Bill Gates Must Hang

[SteveHGraham]

I don't know if people will consider this machine-related, but I know some of us use computers for CNC, and God knows we could not survive without Internet forums.

I upgraded my garage PC to Windows 7 today to avoid the seemingly nonexistent XP catastrophe. What a pain in the butt. It turns out Windows 7 will flat refuse to run a lot of hardware that ran on XP because...it's just too HARD for overpaid software engineers to write code for backward compatibility, and P.S.: Bill Gates wants to force you to buy a new computer every three years.

Anyway, if you do what I did, be very careful about your cards and whatnot. I went through hell trying to get back on the web tonight, because the ethernet port on this hand-me-down PC blew out a long time ago, and I was using a Netgear WG311, which is really hard to reconcile with Windows 7. I had to pull a card from another PC.

This motherboard isn't even certified for Windows 7, and yours may not be, either.

[GlennW]

http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download ... aspx?id=20

[SteveHGraham]

Yes, I used that before the upgrade, and like most Microsoft products, it was worthless.

[SteveHGraham]

I'm glad you mentioned that, because I failed to bring it up in the first post. I ran that stupid thing, and it said I was ready to upgrade. If there is one thing that's worse than a Microsoft OS, it's Microsoft support. Really incredibly bad. The help files are beyond belief. "Did this work? No? Well, drop dead."

[GlennW]

I never got as far a trying it.

I needed new computers just after the release of Windows 7 and had heard that a lot of the XP compatible software would not run properly in Windows 7. I went to my usual local computer store to see about buying a couple of new XP Pro machnes and the owner was dumbfounded that I refused to buy three or four thousand dollars worth of new software just so that I could "upgrade" to a Windows 7 machine. We had some pretty good words over that. I had him locate two new XP machines for me and I still run XP Pro.

My "outdated" software does exactly what I need it to do.

[SteveHGraham]

You are probably going to have fewer problems than I am. Everyone said the world would end when Microsoft stopped supporting XP, but nothing has happened to me, which is why I took so long to change the OS on this computer. I keep getting updates from Microsoft automatically.

I have wondered whether they would cave in and continue some support, realizing that they were begging for a disaster everyone would blame on them. Maybe that's what's happening. Anyway, this computer survived. I am really reluctant to mess with my house PC, which has more programs on it.

I still have my original boot drive, so if this thing drives me crazy, I can pull the current drive out and pretend Windows 7 never happened.

[redneckalbertan]

Not sure about your networking setup, but if it's a stand alone machine you can run for decades without updates or an antivirus and not have one single security vulnerability...

[benshell]

Well, I definitely understand the frustrations that come along with running Windows. I primarily use a Mac these days, but still have an old (2006) desktop computer in the garage running Windows 7 and have had to fight my way through a few issues. For the most part it works well for my needs though.

But as a software developer, please allow me to briefly argue the other side. I like to use a house analogy when talking about computers. Try and think of your 10-year old computer as a 100-year old house (or maybe older...). If you can keep it maintained you should be able to continue using it for as long as it serves your needs. However, the neighborhood has gone downhill. When the house was built it had a door that closed and latched and that was enough to tell the neighbors you weren't accepting visitors. But now you have a constant stream of organized gangs attacking all day and all night. Your contractor has reinforced the door and boarded up the windows, but the attackers are constantly finding new vulnerabilities, such as prying the siding off and going through the wall. Finally you realize the house needs to be rebuilt to withstand the attacks (operating system upgrade). You tear it down to the foundation and rebuild with reinforced concrete. Your house looks like a prison now, but the attackers are stopped for the moment. But there's limit to what the old foundation can handle, and as it crumbles away you realize you should have rebuilt that as well (get a new computer).

Meanwhile the companies who make products for the inside of your house are focusing on the new house design. Your electrical fixtures are completely different. When you hang a picture you're drilling into concrete now, so pretty soon it's hard to even find a traditional hook with a nail. And of course they only sell heavy steel doors. To ask the manufacturers to give you products that work for either a new or old house, at no additional cost, just doesn't make sense. As the old houses are being phased out and rebuilt it quickly becomes impractical to even develop products for the old designs at all.

Now granted, I'm focusing on security-driven development and of course that's not the only reason for change. Another major push in recent years is accessibility. To make software and websites work for anyone (even blind or hearing impaired) on any device of any screen resolution requires major changes to how software is built. Unfortunately we're not quite there yet, but it's support for old operating systems and old browsers (Internet Explorer) which hold us back the most.

Again I'm all for getting as much life out of your computers as possible. I certainly hope to keep my eight year old desktop running for a few more years. But eventually I'll need to upgrade, and that's just the way it goes.

[Patio]

Run a router in front of your computer, it is kind of like building a fence around your yard, to keep the gangs at bay.

[GlennW]

Everyone said the world would end when Microsoft stopped supporting XP, but nothing has happened to me, which is why I took so long to change the OS on this computer. I keep getting updates from Microsoft automatically.

Reminded me of the Y2K crap when the computer world was going to stop spinning.

I'm a bit curious about the regular updates as well.

[ronm]

Hey, I was perfectly satisfied with Windows 2000, until they totally abandoned all support for that ...my EE son rebuilt my computer & convinced me to go with Ubuntu. It's weird & different, but the virus thing is at least a lot less troublesome...for now, it's workin for me.
Bill Gates can pound sand, for all I care...

[earlgo]

You think Win7 was/is miserable?
Wait until you get involved with Win8.1/2 on a desktop. Win8.x was designed for a touchscreen. Behind it all is the Win7 OS and it took me several weeks to figure out if one does this and that and then this other thing, one can coerce the OS to do what you want... more or less.
I have heard that at Microsoft, 5000 engineers, not necessarily in the same location, write different segments of the code and if they don't get the hooks in the right place or are using the right protocols, the result will not work right.
Think of the automotive industry where there is a left front headlight expert, a right tail light expert, a small fastener expert, etc., etc. If they don't work together you get a Gov't Motors car.

(There is still a functioning Commodore 64 on my shelf if anyone is interested. )

--earlgo