Win98 Only for TurboGL ?

[whiplash]

Is this true , I have Win95(B), my DVD player detects and say's it is using the SIMD on my PIII , so surely the os supports it..

[Gurm]

Nope. Your DVD player is confused. It can "see" the P3, but it can't actually use the instruction set under Win95 (any variant).

People seem to think that each time Microsoft releases an OS update that it's just bug fixes, but in some cases (or in ALL cases, as far as I'm concerned) it is major underlying code changes.

Just because you can't SEE or FEEL the difference from Win95 to Win98 doesn't mean there isn't one. The whole kernel got upgraded from 16bit to 32bit. You can't run SIMD in 16bit mode, the instruction set is 32bit only.

Some versions are just bug fixes. Win95A to Win95B was really just a bunch of fixes and added features. But Win98 was new. Win98SE was just added features. But Windows Millenium is new.

- Gurm

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G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.

[whiplash]

Thanks for the info.

Better get that Win98SE CD then... do you think I will be okay using the upgrade version or should I go for the full version and start from scratch. Only I would hate to have to set everything up again, the MAX runs like a dream and I have never had any setup problems since I put it in..

[Gurm]

I'll be honest - you really should do a full install. You'll be happier that way, honest.

But, according to Micro$oft, you CAN upgrade. I wouldn't, but you can.

Now yer supposed to be able to just run the upgrade CD on a new HDD and just show it your old Win95 CD. If that doesn't work, e-mail me and I'll help ya out.

- Gurm

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G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.

[Zwisch]

According to Microsoft, cards can also share IRQ's ...

[whiplash]

Gurm,

Thanks for the advice, I put in the Upgrade CD for WIn98 and went for it... so I am now writing this on someone else's P.C.

All went fine except that all my bustmastering drivers we not used and all drives ended up in MS-DOS compatibility mode.

My motherboard is an ABIT BH^ , (not rev 2.0). I thought about re-installing IDE drivers but as I had no CD was unable to get at the drivers. Now I have copied the drivers to the hard disk and will try again.

Do you know if the IDE drivers for my BH6 will be okay with Win98, there does not seem to be an update for them on ABIT's site.

At least the Win98 uninstall worked perfectly, if all fails I guess I will have to put in the Full version WIn98SE CD I have and start from scratch.

W.

[PhilS]

Hmm,

That's damn annoying. I have no wish to upgrade to 98 with (ahem) Windows 2000 being so close to release.

Yes I know 2000 is NT (I run '95R2 and NT 4) so I don't particularly want to spend money to 98 then to 2000.

Hmph.

[franksch3]

No entirely true. The customer version of Windows 2000 is based upon Windows 98 if I'm correct. But if Windows 2000 is already coming out at the end of this year, you indeed shouldn't spend money on Windows 98 (SE).

And Gurm is right that every release of Windows the underlying code changes radically. Although some people like to think otherwise, the development teams at Microsoft aren't stupid.

As a developer I like it how much their API's and development tools progress every release. It is really a strong point that Microsoft can catch up that fast with others.

[Hunsow]

You're not correct.

[Meek]

More rumours... I thought (still do, until corrected by a reference to a MS document)) that Win98 is about as much a 32-bit OS as was Win95. That is, kernel itself is 32 bit, but some parts (GDI at least) uses old 16 bit code parts just to be compatible with old WfWg programs.

Proof: In benchamarks, Win98 acts like Win95, not like WinNT (remember the famous 16-bit poor performance issues of >P5 class Intel processors).

And then again... I may be wrong...

M.

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Athlon500/MSI6167/64M(!)/10GIBM/6GSamsung/1GSCSI IBM/AHA2940/CL2xDVD/FastMM2+MJPEG/HPPSScanner/HPPSPrinter/G400DH32M/ZIP100SCSI/Mitsumi2xCD-R/Samsung17GL/MX300/AKA Electric Classic

[PhilS]

Hi all,

As I understand it. Windoes 2000 is simply 98 with bells and knobs on. Windows 2000 Professional is NT5 Workstation (this is the one I'll be looking out for.)

Then there's various server versions (not really important to home users.)

So I'll not be running 98 code but NT5.

Phil.

[Rattledagger]

To PhilS:
Windows 2000 is the same as NT 5.
The lowest version is Professional.
You're probably confusing with "millennium", that is the continuing of win9x. The rumored "consumer" version of win2k was scrapped for "millennium", or thatever they will call it...

[cirrus]

Windows 2000 is full NT Windows. The codename "Millenium" Windows will be last Windows in 95/98 series according the latest plans. Windows 2000 is however enhanced with Directx features to make it more appealing to normal consumer and helping the NT series get rid of it's reputation of not usable game platform. That's why they changed the name from Windows NT 5 to Windows 2000. Windows codename "Millenium" will make driver developement closer to Windows 2000 driver developement to help the integration which will happen after Windows 2000 and Windows "Millenium".

I hope I wasn't too confusing.

--
Arto

[Gurm]

Ok, here's the scoop:

WinNT 3.51 -> WinNT4 -> Win2000

Win3.1 -> Win95 -> Win98 -> Win Millennium

Windows 3.1 wasn't an Operating System. It was a menuing system on top of DOS.

Win95 was mostly 16-bit with some 32-bit instructions thrown in.

Win98 is MORE 32-bit, LESS 16-bit. But still it has lots of 16-bit stuff.

Windows Millennium is Windows 98 without DOS and the 16-bit stuff. Same code base, with the old stuff removed. Yes, that means less compatibility. But frankly, I haven't missed any of it (been using Millennium for about a month now!) much.

NT 3.51 was ok as a server, but not great, and the workstation was useless. NT4, as we all know, is wonderful as a workstation environment but useless for multimedia and games (i.e. a home machine). NT5 (I mean Win2000) adds plug 'n' play (but not the same plug 'n' play as in Win95/98/Millennium) and DirectX 7 (but not the same DirectX7!).

Millennium is currently slated to ship with DirectX 8.

They're just approaching the merger (which will happen NEXT time around at this point) from different ends.

- Gurm

------------------
G. U. R. M. It's not hard to spell, is it? Then don't screw it up!
The word "Gurm" is in no way Copyright 1999 Jorden van der Elst.