What is your favourite Windows OS

[Conoga]

Better software would present a choice of involvement, and not force its user to resort to anti-spyware to disable it, to say nothing of the company's deep involvement with the United States intelligence community.

Wasn't debating the ethics of it at all, was just pointing out that there are tools out there that can be used to stop the shit. It would have been far worse if I had remained silent and not pointed out the existence of said software.

I guess, but it would be far better if everyone switched to macOS, Linux, or any other operating system.

[The New California Republic]

Wasn't debating the ethics of it at all, was just pointing out that there are tools out there that can be used to stop the shit. It would have been far worse if I had remained silent and not pointed out the existence of said software.

I guess, but it would be far better if everyone switched to macOS, Linux, or any other operating system.

Shoulda coulda woulda. Windows 10 exists as an OS. Better to deal with controlling the bullshit of the OS, than indulge in wishful thinking like hoping that people will abandon the OS en masse.

[Conoga]

I guess, but it would be far better if everyone switched to macOS, Linux, or any other operating system.

Shoulda coulda woulda. Windows 10 exists as an OS. Better to deal with controlling the bullshit of the OS, than indulge in wishful thinking like hoping that people will abandon the OS en masse.

It's far better advice, is all.

[The New California Republic]

Shoulda coulda woulda. Windows 10 exists as an OS. Better to deal with controlling the bullshit of the OS, than indulge in wishful thinking like hoping that people will abandon the OS en masse.

It's far better advice, is all.

I build computers for people, people that are quite often technologically illiterate in regards to other OS'es. If I kept recommending they switch to a different OS, it'd just result in a lot of eyebrow-raising from clients. It's far better that I build and configure a computer for them that features an OS that they know how to use, usually Windows, while killing the spy features of Windows 10 before I deliver the finished computer to them.

[Conoga]

It's far better advice, is all.

I build computers for people, people that are quite often technologically illiterate in regards to other OS'es. If I kept recommending they switch to a different OS, it'd just result in a lot of eyebrow-raising from clients. It's far better that I build and configure a computer for them that features an OS that they know how to use, usually Windows, while killing the spy features of Windows 10 before I deliver the finished computer to them.

It wasn't my intention to question your profession, I apologize, but I think people who are technically literate to be drawn into something as nerdy as a discussion of your favourite version of an operating system on a forum for something as idealized as politics is can handle it.

[Minoa]

With all due respect, if an operating system like Windows 10 was serious about privacy, then Windows would allow us to turn off the telemetry entirely, and also not automatically uninstall software during a major update, and also not automatically download apps like Candy Crush.

With that said, maybe Windows 10 Home and Pro may not be for me because I am more like a archivist (VMware) and developer than a home entertainment user, and it partly explains why I do not use a single operating system when macOS and Linux have long supported UNIX stuff.

If I recall correctly, Max Barry used a Linux-based distro at some point, given that macOS and Linux is pretty much the go-to for intensive web development that involves things like SSH. In general, 3ds Max is what keeps me off from quitting Windows in general.

[The Ruby Ravens]

7 Professional

[Minoa]

I build computers for people, people that are quite often technologically illiterate in regards to other OS'es. If I kept recommending they switch to a different OS, it'd just result in a lot of eyebrow-raising from clients. It's far better that I build and configure a computer for them that features an OS that they know how to use, usually Windows, while killing the spy features of Windows 10 before I deliver the finished computer to them.

It wasn't my intention to question your profession, I apologize, but I think people who are technically literate to be drawn into something as nerdy as a discussion of your favourite version of an operating system on a forum for something as idealized as politics is can handle it.

It still sort of fits into the topic of the motives that leads one to consider a particular version of Windows to be their best ever or similar. In my case it is Windows 7 Ultimate: although Microsoft has pushed some telemetry updates there, they can be rejected and even if installed, blocked at the Advanced Firewall. I question if it is possible in Windows 10, but it is probably that packet sniffing is not my expertise at this time.

[The New California Republic]

It wasn't my intention to question your profession, I apologize, but I think people who are technically literate to be drawn into something as nerdy as a discussion of your favourite version of an operating system on a forum for something as idealized as politics is can handle it.

It still sort of fits into the topic of the motives that leads one to consider a particular version of Windows to be their best ever or similar. In my case it is Windows 7 Ultimate: although Microsoft has pushed some telemetry updates there, they can be rejected and even if installed, blocked at the Advanced Firewall. I question if it is possible in Windows 10, but it is probably that packet sniffing is not my expertise at this time.

You can switch off Telemetry in Windows 10. It is easy. There are dozens of free programs out there that can switch off Telemetry and other undesirable features of the OS. It is a myth that the privacy issues with Windows 10 constitute some kind of uncrackable walnut...

[Empire of Narnia]

XP was the best, man. I still have an old XP computer I use for old games.

[Olthar]

My favorite windows are those bay windows that just out from the house. They really fill the room with light, and they come with a free shelf to put things on.

[Purpelia]

Shoulda coulda woulda. Windows 10 exists as an OS. Better to deal with controlling the bullshit of the OS, than indulge in wishful thinking like hoping that people will abandon the OS en masse.

It's far better advice, is all.

It really isn't. Like it or not Windows is the standard for the market and thus most applications are built and designed from the ground up with Windows in mind. And this isn't just a matter of video games or productivity software, both of which are heavily windows biased but even system drivers. So switching away from windows can have a seriously negative effect on your productivity and fun.

[Conoga]

It's far better advice, is all.

It really isn't. Like it or not Windows is the standard for the market and thus most applications are built and designed from the ground up with Windows in mind. And this isn't just a matter of video games or productivity software, both of which are heavily windows biased but even system drivers. So switching away from windows can have a seriously negative effect on your productivity and fun.

Is that really important to anyone who works outside of an office environment? It's never effected my career.

I don't really play newer games, I don't know anything about that, but drivers haven't been an issue I've encountered on any major distribution in about eight years of Linux and more on Mac. Microsoft's own "Plug and play" is the standard on Mac and Linux, and that's superb for the average user, much better than having to install drivers for most things like on Windows.

[Purpelia]

Is that really important to anyone who works outside of an office environment? It's never effected my career.

More power to you than, I guess. But most people do work in office environments now a days when factory work is dying in the west.

I don't really play newer games, I don't know anything about that,

It's not just new games. Good luck finding any decent title that will run on a non windows OS without emulation short of ancient stuff from the days when Amiga was an actual choice. And if you are running windows on linux to play games (like most linux gamers do) you lose valuable resources to that emulation which is going to effect performance and add another layer of complex tinkering that the average user will always find uncomfortable.

but drivers haven't been an issue I've encountered on any major distribution in about eight years of Linux and more on Mac. Microsoft's own "Plug and play" is the standard on Mac and Linux, and that's superb for the average user, much better than having to install drivers for most things like on Windows.

Personally I have heard, but can not corroborate, horror stories about graphic cards drivers in particular. But this might be obsolete news since it was years ago that I heard it. Things might have gotten better since.

[Conoga]

Is that really important to anyone who works outside of an office environment? It's never effected my career.

More power to you than, I guess. But most people do work in office environments now a days when factory work is dying in the west.

I don't really play newer games, I don't know anything about that,

It's not just new games. Good luck finding any decent title that will run on a non windows OS without emulation short of ancient stuff from the days when Amiga was an actual choice. And if you are running windows on linux to play games (like most linux gamers do) you lose valuable resources to that emulation which is going to effect performance and add another layer of complex tinkering that the average user will always find uncomfortable.

but drivers haven't been an issue I've encountered on any major distribution in about eight years of Linux and more on Mac. Microsoft's own "Plug and play" is the standard on Mac and Linux, and that's superb for the average user, much better than having to install drivers for most things like on Windows.

Personally I have heard, but can not corroborate, horror stories about graphic cards drivers in particular. But this might be obsolete news since it was years ago that I heard it. Things might have gotten better since.

I don't know, I work in arts education.

Yeah, I've actually had no big issues running games from about the 2000s and earlier through what most gamers on Linux use (Wine (which isn't an emulator, as you characterize it)), and with an installation of Steam through Wine, most games just work with no messing about. The WineHQ website usually has reports on how to get most games to work, but, again, I've played nothing recently, mostly DOS stuff.

I don't think the average user is a gamer who's going to be installing a video card.

Have you ever actually used any Linux distribution?

[Minoa]

Is that really important to anyone who works outside of an office environment? It's never effected my career.

More power to you than, I guess. But most people do work in office environments now a days when factory work is dying in the west.

I don't really play newer games, I don't know anything about that,

It's not just new games. Good luck finding any decent title that will run on a non windows OS without emulation short of ancient stuff from the days when Amiga was an actual choice. And if you are running windows on linux to play games (like most linux gamers do) you lose valuable resources to that emulation which is going to effect performance and add another layer of complex tinkering that the average user will always find uncomfortable.

but drivers haven't been an issue I've encountered on any major distribution in about eight years of Linux and more on Mac. Microsoft's own "Plug and play" is the standard on Mac and Linux, and that's superb for the average user, much better than having to install drivers for most things like on Windows.

Personally I have heard, but can not corroborate, horror stories about graphic cards drivers in particular. But this might be obsolete news since it was years ago that I heard it. Things might have gotten better since.

In most cases in my experience, Windows does load the basic drivers to make it at least render the display appropriately, but ultimately I go to the official drivers for graphics cards in case I miss anything out. I think most of the hardware problems were associated with the now end-of-life Windows Vista.

[Purpelia]

I don't know, I work in arts education.

And you don't use any art related productivity software?

Yeah, I've actually had no big issues running games from about the 2000s and earlier

Most people who are into video games aren't exclusively into things that are nearly 20 years old by now. I personally am. But I am a mad software engineer.
And most people playing games today are young people who want to run games which are out today. Which was my point.

through what most gamers on Linux use (Wine (which isn't an emulator, as you characterize it)), and with an installation of Steam through Wine, most games just work with no messing about. The WineHQ website usually has reports on how to get most games to work, but, again, I've played nothing recently, mostly DOS stuff.

It is a piece of software that acts as the middleman between a program and an operating environment it was not designed to operate in for the purposes of said program operating. So for all intents and purposes it's an emulator. And every time you add a middleman like that you lose hardware efficiency (as some power needs to be used to run the middleman) and induce the potential for unforeseen failure in places where said middleman is for some reason unable to provide an accurate simulation. This might not be apparent to you as a casual user and indeed it won't be until it happens. But when it does you're pretty much screwed unless someone on their end has already seen the problem and figured out a fix or you are willing to do some serious research and work to get it running.

I don't think the average user is a gamer who's going to be installing a video card.

They are however absolutely going to be that guy who buys a video game, finds out it ain't running properly and runs off to a tech support page where they'll be told to "Update your graphics card drivers." And I can't say how easy that process is going to be or how likely you are to find the exact driver for your version of linux.

And note, I can't say. I ain't saying it won't happen or it will be hard or easy. I honestly can't say.

Have you ever actually used any Linux distribution?

Unfortunately yes. And I understand it to be the tool that it is. Useful for some things, but not all. Like any other tool. And for a casual user whose use of the machine is going to be limited to playing video games he can get off the shelf and using productivity software I would still advise Windows.

In most cases in my experience, Windows does load the basic drivers to make it at least render the display appropriately, but ultimately I go to the official drivers for graphics cards in case I miss anything out. I think most of the hardware problems were associated with the now end-of-life Windows Vista.

Out of curiosity how common is it for official manufacturer pages to stock drivers for linux distos and in general how wide of a coverage is there? Like are we talking only the few major distributions or a wider range or what? I haven't really ever needed to check and you seem to know.

[Minoa]

Out of curiosity how common is it for official manufacturer pages to stock drivers for linux distos and in general how wide of a coverage is there? Like are we talking only the few major distributions or a wider range or what? I haven't really ever needed to check and you seem to know.

NVIDIA does provide drivers for Linux (link goes to an example driver for 1080Ti), but they are not as heavily promoted as those for Windows because Linux is heavily associated with servers rather than consumer gaming. Consumer gaming on Linux is still a relatively new thing compared to IBM-based systems.

[Conoga]

I don't know, I work in arts education.

And you don't use any art related productivity software?

Yeah, I've actually had no big issues running games from about the 2000s and earlier

Most people who are into video games aren't exclusively into things that are nearly 20 years old by now. I personally am. But I am a mad software engineer.
And most people playing games today are young people who want to run games which are out today. Which was my point.

through what most gamers on Linux use (Wine (which isn't an emulator, as you characterize it)), and with an installation of Steam through Wine, most games just work with no messing about. The WineHQ website usually has reports on how to get most games to work, but, again, I've played nothing recently, mostly DOS stuff.

It is a piece of software that acts as the middleman between a program and an operating environment it was not designed to operate in for the purposes of said program operating. So for all intents and purposes it's an emulator. And every time you add a middleman like that you lose hardware efficiency (as some power needs to be used to run the middleman) and induce the potential for unforeseen failure in places where said middleman is for some reason unable to provide an accurate simulation. This might not be apparent to you as a casual user and indeed it won't be until it happens. But when it does you're pretty much screwed unless someone on their end has already seen the problem and figured out a fix or you are willing to do some serious research and work to get it running.

I don't think the average user is a gamer who's going to be installing a video card.

They are however absolutely going to be that guy who buys a video game, finds out it ain't running properly and runs off to a tech support page where they'll be told to "Update your graphics card drivers." And I can't say how easy that process is going to be or how likely you are to find the exact driver for your version of linux.

And note, I can't say. I ain't saying it won't happen or it will be hard or easy. I honestly can't say.

Have you ever actually used any Linux distribution?

Unfortunately yes. And I understand it to be the tool that it is. Useful for some things, but not all. Like any other tool. And for a casual user whose use of the machine is going to be limited to playing video games he can get off the shelf and using productivity software I would still advise Windows.

In most cases in my experience, Windows does load the basic drivers to make it at least render the display appropriately, but ultimately I go to the official drivers for graphics cards in case I miss anything out. I think most of the hardware problems were associated with the now end-of-life Windows Vista.

Out of curiosity how common is it for official manufacturer pages to stock drivers for linux distos and in general how wide of a coverage is there? Like are we talking only the few major distributions or a wider range or what? I haven't really ever needed to check and you seem to know.

I use Krita infrequently and the Google Drive Office Suite.
I acknowledge that, but I still don't think gaming is important to the average user. Most gamers will be doing their gaming on a phone or console, I'm quite content to leave the gamers to Microsoft.
The official NVIDIA drivers are in the repository of most major distributions and can be updated through GUI.
You just seem to be doing a lot of speculation, sorry.

[The New California Republic]

Most gamers will be doing their gaming on a phone or console

You just seem to be doing a lot of speculation, sorry.

Speculation, followed by accusing others of speculation...huh...

[Conoga]

Most gamers will be doing their gaming on a phone or console

You just seem to be doing a lot of speculation, sorry.

Speculation, followed by accusing others of speculation...huh...

I didn't say there was anything bad about it? I was explaining why I asked the question. There's really no need for this kind of antagonism.

I even apologized to them, geez.

It's all-ready true.

[The New California Republic]

Speculation, followed by accusing others of speculation...huh...

I didn't say there was anything bad about it? I was explaining why I asked the question. There's really no need for this kind of antagonism.

Well it was a pretty baseless assertion, that most gamers do their gaming on phone or console, as the stats contradict that: https://mygaming.co.za/news/features/89 ... arket.html

But let's just let this issue slide, as it is largely irrelevant in regards to the thread topic.

[Conoga]

I didn't say there was anything bad about it? I was explaining why I asked the question. There's really no need for this kind of antagonism.

Well it was a pretty baseless assertion, that most gamers do their gaming on phone or console, as the stats contradict that: https://mygaming.co.za/news/features/89 ... arket.html

Right, fair enough.

The topic of Linux itself is pretty off-topic, anyway