A New Version of Windows is Coming

95, 98, NT, 2000, XP, 7 and 10. Plus a plethora of commercial versions.

Oh, and Windows 1, 2, and 3. But those were running on DOS.

Good question. I think right now the issue for most people is the requirement for secure boot and TPM 2.0. People with otherwise fully capable computers are being denied because of it.

One of the tech podcasts I listen to that is normally very slavish in their praise for MS has been raging about how botched things are with the testing of this version. Known bugs aren't getting fixed, and silly, inconsequential shit is being worked on as if it's the most important thing in the world. There's also a distinct lack of communication from MS on matters, according to the podcast.

That has the smell of marketing executives dictating to programmers who actually work for a living. It's a miserable existence.

That would explain a few things like what one of my friends is experiencing. Like me, his system is compatible, but he's been having crash after crash after crash and he's on the so called "more stable" beta. I want Windows 11 to be awesome, I really do. I looked forward to 10, and I still like it (except for the massive amount of spying, but I've curtailed as much of it as possible), but the way they're doing this just seems like they're stumbling a bit. I hope they work it out. I mean, I'd just stay with 10 if it ends up being awful, but 10 will stop being supported in a few years, and I've no intention of buying new hardware in a few years. What I have will last me a decade if I treat it right.

I would be interested in the curtailing of windows 10..

Sure. I did it the hard way at first, but I did a recent install and just used this: https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

You can have it silence everything, or leave a few things if you like to use maps, or things like that. Now, it doesn't stop everything, because even with everything it can silence being silenced, there's still lots of telemetry that gets through, but I don't know what it is or where it goes.

The big thing that annoys me about Windows 10 is it seems like every other update they push out causes a problem with my PC. It's always the same problem: The machine won't wake up after it goes to sleep and I have to reboot it. It's been like six years since I built this machine, and that's been consistent since the beginning. Can't understand why it's still happening.

I have a similar issue save for it's the opposite: no matter what options I change, Windows WILL NOT turn off the monitors after 30 minutes of inactivity. I've tried everything and it's just like "fuck you, these are staying on for 8 hours."

Well, might I suggest running BOINC on your machine? It'll help with putting your system to use during those times that it won't go to sleep.

Maybe. I used to do folding@home, but it's been years. Might get back into it.

I ended up tolerating and not resenting Vista (Stockholm syndrome?). Never messed with 8.
Those two might have a reputation they earned, but at least they weren't Windows fucking Millenium. That one was hot garbage

That said, I would switch to a fully modern Win 2k Pro UI/functionality in a heartbeat
Win 7, two heartbeats.

One word: Bob.

Hey, it turns out that you’ll be able to get it on physical media and it won’t be download only.

Oh sweet jesus, my heart...

Insert Disk #2638 and press ENTER:

ENTER

...

...

Disk not found error.

(A)bort, (R)etry, (F)ail?

Right, I'll need a floppy drive. Off to Fry's!

waitaminit

Sounds like the old AOL trick....

So, in order to use Win 11 you’re going to have to have an internet connection and a MS account. The internet connection isn’t that big of a deal in places like the US, but will be an issue in some places. The MS account is the bigger issue as it will allow someone to remotely hack your system if you don’t have a strong password. (Add in that Win 11’s default place to store things that you want to save will be OneDrive and I can see some big problems with this.)

Yeah, I have an MS account, but I don't like having it. It was an annoyance on Windows 10, but on Windows 11 it will be a necessity. I seriously dislike the "always online" aspect of operating systems becoming more Software as a Service rather than being the base software that just properly runs your hardware. Some software as a service I get, but an OS? No, to me that should be something that just fundamentally works and gets updates as needed.

It also opens up more backdoors into your system, which anyone who is privacy conscious should be wary of, too.

Why did I read this thread? I had finally done enough drugs and had enough time to fully wipe the horror of failing on the last floppy to load windows 95. My hands are shaking with rage now.

Of course, I was familiar with OS2 warp installs. It is amazing OS2W never even worked on pure IBM equipment at the time. How is it that versions of windows and linux would work on IBM equipment and their own OS would not work I could never figure out.

I never did hate millenium. am pretty sure I had to have a Me desktop. Maybe the only Me machine I ever had was my laptop where it came preinstalled from gateway who was a popular vendor at the time. I might have been running 98 on my gaming PC up until XP. Thinking about it that probably was the case. I never bought the millenium OS because I had free versions of 98 and the was never a hardware reason to get millenium because 98 always had functionality. My non gaming machines would have all been NT4.0 because I was an MCSE and that was a pretty stable OS if you did not need to game on the machine.

I know why people hated millenium, but I never had a problem with it. I think I only had it on a laptop, and I was really only running MS applications and netscape navigator. Then again i was not browsing porn either so my computers always tended to have less problems.

Seriously.

Hell, I dual boot Windows and Linux and don't have a problem from either in terms of hardware compatibility. These days, Linux can keep up with just about anything, and since I use Mint, it's familiar and easy to use, too. Ah well, it all comes down to the same reasons in the end: ease of use, and the economics of distribution. Just like with VHS and Beta, proliferation of Windows (VHS) and its cheapness to distribute compared to the much more costly (though superior) Betamax (OS/2), meant that consumers would adopt the cheapest, easiest to use product, and that was Windows, since it was just a GUI slapped on top of DOS rather than a from-the-ground-up OS.

Windows wasn't the OS we needed, it was the OS we deserved.

It was the OS Microsoft preloaded on PCs. That deal is why WinDoze is now so common, and also, strangely enough, why it's so compromised.

You had Macintosh out there with their machines at the time also. Mac did have a hold on graphic design which was huge before the internet. There was that alternative while windows was coming up. MS and intel made some savvy moves back then to make a good enough system that everyone could use while a lot of big guys were fighting for proprietary bullshit. NT was not a terrible OS for it's time. The fact that it looked very similar to 95/98/me was important. It made itself compatible with games and hardware for competition while Apple was trying to blow smug up everyone's ass.

MS realized that their systems were not elite, but that most computing was not going to be elite. They made the right marketing by recognizing the average idiot's needs.

Not strange at all. It's the biggest target.

For everyone. Alphabet agencies, hackers, programmers, you name it, they've all got a big target on Windows. If it wasn't for some hardware, I'd have made a complete switch to Linux, but I still use Windows for that hardware (and a few games that don't quite run well in Linux).

This is somewhat where Mac also made a mistake back in the day. Adobe was not offered on windows back in the day. Everything with visual media was done on a Mac, and the GD world with Adoby and Quark (IIRC) were huge professional level tools. The compression formats were all Mac primary for development. No one in those areas gave a fuck about the PC world. On the other side networking and security were all unix based. win 95/98/me was an open door of insecurity.

But when I was looking at things coming out windows made the most sense because it was everywhere when things were bursting out. You did not need some elitist Mac or Unix guru to fix your shit. Mac was licensing everything so the little guys could not get in, and Linux so obscure and do it yourself that no one could help you. With a windows machine you could get help, and the weird hardware always saw the windows compatibility as their primary concern. It just seemed obvious that eventually companies like Adobe were going to cave and bring their products to the platform because you simply could not avoid that huge exploding market.

Windows is good enough for most people. For the people who need more performance they can go get it, but you have to start becoming an expert in your platform. I am also talking about PCs because it seems phones and pads have a different market where windows lost because the other alternatives were finally able to be operated without so much need for support.

The Taliban is now back in power after two decades....And Microsoft is bundling again.....Just connecting the dots.