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ezbzbfcg2
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04 Jul 2021, 5:08 am

I'm behind the times and still using Windows XP, which I feel was the best OS Microsoft ever made for desktop PCs...after that, they started trying to make tablet/phone - friendly operating systems (and understandably so).

I've dabbled with win7, 8, and now 10. I honestly do like 10 better than the intermediaries between xp and 10.

Still, my Word/Excel/PowerPoint 97 and Publisher 07 still work great on XP. 10 wants to force everything on to this OFFICE 360 thing. And I still love CLASSIC MS paint and the pre-loaded card games of XP. 10 seems colder. Even the interface is different. The lack of a proper minimizer button and start menu in win10 irk me. But XP is finally getting to be too dated...doesn't matter if it was discontinued however many years ago, it's now reaching the point where it can't handle these newer things like streaming, quick audio/visual imaging. And the web browsers won't load content in XP because it's so old.

Do I upgrade to the tried-and-true win10? Or hold out for this new win11?

It's funny, because when Windows 10 first came out, I'm certain Microsoft said it would be their last operating system. Everything going forward would simply be updates and patches, but they were done with their constant creation of new operating systems. Now, it seems, it's all gone out the window (no pun intended) and they plan on releasing a new Windows OS.

I assume most of you folks are using win10 (if you're Windows-inclined). Do you plan on upgrading? What do you suggest I do...wait for WINDOWS 11 and then upgrade? Uprgrade to win10 and use that for a while until 11 becomes established? Stick with now-ancient XP? Abandon Windows all together for some other operating system?

Give me some direction...



maycontainthunder
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04 Jul 2021, 5:40 am

One of the big problems you'll face attempting to upgrade an old PC to windows 10 is drivers.

The second big problem is stability because some systems (I have one) had oddball hardware and though it upgraded fine to 10 it suffers from crashing to the point I gave up with it. Running 10 on anything less than a quad core cpu with hyperthreading means it will be really slow.

However this said some old hardware works fine on w10.

I suspect that w11 won't work on old hardware (things built for w7 or earlier) if at all.



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04 Jul 2021, 2:36 pm

In my opinion, Windows quality has started deteriorating after Win7. I'm still using Windows 7 Ultimate and I don't intend on "upgrading" the OS of my computer.

The newest Windowses are unstable, slow (unless you got very efficient hardware) and just not intuitive, filled with irrelevant and pointless stuff. I'm a minimalist tho. I still look with nostalgia at Win XP, it's the best and even better than 7 but I stick to 7, got used to it, I guess. Maybe I'm just prejudiced and biased but I'd rather install Linux than use Windows 10 or 11. So yeah, older systems for more stability and minimalism all the way.


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Eurythmic
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06 Jul 2021, 3:50 am

I've always been a big believer in the KISS principle - Keep It Stupidly Simple.

For consumer grade operating systems a simple easy to use interface, intercompatibility with other everyday devices that require little or no configuration.

Earlier versions of Windows (Win 98) and before were still getting to this stage. Manually configuring a TCP/IP stack, working out IRQs and Winsock (sounds like something you put on your feet) were enough to bedazzle any normal person who just wants to plug something in and have it work. I spent countless hours helping family and friends to get their computers to work properly.

I have no idea why they released Vista either, what were they thinking

I like Win XP and 7 for it's user friendliness and reasonable amount of stability.

Windows 10 is an insidious heap of bloated spyware that should be tossed straight into the nearest bin. Couldn't they have just kept Win 7 in a 64 bit version and continued to work on and refine it?



DuckHairback
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07 Jul 2021, 5:58 am

ezbzbfcg2 wrote:
Do I upgrade to the tried-and-true win10? Or hold out for this new win11?


Have you considered Linux? If you like XP, there's loads of Linux distributions that ape that OS's usability and appearance. Try Linux Mint for example.

Your Office 07 will run on it if you install Wine or PlayOnLinux. But you can also have modern browsers and other apps.

Linux can be more involved to get working the way you want than Windows but it's quite an interesting rabbit-hole to go down if you like messing about with computer stuff.


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gwynfryn
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07 Jul 2021, 9:56 am

I can’t see MS not releasing more OSs as that’s where the money is. Would you pay for upgrades?

I was perfectly happy with 98 SE/Partition Magic until incompatibility issues arose (and Win 3.11 was actually pretty good once properly sorted) and my experience with Vista make me dread further updates (all the fuss they made about Longhorn, during development, and it turned out to be a crock of crud!). Still, one must move with the times, and Mint looks like a real possibility…



badRobot
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07 Jul 2021, 10:29 am

DuckHairback wrote:
ezbzbfcg2 wrote:
Do I upgrade to the tried-and-true win10? Or hold out for this new win11?


Have you considered Linux? If you like XP, there's loads of Linux distributions that ape that OS's usability and appearance. Try Linux Mint for example.

Your Office 07 will run on it if you install Wine or PlayOnLinux. But you can also have modern browsers and other apps.

Linux can be more involved to get working the way you want than Windows but it's quite an interesting rabbit-hole to go down if you like messing about with computer stuff.


Can confirm. I've installed Linux Mint MATE for my parents. Used Winetricks to generate environments for some of their old windows applications, it downloads all required dll's and stuff automatically, it works without any issues whatsoever for several years. A lot of stuff, like network printer/scanner actually is much easier to setup and it works 100 times better, no "printer not found" BS ever again.



shlaifu
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07 Jul 2021, 7:42 pm

I miss win7. it largely did what an OS is supposed to do, and kept quiet. Win 10 is an abomination. I dread everyrime there's an update and I have to govthrough everyrhing and deactivate what I can. I'm still angry I have to accept an XBox app on my work pc. Alas, there's too much stuff I need for work that won't run on Linux...


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satineeraj
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09 Jul 2021, 7:05 am

yes, @shlaifu Windows 7 was the Windows ultimate and most popular Operating System. the UI of the Windows 7 is is so clear



Noca
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10 Jul 2021, 12:24 am

I don't know how anyone could still choose to use a legacy Windows version that no longer receives any security updates unless it's a computer not connected to the internet. Windows 10 won't get updates past 2025. Windows 11 currently is only going to support first-gen Ryzen or 7th gen Intel CPUs and newer. It will certainly create a mountain of e-waste that I'm not a fan of.



Eurythmic
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10 Jul 2021, 9:15 am

Noca wrote:
Windows 11 currently is only going to support first-gen Ryzen or 7th gen Intel CPUs and newer. It will certainly create a mountain of e-waste that I'm not a fan of.


But it's big business for Gatsey and Micro$loth who works hand in hand with the hardware manufacturers, bugger everybody else and the environment.
More perfectly good hardware going to landfill and left out on kerbsides.

Considering most people's needs are browsing the web and reading emails along with some people playing computer games, it really is just inbuilt obsolescence. We're not trying to run Cray Supercomputers from home (which current PCs have capabilities similar to). Hmmmm I wonder why we have such a problem with waste management in our disposable society???

'640K RAM is all the memory anybody would ever need on a computer.' somebody supposedly said - can't verify it's authenticity.

When my parents got married and bought some appliances the TV and washing machine lasted about 15 years and the fridge about 20 years. How long do new appliances last now?



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11 Jul 2021, 6:59 am

It depends on your hardware and what you are using your system for. But the be honest I can't see how anyone would still be using XP, the issue with XP is that is isn't supported anymore. So it would be very very vulnerable and modern software wouldn't support it or XP era hardware either. Would also depend on if you are using the 32 bit version, as 3.25GB of memory would be quite something in the modern web. Its also worth noting that Windows XP is NT 5 era while Windows Vista, 7, 8, 8.1 10 are NT 6 era (even if 10 refers to it as NT 10). And that is the main issue with software, basically Windows 7 and 10 are at its core very similar while XP is completely different.

But as for the interface, I preferred Windows 7. If Windows 7 was still supported or I could use the interface of 7 on 10 I would. I really don't like the interface of 10, its buggy and the UWP apps are annoying.

Eurythmic wrote:
Noca wrote:
Windows 11 currently is only going to support first-gen Ryzen or 7th gen Intel CPUs and newer. It will certainly create a mountain of e-waste that I'm not a fan of.


But it's big business for Gatsey and Micro$loth who works hand in hand with the hardware manufacturers, bugger everybody else and the environment.
More perfectly good hardware going to landfill and left out on kerbsides.

Considering most people's needs are browsing the web and reading emails along with some people playing computer games, it really is just inbuilt obsolescence. We're not trying to run Cray Supercomputers from home (which current PCs have capabilities similar to). Hmmmm I wonder why we have such a problem with waste management in our disposable society???

'640K RAM is all the memory anybody would ever need on a computer.' somebody supposedly said - can't verify it's authenticity.

When my parents got married and bought some appliances the TV and washing machine lasted about 15 years and the fridge about 20 years. How long do new appliances last now?


It is said that Bill Gates said that, but he didn't. Its misquoted.



Eurythmic
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13 Jul 2021, 12:54 am

That's my understanding too, the quote from Gates is probably fiction. Remember running 80286 boxes and 640KB was the bee's knees?

I also really liked the interface of XP and Win 7.
Keep it simple!
At one state I dropped 1GB of RAM into my new XP box, it ran sweet as.
I've now got 16GB in a non Micro$sloth computer and can have as many tabs open as I want.

For simple tasks XP is fine, but I wouldn't want it exposed to the outside world for security reasons.



gwynfryn
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16 Jul 2021, 9:39 am

Noca wrote:
I don't know how anyone could still choose to use a legacy Windows version.


There's at least one use; when setting up a new PC I got completely swamped by identity borrowers, making that OS useless (why don’t they come with an inbuilt fire wall?). Installing my old Win 98 SE and setting up partitions, I found far less traffic, letting me download some protection. Hackers don’t bother with old stuff, it seems.



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17 Jul 2021, 8:28 pm

I've said this before on here, and no apologies for saying it again:

Windows 8.1 with the 'Classic Shell' start menu is easily the best incarnation of Windows ever, despite whatever misinformation you have probably heard. It's only got 18 months to go now before Micro$oft withdraws support, but might still be worth checking out.

I've got over 40 laptops, and have tried out every version of Windows on them, as well as dozens of Linux distros, and Windows 8.1 can't be surpassed by any of these.

How on earth this staggeringly impressive operating system has ended up as some sort of back number will always be a mystery to me. Windows 10 doesn't get within a million miles of it: fact.


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PhosphorusDecree
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25 Jul 2021, 8:37 pm

DeepHour wrote:
I've said this before on here, and no apologies for saying it again:

Windows 8.1 with the 'Classic Shell' start menu is easily the best incarnation of Windows ever, despite whatever misinformation you have probably heard. It's only got 18 months to go now before Micro$oft withdraws support, but might still be worth checking out.

I've got over 40 laptops, and have tried out every version of Windows on them, as well as dozens of Linux distros, and Windows 8.1 can't be surpassed by any of these.

How on earth this staggeringly impressive operating system has ended up as some sort of back number will always be a mystery to me. Windows 10 doesn't get within a million miles of it: fact.


I was not really aware of Windows 8.1 as a distinct operating system until now, which might explain that! The original Windows 8 was an absolute pain to use on traditional non-touchscreen PCs, to the point where I would consider it completely unusable for any serious purposes. It was more like a wierdly-designed smartphone interface that put you through pointless contortions to do even the simplest things. I scraped it out and replaced it with 10 as soon as possible. Reading around, it looks like 8.1 addressed a lot of the issues with 8 through interface customisation options. But Microsoft downplayed that fact, and marketed it as just an "update". Result: very few users fed up with trying to use 8 were willing to give 8.1 a chance, if they were even aware of it.

I'm not pleased that Windows 10 is to be phased out. It was a bit ropey to begin with, but thanks to all those mega updates it's now pretty robust and reliable. So... now they're throwing all that progress out and starting again?! Thanks, guys.


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