Bloatware

[ken_k]

This post is not about microcontrollers. I apologize if I'm wasting your time.
I feel we live in a world of bloatware that seems to be getting worse. While searching youtube I happened across the opposite of bloatware, a PC operating system written in assembly language! The entire program is smaller than one would think possible.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SATYQyIcimM
https://kolibrios.org/en/

With good coding one can certainly do a lot with a little memory.

BTW I designed a couple PCB's the first ones in years.

Just getting over covid.

[RGV250]

Hi,
The problem is greed, when I started out the operation system would fit on a floppy disk. you probably could not get the help file on one these days. There were lots of other programs and TSR (terminal and stay resident) but they were your choice. Also a lot of really good companies made things like Norton Utilities which sorted out the failings of the Micro$oft programmers.
So they decided to incorporated something you may or may not have wanted into their system trying to convince you it was for your benefit. Then of course as normal they put the small independents out of business so the could not show the incompetence of the MS programmers or more to the point their quality controllers.
How many can recall a really good operating system called OS2, IBM had an agreement to share code which would be good for all. OS4 was due to be released but MS reneged on the agreement which stood as far as I am aware all the time it was version numbers which is why Win98 was released to get out of the agreement. As I recall OS2 had proper long filenames for a start and not the crap that MS came up with that has dependencies on other files if I am not mistaken.

Bob
   

[John Lawton]

I think we need a 'Rant' section in the Lounge.

Maybe install a bar while we're at it



John

[top204]

I couldn't agree more to the bloatware and the MS incompetence. :-)

I still remember creating an operating system for my commodore 64 back in the early 1980s using 6502 assembler code, and I used an early mouse that plugged into its joystick port. It did everything an operating system should do, which is allow programs to be found and run with a graphic interface to make it easier, and with utilities to maintain the disk.

When windows 3.1 came out, it was good, and windows 98 was better because it allowed multi-tasking and did not grab hold of the computer and not allow anything through without its permission, Windows millenium was a joke, and windows XP was very good but it started the bloat and started the absolute control of the machine, but some control was still there. Then things fell apart with Windows vista onwards. Now, look at operating systems, all of them! They are in absolute control and the crapple and micro$oft ones are so bloated and slow it staggers the mind to think of it.

That's why virus' and trojans are a problem, because the operating system has far too much control of programs. Linux used to be a nice lean operating system but that is also getting bloated and over controlling when used as a user interface on a tablet or laptop, and don't get me started on Android! :-)

The languages of today are also worse than the early 1980s interpreted languages for bloat, and I mean a lot worse!

I'll have a whisky mac please John. :-) 

[John Lawton]

Sorry Les, the Windows based till is downloading updates so I can't make a sale at the moment.

John

[top204]

Hope you're feeling better Ken.

Myself and Rachel had it early on, before it became big news and we were really ill for a couple of weeks, but we thought we just had a really bad cold or flu, so I know what it feels like.

Sorry Les, the Windows based till is downloading updates so I can't make a sale at the moment.

I have actually seen something like that happen in a pub, back in the late 1990s. We walked out and went to the wine bar next door. :-)

[See_Mos]

MS interference just cost me months of work and it appears that many others have had the same problem. At first I though it was a virus but Norton says not.

A while ago MS installed something called OneDrive on my W11 machine. Last week a corrupt OneDrive folder destroyed most of my desktop and lost most of the current work and loads of links and other stuff.  For the last five months instead of doing a complete backup I have been backing up my carefully arranged folders and it now appears that not only did MS change the path they moved files from my folders as well so I had to go back to January and start rebuilding as needed.

[RGV250]

Hi See_Mos,
That is my whole issue with it as and other things as part of an OS, it has absolutely sod all to the operation of the machine so should not be there. There were companies that did it better and probably still do Goodsync seems to be the only one but they have gone to subscription based now which puts me off. I do not mind paying for the storage but having to upgrade the software every time they decide which could mess things up annoys me.

What would we think If Les suddenly decided to go web based only (discussed on the old forum) so we had no control and all you files had to be stored on the server like a few other programs I looked at. I think most would just stay with what we have as it is mostly under out control.

It is a pity MS has a monopoly on it and can afford to bung loads of brown envelopes to politicians to keep quiet and turn a blind eye to it

Definitley need to start the rant section.

Bob

[RGV250]

What would we think If Les suddenly decided to go web based only (discussed on the old forum) so we had no control and all you files had to be stored on the server like a few other programs I looked at. I think most would just stay with what we have as it is mostly under out control.

Opps, I think that was Lester, I don't want to get in Les's bad books 

Bob

[top204]

He was trying to convince me to go online with the compiler for quite some time, but my opinion of the internet would never allow me to do that! To put it bluntly, "I detest the internet"!

When I first used it back in the mid 1990s, it seemed like such a good idea, with us harmless nerds and geeks sharing ideas. But then the evil came to it, and the corporations, and the scammers, and the crooks, and the greedy, and the ego-centrics, and the control freaks. :-( The internet now, is like a side street in a big city, where you dare not walk down it alone, unless a full suit of armour is worn and carrying a sawn off shotgun in one hand and a pistol in the other, because you know someone is out there that will not think twice about robbing you or even killing you in the process. :-)

The internet has killed more than it has ever helped. It has killed individual creativity because the sheep follow the sheep on it. It has killed books, because they are instantly scanned and put online, so they are pointless to write unless a big publisher is behind you with lots of money for advertising and you are a pointless, so called, celebrity who has actually done nothing of any interest and gotten a ghost writer for the sheep to follow. But even publishing houses are now starting to go, as well as specialist magazines. It has killed shops and markets because online is easier for the lazy. It has helped rob millions of honest, but gullible, people. It has helped kill many hundreds of thousands of people because it breeds hatred and foolishness on the silly social media sites. The list goes on and on and on.........

One thing it has done is show how stupid and ignorant the vast majority of humans actually are, and how sheeplike they are. Has the "evil ape" actually started its own extinction path? I cannot think of any other species in the history of the planet that has caused "itself" to become extinct?

OK... Rant over.

[Wimax]

Unfortunately, the internet has become a showcase for showcasing even nothingness. What worries me most is the impact this has on the younger generation and children who prefer to spend hours watching 'shorts' one after the other rather than finding a way to have fun while working their brains.
I perceive it as a very difficult battle to fight, especially as parents, adults may even be able to take advantage of the good that is on the net, but children and young people hardly ever and to think that... they are lucky enough to have all the human knowledge at their disposal if only they wanted to delve into it rather than waste their time in complete nothingness.