Windows XP overtakes Windows 8 as the world's most popular Operating System.

[overtone]

Used a Mac for many years. No problems, of any kind. No hassles of more than about 15 minutes. Never called a help line - not once. Then my local internet providers quit letting me connect with it, and simultaneously my wife needed a PC to handle tech school class stuff - came new with Windows XP. The next few years were an education in the specialized vocabulary of computer hassles and security issues and software compatibility and file restoration and disc repair and editing registries (wtf are they for, anyway?) and finding stuff buried in Microsoft's menu trees and hardware compatibility and so forth - spent the price of the machine on security and upgrades and backup, spent hours on hold with help lines, spend days with no functioning printer etc, did everything I could off line on the Mac just for reliability's sake.

 

I learned what the term "Microsoft reliability" meant - it means the hardware you buy is designed to be just reliable enough that you can't tell whether it's your Microsoft operating system's fault or not when it screws up. Cheaper than making something that works all the time.

 

Snail mail is faster and more reliable than email with Microbugs in it. And cheaper.

 

When I heard that the newer Windows were even buggier than XP, I actually laughed. And when Microsoft quit supporting XP, my wife was out of school - bought a Mac, spent twenty minutes setting up the printer and backup memory and plugging everything in, handed the XP to the local recycler to be smashed, and haven't had a minute's hassle since. If it runs without significant down time for two years I'll have my money back over the XP average - the old Mac, and its printer btw, is still crash free and handling everything I throw at it twenty five + years later, so I think that's a reasonable expectation.

[Lightmeow]

I like windows 7, or linux. Windows 8 sucks. Its not that Windows 8 is hard to learn, but its stupid that they are forcing a mobile enviroment onto a person. Especially if you don't have a touch screen. Windows 8 is more backwards. Windows 7 is an insainly stable OS. The only thing that stinks is if you want to do anything on a really root level, you need to do some real digging to find it, and the CMD is more DOS and hasn't advanced in years. Thats where linux mint, or OpenSuse comes in. Right now, I'm running Mint, because I love it. OpenSuse is another great OS. I used to use Arch, but I got sick of having to update it and the updates breaking the system. I have no reason to use arch, other then to tinker, so thats why I use Mint. I don't really like XP, it's pretty Outdated, and you can't use the newer versions of OpenGL

[imatfaal]

I like windows 7, or linux. Windows 8 sucks. Its not that Windows 8 is hard to learn, but its stupid that they are forcing a mobile enviroment onto a person. Especially if you don't have a touch screen. Windows 8 is more backwards. Windows 7 is an insainly stable OS. The only thing that stinks is if you want to do anything on a really root level, you need to do some real digging to find it, and the CMD is more DOS and hasn't advanced in years. Thats where linux mint, or OpenSuse comes in. Right now, I'm running Mint, because I love it. OpenSuse is another great OS. I used to use Arch, but I got sick of having to update it and the updates breaking the system. I have no reason to use arch, other then to tinker, so thats why I use Mint. I don't really like XP, it's pretty Outdated, and you can't use the newer versions of OpenGL

 

Just about to switch to Mint - I like to try all the flavours and thats next on my list. Any protips?

[MonDie]

 

[...] I like to try all the flavours [...]

 

I'm still trying to understand Ubuntu!

[Lightmeow]

The boxes look stupid for closing programs, but you can easily change it so it looks more like Windows ME

 

Lets see, it's pretty much like any distro, I like it over Ubuntu because it isn't as fancy. I hate the Unity desktop. The start menu has an all applications catagory, so thats kind of nice. It's fast and clean. Kind of reminds me of ME.

 

A stupid problem I'm having a problem is I just installed it on my laptop, and my graphics card as of now isn't working. I'm using an intel intagrated, so it should of, so I'm trying to figure it out. I have had no problem with my desktop, which is an AMD graphics card. Thats the only thing I can't figure out. I haven't really started screwing around with anything yet. Haven't felt the need to, you know. It just works...

 

The only thing thats annoying, and you probably know this, is compiling stuff.

 

 

I'm still trying to understand Ubuntu!

 

Ubuntu sucks(In My opinion)... I think its geared more toward Mac users.

[MonDie]

 

Mondie, XP has something (if implemented) that Vista and above gave up.

The Limited User.

 

I have seen so many users insiste they must have administrator privileges, then get hit.

 

Quote from Russinovich (you have heard of him?)

 

 

Apparently they just changed the name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_Account_Control

 

As far as I can tell, it's just another form of file permissions: a program without administrative privilages wants to perform an administrative action (e.g. read, execute, or alter a system file), so it must get permission first. Linux systems are similar.

Ubuntu sucks(In My opinion)... I think its geared more toward Mac users.

 

I will regard your opinion if you merit it. What's a "cronjob"?

 

I'm horsing around.

Returning Jan 16.

Edited January 13, 2015 by MonDie