Seems to me that I thoroughly prove you wrong above, and in great detail. I have won the battle you think is lost. And I don't miss the Evil Empire at all. Because there is free and open competition in the Linux world, the battle will never be fought, much less lost.

And the operating system, plus almost all the software are absolutely free. That's free of payment, free of spyware, free of malware......just free in the best sense of the word.

I hope your classic shell causes you to miss all of the fundamental points. Does classic shell have its own file manager? Do you use Edge or a real browser? Hopefully, it gets you out of just about all the ads.

But what about the spyware? Microsoft is collecting much more information than Vizeo just paid $2.2 million for when it lost a lawsuit resulting from collecting information on people's television viewing habits. Microsoft should be fined billions of dollars or be dissolved for its thuggery. Microsoft execs should go to prison.

Ok RR, I have to call you on your bogus statements right here:

Unity is not a real desktop.

KDE is! :D:O::haha::har:

Barracuda

EDIT: just to clarify, this was/is a joke.

OK. How about I'm too old to care if they know what brand of diaper I start using, or is it FEMA death camps and soylent green for me? :o

And that is a top reason to go to Linux. We have DOZENS of different desktop GUIs. It's a matter of personal choice what you like and in Linux you can change it!

If you like sharp corners on totally opaque and garishly colored windows, you can have them.

If you like the style and sophistication of an Aero type window decorator, you can have that.

If you hate Unity (some people say they do) you can use KDE. Or LXDE. Or Cinnamon. Or Open Box. Or well over a dozen other possibilities. You could even set up your installation to pick a GUI at random every time you start your system.

It's as if you loved the Windows XP interface and window style and could use it in Windows 10 if you wanted. Linux has been doing this for 20 years and Windows hasn't learned a thing from it.

FEMA death camps are strictly for Apple users!:up:

Attention Windows 10 Users!

Creator's Update is Fast Approaching
If any of you were in the unfortunate position of upgrading to the last major Windows 10 upgrade, known as the Anniversary Update, then you will once again experience that uncomfortable worm crawling around in your stomach. Yes indeed folks, come April 11 this year, that same feeling of trepidation will once again rear its ugly head in all its haunting glory.

Read all about it. It's a scary state of affairs when Microsoft cannot be trusted to deliver a quality update that doesn't cripple your system. But that time is here. At least you can postpone the update by following the instructions in this article and maybe Microsoft will have it fixed by the time you are forced to load it. Maybe.

The handwriting is on the wall. If you are to keep your sanity a prudent exit strategy is called for. It's called Linux.

I continue to bring stuff from outside of Woody on Windows, simply to demonstrate that Woody, Skybird and I are not some colander on the head looney tunes crazies living in a cardboard box somewhere in Walt Disney's back lot. This is widespread, well-founded and acknowledged opinion based on solid fact. So from How-to-Geek I bring you:

Microsoft, Please Stop Breaking My PC With Windows 10’s Automatic Updates

What follows is a long list of major snafus in the Windows 10 update saga. These will undoubtedly be denied by the Microsoft apologists and kool aid drinkers. But each of the examples in the article are carefully referenced and linked so you can check out the situation for yourself.

When someone claims authority and spouts profanity NEVER mistake that for reality. Reality can stand by itself without help from an "authority" and doesn't need to be supported by attacking another person or by cussing at them. And a flat denial that advertisement exists in a Windows function is not evidence of any kind, but simply the imposition of some imaginary authority to make an unsupported claim. That authority is powerless against the irresistible force of reality.

And there's more on the ads (with supporting evidence, of course. I don't post my own unsupported opinion. I post fact with evidence)
Yes. Money talks and YOUR MONEY is saying "Microsoft, I love being treated like a victim. I love having my settings and preferences erased. I love having every file treated as Microsoft property and parts of my private life sent to your servers twice a day to do with as you wish. I don't think I have the right to know what you are doing with my system. I think Microsoft has the right to take a carefully optimized system and trash it with every update. I don't think I even have a right to have a Windows compatible webcam work. I love buggy software. You're not shoving enough advertisements in my face. Here's my cash."

When will you say "Go to hell. Go directly to hell. Do not take my $200."? Windows is not required or desirable any more in running your computer.

I write this post from my computer, which runs only Ubuntu Linux. I play Silent Hunter 4 and write all my mods, including Fall of the Rising Sun Ultimate, the largest mod ever written for Silent Hunter 4, on Ubuntu Linux. Linux is more than able to fully meet the needs of anybody who doesn't absolutely require software that only runs on Windows. That is well over 90% of Windows 10 users, who wouldn't ever miss the Microsoft dark side.

The situation is clear. Microsoft has entirely lost its moral compass. They will respect us, their victims, only when we MAKE them respect us. We will do that with our wallets. Our money talks.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/gA...g=w600-h366-no

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/tX...g=w428-h248-no

Windows updates will soon get pushed over limited connections too

Microsoft calls limited connections "metered connections." Those are connections where you pay for the amount of data you use. Therefore, Microsoft will, without your knowledge, and without notifying you at the time or giving you the option to postpone the update, cost you money to update Windows. They promise you this will only be for "important" updates. Trust them! They are your friends!


http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/a...ps8097f63a.jpg

<irony>This, of course, is in keeping with Microsoft's "The Customer is King" initiative, where respecting customer wishes and preferences is given priority over merely punishing him for being a Microsoft victim. </irony>

Robbins,

I would appreciate it if you would (if you could) discuss what new hardware (mainboards, gfx cards, CPUs) is depending on W10's presence to properly function, mainly regarding driver support.

I had read about it months ago, that certain new types of hardware architecture, new CPU generations, will not update drivers with non-version 10 Windows. The threat in that was that one may buy a brandnew kit, a complete system, and installs W7 - and finds it does not work, or will not update drivers, and that one needs W10 nevertheless. A nightmare scenario. This "alliance" with hardware manufacturers of course was initiated by Microsoft.


But i got out of touch with this matter, and have no overview on what is out there in hardware these days anyway.

My current Windows-rig for gaming is from around 2011. It is the best system I ever have had, stable, reliable, no problems whatever, all the fps I need for my kind of gaming. Superb platform. The CPU was considered to be the best bang for the buck at the time it was sold. The system still works fine, but it becomes older and older and of course one day it will die. Maybe I also want to update earlier to gain some solid fps reserves in case I ever want to try out VR in Assetto Corsa and Raceroom. I do not need the latest and most expensive stuff, but I would look for good bang for the buck ratios. Reliability, durability, economy, solid performance is what I look for.

When considering my current rig - Intel i5 2500 3.3 GHz, Asus P8H67 B3, 8 GB DDR 3 PC1333, nVidia 660 GTX 2 GB, Win7 Pro 64Bit - and considering also that I want to stay with W7 of course, under the often described conditions of not updating beyond SP2 and summer 2015, and only using it for game-launching, nothing else - what Intel-CPU, mainboard would roughly be equivalent to that system from 2011 in today'S modern hardware market environment? I would want to stay with nVida gfx also, but updating to a 1060 - or higher, if the price is a smiley.

What kind of CPU or CPU generation, and mainboard must I avoid, for it would no longer run under W7?

Okay, here's the deal. If you're buying an Intel Kaby Lake, Qualcomm 8996 or AMD Bristol Ridge processor, Windows is not updating Windows7, 8 or 8.1 to support those new processors. In addition, any Sky Lake processor made after July 17, 2017 will not support Windows 7, 8 or 8.1. And actually that's backwards. Nothing processor manufacturers are doing makes them incompatible, Windows refuses to supply proper drivers for the new hardware. "There's only one current version of Windows, and while Microsoft will fulfill its legacy hardware obligations, it won't be expending resources to help users steer clear of its latest and greatest."

Microsoft says new processors will only work with Windows 10


What they're not saying is that Linux exists and will work perfectly with the new processors. It makes their statement a lie, doesn't it? It's just another reason to kick Microsloth to the curb, where it belongs. They're also not acknowledging that they have received their last penny from my wallet when I bought Windows 7 in 2014.

I know your strict stand on Windows, and if certain sims would not exist that I would love to continue with, I would skip it as well completely. But as things are, for certain purposes I still need Windows 7 - and compatible hardware running it. Anything else I do on Linux. But a hardware-heavy sim to run on a Linux machine and then in a virtual machine - sorry, certain things simply do not work too well if you do not accept fps to turn into a slide show. Plus additional gaming hardware (higher class wheels) also not being too happy to run with Linux. Not at all, I read.

People accepting to run a W10 system and not caring for privacy since they use it only as a game launcher, like I do, again may find troubles - reports on W10 breaking the system and not running games or only under unacceptable conditions, are anythign but rare. So even in this arranbgement W10 is no wise option.

W10 is a crappy thing due to a totally crappy policy that wants it to be crap. I do not intend to invest money on W10, ever.

Do i get this right then : all Skylake models developed until this summer are still compatible with W7?

And Mainboards no concern?

That appears to be correct. Just make sure that any main board you buy comes with Windows 7 drivers on its driver disk. I'm a lover of AM3+ eight core CPUs and they all work great with Win 7.

Microsoft is Playing Windows Hardball


This article implicates AMD and Intel as agreeing with Microsoft not to issue any drivers of their own for Windows 7, 8, and 8.1. Also it contains a test by the author of using Windows 7 on a computer with an "incompatible" processor.

Guess what the result is. The computer runs fine. Microsoft shuts him down with "no updates for you, ever again!" That's right. Although Microsoft is pledged to support Windows 7 until 2020, if you have the wrong processor, your End of Life for Windows 7 is YESTERDAY.
Merry Christmas. Isn't Microsoft just a warm and fuzzy company? Do they deserve your money? Remember, Linux works with all past, present and future CPUs.

Thanks for keeping us up to date on Microsoft and what they are doing.