Posted on 07/17/2014 9:17:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
Not content to blow both feet off with a shotgun, Microsoft is going for the kneecaps now by blackmailing it’s customers. If you are still dumb enough to use Windows, you are about have your wallet shaken down by Microsoft in a familiar yet still unwelcome way.We don’t feel the need to sugarcoat this much because the company’s behavior is so blatant and uncaring it is almost staggering. Worse yet the victims, that would be almost all Windows users, have only themselves to blame because the pattern has been well laid out for years now. Microsoft has been unapologetically blackmailing users for years, anyone who bought one of their products in the last few years should have known better.
(Excerpt) Read more at semiaccurate.com ...
Zorin just released OS 9 LTS. I love it.
I've bought three machines with XP. All of them the OS has held up. Between three machines only one reformat and then because granddaughter locked me out of the machine. XP was a workhorse, very easy to learn and adapt to, easy to resolve issues, easy to understand.
In March because of the cut off I bought a new machine with WINDERS 8 it's 8 I hate. If I had wanted an X-Box I would have bought one. The learning curve was weeks not hours. Commands hidden in obscure locations you had to go through a lot more steps to find anything. The worst part of it was I'm on dial up. Some Twits at MS thought a nearly 900MB upgrade as they called it was great.
My complaints? IE crashes constantly. IE doesn't like it when you use windows instead of TABs. The infernal CLOUD I like to have never figured out how to stop so I could use the machine too. Hard to read Fonts sizes in the places like My PC. The Peek a Boo annoying settings in the right side that show up when you don't want them and won't show up when you do. The stupid Start Page and the Hidden X to click out. Why? Some Nerd at MS pulls these stunts just to call it an upgrade? I miss XP.
WINDERS 8 will be the last dollar from me unless they get their act together and put out a quality product once again. W/8 was put out aimed at one specific consumer base the Tablet users. The NERDS also though Touch Screen on a Desktop was a good idea. The default Mail client was pathetic. Another annoying thing is on dial up with XP I could download and still access sites. But if the machine takes a notion it has to send something it becomes unusable. Uploads should have the option of "only when machine is idle". The good old MSCONFIG works but seriously who can figure it out once you get to System Configuration? You have no way of knowing what is doing what so you can do a Selective Start Up and Services TAB is a lot worse.
W/8 isn't user friendly. Computer Geeks who like to fool around for hours on end configuring their computer may love it but for many users W/8 is a nightmare.
I understand some things change in time. I also understand an OS can only be patched so many times. BTW W/8 patches in MB's exceeds what XP had in a lifetime by at least over half already. It's junk. It's a sorry OS that look like some high schoolers were the quality assurance testers and likely even the program writers.
I've avoided LINUX because people have said you'll spend a lot of time learning it, configuring it etc. Well at least it's FREE. MS corporate arrogance abandoned the consumer base who got it to number one to start with.
Extended support means free security patches, and they have currently committed extended support until 2020. So the article is flat out wrong.
There are plenty of choices.
List of Linux distributions
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions
List of BSD operating systems
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_BSD_operating_systems
Debian Linux itself is fairly easy to install from the instructions at the site without being too heavy. Many other distributions are based on it. If your machine is not very new or powerful, the Xfce install is alright (XFCE: type of window manager, GUI, whatever—very light and fast).
It’s best to look around the site of any particular Linux distribution for familiarity (find the package archive for your version, various kinds of instructions, etc.). It’s all much easier than during the mid-’90s—easy as installing Windows, IMO, and much faster to install. The jargon is different from that of Windows and requires some familiarization along the way.
If you have plenty of computer power, prefer the utmost in ease of use and like to interface with many gadgets, maybe a distribution like Ubuntu would be the way to go. And there are many other choices.
Anyway, most who make the transition are glad that they did. Once familiar with a Linux system, the nuisances are far fewer.
Thanks for the post. My win8.0 machine gets updates, so that part of the article is incorrect.
But look at the news of msoft layoffs as a sign of corporate health. Also, Balmer is gone along with the win8 designer- But their model is broken. MS wont disappear, just kind of tread water.
Running as a non-administator is good security practice no matter the operating system.
Ubuntu Linux on a usb drive works well for me- but so does windows 8.
Fortunately most laser printers out there will work just fine with HP drivers - the LaserJet 4 used to be my goto, but since it was discontinued after XP I've since switched to the LJ 5200 PCL driver. It typically doesn't matter what brand the printer is, HP drivers seem to have a 'keep it simple' reliability to them.
Thanks.
Thanks I’ll take a look maybe get something loaded into one of my old machines to get used to it. MS needs to get it’s act together. W8 was a disaster they refuse to admit just like VISTA and W/ME were. If MS follows it’s pattern 9 might work. It seems every other OS that MS puts out is dysfunctional trash ware and that forces them to clean up their act for the next one.
You make less profit by selling shoddy product long term. Security conscious users have moved to Linux because MS make poor business decision. IF they think they make more profit selling insecure product, then they’re wrong
Charlie has some ax to grind.
Microsoft has its flaws but, what doesn’t.
There are tradeoffs for any OS and as far as I’m concerned I’d rather be in charge of my firewalls and other means of defense.
If Microsoft didn’t suck today, one day they would be proven vulnerable, while everyone dreamed of sugar plum fairies, only to awaken to A Nightmare on Elm street.
If Microsoft were another automobile company I’d be very happy to see their ass kicked but, they only make the engine, with other hardware providers building their version of the latest and greatest.
Apple, on the other hand, builds the whole enchilada and we rightfully expect better control over the finished product, the same as we would expect Enzo Ferrari to have final approval on something beautiful.
still, I fooking hate learning new things and if I switch to Apple I’d lose time tinkering, whereas with Microsoft I just build on what I already know.
I’m fine with “It Smells Inside” and MicroCrap.
Yes. Here is the Microsoft Support Lifecycle Policy FAQ:
http://support.microsoft.com/gp/lifepolicy
Free security update support continues in the extended support phase.
The best way to find out if linux is for you is to download the image from Ubuntu, burn a bootable CD, the select the “run from CD option.” You can run full linux sessions without having to commit.
I’m running 8.1 now but was not impressed with the interface or the way they hid the settings I regularly change. So far, though, it’s as stable as my XP machine but I have a decent broadband connection and vet all my apps carefully.
That’s because HP created a standard language, PCL, that is used in almost all laser printers. Any driver for a printer that uses PCL should support the basic functions of any PCL printer. I remember in my DOS programming days there were a couple of programs that would convert the PCL text into a TIFF file that we could then send to a fax card. Our app would produce the output to a text file, then this program would pick it up, convert it, then fax it to the client. The program was run from a command line with the fax number and file name as arguments.
I’m considering putting Mint on as a primary OS and using VM to run Windows for the very few areas where Windows is “necessary”.
A shill for Linux?
Given that one of the headline features of the upcoming Yosemite release is seamless application and workflow integration between OS X and iOS that plays well into the already significant iOS penetration in the Enterprise.
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