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

[VirtualLarry]

Just curious. There are some people on this forum that still use XP.

I was musing on whether or not I would personally continue to run Windows 7, even past the EOL date in 2020. I mean, Win7 supports x64 and IPv6 natively, so it should continue to function OK.

Sure, no patches, but ... well, that's one reason I wanted the perspective of XP holdouts to tell us, are they fighting malware and re-installing every month, like some security experts would tell you is the reason for dropping XP, or is it still smooth sailing?

Chrome dropping Vista, IMHO prematurely, even though MS still supports it with patches up until next year, is probably a sign of things to come.

Possibly, maybe with some MS pressure, we may see major applications adopt a "Windows 10 compatibility only" stance, to combat some of the hanger-ons.

 

[jkauff]

Win 8.1, run from the desktop with Smart8 installed, is basically a better version of Win 7. Lots of internal improvements.

I tried Win 10 and within two weeks went back to 8.1. It's going to be my OS for the foreseeable future.

 

[nemesismk2]

i still use windows xp pro sp3 because microsoft gives me updates every month with security updates, Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. i don't use internet explorer v8, have a secure anti virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and use a decent browser. i have had NO viruses or trojans.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

How do they still give you updates every month?

i still use windows xp pro sp3 because microsoft gives me updates every month with security updates, Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 8 and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool. i don't use internet explorer v8, have a secure anti virus with Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and use a decent browser. i have had NO viruses or trojans.

 

[JackMDS]

The truth is that this issue is Not a technology related question but rather a Financial Budging question in part related to social desirability.

Many of the techies that I know in person do not think twice (and Drama Queen for years) about getting the new Model of Nike (cost usually more than an OS) while their current pair is still good.

 

[Fallen Kell]

Well, with no Media Center in 10, and 8 having a horrible UI for keyboard/mouse usage, I am stuck with 7 on my HTPC. I will probably move to linux on that system now that SageTV's excellent recording scheduler has been open sourced and is available on linux (the UI isn't all that great, but it blows away all the available recording software by being show centric instead of time/channel centric. In other words, you tell it what show to record (and if you want reruns or just new episodes) and it will find and record it on any/all channels which you can then limit to say only the HD channels, etc...).

 

[lxskllr]

The computers at the office are stuck on xp. All my computers run some updated form of gnu/linux aside from my debian box, which doesn't have decent internet.

 

[kommisar]

I just installed win98se on one of my boxen. I had to go out and find an unofficial service pack to install directx 9 cause whatever directx was installed with 98se would cause a crash on my geforce fx5900xt if I changed the resolution to be greater than 800x600. Finding drivers and middleware for win98 is a $&(*^(^#@(!!!

 

[SimMike2]

Windows 7 home premium because I use Windows Media Center extensively. I'm getting tired of people pretending there is no reason to keep Windows 7. In this case, Windows 10 decidedly has at least one less feature.

 

[bbhaag]

I plan on sticking with 8.1 for now. I love the all apps screen and I use WMC. Two features that 10 is lacking. That being said as we move closer too the "get it for free date" I might just bite the bullet and upgrade all four computers in the house.

 

[MongGrel]

Windows 10 build 14295 on the main ATM.

I never used WMC myself, personally.

Go, go, guinea pig power !!!!

Some Redstone things seem to be leaking out a bit.

Use Win 10 regular on the HTPC, the wife still has Vista on hers on one of my old gaming rigs, and won't change.

But she uses her tablet most of the time, and is using the HTPC atm in the other room.

 

[TheRyuu]

I'm honestly not sure how people can't not like W10's interface. I can understand the privacy worries but not interface/graphics/GUI. You can basically customize the taskbar and start menu however you might like it without the need for any third party stuff (e.g. Classic Shell).

I'm curious as to what exactly there wasn't to like in W10 aside from the privacy stuff (which you can mitigate with a few changes using gpedit along with disabling the telemetry service).

 

[Captante]

My 3rd backup PC dual-boots XP-Pro & Vista Ultimate 64-bit. Still use Vista all the time but I only load XP once a month or so to do software and driver updates.

 

[Turtle.Man]

I'm curious as to what exactly there wasn't to like in W10 aside from the privacy stuff (which you can mitigate with a few changes using gpedit along with disabling the telemetry service).

How about forced updates without having the ability to schedule the downloads?

 

[Red Squirrel]

I have a don't fix it unless it's broken mentality. I only upgrade OS if I'm upgrading hardware and have to reinstall anyway, or if there's something I'm trying to do that won't work in the current OS.

My gaming machine is 7 and probably will be that way for a while, even if I have to reinstall. There is no viable alternative as far as Windows goes. 8.x is a huge disaster, and 10 might be a bit more usable but it has lot of other issues like the spy crap. (could block that at the firewall mind you) So I'll probably only bother with 10 when 7 gets to a point where it won't play my games, but I don't really game a lot.

My main machine is Linux, so I typically upgrade only if I made a major hardware change and it won't boot, or if the OS goes out of support and they pull off the repositories. I stick to the LTS versions so I can stick to same OS for a while. I try to work in such a way that my data/information resides on my server so when I do reinstall there is less stuff to worry about setting up.

 

[PingSpike]

How about forced updates without having the ability to schedule the downloads?

Forced updates are THE deal breaker. You can not install or remove telemetry updates in Win7, although its a game of whack a mole that makes using windows exhausting. In 10 they are baked right in. And you know what else is baked right in? Anything MS wants to do in the future. You get to beta test it. And you can't just not install it if it breaks your stuff or simply because you're aren't interested. They've been abusing the update channel like crazy already, I'm not interested in seeing what they do once they have a captive audience.

 

[DigDog]

still on W7 due to it being superior to 8 or 10. for what *I* need to do.

 

[ControlD]

I enjoy trying new things. To that end, I am generally running on the latest release of the various operating systems I run at home. unRAID, Mint, Windows, OS X are all on the latest versions. At work however I will be running Windows 7 for quite some time because that is what the listed support level for the software I need to run is.

 

[nemesismk2]

How do they still give you updates every month?

the updates and security files are from microsoft because just checked my update history. will probably get new updates probably on the 12th april.

 

[MustISO]

All my primary PCs are running Windows 7. I have a VM with Windows 8.1 and a VM with Windows 10 enterprise. I'll keep my primary systems on Win 7 for a while longer. I have no desire to upgrade to 10 although if I do someday, Enterprise seems like it has much less crap than Home.

 

[nerp]

I have a Windows 7 box running Windows Media Center and honestly, I'm looking forward to the day that we finally cut the cord for good and I can decommission it and upgrade to 10 and use it for a different purpose.

 

[corkyg]

I like choices, and have all of the post-XP OS's installed on separate drives with identical programs/applications. I still prefer 7 mainly because I run things with one click from the desktop. The new desktops in 8, 8.1, and 10 simply impose an additional layer that I do not like.

Windows 10 further does not appeal to me because user customizations (audio in particular) have been castrated by MS in order to increase boot/load speed. But, I run it weekly to insure that everything is up to date. Further, I find it useful to have access to all three (mobile rack selectable) in order to assist or help clients with specific problems.

 

[Maximilian]

I am a self admitted luddite, im using Windows 10 :'( Its a load of ass. But in my defense ive moved my server and my laptop over to Debian. Maybe one day my desktop will also be Debian, we'll see!

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I use Win7, 2k8, 2k12, Ubuntu10-14LTS, CentOS6/7 and FreeBSD 10 at work, and Win7, Win10, Mint 17.3, FreeBSD10, Ubuntu 14, OS X 10.11 and OS X 10.9 at home.

So I'm not sure how to answer the question.

 

[balloonshark]

I honestly wouldn't have a problem moving to Windows 10 if it didn't call home all the time and it would let me control when and what updates I allow on MY computer. Sure I could disable everything I don't like but it's only a matter of time before a forced update undoes my changes. It's just not worth battling an operating system daily to ensure it's reliable and keeps my personal data personal.