The 2025 Operating System Thread

[momaka]

I wonder if I'm really going to give up on my 2GiB Atom eeePC. Took almost a week to do updates which I've done for the past few years keeping latest firefox running with the flock.

Wow, LOL

I bought an Atom-based small desktop PC (1.6 GHz single core with HT) by mistake a few months back - thought it would be a little more modern PC given the Windows 7 sticker and that the "seller" (poor gypsies trash picker) said it had Windows 10 on it. Of course as soon as I opened it home and saw the i915 chipset with its "mighty" heatsink larger than the one on the CPU, I knew I was in for trouble. On the plus side, at least it is operational. But boy, is it slow. The seller did not actually lie - this thing DID have Windows 10 installed on it. Of course, with the HDD being a 320 GB Seagate "rust-spinner", you can imagine how it ran. I played around with it for one evening, but it just felt wrong. Anything I tried to do, even not online, responded very slowly.
So I ended up putting Windows 7 back on it. With the latest version of FF ESR, it can "get onto the web"... and that's all I will say. It's considerably slower than even my AM2 Athlon 64 X2 PCs. I think even my 2.8 GHz Pentium 4 is faster online. Of course, the P4 guzzles 120 Watts of power to do that, whereas this whole PC runs on a 40 Watt adapter. Actually, about that, the sticker on the case calls for a 19V 3.42A (65/70 Watt) adapter, but the gypsie seller cobbled one together from some small LG TV, and it was only a 40W adapter. So it's a pretty efficient little system, at least. I'm tempted to buy a 2nd hand solar panel in the range of 100-120 Watts capacity (around $25-30 here) and use this for forum browsing and extremely light internet surfing. But we will see. I'm also tempted to re-install it once again, but with Windows XP instead... and on a 2.5" laptop HDD to save even more power. I think this can make a decent-ish WinXp box. With 2 GB of RAM, XP will be plenty happy (not that my trimmed-down Windows 7 installations take much more.) But since the CPU is way too slow to even get on Youtube, I see no reason to not go back to XP (as that's really the only reason I maintain so many Windows 7 PCs now.) Otherwise, Supermium browser, as was suggested by another user in this thread, is a nice and fully up-to-date browser for XP. Only weak side about it is that it can't run online video smoothly like Firefox ESR or Mypal can on the same hardware. I wish the maker(s) of Mypal would keep it updated more often.

Anyways, that's all for that Atom PC. I got it for $14 total, so at least I didn't loose that much money. These Atom-based machines are pretty much useless these days.

[eccerr0r]

I wonder if I'm really going to give up on my 2GiB Atom eeePC. Took almost a week to do updates which I've done for the past few years keeping latest firefox running with the flock. It missed the last yearly update (and my 1.5GiB Dell Pentium-M, likewise 32-bit only, missed two years I think) but still tempted to go update it... (llvm and clang are the things that really don't like 32-bit anymore, they go OOM when building.)

[lti]

I had to look that species up. I missed when that distro was popular and got serious with Linux in the Ubuntu/Arch era.

I'm somehow still on EndeavourOS. I don't like doing a lot of manual configuration on my main system, but in this case, it helps with my stupid hardware choices. Aside from that, Lubuntu is still my choice for old computers that are still capable of running modern browsers (the latest Firefox or a fork like Librewolf), but it also needs some manual configuration to enable Vsync in the compositor on some graphics drivers. Hell, I've been wondering if the 4GB RAM systems should switch to antiX or even Tiny Core (I got Firefox to auto-update on it when I was messing with it several years ago). I should install Tiny Core on something again.

[eccerr0r]

All I see in my house is a flock of Pygoscelis papua. I've never had a "10" or newer window, last window I had was an 8 and a 7, not sure if I have any more XP window.

[Nubstex]

Sorry for writing here, as i can't find if there is any pv here. TopCat, i have contacted thomas, who had manuals database some time ago. I want to revive it and he told me you have this database. What would you say? I think everyone would be happy

[Dan81]

Generally Windows 10 1809 LTSC on my main PC, but my other machines run as follows:

- work laptop, Thinkpad T440p - Windows 11 Enterprise, in tandem with a recently "restored" HP dv6-3114sl (HD5470/i3 1st gen)
- main retro laptop - Latitude C810 - Windows XP Pro SP3 (you'd be surprised how snappy XP SP3 runs on a Tualatin w/ 512MB of RAM!)
- secondary retro - Latitude C610 - 2K SP4
- retro gaming - custom build w/ Athlon 700MHz SLOT A and recapped DFI AK70 - 98SE (most solid build I've had in a long time. This thing is tough as nails.)
- 2nd retro gaming - custom build w/ K6-2+ and Gigabyte 5AX r4.1 (not recapped yet, caps seem to have stood test of time tho!!!) - 98SE
- 3rd retro gaming - custom build w/ Celeron 300A@450 and ABIT BH6 - ME + Mandrake 10.1 dualboot
- 4th retro gaming - custom build w/ P3 650MHz and MSI MS-6168 - 98SE

[momaka]

No, it wasn't.....but they hung in long after Mozilla cut it off.

True... but Firefox still has ESR release for Win 7/8/8.1 (and what I'm posting from right now on one of my Win7 rigs.)

I guess it's impossible to go with just one browser these days. On the flip side, I have found some usefulness in having multiple different browsers on one machine.

[Topcat]

I don't think Waterfox was ever really an old OS -friendly browser to begin with, so I'm not surprised.

No, it wasn't.....but they hung in long after Mozilla cut it off.

[momaka]

https://win32subsystem.live/supermium/

Thank you for sharing this!!
I don't remember running into this browser when looking for alternatives for XP (or maybe I did, but probably saw Chrome-something-something and abandoned ship --> shows how much I DISLIKE Google stuff.) At one point just a few years ago, there were a lot of people making browsers for XP. Then in the last 1-2, that seems to have died down. Good to hear there is something else besides Mypal - not that I mind it, but indeed it could use more frequent updates, especially if it's going to be used for Youtube, which seems to change its scripts code almost every week just to fck with people. (Not that I care that much as I hardly use it anymore.)

Still on XP about 95% of the time.

Can't blame ya. It's an OS that's too good to die or be considered retro IMO.
I've been using it a little more frequently again, lately. Wih a 3GHz C2D and 2 GB of RAM, it's very snappy and still usable online, even with Mypal.

That said, it's hard to believe Win10 is 10 years old.......

Damn!
I knew it was close, but didn't know it already made it there. Wow!
Still, I don't really see why MS had to make/push Win11, as it's not like it's that much more different from 10. Probably another case of "keeping the wheel turning".

Even Waterfox has ended support for Win7/8/8.1...

I don't think Waterfox was ever really an old OS -friendly browser to begin with, so I'm not surprised.

[em132]

If I have to be completely honest, I've been using my Windows 7 machines quite a bit more this year compared to my XP ones. Reason being: browser support.

Another one:
Serpent/UXP for XP

It's an XP-compatible port of Basilisk, itself based on Pale Moon. Updated SUPER regularly.

[Topcat]

Even Waterfox has ended support for Win7/8/8.1...

That said, it's hard to believe Win10 is 10 years old.......

[em132]

Dual boot; XP (x86) / 7 (x64) -- Still on XP about 95% of the time.

If I have to be completely honest, I've been using my Windows 7 machines quite a bit more this year compared to my XP ones. Reason being: browser support.

https://win32subsystem.live/supermium/

And yes, MyPal does need to be updated more often... and be less buggy.

[Topcat]

i have a macbook-pro from 2007 here,
installing a new pram battery, SSD and Linux in it for a friend.

strange things, i didnt realise till i needed them that it only has ONE FUCKING MOUSE BUTTON and no delete key - only backspace!!
nice lcd on them though.

2-finger tap does the same thing as the missing mouse button....but 100% on the DELETE key...

[momaka]

My web-enabled machine has Windows 8.1 and I will need to "upgrade" to Windows 10 shortly to be able to run a current browser.

Perhaps I've missed it, but did Mozilla/Firefox announce they will be dropping support for Windows 7? (The ESR version that is, I know the regular version dropped support already.) FWIW, this is the only reason I have machines with Windows 7 right now. If the browser game becomes the same in Win7 as it is with XP, I'll probably revert back to XP fully again. Mypal (latest version based on Quantum engine) is actually pretty good on XP... and works fine on 7 too. My guess is that "alternative" browsers will be available for these two for a little while longer, especially Win7.

i have a macbook-pro from 2007 here
...
strange things, i didnt realise till i needed them that it only has ONE FUCKING MOUSE BUTTON

Perfect for browsing badcaps, now that the new forum software made everything right-click-unfriendly.

Also, it's not just the macbooks. Virtually just about any laptop from the last 10 years or so has been made with a single-button "clunck-pad". I absolutely refuse to use these things. Seems like ergonomics have been completely obliterated by designers' obsession to make everything thinner, smaller, and "neater"-looking.

[stj]

i have a macbook-pro from 2007 here,
installing a new pram battery, SSD and Linux in it for a friend.

strange things, i didnt realise till i needed them that it only has ONE FUCKING MOUSE BUTTON and no delete key - only backspace!!
nice lcd on them though.

[dmill89]

i find it interesting that so-far nobody has voted for OSX this year.
are mac's becoming less popular or just too expensive now?

I imagine most of this site's audience isn't exactly the "Mac crowd". Personally, I do have a MacBook Pro (a circa-2015 A1502 model running macOS 11.7.10 "Big Sur"), mainly because it "plays nice" with my fire-wire DV/HDV camcorders better than most modern PCs, but it is far from my primary system.

[stj]

i find it interesting that so-far nobody has voted for OSX this year.
are mac's becoming less popular or just too expensive now?

[DrewPhillips]

I have/care for a variety of machines. These have MS-DOS 3.3, Windows 95 OSR2, Windows XP SP2, Windows 7. My web-enabled machine has Windows 8.1 and I will need to "upgrade" to Windows 10 shortly to be able to run a current browser.

[momaka]

If I have to be completely honest, I've been using my Windows 7 machines quite a bit more this year compared to my XP ones. Reason being: browser support. With Windows 7, I can still run the latest Firefox ESR (or Mypal Quantum... and Pale Moon on the side), which has been needed admin tasks. I also haven't updated most of my XP boxes to SP3 yet, which is needed for the latest Mypal browser to run on XP. But on the one box I did update XP to SP3, it's been almost as good as my Win7 boxes. So I'm not declaring XP dead quite yet. In fact, I never will, because despite my use of WIn7 to do online stuff, I still prefer my XP boxes when it comes to file storage and data organization. In particular, there are a few quirky things in the 7 interface that really bother me, which is still why I don't like it for this kind of use.

So in the end, I still juggle between different PCs, depending on what is it that I need to do. But it's really either XP or 7. I never acknowledged the existence of Windows 8/8.1... and still have not installed a single instance of that to date. For Windows 10, I have only 1 machine with it, mostly just dedicate for trying out modern games when I have the time and feel like it (something that very rarely happens these days - so rarely, that I can count the number of times I have fired up that rig on the fingers of my two hands for the past year.) And Windows 11? Maybe might try it in 11 years. Probably not a joke either, since most of my PC tech is / has been... about at least 10 years behind everyone else.

[lti]

I've settled into running EndeavourOS now. I haven't had it on my old desktop long enough to see if it's stable, but aside from Firefox having most of its hardware acceleration "force disabled by glxInfo" (a common thing in Arch), it performs well. It even runs good on bleeding-edge hardware (which is why I said "old desktop").