Live data from Hacker News

Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

overclock3d.net

41–50 of 373 posts

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#41
post #4

Ya know, I've never had a Linux box that had any of the problems listed about modern windows. Also all the advantages listed about Windows XP are also present in Linux... But I've never paid Microsoft for an OS that showed me ads against my will in my Start Menu, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

> "all the advantages listed about Windows XP are also present in Linux" You mean, are present in Linux TODAY . Installing Linux 22-years ago, when XP shipped, was hugely painful and only the most technical would attempt it. Windows XP marked the begin of an era when corporations replaced analog processes with digital. It sounds so foreign now, but in the late 90s - it was still common for corporations to send printe…

Hmm. XP was just one of many NT releases. The first to be marketed into the retail PC segment. Otherwise not really any more or less important than the others. It didn't mean anything as far as the broad landscape of corporate workflow.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#42

Microsoft actually makes the version of Windows that people want, but it’s called LTSC and they really don’t want you to have it. No bloat, no ads, no forced or feature updates, optional security patches only, virtually nothing installed by default, and minimal telemetry.

It used to be the OS I want. They cut the 10 years LT support to 5 years.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#43
post #5

Whenever I set up a new computer for older family members, despite it being windows 11, I always install open shell[1] and retro bar[2]. Between the two, I've made the operating system look very close to Windows XP visually, and they always appreciate it. [1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu [2] https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

My grandpa in particular is very technologically savvy but his real expertise stops around 1999. He uses windows 11 but detests it and frequently encounters issues that no one else on the internet have. One time while visiting, I set up windows 3.1 in a virtual box VM and he lit up like a candle. He was very excited about getting his old pascal programs running again.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#44
post #40

Microsoft actually makes the version of Windows that people want, but it’s called LTSC and they really don’t want you to have it. No bloat, no ads, no forced or feature updates, optional security patches only, virtually nothing installed by default, and minimal telemetry.

With the risk of linking to 4chan; there is a /g/ guide to how to navigate Windows and it recommends exactly this.[0] However: I do not publicly endorse software piracy, and so do not recommend using this guide; legitimate LTSC licenses are only possible to come by for Businesses with a minimum spend of 5 licenses.[1] :( [0]: https://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/98121318 [1]: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/…

It's literally on archive.org, just download the ISO and you can activate it with MAS

MS doesn't care about piracy at all. They'd rather let you pirate it than losing you by switching to Linux or Mac

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#45
post #4

Ya know, I've never had a Linux box that had any of the problems listed about modern windows. Also all the advantages listed about Windows XP are also present in Linux... But I've never paid Microsoft for an OS that showed me ads against my will in my Start Menu, so maybe I just don't know what I'm missing.

I'm coming off of an entire weekend spent trying to get acceptable latency for audio recording in Linux. Just a midi controller to play a simple 3x oscillator VST with better than 250ms latency was my test case.

I tried different versions of Ubuntu, Debian, different kernels, different window managers, different graphics drivers, stripping things out of the system etc.

After going down the rabbit hole, I finally ripped out pulseaudio and replaced with ALSA.

In Windows or MacOS I would have been up and running immediately.

Now I'm completely burnt out and the creative urge is long gone.

Linux is my daily driver and I love it, but my god, some things are still way more fucking difficult than they need to be.

It reminds me of screwing around 20 years ago with wifi ndiswrapper stuff or multimonitor xrandr incantations.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#46
post #5

Whenever I set up a new computer for older family members, despite it being windows 11, I always install open shell[1] and retro bar[2]. Between the two, I've made the operating system look very close to Windows XP visually, and they always appreciate it. [1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu [2] https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

I hate it when visual oriented products make it difficult or impossible to see a screenshot of how they look like. Both of those products' github pages don't have screenshot, the first does have a website but no screenshots or links to them there either.

Do you have to install a tool that modifies the internals of your OS in order to see how it could look like? Imagine if you had to set up a painting on your wall before you could even see what it's a painting of.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#47
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good quality Nvidia drivers and support for games, mostly.

This problem with Linux is pretty much gone and has been for a couple years now.

So ... all the windows games now run on Linux? That would be news to me. And I was just recently messing with drivers, kernels etc to get a working result, but in the end I still could not play the (officially supported) game on Linux that I wanted (opposed to just works on windows), so good for you that your problems went away, but please note, that other people might have had other experiences.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#48
post #7

Did I love Windows XP? Yes. But to me, it always looked like it was designed by Fisher Price.

Maybe I was too young but honestly I didn’t care at all. Was it colorful and super contrasted ? Yes. But it was not, at least to me, ugly.

Sure, coming from gray OSes from the 90’s, it could have appeared as "childish" but I really think this was just because people somehow internalized that "pro = sad gray". And for what its worth, I’m still convinced that we never had something better than the slightly 3D beige controls of Windows XP.

Now, any app is more colored than Windows XP but nothing is coherent anymore, there is no more "OS look" anywhere, it’s just the applications, their colors and their branding. Even Apple is losing this battle update after update.

I think it (metaphorically) says something about how we lost control of our computers.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#49
post #5

Whenever I set up a new computer for older family members, despite it being windows 11, I always install open shell[1] and retro bar[2]. Between the two, I've made the operating system look very close to Windows XP visually, and they always appreciate it. [1] https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu [2] https://github.com/dremin/RetroBar

Thanks. Definitely worth a look.

Re: Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

#50

One of the biggest challenges modern OS developers face (Apple and Microsoft namely) is how to make the new version of the OS appealing enough for users to move to. There are carrots like a fancy new feature, or sticks like “we’re not supporting this anymore, so if you want your computer to be secure you need to upgrade.” A lot of people don’t care about the carrots though. Their computer does everything they need it…

For Apple at least, why should it care if its users upgrade their OS? They don't even charge money for the OS (anymore).
Post reply on HN