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Microsoft Ends Mainstream Support For Windows 7
jones_supa writes The mainstream support of Microsoft Windows 7 [ended Monday]. The operating system leaving mainstream support means no more platform updates, no new features, and end of free support. Windows 7 will now enter extended support, which means that security updates will keep coming, and support will be offered for charge. The final end of support for Windows 7 will be reached January 14, 2020.
Is anyone nostalgic for Windows 7?
I plan to switch to it real soon now.
Same here. With Windows XP still hanging on and Windows 8 needlessly messing with the UI, I doubt we'll see Windows 7 going anywhere anytime soon.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
This. I have no desire to stop running win7 anytime soon unless win 10 is magically awesome which I sincerely doubt it will be given the win8 debacle.
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I'm sure they are hoping this will push people into Microsoft-branded cloud services.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Don't kid yourself. XP was just as bad as Vista at first, but everyone forgets that. It didn't become the "Windows to stand the ultimate test of time" until XP SP2.
Windows 2000 was also one of the best versions, IMHO. It just often gets left out, because it wasn't marketed to "the average home user." (But I wish it had been, instead of that trash called ME.)
You can try 10 Technical Preview. It is Windows 8.1 with Metro condensed to a start menu. It still has some full-screen hijacking apps and tons of bloat from Bing and the "App" Store. This might be ok for some people but it sounds like Microsoft is going down the wrong road for those of us that like a clean, controlled, and predictable system. Linux may be the answer for many if it has the right program support, but it's possible that 7 is the last sane OS from Microsoft.
I had a university as a client last year and they had at least one Windows 3.1 system still in operation in a research capacity. XP is still all over the place.
I resisted 8.1 for a long time because of all the bashing. But I recently rebuilt my system, needed to resintall, and decided to go with 8.1. And it's actually pretty good. It boots fast and has an even smaller footprint than 7. Install was smooth (the only issue was outputting sound over HDMI, which was fixed with my first update). I've not had any crashes or problems so far and I've been using it for several months now. The only problem I have with it interface-wise is with the layout of the start menu, but that took me all of a few minutes to fix.
As usual, don't believe all the anti-Microsoft hype. Some people will bash anything MS does, for any reason (especially on slashdot). If Bill Gates cured cancer tomorrow and gave the cure away for free, posters would be on here in droves complaining that he didn't do it fast enough.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.
Windows 8.1 is ok.....
It's just the UI and stupid metro (modern wtv) stupid start menu crap that annoys me.
Also it seems to be a little shizo...some settings are in classic menus...some in modern....
But in terms of stability, performance, it's actually as good as windows 7.
Pretty much - most corporations have just barely (as in 2-3 years ago at most) updated from XP to Windows 7.
Good luck with pushing 8 to the corporate world... it's about as adoptable as an angry badger with syphilis.
More and more, I'm finding myself working at places where I really don't have to use a Windows UI if I don't want to. Right now I'm typing this on my corporate-issued MacBook Pro, and only rarely do I bother logging onto a Windows server (vSphere client, and even then only out of habit since the web-client works pretty much as well).
Don't get me wrong - Microsoft will still be in the business world for a goodly long time - we still use Outlook/Exchange, Active Directory, and even Sharepoint (for HR/Corp crap - all the important stuff is on Confluence.) Thing is though, Microsoft's hold in business is beginning to show cracks, and I suspect in about 5 years, there will be a bit of a crisis in Redmond...
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
I'm not a huge fan of Windows; but, If I need it for something, Windows 7 is the version I install - in a virtual machine. It does seem pretty solid, and 8's UI gets in the way far too much (says this Mac user).
#DeleteChrome
"99% of the people bashing the windows 8 interface haven't used it for more than an hour."
As someone that has used and liked AmigaOS, MacOS, OS/X, LinuxKDE, LinuxGnome, Windows, Windows95, 98, 2000, XP, and 7.... If I use a UI for an hour and still hate it I am done.
Windows 8 UI works well on tablets, it is okay on touch devices, it is useless on a traditional desktop or laptop.
The core OS is actually really good but the UI is bad for the majority of users. It gives little to no added value for the pain provided.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Welcome to IT.
Leave you dignity and expertise at the door. Do everything as cheap as possible in the short term.
You are a cost to the company, with nothing of value to contribute to the core business, be glad we took pity on your and gave you a job.
Sounds familiar?
More and more, I'm finding myself working at places where I really don't have to use a Windows UI if I don't want to. Right now I'm typing this on my corporate-issued MacBook Pro, and only rarely do I bother logging onto a Windows server (vSphere client, and even then only out of habit since the web-client works pretty much as well).
Just an aside: I'm no fan of MS, even though I have to work in a Windows environment; however, when dealing with MS Servers, I have found that the recent versions of the Microsoft RDC Client for OS X is actually even more capable, just as fast (or maybe even faster), and a WHOLE lot better-mannered than even the Windows native RDC Client.
If you run OS X, but need to "Remote-In" to Windows Servers/Workstations, check it out. It's free, and quite pleasant.
And now I have to go wash my hands for typing something complimentary about Windows...
You know your new OS is awful when people "upgrade" to the previous version.
In Soviet Russia, dot slashes YOU!
>99% of the people bashing the windows 8 interface haven't used it for more than an hour. They go crazy when anything changes
That's complete bullshit, and you know it. The terrible changes in Win 8 were done to try to drive traffic to an app store, and to run on tablets. They actually harm the user-experience on the desktop. This is not people freaking out over change, this is people rejecting a broken UI.
I have to assume that there's something seriously wrong with you, causing you to call people crazy for rejecting an inferior OS. Is the rest of your worldview this screwy?
It is definitely much easier to use Windows in the business than Macs, from an IT perspective. There isn't even a comparison. The tools for managing Windows boxes are solid, and provides very simple integration and administration.
If you don't want amateur sysadmins in your Windows boxes, then you don't give them administrator access on their machines.
Windows is also considerably more stable than it used to be. There is no substantial difference in reliability between a Mac and a Win 7 box. Hell, I've been using the an install of Vista, of all things, on a box for at least five years without any difficulty.
As far as security goes, as far as I can tell, the only major difference is that with Windows, you have more malware that has been written for it, but in terms of real security, it is no worse, and it is actually considerably better than a Mac if you consider the fact that an IT department can enforce restrictions on installing software and ensuring patching much more easily with a Windows box.
I've supported both in IT before, and it isn't even close. Which is not to say Windows is perfect or even the best box for the job. There are many developers who love Macs for good reason.. That does not translate, however, into ease of management. For all that Apple is decent at maintaining upgrades on their consumer devices, their business support is crap and getting worse.
Macs are not business machines, they're consumer machines that have to be shoehorned in and managed like special snowflakes.