Windows 7 Alternatives

[Daedalus007]

Linux Distro Recommendations (from my personal experience)

• Linux Mint Cinnamon (new to Linux ecosystem, want a Win7-style interface, have a dedicated GPU)
  
  
• Linux Mint xfce (low powered hardware, cheap laptops, no separate GPU, just about anything will run this)
  
  
• Manjaro (only use if you are technically-proficient enough to self-diagnose and repair your own issues; based on Arch Linux)

Staying on Win7 Recommendations

• Pale Moon browser if you need a modern updated/supported web browser (it has a lot of issues and the dev is a jerk but yeah there aren't many choices)
  
  
• Firefox ESR (extended support release) browser which is an updated/patched version of Firefox (has telemetry and other stuff sent to Mozilla, only good if you hate Pale Moon entirely)
  
  
• You want to stay on Win7 I'd recommend a clean install but you can still install manually. SP1 and SP2 updates, The crypto update for SHA-2 hash functions, and a few others (do a search for recommended updates)
  
  
• You want to try updating to Win10 go get yourself an official ISO for 'Windows 10 Enterprise IoT Edition' which is the Enterprise 'internet of things' edition; works in trial mode but you have to put up with the watermark; there are ways to modify the registry to temporarily remove the watermark but it will return by itself if you ever logout or restart. Has none of the typical bloatware preinstalled but just to be safe use a good open-sourced debloater[github.com]. The reason you want Win10 Ent IoT is that it will be supported until 2032 with security updates unlike all the other editions.

Edit: I'm not gonna bother with the comments. If a Mod happens to see this please lock this thread as it has done what it needs to do. Kthx.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Messaggio originale di Blue:

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

when you say spyware is it legal or illegal spyware

Referring to Microsoft's telemetry and data harvesting. So legal as you accept it upon installing the software.

just like we accept all the games on steam data harvesting...

[Blue]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

Messaggio originale di Blue:

Referring to Microsoft's telemetry and data harvesting. So legal as you accept it upon installing the software.

just like we accept all the games on steam data harvesting...

Exactly this. You can pick and choose which games you install and accept the EULA.

The worst are off Steam though. I have little to no trust in games like Genshin Impact for obvious reasons.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Messaggio originale di Blue:

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

just like we accept all the games on steam data harvesting...

Exactly this. You can pick and choose which games you install and accept the EULA.

The worst are off Steam though. I have little to no trust in games like Genshin Impact for obvious reasons.

you say you can pick and choose... but it really is ransom
ware these days

i remember when i read the win 95 legals back in the day
and here we all are... its a bit of a joke thinking things have
changed.. and from my decades of experience all this data
collects has little impact on me.. i even used to type red socks
into my search engines to see where the adverts would be...

to this day i have not been sold a pair of red socks in any way shape or form..

i would say all my games are sending data all over the place...

i dont understand why you would worry about windows.. have you looked
into how that data is making windows better...

win 11 runs well for me.. is that the data collection giving me a false sense
of OS reality for another 10 years...

[Blue]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

Messaggio originale di Blue:

Exactly this. You can pick and choose which games you install and accept the EULA.

The worst are off Steam though. I have little to no trust in games like Genshin Impact for obvious reasons.

you say you can pick and choose... but it really is ransom
ware these days

i remember when i read the win 95 legals back in the day
and here we all are... its a bit of a joke thinking things have
changed.. and from my decades of experience all this data
collects has little impact on me.. i even used to type red socks
into my search engines to see where the adverts would be...

to this day i have not been sold a pair of red socks in any way shape or form..

i would say all my games are sending data all over the place...

i dont understand why you would worry about windows.. have you looked
into how that data is making windows better...

win 11 runs well for me.. is that the data collection giving me a false sense
of OS reality for another 10 years...

I'm not comfortable with data collection on such a scale and never will be. I don't have to accept or use their software and consequently I won't.

I absolutely can pick and choose and have done so for years now.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Messaggio originale di Blue:

I'm not comfortable with data collection on such a scale and never will be. I don't have to accept or use their software and consequently I won't.

I absolutely can pick and choose and have done so for years now.

sure it seems you are picking and choosing... if you pay bills and buy stuff
walk and drive the streets and shops with all the cameras.. use tech and hang
and communicate with people that are security or data careless.. your
just amusing yourself with being data secure

i dont like it...

i just look at all the ways i can be tracked in the world already... we
are forced to give out information everywhere that is kept on file
and easy for the world to see at any given time if someone want to
give you attention...


my concern at this point is...
governments need to work on data security deletion instead of storing it for hackers
once you meet a security criteria... that data is deleted.... that would make me happier..

[Blue]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

Messaggio originale di Blue:

I'm not comfortable with data collection on such a scale and never will be. I don't have to accept or use their software and consequently I won't.

I absolutely can pick and choose and have done so for years now.

sure it seems you are picking and choosing... if you pay bills and buy stuff
walk and drive the streets and shops with all the cameras.. use tech and hang
and communicate with people that are security or data careless.. your
just amusing yourself with being data secure

i dont like it...

i just look at all the ways i can be tracked in the world already... we
are forced to give out information everywhere that is kept on file
and easy for the world to see at any given time if someone want to
give you attention...


my concern at this point is...
governments need to work on data security deletion instead of storing it for hackers
once you meet a security criteria... that data is deleted.... that would make me happier..

You aren't wrong that the whole world is filled with data harvesting and privacy violations but refusing to do anything about it makes the issue worse for both yourself and other people.

Especially when it comes to big corporations that are financially incentivised to take as much information on you as possible while also being careless with their own security. Why would you willingly give all your information to some unknown entity online that doesn't care about you at all. They farm you like cattle and when they finally have a security breach you pay the price, not them.

Choices choices. You are allowed to share your private info with whoever you want but you also have to deal with the consequences.

If you're in the EU as well you should read GDPR and find out what rights you actually have. You have much more control than you likely realise.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Australia here... still shocked that are hardware
and departments stores got away with face tracking
customers back in 2022... face tracking.. they
say its stopped thanks to consumer backlash demanding
privacy.. but who knows..
and who knows what happened to that data...

[crunchyfrog]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

anyone here take 24 hours to do a win 10 to win 11 upgrade...

I'm on a i5... i thought it would take a while...
- i only needed a sign that said back in 30 minutes...

i spose my win 95 computer might of struggled...

saving up for my 2030 computer... more ram lighting.. and maybe
we can get some mini drones flying around in the case for cooling...

you retro guys... golly gee... whole day for OS upgrades..

If you even read this thread you'd know that's probably not the best way to go about it.

It's well known that the best way to go with this is a fresh install of 10 completely and NOT to upgrade it. Because it can be a right mess.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Messaggio originale di crunchyfrog:

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

anyone here take 24 hours to do a win 10 to win 11 upgrade...

I'm on a i5... i thought it would take a while...
- i only needed a sign that said back in 30 minutes...

i spose my win 95 computer might of struggled...

saving up for my 2030 computer... more ram lighting.. and maybe
we can get some mini drones flying around in the case for cooling...

you retro guys... golly gee... whole day for OS upgrades..

If you even read this thread you'd know that's probably not the best way to go about it.

It's well known that the best way to go with this is a fresh install of 10 completely and NOT to upgrade it. Because it can be a right mess.

well know this then... if you watch a few youtubes.... and you dont have a messy
computer filled with years of junk... you can test the waters and have
a not so bad win 10 to win 11 experience....

i hung onto win 7 til not that long ago... then when i did go to win 10 and saw how it wasnt
the nightmare people make it out to be... i did a quick jump to win 11...
and have had no reason to do a clean install as of yet... which wouldnt
be a problem if i decided i needed to do it... i am not restricted to the best way of anything..

easy to gloss over and miss bits of stuff.. on these very long threads...

i'm more visual than literal...


trippagunnatrip

[Blue]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

Australia here... still shocked that are hardware
and departments stores got away with face tracking
customers back in 2022... face tracking.. they
say its stopped thanks to consumer backlash demanding
privacy.. but who knows..
and who knows what happened to that data...

We had the same here for a while. I don't know the status of this but it's been a contentious topic for a few years now.

[m662]

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

Messaggio originale di crunchyfrog:

If you even read this thread you'd know that's probably not the best way to go about it.

It's well known that the best way to go with this is a fresh install of 10 completely and NOT to upgrade it. Because it can be a right mess.

well know this then... if you watch a few youtubes.... and you dont have a messy
computer filled with years of junk... you can test the waters and have
a not so bad win 10 to win 11 experience....

i hung onto win 7 til not that long ago... then when i did go to win 10 and saw how it wasnt
the nightmare people make it out to be... i did a quick jump to win 11...
and have had no reason to do a clean install as of yet... which wouldnt
be a problem if i decided i needed to do it... i am not restricted to the best way of anything..

easy to gloss over and miss bits of stuff.. on these very long threads...

i'm more visual than literal...


trippagunnatrip

Never ever just upgrade a OS without first creating a separate back-up unless you do not value your data. No product is 100% reliable

I have had systems literally getting bricked by OS updates because the TPM 2.0 chipset was suddenly no longer registered in memory and it started asking bit-locker recovery key on systems that never ever had bit-locker encryption enabled. We had to toss the drives away because cracking it would take to much time and money than simply ordering new drives.

The chance of it happening is low but always more expensive than not taking any precautions.
And Linux based OS or MacOS are not free from this either sometimes an upgrade or even an update will cause serious issues.

[( ( < < <🤖> > > ) )]

Messaggio originale di m662:

Messaggio originale di ragefifty50:

well know this then... if you watch a few youtubes.... and you dont have a messy
computer filled with years of junk... you can test the waters and have
a not so bad win 10 to win 11 experience....

i hung onto win 7 til not that long ago... then when i did go to win 10 and saw how it wasnt
the nightmare people make it out to be... i did a quick jump to win 11...
and have had no reason to do a clean install as of yet... which wouldnt
be a problem if i decided i needed to do it... i am not restricted to the best way of anything..

easy to gloss over and miss bits of stuff.. on these very long threads...

i'm more visual than literal...


trippagunnatrip

Never ever just upgrade a OS without first creating a separate back-up unless you do not value your data. No product is 100% reliable

I have had systems literally getting bricked by OS updates because the TPM 2.0 chipset was suddenly no longer registered in memory and it started asking bit-locker recovery key on systems that never ever had bit-locker encryption enabled. We had to toss the drives away because cracking it would take to much time and money than simply ordering new drives.

The chance of it happening is low but always more expensive than not taking any precautions.
And Linux based OS or MacOS are not free from this either sometimes an upgrade or even an update will cause serious issues.

i spose we all have different ways of doing things...

i have a separate hard drive/save drive i store my important storable stuff on
which i sort of learnt to do from using video software and saving your work

my computer can crash and burn and the data i want to keep is separated
which seems to be the most efficient and easy way to run a computer for me...

all the programs and games can be downloaded all the time but i do
have the latest versions to save downloading if i do need them..


i find some people are just a bit over technical in all the wrong places
when it comes to day to day no fuss computer usage....


trypagharnatryp

[Shaggin'Wagon]

Messaggio originale di Blue:

You're a criminal mate.

NOPE! A criminal would be stealing something. As I already said (3 times): No theft is involved. It's literally a part of windows, built in to windows. Microsoft put it in to windows. They ALLOW us to do it as part of the operating system. The skip function is built in to the OS during setup. There used to be a "30 day limit" when we used Windows 7 without activating but with Windows 10 and Windows 11 they removed that and now they allow us to use it like that for a long time (many years in my experience). Anyone is welcome to do this with windows 10/11 and use it for free too. And doing so is NOT a criminal activity. It's just using a feature built in to windows. Remember: this is a feature that microsoft added to windows.

Messaggio originale di Blue:

I've no intention of installing spyware on my machine to disprove some silly young boys on steam forums.

All "Spyware", data collection, data harvesting, telemetry, and ads in windows 10 can be completely disabled for free and quickly. That's been possible for many years now. That part of Windows 10 isn't even anything people should be discussing anymore because it can be disabled now. There's no need to mention it at all as it's trivial now to use it without that.

[Blue]

Messaggio originale di Shaggin'Wagon:

Messaggio originale di Blue:

You're a criminal mate.

NOPE! A criminal would be stealing something. As I already said (3 times): No theft is involved. It's literally a part of windows, built in to windows. Microsoft put it in to windows. They ALLOW us to do it as part of the operating system. The skip function is built in to the OS during setup. There used to be a "30 day limit" when we used Windows 7 without activating but with Windows 10 and Windows 11 they removed that and now they allow us to use it like that for a long time (many years in my experience). Anyone is welcome to do this with windows 10/11 and use it for free too. And doing so is NOT a criminal activity. It's just using a feature built in to windows. Remember: this is a feature that microsoft added to windows.

Messaggio originale di Blue:

I've no intention of installing spyware on my machine to disprove some silly young boys on steam forums.

All "Spyware", data collection, data harvesting, telemetry, and ads in windows 10 can be completely disabled for free and quickly. That's been possible for many years now. That part of Windows 10 isn't even anything people should be discussing anymore because it can be disabled now. There's no need to mention it at all as it's trivial now to use it without that.

Still a criminal. Says in the EULA that you shall not modify the technical limitations of the software.

Spyware resets every time you update.

[Low Standards]

I am still trying to get most of the Steam games I got onto my Commodore 64. I can't figure out why I get error messages. I even have the 128kb expander so don't say it is me.