Goodbye, sweet prince
*Good night
There’s still a pretty good amount of people still using it, it seems.
I feel pretty comfortable saying that was the last good one, perhaps the best one, and it’s been downhill ever since.
It hasn’t been steadily downhill. There was a plunge downwards with Windows 8, then 8.1 recovered a little and 10 more, before Windows 11 undid the gains.
Win 11 has as many wins as blunders
Well, I used to be quite positive about Windows 11. The WSL thing is cool, being able to use bash and Linux tools. The hypervisor thing is cool, enabling fast virtual machines. And the styling is all round better than any previous Windows at least since Windows 7. But then I’ve had systems broken by updates more than once recently, everything feels slow, applications hang all the time, the Start menu still doesn’t work, even opening File Explorer leaves me wondering whether it noticed my mouse click, I have to fight it to create a local user account instead of a Microsoft account, fight it to avoid unwanted tracking, fight it to stop the ads popping up in all kinds of corners by running a network-wide DNS filter which reports huge amounts of requests to Microsoft telemetry domains, fight it to make sure file don’t end up in OneDrive, and it still can’t handle USB sticks reliably, it still steals focus constantly from wherever I’m typing, there are far too many services eating up resources, and so on.
It’s just constant low-level frustration that I just don’t have with other operating systems, because Microsoft has cut out QA and spent years prioritizing marketing strategies, gimmicks and cosmetics instead of improving the things that matter to users.
you use Linux now, right?
I use Windows a lot of the time, because I need to use several pieces of professional Windows software. But yes, I use Linux some of the time too, and I find it more relaxing.
what distro?
As long as recall is a thing I will never move to 11. I’ll move to Linux.
I hate Microsuck for this. I just want to come home from work and have my PC work not have to play IT guy whenever Linux acts up. :(
Windows 7 recovered from the disaster of Vista. Windows XP recovered from Me. It has been a bumpy ride for a long time.
Windows 7 was just vista with dipping sauce.
By the time 7 came out Vista was fine. Vista was the usual bugs of a new OS, plus the new drivers which most manufactures decided to not do properly so they made Vista look much worse than it actually was. The much higher system requirements really didn’t help.
If you bought a new machine with hardware that came out post Vista’s launch you probably had a good experience with Vista. I personally had 0 issues with my machine in 2008.
Vista paved the way for Win7 by highlighting the abysmal driver and support issues. Which got significant work done on it so by the time Win 7 acme out things were in a good state.
Vista was, much like ME, was a decent OS hampered by its time and hardware, but have been meme’d into festering shitpiles.
I’m on board with your Vista–>7 thoughts, but I do take issue with ME. It never was a decent OS and it very much was a steaming shitpile. It was far too much new code stupidly rushed for the holiday season. I remembering installing it being a roll of the dice even with the same hardware. It would work, then it wouldn’t, then it might work with some odd issues, then it deffo would not at all. Hours wasted trying.
I really did try, but never had a good experience with WinME and I know of no one else who did. Even first Vista was better (though saying that makes me shudder).
Vista’s major problem was that it released during a time that the PC industry was racing to the bottom in terms of pricing. All those initial Vista machines were woefully inadequate for the OS they ran. 1-2GB RAM, which was perfectly fine for XP, was pathetic for Vista, yet they sold them anyway. If you bought a high-end machine, you likely had a pretty decent experience with Vista. If you bought a random PC at Walmart? Not so much.
I really don’t see the issue with W11. It works fine. As did 10, and 8.1. I’ve not encountered any ads or many of the other shitty things that are constantly reported on.
If you’re a technical person, or you run Windows Pro instead of Home, you probably won’t see as much crap. But there’s a ton of new telemetry/tracking in Win10 that’s even worse in 11.
As someone who’s been part of OS and software deployment since before WinNT, Win11 is hot garbage unless we do all sorts of preconfig to not make it so.
This isn’t really new, just that much worse in 11. With the previous versions of Windows, we didn’t have to configure as many Group Policies to restrict as much nonsense. And the home versions of 10/11 are so much worse, especially since they don’t support GP, you have to Registry Stamp any changes you want to make to disable all the telemetry garbage - stamps which an update can easily revert. At least GP is reapplied at boot/login.
I don’t let my family buy Home versions of Windows. Pro costs more, because it’s worth it from a support perspective.
Yep, I’ve said this before.
Windows 7 was the last great OS by microsoft.
It was light enough to not be a bother on even used hardware.
It was exceedingly stable and didnt need regular reformat and reinstalls like all previous windows OS’s.
Didnt need to be constantly rebooted every time you exited a big task like previous Windows.
and you were able to do pretty much anything on it easily and without much fuss.
and, outside of like driver installs, the OS pretty much stayed out of your way.
It was brilliant. It was the best.
It was the peak of the curve. 3.11/95/98/ME/NT/XP all built up to 7, and 8/10/11 are all falling further and further away from 7.
The only reason to get rid of windows 7 is that there was no further way to monetize it since it had pretty good market saturation. If it wasnt for that Win7 would probably be the default OS for another 10+ years.
https://time.com/12854/microsoft-to-take-windows-xp-off-life-support-despite-its-29-market-share/
XP was a whopping 29% at EOL which is impressive to me that 7 is only 3%. But it makes sense that 10 has such a large market share since it was free and ran on (almost) everything that ran 7.
I think a large part of it is how most of the machines that could run 7 can run everything after 7 (maybe just need more RAM), but many many MANY machines running XP couldn’t move forward because the CPU or the integrated graphics just couldn’t take it.
My hard drive couldn’t take all the background shit in 10, it would literally stutter scanning my files. When I tried to disable the anti-virus and it told me “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that”
Wish I could upvote you for your username! Haha
OK guys, guess it’s time to upgrade to Windows 8. I bet it’ll be great!
could give Linux a try. Its come along way, even if you’re a gamer.
OK guys, time to upgrade to Redhat 6 from 1999. I bet it’ll be great! It has Kernel 2.2, and I’m hearing good things about the upgrade to ipchains from ipfwadm!
They told me Windows 10 was the last Windows and I intend to make them fulfill that promise. And when I fail to make them fulfill their promise, I will keep it for myself.
/sigh at this point i feel like “that guy” but M$ didnt say 10 would be the last Microsoft, a specific employee said it in a specific situation, that in context was pretty obviously “latest” and not “final”.
The internet just took that one line and ran with it, as they are known to do.
/sigh, I barely use it, and when I do, it pisses me off. I’ll try to remember this anyway, thanks.
Win10 is the last windows. Defang it and put it in a VM. Still a better UI than the competition although KDE plasma is getting close, dolphin is very nice
That’s just because you’ve been raised on it.
I feel Microsoft is in for a huge surprise when they end support for all versions of Windows except one that requires you to throw out your old hardware. At the same time, Linux is better than it’s ever been and is almost, if not just as easy to use as Windows. Not to mention, most work is done from a browser these days.
I’m going to say there’s a 10% chance Windows 11 gets BIOS support (or rather drops UEFI requirement) and drops TPM/SecureBoot requirement in the next three years. I think that’s more likely than extending Windows 10 longer.
Aww, that’s the last version of windows I ever owned.
I don’t think I’ve ever owned any version of Windows.
Technically nobody else has either.
Well, Microsoft has at least.
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There was official support for Windows 7?
Only the embedded variety meant to run on machines like ATMs, POS systems and other long term support machines.
Windows has been alternating between good and crap for decades. ME, crap. XP, good. Vista, crap. 7, good. 8/8.1, crap. 10, good…ish. 11, steaming feces. 12 will probably be at least half decent.
I doubt that will be true anymore. 12 will probably have even more spyware and ads than 11.
I really ought to switch my main pc to Linux.
Do it today.
The most Windows-like desktop(and more) on Linux is KDE, second maybe to Cinnamon, and XFCE if we’re talking XP-ish and classic.
On Linux, your underlying system is not reliant on your GUI. They are not bonded in any sense, and the GUI can be any number of different programs, known as Desktops.
You can run a Ubuntu system with the KDE desktop, or the Gnome desktop, Unity, or XFCE, or Cinnamon… or maybe two or three at once and choose at login! he’s a madman!
I like how GNOME looks, I’ve messed around with it a little on my laptop.
Fake news. MS said that Win 10 was the last one they were going to make so all of those others you mentioned are obviously fake.
10, good…ish.
Windows 10 was never really good, its launch was very rocky. Most people just stockholmed their way into liking 10.
I’m a heretic, but Vista > 7 and 8.1 > 10.
I’ve had the opposite experience - 10 sucked, but I have no complaints about 11… Though it might make a difference that my experience with 10 was after my old (win7 vintage) laptop took the free update, while my 11 experience is based on a new laptop that came with it preinstalled…
I have an old ASUS laptop with a 670M on Windows 7, any prayer the jump to Linux for drivers will be smooth? 🤞
I have an i914900KF desktop on windows 11 (I have to use it) and loathe the OS lol. Definitely wish there were programs for chopping down Windows 11 spyware crap.
with a 670M
Your GPU doesn’t support latest drivers, and older drivers are a nuisance.
Unironically, the best bet for them is nvidia 540xx drivers on the AUR with an LTS kernel.
I’m not up on current Linux drivers, how good/bad is that news? 🥴
Bummer 😓
o7
What you mean ended? It was just released the other day…
Windows 7 still has a similar market share to desktop Linux. I suspect that some of those users are holdouts, rejecting the Cortana nonsense but too stubborn or lazy to switch. But I’d also wager that, in the longer term, a decent portion of that 3% ends up on Linux.
At least on 10 it is relatively simple to disable Cortana and forget it exists. I can’t believe Microsoft is trying to make Copilot key a thing.
Copilot key
I’m dreading the time I’m gonna have to buy a laptop now
Give me ReactOS or give me … fedora.
Lately I’ve been using OpenSUSE GNU/Linux and so far I’ve been relatively happy with. The installation process is simple and concise, and the system is rock-solid and easy to use.
Wait, just now?
Then why did I read online that it was insecure as hell to stay in Windows 8.1? (I was setting up an old lap for a mom’s friend, with 4 painful GBs of RAM).
Also, doesn’t Windows 10 support supposedly end next year?
I think I am not getting the kind of support that Windows provides.
Microsoft offers a long-term support version of Windows called LTSC that’s stripped down, only receives security updates, and is supported for 10 years from its release.
It’s only officially available to business clients, but with a little yar har fiddeldy dee, you too can experience extended support!
Peice of shit ready?
Point of Sale Ready… PoS properly describes every single one of those softwares.
