4 ms·

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing in the context of the article that you can keep using Windows 7. I want it to be a good thing, but reality doesn't go a

I don't know if it's a good or bad thing in the context of the article that you can keep using Windows 7. I want it to be a good thing, but reality doesn't go away. 7 was really the last version of Windows I liked before the move to hybrid tablet PCs and Metro. It's the last one with the Classic theme which is more visually appealing to me. And there are no forced rolling updates. But if a corporation is just not going to release security patches allowing for exploits like this then it slowly makes using it untenable. It's just like with phones. I would be happy with my first generation OnePlus One if only the OS updates with the security patches didn't also tie in so many other features that decrease performance to unbearable levels. With Apple especially I feel like they're just updating things for the sake of updating them even though they already worked fine before, and Catalina is the end result of that strategy. We're running out of things to innovate on in the technology sphere so about all we can do is stick another two cameras on the back of the latest flagship on top of the previous three and call it progress. I once read a review that said something to the effect of, "but it only has two rear cameras." And we can't go back either. Even though High Sierra is less annoying to use than Catalina, there's still another release cycle ahead. And another after that. Downgrading is not a sustainable business model, from people's perspective. Reddit won't just throw away their redesign and go back to old.reddit.com by default because it means taking away the livelihoods of the people they hired to "improve" everything. It means admitting it failed, and I don't think that's how they see their efforts. So what's the way out? And software vendors will eventually start using Windows 10-exclusive APIs because they'd see no point in supporting a "dead" OS, so eventually you'd have no choice to upgrade if your requirement is running that software. It's just out of our control.

amatecha 6y ago
If it was up to me I'd never "upgrade" beyond Windows 7. Same thing with OS X, I'd like to stick with the version I have pretty much indefinitely. Not only OSes but most software in general are adding more and more features I don't care about & don't want, while adding onerous, user-hostile patterns that detract from both my freedom and the convenience that I usually expect from the software I use. Frankly, as time goes by I'm finding it harder and harder to keep using Windows/Mac as my primary computing OS because every new update adds things like forced (or extremely-hard-to-avoid) updates, nagware, analytics I don't agree with and is difficult to remove, more-prevalent DRM, UX regressions (IMO) and "change for the sake of change" that provides no measurable or perceivable benefit to the user. I could honestly keep going on and on about this. It's like software companies never heard the idiom "don't fix what isn't broken", and they are interminably obsessed with reinventing the wheel on a biannual basis. Re-reading what I wrote, it's interesting & telling that I started with "if it was up to me", and that's really the problem: it's basically NOT up to me what I run on my computer. Want to play the latest award-winning game that is revolutionary, life-changingly awesome? Hope you have absolute latest [whatever] OS with all the updates and whatever other stuff that is required to run it (anti-cheat spyware is my favorite). Heck, how about stuff required for your business, non-optional software (like Zoom)? You're just forced into it. If this stuff you're forced into has problems like, say, wiping your entire hard drive because of a bug in a forced Windows update?? Too bad I guess? That's what you get for using a computer? There are so many glaring problems with this situation, it boggles my mind that people seem completely fine with it.

amatecha 6y ago

If it was up to me I'd never "upgrade" beyond Windows 7. Same thing with OS X, I'd like to stick with the version I have pretty much indefinitely. Not only OSes but most software in general are adding more and more features I don't care about & don't want, while adding onerous, user-hostile patterns that detract from both my freedom and the convenience that I usually expect from the software I use. Frankly, as time goes by I'm finding it harder and harder to keep using Windows/Mac as my primary computing OS because every new update adds things like forced (or extremely-hard-to-avoid) updates, nagware, analytics I don't agree with and is difficult to remove, more-prevalent DRM, UX regressions (IMO) and "change for the sake of change" that provides no measurable or perceivable benefit to the user. I could honestly keep going on and on about this. It's like software companies never heard the idiom "don't fix what isn't broken", and they are interminably obsessed with reinventing the wheel on a biannual basis. Re-reading what I wrote, it's interesting & telling that I started with "if it was up to me", and that's really the problem: it's basically NOT up to me what I run on my computer. Want to play the latest award-winning game that is revolutionary, life-changingly awesome? Hope you have absolute latest [whatever] OS with all the updates and whatever other stuff that is required to run it (anti-cheat spyware is my favorite). Heck, how about stuff required for your business, non-optional software (like Zoom)? You're just forced into it. If this stuff you're forced into has problems like, say, wiping your entire hard drive because of a bug in a forced Windows update?? Too bad I guess? That's what you get for using a computer? There are so many glaring problems with this situation, it boggles my mind that people seem completely fine with it.