4 ms·

I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7. It seems to have slid into some always-online ad-filled cloud hellhole since. Office365 is worse than Office 20

by sshine 2y ago

I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7. It seems to have slid into some always-online ad-filled cloud hellhole since. Office365 is worse than Office 2000. This is the OEM strategy still at play. You gotta hand it to Bill Gates for capturing PCs for decades. People truly don’t care how poor their operating system behaves, because your only other option is to buy a Mac.

3np 2y ago
Some do, I guess. https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2 https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43445103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43445103
jasode 2y ago
>I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7. Normal mainstream users can't stay on very old operating systems like Windows 7 because they'll eventually be forced to install newer software that's not compatible with it. Outside actors other than Microsoft force os upgrades. - buy a new printer and it only has drivers for newer os like Windows 10/11 and later - need for installing newer software like latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe suite, TurboTax 2024, etc. They don't install on Win7. For Windows 7, the last version of Chrome was January 2023. Last version of Firefox was August 2024. So setting aside commercial apps like Adobe, TurboTax, etc. -- why can't a user just stay with old version of Mozilla Firefox that's compatible with Win7 and turn off updates?!? Because bank websites like JP Morgan will block the user with an error "You need to upgrade your web browser" because the SSL/TLS encryption algorithms in old Firefox versions are obsolete. Deliberately trying to freeze your computer on Windows 7 or Windows XP means relegating it into a "museum piece" that becomes less and less useful for practical real-world tasks. That's ok for an isolated machine that runs old video games but no good for online banking.
- anthk 2y ago
  Windows XP and 7 have Legacy Update and unnoficial Supermium builds among Serpent browser and friends, and OFC with updated system TLS/SSL certs. http://legacyupdate.net http://legacyupdate.net Also, on more libre software, the community can release LibreOffice and VLC builds like crazy. Ditto with Sumatra PDF, Gimp, Krita...
- abanana 2y ago
  Some of us do! I get fewer problems at home on W7 than at work on W10/11. - Printers: the W7 cohort probably overlaps with users of classic HP Laserjets (I know it's not just me!). - Chrome: Supermium adds W7 support back into the latest(ish) version. - SSL/TLS: does such an issue exist on W7? It's exactly what pushed my mother (at the age of about 65, and hating having to learn anything new) to upgrade to 11 from XP a year or so ago. I do all my Internet banking on W7, via several different banks as I often move around chasing the best interest rates, and never had a problem with any of them. (Vivaldi, Supermium, Firefox 115ESR.) - Some software such as Adobe XD: yeah, unfortunately it's not supported. Depends how much it's needed I suppose. I may be forced to "upgrade" sometime this year but I'd really rather not.
d_tr 2y ago
Too much fuss with community hacks to maybe get stuff working and end up having wasted time in any case. There is too much garbage to deal with in modern computing already. And some features are just not available with or without hacks. If I want to use a decent OS, I can do most of my development on Fedora or Arch or some other Linux distro at my workplace. For proprietary stuff that won't work there, honestly, Windows 11 is not that bad as far as Windows go. I do not get ads, I use a local account without problems and I can do development actually decently with PowerShell, vcpkg, VS Code which Microsoft offers for free and which work on all platforms. TL;DR: There are hills with a much better view to die on.
lightedman 2y ago
"I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7." Microsoft forced Win10 down people's throats. I had all of my machines Windows Update processes turned off and somehow it STILL got onto my systems. I suspect Skype was the mechanism through which Microsoft did this, as they owned Skype then and I still used it.
gloosx 2y ago
Staying on some windows 10 lite-repack for about 8 years now. Automatically activated. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Paint. Windows-7-like start menu. No UWP apps, cortana, onenote, onedrive, even no freaking microsoft Edge. No app store. Not a single moving pixel, ad or notification , or another jumpscaring layout when system starts. Everything installs/works perfectly, perfect system. I have no idea why people even consider updating, must be some really weird case. There is zero new value in the latest Windows versions, just plain nothing new, there is really no reason to switch.

by sshine 2y ago

3np 2y ago

Some do, I guess. https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2 https://github.com/i486girl/win7-sp2 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43445103 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43445103

jasode 2y ago

>I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7. Normal mainstream users can't stay on very old operating systems like Windows 7 because they'll eventually be forced to install newer software that's not compatible with it. Outside actors other than Microsoft force os upgrades. - buy a new printer and it only has drivers for newer os like Windows 10/11 and later - need for installing newer software like latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Adobe suite, TurboTax 2024, etc. They don't install on Win7. For Windows 7, the last version of Chrome was January 2023. Last version of Firefox was August 2024. So setting aside commercial apps like Adobe, TurboTax, etc. -- why can't a user just stay with old version of Mozilla Firefox that's compatible with Win7 and turn off updates?!? Because bank websites like JP Morgan will block the user with an error "You need to upgrade your web browser" because the SSL/TLS encryption algorithms in old Firefox versions are obsolete. Deliberately trying to freeze your computer on Windows 7 or Windows XP means relegating it into a "museum piece" that becomes less and less useful for practical real-world tasks. That's ok for an isolated machine that runs old video games but no good for online banking.

anthk 2y ago
Windows XP and 7 have Legacy Update and unnoficial Supermium builds among Serpent browser and friends, and OFC with updated system TLS/SSL certs. http://legacyupdate.net http://legacyupdate.net Also, on more libre software, the community can release LibreOffice and VLC builds like crazy. Ditto with Sumatra PDF, Gimp, Krita...
abanana 2y ago
Some of us do! I get fewer problems at home on W7 than at work on W10/11. - Printers: the W7 cohort probably overlaps with users of classic HP Laserjets (I know it's not just me!). - Chrome: Supermium adds W7 support back into the latest(ish) version. - SSL/TLS: does such an issue exist on W7? It's exactly what pushed my mother (at the age of about 65, and hating having to learn anything new) to upgrade to 11 from XP a year or so ago. I do all my Internet banking on W7, via several different banks as I often move around chasing the best interest rates, and never had a problem with any of them. (Vivaldi, Supermium, Firefox 115ESR.) - Some software such as Adobe XD: yeah, unfortunately it's not supported. Depends how much it's needed I suppose. I may be forced to "upgrade" sometime this year but I'd really rather not.

d_tr 2y ago

Too much fuss with community hacks to maybe get stuff working and end up having wasted time in any case. There is too much garbage to deal with in modern computing already. And some features are just not available with or without hacks. If I want to use a decent OS, I can do most of my development on Fedora or Arch or some other Linux distro at my workplace. For proprietary stuff that won't work there, honestly, Windows 11 is not that bad as far as Windows go. I do not get ads, I use a local account without problems and I can do development actually decently with PowerShell, vcpkg, VS Code which Microsoft offers for free and which work on all platforms. TL;DR: There are hills with a much better view to die on.

lightedman 2y ago

"I can’t believe people didn’t stay on Windows 7." Microsoft forced Win10 down people's throats. I had all of my machines Windows Update processes turned off and somehow it STILL got onto my systems. I suspect Skype was the mechanism through which Microsoft did this, as they owned Skype then and I still used it.

gloosx 2y ago

Staying on some windows 10 lite-repack for about 8 years now. Automatically activated. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Paint. Windows-7-like start menu. No UWP apps, cortana, onenote, onedrive, even no freaking microsoft Edge. No app store. Not a single moving pixel, ad or notification , or another jumpscaring layout when system starts. Everything installs/works perfectly, perfect system. I have no idea why people even consider updating, must be some really weird case. There is zero new value in the latest Windows versions, just plain nothing new, there is really no reason to switch.