There hasn't been any reaction from VSL if the "final" performance tool will be made Win98 compatible.

If not, I will be asking for a refund option, as I plan to be using Win98 sample machines for longer than a few months. If I need to upgrade my machines to XP to use Opus 1, I would need to spend even more than Opus 1 cost me...

VSL, what are the plans? Why so quiet about these Windows 98 programming problems?

probably you missed golems post in an earlier thread:

we did focus on 2k and XP lately. 98 is quite outdated and has problems w/ XP optimized stuff. we will set up a 98 machine and I will try to get tool v2 to work as well on 98. maybe I have to cancel multiport support.

please stand by: we are working...

thanks

chrisT

Calling Windows 98 as "quite outdated" is arrogant, pardon me for saying so. It is a rock solid combination with GigaStudio, for which YOU developed YOUR library. If you count all pros and cons, the combination Win98/GST outperforms XP/GST.

You are missing the point that some people just like to consider a PC with Gigastudio as a dedicated hardware sampler.

In such a situation there is no need for fashionable thoughts about what OS is more advanced, secure, stable or sexy "in general" (i.e. for other software). Of course I use XP for my other software - but not for GigaStudio.

I can't believe this...

There is a common Application Programming Interface (Win32 API) for Win98 and XP. Why choose for "XP optimisations"? Aren't our PC's not fast enough for processing Midi and GUI events?

Right! VSL developers please consider that some very technically competent people CHOOSE to run Windows 98 (even the first edition) primarily because it has by far the least MIDI event handling latency.

To wit, I just updated to an AMD 3.0+ 64 bit processor with 1 GMB XMS PC3200 memory and 250 MB SATA hardrives. I REFUSE to run a later MS OS. (Okay I might consider a very fast 64 bit one in the future, but I doubt we can expect that)

I haven't bought the full Pro Edition yet. Issues such as this will affect my decision.

why do you think the musical director of the vienna symphonic library is replying to your posts? you guessed it, because the rest of the team is WORKING to solve this problem. thank you for your understanding.

Im going to elaborate a pc only for performance in the next future,may be win xp or 2000.
I have two questions:
1)is possible to change the tool license from one computer to another,or is safety wait until i have made my new computer ?
2)do anyone know how many performance can load with say 1gig of memory.And with 2 gig?
thanks

@michi said:

why do you think the musical director of the vienna symphonic library is replying to your posts? you guessed it, because the rest of the team is WORKING to solve this problem. thank you for your understanding.

Well, I apologize if my posts were too harsh, but until this explicit remark that VSL is working to solve the problem, there were no earlier reassurances that Windows 98 would be supported by the new tool...
We were only left with the remark "for Windows 2000 and XP only" in the download page, and no reactions from Gollem, other than that Windows 98 is outdated. Please understand that this can put customers and prospects on the wrong foot/leg...

Success and kind regards,

Peter

peter, to give some additional info - it turned up the problem is not the tool, but the online activation (netapi.dll - there's a knowledgebase article elaborating on the background).
golem already posted he's working on it and mentioned he might loose the multiports ... let's see

and sorry, W98 _is_ outdated, yesterday night i *enjoyed* to install a new copy of the second edition to learn how many reboots can you get within an hour ... i had already forgot the pain with drivers, DMA and interrupts and two hours of simply updating until all errormessages disappeared ...

and support from MS ended jan. 16th - so whom should we contact when a problem arises?
christian

@Another User said:

Windows 98 and Windows 98 Second Edition support was scheduled to end on January 16, 2004. However, continual evaluation of the Support Lifecycle policy revealed that customers in the smaller and the emerging markets needed additional time to upgrade their product. Therefore, Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me will continue to be supported after January 16, 2004.

Customers can request security fixes for Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, Windows Me, and the most current version of their components until June 30, 2006 through normal assisted-support channels.

Windows 98, Windows 98 Second Edition, and Windows Me downloads for existing security issues will continue to be available through regular assisted-support channels at no charge until June 30, 2006.

This may have slipped your attention.

Furthermore, I agree with you that from a technological point of view Windows 98 is outdated. But when you keep repeating that from your position as content provider, you are insulting your customers!

There are a LOT of technically savvy VSL users that use Windows 98 FOR A REASON, namely that it simply CAN work a lot better than Win2K and XP with Gigastudio and VSL.

I am glad that you have pinpointed the actual problem to be in a third party component (saidly enough in CP software, sigh...). At least this restores my trust in VSL's development capabilities.

Thanks and I hope this will be solved. Take care,

Peter

peter, have you ever asked MS something related to W98 as a developer? of course several options for *paid support* are available - i don't want to comment on that in detail ....

the netapi.dll is not a third party app, it's NT/2K/XP and not supported in W95/98/ME

i can understand very good you will keep up your flawless running systems, especially after putting so much effort in getting them running flawless [;)] and as i mentioned, there will be a solution soon ....

christian

Hmmm,

I have had no problems at all with clean installing Win98 on three MSI/AMD PC's and XP on a 4th. I must be very lucky I guess.

BTW: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=238664 seems to mention Netapi.dll is also part of the Win95/98 branch of the Win32 family...

As a developer I know that the internet provides answers a lot faster than Microsoft, regardless of any support plan. I have recently been involved in projects for Shell with complex mathematical DLLs linked to Excel, and I have found problems with Office DLLs, of which MS Benelux dared to claim they were not even part of Office... That was under a *paid support* contract, sigh... My revenge came when the problems were actually confirmed a few months later in the tech info that came with interim Service Pack for Office 2000. MS sucks at support anyway, I know.