Software incompatibility
I'm currently running the latest version of GirlFriend and I've been having
some problems lately. I've been running the same version of DrinkingBuddies
1.0 as my primary application, and all the GirlFriend releases I've tried
have always conflicted with it.
I hear that DrinkingBuddies runs fine as long as GirlFriend is run in
background mode and the sound is turned off. Unfortunately, I can't find the
switch to turn the sound off. Therefore, I have to run both of them
separately. GirlFriend also seems to have a problem coexisting with my Golf
program, often trying to abort Golf with some sort of timing
incompatibility. On a positive note, DrinkingBuddies and Golf seem to have
no incompatibilities whatsoever.
I probably should have stayed with GirlFriend 1.0, but I thought I might see
better performance from GirlFriend 2.0. After months of conflicts and other
problems, I consulted a friend who has had experience with GirlFriend 2.0.
He said I probably didn't have enough cache to run GirlFriend 2.0, and
eventually it would require a Token Ring to run properly. He was right - as
soon as I purged my cache, and realized that no one in their right mind is
installing new Token Rings, Girlfriend 2.0 uninstalled itself.
Shortly after that, I installed GirlFriend 3.0 beta. Unfortunately, there
was a bug in the program and the first time I used it, it gave me a virus. I
had to clean out my whole system and shut down for a while.
I very cautiously upgraded to GirlFriend 4.0. This time I used a SCSI probe
first and also installed a virus protection program. It worked okay for a
while until I discovered that Girlfriend 1.0 was still in my system. I tried
running GirlFriend 1.0 again with GirlFriend 4.0 still installed, but
GirlFriend 4.0 has a feature I didn't know about that automatically senses
the presence of any other version of GirlFriend and communicates with it in
some way. This results in the immediate removal of both versions.
The version I have now works pretty well, but there are still some problems.
Like all versions of GirlFriend, it is written in some obscure language I
can't understand, much less reprogram. Frankly, I think there is too much
attention paid to the look and feel rather than the desired functionality.
Also, to get the best connections with your hardware, you usually have to
use gold-plated contacts. And I've never liked how GirlFriend is
"object-oriented."
A year ago, a friend of mine upgraded his version of GirlFriend to
GirlFriendPlus 1.0, which is a Terminate and Stay Resident version of
GirlFriend. He discovered that GirlFriendPlus 1.0 expires within a year if
you don't upgrade to Fiancee 1.0. So he did, but soon after that, he had to
upgrade to Wife 1.0, which he describes as a huge resource hog. It has taken
up all his space...he can't load anything else. One of the primary reasons
he decided to go with Wife 1.0 was because it was supposedly bundled with a
feature called FreeSexPlus. Well, it turns out the resource requirements of
Wife 1.0 sometimes prohibits access to FreeSexPlus...particularly the new
Plug-Ins he wanted to try. On top of that, Wife 1.0 must be running on a
well warmed-up system before he can do anything.
Although he did not ask for it, Wife 1.0 came with Mother-In-Law which has
an automatic pop-up feature he can't turn off. I told him to try installing
Mistress 1.0, but he said he heard if you try to run it without first
uninstalling Wife 1.0, Wife 1.0 will delete MSMoney files before
uninstalling itself. Then Mistress 1.0 won't install because of insufficient
resources.
