Computer operating systems

[RonA]

Is it me or do a certain software company seem to be increasing the rate at which these operating systems are being issued. Just getting my head round No8 & now I read they're onto No10. Each release seems to cost a kings ransom to upgrade.

I am reminded of the James Bond film "Tomorrow never dies" in which, as arch villain Elliot Carver is about to go on air on his new satellite news channel, who is reminded by his equally despicable sidekick Mr Gupta that Carvers company are ready to release its new computer operating system. When Carver asks "has it got all the bugs I asked for ", Gupta replies "Yes, there'll be needing updates for years". A comical throw away quip but as already had 6 updates on my latest operating system, not that funny really.

 

[Spark plug]

I don't keep track any more I fell out with windows when they moved from XP, IMO the best operating system Microsoft made.

 

[Wendelspanswick]

There is no Windows 9, they are jumping from 8 to 10.
I am sticking with 7 until I have to change as I don't like 8 and most companies/corporations and the NHS seem to be doing likewise.

 

[pedrobedro]

Everybody cursed Vista but I've been running it ever since it came out and never had a problem. I had 2000 on before and my wife has 7 on her computer, we never had XP. I have an Advent laptop which I found in a hedge bottom Christmas before last and that runs Xubuntu quite happily

 

[wristpin]

Read somewhere that the reason for skipping 9 is that they acknowledge that 8 is disliked by so many that they want 10 to be seen as a new system and not just an upgraded 8.
Those that understand these things (not me) seem to run Linux? but I wouldn't know where to start!

 

[Rocketman]

Windows 7 is pretty good and stable and most of the business computers/workstations still sell them downgraded from windows 8.

So windows 7 support ended yesterday. It's not as bad as it would initially sound. There will still be security updates on it as necessary and this will probably continue for a good few years which is the important thing.

What I would advise definitely not use is any operating system which does not have any security updates anymore - like XP and previous.

 

[500e]

Nice idea Rman but some of us have legasy software that is bespoke & wont run on later systems, have programs \equipment with DOS, 95, XP,
some of the early programs\equipment wont run on anything as fast as a 386

 

[Rocketman]

You may well have but everyday you have a operating system that is xp or older you are running serious risks.

Personally I would look at ways of somehow running those programs in a new operating system which has at least security updates.

 

[Wedg1e]

My laptop is saddled with Win8, my home PC runs XP and has fewer crashes.
However the most stable PC I ever had ran Win2000, I still have it somewhere... support for XP won't be an issue as long as you stick with existing stable software and use firewall/ antivirus. If you go mining the murkier areas of the internet on any system you're likely to find the hackers at work - mostly they'll move onto the later operating systems as otherwise they won't have any geek-cred

 

[Shox Dr]

I'm writing this on a 14yr old IBM R51 running XP Pro, I haven't had to reinstall in the last 10yrs, but then I know the programs I use, and know what not to open and what not to visit.

I now find the Video card/driver is not supported. The screen in lacking (WXVGA) by todays standards, so while I'm loathe to move to a new OS, I'm losing out on a lot of features neither the R51 or the OS and software and make up for.

So the next question is: Which OS?




(sorry for thread jacking)

 

[CRB]

Read somewhere that the reason for skipping 9 is that they acknowledge that 8 is disliked by so many that they want 10 to be seen as a new system and not just an upgraded 8.
Those that understand these things (not me) seem to run Linux? but I wouldn't know where to start!

Linux, it is a huge umbrella, is considerably easier than it was twenty years ago, and easier again than ten years ago.
You can try Ubuntu, and others, by running it off a burned disc. Doddle. You can install it next to Windoze and choose which one to use when you boot.

Most people would not know the difference given the two, in terms of actual ability to do the tasks which they use every day.

http://distrowatch.com/ More Linux flavours than you can shake a stylus at.

I am still using XP, 98 prior, but my Ubuntu boot can still do all the usual stuff. It is only TurboCAD that I use XP for, and only because I cannot be bothered to spend ages working out how to use a free CAD programme.

I have used ten or fifteen different ones over the last few years. If you do not like it, dump it and try another. Puppy was good enough and tiny, so might suit your laptop, ShoxDr.

 

[optima21]

when microsoft stopped supporting xp, I looked at upgrading my netbooks, (the next big thing in computing before tablets killed them off). looking at reviews of windows 8 and 8.1 I've kept with xp as it does what I want and only use it for browsing, so if it dies on me its no great loss, but hopefully microsoft will bring something out useable by then.

 

[Kayos]

I used Linux for years, Slackware and Gentoo mostly, my server runs a version of Ubuntu.

My main pc runs 7 as I have Lightroom, Photoshop, Vue scan etc etc however I do have Kali running on a laptop for when I'm bored

 

[Rocketman]

My laptop is saddled with Win8, my home PC runs XP and has fewer crashes.
However the most stable PC I ever had ran Win2000, I still have it somewhere... support for XP won't be an issue as long as you stick with existing stable software and use firewall/ antivirus. If you go mining the murkier areas of the internet on any system you're likely to find the hackers at work - mostly they'll move onto the later operating systems as otherwise they won't have any geek-cred

The hotfixs that Microsoft send out for operating systems are based on threats without these even with decent anti virus software you are still at danger. While lurking in the dark depths of the net is far more dangerous there still are many threats out there that may get dumped on a forum like this one for instance.

Now if you were after access to bank details being cool isn't the priority getting the money is. Obviously as a result it's far easier to look at operating systems that have no longer security support. Not forgetting that a lot of these viruses will go for any operating system it's just that Microsoft will not issue hotfixs for xp or older leaving it solely to your anti virus software to handle it - which at the end of the day will have most of it's development based on newer operating systems.

If you don't go on the net and don't take any new files off people you are pretty safe to run any old system.

 

[MrFluffy]

 

[the snooper]

There is no Windows 9, they are jumping from 8 to 10.
I am sticking with 7 until I have to change as I don't like 8 and most companies/corporations and the NHS seem to be doing likewise.

don't forget 8.1 release

 

[blenkie1]

All Apple OS X updates are FREE!!

 

[Master-of-none]

There's no Windows 9 because many programs check which version they are running on, using the logic that if the version starts with a 9 it must be 95 or 98 (or variations thereof).

 

[bigegg]

I run Fedora linux on my main PC - the only piece of software that I *need* windows for is autodesk inventor, and I run that in a virtual XP machine on my fedora desktop (which means it runs just about fast enough that I don't often want to throw it out of the window).

I'm planning to upgrade my PC to something a bit faster later this year (at the moment I'm running a dual core 1.7Ghz, upgrading to a quad core 3.7GHz) so this PC will get a new install of XP pro + Autodesk inventor, and then just used for that - no internet connection.

 

[MrFluffy]

Why don't you just try copying the same vm under the new hardware on the host? I upgraded my machine to soemthing with a slightly faster cpu but went to a SSD drive, and the performance increase when using a virtual machine is very noticeable. And given I upgraded TO a lenovo q190 nettop with a 1.9Ghz 2127U mobile pentium in it, I'm hardly on the list of top ten home supercomputer users.
The only time it lags enough to be noticeable is when I use it in unity (where individual windows from the host machine appear in the desktop of the host as native windows do), but if I keep it in windowed mode it feels as snappy as a native install. Plus I can put it to sleep, and take a tar of the vmdk's and store them on another machine before installing anything new as a backup & rollback insurance against things getting on there that shouldn't/things corrupting the install etc. Also don't count on a later version of any software being actually any faster, generally once a program gets to a certain state, the only thing which gets added in general are new features you might never use and bloat.

You can get all sorts of alternative vmware images which is what makes me stick with it over native, you can find redstar linux 3 if you fancy playing at being north korean and getting your house raided by black helicopters at 3am. Someone turns up with a fancy sewing machine but the software only installs on windows2000? fire up a copy of your vm, do the install, do the firmware flash or whatever, then blatt it never needing that installer again instead of suffering it corrupting your install for the rest of time.

There are some times I wouldn't use a virtual machine (things which network hard or do strange things with packets mostly) but for 99% of users and uses its great. Plus some analysts were looking at the latest malware, and the newest strains are starting to check if theyre in a virtual machine and not triggering if so. Reasoning being, most people doing security research use images and some sort of virtualization in their sandboxes...

My host machines and main servers are all gentoo linux. Cue off topic rant about systemD...