Re: Connecting to Informix via TCP\\IP Question

Mike Ack <macker@mhv.net> wrote: :Nils Myklebust wrote: : :[ odbc info deleted ] : :> Obviously you shouldn't try to run the client on anything but Windows :> 95 or NT (NT is significantly better) : :How so? I'm still relatively unfamiliar with NT's architecture. :-- :-mka, ignorant microsoft user :http://www1.mhv.net/~macker :nangi namaj perez The major reason why NT is better is you can continue working in other programs whenever your database access program is performing a long runing task. On Windows 95 you will all too often see the whole machine hang until the database operation is finished. If the operation takes too long and you want to break out of it, on Windows NT you may not have to because you can do other things. If you do, and the application doesn't support a cancel by it self, you can allways terminate the task. On Windows 95 you sometimes have no other recourse but a brutal reboot. There are ways arround this in some cases by configuring things well, and knowing exactly how to set up drivers and other programs "correctly", but all such administration is hard, and not necessary on NT. The multitasking abilities of Windows 95 aren't exactly impressive. Generally Windows NT is also a more stable product that gives you less fatal errors (where you have to reboot). An application may fail, but your workstation is still running fine (in theory at least, I have indeed had my share of reboot type errors on NT as well). For "regular" end users this is not a big issue as they should only run a stable set of applications, and not be allowed to experiment. Even Windows 3.1 was stable for such users. Windows 95 isn't much more than a souped up Windows 3.1 where the main advantage is 32 bit adressing. That's realy significant, but far from what NT gives you. Use Windows 95 when you know it's adequate. Use Windows NT for any users that need to be able to do a lot of significant operations using advanced tools. For things like add hoc reporting, OLAP analysis often combined with heavy usage of Word, Excel and similar tools NT is much better. Nils.Myklebust@idg.no NM Data AS, P.O.Box 9090 Gronland, N-0133 Oslo, Norway My opinions are those of my company The Informix FAQ is at http://www.iiug.org