ScuzzBlog: Diaries June 2021
Entry 8th June 2021: Post 1: Windows 2000 Professional - My only NT.
Windows 2000 Professional - My only NT.
When I discovered that my old bosses RM machine had fallen over I
thought I'd better drag her out onto the bench and see what was
wrong. This RM computer represents the only NT machine that I have
albeit Microsoft dropped the NT at this stage of the game.
Turned out to be nothing more than a memory SIMM 'gate thingy' not
being secured down and the memory was sticking up one end. No idea!
Anyway with that done she worked fine. I removed the cards and
gave her a good dust. In terms of performance this computer is much
slower than a slow thing with a very good reason for being slow.
You can decorate a room while you wait for the thing to boot. Yawn.
She is a heavy brute and a tall, tall RM tower of the old breed. It
is interesting that by the time of the release of XP, Microsoft had
abandoned not only Millennium but also NT.
Anyhoo here she lies the RM PC-5200 Professional ATx. She is running
the x86 Family 5 Model 4 Stepping AT/AT compatible with 130,612 KB
of RAM. The OS is Windows Professional and drops the NT reference.
Windows Professional was released on Feb 17th 2000 as the successor
to Windows NT 4.0. Windows 2000 was promoted as the safest of the
Microsoft products, though immediately the subject of attack by
'Code Red' and 'Nimda'. The OS was discontinued June 13 2010 though
was receiving patches and updates to that date.
Windows NT which Bill Gates dubbed 'New Technology' was actually
named after the processor it was first targeted at .. i860 or N10
which was known as the 'N-Ten'. Unlike most other OSs 2000 did
not have a code name. Evidently Jim Allchin was not a fan. The 32bit
version was called Janus.
Windows NT 5.0 was the last version to display the ' Windows NT '
designation. Windows 2000 states it is built on NT but doesn't
actually carry the reference in the name. Interestingly NT was the
first purely 32-bit version of Windows and was, and I quote ...
' A processor independent, multiprocessing and multi user operating'
[ unquote ] ... 'sludgefest' or very slow thing.
Back to the void ... that is how I feel when putting her back in the
corner of the workshop to act as a stand for a BBC Master System.
Where the Amiga was superior on every count was in providing the
true computer and OS marriage that just worked. You can take any
number of differing PCs running the same OS and they will be as
like chalk and cheese to as .. er well chalk and cheese. Obvious I
know, but it's no good flogging a superior OS if you have no means
of controlling the hardware. Strange that when the mighty Gates
first set out on his adventure he was instrumental in determining
the basic standards of the MSX machine, so it worked best with the
OS. Yet PCs can be such an extreme of crap that you rarely ever
feel you know just how good or bad the OS is. In the case of this
machine either the RM is truly bad or the OS needed something a
lot more powerful to make the magic happen. Truly dreadful.
This is only the second time this computer has ever been switched
on here. Not sure there will be a third. The clock was right, I'll
give it that. Magic time keeping for the age. Cool.
Just as an aside if there was a grading for carbon footprint I sense
that my rating would be ' stomp'. More heavy boot than slipper.
Not sure what I can do... I do love my computers and I have more
fans on here to cool things down than the local power supplier
can support. Hope that last power cut wasn't cus of me. Sorry.
Going now.... ' IT'S BLOODY NOISY IN HERE '.
Windows 2000 Professional - My only NT.
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