how about a free open-source window compatible operating system

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Still a way off but it is coming

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Reply to
David Eather
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Next time Windows goes belly up I will try it. Either that or Linux, and I think I have a copy of Lindows somewhere. I am not upgrading from bad to worse, every "better" OS from Microsoft removes some things I WANT and I USED.

Want details say so, but the answer will sound like a rant, which what it is.

Reply to
jurb6006

Win 7 is really good. Just works.

If you add Classic Shell and a webcam app and Irfanview and Crimson Editor, you can get stuff done.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

lunatic fringe electronics
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Reply to
John Larkin

Let's not exaggerate. Win7 is pretty good by Windows standards. Windows versions follow a path of ups and downs, and Win7 is definitely an "up" version (with its predecessor and successor being serious "down" versions).

It is all about what you want to get done. For me, Windows is mostly useless until I've installed msys2, svn and git clients, Eclipse, pdfCreator, Foxit, Thunderbird, Firefox, Chrome, peazip, LibreOffice, Python, MikTeX, and a few other bits and pieces (including, of course, Irfanview and Crimson Editor). Then I can start installing specific software such as embedded toolchains and that kind of thing.

When I set up a Linux Mint system, more than half of that is installed by default - in far less time than it takes a new PC with Windows "pre-installed" to /actually/ install itself from its hard disk. And then you have another hour or so clearing out the adware and crapware and demoware that comes with most Windows machines.

Installing the other basic software on Linux is far faster and simpler than on Windows, because it is all there in the repositories.

And once you have got that far, Windows is still missing countless features that I need for my work.

Still, there are other things that I can only do under Windows, or that are more efficient with Windows. I have a Windows PC and a Linux PC in my office, and need both of them.

Reply to
David Brown

I think Windows 10 is a decent OS for a performance-oriented desktop PC, but I run Linux as the primary OS on my more resource-constrained laptops. No better way to turn an ok-but-not-fantastic mobile processor like an i3 or m3 into a slouching pig than install a recent version of Windows on that kind of "budget" laptop (500 bucks or so is not exactly pocket change for me.)

Reply to
bitrex

[snip]

Win10 is the exception that breaks the rule that all even numbered windows releases are a pile of steaming dingoes kidneys.

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Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

A fully updated-to-the-last-update Windows XP SP3 install is a fine OS to run in VM, on modern hardware it's screaming fast even running multiple instances through hardware virtualization. That's what I use to run "legacy" software; VirtualBox has good support for USB/parallel/serial passthrou and all the old drivers for external hardware I have whose software won't run post Vista, installs and works great.

I don't think I personally have a pressing need for something like ReactOS when it's so easy to just use the actual legacy OS.

Reply to
bitrex

Well, I'm an electronics design engineer, not a software developer and certainly not someone who wants to install OS's. I bought a mess of Dell computers with W7 installed and went to work.

Linux people seem to spend a lot of time messing around with Linux.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 

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Reply to
John Larkin

Well, the spyware aspect is fairly disturbing.

Cheers

Phil Hobbs

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Dr Philip C D Hobbs 
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Reply to
Phil Hobbs

I spend close to zero time messing with linux. I quit windows largely because of how long it took to install everything.

NT

Reply to
tabbypurr

Windows OS update times are often absurd too, without adjusting the settings it seems to pretty much perform them any time it wishes, even when you're in the middle of something or on startup when you really need to read that e-mail, right now. Then sits there for 15 minutes with a percentage counter crawling along "Please do not turn off your computer, updating: 7%"

Reply to
bitrex

Well, don't do that.

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John Larkin         Highland Technology, Inc 
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Reply to
John Larkin

Yeah, but they intentionally skipped Windows 9, for... reasons. So it's still true, but they inverted polarity so now we have to keep track of that.

Tim

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Reply to
Tim Williams

Windows is like a British car from the 60's. You only get to drive it on Sundays because you spend the rest of the week keeping it running.

Rick C.

Reply to
gnuarm.deletethisbit

Interesting idea, but Windows compatibility is a moving target, and MS have hugely more developers. I'm sure M$ would deliberately keep extending interfaces and deprecating old functions for no technically valid reason, just so that new software won't work with React until React's developers can catch up.

Sylvia.

Reply to
Sylvia Else

Quite true. MS seems to be making far too many changes that break utilities and existing software. Here's one example: 2) Windows 10 is being updated way too frequently (twice a year) and each new version changes something that breaks Classic Shell. And

3) Each new version of Windows moves further away from the classic Win32 programming model, which allowed room for a lot of tinkering. The new ways things are done make it very difficult to achieve the same customizations.

However, I don't believe it's totally intentional. My guess(tm) is that MS no longer tests their software. Instead, the software is forcibly installed on the customers computer, which reports back to MS any problems via "telemetry". By moving the former software testing people into writing new code, MS can make more mistakes quicker than ever before. By packaging updates into large "roll up" updates, the number of unique configurations in the hands of customers is reduced, making telemetry more effective. Never mind that these updates take an hour or more.

Under such conditions, making a binary compatible work alike operating system, or a simple utility, is not going to be easy.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

I know exactly how you feel. It is like Microsoft is doing "embrace, extend, extinguish" on their own product lines.

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Reply to
David Eather

You won't be saying that when a compulsory windows update kills your most useful application.

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Reply to
David Eather

Yes, i have been playing with it. Here is an OS in _beta_ superior in many ways compared to any of the M$ OSes with regard to BUGS.

Reply to
Robert Baer

At present I only have one sacrificial test machine on Win10 since I find Win7 stable and perfectly adequate for my needs. In fact I went out and bought a Win7 Pro desktop just before Win10 really took off.

I find OS's and software in general mature with age so that the bugs in brand fresh new stuff (rushed out) tend to be annoying and bad. I have been on both sides of the fence and know just how important the CEO's annual bonus is when balanced against customer satisfaction. You can always send out an online update when the customers start complaining but if you don't ship enough product by year end then CEO on warpath.

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Martin Brown
Reply to
Martin Brown

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