3 ms·

My primary machine is still running Win7; every time I say this here I get a lot of flak, the only result of which is that every time, I'm a little more afraid

by bambax 2y ago

My primary machine is still running Win7; every time I say this here I get a lot of flak, the only result of which is that every time, I'm a little more afraid to confess it; but I will not move to a more recent version of Windows. Everything works fine and fast; Office 2003 was peak Office (last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated, which, for such a brilliant idea supposed to revolutionize productivity applications, is a bit strange?); browsers won't update to Manifest V3 so uBlock Origin runs along smoothly; most VST plugins released recently, are compatible with Win7 and those that aren't, usually are bad and bloated. Just today I upgraded the CPU fan to a new one that required to completely take apart the whole casing (because the fan has a plastic mount that needs to be on the other side of the motherboard); doing this, and putting it all together, took maybe 40 minutes? And everything restarted just perfectly afterwards. I love this machine. I have a much newer PC running Ubuntu, but it's just not as good — lots of little annoying details; and a bit unstable.

user432678 2y ago
I am entertaining an idea to acquire the same setup for recreational game development using older tools and libraries. Have you followed any guides or do you have any recommendations where to start? Also how reliable those older mobos? I have heard that capacitors are usually close to a malfunction stage, have you had any issues with hardware so far? Thanks.
- mouse_ 2y ago
  I use win64devkit on Windows Vista. Modern and up to date devkit and at the same time very lean, portable and practical. https://nullprogram.com/blog/2021/03/11/ https://nullprogram.com/blog/2021/03/11/
- bambax 2y ago
  Motherboard is from 2009, is on every day, sometimes stays on for a week. Not one problem so far; not sure what I would do if it failed though!
AlexandrB 2y ago
> last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated Isn't the modern (Windows 10, don't know about 11) file explorer UI a "ribbon" UI?
- a2tech 2y ago
  Of sorts. Not a full ribbon like in Office.
  - Kwpolska 2y ago
    Windows 8 and 10 have a real ribbon, Windows 11 went back to a normal toolbar.
pitaj 2y ago
> Just today I upgraded the CPU fan to a new one that required to completely take apart the whole casing (because the fan has a plastic mount that needs to be on the other side of the motherboard); doing this, and putting it all together, took maybe 40 minutes? And everything restarted just perfectly afterwards. I love this machine. This is a crazy irrelevant example. Why would you expect any other OS to act differently? CPU fans connect with a 4-pin header, it's not like switching out a major component of your system.
- bambax 2y ago
  Ok, you're right, it's irrelevant to a discussion about the OS; the point I was trying to make is that this old machine is robust, it can be taken apart, completely, and screwed back together, and still work fine. Not all machines can do that.
  - vel0city 2y ago
    But that's not inherently some property of it being an old machine. One could have an ancient machine where that's nearly impossible to do with proprietary fan sizes and headers and have a machine built yesterday which is easy to do.
  - nly 2y ago
    Just the other month I replaced my laptop battery (not removable but easily done), fans, repasted the cpu and cleaned out the heat sink. It gave a 5 year old laptop a completely new lease of life. Nothing you're describing is unusual.
vel0city 2y ago
> the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated Other than, I dunno, Explorer, Paint, WordPad, Visual Studio, Dynamics, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, SQL Server Report Builder, Mathematics, and then some. What other applications were you expecting them to add it to?
- philistine 2y ago
  Anything not made by Microsoft?
  - vel0city 2y ago
    I've seen a number of applications especially around that time move to ribbon or ribbon-like UIs. Pretty much all of Corel's apps moved to a ribbon. Redgate tools. Solidworks. AutoCAD. Foxit PDF. NitroPDF. Lots of healthcare apps like Epic. I dunno, I've probably seen several dozens more odd domain specific software suites with it over the decades. I've also seen a lot of in-house custom apps made with the ribbon UI toolkit.
    - bambax 2y ago
      What version(s) of Corel's apps used the ribbon? Not CorelDraw 2024 according to this screenshot: https://www.coreldraw.com/static/cdgs/product_content/cdgs/essentials/2024/cds/tools-photo-paint.jpg https://www.coreldraw.com/static/cdgs/product_content/cdgs/e... (I'm a happy user of CorelDraw X7 on my Win7 machine ;-)
- ycuser2 2y ago
  Visual Studio does not have a ribbon UI.
EvanAnderson 2y ago
My primary machine isn't Windows 7 anymore, but I have a Windows 7 machine I keep around for a particular kind of work. I access it with Remote Desktop and keep it in an isolated network segment. I've kept the various versions of other software on the machine static, along with the OS. For what I use it for it's very pleasant to use. Muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts that I've built-up over the nearly 15 years I've been using the machine isn't disrespected by developers introducing change for change's sake. Nothing moves around on its own. Nothing changes without my approval. I really like it. (The physical machine itself is a Ship of Theseus. It's a Dell laptop that has had some combination of donor screens, keyboards, motherboards, batteries, and disks over the years. I really appreciate that, too. The Latitude machines of its era are really easily disassembled and serviced.)
trinix912 2y ago
> Office 2003 was peak Office (last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated, which, for such a brilliant idea supposed to revolutionize productivity applications, is a bit strange?) Apparently I'm not alone ;) I still find the classic menus (with full menus always on) easier to quickly parse than looking at all those icons stretching through the entire width of the window. Edit: also if you're looking for a lightweight note taking app, try OneNote 2003/2007. Uses 8-32 MB of RAM which was a lot back then but today isn't nothing.
- nicman23 2y ago
  use libre
rkagerer 2y ago
Ignore the haters, and just keep enjoying how good life is on it.

by bambax 2y ago

user432678 2y ago

I am entertaining an idea to acquire the same setup for recreational game development using older tools and libraries. Have you followed any guides or do you have any recommendations where to start? Also how reliable those older mobos? I have heard that capacitors are usually close to a malfunction stage, have you had any issues with hardware so far? Thanks.

mouse_ 2y ago
I use win64devkit on Windows Vista. Modern and up to date devkit and at the same time very lean, portable and practical. https://nullprogram.com/blog/2021/03/11/ https://nullprogram.com/blog/2021/03/11/
bambax 2y ago
Motherboard is from 2009, is on every day, sometimes stays on for a week. Not one problem so far; not sure what I would do if it failed though!

AlexandrB 2y ago

> last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated Isn't the modern (Windows 10, don't know about 11) file explorer UI a "ribbon" UI?

a2tech 2y ago
Of sorts. Not a full ribbon like in Office.
- Kwpolska 2y ago
  Windows 8 and 10 have a real ribbon, Windows 11 went back to a normal toolbar.

pitaj 2y ago

> Just today I upgraded the CPU fan to a new one that required to completely take apart the whole casing (because the fan has a plastic mount that needs to be on the other side of the motherboard); doing this, and putting it all together, took maybe 40 minutes? And everything restarted just perfectly afterwards. I love this machine. This is a crazy irrelevant example. Why would you expect any other OS to act differently? CPU fans connect with a 4-pin header, it's not like switching out a major component of your system.

bambax 2y ago
Ok, you're right, it's irrelevant to a discussion about the OS; the point I was trying to make is that this old machine is robust, it can be taken apart, completely, and screwed back together, and still work fine. Not all machines can do that.
- vel0city 2y ago
  But that's not inherently some property of it being an old machine. One could have an ancient machine where that's nearly impossible to do with proprietary fan sizes and headers and have a machine built yesterday which is easy to do.
- nly 2y ago
  Just the other month I replaced my laptop battery (not removable but easily done), fans, repasted the cpu and cleaned out the heat sink. It gave a 5 year old laptop a completely new lease of life. Nothing you're describing is unusual.

vel0city 2y ago

> the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated Other than, I dunno, Explorer, Paint, WordPad, Visual Studio, Dynamics, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Live Writer, SQL Server Report Builder, Mathematics, and then some. What other applications were you expecting them to add it to?

philistine 2y ago
Anything not made by Microsoft?
- vel0city 2y ago
  I've seen a number of applications especially around that time move to ribbon or ribbon-like UIs. Pretty much all of Corel's apps moved to a ribbon. Redgate tools. Solidworks. AutoCAD. Foxit PDF. NitroPDF. Lots of healthcare apps like Epic. I dunno, I've probably seen several dozens more odd domain specific software suites with it over the decades. I've also seen a lot of in-house custom apps made with the ribbon UI toolkit.
  - bambax 2y ago
    What version(s) of Corel's apps used the ribbon? Not CorelDraw 2024 according to this screenshot: https://www.coreldraw.com/static/cdgs/product_content/cdgs/essentials/2024/cds/tools-photo-paint.jpg https://www.coreldraw.com/static/cdgs/product_content/cdgs/e... (I'm a happy user of CorelDraw X7 on my Win7 machine ;-)
ycuser2 2y ago
Visual Studio does not have a ribbon UI.

EvanAnderson 2y ago

My primary machine isn't Windows 7 anymore, but I have a Windows 7 machine I keep around for a particular kind of work. I access it with Remote Desktop and keep it in an isolated network segment. I've kept the various versions of other software on the machine static, along with the OS. For what I use it for it's very pleasant to use. Muscle memory for keyboard shortcuts that I've built-up over the nearly 15 years I've been using the machine isn't disrespected by developers introducing change for change's sake. Nothing moves around on its own. Nothing changes without my approval. I really like it. (The physical machine itself is a Ship of Theseus. It's a Dell laptop that has had some combination of donor screens, keyboards, motherboards, batteries, and disks over the years. I really appreciate that, too. The Latitude machines of its era are really easily disassembled and serviced.)

trinix912 2y ago

> Office 2003 was peak Office (last version before the abominable 'ribbon' that no other windows app ever emulated, which, for such a brilliant idea supposed to revolutionize productivity applications, is a bit strange?) Apparently I'm not alone ;) I still find the classic menus (with full menus always on) easier to quickly parse than looking at all those icons stretching through the entire width of the window. Edit: also if you're looking for a lightweight note taking app, try OneNote 2003/2007. Uses 8-32 MB of RAM which was a lot back then but today isn't nothing.

nicman23 2y ago
use libre

rkagerer 2y ago

Ignore the haters, and just keep enjoying how good life is on it.