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Post by jojo on Nov 15, 2014 12:05:46 GMT
I know this has been mentioned here before but wondering if many have taken it up. I won't be. I don't see any need at all. I'm not in the least convinced that a pile of updates for some banking machines will be of any help to the majority of home users, certainly not me. And after M$ seemed to be so ambivalent about the consequences for genuine W7 users with its KB971033 update, I don't trust them now. I'm not convinced that XP or any of the M$ OSs need most of the updates at all. www.computerworld.com/article/2489870/microsoft-windows/windows-xp-hack-resurrects-patches-for-retired-os.html |
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Post by johnnybee on Nov 21, 2014 1:18:06 GMT
I've been saying this since Vista came out, Jojo - XP is still perfectly workable despite MS' insistence that everyone should "upgrade" to a later OS.
Not only that, the most you need on any XP installation is SP3 - any more than that is entirely superfluous, and *in all probability* the reason why some apps won't work with XP once they've been installed.
The only real change you need is to install a third-party browser rather than use IE - which I had some real problems with, and which turned out to be designed-in to IE9 by default, Microsofts "arm pinned up your back" method of forcing users to upgrade their OS.
Frankly, apart from XP SP3 I haven't installed ANY of MS's updates, EVER - just an indication of how important MS updates really were - or weren't!
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Post by johnnybee on Dec 10, 2014 1:01:20 GMT
Just to top this one off, I've just read an article in PCW that tells us XP is till being used by over 30% of home users, either as a main OS or installed on a "standby" PC in the event of their W7 or W8 systems going down.
Apparently Vista users dib in at 13%, Win7 at 36%, Win8 at 12% (great success THAT was) and 'others' at 9% - presumably Linux and a few oddball Mac users.
Considering that W8 is a default installed OS on nearly all new PC's, this leads me to ask the question of whether we have another Vista on our hands here; okay, desktops are still way behind tablets and the like, but I would have thought that W8 would have showed up much higher, given the more-or-less captive userbase with new purchases.
The only way I can see this happening is by new PC's being "converted" back to W7 from W8 - so whaddayathink, folks?
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Post by jojo on Dec 10, 2014 11:45:26 GMT
I've heard of a lot of problems with w8.
Seems to me M$ has a corporate suicide going on. It has two versions of W8 and a W10. Not sure why M$, (it's bad karma to ask for a pay rise) skipped past 9.
The alternatives are, in a word, dire. What makes them even worse is how no-one is surprised any more. We've all been abandoned in a sea of supposed intellectual superiority, where objective criticism is dismissed as an incapacity to understand.
I'm sticking with XP because it works. I tend to believe that many others are doing the same. How much longer that will last remains to be seem. We can hope someone comes up with an activation hack that actually works.
As things stand it looks likely we are all going to be pushed to the arms of Apple.
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Post by mikkh on Dec 10, 2014 13:41:52 GMT
I've thought W8 was another Vista for a long time, it also gave me hope they'd shot themselves in the foot regarding the next version because they're loathe to admit their mistakes.
Surprise, surprise, Windows 10 looks more like W7 and the stupid phone/tablet interface is all but gone.
It always amuses me people are loathe to upgrade their computer equipment, but wouldn't be seen dead with the same age technology in other household items - especially TV's
The 30% of XP owners are mostly those forced to use it because their PC's can't run anything else Microsoft flavoured
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Post by johnnybee on Dec 16, 2014 21:22:42 GMT
It's all very well spending a ruddy fortune on new bits of kit and GFX/sound systems, Mikk, but most of us have better things to spend momey on, partic'ly when the need for such has been generated by the likes of M$ who build obsolescence into their systems as a matter of business practice.
In short, they're holding a gun against our heads - either 'upgrade' or your systems won't work - and that's something I take serious exception to.
The same thing applies to TV's, DVD players and so on; the old ones WILL work, but not as well as the new ones, and if you want 1080P resolution then you have to pay a lot of money for it.
As for W10, I have to admit I haven't even looked at it yet; however from your description it sounds as if it might be worth a look, if only for comparison with W7 - is it available as a Beta download?
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Post by jojo on Dec 16, 2014 23:04:02 GMT
That really is it though johnnybee.
XP is stable and not affected by the endless updates which M$ likes to impose.
My machine also runs w7.
I'm not exactly loathed to update. I recently bought a new graphics card and have been using SSDs for a couple of years. I don't though see any point in chasing the latest gear for the sake of fashion.
I bought my wife a 7" tablet, using Android. It is principally for Skype. She doesn't know yet of course. It came today and I tried to fire it up. Would you believe it? Faulty. Almost impossible to input anything.
With XP, the wrinkles are mostly sorted or known. Most of the networking stuff is turned off. Moving to a new system is just going back to square one.
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Post by mikkh on Dec 17, 2014 0:55:03 GMT
Johnny It's a 'technical preview' according to Microsoft (see windows 10 preview thread) the rest of the world calls it beta though
It seems stable enough and updated itself a few days ago. You have to sign up with Microsoft first. Valid till April if I remember right
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