Wanna play with Windows 8 for free

[Lionheart]

Some of the members need to start looking at the bright side of things. At least MS is willing to let you try it before ya buy it. I tried it but I don't care for the interface. Looks more like a gaming interface. It has a few new features but nothing interest me.If you guys would like for me to stop posting these new updates and releases I will...Mike.

Mike,

Thanks for posting on OS's. I always appreciate learning more on them all. It also gives us something to grumble about from the past, lol... Think of it as venting pent up frustrations, like as though we were like old ladies, lol....

I had to start somewhere, and didn't start with MS-DOS versions

And I ment to say Windows-ME (which was a downright disaster) instead of Windows2000.
Forgot to mention Windows-NT (which was good)..


But re-reading my own post, maybe it wasn't clear what I was trying to say:
MS has a habit of following up good a good OS with a bad one; hence my doubts about Windows8

Personally, I (still) use Windows98-SE, Windows-XP and Windows7-64bit
Heck, from what I gather, MS will be actively supporting XP longer then Vista ...

Regards, Rob

I loved Win98-SE! Man.... I could shut down most of the MSDOS programs and FS would run really fast on it. It was fast, refined, incredible. Far better then Win98.

Vista made me so upset. It was driving me nuts. I was so glad to go back to WinXP through Apple. (Bootcamp). My fave computers were Gateway, then HP, and HP wouldnt support XP anymore, so off to Apple I went and I am so glad and blessed that this happened.

I see nothing but good reports on Win7. I think, from what I see outside of the big box, is that perhaps Windows is trying to do things new, like Apple. The amazing part with Apple is that they test it with all their employees and vote on things. If they didnt like something, they said so. When it was finally released, it was refined as to how they wanted it to work. It wasnt put together too fast, it was refined before going to market. It was also kept secret and they had control on its quality and things. (Sometimes its better for less people's input and less commanders or you lose direction, like a camel being designed as to be a horse, but they added this and that, and did this instead, etc, falling short of the goal direction).


I hope Win8 does well. I hope Win7 is kind to me, lol... I intend to get it. Looks awesome. Hard to beleive its being replaced already. Why dont they just do addons for OS's instead of reinventing the wheel? Oh well. :D




Bill

[Odie]

I'm running XP and Vista 64 on two different machines and like both. Like the Windows Explorer in XP better than Vista, but for all the
negatives that were espoused on Vista I haven't encountered. It runs everything I throw at it. WindowsME, ran it for years and never
had an issue with it. Windows 98SE, the same.

One thing I do, is never install a new OS version on an old box. Don't know if that makes a difference, but I don't switch OS's until I totally
upgrade my gaming rig from the ground up. As a result, I generally run with the same machine/OS for 4-5 years.

[jhefner]

Rob;

Let me carry your list out to the beginning; even if it is DOS based:

- Windows 1.0
- Windows 2.0
- Windows 2.1
- Windows 3.0
- Windows 3.1
- Windows 95
- Windows98.
- Windows98-SE
- Windows2000
- WindowsXP
- WindowsVista
- Windows7
- Windows8

Windows NT doesn't really count in the heirarchy; it was a seperate product until it was merged with Windows 95/98/ME in the Windows XP OS.

I have used every version since Windows 2.1. And yes; Microsoft has continued the pattern of doing great roughly every second release going back to Windows 2.1.

Now; for all the griping about Windows; I am thankful to have had it all these years, and that it is still around. I worked in a computer store prior to Windows (HAH! showing my age here); and I remember the different sections we had for MS-DOS, Apple II, Macintosh, Commodore 64/128, and Amiga. I remember the joy of playing with device drivers; one for each software package you owned; and the secret world of DOS commands and shortcut commands; almost as bad as the secret handshake.

The early GUIs -- Windows, Macintosh, Amiga, and GEOS for Commodore and Apple II -- was a step in the right direction. Drivers became less of an issue; programs became easier to use, and features abounded. But, you still had 2 or 3 different operating systems to support, along with the hardware. And lockups every few days or even hours were commonplace.

Windows, good or bad, got rid of that. Write something for Windows; and even today it will run on 92% percent of the PCs out there; that percentage has varied very little over the past decade or so. Make it a web-based app; and virtually any machine can access it. I have one Windows Vista machine that still locks up fairly often; but is probably a hardware issue. The days of "blue screen of death" or the Macintosh "bomb" every few days is just a bad memory for most of us. Most of the Windows machines I have stay up for weeks, even months at a time without being rebooted.

And look what it has done to the half life of software. There are some Windows 2.0 apps that still run fine under Windows XP; and despite early reports to the contrary, it appears nearly anything 32-bit that ran under Windows 95 or 98 will still run under Windows 8. Software life is in decades now instead of just a few years. Windows emulators may make it possible to run these apps for decades.

Throw in networking and the internet; and it is all a good deal. I think what will continue to chip away at the Windows market is not Macintosh or Linux as originally thought, but iphones, ipads and ipods running iOS and Andriod operating systems. Most people are finding that don't need a laptop computer to carry around anymore or even a desktop; something that lets them surf the web, play Netflix and youtube videos and their favorite music, and read their e-mail is all they need.

And while I am on my soapbox - I have a gen 1 ipod; and it drives me crazy that most of the Apps out there will no longer work on it; compared to Windows, it is not that old. I understand that it missing hardware that later ipods and ipads supported; but if this was Windows; only those apps that directly use that hardware would be affected. It is this that "planned obsolescence " of computer software that Windows mostly freed us from.

-James

I'm probably getting old, but if there's one lesson I've learned in life, is that history has a habit to repeat itself.

One great example of many more (like the hypes on stuff like Twitter and Facebook), is the quality of Microsoft's major OperatingSystem releases.

Starting at an arbitrary point in time (probably even too long ago for many of you reading this):
- Windows98.
- Windows98-SE
- Windows2000
- WindowsXP
- WindowsVista
- Windows7

Now, guess how I feel, without any predudice of course , about Windows8 ??

Those of you in their late 50ties, early 60ties, reading this will probably understand what I'm talking about (although not necessarily agree )

Regards, Rob

[Lionheart]

Rob;
And while I am on my soapbox - I have a gen 1 ipod; and it drives me crazy that most of the Apps out there will no longer work on it; compared to Windows, it is not that old. I understand that it missing hardware that later ipods and ipads supported; but if this was Windows; only those apps that directly use that hardware would be affected. It is this that "planned obsolescence " of computer software that Windows mostly freed us from.

-James

Thats alright. My Red Baron Gold, Flying Squadron Gold, CFS2 and a few other classics will not run on my WinXP 32bit anymore.

arrghh.... :(



Bill

[jhefner]

Thats alright. My Red Baron Gold, Flying Squadron Gold, CFS2 and a few other classics will not run on my WinXP 32bit anymore.

arrghh.... :(



Bill

That is not usually the case; CFS2 and even CFS1 works just fine on my Windows XP and Vista systems at home. We even play multiplayer together on the two machines.

The first Apple iPod touch, which is what I have, was released on September 5, 2007. That is younger than any version of MS Flight Simulator or CFS we discuss here!

CFS2 - 1998
Red Baron II - 1997
Flying Squadron Gold - ???

-James

[Lionheart]

Hey James,

Roger that. Maybe it was Flying Squadron Gold... Cant remember. Gold box, around here somewhere. I had more fun with that then with Red Baron. You could land with the squadron after a run. They taught you how to keep speed with the formation. Great fun while it lasted.


Being a apple freak, I know how you feel about replacing new with new new, lol.... I have my mark-1 iPad and I love it and dont care for the new ones, but I will need it eventually. I started out with the iPod Touch, now they are several generations old. So much improvement; camera's, 64 Gig HD's, etc, etc. Powerful and can be concealed in the palm of your hand. I am now into the iPhone 4 (without Siri). Everyone loves Siri... arrgh.... (sniff... )

*EDIT: Sorry for highjacking the thread. Back to Windows!


Bill

[aeronca1]

Rob;

- Windows 1.0
- Windows 2.0
- Windows 2.1
- Windows 3.0
- Windows 3.1
- Windows 3.11
- Windows 3.11 for Workgroups
- Windows 95
- Windows98.
- Windows98-SE
- Windows ME
- Windows2000
- WindowsXP
- WindowsVista
- Windows7
- Windows8

Just to add a few, lol

Windows NT doesn't really count in the hierarchy; it was a separate product until it was merged with Windows 95/98/ME in the Windows XP OS.

Amiga - An amazing OS, would love to see where it might have gone if Commodore had of developed it as it should have been. The Commodore sales team had the best mouse trap in the world, but unfortunately they didn't know what a mouse trap was....

And while I am on my soapbox - I have a gen 1 ipod; and it drives me crazy that most of the Apps out there will no longer work on it; compared to Windows, it is not that old. I understand that it missing hardware that later ipods and ipads supported; but if this was Windows; only those apps that directly use that hardware would be affected. It is this that "planned obsolescence " of computer software that Windows mostly freed us from.

That's Apple for you and the reason why my last Mac was a G3...

....

[hairyspin]

A lesson I learned a long time ago: how to keep your rig running fast is not to upgrade your software. So I'm running Office '03, Photoshop CS2, Max 2008 and others like er, FSX lol. This rig was built to put Win7 on and it runs all my existing software just fine. Sooner or later some of this software is going to drop out of the Windows-supported category so I'm going to stick with W7 and be an uninvolved W8 watcher.

I wish Microsoft well with the next version and hope they don't have another Windows Muppet Edition!