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Why 9x > XP?


darrelljon

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*Its really fast and lightweight

*has cool boot logo

*really secure as far as modern internet goes

*DOS stuff works perfectly for the most part

*Great "legacy" hardware support (there's a bunch of Yamaha I got that is useless in 2K+)

*Easy to maintain... when something goes kablamo you fix it in DOS, not so easy on 2K+

I do wish I knew C and had time, so I could contiune KernelEx a bit, enough to make a lot of PC maintenance software run... its one of the reasons I cannot do my job on a 9x machine, lot of the maintenance soft won't run on 9x or runs wrong... plus modern HW support is well, crap haha

^THIS^

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Why 98? Nostalgie, old games compatibility, fun...

For example, I prefer IrfanView 3.17 and XnView 1.60 rather than than the newer versions.

Yes, before version 4 IrfanView got better with each new version. With version 4 it became controversial.

Moreover, I prefer the older versions of Microsoft's office programs. Word 2000 and Word 97 are more efficient than the newer ones. I really, really dislike the new ones.

I prefer 2003 :)

It's more stable than previous ones.

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What became controversial in IrfanView 4?

I agree with you though. 3 seems to be better... actually faster on my computer than 4.

Also like to toss my name into the Linux hat and recommend Vector Linux Light/Standard to the OP. Try the live CD, it works on old junk computers like the one I have, and it's fast too.

Edited by ScrewUpgrading
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What became controversial in IrfanView 4?

Some animated GIFs were displayed OK with 3.xx but were a bit buggy with 4.xx.

Number of unique picture colors is no more in status bar. (may be it was removed even earlier)

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I tried multiple versions of Ubuntu, slackware and kubuntu on a DEC celebris with 192M. They were not very successful. If they were able to boot from the CD, it took hours in one case to get any sort of desktop, and then the disk was paging like crazy. Commands could be entered, a cold brew retrieved and consumed, and then a response would occur, to which command I became very fuzzy.... beers?

I then got puppy - {wary, I think} - and loaded it to the hard drive. It cooks.

If you need a stable linux, and don't have a huge disk and loads of memory, and have a ~300Mhz }the DEC has an 'overdrive' at 333Mhz?} or even a 400Mhz processor, puppy can be a successful learning and productive experience.

I was impressed with the quality and response.

tom

I was a former 'real computer guy' who ran unix on a 16 user Moto 68000 box with 2Meg of memory back when. I worked with Solaris on Sparc and System V on att chipset boxes too. Windows is a cash machine for Microsoft, and their 'perpetual upgrade' treadmill is obnoxious. I was able to use the same basic commands for 25 years with unix, and each 'upgrade' of Windows has caused a complete re-learning of which button to push, and completely new 'how to get there from here' click sequences.

Many re-designs were just make things pretty that worked very well previously. The only reason XP is on any box here is that it was on sale for $39 at Office Depot and I was curious. What I have seen of 'windows 7' reminds me very much of Solaris I used back in 1997-1999. Windows will catch up one day...

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  • 2 weeks later...

I tried multiple versions of Ubuntu, slackware and kubuntu on a DEC celebris with 192M. They were not very successful. If they were able to boot from the CD, it took hours in one case to get any sort of desktop, and then the disk was paging like crazy.

Sounds more like I expect of a 286 with 640 KB of RAM! O_O

Edited by RJARRRPCGP
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I read the DOS 5.5 manual inside and out, and I read every book I could on Windows 3.1 secrets, and then Windows 9x is the culmination of all that stuff. So no, I don't feel like moving on. It works, I like it the way it is, and I don't want to be forced into Microsoft's game of "upgrading." Hence my username. :)

ScrewUpgrading,

Amen to just about everything you said! I'm not necessarily opposed to using newer OS's (I even downloaded the Windows 8 preview last week), but I'm not one of those who seems to equate "newest" with "best." My main machine runs on Vista, thank you, and I still keep two Windows 98 systems (one of them First Edition) for special purposes. The Windows 95/98 desktop with the taskbar represented a real usability improvement over the Windows 3.11 Program Manager, which I never did come to understand completely. (Minimized programs would disappear behind everything else, never to be found again... I exaggerate only slightly.)

My main beef with the seemingly interminable cycles of upgrades has to do with the user experience. I was fine with the menu bar -- very logically and neatly organized, never had a problem finding commands. But I've been using the Office "ribbon" for three years now, and I still can't quickly find most of the commands I need. I end up moving the mouse back and forth and clicking on various tabs, buttons, and arrows till I finally track down what I need. The Office 2007(/2010?) system simply makes no sense to me. (Try to find the document properties in Word 2007 vs. Word 2000.) And now they're pushing this blocky Metro stuff as the OS GUI of the future, as if I had orangutan arms to reach my monitor screen.

I welcome improvements in functionality (easier to use, more features, greater capabilities, and the like) but not changes to the way I work. I use a PC to get work (or fun) done, not to stare wide-eyed in fascination at the user interface. The GUI should be transparent, not center-stage. Just leave it alone already! The best way to make it so is to stop messing with it so it can recede from our consciousness and let us focus back on what we actually want to do.

--JorgeA

Edited by JorgeA
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