Posted on 02/02/2015 9:11:15 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I was a Windows user for most of my life.
My family's first computer, which we got in 1991, ran Windows 3.0 and didn't come with a modem. (I remember helping my dad install one a few months later. We signed up for a Prodigy account, and I spent countless hours playing MadMaze after that.)
From then on we were a Windows family. In 1995 we bought a PC with Windows 95 and AOL. In 2000 we got a Dell that we'd eventually upgrade to Windows XP.
It wasn't until I joined the school paper my sophomore year in high school that I tried a Mac for the first time. I didn't look back after that. I declared myself a Mac user for life.
This was shortly after Apple released OS X, the same operating system Macs still use today. It looked better than Windows. It didn't get hammered with viruses and malware like Windows. The programs were more powerful for designing and publishing our school paper. The first thing I did with the truckload of money I got for graduation was buy a PowerBook for college.
Over the past 11 years or so, I barely paid attention to Windows in my personal life. I reviewed a bunch of Windows laptops, but none of them thrilled me. And Windows seemed to be getting clunkier and more complicated, while OS X kept getting cleaner and easier to use.
Windows Vista was a disaster. Windows 7 was better, but it wasn't good enough to make me want to switch. Windows 8 was a mess, and I'd argue that it was a mistake for Microsoft to release it.
But Microsoft's new version of Windows, Windows 10, is different, and I think it's the beginning of a fresh start for Microsoft's flagship operating system.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
I am running APL\1130 on an old 1973 IBM 1130 minicomputer and it’s fine.
CP/M should is good enough for anybody!
I'm in your situation. I have quite a few Win7 machines (one laptop, one desktop, three VMs), and they all perform pretty much flawlessly.
I played with a Win8.1 desktop for about 10 minutes and nearly puked. It's fine for mobiles, I suppose, but it sucks swamp water on a regular computer.
I have been playing with the Win10 "Technical Preview" for a couple weeks, and I will say it's a damn sight better than Win8.1. But it's no great improvement overall, and it's still harder to work with than it has to be.
And IMO it can't hold a candle to Win7. As of now, I'm sticking with Win7 until 2020 when they stop the security updates.
How's your PDP-8 doing?
Ah, progress.
TRS-DOS scares me, too futuristic.
NOBODY needs more than 64kb of memory.
Google “This Week in Tech” and “Windows Weekly.” They have had a lot of info about W10. I had the tech preview on a machine for testng and it looked great. Too early a release though so back to W8.1 until the full release is out.
In any case Leo Laporte, Paul Thoroutt and Mary Jo Foley have posted very interesting reports about W10 even from the recent event in Redmond.
Valves and Relays Forever!!!
Is that a pic of the one at the Smithsonian?
Real Men use core memory.
> Win-7 is sliding toward obsolescence ...
I have bad news for you. ALL versions of Windows start "sliding toward obsolescence" a year after they're released.
Hell, some were obsolete even BEFORE they were released. Witness Vista.
Win7 has hit the end of free maintenance calls, and no more major features will be added. That's all. Win7 will remain perfectly functional for the next 5 years, until they stop the security updates.
I’m using notches carved on a stick and it’s perfectly fine, except that the wood shavings keep jamming up my keyboard.
FWIW, I still have an XP box running. It's not on the network, so I'm not worried about it.
I ordered a Surface Pro 3 on Friday. Patiently, sort of, awaiting it’s arrival.
I still have my 32KB plane (surplus) from the mid-70's. And it still works, albeit the memory cycle time is around a microsecond, so it's only useful with my old 8-bit 6809 homebrew system.
Pfft. I'm responding to this by tapping out binary code on a telegraph key.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.