Bye bye W7!

[Storeman]

Still running Win7 here. On modern hardware so MS won't let 7 update anymore. Not a major problem, I never let Windows Update run automatically, just ran it every 6 months or so.
At some point next year I may look into upgrading to Win10. Or maybe the year after.
I was running Win XP until around 4 years ago .

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

This is like reverse top trumps...reminiscing on the 'est versions of Windows ever?

 

[ollie989898]

Did you ever experience Windows ME?

No. And I'd never admit to it either!

 

[steveR]

You lot


Windows Vista 64 bit was probably the worst OS ever.

Anyone remember OS/2 Warp?
Also used SymbOS, MS-DOS , CP/M, AmigaOS, MacOS

happy days???

Well, I know that life is a lot less geeky now!!

MS-DOS, and CP/M, joy and unhappiness, although DOS was waaaay more usable for me! Warp was a strange beast, I dabbled in and dabbled out.

Pop Basic in there too... My introduction started with a TRS-80 clone around 78/79! A wee cut above the Sinclair offerings

 

[ShooTa]

yep when w7 goes ill be heading into linux land - not sure which distro but i hate the way windows is moving towards a tablet style

 

[Scribus]

Sadly, Microsoft in their infinite wisdom are pulling the plug on Windows 7. I guess luddites like me who still have faith and trust in the long established, cheap to run and non intrusive OS are not really generating much income for MS now....?

Rather sad really, as my experiences of the latest offerings from MS have not been that rewarding! Going to be fun.... NOT! I used to like the challenge of a new PC, new hard and software was usually pretty rewarding, but they have taken on a whitegoods feel nowadays.

So how long dare I leave it with no security updates etc on my old Gal...? I guess it's time to find another machine and start a gradual transition. Probably go for another micro box, maybe time for an SSD with an HDD as backup...

And therein lies the exact reason why they are ditching it. I switched to MS Outlook a few years ago, a free app that did all you wanted of it in dealing with emails, but now it's a monster and all intended to ensnare you in the MS virtual world.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

yep when w7 goes ill be heading into linux land - not sure which distro but i hate the way windows is moving towards a tablet style

Why wait till W7 goes, I'd make the leap now. I've dabbled on and off with Linux since I was at university in the early nineties. Its a great OS.

Currently I've one box at home that runs a server/desktop copy of Linux (CentOS 6.x) in earnest. It runs our phones using Asterisk. Its been running fairly much unaltered 24/7 since 2012. Since that time only one hard-drive transplant and one OS jump from CentOS 5 to 6. Hats off to Foxconn for making a good little mini-PC box there.

However Linux is everywhere, and most people would be surprised what vehicle, household and other gadgets and smarts they own that are actually running some form of Linux or another *NIX derivative under the bonnet.

 

[Y Fan Wen]

You lot


Windows Vista 64 bit was probably the worst OS ever.

Anyone remember OS/2 Warp?
Also used SymbOS, MS-DOS , CP/M, AmigaOS, MacOS

happy days???

Started on RISC OS2 and recently moved on to 5. The recently retired OS4 machine had 128mb of ram and regularly ran accounts, word processor, spreadsheet etc with plenty of free space for more.
My new 5 machine has 4g of ram 'cos how easy is it to get hold of sub 1G ram chips?
Quick look on ebay, 1G for 2.00, 8G for 20.00

 

[J B]

Steve
Sorry, late to the game here, too much beach time for BFF!!!
Would you consider putting an SSD in your existing machine and using the HDD as a secondary drive.
You should be able to put W10 on without cost (*) and if you really hate the interface, you can use one of the many 'emulators' (is that the right word?) to make it look like W7 - I use Classic Shell

* = If you join the MSE forum and look on the techie section, there are plenty of tips as to how to do it.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

 

[steveR]

Steve
Sorry, late to the game here, too much beach time for BFF!!!
Would you consider putting an SSD in your existing machine and using the HDD as a secondary drive.
You should be able to put W10 on without cost (*) and if you really hate the interface, you can use one of the many 'emulators' (is that the right word?) to make it look like W7 - I use Classic Shell

* = If you join the MSE forum and look on the techie section, there are plenty of tips as to how to do it.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=29

Nice to hear the Med is still warm JB... Will you be back for this Wed??

Pondered one of the OS on a stick option, but ruled it out as being a bit underwhelming! Needs to be a flavour of MS, as opposed to Linux etc, so as to easily run some particular bits of software I use! Never looked at the shells for W10, but will look into these.

Not sure if there is still room in this little machine for an SSD, but it's an interesting idea i'll pursue further . I also priced up a new micro machine with the necessaries, and reckon 3-400 quid should be enough for my needs. Hope the weanlings sell over the next few weeks!!

 

[J B]

Will you be back for this Wed??

Nope ... ?

Not sure if there is still room in this little machine for an SSD, but it's an interesting idea i'll pursue further . I also priced up a new micro machine with the necessaries, and reckon 3-400 quid should be enough for my needs.

SSD would be sub 50 perhaps ........ food for thought?

 

[steveR]

Nope ... ?

Poo! Hope it's nice...

SSD would be sub 50 perhaps ........ food for thought?

Definitely...

 

[Timbo]

Not sure if there is still room in this little machine for an SSD, but it's an interesting idea i'll pursue further . I also priced up a new micro machine with the necessaries, and reckon 3-400 quid should be enough for my needs. Hope the weanlings sell over the next few weeks!!

SSD's are only 2.5" form factor and can be double side taped into position, so you literally need no space at all to fit one compared to spinning rust.

 

[steveR]

SSD's are only 2.5" form factor and can be double side taped into position, so you literally need no space at all to fit one compared to spinning rust.

Believe you me, this device is VERY small. Some USFF are very nice indeed these days! Been a while since I shoved another 4gig of RAM in it so cannot atcually recall teh space....

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

SSD's are only 2.5" form factor and can be double side taped into position, so you literally need no space at all to fit one compared to spinning rust.

Yeh they’re going even smaller now than 2.5”

2.5” was a ‘compact’ mechanical drive form factor born in the nineties for notebook PCs. New form factors like M2 (NVMe) are like a regular RAM module / stick of chewing gum in size. Much smaller and also much faster as they don’t have the baggage of SATA, so you’re reading and writing at close to chip speed.

Now you can fit 1 terabyte of storage in the space of a matchstick head, the only reason we still have 2.5” (and 3.5”) drives now is....history.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Believe you me, this device is VERY small. USFF are very nice indeed these days! Been a while since I shoved another 4gig of RAM in it so cannot atcually recall teh space....

I’ll post up some pics of my ultra small factor PC/mini servers, when I get back indoors.

My little Foxconn AMD boxes which have run Linux CentOS flawlessly and non-stop since 2012 (same guys that contract manufacturer for Apple).

I’ve also now got a couple of ultra small form factor Lenovo’s which are lovely, SSD factory fitted, no preloaded OS garbage so run what you like.

 

[steveR]

I’ll post up some pics of my ultra small factor PC/mini servers, when I get back indoors.



I’ve also now got a couple of ultra small form factor Lenovo’s which are lovely, SSD factory fitted, no preloaded OS garbage so run what you like.

Been looking at a couple of Lenovo USFF machines and wondering... Are yours fanless?

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Been looking at a couple of Lenovo USFF machines and wondering... Are yours fanless?

The case / power supply is fanless, but there is a CPU cooler. The same for my Foxconn units. But you don’t realise they are on most of the time.

 

[Pheasant Surprise]

Been looking at a couple of Lenovo USFF machines and wondering... Are yours fanless?

These are my trusty (and relatively ancient) Foxconn “Nettop” nT-A3500 units.

The heir and the spare...

19cm x 13.5cm x 2.5cm. Laptop type external power supply. 2.5” SSD internal drive.

 

[steveR]

These are my trusty (and relatively ancient) Foxconn “Nettop” nT-A3500 units.

The heir and the spare...

19cm x 13.5cm x 2.5cm. Laptop type external power supply. 2.5” SSD internal drive.

About the same as my Acer desktop

Nice to get the machines off the floor which caused all sorts of dust related issues and once when I had forgotten to vaccuum it out, I had one start smoking....!