The end of Windows 7

Ta.

Yes, that can take a time, especially if there is any data to move with it. With an empty drive it's nearly instant. ;-)

Yup, that's one of the frustrating things about W10, getting back to all the basic stuff you need just to do what you want is more complicated.

Sounds about right.

Cheers, T i m

Whilst Mint is ok for most people to use OOTB, it's still Linux under the DE and therefore little better than the best user Lini re fixing things if / when they go wrong or doing things that are often Windows Centric in the first place.

Like, if a man in a shed hasn't made something easier by writing a GUI interface for some Linux CLI stuff, for most users it's all just gobbledygook.

Cheers, T i m

I've been moaning about this for a couple of years + sync to Android. I'm still running Microsoft Outlook on XP syncing to an old HP phone with Windows CE.

I've flirted with a modicum of success with Evolution and DAVx but not convinced enough to do away with my old trusted system.

This works to a point then bit by bit old software becomes unusable or you can't run the version of software you want. On this (XP) Firefox is no longer updated and I've not found an alternative browser that will run. Banking and financial sites will no longer let me access via Firefox. I guess Thunderbird will not be far behind.

The latest version of a suite of photography programs I use require Win7 or later.

No doubt other items will follow suit.

DAV - like a lot of Linux stuff - worked for a bit. Then stopped and nobody cared.

Evolution is currently the best of a bad bunch. It can connect to Exchange after a fashion. But I wouldn't trust it in a production environment. Mind you, almost everything these days is nowhere near reliable enough for serious work. Mysterious when you chain a load of half arsed products together, the weakness multiply, not recede.

I had a customer who was complaining about a full mailbox. I pointed out they had 19GB of stuff in the trash folder, and it would be easy to empty. Turns out they used the trash folder for general "archiving"!

They took some convincing that this was a somewhat precarious practice. :-)

Really? I'm using Debian 10.2 & not had any trouble with my Barclays Bank & Barclaycard Accounts.

I've not needed, or missed, Windows for around 21 years.

Pale Moon has not supported XP for over a year now you can now only download it for win7 onwards

X86 more then likely Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. If you don't see "x64 Edition" listed, then you're running the 32-bit version of Windows XP. If "x64 Edition" is listed under System, you're running the 64-bit version of Windows XP.

Win 10 is actually more flexible in that respect that previous versions

- you can install without a key and not bother activating. It will eventually acquire a nag screen, and you can't alter some UI customisation parameters, but it will keep on working and won't do as 7 does a drop dead insisting that you activate before you can do anything.

(and it avoids that really annoying party trick where win 7 could sometimes skip the whole "you have 3 days to activate routine" and demand you do it now, before you have a chance to install working network drivers so you can actually do an online activation)

Mark <Mark@127.0.0.1> posted

Thanks. That's really helpful.

Yeah, I have that situation on a little box I have round Mums connected to her TV, dual booting W10 with Linux Mint. I use it as a general purpose PC and as a TV playing box (bluetooth keyboard with integrated touchpad).

Whilst I mainly use Mint, I do use / need Windows sometimes but probably not sufficiently often to justify the COA.

Yeah, I've come across that but nothing deal breaking (so far).

;-)

Yup. Seen that and assumed I'd missed something (like a week or two, like you can when retired). ;-)

Cheers, T i m

This is just for home personal use. No Exchange in sight and trying to avoid The Cloud.

Ooops.

Quite.

I'm not surprised they do this sort of thing though and they are the very people unlikely to either check the (or for) help on usage, so just do what they think is right (because they can). And most PC's don't come with the sort of manual that would actually help them with the *OS* issues they are likely to encounter. They really need a 'Dummies Guide', but even when I've suggested / provided such, few have referenced them or found they help with the sort of thing they get caught out with.

I'm no longer surprised when people don't know what half of the keyboard characters are for example. ;-(

I was talking someone though connecting their WiFi and they had the little BT Hub info tab in front of him. He said he had used the key as per the info and in spite of trying 'for a couple of hours' (why do they do that?), couldn't get it connected.

I asked him if he had followed the case correctly as per the panel and he needed explanation on that (case). I then suggested that I thought the BT ones were typically all in lower case and he suggested there was a 'big h', 'because it was as tall as the numbers' etc. ;-)

Now this wasn't a stupid person, he could hold a good conversation about loads of things but his first trade was 'Blacksmith' (then a mechanic) and had never worked in an office or possibly spent much time at school.

Maybe it's actually a tribute to the software developers that 'ordinary people' can use these things at all! ;-)

Cheers, T i m

Then you are either very fortunate or simply don't do those things that are still highly Windowscentric?

Anyone who has wanted to run vehicle diagnostics (I have), access the configuration of things like WebCams that require IE / ActiveX to work or want to run some particular software / game, simply has to use Windows (and Windows in a VM is *still* running Windows).

And this is still now, it was even worse 20 years ago (Steam on Linux anyone)?

And I'm not knocking Linux here as I appreciate it for what it is and use it myself in various instances but if I had to choose just one OS to cover everything *I* need to do, it would have to be Windows.

FWIW, I'm currently (still) using XP (that has nearly been around for as long as you have been using non Windows OS's) on a Mac Mini that could also boot OSX but I haven't had the need for, well, ever really but used to do so just to see what it could do that I couldn't with Windows or Linux. The answer was 'very little' and certainly nothing that I couldn't equally do elsewhere and often better / easier.

I would really love to be able to use Linux as my daily desktop, because it's FREE, free (although that's less of a driver) and supposed to be more secure than Windows ... so who wouldn't choose that? Answer, anyone who needs things any other OS's don't support.

And one of the biggest hurdles to a broader integration of Linux into general desktop PC use is some of it's more fanatical advocates who continually defend it's right to 'Not be Windows' when most people CGAF about MS or Windows, they just want something that works as easily as Windows does for them at home and at work.

And by 'works' I don't just mean 'boots up every day when they turn it on' or is easy to install (because most don't install the OS themselves), but how easy is it to get fixed if / when it goes wrong and can they do *everything* they need on it and how likely is it to work with any hardware or software they have / buy.

I would love Linux (OSX needs Apple hardware) to become 'bigger' but can't see that happening soon (ever)?

How many chances does Linux need to 'get in there', every time MS come up with something that isn't popular?

Cheers, T i m

Same here especailly since IT services was outsourced to a compamy that are an on-site company. If I see a PC not working, I try to restart it, if it still doesn't work I contact them, and within 2-3 weeks they come and sort it. Think there's only 2 not working presently.

I find that Mac OS suites me, but I do like excel and even word to some extent although I don't need either for personal use, numbers works OK as does google docs which is also more useful at work than word or excel is.

I don't mind spending money on a computer then getting free OS updates/upgrades for the next 5 years or until my computer is too old.

Standard in unis, it's the same with hardware too and not just computers. What is interesting in when same Mac OS and windows is supported and you have to decide which platform is 'best'.

Perhaps sometimes you just can't have everything you want in the same package. Having something very customisable means more options and usualy you need to understand how to use them and when, but some just want things to work.

I doubt most need to worry about such thing now most peripherals are USB. It's not like many printers, scanners etc will only work on mac, windows or linux they pretty much work on them all. Unless there's something specific that is needed which is quite rare.

I agree I mean who wants to study for years and then not get paid for writing top end software. Most engineers want to be paid for their work, few can work for free.

Makes you wonder why it doesn;t happen, well I have a few ideas mostly down to money. I'd love to find a gas safe engineer that is willing to work for free. I'd like someone to drive me to and from work for free too.

One day LCARS will be free and able to do almost anything.... trouble is in todays world almost everyone wants paying to make or create.

Yeah, well peril of being an early adopter, I still have my snipped-for-privacy@hotmail.com account from 1995 which has it's uses. The only way to swerve any webmail interface is to connect to it like an exchange server. Hence using Evolution.

Is there any way of changing the fonts and colours used by windows itself ?. Win7 allowed this but Win10 seems to have adopted a particularly nasty set of deafult colours, one of which just looks like a dirty pink smudge on my PC. Can this be changed ?.

Certain colours used by Win 10 3rd party apps just don't seem to show up on my PC, like the set of grey horizontal dashes on the Met Office rain radar screen. On Win7 this was an obvious line of dashes but on Win10 is just a set of very faint smears. Only the vertical blue slider is still visible.

Andrew

I don't use hotmail, but Google suggests that you can access it using IMAP or POP3 like any other mail server?

SteveW