Windows 7, Windows 8, or Windows 10? Which do you prefer?

Well, I've generally had good experiences with the OSS drivers, especially lately. Video works decently, my printers work, other peripherals, media keyboards, you name it. Wireless can be trouble due to proprietary firmwares, but that's usually not too hard to deal with post-installation.

I think I've had one old Mac rust up on me Oh yes, it was one I put into an ATX case for kicks and giggles. It was exposed to the elements a bit too long.

 

It is usually the strange things that don't work. And when it does work on Linux, some things don't then work on Windows; a scanner I have with disk for Windows works on Linux but not Windows. My Asus laptop just got new drivers for windows 10, when for windows 8-8.1 I had some of the special buttons wouldn't work right because I was having to use a driver for a newer model. Linux would probably be no problem for the laptop because it was originally designed for it. At some point I am thinking of converting it to Linux, but for now it is my backup unit. I wish the Ipad had a terminal, it would be more useful. Put GNUroot on my Kindle Fire, but it still isn't in their store. Too much hostility.

 

Windows 7 beats the pants off XP. Seriously, I used to think XP was all a man or woman ever needed. That was until I got a computer with Windows 7. Don't know about 8 or 8.1. Anyway, recently upgraded from Windows 7 to 10. But I'm not stupid. I have two partitions, one with Windows 7 and the other now with Windows 10. And I have to say that I like it. It's pretty fast, especially the Edge browser. The upgrade kept all my software and settings. And it's all working fairly well, all things considered. It also kept my dual boot setup. And it will only get better. My advice though is that if you have Windows 7, it's better to wait a few months for Microsoft to work out any bugs, redundancies, and so forth. But if you're itching to try it now, then go for it.

 

I ran Linux and XP dual boot. But I had to install the XP partition first, then Linux. When I installed Linux first, the XP install wouldn't preserve or recognize the Linux partition. It just booted straight into XP with no boot screen option for which partition you want to boot up on. But Linux will recognize and preserve the XP partition as an option on the boot screen.

 

I still use Windows 7.

I've used Win 8/8.1 and good grief do I hate that OS. Someone else already mentioned that Win 8 was designed to look like a smartphone, probably because it was designed to work on Microsoft phones and tablets too. I hate that. My desktop is not a phone or tablet, and phones and tablets are much better at being phones and tablets than my desktop is in the first place. I have computers at work that I maintain that have Win 8 on them and even though I normally enjoy troubleshooting for the challenge and puzzle aspect of it, I cannot stand having to do it on those machines.

I'm sure I'll switch to 10 eventually, it looks a lot better than Win 8, but I'm going to give them a year or two for kink reworking and patches to drop plus having them get used to the new deployment style and infrastructure. No need to hide in my cabin below deck during the stormy seas of mass public beta testing, I can bask in the sunshine of Win 7 until calmer seas prevail.

 

still use win 7, no way was switching to win 8, heard 10 went back to the win 7 way a bit, but no hurry to upgrade

 

One of the early Linux live CD’s destroyed windows even when I chose to duel boot, so my safer solution was to put Linux on a different hard drive with the bootloader for Linux on that drive, which can be changed by hand for windows to boot, then get the bios to boot from that drive first. I have a drive saved that has Linux on it, and on an older machine I would just have to install it and select to boot from that one and go.

And that is why I am mad about this lockout (UEFI Secure Boot standard), it is a bad standard, I don’t want to turn it off, I want to use it for duel boot. The manufacturers could easily fix it. It could be done all though the bios with no physical changes or relays needed to power on or off a drive depending upon which one you choose to boot from. With a live CD you would have to tell the bios to boot from a CD, and select which drives or ports would be accessible to it, and if windows is installed on something, you can't get there except with their CD keyed to your installation. It is not unlike an assembly language program loaded with config.sys I had before windows that would alert me when a program attempted access to the drive, if I wasn’t saving something, say no, now things are more complicated; if you choose to boot from a pen drive you would have to choose which drives can even be seen as existing by the bios, and some simply would not exist to it.

Other than that, I like Windows 10, and secure boot. My kid though is sticking with 7, too many old Star Wars games.

 

I can sympathize, because I hated Windows 8, but actually have come to like Windows 8.1 better than anything else. I don't use any "Classic Start" legacy start/stop menus... don't need them. But if you would like to have one, browse this site for a free download: https://ninite.com . The Classic Start I'm talking about is the lower-leftmost item. Lots of other free stuff in there, too, and you won't get infected with PUPs, but be watchful when you engage/install some of these things and look out for pre-checked "boxes".

With Win 8.1, you can have your cake and eat it, too. You can use the traditional desktop, or you can go "tile-side". Each has its uses -- and -- Windows 8.1 is faster than anything else I know of, including Windows 10 (yes, I can tell a difference). PLUS, with Windows 8.1 you still have a CHOICE about "Windows Updates", and when you actually download and install them!

Support for Windows 8.1 by Microsoft is supposed to last until the year 2023 (support for Win 7 until 2020). Surely, by then, they'll have Windows 10 fully "tuned-and-pruned" so that it is, as Microsoft claims, its final and best OS.

 

I've been hearing about a lot of very strange things that happen to people when they do the upgrade, but so far I have not heard about problems where somebody does a totally clean load of Windows 10 from a stand-alone OEM license kit (disk and MS key code). The as-yet undocumented story seems to be that if you have any weirdness in your existing Windows 7 or 8 system, then those will be made worse, or mutate into something worse as you do the upgrade to Windows 10. Oddly, there just hasn't been a lot of information about any of this... yet. I did find this: http://www.extremetech.com/computin...t-problems-gripes-and-missing-features-so-far

With the passing of every day, the fewer reasons I find to upgrade to Windows 10. When there are games that will use DX12, then I may, but until then, I'll continue using 8.1.

 

" PLUS, with Windows 8.1 you still have a CHOICE about "Windows Updates", and when you actually download and install them! "

with win 10, these is now forced on you rather then you decide when to install? that is crazy.....

.

 

The way this has worked out has been very unexpected

Not so very ling ago it seemed inconceivable that Microsoft and intel dominance could be challenged

At home, I mostly use tablets and smart phones these days
Neither ms or intel

At work, we are stuck on xp...which meets our limited needs

 

Windows 10 ~ From Your Computer to Satan's Server

[video=youtube;QEBzc1GHUQE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEBzc1GHUQE[/video]

No way am I ever going to "upgrade" to this or any other future MS release. I've kind of kept up with these jerks as a sideline, but 10 and beyond are simply not welcome. This "free" system is a giant Trojan horse.

 

Currently my laptop is running Windows 8.1 and I like it. I like some features I hear about Windows 10, but I'm not upgrading to that anytime soon with some of the horrors I hear about it. I've dabbled with Linux here and there in the past but never dug too much into it (other than installing it and checking it out). I wouldn't mind learning more about it.

I use to be bigtime into PC building/networking in the past. I would have 10-15 computers setup at my house in different networks/configurations. Some would be legacy Windows products (98 and 2000), some would be newer versions (XP & 7). I would even have some machines dual boot (not in the traditional method though. I had different drives setup with different OS's and would select them via BIOS). Nowadays, I don't really have the time or energy to get into that much anymore. I'm too busy working on my neverending "honey-do" list...which sadly seems to take up my time

But overall...I like Windows 8.1 on my laptop and will be sticking with that for the time being...

 

Definitely agree with you about Windows 8.1 being the best for me, too.

People seem to be having problems with the upgrade to Windows 10, but if they do a from-scratch operating systems load, none of the problems appear. Most often people have problems with peripheral devices, and in particular, printers! But, people are also having problems with firewalls, routers, etc. To satisfy my own curiosity, I took a hard drive and loaded Win 7 on it, than did the upgrade to Win 10. No problems whatsoever.

But, when you get right down to it, Windows 10 seems to be nothing more than a faster Windows 7, with a huge Start menu. Microsoft replaced Internet Explorer with the Edge browser, but I hadn't used Internet Explorer in years. Firefox and Opera are the best browsers as I see it, and without the "extensions" vulnerabilities of Chrome to junkware, clutterware, crapware, etc. Edge? Meh, whatever... I really like Opera, and Opera is really fast.

 

I got a good deal on a Puter with 64 bit Win 7. I'd LOVE to have XP on another partition,as a couple of progs do 32 bit only... and with any MS, you CAN do multi boot BUT must start with the OLDEST OS..then do the newer. XP...I could get into the "works" better. With 7.....certain things are harder to find or fix. It's a desktop. Not sure ANY of the Tablet stuff....in Win 10 is much plus, BUT......I got ample space to add a Win 10 32 bit... and then get to use Progs I like that I don't have in 64 bit compatible. I understand 10 is fine with a regular Desktop (no touch screen)

 

FYI, x64 versions of Windows run 32-bit programs just fine. They're not limited to only 64-bit.