently fit in my old old computer and will only require a new everything else.
- Oh, while we're complaining, my old old computer (with an A8N Sli Deluxe mobo) had a bridge fan that went bad. At the time, I perused the forums, and everybody who bought one seemed to have the same fault (to the point that a revised version of the mobo came with a different HSF). I emailed Asus, and they said to send in the whole mobo, which would require stripping an otherwise perfectly functional computer, for a four dollar part. I disconnected its crappy fan, and made a duct from the video card to the HSF, and it ran both cooler and quieter than it ever did before.
- Lastly, this one time I joined a content-free encyclopedia that anyone can edit... Sir Modusoperandi Boinc!
- You see, this is kind of an interesting thing becuase I really used to believe in big brands and all that sort of stuff. But as I grew older I began to realise things were not really what they lived up to be. The last mobo I had (for the Athlon 64) also happened to be an Asus (A8V, to be exact), and shops where I live tend to sell this particular brand more expensively than others. But, heck, look on the bright side - since we have been talking about all these experiences here chances are that someone out there will eventually decide to write a funny article or two about it. That's why I encourage you to keep talking more about these seemingly mundane things. In fact, I think I have got enough to even start writing my own article, so there you go. -- The Colonel (talk) 11:30, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- So you're using our pain for comedy? You heartless bastard! Sir Modusoperandi Boinc! 05:46, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
- Yeah, like I haven't told you before. :P -- The Colonel (talk) 07:35, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
- So you're using our pain for comedy? You heartless bastard! Sir Modusoperandi Boinc! 05:46, 8 January 2009 (UTC)
- You see, this is kind of an interesting thing becuase I really used to believe in big brands and all that sort of stuff. But as I grew older I began to realise things were not really what they lived up to be. The last mobo I had (for the Athlon 64) also happened to be an Asus (A8V, to be exact), and shops where I live tend to sell this particular brand more expensively than others. But, heck, look on the bright side - since we have been talking about all these experiences here chances are that someone out there will eventually decide to write a funny article or two about it. That's why I encourage you to keep talking more about these seemingly mundane things. In fact, I think I have got enough to even start writing my own article, so there you go. -- The Colonel (talk) 11:30, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
If you don't want us to tell you how stupid the users are...
you must already know. We're all a bunch of untrained, horny apes. Colin 
ALL YOUR BASEHeaney! Casa Bey Superfly Portfolio 02:12, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
- Who you callin' "scruffy lookin'"? Mo Solo 02:33, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
Nothing beats this
- Windows 98 - Blue Screen of Death, 'nuff said.
- Windows ME - Windows 98 with more errors!
- Windows Vista - SUCKS
- 
Admiral Enzo Aquarius-Dial the Gate 
23:43, 8 January 2009 (UTC)