My touchpad is a precision touchpad; some OEMs I imagine will stop allowing this, but I can switch mine from I2C/Advanced back to the traditional PS/2 interface (called Basic mode) and then use Synaptics for features. In Linux, I get the same features regardless of Advanced or Basic touchpad mode. For laptops that happen to use a BIOS that "acknowledges" older operating systems and are aware, even if they don't offer a BIOS switch for the touchpad mode, you may be able to force the BIOS to use the older PS/2 mode anyway if you could trick the OS it thinks you're running. My touchpad is in Advanced mode, and under Windows 10, it acts as such. But in DSDT, my BIOS has triggers that basically state that if I use another OS that doesn't present itself as "Windows 2015", it will switch the touchpad back to PS/2 automatically even if I leave the Advanced mode enabled in BIOS settings. I'm unsure how to make Windows present itself as a different OS version, but with Linux, it can be accomplished with the apci_osi kernel option. In any case, I'm not sure what's so precise about this touchpad. It's still pretty much as-annoying as the other touchpads I've had, regardless of the mode As for other drivers, I agree that it's only a matter of time before hardware/drivers start coming out that don't support 7. Such hardware will likely be out of luck for 7, but will likely have a solution under Linux. As for DX12, that's probably the only Windows 10 exclusive that'll be in-place for a while, but I don't understand why (knowledgeable) consumers would want this to take off and be used over Vulkan. I imagine enough demand for Vulkan over DX12 would have sank it by now, but unfortunately this isn't the case.
Yes, you can use that ways with Windows 10, when you have Precision touchpad, but not vice versa, so it is clever to chose Precision touchpad ..
No, Clevo machines which have custom sBIOS mods can have the Intel SSE run in any environment. Also note the SSE is useful for normal tasks just that and maybe very little boost I see it as a "bait". If anyone uses Throttlestop or any CPU OC profiles it's useless to them. Now this "Gamemode" trash only belongs to UWP dustbin lul.
I only left Windows 10 because my Wi-Fi USB thing doesn't work with it. And then I learnt of the privacy issues and whatnot so, yeah, I think I'll be staying away from it. I don't game much so maybe I'll get a Mac when Windows 8.1 loses support.
@sl1fka: Or consider trying Linux Mint. I have a dual-boot Windows 7 / Linux mint Cinnamon on my second machine, and it works great. Even the touch screen is supported under Mint. When I get time, I'll try upgrading the Linux part to the latest version.
windows 10 is ok for me so far(with a lot of work), but i will NOT use it for internet, for an offline pc only. in that role, it does its job as well as 7.
Windows 10 is okay. I wouldn't mind Windows 7 either, but there are some features that have been introduced since Windows 8 that I don't want to miss anymore, including subtle things like the ability to mount ISO files in explorer without third-party software, for example. So, downgrading to Windows 7 is not really an option anymore. Windows 8/8.1 is out of the question, in many aspects it's already like 10 but worse, it's sort of like what Vista is to 7. The compromise is that I have to heavily customize the vanilla Windows 10 image to make it work the way I like it. The defaults are not good, it's too connected (I don't like stuff like OneDrive, I prefer to use my own cloud where I have full control over my data), bloated (look at all the provisioned apps), and chatty (telemetry, well, you all know the story). I'd love a Nano edition (like Nano Server) for client Windows 10. I don't mind apps as long as they are useful and not worse than the applications they intend to replace. Just give me a minimal desktop where the OS gets out of the way instead of trying to put ads or a personal assistant on me (that runs in the background even if disabled and unnecessarily eats up 50 MB of RAM).
I've always found this hate for Windows 8.1 interesting, if one install classic shell on Windows 8.1 you literally have an updated Windows 7 with some good new features, like you mentioned the mounting without 3rd party software and what i like the most, the win-x menu. And all the apps can easily be uninstalled from within the OS itself. Even though i'd say MSMG is a must for any Windows OS these days i'd say Windows 8.1 is pretty perfect. And in 8.1 you still have the same User control you had in 7. Of course we all have our own opinions and preferences, but still.
You wouldn't believe how many people that have never seen, used, or heard about the Win-X menu. For me it's without any doubt the best thing that ever happend to Windows, haha.
im in, by Gharlane00's reckoning, both groups 2 and 3 my old creaky laptop run 10 fine, but drivres for wifi and graphics were getting more unstable and harder to find the brouhaha bout telemetry also got me down so I bit the bullet and rolled back to 7 6 months ago. faster too cos I pulled the plug on aero entirely but on my desktops, both run 10 (well ones my server so its running 2016)... but they're not connected to the internet as a rule, so cant tell m$ everything I do found out the hard way 14393 wont run on my core 2 quad - good thing I had a backup
I cannot decide between either Peppermint Linux or MX-16 or OpenSuSe. They're very good distros and I like how they work. I have tried Linux Mint and it either becomes unstable or I have to fix something eventually. Maybe it is because I work with computers so much at work or am stuck fixing everyone else's PC that I find myself not wanting to fix stuff at home. At home I really just want to set it and forget it.