Reply to post: @elDog - Re: Services.msc

Sneaky Microsoft renamed its data slurper before sticking it back in Windows 10

RobHib
Angel

@elDog - Re: Services.msc

PIP B:=A:*.COM [VO]

I think that syntax is correct but it's been a long time! OK, I've thrown my credentials down so I feel qualified to reply. :-)

Yeah, at the time I was using all the same stuff and it was pretty solid, software and hardware just worked as it was supposed to. Some manuals were often cryptic but once you got the hang of them they were accurate and comprehensive, Kildall's CP/M manuals are a case in point. On the other hand, the IBM PC tech manuals (which I still have) were a delight to use, even the hardware came with circuit diagrams and component layouts etc. (one could stick an oscilloscope onto an IC pin and actually figure out what was happening–shame we don't produce stuff in the same manner and with the same thoroughness these days). And if one had an Intel MDS/ICE–In Circuit Emulator complete with bond-out chip–then you could do pretty much anything (that's assuming one understood the implications of the .ASM extension which was pretty much mandatory in those days).

Nevertheless, it was far from a bed of roses: switch off UNIX machines without powering down and you'd likely have serious problems; the damn 8*3 file name limitations in CP/M; and the puny 1M address space of those toy 8085s etc. (even 80286 was a bitch) meant that the size of jobs that we could tackle was rather limited.

Trouble was, useability was an issue (Kildall seemed to have little regard for it), then when we thought things were getting a little better with OS/2, Gates came along and fragmented the market, not to mention made products much more proprietary.

Today, (at least for ITers etc.) things are in a bloody shambles, we might be told what services.msc actually is but we've not a clue (or no practical one anyway) about how services 'bolt' onto say the kernel, such is proprietary nature of MS products.

For the last 30 years or so these have been serious issues for IT as the average IT person either didn't have to skills or more likely the time to establish a research project to reverse-engineer such code. Of course, the consequences of this were serious, Windows was like a Swiss cheese, vulnerabilities everywhere, and the only truly knowledgeable people were often the hackers.

Gates might have built an empire but he's left a bloody disaster in his wake. It's been a damn tragedy really (as I've said elsewhere, one day history will inevitably come to that conclusion).

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon