Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

quote:

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Originally posted by homer:
Also, a lot of programs on the mac install, by default, with low memory settings. I usually up the memory settings for ALL of my apps on the Macs.

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Registered: May 2000
Location: Birmingham, AL, USA
Posts: 38

quote:

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Originally posted by Cerulean:
Ahh.. yet another flaw on the Mac .. I HATE having to tell it how much memory I *THINK* I might use with an application..

Joe

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

Where can you even change the memory allotted to a program in Windows? Maybe you can, I don't know, but it seems to me that Microsoft decides how much memory a program needs. I trust my own judgment over theirs!

In terms of easy of use, how hard is it to press command - i? If you are using Photoshop than you should realize before hand that you need a lot of memory for a 300 MB file. The preferred RAM is set by the programmer, so if it doesn't work at the default setting than that is their fault. Some programs work better at the default setting than even with more memory. Strata used to crash on me all the time. So I re-installed it, left the memory settings alone and now it works like a charm.

My point is that people that don't know how to use a computer won't need to worry about memory settings. They will surf the internet and 99% of the programs they use won't need to be changed. People that use Photoshop, After Effects, Strata Studio Pro and so on will be able to customize the settings to whatever they need.

[This message has been edited by lennonhead (edited 08-17-2000).]

Registered: Jan 2000
Location: Twin Cities, MN
Posts: 1683

I guess I'm not sure if I like the Mac's application memory allotment method better or Windows'. I can always seem to run more apps at once on the Mac without it slowing down (10+) but it is a bit annoying to have to manually up Photoshop's memory to 200MB once in a while to work on those multi-MB files.

I kind of fixed it just by throwing more RAM at it (you get really spoiled with 448MB of ram!)

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Chandler, AZ
Posts: 289

lennonhead -- AFAIK under Windows, you do not have control over program memory usage. Windows allocates it as a program needs it and releases memory as a program is done using it. Seems like a much better system than allocating hundreds of MB of space (in my case) to Photoshop when it is sitting idle in the background.

Pressing Command-I isn't that difficult, however, it is annoying when working on a large document and trying to do something and have it pop up "not enough memory" when I might clearly have another 200MB available (out of 1GB) -- so I have to save what I am working on (Which on a 300MB file takes quite a while), then allocate the memory to the application, reopen the application and image .. yuck. I wouldn't mind it too much, but the work I do (large format graphics) requires this type of work on a daily basis..

Homer -- I think the Win vs Mac scenario your describing has a lot to do with the system configuration. I have a 256MB Windows 2000 system at home and I can keep a web & database server running in the background (IIS/SQL), my utilities firing up and running in the background on a schedule (disk defragmenting, antivirus, etc..), and in the foreground, when working on websites, I'll have internet explorer running, outlook express, dreamweaver, photoshop, imageready, illustrator along with a variety of internet toys (instant messenger, stock tracker (during the day), etc..) not to mention others transfering files off the system over the network -- windows is able to juggle all of this well under the 256MB of RAM I have in the system, hense no slow down.

Joe

[This message has been edited by Cerulean (edited 08-17-2000).]

Registered: May 2000
Location: Birmingham, AL, USA
Posts: 38

I'm actually surprised that Mac treats memory allotment the way it does. It seems to contradict everything else that the OS tries to do--keep things simple and hidden from the user. PCs historically were the systems that required the user to know all the specific settings that they wanted to use for a program--and this was such a pain that Apple made a killing by simplifying the user interface when they introduced Mac. It makes sense to me to have an advanced control feature where automatic memory allocation could be overridden if needed, but the OS shouldn't be so dependent on the user allocating memory themselves. Maybe this is an area where perfection lies somewhere between the Mac and PC philosophies.

Homer, I second Joe's comment that your problem with the PC slowing down too much with multiple programs open may be a hardware issue. I only run 128 meg, but I have to be running about five or six BIG programs before I notice a slowdown. But it also may result from a true Windows problem. I notice the slowdown the most if the computer hasn't been restarted in several days. That is because of a glitch in Windows ability to truly free up allotted memory after a program closes. Windows fails to free little pieces of memory after a program closes, so after a couple days, it starts running low on free resources. This does slow things down.

Stephen

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City CA
Posts: 472

quote:

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Originally posted by SCM:
I notice the slowdown the most if the computer hasn't been restarted in several days. That is because of a glitch in Windows ability to truly free up allotted memory after a program closes. Windows fails to free little pieces of memory after a program closes, so after a couple days, it starts running low on free resources. This does slow things down.

Stephen

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Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

Ok, all of you Windows users out there I've got a question for you. I have an IDE Hard Drive that isn't formatted for Windows, how do I get Windows to recognize it and reformat it? I've run through the "instal new hardware" program, but Windows didn't find anything. I checked and double checked the cable connections and the master / slave settings. Is there some way to force Windows to see the drive?

Just to make this relavant to the discussion, I hooked the drive up to my Mac and on the very first startup the drive was seen by the Mac OS and I could format it any way I wanted. The only unfortunate thing was that I couldn't make it a Windows disk, I just left it unformatted. So why can't Windows be so easy(assuming I'm not overlooking something here, I don't have a great deal of experience with hardware on the Windows platform)?

Registered: May 2000
Location: Houston, TX, USA
Posts: 194

My HD came with a bootable disk that would allow me to format in either FAT16 (DOS) or FAT32 (Windows 9x) didnt yours?

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Registered: Sep 1999
Location:
Posts: 81

I'll have to put my vote in for Win2K. I'm running the Professional version on 3 different computers and using all of them for different tasks and none of them have ever crashed on me. I play MP3's and video clips on a 233MMX (64MB RAM), burn CD's and serve files on a Pent133 (32MB RAM), and play pretty intense games and edit video on a 233 Pentium II (96MB RAM). I own a fair amount of USB devices and Win2K recognized them the second that I plugged them in, no other drivers required. Also, just in the past week, I've been experimenting with sharing a cable modem and found that you can set up connection sharing in about 30 seconds using Win2K. Just tell the main machine to share it's external connection (a single check box) and tell your clients to use DHCP (2 radio buttons) and bada-bing bada-boom, your connection is shared! All of that plus having the complete support from a majority of the software community and I'd have to say that Windows is still in front and will be for a while.

Also, for those of you who may argue that Macs are easier to use and less crash prone, I'd have to say that they can be just as difficult and crash prone as a Windows machine. My mom, a teacher, has just as many problems using the Mac at school as she has using her Windows machine at home. Just my 2 cents!

lennonhead, have you tried running FDISK on your hard drive yet? I know that it's not an easy solution, but at least you could use it to see if the computer is even recognizing the hard drive. Also, try going into your BIOS and doing an "Autorecognize" on your IDE devices, to see if the BIOS sees the hard drive. If it doesn't show up in the BIOS, then the problem must be with your cabling or jumpers (master/slave). If it does show up, then you should have no problem creating a partition with FDISK and then formatting it through DOS or Windows.


[This message has been edited by LuckyChuck (edited 08-19-2000).]

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: NJ
Posts: 517

No, it did not come with a disk. I yanked it out of an old Windows 3.1 computer and erased it.

LuckyChuck- Thanks, I'll try the fdisk utility.

Registered: May 2000
Location: Birmingham, AL, USA
Posts: 38

quote:

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Originally posted by lennonhead
No, it did not come with a disk. I yanked it out of an old Windows 3.1 computer and erased it.

LuckyChuck- Thanks, I'll try the fdisk utility.

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Redwood City CA
Posts: 472

Actually...

quote:

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Originally posted by lennonhead
At least you can drag things from the desktop to the HD or disk. Everything appears right on the desktop on the Mac. Does it in Windows? No, disks appears in a special folder along with, control panels?????

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