feckin' windows 10

Unless I'm missing something spectacular, is there such a real *need* to run Windows anymore ?

The only Enterprise piece of software really lacking is Outlook.

Especially since you can run a stripped down windows in a small virtual machine for the few programs that you need that will only run on that platform..

Only people who need a native windows are the real time game players where direct access to massively expensive video hardware is de rigeur...

I'm holding off installing that for now

Oh, of course. Like what I have on my system :)

Ah, one area of computing that has - since I first started writing in

Although that is a bit of a contrived situation. As HP have shown. it's entirely possible to support *nix to a high degree if you choose to.

Jim GM4 DHJ ... pretended :

My Win10 Laptop was absolutely fine this time around - usually after an update, it will tend to fail to restart properly or crash unexpectedly.

'Crazy Jim' you mean? No, I don't think so.

Cheers, T i m

still no idea what you are on about ...

tim tim not nice and dim

computers make me sick...I just want something that WORKS....not interested in all this s**te.....

Do you have the box it came in and the receipt, I can help you with what to say when you take it back.

teehee.

Cheers, T i m

And that's a big point (programmer).

If you do want to run games and if you have a wide range of hardware that may never had Linux drivers written for it, then it has to be Windows (Steam Machine anyone?) ;-)

eg. Most of my laptops dual boot a Windows and a Linux and whilst in most cases Linux might have installed quicker and easier (picked up the drivers during install, not the Windows update or manually), and if you just want to use the std built in apps (thinking say Mint here V say W10) then you could probably do more 'soft stuff' OOTB on Linux than Windows.

However, as soon as you try to add say some vehicle diagnostic software you often find it's Windows only (especially clones of the mainstream stuff). If you can get to run under WINE you then have to deal with the app looking for a COMM: port but Linux not relating to those directly / easily.

Or it finds some parts of the hardware but doesn't let you do all things (you can print but not scan etc).

It can work the other way round of course, like the multiple XBox One DVB-T2 tuners I have that work easily on Linux / TVHeadend but I don't think can seen by Windows at all (ironic give MS designed / sold the Xbox). Only because a man in a shed bothered to write the firmware for it. Who knows if it will ever be updated though.

Yeah. I have it on an i5 desktop and Mint Cinnamon 64 bit and it flys ... but it's a matter of finding things to use it with over Windows on the same machine that I can do much more with easier (partly because of familiarity and partly because you have so many good (properly finished and featured) and free programs under Windows). Forte Agent, Irfanview are a couple of examples (and running them under WINE or in a Windows VM isn't a solution to the 'issue' of there not being Linux versions (and Pan isn't a clone of FA as FA doesn't hang like Pan does on several reasonable machines).

I have two people currently running Linux as their primary OS, one the only OS. He had it on a desktop and a laptop (both Mint) but the desktop seems to have gone wrong again and whilst I fixed it (or it fixed itself while I was trying stuff) the last time I went there to look at it, I am far less confident re the thought / hope of any faultfinding than I am Windows.

Like, Windows is fairly likely to run in a GUI Safe mode and from that I can get them to launch Teamviewer and then see what I can do.

I can sometimes get them to boot a live Linux DVD, get online, download TV and launch it and me get access, it's just I don't generally have any idea what to do next, outside trying some randomly Googled 'Fix your Linux' type commands and seeing if I can stumble on something. ;-(

Linux (or more accurately, the GNU bit) is slowly getting better that way though, more of a 'Control Panel' type thing so less need for the CLI (driver Manager FWIW etc).

Now if you are a programmer then it makes much more sense. ;-)

Cheers, T i m

You could turn some stuff off, but then it would be little better than running 15063 or so.

When you smash it and break stuff, then you get some cycles back. And Pro is better for this, because you can do some of what's needed with GPEDIT (there are two controls to disable Windows Defender, not just one). The controls in the GUI to disable Windows Defender don't work, but GPEDIT does.

And this is an example of trashing Windows Update.

rename wuaueng.dll wuaueng.dll.bak

The hard part is figuring out an environment where you can get that to work.

The whole project is a lot like putting lipstick on a pig.

And they can ladle on abuse, faster than you can buy faster hardware to compensate. All OSes are carrying out "container" projects, designed to slow things down. (Snaps, flatpaks, WSL2, you name it.) They want to enable Hyper-V on the machines, to support their container ideas. But a lot of machines, most of the machines I've got, can't have Hyper-V turned on. As SLAT/EPT support is missing in hardware. I have just one machine with SLAT/EPT on it. Second Level Address Translation is used to make gamer video cards work better in a Hyper-V environment.

If Jim just wants to use the machine, he could put ChromeOS (like a ChromeBook uses) on it. I have a USB stick with the ChromeOS installer on it. But when I tested that on two computers, it installed fine on one machine but failed to install on the other. That's why I can't tell Jim about that :-) He would say something about fecking computers if his machine was a dud afterwards. I was really surprised when that installer worked. I thought for sure it would never work.

I'd sell copies of Win98, but there's not much you can do with Win98 today. Web browsing wouldn't work. He couldn't Youtube and stuff. Where's the fun if you can't Youtube ?

Some day when all this COVID is over, Jim can drop into a store and test a ChromeBook and see if he likes it. Maybe that would be less likely to brick.

I can't recommend Linux, because at least some of the Linux distros are getting to behave like Windows. And you still need nerd commands to escape from messes. Looking up all those nerd commands is hard work (...systemd).

Paul

You have a point.

If only they made analog computers, ones without updates.

Paul

I created a SystemRescueCD with SSH enabled by default. (Possibly the only one in existence). Boot from that, and as long as the machine has a wired network connection you can SSH in to start digging and fixing.

That, chroot, and apt(-get) or dpkg and you can fix most things.

The biggest problem with Linux - and it's infected Android - is the bewildering variety of layouts and locations for they myriad versions of software for system settings. Invariably when someone tries to post an illustration to help it will be in a layout you don't have.

no I'm cheap and never but from a shop.....tee hee

computers are just not an acceptable consumer item .....

no idea what you are talking about...

that wasn't THIS machine which is working fine I have three other windows 10 road kill desktops one of which updated and the moose is fecked.....I am replacing a fuel tank at the moment or I would try another moose etc...

I lost the use of the mousepad on my laptop recently. A mouse plugged into a USB port did work. I eventually solved the problem by completely powering the device off. A problem with the BIOS firmware I presume.