Thanks Sky, I shall look in that direction. :)

Yes, you probably want to chose between Ubuntu and any of its sub-derivates, or Mint. Mint is the closest to what Windows users are used to. To be like that - that is what Mint has been designed for. I have decided for myself that I am no power user needing Ubuntu for stuff I cannot even dream of, so i stick with Mint. Easy breezy going. Just hardware compatability, also for printers, routers, scanners, must be checked. These three items seem to cause most problems, its always about lacking drivers. So check before buying.

Sounds like a big issue speaking against Linux, but if one prepares in advance, it is not. Linux runs much smoother, reliable, stable and problem-free for me, than Windows ever did.

And look, a new Mint, version 18, has just been released, with LTS (long time support). It will get vital updates at least until 2021, but you can use it beyond that without worries.

I also find Elementary OS to be even more like what we're used to than Linux Mint. It's another Ubuntu derivative.

Actually, any of these distros are much like mods for Silent Hunter 4, just a collection of individual modifications to Ubuntu. You can do this yourself! You could take Ubuntu and install Mate or Cinnamon from Linux Mint, even before the Synaptic Package Manager made this easy and before Mate and Cinnamon versions of Ubuntu were published.

And since you are in charge of how your PC looks and operates (I had my Linux looking and working like OSX for awhile!) a distro is just a starting point. There's NOTHING you can't customize. You can even rip out the entire sound system and replace it with another.

Microsoft's "End Game" is the end of Microsoft, not us. When they do a stupid human trick, like Zone Alarm's two updates that took millions of people off the Internet with no easy recourse, people will immediately question the wisdom of leaving their entire computer life in Microsoft's hands.

Just to give you an idea of the future for Microsoft lemmings, Woody says in only one paragraph of this article:
Things will get worse. Accountability has been removed. Free from user scrutiny, Microsoft will get dumber and dumber until it ceases to exist.

We all need to get behind Steam and their effort to push Linux game development. That's the only missing link holding many to Windows. Commercial software is keeping businesses "loyal" but IT departments will insist on security to their definitions and they also will head Linux' way. Windows has jumped the shark and there's no turning back.

Too little, too late, the Electronic Frontier Foundation issues its scathing attack on Microsoft's anti-consumer, anti-privacy mindset as exemplified by Windows 10 gangster tactics:

With Windows 10, Microsoft Blatantly Disregards User Choice and Privacy: A Deep Dive

It's not over yet. Windows 7 is becoming as bad as Windows 10. User choice is being eliminated as operating systems become marketing and data mining operations, oh yeah, they MIGHT help you run your stuff too if Microsoft approves of your stuff.

Our only escape will be Linux. Time to learn something about it. I suggest a dual installation to acquaint yourself with how superior a culture of "the user is in charge" really is. You already know how to use it. You just haven't done it yet.

The excitement seems to be over. Microsoft is now selling Windows 10, just like its previous operating systems. The horrors of GWX are gone. We're living back in a blissful state.

But what is bliss? Isn't it a synonym for ignorance? Even as we breathe easily, Microsoft is beginning its drop-kick of Windows 7. First, and that is taking place now, Microsoft is taking away our ability to screen and choose which updates we will install. Updates to Windows 7, from now on will be released in packages of all the updates they force you to take, the good, the bad, the ugly.

Spyware will enter Windows 7 to make it as customer abusive as Windows 10. The operating system will change its core purpose from serving you in smoothly helping you run the applications on your machine to serving you advertisements (adware that Microsoft would have eliminated 18 months ago) and collecting personal information to be sent back to the mother ship (spyware that would have been eliminated by MSE 18 months ago).

Yes Microsoft, the company that has no scruples in redefining the "x" in the upper right hand (I have to think about what corner now that I run Linux) corner to mean "yes, hit me with the spyware/adware operating system" instead of the universally understood "close the dialog box," is now in total control of your computer. At some point Windows 7 will not be a place that you would want to live.

They appear to have five years of commitment to support Windows 7. But what is the definition of "commitment?" What is the definition of "Windows 7?" Soon, we will find out the answers to those questions and they will stink. Microsoft is squarely in the box held by companies who not only see no need to serve their customers but aggressively prey upon them.

If you are not already running Linux, it's time to start learning. It's not difficult. It runs SH4/GFO flawlessly. It also runs Borderlands2, Counterstrike: Global Offensive, Kerbal Space Program and hundreds of other commercial games perfectly, thanks to Steam, who have also declared war on Windows.

It's time to kick Microsloth to the curb. Do it before they kick YOU to the curb.

For Windows 7 users
 

It's really an exciting day for Windows 7 users. In what Woody Leonard of Infoworld magazine has to say is that since the "patchocalypse" where Windows was forcing Windows 7 users to load up the non-security roll-ups that contained spyware in order to get security update corrections, it looked like game over for Windows 7. We were doomed to end up with everything bad from Windows 10 without any of the good stuff.

But in a new announcement, Microsoft has changed their policy. Starting next month, any problems with security updates will be fixed in security updates. So many people quit updating Windows 7 at all that Microsoft felt compelled to change their update policies.

From now, if you don't want to import Windows 10 spyware "features" into your Windows 7 installation, you can elect to install only the security updates, and Microsoft pledges that if they screw up a security update, from now on it will be fixed in a security update.

Skybird may be paranoid but that doesn't mean he's wrong. And unlike the pariah he's portrayed as by some on Subsim, he has had enough company to force Microsoft to change their ways. It's a small victory. That's a lot of people who agree with him and who independently came to the same conclusion not to update Windows 7.

Now we need a rollup patch to unload all the spyware we've been compelled to download so far. Of course, using Spybot Anti-Beacon keeps Microsoft from calling home anyway.

Fun with Windows 8.1! (hey that rhymes).

Was working on a person's Win 8.1 computer. It was irretrievably borked and needed a reset to factory specs, translated reinstallation of the operating system. Should be straightforward and easy, no?

So first you have to tunnel through the Byzantine weirdness to get to the command to reset. In practice, with these "modern" operating systems you get the search box and type "reset" to get possible options to do what you want. Trying to actually navigate there is dangerous to your sanity and may stress your vocabulary of 4-letter words.

Then reset (reinstall) the operating system. Pat yourself on the back. That wasn't so rough. This lady gets her computer back right away!

"Windows is looking for updates....." Four hours later "Windows is looking for updates........................................... .........." Eight hours later "Windows is looking for updates........................................... ........" Next morning "Windows is looking for" hit the reset button. Same result. Time to check things out.

Woody on Windows mentioned that Microsoft completely changed their update system and without....you guessed it.....a couple of updates you can't update your computer. Quickly adding one and one to get four or five, I surmised that the restored Windows 8.1 is calling home to the old routine but there's nobody home. It's scramble time. In effect, Microsoft locked their car keys in the car so they could remember where they were.

I found out the update which changed the update scheme and how to manually download and install it from the Microsoft Download Center. Did so and "Windows is looking for updates......." forever again. Holy Crap! This is happening to every user of a Windows system who restores a version before the updatepocalypse and there's no solution?

Finally found someone on an Acer discussion group who produced some Microsoft Power Shell scripts to determine what updates a machine needs and manually download the list. First I had to install Power Shell from the command prompt. Then I had to download the scripts, run Power Shell and from the commmand line load up the scripts, which became new Power Shell commands.

Note that according to Skybird a great advantage of Windows is that the GUI is all inclusive. Absolutely untrue! My Silent Hunter 4 Corruption Management System can't be executed in the GUI and neither can these Power Shell scripts be replicated in the GUI.

So in several minutes I'm thanking my lucky stars that I have a legacy from the DOS days, know batch programming and have a decent amount of experience with the Linux terminal. Because here I am now typing commands and watching text output, feeling at home doing it.

It took 12 hours but those scripts downloaded over 1000 updates, totally optimizing the system. When it was done Microsoft Update worked normally and the system could again find and download its own updates. No thanks to Acer. No thanks to Microsoft. Both of them would rather you just die or buy a new system.

Me? I'm staying with Ubuntu. It's much simpler, faster, more advanced, more trustworthy and it never forgets that my computer is MINE.

What else could be possibly worse about Windows 10. I mean other than HALF your "start menu" kindergarten blocks being advertisements. lock screen ads disguised as backgrounds, notification ads for Edge, and a strange pop-up ad for Microsoft’s personal shopping assistant in Chrome. But hell, we're all used to that and Windows 10 is just the greatest thing since Anthrax spores, isn't it?

Until now. In its latest push to redefine "operating system" as an ad serving application that might perform other less useful functions too, Microsoft is serving advertisements......wait for it........in Windows 10 File Explorer!
https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-conte...ds-800x507.png

I'll bet my life this is only the beginning. What's it going to take to just tell Microsoft to get off the island? How far will this fiasco go before you tell Microsoft to go to hell, go straight to hell and don't collect $200?

I've already drawn the line and Microsoft doesn't live on my computer any longer. I don't miss them. And neither would you.

http://m.gsmarena.com/microsoft_thin...blog-23859.php has an even more entertaining way of putting it.
Ain't it GRAND?

Where are the Europeans who should be attacking this with sharp knives and hand grenades? They're the ones who mauled Microsoft in the early 2000s just for including Internet Exploder with Windows and using that to stifle competition in the browser market.

Now not only does Microsoft have a kindergarten style browser included in Windows, but is using its other tools like Windows File Explorer to attack Google Chrome and push the Microsoft cloud from a perch unavailable to Box, Dropbox or Google Drive, whose voices are locked out from the advertising platform. This is clear monopolistic abuse and the European courts should be on this like white on rice. It should be a relentless war on Microsoft.

Instead we have silent acquiescence from what appear to be thoroughly corrupted governments. This alone invalidates the European Union. Before the independent nations served to hold one another accountable. Now there seems to be no accountability and justice is available only to the highest bidder.

But hey! Microsoft is good! The trains run on time.

If I may step into this thread between Double R coming up for air!! (love 'ya Steve) :D

I've been putting together some points about Windows 10 for those of us that use it. From its download/install, to how to make Silent Hunter 4 work with the added memory our modern computers have (its not your Dad's Operating System anymore). Just thought I'd bring up this thread Windows10; Large Address Aware; SH4 Install

And the Capn's article is very important if you use Windows 10 to play Silent Hunter 3, 4 or 5.

A four hour old article by a respected computer guru,
Microsoft is disgustingly sneaky: Windows 10 isn't an operating system, it's an advertising platform


"It's time for things to change, but will Microsoft listen?"

The answer is "no." Microsoft has well and truly "jumped the shark." There is no going back. They have decided to move on from serving mankind to preying upon mankind. They won't be missed. The death of Microsoft will clear the decks for a more enlightened replacement.

yea, I run win10, too and even after getting rid of 99% of the stuff you don't want certain things are apparently unkillable, they simply keep reappearing after an update which is nothing but egregious and tedious work..

But you know who the real losers are? Those who paid full OS price for this! Adding ads to the free version is one thing but paying for an OS which tries to snoop on you and show you ads? LoL

I used this link among others: https://fix10.isleaked.com

Microsoft is disgustingly sneaky: Windows 10 isn't an operating system, it's an advertising platform

LINK

"Don't believe what Microsoft tells you -- Windows 10 is not an operating system. Oh, sure, it has many features that make it look like an operating system, but in reality it is nothing more than a vehicle for advertisements."

Add to this that they have fired much of their tech support staff and that th tehcnical quality and reliability of "patches" and driver support has fundamentally declined since the days of W7.

As I use to say: Windows 10 is not the product - the user of Windows 10 is the product.

Be smart. Avoid Windows 10 - and software depending on it. Boycott Microsoft, and try to help making them disappear from the market by ruining them.

I hear on the grape vine from friends their friends are getting these Ad's and as I always said do you really think that one year free period was really free? Of course not, nothing is free wake up people. If MS are so bloody minded they will continual to push their crap on to people and if the people wake up MS is in for a rude awakening.

I had my blind-eyes-day yesterday. Sorry for being your echo, Robbins. ;)