I Want to Keep Windows 7 Forever

[maxseven]

...Most people out there in real life will of course change their computer around as often as the do their car - In the UK this will be around every three years...
Of course the majority of computer users are not enthusiasts and use what ever OS comes with their computer...

Right! I have been amazed to see people just blithely say "my PC started acting funny so I bought a new one" proving only that most don't know how to troubleshoot or maintain them, and also that they are all too willing to just chuck the old PC and basically start-over from scratch, though at least most of them know how to recover important files. But they get a new computer and struggle-to-learn the new OS! May as well learn the Mac--heck most programs they're used to using are there in one form or another.

...Primarily I hate their [Apple's] hardware design principles which IMO tend to emphasize form over function to a fault. This extends to their software to some extent as well, particularly in iOS...

Yeah I get that. We love to monkey with our PCs inside & out & Apple doesn't like that. But another plus IMO for people getting Macs is that millions have & love their iPhones. I'm a little surprised in fact that more people have not realized the commonalities and done that.

 

[RoWin7]

I keep my machines till they die, usually if the mobo goes and the hardware is too old to accommodate a new mobo and CPU. The exception was the XP refurb I called my Toyota Camry PC because it remained so trouble-free for so many years. I work online and had to finally move to Win7 about 3 years ago. I miss that machine, but my desks won't accommodate more than 4, and 3 is a squeeze.

And yes, everyone I know tosses them every few years, when they get "slow." The alternative is to bring it in where they charge about as much to "fix" it as the price of a new machine. And some of them DON'T KNOW how to save their data. And some of them DON'T know what OS they're using.

Don't the Mac OS's get outdated at some point too?

 

[torchwood]

Yes those Macs do get out of date, but replacing them every 3 years would cost a bomb


Roy

 

[RoWin7]

On average, how long can you really keep them? Probably longer than a Windows because all the hardware is made by one company.

 

[EmeraldShard]

On average, how long can you really keep them? Probably longer than a Windows because all the hardware is made by one company.

And yet, you can still replace a malfunctioning part on a PC and use it just as well - or if it's the mobo that went bad and your OS image doesn't like the new one, just take the rest of the hardware with a new mobo and reinstall the OS. From what I've seen, Mac and PC users generally tend to have the same replacement rate.



Re: Replacement rate in general... for me, it's mostly laptops which I've had to replace, usually because the case would get irreparably damaged or some other element of the build quality was crap. I think I've been through five since 2005. My last two were Lenovo Thinkpads, though, which aside from their keyboards are pretty solid builds IMO. That's why I'm thinking of just dropping a SSD in my current one and just tucking in for a few more years with it.

I've had a much better history with desktops, really. The Win7 Home machine I just retired (read: hooked up to the TV as a dedicated streaming / retro gaming box) had parts in it from 2010, when it was a pre-built HP. The mobo failed in early 2012 and later that year I took the rest of the hardware to a spare case and bought only a new mobo/CPU, in which state it's remained until now. The OS didn't have much of a complaint, luckily (except for HP's built-in "Code Purple" boot routine which tricks you into thinking you can't boot without HP's mobo, which was disabled easily enough). I think the last desktop I had to replace before that ran Windows 2000.

 

[bendipa]

I keep my machines till they die. . . .

And yes, everyone I know tosses them every few years, when they get "slow." The alternative is to bring it in where they charge about as much to "fix" it as the price of a new machine. And some of them DON'T KNOW how to save their data. And some of them DON'T know what OS they're using.

It seems that folk just have too much money to burn. There's little reason to replace your computer every few years unless you're ignorant or just trying to keep up with the Joneses. I have 2 PCs, one dating back to 2001, and the other 2012. Admittedly, the older one is now useless for online activity other than for email purposes, but for offline activity it still works just fine. My newer PC has a 3rd gen CPU, but is fast enough and easily runs W10 as well as W7. It runs very well on Linux too, so I won't be buying a new machine any time soon unless the mobo should fail. I am sticking with W7 as I much prefer it to W10 (but Linux Mint IMO is even better).

 

[RoWin7]

"And yet, you can still replace a malfunctioning part on a PC and use it just as well - or if it's the mobo that went bad and your OS image doesn't like the new one, just take the rest of the hardware with a new mobo and reinstall the OS. From what I've seen, Mac and PC users generally tend to have the same replacement rate."

Maybe it was because of my own ignorance, but in a few cases it either didn't pay to replace the mobo and CPU, or maybe I couldn't find compatible ones. I didn't know about refurbs and used parts years ago.
Well, they are ignorant, and they support the tech industry and M$'s racket..

3 of my 4 machines are 10 years old. One is a refurb, 2 were given to me when people dumped them in favor of Win10 machines. One woman insisted I take her super-deluxe printer because she thought it wouldn't run on 10. And speakers, mouse, keyboard and big monitor. Then her family bought everything new

 

[EmeraldShard]

Maybe it was because of my own ignorance, but in a few cases it either didn't pay to replace the mobo and CPU, or maybe I couldn't find compatible ones. I didn't know about refurbs and used parts years ago.

I guess it depends on how often you're looking into new mobo/CPUs and what parts you're bringing over. These days, anything with a USB connector or any drive with a SATA connection is probably fine (with some exceptions, no doubt). RAM might be an issue, I know they keep updating that (probably just to force obsolescence). I think we're on DDR5 now? Pretty sure my new set is DDR4 and I got it specifically in the max speed rating the new CPU could handle without overclocking. But my old mobo wouldn't have been able to take it and I'm assuming my new mobo would refuse whatever they were using in 2010 (DDR2? 3? I don't remember). But other than that, if you just replace parts as they fail you'll probably end up paying less in the long run.

 

[jason2704]

Agree

I'd personally much rather be """unprotected"""/cut off from updates than M$ having real-time access to everything i type, do and save on my own computer (this has pretty much been proven to be hard-baked into windows 10's very essence - You cannot turn this type of tracking off on there no matter how many anti-spying/pro-privacy tools you use and which settings you change, it will still connect to redmond irregardless).

I doubt that "tinfoil hat"-type name-calling/flinging around ad hominem would convince anyone truly conscious of these facts to make the downgrade to botnet10 - Also, if it would be as easy to track/spy on users in windows 7 as it is with windows 10 then neo-micro$oft would not be literally giving out windows 10 for free imo. You just continually pay with your data and personal information instead after having made the downgrade to windows 10 (Aside from the spying, w7 is also just faster and snappier out of the box in general, there are benchmarks that prove this).

Windows 7 will continue being perfectly usable after tomorrow and not go away any time soon, even more so if 0patch makes good on their promises or ReactOS becomes a viable alternative to standard windows in the future.

I agree. I aalso noticed even though W7 will not get updates. But they are telling you you can halt W10 updates for a long time Which in turn is the same thing. W10 is just annother spying Windows, like with ME full of bugs everytime an updates come out. All we need is intelligence and keep antivirus updated.

 

[Barman58]

The ability to delay updates any longer than seven days is not available in Windows 10 home, but is restricted to Windows 10 Pro and other proper versions of the operating system.

I personally consider Windows 10 home to be a Phone/Tablet OS, to appeal to a certain market, or something similar to Windows 7 starter which was also very restricted

 

[maxseven]

...yes, everyone I know tosses them every few years, when they get "slow." The alternative is to bring it in where they charge about as much to "fix" it as the price of a new machine. And some of them DON'T KNOW how to save their data. And some of them DON'T know what OS they're using.

True all, but the rub is that dumping a machine just because it's "gotten slow" (and actually just needs attention) opens people up to a whole host of new challenges as they work to recover their brand-new setups to their previous comfort level (which some never do!). This is even WITHOUT CHANGING OSes which opened a whole 'nuther can of worms from (maybe) W8 forward.

Don't the Mac OS's get outdated at some point too?

Well "outdated"? I don't actually think so any more though I am not an expert. But it seems to me that at least in the last maybe 10 years or so the OS updates have been evolutionary rather than revolutionary. I think there are an awful lot of older Macs out there where people still happily use them w/o further updating.

Funny, all this talk here about how evil MS has become is steerning me toward a Mac should my current W7 platform fail. Though I hope my W7Pro Dell Latitude with its i7 processor (from 2015) lasts a very long time--I actually bought a 2nd one to keep on the shelf should this beast fail, and when that happens some day as surely it must, I will pop my drive(s) into the backup Latitude and then look very hard at a replacement setup, whenever/whatever that may be.

 

[Barman58]

I don't think anyone at Crapple has had an original idea since Steve Jobs died, all they seem interested in these days is buying up or making up patents and taking people to court.


They are still making hardware (their software still stinks as always) the latest is of a similar spec to a $1500 windows Gaming system and has a minimum price of $5999, and if you fully spec one say goodbye to up to $60 000 :sarc:

 

[Bree]

The ability to delay updates any longer than seven days is not available in Windows 10 home, but is restricted to Windows 10 Pro and other proper versions of the operating system. ...

No, in 1903/1909 Home you can pause update for up to 35 days. You can keep clicking the 'pause updates for 7 days', adding a further 7 days each time until you reach the maximum 35 days. Pro adds the ability to defer quality update by up to 30 days, and feature updates by up to 365 days.

 

[Barman58]

Thanks, Bree

All the machines I have here are Pro, and I'm on the Release preview so don't really look at the delay update that often

 

[Bree]

Thanks, @Bree

All the machines I have here are Pro...

I have some of each. With feature updates now being optional in both W10 Home and Pro there's little difference now as far as updates are concerned. Pro still has other advantages, such as Hyper-V and a group policy to notify before downloading updates. But for general use I find little to choose between them these days.


I also use W7 and will be keeping it on the machine in my specs here.

 

[maxseven]

I don't think anyone at Crapple has had an original idea since Steve Jobs died, all they seem interested in these days is buying up or making up patents and taking people to court.


They are still making hardware (their software still stinks as always) the latest is of a similar spec to a $1500 windows Gaming system and has a minimum price of $5999, and if you fully spec one say goodbye to up to $60 000 :sarc:

"Crapple"? Do you understand at all that if they were Crapple they wouldn't be on the short list of largest most successful companies on Earth?

You are welcome to hate anyone just as I am free to no longer respect anything you say about this subject.

 

[GoldenDog]

I pretty much hate Apple as they are way over priced (i'm fine with the OS)but I still use them for the editing software that you can't get for windows, if you like the OS but hate the hardware then you can make your own mac called a "hackintosh" I have not done this my self but have heard of people who have "HackBooks" I won't say any more because that is technically illegal. But you are more then welcome to look it up, there are many websites with info on how to do that

 

[EmeraldShard]

"Crapple"? Do you understand at all that if they were Crapple they wouldn't be on the short list of largest most successful companies on Earth?

You are welcome to hate anyone just as I am free to no longer respect anything you say about this subject.

First off, the way our system works, it is never a guarantee that a successful company got that way because of offering good products. More importantly, it's never a guarantee that any company or their products remain good after becoming successful.

But perhaps most importantly, I wouldn't argue that a term like "Crapple" represents or implies any amount of mature thought or argument, any more than insisting on abbreviating Microsoft as "M$" all the time would display.

tl;dr: you're reading a liiiiittle too much into it there, bud

And I'm speaking as a person who used to hate Apple pretty much unequivocally. I still wouldn't touch their hardware or software with a fifty-foot pole (outside of needing to support a few iOS devices for work), which obviously precludes me from buying anything of theirs, but of the "shortlist" you implied, they're the only one I can think of who are at least bothering to attempt taking steps in the direction of user privacy beyond lip-service, whereas everyone else seems to be happy implying "it's the future because we say it's the future, pal, now shut the hell up and buy an Amazon Echo."

 

[Barman58]

GoldenDog

A few years ago I was talking to someone at the top echelons of a major UK ISP - He was involved with customer Technical Support,

He stated that although Apple MAC products had less than ten percent of their user base they generated more than thirty percent of the problems that were logged with the Tech support.

He then smiled shook his head and turned back to his MacBook , which was running a full copy of Windows 7 Pro - Natively, no sign of Bootstrap or any other Apple software

The opposite of your case in most ways but an illustration of the ways that people can adapt what they have to what they need, at the time MacBooks were considerably lighter physically than the other Laptops available, but ran the "Wrong" Operating system for his purposes

 

[michael diemer]

I've always been a bit curious about Macs, but the price is ridiculous. I would have to be so rich that I felt it was my duty to stimulate the economy, to actually buy a Mac. If I ever get bored enough with Linux, I may give the Hackintosh a go. Just to see what that OS is like.

I've always suspected that Crapple* exists so that M$* can't be considered a monopoly. Technically, what we have in the world of commercial operating systems is an oligopoly: a small number of (in this case two) of companies dominating the market. But why? Why should it be this way? I ask myself...

*no disrespect intended toward any particular individual, or their tastes or preferences. But feel free to give me a thumbs down if you need to.