How many of you are OS holdouts / luddites? Still clinging to your favorite OS?

[etrin]

windows 7 here.
I just can't get over all the spyware that windows 10 has.
Yes I have heard the bs that windows 8 is just as bad and so is 7.
Windows 10, take out all the spyware and I will buy it.

 

[cbn]

I think Windows 7 still has value left in it, and my everyday PCs will still be running it.

One reason I like it is because it has Media Center (a DVR capable of legally recording DRM protected cable channels).

 

[Eug]

I upgraded all three of my machines to Win 10.

All were Win 7 before, but all were set to automatically update anyway. I found that to be the easiest. It got tedious manually dealing with updates.

Initially last year I wouldn't have recommended it for most people because there were way too many bugs with Win 10, and some applications were not supported, but the bugs are much less in 2016 and application support is better.

In my case my VPN app was a bit odd in Win 10, but worked with a simple workaround and all my other applications are supported fully, so I felt comfortable upgrading. The only issue is I lost Windows Media Center on one of them, but oh well.

---

OTOH, I'm stuck on old OSes for some of my Macs. Core Duos are acceptable performance-wise for surfing, but my Core Duo iMac is stuck on the obsolete 10.6, which is problematic for security and browser support. And my Core 2 Duo MacBook is stuck on 10.7.

My MacBook Pro will lose support this fall, and will be stuck on 10.11, but I'm optimistic I can run a hack to bypass the check to run 10.12, since it actually has the right hardware. My Core i7 iMac will probably lose support in a couple of years.

However, I just bought an encrypted hard drive and it works beautifully in 10.6 and 10.7 (and Windows 7 and 10), but it is problematic in 10.11. Who knows when this drive will be fully supported in 10.11, and 10.12 with comes out in a couple of months.

 

[cbn]

MY MCE rig I mentioned earlier in this thread is now running Windows 10 and MCE is gone. It installed beautifully and is much faster than on 7. Using it as a second machine for various tasks. It's happy with its new life. I no longer run a machine running Windows 7. I do, however, still have my trusty Windows Home Server v1 machine running, which is really just Server 2003 with a WHS control panel and the legendary drive extender storage system. I might need to update my sig but it currently has 2x2TB, 1x 1.5TB, 2x1TB, 1x800GB, 1x640GB and 3x500GB drives all churning away. The 2TB drives are new, the 1.5 is 3 years old, the TB drives are 2 years old, the 640 is 6 years old and so are the 500GB ones. I think the oldest is 7, not sure. All kicking ass and taking names according to Crystal Disk. Will keep this box going for a long time.

Were you able to move the recordings in Media center to the Server 2003 with WHS control panel?

EDIT: Also any updates on the an OTA antennae you thought about using with this machine?---> http://forums.anandtech.com/showpost.php?p=38181973&postcount=220

 

[nemesismk2]

windows 7 here.
I just can't get over all the spyware that windows 10 has.
Yes I have heard the bs that windows 8 is just as bad and so is 7.
Windows 10, take out all the spyware and I will buy it.

i have a copies of windows 10, windows 7 and i don't like the spyware stuff with windows 10.

 

[bradly1101]

The super slick program WMC (with cable cards) has me staying on 7 until a suitable replacement arrives.

 

[bruceb]

You can get and install Windows Media Center (32 or 64 bit) from here

http://www.howtogeek.com/258695/how-to-install-windows-media-center-on-windows-10/

 

[tidy]

.

 

[corkyg]

I have 10 on a separate drive, but prefer to work with 7 because 10 literally removes many user choices, particularly with sounds.

10 is really designed to make things seem faster by eliminating user choices, and it also caters to finger swipers and dirty screens.

 

[mohit9206]

Windows 7 all the way until games don't support it anymore.That is the only thing which will force me to downgrade to Win 10.

 

[nemesismk2]

Windows 7 all the way until games don't support it anymore.That is the only thing which will force me to downgrade to Win 10.

i already have windows 7 32bit, windows xp and windows 10, hopefully microsoft does the same support for windows 7 which i still get for windows xp. until i can get used to windows 10 fully.

 

[shortylickens]

I usually keep the previous gen OS so I can play games.
If Fallout 4 is any indication, gaming is headed in a direction I do not like. Since I only need Windows for gaming, I will probably be moving to Linux in the next couple years.

 

[severus]

Windows 7: Main PC & Notepad
Windows 2000: Classic PC

I see no reason to downgrade to 10. They tried to streamline it to make it more idiot friendly but I prefer having more control over the OS. I actually disabled Windows updates on my laptop and desktop so it stopped trying to make me download Windows 10.

I have used 10 extensively and have drawn my conclusions from it. I built a PC for my grand parents with 7 on it. It's a e2160, 2gigs of ram, GTS250, 500gb hdd. They unknowingly were subject to Microsofts dastardly sneak attack ( only trumped in history by Pearl Harbor ) when Windows 10 loaded itself onto their PC It seems like every week they're calling me over for tech support. Something they have doesn't work with 10. Passwords are required for things that there shouldn't be. PC was running sluggish, etc. I was forced to upgrade the PC's hardware rather than upgrade the OS back to 7 because they have too many files they don't want to lose. I suppose I could bring over one of my large USB drives an copy everything over then do a fresh install. In the end, I had to bump them up to 8 gigs of ram and a q9550 just so they could still play slot machines on Facebook.

 

[JEDIYoda]

still clinging to my precious win95!!

 

[mikeymikec]

I think the time that I'm reminded that I prefer Win7 to Win10 the most is when I'm doing a clean install of the OS.

My first reason is a bit silly: Win7's default colour scheme is simply a bit brighter: Better use of colour, while not being garishly bright. Win10's default colour scheme is the kind I think Bruce Wayne would choose in one of his more morbid moments. As Chaz Michael Michaels said, "the night is a very dark time for me". The taskbar is virtually black, the only thing of colour is the default wallpaper and even that is pretty monotone. The rest of the UI has been bleached out to white. I tend to alter the settings so that the title bar is coloured and the taskbar and other UI elements are a shade of that colour, which helps, but some apps are still very dreary, such as Calculator.

Second reason: A tweak that I do on most new installs (unless I know a customer has their own UI prefs) and something I would never fail to do on my own PC is to show all taskbar icons. On Win7 this can be done in about four clicks with no delays. On Win10 it's commonly a case of scrolling and delays waiting for the final UI element to load (and the Settings app used to crash if you tried to rush it by enabling all taskbar icons before the page had finished loading). I haven't seriously looked into whether Win10's UIs are simply slower to use in general that Win7's but I wonder whether they are. That and the sheer lack of navigation and seemingly disorganised jumble that is the layout of the Settings app is another thing that bugs me.

I think as user interfaces become less easy to customise, the joy of using them goes as well.

 

[WelshBloke]

Since I only need Windows for gaming, I will probably be moving to Linux in the next couple years.

That's pretty much what I've done. And as I'm gaming less and less I spend more time booting into Mint.

Just dual boot Win/Mint and set up some shared folders for documents and media.

 

[Torn Mind]

I see no reason to upgrade from 8. For once, it has basically been spyware and annoyance-ware free for its entire life and my sister is sometimes reckless with what could accumulate. I sparingly used a Windows 7 box but it still managed to become "infected" silently. If I need to get the start menu back, Start 8 is 5 bucks away.

 

[MongGrel]

I have used 10 extensively and have drawn my conclusions from it.

It really sounds like you have not, to me.

I see no reason to upgrade from 8. For once, it has basically been spyware and annoyance-ware free for its entire life and my sister is sometimes reckless with what could accumulate. I sparingly used a Windows 7 box but it still managed to become "infected" silently. If I need to get the start menu back, Start 8 is 5 bucks away.

Your reasoning seems a bit backwards to me, it is being infected and you can go forward someday ?

Why not now, even my HTPC rebuild has been using a version of Win 10 a long time now with no problems.

 

[Chaotic42]

I just use Windows at home for gaming, so I'm not overly concerned about security or other annoyances on that system. Windows 10 isn't terrible, it's just kind of a clumsy move in the OSX direction. They seemed to have changed the way things work for reasons I can't figure, but I don't have any major issues with it.

For daily use I'm on Ubuntu LTS 16.04. I update it from time to time, but I don't run anything bleeding edge.

 

[nemesismk2]

just upgraded my windows 7 computer to windows 10 and love the speed even though my computer isn't very fast. the difference between microsoft explorer and microsoft edge performance is between 10% to 57% faster which makes my basic pc mega fast with windows 10.

 

[Torn Mind]

It really sounds like you have not, to me.



Your reasoning seems a bit backwards to me, it is being infected and you can go forward someday ?

Why not now, even my HTPC rebuild has been using a version of Win 10 a long time now with no problems.

I was just making a statement of 8's apparently superior resiliency against "how did it get there" moments from its predecessors, including the overrated 7. The amount of time I used 7 is on the magnitude of hundreds of hours, and maybe up to a month to two months of actual use, if not much less, and with using Firefox. It still got something behind the scenes. XP was worse in that regard.

I also have no urgent itch to get my computer borked and deal with the hassle of recovering from such matters. Or losing control of Windows Updates and being tracked like mobile devices already are. If I had a spare test bed/VM and time to try it out, there would have been a better chance I might have taken a chance on 10 with a NEW computer that I plan to keep indefinitely after testing it out..I definitely didn't have the time or interest at 10's release to fiddle with it prior to its release, and I'm not keen on a whole new computer with the latest parts right now either.

Actually, I need to get around to cloning my drive so I can install 8.1 and get those Windows Updates.

Also, 8's transferability is valuable me because I am a bit of a goody two-shoes regarding licenses and I like to transfer it to a new box with no repercussions.

In hindsight, I should have jumped of the deep end and bought 8 like it was gold since most of the non-enterprise complaints are from people unwilling to spend $5 for Start8. It is still vintage post-XP Windows without excessive meddling, forced updates, and less prone to shadow malware than its predecessors.

 

[jimbob200521]

Windows 7 until my last breath...or it becomes so old and unusable it's pointless to keep. So a good 4+ years yet.

 

[bruceb]

XP Pro SP3 with all other updates (using the registry hack for POS systems) on my old Dell Dimension 8200 ... works fine for what I need and I do have Windows 10 Home 64 Bit on my Toshiba Laptop (that originally came with Windows 8 and it got the free upgrade to Win 10)

 

[mikeymikec]

That's pretty much what I've done. And as I'm gaming less and less I spend more time booting into Mint.

Just dual boot Win/Mint and set up some shared folders for documents and media.

How do you get on with app updates? Any problems updating, or perhaps you need to wait until a packaged version specially for your distro comes along?

Once I finally get around to coding the front end I've had in an Access DB for years into PHP then maybe I can consider a complete platform change for my primary usage scenario. I'm happy with Win7, but I don't think I'll ever *like* Win10, though perhaps enough to tolerate it as my primary OS when Win7's day is truly done.