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Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

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Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#81

Post by rkagerer »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #51
Animats wrote: post #34

I could see staying with Windows 7. That was the best version Microsoft ever made. Microsoft finally figured out how to make it stable, and it didn't have all the ad and cloud crap nailed in. You can run current Firefox, current Thunderbird, and current LibreOffice, which covers the basics. Most Windows software still works.

Windows 7 also had the best customization/theming, followed by XP. Both 7 and XP had some amazing looking community-made .msstyle themes but 7's theme engine allowed for things like full transparency while XP was limited to 1-bit transparency. This was nice in that it offered UI looks that were more modern than the classic theme yet more understated than the gaudy Luna/Aero. Then Windows 8 came along and decided flat…

Yeah I've been using tabbed folders in Explorer for a decade, and some theming overrides to make that more slick.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#82

Post by kroltan »

causality0 wrote: post #21
danogentili wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about switching to Linux? :) If you're running legacy OSes, you're most definitely not playing recent games with DRM or doing anything that can't be done on a recent Linux system.

Un-fucking Windows 10 is still easier than Linux where the answers to half of my problems are "You fool, if you wanted to use more than two mouse buttons you should have used Slippery Weasel 7. Trash your install and start over with a better distro. By the way Slippery Weasel 7 doesn't support changing your screen brightness."

I have a 16-button mouse (one of those gaming ones with basically a numpad near the thumb), works out of the box. Same with a variety of dodgy Bluetooth chinesium junk, a drawing tablet, a VR headset... Maybe 10 years ago I had an issue with a 3G modem?

Put short, I cannot corroborate your experience at all.

(I have been on and off Linux the last 10 years due to gaming, but it seems I will be able to stay this time, Proton often performs better than natively Windows)

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#84

Post by alar44 »

WhackyIdeas wrote: post #5

I am very curious of how long it would take to be ‘pwned’ whilst browsing the web with internet explorer on XP. Seconds, minutes, hours? Time to fire up a VM I think.

Oh you won't even be able to load a modern web page on XP or before so no worries there.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#85

Post by eyelidlessness »

Koshkin wrote: post #41
Animats wrote: post #34

I could see staying with Windows 7. That was the best version Microsoft ever made. Microsoft finally figured out how to make it stable, and it didn't have all the ad and cloud crap nailed in. You can run current Firefox, current Thunderbird, and current LibreOffice, which covers the basics. Most Windows software still works.

> That was the best version Microsoft ever made No. 7 was a rollback on Vista. The best one which was not a step back but rather a step forward was Windows 2000. (Some even swear by NT4, which I feel also has some merit.)

Win2K was the only version of Windows I ever ran as a daily driver. I had access to Macs from an early age (since System 7 and through all the processor architecture transitions, except I haven’t gotten an M-series yet), but sold my Mac and couldn’t afford a replacement for some time around the XP transition.

My completely unqualified ranking…

- 2k: excellent, top Windows

- XP: fine, if you turn off all the UI changes, but not appealing over 2k in any way I can recall

- Vista: didn’t use it, but I think it got a bad rep for efforts that should’ve been lauded

- 7: good enough, mostly didn’t suck for web compatibility testing

- 8: I’m one of the weirdos who found it very compelling… but not enough to actually use it. I’m sure it was as bad in practice as everyone who used it thinks, but I really appreciated the bold attempt at a UI for any device. And I’d been very taken by earlier Metro.

- 10: seemed like a perfectly reasonable reversion to evolving 7, but also seemed like it got weirder and worse as they dug into no new versions.

- 11: new version doesn’t seem to have improved things on that front.

- 3.x-98: I didn’t like them, but objectively they were probably just as good as their contemporary Mac offerings just catering to different markets

- ME: lol why even did this exist

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#86

Post by cpuguy83 »

throwaway0x7E6 wrote: post #23
cpuguy83 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what they said about XP when it came out.

really? who, when? I have actually lived through that era, and I can't remember there being negative sentiment about XP. I don't know about the dark corners of the internet, but the people in my circles were neutral about XP, hated Vista, loved 7, hated 8, hated 10 and hate 11 to this day, the only criticism of XP I saw is about the UI, which doesn't make sense to me - switching it was a matter of 3 clicks

The general sentiment for a very long time in my circles was along the lines of "Windows 2000 is the best Windows".

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#87

Post by causality0 »

accrual wrote: post #75
userbinator wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1990s Microsoft: "Where do you want to go today?" 2020s Microsoft: "Where do we want you to go today?"

I miss the all the research that went into developing 95's UI. So much effort went into making computers usable and discoverable for the lay person. The user was the focus of the OS. Seems a little less so now, especially with some of the usability that went away with 11.

Can you fucking imagine telling a 90s Windows developer who just built an amazing multi-tasking multi-window UI that a 2022 innovation was taking away the ability to label the windows on the taskbar?

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#88

Post by mrcarruthers »

Koshkin wrote: post #41
Animats wrote: post #34

I could see staying with Windows 7. That was the best version Microsoft ever made. Microsoft finally figured out how to make it stable, and it didn't have all the ad and cloud crap nailed in. You can run current Firefox, current Thunderbird, and current LibreOffice, which covers the basics. Most Windows software still works.

> That was the best version Microsoft ever made No. 7 was a rollback on Vista. The best one which was not a step back but rather a step forward was Windows 2000. (Some even swear by NT4, which I feel also has some merit.)

Vista was a necessary evil on Microsoft's end. While yes some things weren't great (Aero), the main issue was always drivers.

Microsoft had to switch the ways drivers work for some very necessary security reasons. This led to many hardware manufacturers just not making new drivers or slapping together the shitiest thing and hoping it worked. Took a few years but eventually everyone had new hardware (with decent compatible drivers), at which point 7 came out which is basically Vista with a new skin.

Hell, at the end its life an up to date Vista was actually pretty decent.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#89

Post by codegeek »

Animats wrote: post #34

I could see staying with Windows 7. That was the best version Microsoft ever made. Microsoft finally figured out how to make it stable, and it didn't have all the ad and cloud crap nailed in. You can run current Firefox, current Thunderbird, and current LibreOffice, which covers the basics. Most Windows software still works.

Windows XP wasn't bad either. Windows 98 was great as well for its time.

Re: Legacy Update: Fix Windows Update on Windows XP, Vista, Server 2008, 2003, 2000

#90

Post by wnevets »

alar44 wrote: post #83
wnevets wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't they also have been patched long ago?

Are you suggesting Microsoft patched every vulnerability?

I'm asking who is looking for and deploying exploits for an OS no one uses.
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