I you had a brand new laptop/PC

[Bevan Price]

I find Windows 10 is much quicker than most earlier versions, but has a mind of its own. It tends to block, or overwrite anything it decides it does not like, updates can take ages to implement, and put a heavy load on internet use.

At least I now have some control about when it can access the internet, by claiming that I have a "metered" internet connection. (One of the options in "Settings" - if you can find it.) The connection isn't actually metered, but who cares if it stops Windows doing what it likes, when it likes.

However, there was some merit in the simplicity of MS-DOS plus Windows 3.1 (probably the earliest decent version of Windows.) - although that was before general access to the internet.

 

[D365]

MacOS is a gilded cage: it looks lovely and works well as long as you don't do anything that Apple don't want you to do

Eh? When have Apple restricted Mac OS in any way?

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Anybody remember the Acorn OS from the 90s?

Yep, had a A3010 many years ago. It was floppy discs for everything

 

[chris89]

Anybody remember the Acorn OS from the 90s?

I prefer Windows 10 on my home laptop

Ah i remember Acorn OS way way back in primary school. Wet days and playing Lemmings on it haha.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Ah i remember Acorn OS way way back in primary school. Wet days and playing Lemmings on it haha.

The three games I used to play on the Acorn a lot were:

* Sensible Soccer
* Cannon Fodder
* Diggers

 

[Bletchleyite]

Yep, had a A3010 many years ago. It was floppy discs for everything

It (like the Commodore Amiga) used them very effectively, though - instead of using a:\ and relying on the user to insert the correct disc, you would access it by name e.g. ADFS::MyDataDisc1.$, as a result of which if you had the wrong disc in it would prompt you to insert the correct one. Never understood why MS-DOS didn't add such a useful feature.

I had an 80Mb (huge at the time) HD fitted to my A3010, which made a world of difference.

Excellent machines, well ahead of their time - indeed, it's notable that a user interface paradigm they introduced (the icon bar/Taskbar) made it into both Windows 95 (and subsequent versions) and MacOS - indeed, the way it works on MacOS is almost (though not quite) identical to the way it works on RISC OS.
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* Cannon Fodder

Ah, memories!

Lemmings, of course - thought that was available on just about every platform. Indeed, wasn't it the game that was available on most platforms of any game ever, as it was just about the right time that it also released on the 8-bit cassette platforms too? Though the version on the ST and Amiga was better as it offered a two-player game unlike the Acorn and PC implementations.
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Had enough of Windows 10. Ordered a new Chromebook...

Can't say I'd trust Google to keep supporting the OS on those long enough, to be honest. It's long overdue turning them into Android-books in some form.

 

[GusB]

Our school had one Acorn A3xxx in the maths department. I think the only useful software it had (to us) was Lemmings. It was BBC micros for programming and those awful RM Nimbus machines networked throughout.

Much of my computing class time was spent running around the school trying to find out which dozy teacher had forgotten to replace the little loop of co-ax cable when they'd finished with their computers.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

One time I started to learn basic. I think it was the F12 key to open the command prompt, then probably a command like "basic" to load basic.

When I went to school it was just at the time when schools were starting to migrate to using PCs.

Quite a common prank that was done was to set the alarm to display a alarm message that was either gibberish or funny. The other classic prank was to charge yourself up with static from the monitors then zap someone

 

[johntea]

The other classic prank was to charge yourself up with static from the monitors then zap someone

You should try unboxing 100 flat screen monitors, removing all the protective sheeting and the like ends up building up enough static to give you more than a few shocks!

Then I chucked all the cardboard in a metal cage to take it to the recycling bins, touched the handle to start moving it and...ouch!!! That one certainly woke me up

 

[GatwickDepress]

I've got a Windows 10 computer and I'm more than happy with it. I game a lot, so Windows is always going to have the advantage over Linux OSes for me. I have a laptop that runs Ubuntu, but that's purely work-related - databases, software backups etc.

 

[RochdalePioneers]

Can't say I'd trust Google to keep supporting the OS on those long enough, to be honest. It's long overdue turning them into Android-books in some form.

It's only been here for 6 years and it's already on its 60th update. Windows 10 randomly installs updates that take an age and then pop up marketing messages. Not having good an Xbox and with Windows Phone an abomination the integration they are so desperate to push is beyond irritating.

Chrome on the other hand is ludicrously quick, never crashes, is always up to date and with 60 iterations so far they're obviously serious about it. Besides which I've bought quite a nice Chromebook (my 3rd) as my PC replacement machine, an HD touchscreen lots of RAM and memory and runs Android apps out of the box, should be reasonably future proof.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

[Bletchleyite]

lots of RAM and memory and runs Android apps out of the box, should be reasonably future proof.

Interesting, I thought the concept was almost no local storage.

 

[Kite159]

One time I started to learn basic. I think it was the F12 key to open the command prompt, then probably a command like "basic" to load basic.

When I went to school it was just at the time when schools were starting to migrate to using PCs.

Quite a common prank that was done was to set the alarm to display a alarm message that was either gibberish or funny. The other classic prank was to charge yourself up with static from the monitors then zap someone

When I started secondary school in 1998, the school had something like 28 Acorn computers split over 2 rooms next door to each other.

5 years later when I left, it had something like 100 PCs (mostly windows 98) spread over multiple rooms.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

Acorns did have the flaw of anyone being able to install a program onto the local hard drive, where as with PCs (especially now with modern ones) it's possible to lock the local hard drive down to stop stuff being installed.

 

[GB]

It's only been here for 6 years and it's already on its 60th update. Windows 10 randomly installs updates that take an age and then pop up marketing messages. Not having good an Xbox and with Windows Phone an abomination the integration they are so desperate to push is beyond irritating.

Chrome on the other hand is ludicrously quick, never crashes, is always up to date and with 60 iterations so far they're obviously serious about it. Besides which I've bought quite a nice Chromebook (my 3rd) as my PC replacement machine, an HD touchscreen lots of RAM and memory and runs Android apps out of the box, should be reasonably future proof.

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

Your post makes little sense to me. On the one hand you seem to complain about windows updates (that you can customise or turn off if you so wish) then use the same points as a positive for your Chromebook.

Also, I have no idea what Chromebook you have as everything I have seen has **** poor internals which in no way can compete with a traditional laptop.

 

[Bletchleyite]

Acorns did have the flaw of anyone being able to install a program onto the local hard drive, where as with PCs (especially now with modern ones) it's possible to lock the local hard drive down to stop stuff being installed.

I think the concept there is missed slightly - RISC OS has no concept of *installing* anything - applications are folders - you can simply run them from wherever you wish, so locking down the ability to do so would be meaningless. What might be a better model would be blocking the *running* of apps that are not signed in some way.

It's slightly disc-space-inefficient because you end up with duplicate libraries, though. (There was the !System repository, but it wasn't heavily used). But did have the massive benefit that to "uninstall" something you simply delete it. In these days of huge amounts of storage revisiting this concept with some security added would probably be a good thing - then nothing could end up messing up your Windows installation.

It's not *massively* dissimilar to the MacOS model - many Mac apps don't *install* anything per-se.

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I think the concept there is missed slightly - RISC OS has no concept of *installing* anything - applications are folders - you can simply run them from wherever you wish, so locking down the ability to do so would be meaningless. What might be a better model would be blocking the *running* of apps that are not signed in some way.

It's slightly disc-space-inefficient because you end up with duplicate libraries, though. (There was the !System repository, but it wasn't heavily used). But did have the massive benefit that to "uninstall" something you simply delete it. In these days of huge amounts of storage revisiting this concept with some security added would probably be a good thing - then nothing could end up messing up your Windows installation.

It's not *massively* dissimilar to the MacOS model - many Mac apps don't *install* anything per-se.

Wasn't there also a repository called something like !Scrap ? I think it acted as a shared temporary storage space

 

[trainmania100]

Personally I would choose Windows XP.
It is a great operating system and remember it back in the old days.
Currently running Ubuntu alongside Windows 10 as Ubuntu runs much faster than Windows 10. Shuts down in less than 3 seconds so easy to put away

 

[Bletchleyite]

Wasn't there also a repository called something like !Scrap ? I think it acted as a shared temporary storage space

Indeed so. It was the equivalent of /tmp.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[SpacePhoenix]

I find windows (especially 8) is a lot faster when it's installed on a SSD. I keep just "core" programs on the C: drive (SSD) such as MS Office. Games and anything else gets kept on a traditional hard drive

 

[mikeg]

If I had a brand new PC, I'd run... Well that depends what I'm using it for. I have a Surface Pro 4, which refuses to run anything other than Windows 10 owing to lack of driver support for GNU/Linux or BSD and I'm impressed with it, it's a good portable device.

My desktop dual boots Windows 10 and Ubuntu. I use both equally, I prefer Ubuntu for general browsing, listening to music and office work in Libreoffice. Windows 10 however for superior app support. Ubuntu is probably better for writing custom software.

I wouldn't recommend any version of Windows other than 10 for desktop use, simply because I'm not a believer in outdated software. 7 is now on security updates only and any older version is likely to offer poor security. I don't like the privacy aspect of 10, but feel if you're not too bothered about that it's a useful and innovative operating system.
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I think the concept there is missed slightly - RISC OS has no concept of *installing* anything - applications are folders - you can simply run them from wherever you wish, so locking down the ability to do so would be meaningless. What might be a better model would be blocking the *running* of apps that are not signed in some way.

It's slightly disc-space-inefficient because you end up with duplicate libraries, though. (There was the !System repository, but it wasn't heavily used). But did have the massive benefit that to "uninstall" something you simply delete it. In these days of huge amounts of storage revisiting this concept with some security added would probably be a good thing - then nothing could end up messing up your Windows installation.

This is a similar approach probably used by Ubuntu snaps, with the exception that you install them. They are however ran more or less sandboxed so could probably be adapted to work in this way.

Edit: RISC OS is still available by the way, free of charge for the Raspberry Pi. I would however struggle to recommend it for anything as it's fallen hopelessly far behind, no memory protection, cooperative multitasking, single user, poor internet resources. Nope, can't think of a singe practical use for it but have experience of using it at school back in the day. Even managed to rescue an A4000 and a RISCstation from my old primary, but those have long since been sold on eBay.

I think Ubuntu is a good OS, very rarely does one have to resort to the command line. Ubuntu MATE would be good for anyone wanting a traditional desktop experience and I recommend it over Linux Mint with its outdated kernel.

 

[miami]

But I think the most exciting time to be a young adult was around 1998, when the Freeserve Revolution kicked off at the same time as Vodafone introduced the PAYG mobile, and with it started a societal change brought about by the Internet and permanent connectivity...

Were you involved in Campaign for Unmetered Telecoms at all?

Linux is a techie's OS. The only UNIX OS that I have ever considered "ready for the desktop" is MacOS, and that's a curious combination of a modern UNIX back-end and the replication of an early-1990s GUI with some fancy bits.

My mother-in-law isn't a techie by any stretch of the imagination (she can just about cope with pluging things in). She runs linux (specifically chromeos) on her laptop. She can't cope with something as poorly designed as windows.

I've used debian or ubuntu on the desktop since 2000 (in the 6 years before that I'd had win98, win95, dos6/win3.1, dos5/dosshell), I occasionally interact with newer windows versions, I'm just glad I don't have to maintain them - talk about unfriendly!

 

[D365]

My mother-in-law isn't a techie by any stretch of the imagination (she can just about cope with pluging things in). She runs linux (specifically chromeos) on her laptop. She can't cope with something as poorly designed as windows.

I'm a techie and I can barely cope

 

[Bletchleyite]

Were you involved in Campaign for Unmetered Telecoms at all?

Not that I recall but I was aware of it.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Your post makes little sense to me. On the one hand you seem to complain about windows updates (that you can customise or turn off if you so wish) then use the same points as a positive for your Chromebook.

Also, I have no idea what Chromebook you have as everything I have seen has **** poor internals which in no way can compete with a traditional laptop.

Chrome updates are invisible in the way that Apple hoped to be. Update is flagged as being there. Reboot the machine when you like (10 seconds!) and all is well.

I can't comment on the internals of my Chromebook as it's been working without issue for over 3 years, I wholeheartedly recommend them to anyone who simply wants to get online - Gmail, Facebook, Forums. Seamless links with Android phones make it a no brainer if you're not part of the Apple infrastructure. Starting around £150 they are bargains.

 

[RochdalePioneers]

Exactly that Puffing Devil. Windows updates can take an eternity to load on both shutdown and then restart. Chrome update install takes literally zero seconds - it installs it during the few seconds it takes to boot.

As for internals I don't care what the spec of the processor is or how much ram is on board. I just want it to work quickly and not lag. And the "p*ss poor internals" even on a cheap end Chromebook has in my experience always been enough for a snappy lag free environment. I can switch on a chromebook print off the documents I need and switch it off before my Windows 10 PC has finished booting

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

 

[Bletchleyite]

You don't shut down or boot up a laptop these days unless it crashes - shut the lid and it hibernates.

 

[J-2739]

You don't shut down or boot up a laptop these days unless it crashes - shut the lid and it hibernates.

I'm a super impatient person; I generally shut it down manually

As for internals I don't care what the spec of the processor is or how much ram is on board. I just want it to work quickly and not lag. And the "p*ss poor internals" even on a cheap end Chromebook has in my experience always been enough for a snappy lag free environment. I can switch on a chromebook print off the documents I need and switch it off before my Windows 10 PC has finished booting

Sent from my SM-T810 using Tapatalk

What do you use your PC/Laptop for?

Generally, many apps require a rather high minimum spec, and it's good to take this into consideration when purchasing a PC/Laptop.

 

[DaleCooper]

shut the lid and it hibernates.

Not if you shut the lid in summer.

(I wish someone would correct the title of this thread)

 

[D365]

You don't shut down or boot up a laptop these days until it crashes - shut the lid and it doesn't hibernate.

If you're running any form of Windows...