Config.sys in 2006
I remember the good old days before we had plug ‘n play, USB, etc., when everyone on a PC was fighting with config.sys and autoexec.bat files. It took Windows a while to get past that, but it did – with XP you just don’t need to worry about that stuff any more (crappy video card drivers aside).
As a side note, isn’t it interesting how it’s become commonplace for hardware to come with instructions that tell you how to bypass Microsoft’s dialogs warning you about installing unsigned non-WHQL tested drivers? Even Dell ships hardware where they tell you to do this. The same thing is due to happen with virus/spyware scanners etc. as software continues to get more connected and complex. “Hit Continue Anyway to bypass your firewall / virus / security / authentication subsystem and use the stuff you just bought from us.”
Or maybe they’ll just do rootkits like Sony and avoid the whole problem. I remember when Matrox driver installers would manually push buttons on the screen for you as it installed, telling you not to touch the keyboard or mouse. Maybe that’s what they’ll be doing next instead. Anyway…
It occurred to me while sitting here fighting with my NAS and choppy mp3 playback on OS X and Vista that all those irritating old problems are still with me, just in mutated form. So instead of trying to figure out how to keep IRQ settings from colliding or how to load TSR’s or drivers into high memory, I’m fighting with 802.11 settings on some crappy D-Link device to get my 360 to talk to it reliably. I’m toggling optimization parameters and rebooting on my ReadyNAS trying to get my Mac and Vista computers (and the 360) to stream music with reasonable performance, and without breaking up.
So stuff just works today, generally, but getting it to work well, that’s just as hard as ever. It’s just less granular. Instead of worrying about installing a device driver, or having the right jumper settings on a motherboard, I’ve got to worry about communication among devices and applications.
