Massive flaw in the theory of evolution

[petergriffin]

At which point in time has the average representative of the human race started thinking that all IT problems can be sorted by rebooting the computer? And what is [Obama || the Pope || Bono || The Dalai Lama || Simon Cowell] going to do about it?

[Sysman]

It came with the great unwashed getting their hands on PCs with DOS and Windows.

Early DOS/Windows PCs were prone to locking up, and the fact that they were single user meant that a reboot only affected one user, so there wasn't the mass outcry there would have been with a multi-user OS.

With properly built systems the only need to reboot is generally when a device gets wedged. Properly written drivers don't usually get wedged, but the mass of new widgets coming out on a daily basis means that the drivers are often not up to par.

[chef]

What is the Blue Screen of Death for macbook's

[doodab]

It came with the great unwashed getting their hands on PCs with DOS and Windows.

Early DOS/Windows PCs were prone to locking up, and the fact that they were single user meant that a reboot only affected one user, so there wasn't the mass outcry there would have been with a multi-user OS.

With properly built systems the only need to reboot is generally when a device gets wedged. Properly written drivers don't usually get wedged, but the mass of new widgets coming out on a daily basis means that the drivers are often not up to par.

Actually it started a bit before that. If it's good enough for NASA....

Apollo 11 Lunar Surface Journal: Program Alarms

[doodab]

What is the Blue Screen of Death for macbook's

A fried chicken shortage. Colonel panics.

[Bunk]

What is the Blue Screen of Death for macbook's

The beachball of death.

That's as bad as it gets usually.

[Sysman]

The beachball of death.

That's as bad as it gets usually.

I had that with 10.1. Fortunately 10.2 came out a few weeks later, though unfortunately not soon enough for me to qualify for a free upgrade (which in my humble opinion it should have been, for 10.1 was almost unusable due to the frequency of beach ball waits).

Things got a lot better with 10.3, especially since I maxed the memory out at the same time.

Those early OS X iBooks shouldn't have been sold with 128 MB as standard. I went for the 256 MB model based on what worked with Linux plus X11, and 256 MB still wasn't enough.

[NickFitz]

What is the Blue Screen of Death for macbook's

Kernel panic:

[NickFitz]

The first DOS machine I used was an original IBM PC which, along with such delights as MS-BASIC in ROM and a cassette port, had a "reset button" in the form of a Big Red Switch towards the back of the right-hand side:

In fact I almost never used DOS as we worked in polyFORTH II, which sensibly provided its own operating system, hitting the BIOS directly. When it locked up such that the three-fingered salute of Ctrl-Alt-Del wouldn't work, the Big Red Switch was the only way to get going again. Happy days

[VectraMan]

The obvious thing that all OSs have failed to deliver is the "Stop whatever you're doing and give me back control" button. I guess it wouldn't work for failed device drivers, but it would be quite simple to suspend all processes except the Windows shell and task manager, for example, which would get you out of the situation where something has eaten all the memory and is thrashing the disk and nothing is responding situation.