Anyone still use any of the old Windows OS's?

[NaiLed]

hey, windows sucks anyway :P

why do people say this? i mean really, why is it so bad compared to other OS's?

[geekbot]

How did I not realize until now that Magi's avatar is Naruto?

I hate Windows

[WinnieTheBum]

i have XP, win98se and Linux Mandrake 10.0 installed on my hard drive... dont think, XP wins the stability and compatibility contest, and i dont care about system reqs, mine 512 ram goes for any prog or game

[Mr. Peanuts]

why do people say this? i mean really, why is it so bad compared to other OS's?

That's exactly what runs through my mind whenever I see someone hopping on the 'Windows is shit' bandwagon, same with Dell computers, although their service can be shoddy, they keep the majority happy right? Thats a functional business.

I meant program compatibility with Linux. I don't want to have to install 2 versions of something just so I can get it to work on both.

[Jeansi]

I've been really happy with windows XP. Linux fans still say that windows sucks and bla bla bla, but let me tell you something:

This windows has never, NEVER crashed so that I would need to restart.

And to people who reinstall every 3 months: I've had this same install since 1,5 years back I think. It's still not slow.

[MaGi kOz]

How did I not realize until now that Magi's avatar is Naruto?

I hate Windows

It's kakashi from the anime naruto.

and maybe i'm going to try linux when/if i get a new computer. too bad alot of the computer stores you go to has windows installed as default on the computers that they offer. any solutions to that?

[geekbot]

This windows has never, NEVER crashed so that I would need to restart.

The first 30 minutes I used my work laptop with a new install of XP it blue screened. The first week I had 2 more blue screen crashes. Right now I'm having network connectivity problems. I can't work wirelessly for more than 40 minutes. In the past month of playing Continuum on it, I've had the wireless die at least 15 times while playing.

You wouldn't believe the number of virus related emails there are generated inside the *firewall protected* company intranet, sometimes taking down entire networks or servers, because of standarizing on Outlook/Exchange/Messenger.

Why is it so bad compared to other OSes? 'So bad' is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's not unuseable or terrible- it is the most popular OS right now. But it isn't a *good* OS though.

[Asmodeus]

I'd go with Windows XP Professional. It's what I use and I'm very happy with it. If you install things right and things go smoothly, you'll NEVER see the blue screen of death. I have yet to see the blue screen of death at least. Windows XP will probably be the last OS I'll ever install/use.

[Mr. Peanuts]

Maybe in your case geekbot, but my XP has generally been fine and I havent had any major annoyances.

[Emaho]

I think linux fans say that windows blows because they dont like the microsoft monopoly and in Linux you can do what you want with it. But some programs that comes with windows is really good, like Word or exel.. some are less good.. like IE.. One thing that really disturbs me with XP is the Search module for the harddrive.. its so much more easy on 98 and the older versions..
In fact, i maybe could use xp if i got the 98 skin and FF..

[AlienKing]

I think linux fans say that windows blows because they dont like the microsoft monopoly and in Linux you can do what you want with it. But some programs that comes with windows is really good, like Word or exel.. some are less good.. like IE.. One thing that really disturbs me with XP is the Search module for the harddrive.. its so much more easy on 98 and the older versions..
In fact, i maybe could use xp if i got the 98 skin and FF..

By search functions, do you mean drive indexing, or the actual look and feel of the search panel itself?

I always turn of drive indexing. Open up the file search which ever way you prefer. Next, click "Change Preferences". Click "With Indexing Service (faster local searches)". Then turn it off. Also, you may want to manually unidex all of your files by right clicking on each of your partitions, viewing the properites, and unchecking the "allow Indexing Service to index this drive for fast file searches".

The search looking and feel is also easy to fix. Open up the file search which ever way you prefer. Next, click "Change Preferences". Then "Change files and folders search behavior". Finally, select the advanced mode.

While you are in there, you might as well change the internet search behavior if you use IE. Open up the file search which ever way you prefer. Next, click "Change Preferences". Then "Change Internet search behavior". Select classic, then select google because google is awesome.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

The first 30 minutes I used my work laptop with a new install of XP it blue screened. The first week I had 2 more blue screen crashes. Right now I'm having network connectivity problems. I can't work wirelessly for more than 40 minutes. In the past month of playing Continuum on it, I've had the wireless die at least 15 times while playing.

You wouldn't believe the number of virus related emails there are generated inside the *firewall protected* company intranet, sometimes taking down entire networks or servers, because of standarizing on Outlook/Exchange/Messenger.

Why is it so bad compared to other OSes? 'So bad' is somewhat of an exaggeration. It's not unuseable or terrible- it is the most popular OS right now. But it isn't a *good* OS though.

It all depends on the person sitting at the computer. If you know Windows, chances are you're never going to have problems with it. (I don't. Pretty much ever.) If you know Linux, chances are you're never going to have problems with it.

But let me address a few things:
"I had a blue screen within 30 minutes of a fresh load."
- Well, my friend, then you messed up the install somewhere along the way. I've never had this happen unless I mistakenly grabbed the wrong version of a driver or something that was completely my bad.

"The first week I had 2 more blue screen crashes."
- Again, something's wrong with your load, or something's wrong with your components. I have about 9 or 10 personal computers, all of them run Windows XP, and I NEVER have bluescreen problems. Not ever. Am I lucky? Maybe, or maybe I just know what I'm doing with Windows. It's the same as Linux. If you load the wrong driver for a peripheral in Linux, is the driver still going to work? Probably not. Is it going to crash the machine? Maybe.

"Right now I'm having network connectivity problems. I can't work wirelessly for more than 40 minutes. In the past month of playing Continuum on it, I've had the wireless die at least 15 times while playing."
- I was considering your problem right until you mentioned the word "wireless." Wireless sucks at the moment. Any sucker who has worked with a mixed-mode 100MB/s (or better) wired/wireless network can tell you that. Sure, there are times where you would like to use wireless. However, as it is now, wireless is so spotty that I wouldn't use it for anything that requires a persistent link (games) or large amounts of data (no bittorrent, etc). If I'm web browsing or maybe listening to some MP3s, yes, but otherwise, wireless can bite my nutsack.

"You wouldn't believe the number of virus related emails there are generated inside the *firewall protected* company intranet, sometimes taking down entire networks or servers, because of standarizing on Outlook/Exchange/Messenger."
- Then you have a terrible sys admin. He must not be that great at administering MS products, because any sucker with an MCSE/A, a Google connection, and deductive reasoning can figure troubleshooting for something like that. The place where I work? Mixed breed. I've got IRIX, OS/X, HP-UX and Solaris all running. But 99% of the network is Windows (including 10 servers).

Have I ever had a break-in? Once. However I immediately knew it was happening and traced the attack.

Do I have problems with viruses? No. As long as you keep up to date (as the same with ANY OS) with patches, you're okay. Oh, that, and not being dumb on what's okay to click/open.

Do we have issues with spam? Right now, yeah. Of course, our current mail server is just using a version of Sendmail that I'm not too adept with. I've configured our new mail server, though, with Exchange 2003, and on our test run spam was cut by something like 93%. Plus, it allows for shared calendaring and integrated web mail--all using the same security model.

What I'm saying is this, and it's not too different from the post above. Any OS is only as good as the person using it is proficient. Windows is good, Linux is good, OS/X is good.

[Kolar]

I've blue screened once in a few years of using XP Pro. ME, 98 and 2000 all were never even close to as useful and stable. Compared to other operating systems i'm sure there's much to debate but comparing older versions there's no contest.

[Tone]

you can boot linix from a CD without installing it.

http://www.knoppix.net/about.php

KNOPPIX is a bootable CD with a collection of GNU/Linux software, automatic hardware detection, and support for many graphics cards, sound cards, SCSI and USB devices and other peripherals. KNOPPIX can be used as a Linux demo, educational CD, rescue system, or adapted and used as a platform for commercial software product demos. It is not necessary to install anything on a hard disk. Due to on-the-fly decompression, the CD can have up to 2 GB of executable software installed on it.

[Sarien]

Sweet! The answer to the question nobody asked! Thanks Tone!


Anyway, the real reason I'm posting isn't to derail or divert anything. Just that I think I'd be remiss and let people down if I didn't do the following:

Woohoo OS X!

Please feel free to ignore this post.