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Apr 22, 2025 7:10 PM
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Tsunamix
Every other version of Windows sucks. Win95 was innivative but flawed. Win98 was 95, but with the kinks worked out. WinMe dumbed things down. WinXP was Godmode. Vista was Clown Shoes. Win7 was XP only prettier. Win8 was designed for tablets. Win10 was Win7 with some decent bits from 8. I heard Win11 is like 10, only slower, buggier, runs hotter, needs more resources, and just worse in almost every way.
Spanky44
Windows 7 was my sweet spot. They have just caked it in crap and bs app store crap and done everything they can to make the search functions worse, just ugh.
d3jake
Notifications as a means to try to sell me things on an OS I pay for is a bit much for me.
ROBOTvsMAN
vladob
It still looks better than Boeing...
bullyboy1963
Linux all the way!
lovingspace
Windows 2000 Pro was the best. Everything was downhill from there.
MarcUK
I used win2kpro for about 12 years before I was forced to upgraded. Then I used win7 for about 10 years. Both solid OS's. :-)
besn
?
masterpainimeanbetty1
the most recent season of true detective?
Silent1fd
Debian, it's a Linux distro.
MeestowKitty
And here's me, still running Windows 7.
qtRaven
I was running it until Steam decided to stab us in the back.
MeestowKitty
What do you mean? Steam still runs perfectly fine on my computer.
qtRaven
In 2024 Steam ended support for Windows 7. https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/announcements/detail/3684547474477817940
qtRaven
In November of 2024 the latest update at that time caused Steam to stop working on my Windows 7 installation. It did however, work on Win10.
MeestowKitty
Dunno what to tell you. I have the little "Support was discontinued" banner at the top of my Steam, but it's still running just fine on my rig as of this second.
qtRaven
The ShutUpWindows tool helps with a lot of Windows crap. It helps you turn a bunch of things off. https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10
FuzzyMedic
Left W10 behind in favour of LMDE. I enjoyed exploring it, learning how to do the basics things I wanted it to do, and generally having a great time with it. That was a couple of years ago. Now I'm running EndeavourOS and it's perfect for me. It's fast, stable, updates when I want it to, and is reasonably user friendly. Comes with a little learning curve, but I've not regretted leaving windows behind.
Vercci
Windows 7 never forced anyone to install 10, it was trying to install Windows 8. People skipped from 7 to 10
lithium03
It never installed 8, it was 10. It started with notices, then it attempted to schedule the change, then it just did it without asking.
youreathing
It takes some effort, but you can get a decent low-bloat install of 11. You shouldn't NEED the effort, but you can do it.
LustyLombax
I jumped to mint and my steam is broken. I cannot see whatever instance is running. It's a blank screen. I have updated the graphics drivers, the system, the app. Nothing is working. So I went back to my backup win 10
alwaysgoodstuffhere
NVidia card? Do you have Vulkan installed and SteamTricks?
OdinYggd
Steam needs both the AMD64 and i386 support libraries installed, since Steam itself continues to be i386 despite almost all the titles on it having gone to 64bit.
stonecoldstevebuschemi
Na na na na Na na na na BLOATWARE!
sadurdaynight
Problem with Win 11 is MS is trying to push more AI w/ AI cpu's. They basically want the AI work offloaded to your pc as an edge computer instead of having the AI server farms eating all the cost. That's cool and all as AI becomes more reliable. But, AI cpu's are pricey. Most folks just want a $100 refurb that has win 11 on it, not a new $3k AI cpu uber computer for Win 11.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
Wtf are you talking about? Windows 11 just needs a modern cpu not an expensive one. AM4 CPU's have had tpm 2.0 since 2016. Hell you can find used cheap old office computers on eBay that run it just fine.
You just making shit up?
Shaows
Windows 10 when it first launched was Windows 11 as it is now, then they made changes to make 10 more like 7.
transhumanisticrecluse
still pissed that i have to hide the windows bar because it overlays too many program windows. the argument was to enable better information overview, but whats the point if i have to hide the bar with the rollout and it still gets in the way when i come near it with the cursor
RetrogradeLlama
Win 10 isn't much like 7. But I agree... internally there's a number of places where 11 identifies itself as 10.
AnyUsernameWillDoForMe
3.1-XP was the best era
ThomasThundersword
there are also a LOT of third party tools to bully it into being closer to 7. as a die hard Win7 fan, it isn’t perfect, it’s barely “close” and i wish i could just have my fucking windows 7 back. But i will admit, through gritted teeth, you can get win10 about 80% of the way to being like 7…. though that last 20 is big, and a recent update just broke the tool i use to have a 7 like start menu
Telemapus
Just use Start11 from Stardock. Costs pennies and you can have whatever start menu you like.
SodomySnake
If you set it up right, it's a *lot* like 7 with ugly flat UI. As far as I know, you can't do anything about the awful Metro settings app, but you shouldn't need to interact with that very much. Cortana, the news feed, the MS Store, the new music and photo viewer apps, Microsoft Edge, Live Tiles etc. can all be gotten rid of. And there are programs like Windowblinds that purport to solve the ugly UI, but I never bothered.
Cyanide555
I do so hate flat UI. I want it gone forever. Buttons should be buttons. Scrollbars should exist. Separate my work from my UI
RetrogradeLlama
Welp, you're talking to a guy who goes back to "classic" windows themes whenever possible. I don't need 3D borders, I need to get work done.
But year, all that other stuff is extraneous. If you mostly go to Starbucks and use your computer while there to check email and the news, then all those little widgets and other idiotic system suckers are probably right up your alley. If you want to get work done, they're beyond annoying.
Janeator
As a windows 7/10 user, there's many things you can't take out of 10 to make it like 7 (better) still. Stick to 7 whenever possible.
SodomySnake
I can't use stock Windows 10 though; it makes me want to vomit. I'm so used to how I have it set up that I forget how bad it is out of the box.
Telemapus
Cortana is deprecated and support for her ended in 2023. Keep up dude! It's all about Copilot now. Copilot will make you wish for the days of Cortana.
SodomySnake
Copilot won't make me wish for anything, because it'll never get installed on my system. That's cool that Cortana fucked off, though.
Telemapus
It's cute that you think you can stop Microsoft installing Copilot on your system.
TonyDiethelm
Linux. It works.
Telemapus
*not a guarantee (and guarantee void in Tennessee)
RetrogradeLlama
Win 11 is just 10, but w/even more things made difficult to do for users who are beyond entry level. They've intentionally made some things that a mid-level user would be comfortable doing rise to the "you'd better feel like a Tech" level. Meanwhile, aside from the unneeded AI shite, it doesn't do anything for the avg user that Win 7 didn't.
11 won't run on a lot of machines. Instead of providing a work-around for the portions that do, MS just obsoleted all those pre-2022 machines instead.
beandip753
11 is compatible with 8th gen and newer intel processors, which were released 2017-2018
martineb72
I downgraded from win 11 to win 10, when win 11 has Recall baked into File Explorer. That is just too risky for me.
LjubljanaJeNajlepseMestoNaSvetu
Its the new Vista.
PatjoDLIII
RetrogradeLlama
RetrogradeLlama
Vista/Win7 weren't bad. True, more of just moving stuff around and making life more difficult, but at least you could badger them back into sanity. Win 11 takes a LOT of work to make useable, and 10 wasn't any better.
LjubljanaJeNajlepseMestoNaSvetu
Vista did the same thin 11 gona do, obsolete a bunch of machines for no good reason. And was shite.
mak10z
Laughs in Linux! I highly recommend EndeavourOS. Its Ez-Arch :)
it takes a bit of learning if you're not familiar with linux subtleties. but its superior to being beholden to MS for everything, and you have a bit more privacy (no co-pilot, and no 'recall' once they force it on all win11 users)
absoluttalent
I enjoyed endeavor, but had to swap back to Windows for my gaming PC. It was fairly easy to work with and did 95% of what I wanted. But that last little 5% needed Windows
When it comes time to fully ditch Windows 10, I will give Endeavor OS another shot, unless the steam os really makes it not even a question
Foxcross
I was a xp holdout
SlipperyFlipper
This is the last suit you will ever wear.. again. Got to help the ailing hardware vendors.. /s
airbreather
This will garner a LOT of hate here on Imgur, but several years ago I switched everything to Mac and everything has been… easy. It just works and I don’t have to worry about versions and buggy OS updates. Flame away if you feel you must.
TacoPoweredHelicopter
If it works for you thats all that matters.
Lots of software I run is not available on iOS or Linux. So i don't have much choice. That says windows "just works" for me.
AgamemnonsMemes
win95 forever.
DevilsAdvocat
no.. not even a fucking little bit, give me xp or 7 back, I had 7 run for 9 months straight without restarting, including sailing the 7 seas for programs.. no real issue, think I had to restart explorer every so often because of a ram leak, 10? 10 is still an absolute fucking disaster, and I will fucking curse windows and intel for hard locking chips to later releases forcing me to install this dumpster fire, oh, I want to view a jpg , ram leak out the ass that remains even after you force close
DevilsAdvocat
photo viewer, how much do you have to fucking suck that your os cannot view a jpg without shitting the bed
Regeny
I jumped from Windows 10 to Linux and a friend is going to do the same once the updates are gone. The mandatory MS account is the deal breaker.
kopper41222
I just used a hotmail account from like... 20 years ago lol
RetrogradeLlama
It's not actually mandatory. There are still some technical tricks to get around it even in the latest release (MS keeps trying to plug those workarounds).
The cheapest workaround is just to give it a phony but legit looking email.
Then opt out of everything network related as it does the initial configuration. Once it's built, shut off all the stuff that attempts to integrate with anon-line presence i.e. MS Cloud, Co-Pilot, etc.
alwaysgoodstuffhere
Welcome, I made that move when W10 changed a working W7 laptop into a uselessly slow lump. Installed Linux now it performs as good as my brand new work laptop
aducksayswhat
As I see it the issue is that you need to do workarounds at all, you're fighting against the system and MS is actively trying over years to reduce the loopholes. Similar for "but you can use this script/tweaking app to disable things", with no guarantee MS won't undo it next update, and that fighting maintenance isn't what I want in a OS
Regeny
In the grand schemes of things, yes. Also, I use my PC just for surfing, Emails, and gaming so it's really easy for me to switch over. Plus 12y of experience with using Linux at work. So it was more of a "ehh, why not. and fuck them." decision for me.
Dasnekones
Same. Windows 10 is my last Windows OS and I won't be looking back. Windows 95 and xp, we had our time together. Windows 7 you were alright. 10... well let's just say it could have ended on a worse note but this is over for me.
Ithinkimbetterthanyousometimes
there are several ways around that
Regeny
1) for now 2) workarounds are not a foundation of trust
Clockworkdancerobot
Don't forget the tons of spyware that even when you turn some off it still sends lots of data to MS.
Ithinkimbetterthanyousometimes
Is it a workaround if it's just another option to select?
GarmBlack
Well jokes on you, I haven't upgraded my desktop in almost 12 years and it can't RUN 11! So there!
belatedboring
flyby11 or rufus will bypass most hardware restrictions
MoopsyLD
not to insult but you obviously don't realize the problem do you? how is the normal non tech savy person supposed to do all the stuff needed to bypass this? many people obviously can bypass but we are not the majority and until something is done then people will not upgrade and not by choice.
HenryFondle
cough cough rufus has options to disable tpms, bitlocker, ms account, etc. my machine will keep going till blue smoke leaves it.
CommodoreSkippy
I ran 7 until very recently, and even then, I only gave it up kicking and screaming. Before that, I ran 2000, which I also gave up kicking and screaming. If I could, I'd go back, but I can't, so the next best thing is staying where I am.
CommodoreSkippy
Lots of love for older OS in this comment section, but not for me, I guess. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Nightchime
Mine's about 4 years newer and can't either.
ballsoutflyer
Mine can, but I refuse to.
djevelen
microsofts requirements on Win11 are so wildly arbitrary its scary, like, my processor isnt approved for use, but like 5 years of older processors are.
Unfortunate500
Every release since 95 has just been a fight with Microsoft to restore it to work like 95 did. Once they give in and give people their desktops back, people migrate. The first releases of all major windows upgrades have always been a disaster.
People don't care about the version. They just don't want it to interrupt their work and won't embrace it until it behaves.
jayman0123
"I'll be deep in the cold cold ground before I [leave windows 7]"
Ninjainslippers
Windows NT/2k was IMO the last time we got a legit upgrade. Just undid the 98 bullshit and made win95 with better security and stability.
CoreConcept
I miss Win2kpro.
shammael
If you had said win 2000 or XP service pack 2, sure, although the winner, for me, was win 2003.
But 95? 95 was a weird mix of 3.1 with a bunch of added stuff that almost, but not really, worked. Once you scratched the surface it was a horrible OS.
UglyDanTheUglyMan
Agreed.
If there was a way to maintain the same operating environment across OS versions, I would be overcome with joy in learning about it.
CanOnlySayYes
I know I’m much younger than everyone here, and I’ve only been around for XP, 7, 8, 10 and 11, but I can’t wrap my head around the argument that things have been bad ever since 95, because I always thought Windows was more than fine until consumer stuff began infesting the OS from 8 onwards.
080080
why can't i resize my win 11 taskbar without a 3rd party mod?
TypicallyVigo
Why can't I put my Taskbar on the sides of the screen anymore? I've had ultrawide monitors for awhile now, its kinda annoying having that stretch all the way across the bottom of the screen.
Quebeker
We added a bunch of buggy features that you didn’t ask for and you are going to like it. This is a threat.
loma45
A good OS should be nearly invisible.
thelegendofthetwistednavigator
Microsoft haven't put out a properly stable version since 3.11 for workgroups
axtr77
This!
Telemapus
How is Windows 11 (or 10 before it) not properly stable? I can't remember the last time I had a freeze, unexpected reboot, let alone seen the BSOD.
adverselypossessed
Having been with Windows since 1995, Windows XP worked like a charm! In my experience Vista and 2007 were avoided like the plague.
MisterLemons
Hey now; 7 was actually pleasant.
GOAE
Having set up a VM to try XP again after having been on 10. The incremental improvements made from Vista and 7 were extremely noticeable. Particularly how everything became multi-threaded and didn't freeze everything when one thread stalled on something. I too remembered XP fondly, but I was reminded these issues with it existed and were just accepted as normal at the time. Nostalgia glasses and all that.
billstranger
XP SP3 4 ME.
JustJoe2047
Service pack 3 was perfection on XP https://media1.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTY1YjkxZmJlMjh5OXk3dnZvbW15aGNzbDJod3poNThlNDJyeHFmZnEwZWdrZXFzYyZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/LOcPt9gfuNOSI/giphy.mp4
theblackknightalwaystriumphs
XP was the height of Windows. They should have just kept updating it
CALAMOSCOPYJANE
Same. This is widely known. XP was the beeeeeeeeeeeeeest.
RayneOfSalt
I honestly preferred win7 to xp just because of a few accessibility options that weren't available in xp, but xp was a good one. Much, much better than 95, 98 and ME.
Joxster
I still miss Win98SE.
moonshadowkati
I have it on an old laptop specifically for playing Mechwarrior 2 Mercenaries. :)
Joxster
Damn, that was a solid game :D Good stuff
moonshadowkati
"Shoot me even once, and I'll turn that beer can you call a mech into scrap." :)
moonshadowkati
I still think 11 is better than 10. The search function in 10 just didn't work, at all, straight up. 11 isn't amazing but at least it has that going for it.
Drives11
last time I tried to use win11, I wanted to launch netplwiz.exe, so I opened the start and typed "netplwiz" into the search menu. what it suggested was a fucking bing search for the program already installed on my fucking computer. useless.
Telemapus
Hmmn...
Drives11
Well "last time" was like 3 years ago, it's good to see that's fixed at least. I still don't plan to give windows another shot though.
hipifreq
You've got it totally backwards. I have tp pin all programs to the Win 11 start menu. The search bar just WILL NOT find installed programs. It'll give me tons of online stuff, options to find it in MS Store, all kinds of things BUT hand me the launch button for the program. I just don't touch search at all at this point. Win 10? Put in the first 3 letters and the first listing is the program I want
moonshadowkati
That's interesting. I've supported Windows 10 and Windows 11 throughout their entire product lifespans, installed them on hundreds of computers and troubleshot them on thousands. What you describe doesn't match my experience.
moonshadowkati
Here's it working properly on my computer right now...
hipifreq
huh... I wonder if I just gave up on it far enough back that they patched it without my knowing because I just did the same thing and get the apps I'm looking for at top. "not" now produces notepad++ as expected and "fir" produces Firefox. Thanks for getting me to check!
moonshadowkati
Glad to hear it :)
Clockworkdancerobot
Helixninja333
It's so painfully close to being better, but after using it for 6 months, it was just not good enough yet. It's in that state where it feels on the verge of being better, but because it isn't, it feels extremely frustrating to use. Sure, stuff works, but it's slightly off compared to native with slightly lower frame-rates on games and with it's own weird bugs and glitches.
Helixninja333
Or to put it another way: with Windows, you ask why isn't this working? With Linux, I started asking why did this magically Start working?! I changed nothing, just tried to boot it up a few times, and presto, it worked??
RonMimnaugh
i put lmde version on my 11 year old system. it runs great
Moostomp
... But my games, the only reason I have windows currently?!?!?!
Proton in steam works great, but it only works on specific titles.
conniecpu
A lot more titles work if you manually override the option in steam
Axiluvia
Specific titles? Like what, Elden Ring, Dark Souls, the Yakuza series, Dave the Diver, Stardew Valley, Balatro, Palworld, Deep Rock Galactic, Satisfactory, Cult of the Lamb, and about 99% of the rest of my Steam Library...
Eridith
The default behavior for Windows games running through proton is that it works. 99% of exceptions come from games that use anti-cheat that specifically and deliberately interfere with it from running on Linux clients.
With the tens of thousands of other games to enjoy, your time and money are better off going to a company that supports your freedom to choose your desired operating system.
conniecpu
I'm very sour on Debian family distros. I run Arch on my desktop but can't seriously recommend it to those who don't consider maintaining their computer part of the fun. My wife is enjoying Fedora KDE Desktop. KDE will be familiar to anyone with a steamdeck ;)
conniecpu
https://fedoraproject.org/kde/
mkwai
Arch requires a bit more work compared to debian (which I used for a decade). But honestly, Windows is so much worse on that front.
azimir
I put debian/raspberry pi OS on servers (sometimes Ubuntu if it's a cloud service thing), then Linux Mint on desktops. It's a great OS for general GUI-driven applications and services. The kids mostly use Mint or Ubuntu (drivers and game requirements). Any time they have to use a school computer with Windows they come back really angry at how terrible an OS it is. User experience matters for quality of life and MS Windows isn't healthy for you.
aducksayswhat
I think the trouble for MS is that windows isn't really central to computing for huge swathes of usage now compared to a few decades ago, with the notable exception of office. The browser has captured so much, outside of geeks the concept a home 'personal computer' has withered away in favor of phone/tablet/TV for basic browsing/comms/media consumption. The push into AI has synergy with their push to servers/azure over the past 15 years, but they actually need to sell it to people to get money
PythonIndentAwwwYiss
It's been my daily work OS for the past 15 years. I'm really excited for the new Debian edition that takes away some of the Ubuntu enshitifications
DeltaBladeX
I never really used Linux before, but got a really old laptop (Celeron N3350 1.1GHz and 4GB of RAM) for NZ$20 that I installed Mint on last year. Sadly doesn't perform well, but was still better than leaving the Google whatever OS on it. Still prefer to stick to my Windows desktop, but that is a backup if I need it, such as leaving the house for an extended time. Am curious if there is a better option for a Linux noob with shit hardware though.
LucienDark
I've got a 13 year old laptop that I've put Lubuntu on, which is a lightweight version of Ubuntu; it's slow to boot and load any software, but it does work! Based on your processor I'm assuming that your laptop's a fair bit younger than mine, so it could be a good option to play around with. If your laptop's still got a mechanical hard drive, swapping that out for an SSD is a pretty cheap way to improve performance too; I need to do that with mine at some point to see what difference it makes.
DeltaBladeX
HDD, yeah, but any SDD would cost more than the system, not worth it. I can run some old games on it that I downloaded from my Humble library, but booting Steam makes the entire system whine more than I'm comfortable with (half convinced it is just from loading my library). But if I'm travelling for some reason, it can browse the internet and such.
CoretTrobane
Tried it a few months ago - it was fine, but the performance hit was notable on my system, so went back to windows (was about 10-20% loss of game performance on the same hardware).
OatmealChocolateChipCookies
I had the opposite experience. Win7 & Win8.1 was snappy and reliable on my computer, but Windows 10 ran like tar and four updates in five years borked so hard I had to reinstall. I finally had enough and switched to Mint XFCE in October 2023, which runs even better than Win7/8.1.
xizar
bazzite (or so I'm told)
Clockworkdancerobot
Most of the optimizations we feel get done in windows, and MS has had a HUGE history of not letting them be used. It's intentional. See: MS vs Wordperfect. But things are improving. If performance is vital, there are ways to work around hardware that works better with linux. for games WINE is handy but still emulation. there will be an impact for playing windows only games. Steam has helped a lot with gaming on Linux.
ThatGuyWhoIsSkepticalOfEverything
WINE = Wine Is Not an Emulator
It’s a compatibility layer that translates Windows API calls to POSIX calls on the fly.
10-20% performance hit is indeed weird. For most of the games, you shouldn’t even be able to quantify your performance hit within a margin of error. Do you have NVIDIA? And what version of Proton were you running?
Strategicgnomer
As soon as a large enough base of players are on Linux, you'll see performance match Windows though. The game developers don't care to optimize for Linux because Microsoft gives them so much support and most gamers use that, but if Microsoft keeps going this direction, that'll change soon enough.