If you should stick to MS W10 or if it`s the right moment to try something else?

Today I realised that besides work, my personal use of computers is mostly independant of Windows based programs.
I use internet constantly, play multimedia, print and occasionally burn a DVD (rare nowadays). 80% of this is done from my phone. It doesn`t run an MS OS, it`s an Android phone.

Been working and fixing computers since `86 when I was one of a dozen guys who owned a PC in my country. Homegrown technician out of necessity.
At one point I provided IBM support for their OS/2. They dropped the ball, i felt betrayed and stopped looking for alternate OS, MS put bread on my table.

XP was and still excellent for most of us. MS Vista was a POS and I honestly believe that having to toss good hardware out of the window to accomodate the next OS, is only reasonable if the forthcoming generation REALLY has enough useful features to justify the expense.
In most cases, IT DOESN`T!

Vista required double the hardware specs to run DECENTLY what XP had been running smoothly.
W7 can run perfectly on a XP class machine, I kid you not.

For most of us, spreadsheets, letters, most documents, multimedia formats, internet browsing, etc. haven`t changed drastically since they first appeared ages ago.
We`ve been pushed to upgrade following hardware industry necesity of keeping the ball rolling.
Have our computing needs and habits changed that much in the past 10, 20, 30 years? I doubt so for the most of us.

How much of what we do today us being handled almost completely by our (non MS) phones?

I don`t fancy W10.
For what I need and use of it at home it`s not worth it. It royally pissed me off that it clearly investigates all your HD contents and spies your network. Found out the hard way.
Since I fix computers for a living, i collect in my drive all kinds of drivers, some of them obsolete, very particular and hard to find.
At first W10 would not run the major updates. No hints. Later, it would try and choke on them for no particular reason. Eventually, it pointed a finger to a certain driver that did not ring any bells and was certainly not installed on my PC. Turned out the offending file was zipped in some obscure directory within my very large utilities folder. Had no clue what it was for or when, in 30 years of computing, i had collected it.

Very upsetting. Privacy wise. WTF W10? How can it possibly bother you?
Lost months because of this. Months!!!

Now, when a major update is upon us I must unplug my drives but the OS one so W10 will not give me shit. NOT WORTH IT!
The latest update took 3 hours to implement itself on my office computer. Quite decent specs.

Also, in between updates, MS might decide it won`t play well, from now on, with certain programs that were doing fine until then. Really?

Enough bitching.
Just ask yourself if W7 on its way out is not the opportunity to switvh to something else, like some Linux distros that look and feel like W7 and are quite secure and lees picky about your computing needs and the industry necessities.

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I second that.

Recommendations?

quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
Recommendations?

Linux...any distro that fits you. Windoze put food on my table too, but I use Linux at home. Ubuntu LT is a good one to get your feet wet.

Agree W10 won't run on the machine I had for office work even though it's not that old, seems the processor isn't fast enough for MSFT's tastes, so the upgrade or even a fresh install won't work.

Result, new computer, which lightened my wallet but doesn't offer much in the way of increased productivity or storage.

It's the IT tax, in order to keep the IT industry afloat, create upgrades that obsolete equipment.

Over a certain amount of time some upgrades were worth it, moving from x86 win 3 platforms with 40 mb hard drive capacity and 128K of ram to the faster machines of the day was a plus.

Win10 has bugs that make working a pia such as changing default programs (Adobe to Edge) a daily PIA, with no fix in sight....

OP, although I've been out of the IT industry for anot 3 years, I'm right there with ya. I've supported windows environments starting with 3.1 (not very capable, but stable for what it was), 95, 98SE (I liked this one), 2000, XP (probably my favorite....I still have an XP box), Vista (what a horrific piece of crap), 7 (arguably the best OS MS has ever produced), 8+8.1 (basically Vista all over again, but not quite as bad), and finally 10.

I completely agree that MS has repeatedly obsoleted good hardware with each release, bit some were clearly worse than others. Vista was horrible...it wouldn't even run on machines that were suppoedly certified for it. 7 was probably the best...like you said it runs fine on most XP class boxes. 10 is a huge pig...we recently had to upgrade at work, and it involved pretty much throwing everything out and starting over.

I think the root cause of it is the general public. Back in the day, most of us like the OP learned how to use and maintain the OS out of necessity. The trend over the years has dumbed that down as folks have gotten used to tablet OSs that do everything for them at a press of a button. This works ok when the platform is limited in scope, like a tablet, but to try and do that with a full-featured OS on a variety of hardware (like win 10 is trying to do), and the requirements become ridiculous.

As they've incrementally tried to make the OS do more for the end user, it's become increasingly more frustrating for those of us that actually know what we're doing, because the simple fixes we used to use either don't work or require a bunch of extra steps to overcome the fluff that MS has put in place to streamline the product for the end-user.

Like the OP, I'm sick of it too. I have a couple of Win 7 boxes at home, and I plan to stick with them, end-of-life be damned. When they're no longer viable, I'll probably go to an Android tablet, and keep a Linux (or, gasp, Apple) box around for the heavy lifting. I figure I can get a few more years out of Win 7, so we'll see where the market is at when the time comes.

This is not the only running thread on this subject.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/1640071464/p/1

I'll put here what I put there.

I built the current machine I use about 8 years ago. It was on Win 7. I was wondering what to do about that when the machine forced my hand. The SSD that I used as a boot/system software drive died. I decided to buy a new SSD, and bought a copy of win 10 while I was at it. The machine is back and upgraded.

At some point, I might replace the motherboard, processor , and memory. I might also replace the video card, but I might just use the CPU built in graphics first to see if that's necessary.

My computer is so old I have a program that blocks WIN 10. I just gave up & bought this, looks like a good deal. Adding another 8GB of memory when it comes in.

quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
Recommendations?

Go Apple, though that can get expensive.

Linux. Linux Mint is popular for its end-user friendliness. I've known people that are nearly completely computer illiterate install Linux Mint and be happy.

I've continued to use MS-Win for years because my job in IT required more than a passing familiarity with it. I retired a little over two years ago. I don't think I've touched an MS-Win box more than a half dozen times, since then, and that was only to apply updates to the two MS-Win7 Pro installs we have at home--on machines that dual-boot that and Linux Mint. Even my wife has booted her desktop into MS-Win only rarely.

When MS-Win7 EOLs, soon, my wife's computer will be upgraded either to a Mac or new commodity hardware with Linux Mint only. I'll leave the MS-Win7 Pro install on my laptop, but I probably won't boot into it, any more, since no more updates will be forthcoming. And I'll be leaving it there more out of laziness than anything else. When the Linux Mint install on it EOLs, I'll wipe the entire SSD and give it all over to the new Linux Mint install.

quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
This is not the only running thread on this subject.

https://sigforum.com/eve/forums...935/m/1640071464/p/1

Well, it's not.

Here I suggest you think what is the use you give your machine and how it has evolved, or not, to require you keep upgrading hardware forever.
Also, that you might consider if desktops/portables have still an edge over the rest and finally, if you are married to an MS OS until death do us part. Wich might not necessarily be the case for all.

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PS:
My thread is strategic, about assessing and planning for the future if you have doubts about the EOL of W7 and how it will affexmct you.
The other thread is tactical. How do you react to the forthcoming event.

Wanted to share a wider angle reflection about the meaning of pretty much losing a great and dependable OS to the current dominant one that still has many rough edges, even for the most savvy of us.

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quote:

Originally posted by BBMW:
At some point, I might replace the motherboard, processor , and memory. I might also replace the video card, but I might just use the CPU built in graphics first to see if that's necessary.

Before you do anything of this, i suggest you visit BlackViper.com and take a close look at the Services Configuration page for your OS and set them up as suggested for the 'tweaked' system. I bet it will shave a couple of years off the computer performance. Guarrantee you'll be satisfied.

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W7 WILL.DIE.SOON. You hate W10 and the MS ecosystem. Why are you waiting to make the switch to Linux? I don't get it Many members of my development team swear by Linux. Many members of my UI team swear by OSx. Good on all of them. Find something you like and move on dude. The price of Linux (any distro) is definitely in your budget. It will be a strategic move, you'll never be happy with any OS that get's moved aside. That includes Apple and MS.

Are you worried that this won't be the "Year of the Linux Desktop" like has been promised for many years? If you're not a gamer it won't make much difference at all.

I have been supporting Microsoft since the late eighties.
Windows 10 is a fantastic OS.
Coupled with modern hardware from Intel it is unbeatable, IMO.
The mistake many make is keeping old outdated hardware and expecting the OS to save the day.
Doesn't work that way.

Running XP Pro and have a program that has stopped any and all attempts by MS to infect my machine with that spyware-riddle piece of crap OS known as W10.

I've already purchased another machine, it has Mint on it, and the day this one craps oyt I'll flip the switch

I only have one program that I use that doesn't run under Mint and I'll use a windows emulator for that one

MS has had 20 years to get their act in gear and develop an OS that is as close as bug free as possible, yet they continue to put out crap for a fee and continually issue patches to fix what should have been fixed 8 versions ago

how could Edge NOT work? what did they do - hire a kindergartner to code that one up?

W10 will NEVER see the light of day on any of my machines. I was given a laptop for work that has W10 on it and I refuse to use it. Its collecting dist on a shelf and thats where its going to stay until the day I retire and then I'll send it back to whomever is running IT and they'll note it still has the default password on it.

quote:

Originally posted by smschulz:
I have been supporting Microsoft since the late eighties.
Windows 10 is a fantastic OS.
Coupled with modern hardware from Intel it is unbeatable, IMO.
The mistake many make is keeping old outdated hardware and expecting the OS to save the day.
Doesn't work that way.

Back in the 80s, maybe earlier, someone coined the expression "throwing hardware at a software problem"
Still waiting for someone to fully explore the DPM (DOS Protected Mode), the i386 Enhanced Mode; XP introduced a 64 bit OS early 2002 (?), that´s 18 years ago...
We discard too soon just to keep the market going. We "solve" the problem by changing the question instead of finding the answer.

Yet, our basic needs remain the same. If it wasn´t for programmed obsolescence, I bet most of us would be happy running a revised version of W95 or 98.

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Sometimes a little bit of knowledge is dangerous.
We think we know what we are talking about but really it is just a bad experience and that is usually based on inexperience.
Calling W10 spyware is just plain ignorance.
But ultimately the consumer doesn't have to be right or wrong after all it's their money.

quote:

Originally posted by 0-0:
Yet, our basic needs remain the same. If it wasn´t for programmed obsolescence, I bet most of us would be happy running a revised version of W95 or 98.
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I would suggest you go watch a few Computer Chronicles on YouTube. I'm pretty sure you would not want to go back to the hardware and software running 10 - 30 years ago, even though "our basic needs remain the same". Your premise is questionable.

quote:

Originally posted by 0-0:
We discard too soon just to keep the market going.
We "solve" the problem by changing the question instead of finding the answer.

Yet, our basic needs remain the same.
If it wasn´t for programmed obsolescence, I bet most of us would be happy running a revised version of W95 or 98.

0-0

I going to have to disagree with you.
It may seem like programmed obsolescence but it is merely the progression of technology advancements.

The fact that it happens so rapidly compared to other industries can be frustrating to some.
The advancement of software and hardware goes hand in hand.
The result is why you can't run Windows 98 (or any early OS) on a modern Intel hardware platform.

It is mostly that some simply do not want to be educated or learn new technologies.
It is the reason for dumbed-down OS's like Apple flourished, and simplistic Apps exist.

Not that everyone wants, needs or should be a computer programmer but those who are made it possible for much computing today to become easy.
Touch, click, result.

The net result is YES good for business but I stop short of any conspiracy theories.

Hey, if it is too much for anyone - just grab a Bic Pen, Yellow Pad, a Calculator and a Land Line so you are GTG.

ok, so in your opinion, which part of this article from this source is wrong?

http://technerdreview.com/wind...e-is-how-to-opt-out/