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Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
johncookson
Member
Posts: 26
Location: Canada
Joined: 04.12.08 |
| Posted on November 25 2011 02:21 |
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Stromasys have a new Alpha emulator available although details remain sketchy at the moment. It seems that a 64bit host operating system may be required to run it (Something I don't currently have).
What I have heard so far about the new version is as follows :-
It is based on a DS10 and offers twice the performance of the older PersonalAlpha emulator.
The new emulator can be used for both personal and commercial use without any restrictions.
It supports 1 Gigabyte of emulated memory and 3 disk drives (type and capacity unknown).
It has no embedded expiration date.
This all sounds pretty exciting for hobbyists. I have been using the older product for some time now and it is superb. If anyone else is already using this new product, I would be interested in hearing their thoughts on it.
JohnC |
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| Author |
RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
R Price
Member
Posts: 36
Location: Canada
Joined: 09.12.10 |
| Posted on December 05 2011 15:35 |
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I just tried it on Win7 x64. Having to enter my admin password to install the software is normal and expected. Having to enter my admin password to run the installed application is abnormal and unexpected. I hit cancel and promptly un-installed this software. |
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| Author |
RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
malmberg
Moderator
Posts: 530
Joined: 15.04.08 |
| Posted on December 06 2011 02:05 |
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On Windows Vista and later, in order to run software that requires privileges, either a password must be entered, or the shortcut has to be set up in a special table.
It appears to me that the way that Microsoft wants privileged applications to be written as services that run under a dedicated non-interactive account, and that then communicate with a GUI or command line utility.
FreeAXP has the same issue. |
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| Author |
RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
cdandes
Member
Posts: 3
Joined: 01.09.11 |
| Posted on December 06 2011 03:12 |
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win7 64 did not ask me any password. That's probably because I disabled this nagging "security feature"
Running the VUPS benchmark which I found on this forum I had more than twice performance than on win32 (score 50 compared to 22). |
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| Author |
RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
R Price
Member
Posts: 36
Location: Canada
Joined: 09.12.10 |
| Posted on December 06 2011 04:44 |
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I deliberately run Windows with non-default security settings. I run with a Limited User Account and have set User Account Control to the highest setting, which requires administrator authentication to execute anything which requires privileges beyond those of a Limited User. After almost 20 years using *NIX systems, this is, to me, just the way a computer is supposed to work.
As for the specific case of Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus, I am simply not willing to grant admin privileges to an app I feel should not require such. I understand the software was written in such a way as to need admin access. I simply feel this is inappropriate and choose not to run apps designed this way. Before Vista there would have been no choice but Microsoft has made real improvements in security to eliminate the need for everything to run with admin privileges and I refuse to use software written to work the old way, the wrong way, the way things were with XP and earlier. It took a while for AV software developers to come to terms with the new reality but eventually they did. When or if Stromasys updates their software to post-XP standards I will gladly try it again. |
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RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
ch_123
Member
Posts: 6
Joined: 08.06.10 |
| Posted on April 08 2012 15:24 |
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I'm pretty sure the admin requirements are due to the need to get direct access to the ethernet hardware. SIMH under *nix needs root for the same reason. |
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RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
R Price
Member
Posts: 36
Location: Canada
Joined: 09.12.10 |
| Posted on April 15 2012 09:56 |
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I'm sure it is something like that.
However, I tried FreeAXP a while back and I don't recall it needing admin access just to launch the application; to install it, yes, of course, but not just to run it once installed.
Maybe I'm recalling wrong but I do remember I booted my OpenVMS installer CD in FreeAXP and I cannot imagine I would have gone that far unless things met my basic requirements. Or maybe if I'd finished installing OpenVMS and tried to configure the network I would have found FreeAXP needs admin access, I don't know. |
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RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
malmberg
Moderator
Posts: 530
Joined: 15.04.08 |
| Posted on April 16 2012 03:07 |
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FreeAXP definitely needs Admin access to run on Windows 7 for me. |
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| Author |
RE: Stromasys PersonalAlphaPlus - New |
R Price
Member
Posts: 36
Location: Canada
Joined: 09.12.10 |
| Posted on April 16 2012 07:27 |
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I could be mis-remembering. It has been a while since I tried FreeAXP, maybe a year.
Whatever, I'm still not comfortable running stuff that requires admin access when I feel it should not be necessary. VirtualBox runs from a non-admin account and I see no reason why FreeAXP or Personal Alpha should be any different. |
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