When Windows 7 is dead in 2020 what OS will you migrate to??

When Windows 7 is dead in 2020 what OS will you migrate to??

  • Windows 8/10/?

    Votes: 30 46.9%
  • ReactOS

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chrome

    Votes: 4 6.3%
  • Mac

    Votes: 4 6.3%
  • Unix

    Votes: 1 1.6%
  • Linux

    Votes: 30 46.9%
  • BeOS

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Amix

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • FreeDos

    Votes: 2 3.1%
  • Other

    Votes: 6 9.4%

  • Total voters
    64
If you're looking for an Ubuntu with a similar look and feel to Windows, I'd go with Kubuntu. KDE is far and away the best desktop environment available period IMHO.

It's got the same basic layout as Windows, apps menu bottom left, taskbar, clock, etc bottom right. No one will have trouble figuring out how to get things done and the overall level of polish is excellent. If Windows had a UI as well thought out as KDE I would hate it substantially less.

XFCE (default Xubuntu desktop) is designed to be as lightweight as possible, nice if you're running it on a Raspberry Pi but not really a factor for a modern PC. It works well enough but still has alot of rough edges and it's minimalist design goals mean it lacks many conveniences. It's also has many less years of development behind it than KDE or GNOME.

If the computer can run Windows tolerably it will handle a full featured desktop like KDE just fine. In fact it will fly by comparison.
 
dustNbone said:
If you're looking for an Ubuntu with a similar look and feel to Windows, I'd go with Kubuntu. KDE is far and away the best desktop environment available period IMHO.

It's got the same basic layout as Windows, apps menu bottom left, taskbar, clock, etc bottom right. No one will have trouble figuring out how to get things done and the overall level of polish is excellent. If Windows had a UI as well thought out as KDE I would hate it substantially less.

XFCE (default Xubuntu desktop) is designed to be as lightweight as possible, nice if you're running it on a Raspberry Pi but not really a factor for a modern PC. It works well enough but still has alot of rough edges and it's minimalist design goals mean it lacks many conveniences. It's also has many less years of development behind it than KDE or GNOME.

If the computer can run Windows tolerably it will handle a full featured desktop like KDE just fine. In fact it will fly by comparison.

I have only played with linux a couple times, I did like ultimate linux as it seemed to have most everything, but since i dont know much about linux and there is so many flavors, its crazy to just guess what is the better one for me.
I have used this simple little program "liux live usb creator" and in a few clicks you have a installable linux on flash drive. I guess one its pluses (not for me), it can boot linux in a VM on windows. I just like that its easy to get going with it, its found here http://www.linuxliveusb.com/en/help/guide/preparation

I see it has Kubuntu 15.04 "vivid vervet" (KDE), is that the one you suggest?

Is there better ways to go about getting Linux on a bootable USB drive to install a fresh copy on to a SSD?
TIA
 
Current version of Kubuntu (and all current Ubuntu variants) is 19.04, released this April. It looks like that tool you were using is outdated, and possibly no longer maintained. That's one of the problems with those kind of utilities, they tend to get updated far less often than new versions of Linux distros come out.

For writing bootable USB devices in Windows, I generally use Rufus:

https://rufus.ie/

It doesn't download the ISO images itself, just writes them to USB so you'll have to download the distros you want to write manually.

You can get Kubuntu here:

https://kubuntu.org/getkubuntu/

And a detailed tutorial on how to use Rufus to write Ubuntu images:

https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/tutorial-create-a-usb-stick-on-windows#0
 
Just keep in mind that the majority of Linux users still use Gnome and it's the default for most major Linux distributions. The more you stray into custom desktops and less common installations the more problems and more expertise you are going to need to be successful.

I also don't really see much of a point to having some Linux desktop that looks like Windows when it'll never behave like Windows. It just gets confusing to use the same icons and metaphors when everything behind them is completely different. It's really just a trap.
 
Hey folks.
I thought I would let you know that you can buy a legitimate windows 10 pro key for about $15USD.
I think Windows 10 at about $15 is a fair price and what it should be for anyone.
I game way too much to be able to give up windows.

What these guys do is take old thrown away windows 7 PCs at major recyclers and convert the windows 7 key to a free upgrade windows 10 pro key and strip it of being attached to any owner/hardware etc.

I have seen pretty popular YouTubers pimp their service and continually claim it's fully legitimate.. I have bought one so I know it works. https://youtu.be/S-5GRirpzKU?t=1001
Windows 10 is going to be around forever so it's handy to have a real key.
https://www.vip-scdkey.com/software/microsoft-pc-10-pro-oem_1227-20.html#techyescity
 
On ebay you can get Win10 keys for $3 or less, I have bought 6 so far over the past 9 months, no issues with them so far, the issue I have is Winblows10, constantly ramming crap down my throat, constantly taking my freedom away. Been a windows users since win286, and supporting it since then, now I am starting to hate it, the last years win10 updates have been a abortion.

My perfectly good 11yo i7-920, pop in a spare ssd in, load win10, all kinds of driver issues with my gigabyte motherboard, so cant run win10 on it (that I know) so toss a perfectly working pc because winblows updates. :kff: megashaft
 
sleepy_tired said:
Just keep in mind that the majority of Linux users still use Gnome and it's the default for most major Linux distributions. The more you stray into custom desktops and less common installations the more problems and more expertise you are going to need to be successful.

I also don't really see much of a point to having some Linux desktop that looks like Windows when it'll never behave like Windows. It just gets confusing to use the same icons and metaphors when everything behind them is completely different. It's really just a trap.

I think most distros still have the BSOD screensaver, seeing a blue screen every 15 minutes goes a fair way to simulating the experience :twisted:
Was surprised to see BeOS in there, I thought it was a mixed up abbreviation of Berkley OS at first but no, BeOS is back! :)
 
BeOS lives on as haiku. AFAIK haiku is cool as shit. I wish virtualbox was available for it.. if so, i'd be running it as my host OS :bigthumb:

https://www.haiku-os.org/

maxresdefault.jpg
 
Short answer

For workload Fedora-31, for the gaming rig Win-10 but only and for nothing else than gaming. They can copy my savegames to Utah Datacenter but not my personal data.

Solderbro
 
I made the switch to Linux this year. Still some games and cad software which need windows. I didn't want to dual boot and didn't like mucking around trying to get them to run well under Linux. I've been running windows in a kvm which seems to give pretty much the same performance as a regular install.
 
Well, my windows 10 update completely frocked everything up!!! It got to the point where windows would take 2 hours to boot. All the windows automatic repair did was screw up a bunch of my apps and they no longer work. Deleting the updates failed. Restor points failed. After two weeks of battling it I just about gave up and was about to buy a new hard drive, pull the old one to preserve the data and start over again, when, I stumbled upon a Microsoft suggestion that I disable windows fast start. The instruction was, "You could try disabling windows fast start." It worked. :p

My computer booted in under 2 minutes. However I had to recover some of the apps that I still wanted by reloading them, minus the two that I still want but are un-recoverable and will have to repurchase newer versions to get them going again. :oops: :cry: :evil:
 
e-beach said:
Well, my windows 10 update completely frocked everything up!!! It got to the point where windows would take 2 hours to boot. All the windows automatic repair did was screw up a bunch of my apps and they no longer work. Deleting the updates failed. Restor points failed. After two weeks of battling it I just about gave up and was about to buy a new hard drive, pull the old one to preserve the data and start over again, when, I stumbled upon a Microsoft suggestion that I disable windows fast start. The instruction was, "You could try disabling windows fast start." It worked. :p

My computer booted in under 2 minutes. However I had to recover some of the apps that I still wanted by reloading them, minus the two that I still want but are un-recoverable and will have to repurchase newer versions to get them going again. :oops: :cry: :evil:
Disabling Windows 10 "Fast Start" was the 3rd post recommendation of this entire thread, written complete with URLs on how to do it by me...
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=96417#p1412068
TheBeastie said:
The only other important with Windows 10 is disable Fastboot/Fast-startup so that every time you reboot windows, you actually do get a fresh clean reboot everytime you reboot. In the age of SSD drives the Fastboot idea is just a dumb idea.
https://www.howtogeek.com/243901/the-pros-and-cons-of-windows-10s-fast-startup-mode/
Sometimes I think I subconsciously-deliberately put the most valuable/interesting things near the bottom of my posts to secretly punish people for being lazy.

If you have Windows 10 on a solid-state drive then "Fastboot/Fast-startup" is the stupidest thing Microsoft has ever implemented by default in Windows, MS is just stupidly trying to copy Apple in areas they simply can't.
 
TheBeastie said:
.......
Sometimes I think I subconsciously-deliberately put the most valuable/interesting things near the bottom of my posts to secretly punish people for being lazy.
.........

It is not always about being lazy. I just don't want to spend any more time in front of a computer then necessary. I have a nice beach to look at while riding my e-bike to some place to sit and play my guitar. Why look at a computer screen learning to code when I can look at waves crashing on the beach. Better priority's in my book. Besides, learning to code doesn't always workout well. Just ask those who have written Windows 10. :oops:

:D :bolt:
 
Of course it couldn't last....back to one hour boot. I have been looking at the windows 10 boot error logs where it tells me some drivers are starting but also not starting...... :cry:
 
e-beach said:
Of course it couldn't last....back to one hour boot. I have been looking at the windows 10 boot error logs where it tells me some drivers are starting but also not starting...... :cry:
Update any external drivers possible, which is usually only ever graphics card drivers these days.
The other and even more likely problem is Anti-virus... Anti-virus software loads driver-like stuff very early on and can totally stuff booting up.
It might be even old remains of anti-virus software.

Just googled this, YouTube can solve any problem in the world :pancake:
I time-linked the section on how to disable programs on startup... Probably won't fix nasty/stuffed anti-virus installs though
https://youtu.be/K_Acj4sISzo?t=119
 
TheBeastie said:
Update any external drivers possible, which is usually only ever graphics card drivers these days..............

Thanks for that.
I tried everything in the video and still have a one hour boot (actually 56 minutes this time.) :evil:
It may be that windows 10 doesn't like the video card in my laptop as my laptop is 8 years old.
It does have an MXM module, but it is the best of the 3 types offered when this machine was new.
In the BootLog I keep getting boot errors that dxgkrnl.sys is loaded then the next line says it is not loaded.
I have also noticed that something called NDProxy.sys is not loading. I don't know what that one is but I will look into it.
And yes I have updated the driver.
Then there are the orphaned files from the two programs that windows 10 disappeared on me.

Not sure what to do next.....maybe wait for the next update to see if microsoft can get there act together.

Anyway, thanks for the effort! :!: :!: :!:

:? :bolt:
 
Get rid of your graphics card drivers and install as generic, if this works OK nothing more needed.

If more features needed then you will need to find a win10 graphics driver which works with your card and does not cause problems. You may need to disable auto updates for video card drivers.

Look for more generic drivers, not necessarily the latest and greatest. This is trial and error, may take several attempts. Remove and replace with generic after each failed attempt.

The NDproxy file is a MS file which is legit, but may or may not be required. If this causes any actual problems, report back.
 
Well, I am back up and running again after a second Windows 10 reset while loosing a some of my apps, again. I have learned to reload most of them, I will see later about the rest or them. It turns out what I have is a know problem. (of course Micorsoft hasn't done anything about it in the years the problem has cropped up.)

As for the video driver, I am now running the driver that loads with Windows 10. It is older then the one that I can update to by a few months.

However the failed drivers persist.

Examples.
BOOTLOG_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
BOOTLOG_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\DriverStore\FileRepository\basicdisplay.inf_amd64_307898c750ba9e44\BasicDisplay.sys
BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys

and

BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\WdFilter.sys

The dxgkrnl.sys and WdFilter.sys driver failures are well know. I found this out by cutting and pasting this to the windows search bar:
BOOTLOG_NOT_LOADED \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\dxgkrnl.sys
And it took me to this site where they suggested disabling windows error reporting service.
https://www.tenforums.com/general-s...s-wdfilter-sys-slow-startup-windows-10-a.html

So I disabled the Windows Error Reporting Service, and as the poster states, I also still get the NOT_LOADED errors, but my boot times is now around 3 minutes. I can live with that.

So far so good. We will see what tomorrow brings when I continue adding back my apps.

:D :bolt:
 
As an addendum, I took a look at the bootlog this morning, (C:\Wincows|ntbtog) and to my suprize it only had 5 boot entries??? Then I remembered fast boot was probably enabled from my Windows reset. So I checked it and, yes, it was enabled. A 2 minute boot, plus about 1 minute for Skype to start. I can't make a cup of coffee that fast so I am happy at the moment. However, this has been such a battle (which is still not finished, more programs to recover) I am wondering even more about Linux.

:?: :bolt:
 
Linux has it's uses, I've tried it many times over the last couple decades. Basically usable, for minimal purposes. However, I work in IT, and as such it has absolutely no value to me. Also, for many types of work, it is just non-functional.

Basic web-browsing and not much else, sure. Mainstream apps and specialized uses like video capture or gaming, just forget it. There us no "Linux", just twelfty million different variations.
 
AngryBob said:
Linux has it's uses, I've tried it many times over the last couple decades. Basically usable, ........

That's what I was wondering about. I haven't made any movies since I got hit by that car 3 1/2 years ago, but I am beginning to get the itch. One of the pieces of software I lost was my Avid Media Composer. So I know what you mean about not being able to capture video. So, then the next step is simply ponying up the money and going Apple.

However, disabling Windows Error Reporting has helped dramatically. (I guess the Microsoft bandwidth isn't large enough to handle all the Windows errors coming in world-wide. :lol: ) Although, I am not running the latest Windows update, things are ok at the moment. It makes me think about setting a restore point and reverting to it every time windows forces an update.

:D :bolt:
 
--Oz-- said:
......Do you recommend installing Radeon video drivers or just use the win10 installed version (22.19.162.4 date 4-24-2017){Radeon ver 17.1.1)?....

As a side note, and I don't know if it is relevant to you, but the Nvidia driver provided by Windows 10 worked best for me. Updating my driver through the Windows device manager only made things worse. Then again, this laptop isn't new.
 
An article over the weekend said one third of the worlds computers are still using windows 7. I guess we'll see how much good the Microsoft updates ever really did.
 
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