The Technology Vent and Rant Thread

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Mostly they are.

Thunderbird

Thunderbird is an odd duck, if you'll pardon the pun. Early versions use flat mbox files for each "folder", but some <elided> chose to completely rewrite the backing store to use a homebrew database system on top of the flat mbox files. JWZ has ranted about how stupid this design is so I don't need to elaborate. More recently, Thunderbird can use a simplified Maildir format instead. Maildir as the name suggests is a directory structure for mail messages, where each mail folder is a directory and each message is a single file.

I use Claws-Mail which has always, to my knowledge, used Maildir-like hierarchies for local mail storage and for caching IMAP messages.

[Quoth]

I may migrate from Thunderbird if Mozilla makes it much worse. Using it nearly 20 years and "moved" it from XP -> Win7 -> Linux Mint.

I looked at Evolution and wasn't impressed.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not Windows the OS, Windows the directory. Windows & Users are two directories every Windows computer has.

Really? I just looked at a Windows machine and while the Windows directory is there, there is no Users directory in the root. A rather old machine used to control an NC machining tool but still running Windows.

[Quoth]

It used to be possible (NT4.0) to have a Windows install without a directory called windows.
You could even install multiple Windows OS on same partition as long as each one had a different "main" directory. The bootloading "boot.ini" was automatically edited. Sadly they changed way the boot works.
I'd used that more than once to fix customers workstations or servers with no backups. Install 2nd copy of same version, update to same level of service pack etc. Then fix whatever they broke. Then when original is booting with working GUI you can delete the extra copy in C:\fixwin or whatever.

Of course some idiot programmers assume paths instead of calling APIs.

Sample from a copy of XP

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(1)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional (#1)" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

You can see it explicitly lists what the main Windows OS directory is called.
So the trick likely works on XP too.

You can see that has an Alternate XP on a different disk. The disc controller and channel on it can be specified too.

I had one laptop where that had 2 different versions of NT, A Win98 that could boot WFWG3.11 and a version of Linux, without using GRUB as the OS selection bootloader.

MS Skipped Windows 9 because too many idiot programmers used wrong APIs for OS versions and feature and some programs would mistake Windows 9 (NT family) for the last non-NT family, which was Windows 9x & ME.


NEVER assume what you've always seen is how it has to work!

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Pedantically, "Windows Explorer" was first on Windows 95.

Yes, I was struggling with that, not sure why I settled on Windows Explorer, probably '…that'll do'.

I knew "File Explorer" came later, but there was a GUI program to manage files that sat alongside, or maybe inside, the 2.1 "Program Manager" shell. By version 3.0 it was called "File Manager" so maybe that was what it was in 2.1 ==>> https://winworldpc.com/screenshot/65...4-c2a90f7054ef

That it was 30+ years ago and that we had OS/2, VisiOn and a couple of others in the lab adds to the confusion. We settled on Windows (3.11) and OS/2 (2.1).

BR

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Yes, I was struggling with that, not sure why I settled on Windows Explorer, probably '…that'll do'.

...


That it was 30+ years ago and that we had OS/2, VisiOn and a couple of others in the lab adds to the confusion. We settled on Windows (3.11) and OS/2 (2.1).

There was even Gem for a while for DTP and some MSDOS based / loaded text mode attempts at multi-function and multi-tasking.

DR Multidos too.

I once even encountered the short lived MS OS/2 + Lanmanager server in a school with a a load of Win3.x PCs. Someone had never set the boot passwords on the RM made PCs. So a pupil at the boarding school did.
The VP was a friend and I took pity on him. I opened ONE PC and levered out the 8 pin DIL socketed Flash Memory. PC then booted without a password. "You can do the rest, Jim"

Most bets on security are off if you have physical access and at least something to take out the case screws. TPM is a bit harder.

[DNSB]

I remember at one point in time, we had a poster on the wall in our data center that listed 10 laws of computer security. The first one was that "All cybersecurity best practices mean nothing without proper physical security".

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I may migrate from Thunderbird if Mozilla makes it much worse. Using it nearly 20 years and "moved" it from XP -> Win7 -> Linux Mint.

I looked at Evolution and wasn't impressed.

Evolution Mail is saddled with two problems. First, it's Gnome which since version 3 has the goal of a "desktop" environment that presents a single button: the shiniest, best-looking button ever rendered that does nothing when you click it. Second, it's trying to be Microsoft Outlook without being Microsoft Outlook.

I correct myself on a technicality: Claws-Mail, and Sylpheed from which it is forked, use MH folders for local storage.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I may migrate from Thunderbird if Mozilla makes it much worse. Using it nearly 20 years and "moved" it from XP -> Win7 -> Linux Mint.

Thunderbird's actually now independent of Mozilla: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb...es-thunderbird

[John F]

So I left a poor review for the Paramount+ app due to loud commercials. Their response, upgrade your plan to remove ads.

[ratinox]

Originally Posted by John F

So I left a poor review for the Paramount+ app due to loud commercials. Their response, upgrade your plan to remove ads.

Wait, don't they show ads anyway? Or is that Amazon? Or Netflix. Or... yeah.
And "they" wonder why we install ad blocking software.

[John F]

Originally Posted by ratinox

Wait, don't they show ads anyway? Or is that Amazon? Or Netflix. Or... yeah.
And "they" wonder why we install ad blocking software.

And FWIW, I'm already on a paid plan.

[MickiTee]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I may migrate from Thunderbird if Mozilla makes it much worse. Using it nearly 20 years and "moved" it from XP -> Win7 -> Linux Mint.

I looked at Evolution and wasn't impressed.

I ditched Thunderbird when v128 was rolled-out because the so called improvements were anything but and started using Betterbird instead. Betterbird is a fork of Thunderbird.

[BetterRed]

Aarrgh - I'm being followed by Elon Musk on X.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Aarrgh - I'm being followed by Elon Musk on X.

My condolences