Windows Or Linux?


 

Rusty James

TVWBB Emerald Member
Anyone here still using Windows 7, and do you have plans to upgrade to Windows 10, or possibly move on to Linux?

Windows 7 is officially dead come next January.
 
Lessee.... I have a long running Win7 station downstairs, a Linux server, a 2nd Linux host for media services and a FreeBSD based firewall. 2 laptop, 1 dual booting Linux and Win8.1 (almost always running Linux,) and a 2nd laptop running Win10. The storage array appears to be running a Linux derivative, but that's nearly completely hidden from view.

General rule is to run whatever OS runs your applications. I'm still going to have to keep some Windows around just for stuff that flat out will not run on Linux, even under an emulation layer.

Re: Win7.... I may upgrade the Win7 host to Win10 at some point, but not in the immediate future.
 
This doesn't answer your question but I wish Apple would sell macOS licenses :). for my taste, that would be awesome to be able to build a home-grown system and run macOS.
 
I just upgraded 2 more PCs from win7 to win10 two-weeks ago................that makes 1 linux, 6 win10, 1 win7 for me. I haven't touched my linux box for a couple years I bet.

Windows 10 is OK, seems smooth but I don't know it all that well.
 
I'm torn between Windows 10 and Linux.

Windows 10 has become a privacy nightmare of sorts, and moving up to an operating system that gives the end-user zero rights as far as what updates are installed doen't sit well with me, but I am very familiar with Windows, and I also have Windows-dependent software to consider.

Is Microsoft on the verge of becoming another Google / Facebook type of enterprise?
 
Microsoft hit its high point with XP. I guess I should have put IMO in the first sentence. Windows 10 was developed in my opinion to be a one-size-fits-all for PC and mobile platforms. Unfortunately because it's trying to do both it doesn't do either one very well. as far as a privacy nightmare, well they're trying to compete and stay relevant with the likes of Google and such. Google's primary function is to gather information. After Windows XP they had some cool stuff like media center. But that was short-lived. Microsoft's goal now is to try and connect all of your devices together and make them work seamlessly. Something other companies have a head start on. with that said if they can get all of your devices to work seamlessly together then they can become an even bigger privacy nightmare. I have nothing against Microsoft, and this is all my opinion, but that's just how I see it.
 
I guess that didn't do anything to answer the original question. Windows 7 in my opinion is still relevant if you got the media center edition. Because with that you can use it with your home entertainment as a program guide and DVR. otherwise it's another version of Windows that will soon not be supported. I used to stay up-to-date on all the latest OS but I don't so much anymore. I have a couple Windows 10 computers and it's not my favorite OS. but to answer your question if you like Windows then Windows 10 is the one they're going to be back in for some time so it's probably the way to go. There's nothing wrong with Windows 7, and if you backup anything important then you can keep using it for quite some time. The problem in my mind is that if Windows 7 ever crashes on you and you have to restore then it will go back to a point where a lot of the restore will not work with anything because it hasn't been updated. And that's a pain in the butt.


my advice is to backup externally anything that isn't important to you. Be at pictures documents or anything else that you don't want to lose. But that goes for any OS.
 
Been through the Linux thing with various distros but in my day to day life on a PC nothing fills the bill better than Windows (Windows 10 specifically) actually love Win 10. 7 was OK in many ways much like XP but I have found 10 to be stable, easy to use and flexible for my needs. I do get very early releases as well as I am on the Windows Insider group. I even had Windows 10 phones. Sadly MS has withdrawn from that market and it's too bad. In a phone environment comparing using it against Android (I am now up to Pie) and trying IOS I found Windows phone to be VERY fast, VERY easy and flexible, extremely easy to use and stable as well. Plus battery life on a Win 10 phone is incredible. My Win 10 phone(s) being able to go nearly a week between charge and with heavy use. My Galaxy S8 running Pie cannot get more than a half a day without sucking on a power supply, though that may be due to bloatware as I just bought my wife a Nokia 6.1 phone running Android One. Absolutely incredible phone. Blows away my Galaxy, battery life so much better, no garbage apps. Will be selling my Galaxy and buying a Nokia 7.1 for myself BTW
 
IMNSHO, the Linux desktop is a failure for John/Jane Q. AverageUser. There are far too many ways for it to go south, and leave you with nothing but a shell session capability. Don't get me wrong, I use X11 Windows *EVERYWHERE*, both in the office and at home, but I've also got 25+ years using it (anybody else remember DesqView?) Even current developers don't grok the environment. This stuff should be usable on current networking technologies, and a lot of it just plain fails as it chews up too much bandwidth. And my first experience with it was an HP-UX workstation remote booting on a shared 10mbps network segment. I have 1gbps connectivity to my house now.

Servers? In general, there's no good reason to run a graphic front end. If you require X11 display services, run a virtual frame buffer.
 
What about Windows 10 updating itself? I've heard one can remove unwanted apps, bloatware, opt out of telemetry software, and all of this will be reset to default at least once a month.

Looks like Microsoft would rather allow one to opt-in to telemetry software instead of opting out.
 
Unfortunately, it's an assumed opt-in.

Unfortunately, there is more than a little evidence that Windows just flat-out needs to be patched and updated frequently, due to the massive security issues.

M$ will turn Windows into a subscription instead of a flat rate, or is going to try like hell to do so, just for the continuing revenue stream. As far as I'm concerned, anything along those lines should be coming with unlimited upgrades & support (unless we're talking pennies/month and nothing more.)
 
I'm still on Windows 7 Professional, but plan on moving to a new laptop this year and will make the jump to Windows 10.
 
I'm still on Windows 7 Professional, but plan on moving to a new laptop this year and will make the jump to Windows 10.

Didn't you use to work for HP, Chris?

I've seen some modestly priced HP laptops of late, but I've heard some flak about HP hardware. I don't think it likes the Linux OS either.

I worked on a relative's HP laptop (dual-core) of late, and I had to revert it back to Windows 7 after Windows 10 bogged it down often. The unit also had an overheating problem, but a good cleaning fixed that.

I have a nice Dell desktop (i3 quad-core) that I bought for less than retail. I guess I could upgrade it if necessary.
 
Unfortunately, it's an assumed opt-in.

Unfortunately, there is more than a little evidence that Windows just flat-out needs to be patched and updated frequently, due to the massive security issues.

M$ will turn Windows into a subscription instead of a flat rate, or is going to try like hell to do so, just for the continuing revenue stream. As far as I'm concerned, anything along those lines should be coming with unlimited upgrades & support (unless we're talking pennies/month and nothing more.)

Are they still giving away Windows 10?

Microsoft sure pushed it hard enough on unsuspecting Windows 7 users.
 
Are they still giving away Windows 10?

Microsoft sure pushed it hard enough on unsuspecting Windows 7 users.

AFAIK, that deal expired something like a year & a half ago. You can buy what appears to be a legitimate key online for just a few bucks. However, make sure you've got enough machine first. 4gb and dual cores are really not much more than what it takes to boot it up, it's nearly an unusable configuration. Even 8gb is minimal.

The folks who used to own the local bakery got hit with that forced upgrade, which promptly lost their printer drivers, used for printing all of their product labeling. I was in that morning, and Julie asked me what I was up to that day. "Working from home, slaving over a hot keyboard." That triggered a bit of a rant on her part (entirely justified, IMO.) "Hang on. Show me the setup. I'm not real busy, I'll see if I can find drivers for you and bring them back on a thumb drive." Took some digging, ended up deep in Epson's business site, but found her drivers and got her back running before the USDA got unhappy. "No, this really wasn't difficult, I didn't spend all that much time on it." I'd always had good luck there, and Julie made sure, until they sold the business that we were always well taken care of (sometimes hard to pay for stuff.)
 
I have a nice Dell desktop (i3 quad-core)

That's more than enough, it'll run win10 the same as win7. Just max the ram (8 gb would be good) and make sure your HD is SSD.

The PC may have other limitations, but it'll do the basics (including streaming) much better than the firestick/Xbox/etc/smart tv, at least in my limited experience.
 
Are they still giving away Windows 10?

At home I use a Mac but to VPN to work I run Windows 7 Pro as a virtual machine. Playing around last month, I downloaded and upgraded to Windows 10. My 7 Pro license was adequate to register and activate Win 10.
 
At home I use a Mac but to VPN to work I run Windows 7 Pro as a virtual machine. Playing around last month, I downloaded and upgraded to Windows 10. My 7 Pro license was adequate to register and activate Win 10.

now that it's upgraded, you can do a fully clean win10 install instead of upgrade-install (I did this the wrong way a few times).

One thing I find helpful before a major change / machine-software swap, is to run the Belarc Advisor & save the screen shots / data. It'll show you your windows key, or photoshop, etc. Saves a lot of time searching for activation keys when re-activating software.


https://www.belarc.com/products_belarc_advisor
 
Didn't you use to work for HP, Chris?
Worked there for almost 21 years, left in 2010. I've heard not great things about both HP and Dell laptops, and that Lenovo was better...then my wife bought a nice Lenovo with a beautiful display that's now going wiggy. So who knows. :(
 

 

Back
Top