Um... What Operating System Did You Have When You First Learned Of DU ???

[WillyT]

Me... I believe it was Widows 95, then 98SE, then 2000, then XP...

And now XP will be "Unsupported" April 6th... I think.

Could we start a group of computer geeks that could teach people how to load Linux or whatever so they don't have to buy a brand new computer to continue posting here ???

Many older computers will not handle Windows 7 or 8, and many of us do not have the resources to drop on a new computer.

Any ideas ???

[hobbit709]

1. Windows 2000 and SuSe Linux.

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. I was still on Windows 3.1 It was 1994 and I guy named WillyT said he was from the future

[WillyT]

4. That Guy's Fucking Brilliant... Right ???

[steve2470]

3. we already have a computer support group

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1095

Come on over. I was using XP when I first came here. You can continue to use XP but you have to be extra extra careful about malware. That's the real significance of what M$ is doing. XP has already been debugged pretty thoroughly after 13 years.

[WillyT]

7. Thank You For That !!! - Just Wanted It Out For Wider Distribution...

Don't know how many here are aware of the end of XP.





I'll be there.

[JesterCS]

5. Windows XP n/t

[bravenak]

9. Me too.

I'm an xp.

[winter is coming]

6. Ubuntu's pretty easy to download and use.

I'm using Mac OSX now, but I used to use Ubuntu, and found it much more user-friendly than any flavor of Windows I've encountered, especially if you just want to use the machine for things like email and websurfing.

[WillyT]

10. Does It Allow Dual Booting ???

My 84 year old mom is finding change... annoying.

[winter is coming]

14. Yes.

http://www.ubuntu.com/download

And you could burn a live DVD and try it before installing it.
http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/try-ubuntu-before-you-install

[LeftyMom]

8. Windows ME, I think.

[WillyT]

12. Oh Hell... I Forgot About That One...

[LeftyMom]

16. I'm still repressing that memory.

It was an eMachine too. And for a while I was on dial up.

[1awake]

11. oh man... I think it was 95??

All I know is I hated sitting there waiting for the damn computer to telephone my connection to the internet as I listened to those beeping bells and wringing noises lol.

Win 8 is probably more light weight than xp, and is definitely more light weight than 7. I am very much looking forward to Threshold when it is complete. So I'm a geek... Im excited!

Linux falls into the "cool" and "fun" category for me, but not ready for daily use. There are one or two that are close though but Im not sure they will run any better either.

[1000words]

13. Mac OS9

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. DU is real fast, the support group for Linux is already up

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1097

[WillyT]

23. Thank You For That !!!

[jberryhill]

29. Ah, good... it's about time they had a support group

Is it a twelve-step sort of thing, or just group counseling?

[steve2470]

30. their bits support your bytes :p nt

[winter is coming]

38. Inverted 12-step. Windows has to make amends to them. n/t

[ScreamingMeemie]

17. Windows 95 on an old jalopy of a desktop.

When my husband first bought it in 1998, he paid $2500 for it (a bargain,through work) Oy.

[dionysus]

19. i cut my teeth on windows 3.11 for workgroups.. that was long before DU though.

never hadproblems with Windows.. I had 3.11, 98, xp pro, and 7 home premium, never had issues.

8 and server 2012, on the other hand... ugh... dealt with 2012 server at work and its horrible.

[dionysus]

18. win98, i loved it so... nt

[CK_John]

20. Keep your antivirus and anti malware up to date and XP will be useful another

yr or 2.

But... vendors will not be writing drivers for new equipment in the pipeline. Quad cores, 32/64 bit cpu's, usb 3.0, tera gb HD, separate video memory and cpu's.

This is becoming a bigger issue for the linux software.

[PowerToThePeople]

21. Win2k and Debian.

Open Source group, probably best for Linux support

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1097

Computer help & support group.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=forum&id=1095

[quinnox]

22. XP

Moved to Vista reluctantly years ago, and have used it ever since. I'm one of those weirdos who like vista and still use it, about 2-3% of us last I looked.

[WillyT]

26. Yeah... Vista Was Like Windows For Dummies...

It attempted to take much of the control from the user.

[winter is coming]

39. I hate hate hate software that tries to "help" me. n/t

[WillyT]

41. Me Too...

[bigwillq]

24. No idea

I no longer have that computer.

[ananda]

25. Windows at work, and Mac at home.

..

[steve2470]

27. for fun and info, very long thread about XP expiration and Windows 8

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10024466599

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. Oh and I forgot to ansswer your question

I think we had either ME or XP, I am not sure. We just had moved to Hawaii... ok the new HP machine came with XP Pro.

That machine has been out of commission for like a LOOONGGGG time, we still have it actually. Could use that for futzing with linux I suppose.

[foo_bar]

31. does it really matter if XP's "supported"?

I mean it won't blow up or anything (more than usual), and their antivirus software is next to useless anyway ... all you'll miss out on is the steady stream of security patches (which I install every year or two, because I like life on the edge, or maybe there's a higher chance of it breaking stuff than actually solving a problem), and I suspect 3rd parties (maybe even freeware ones) will fill in the void if there's a truly ZOMG exploit.

Installing Linux is the easy part, using it might be daunting at first (tho it's mostly painless these days), it's basically the same boss once you get used to Not-Quite-Microsoft-Office and occasionally having to google things like "my grub config did what?" ... I think everyone should run 20 year old computers instead of paying The Man for something 2^10 times faster with 2^10 times the useless bloatware. It's just an economy built around planned obsolescence, like General Motors or those newfangled Walmart microwaves. Most people don't really care about Bluetooth 20.0 or Infiniband powered optical mice, I think it's mainly marketing hype to convince grandma to trade in her Oldsmobile.

[tularetom]

32. I dunno, some kind of cat thing or somethin

Lynx or jaguarundi or siamese or whatthefuckever.

But now I have Mavericks so it's all good.

Except for all the old Microsoft Office crap that won't run on it.

[TorchTheWitch]

33. huh... good question

Probably 98SE. Though it might have been 95. Until recently I've had XP but now have XP Pro which I don't believe is being discontinued.

[WillyT]

36. Um...

Link: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/lifecycle

[TorchTheWitch]

49. been there

XP and XP Pro are two different things and they're very different. XP is for a single user while XP Pro is for network users. It's still widely used by businesses, and Windows elected not to get rid of it along with XP because of that. Though I'm getting more used to it I hate it that it can't be set up for a single user. I do like it though that I have important system files in both the "owner" user that I use for myself and the "admin" user that I stay away from in case something should ever happen to an important system file in my user part there's a copy I can grab from the "admin" user part to replace it.

It's like Windows NT used to be the business standard and was made to be for networked users but entirely different than whatever single user software Windows had at the time (95, 98, 2000?).

Microsoft does scads of upgrades of software for single user systems but doesn't for software for networked systems since it's primarily businesses that use the network software which requires a lot more expense of replacement... they don't care if they bankrupt the single user but do care about creating such havoc on the business users.

It's windows XP, NOT XP Pro that is going unsupported in April along with Office 2003. It's Office 2003 I'm going to have to do something about in the next few weeks since it's my email system.

[WillyT]

50. Look Again...

Link: http://support.microsoft.com/lifecycle/search/default.aspx?alpha=windows+xp

[NutmegYankee]

34. win 2000. nt

[hunter]

35. Windows 98SE

Shortly followed by Debian.

There are some fairly horrid hacks to 98SE that still run DU just fine, I've got an old laptop running that way. It will play DVDs too.

I've got another Pentium III laptop running Debian and LXDE and that works fine with DU too, except some embedded videos will bog it down.

If XP still works, and you don't want to learn Linux, keep XP.

Just don't do anything silly like running Microsoft Internet Explorer or installing sketchy software.

Clamwin, a program that scans files for viruses, goes way back... that's what I use on my 98SE machine.

http://www.clamwin.com

[sakabatou]

37. XP I think

[Lugnut]

40. Windows ME

I've been here since early 2001.

[edbermac]

42. ENIAC

That was a long time ago. Of course when I had a bug in the system, it was a REAL bug.

[WillyT]

43. LOL !!! - Was That BASIC, COBOL, Or ASSEMBLY Language ???

FORTRAN ???

[edbermac]

46. I don't think there were any O/S back then.

But I did use punch cards back in the 70's when learning BASIC in school. Using a 8 year old MAC now.

[WillyT]

48. Wrote COBOL, ASSEMBLY, RPG On IBM Punch Cards... But...

With BASIC...

Had to save to paper tape...

[edbermac]

51. God forbid you make a mistake typing a card...

Or worse, dropping them and putting them back in order.

[WillyT]

52. Oh Crap... If You Made Just ONE Mistake... It Took A Least A Week To Find Out...

After flow-charting, then writing the program... came the punch-carding.

We could punch the cards, but had to send them off to be run... we would get then back a week later with a list of mistakes, and had to do it all over again.

Personally... I came to love BASIC and the paper tape.

[winter is coming]

56. Ah, but there was nothing sweeter than seeing someone you disliked drop a deck.

Or a box.

[MADem]

59. Ghost of Grace Hopper....is that you....?

She looked like this when I got to meet her--she was a PISTOL!

[longship]

44. I've used Linux exclusively since the 90's.

I now have an iPhone and an iPad, but my laptop and desktop both are Linux.

I despise Microsoft. Their OS is utter rubbish and has been since the beginning.

[WillyT]

45. I've Loaded It On Someone Else's Computer... But Still Not Familiar... Can You Defrag In Linux ???

Lame example I realize... But Windows peeps are gonna wonder how they can be in charge of their own computer...

Is there a guide ?

[longship]

47. No need with the Linux file systems.

Lots of stuff isn't needed under Linux that a Windows user expects are necessary.

That's a big difference. No virus detection needed either if you keep things up to date.

It just works. I've never had a software crash in all the years I've used it. Every crash was a hardware failure, something the OS can do little about.

[Kablooie]

53. OS X

And I'm still using OS X.

Though it will have to morph into OS XI pretty soon because we are at 10.9

[Zorra]

54. ME nt

[chillfactor]

55. I have Vista on my PC...

and laptop...since I downloaded Chrome I have had no problems.....

[regnaD kciN]

57. Pretty sure I had Windows 98...

...but I might have been running Windows 2000 by then.

[AverageJoe90]

58. Windows Vista, I think.

But I've mostly run Ubuntu in recent months, with the exception of the past month due to having had to replace not 1, but two computers. I'm hoping to fix that, though.

[2naSalit]

60. Windows98

Have Windows 7 now but would love to figure out how to convert to Linux if that's possible. I have used several different kinds of programs and OS but haven't "been out of the house" much lately... so to speak.

and I don't care much for MS products but it's what is or has been available of late.

[WillyT]

61. For Tour Consideration...

Link: http://bytegeist.firedoglake.com/2013/11/28/i-bit-the-bullet-and-installed-ubuntu/

[2naSalit]

62. Why

Thank you kindly!!

[WillyT]

63. You Are Quite Welcome !!!

[2naSalit]

64. Now that I have read

through a number of the comments, it looks like 50/50 as to whether making the leap is worth it. Currently I am only using my laptop for personal stuff like coming here, a few emails, looking for work and watching news shows that post their broadcasts online.

I don't conduct transactions or shop online, browse maybe but not buy. Don't have much reason to do anything very technical these days. I once-upon-a-time had skills with numerous ESRI products... and way before that graphic and publishing arts programs in Compugraphics (back when you had to enter the codes) and the very long ago Macs, Aldus and Corel. I really liked Corel, their terminology was in tune with actual typesetting lingo... one of the things I still dislike Windows for is making up a quasi-new typesetting/copyfitting jargon by college dropouts who had no clue about the trade (now everyone uses the incorrect jargon which I find highly annoying). They just made sh*t up after kind of browsing some magazine lying around in some reception area. Guess they thought they were reinventing the wheel with their "light years ahead" of everyone else technology... NOT.

But I digress.

So I wonder if I should bother. I have some anti-tracking programs running and don't do a heck of a lot online or offline that I should be concerned about. I use Firefox browser and use Avast anitvirus... but that got weird a couple days ago after an "update" that was prompted by Avast, which started me thinking about changing my OS for something better, if there is such a thing.

Maybe I should be happy with what I have, now that I'm acclimated to it.

[WillyT]

65. With XP Ending It's Life Cycle Next Week... Will Be Installing Unbuntu With A Dual-Boot Option...

in the coming days.

[2naSalit]

66. Hmmm

I'll have to give this some serious thought and devote a little more time to researching my options. I do have an older LT that has XP on it, it crashed and while I was reformatting it someone gave me this unit... brand new. I completed the reformatting of the older one and use it exclusively for my offline ventures but am willing to see what I can do using a different OS on it first and give Unbuntu a test drive.

Thanks for the encouragement, I need to get my techbrainzes updated, this will give me some incentive and practice!