Re: Windows MCNP

["Dale E. Boyce" <dale@radpro.uchicago.edu>]

Andrew, and other interested parties.  Our main system is an Intel
box running SCO UNIX.  It is very reliable.  We have recently "upgraded"
several of our desk side machines from DOS/WIN3.1 to WIN 95.  We
did this mainly to get file sharing, so we could have gone with W4WG.
We have set up our server with Windows NT.

I first set up Win 95 on my machine at home, an 8 Meg 486.  No
problem...  So we started in on machines at work....   Think
long and hard before you make this choice.  We are batting about 50%
on getting it working.  We have yet to get a clean install on
the first attempt, and have not once gotten a good install from
the floppy version.  The CD install works better.

Win 95 seems to be nice once you get a good installation.  The main
problem seems to be that anything funky with the hardware causes it to
be (what's the current preferred term, hmmm) bipolar.  Examples of the 
problems we've had: about three weeks ago we got a brand new Compaq
Pentium.  It was to replace Debbie's 486 which was going to replace
Lois's.  The Pentium arrived on Tuesday and Win 95 was happily
running by Thursday (it came with 3.1).  On monday the box was dead,
not Win 95's fault.  A trip to Elek Tek later it was replaced with
a new box which came with Win 95 and no distribution media (you
are asked to feed it 30 floppies to create the distribution when
you first set up the computer).

Well...  when we got the replacement we plugged in the ethernet card
and started the set up.  When we were done it couldn't find the net.
Lot's O hair pulling later, we discover that the slightly newer
version of the Compaq shipped with ever single interupt in use by
something or other.  We disabled the game port and got the machine
to recognize the net, although we get an error message on boot that
the Protocol Manager (PROTMAN) didn't load.  After it is up for
awhile it finds the net.  Okay we reload the system from the
newly created floppies, which were created after the interupt conflict
apparently damaged the install.  Same error.  well at least it works
even if it complains.

Now it is the 486's turn.  Win 95 seems to install well.  After
installing MSOffice, I put Win95 Plus on and things go flaky...
really flaky.  Without describing the gore, the computer won't stay up
an hour.  After about a week, I replace 16 Meg of memory and it
seems to be happy.  Again, its not Win 95's fault, the memory must
have been marginal.  In fact we had replaced 4 meg previously due
to parity errors.

Bottom line is if you want to find out what doesn't work perfectly
in your machine, Win 95 is a wonderful debugging tool :(.

That said, when it works, like on my machine at home, I like it
and MSOffice for 95.  When it works...

Dale Boyce
dale@radpro.uchicago.edu