Does anyone else believe that Windows 7 (support ending in 2020) is going to be the new XP of it's time, as XP was used many many years past it's support ending (even LTS) and many still use it today? 7 seems to be very popular (controlling 48.57% of the market today, with XP at 10%), and more and more people disliking the pressure and stealth installing of 10, it seems like it would persuade even more people to stick with 7. Seven also is the last OS to include Windows Classic, which I prefer for less RAM usage and CPU impact on the transparency and colour effects and whatnot.
I think MS are trying to push out a new OS every 2-3 years instead of having to support it for 5-10 years. Not sure if its a good or bad move though.
Actually, I had the exact same question. And yes, I think Windows 7 will devolve into being the next XP with regard to OS "stickiness". I'm basing that on all the chatter for so long about how 10 is such a spy monger and the proliferation of websites offering ways to confound both the upgrade and the spying. Apparently there is a world of people interested in keeping 7. If not, they have way too much free time on their hands.
As far as it goes for me, Win7 will be with me till the day I die, or I figure out how to run Linux. Which ever comes first
I think 7 already is sort of the next XP, it was (in my eyes) the last 'real' version of Windows I'm running 10, I ran 8.x, but they are not pure Windows IMO, not with all this app crap I wouldn't go back to 7, too old now, but definitely a great OS, or was before they broke WU and added that GWX nag
You can use Win7 Enterprise if you want. It is clean of all those nags and any future nags that may come as it is not in the free upgrade offer.
I know I'll be using Windows 7 SP1 until they'll stop making software to support it. I have my linux box ready to be fired up anytime, anyway.
I started dabbling with Linux desktop when Ubuntu first came out; for the most part I was very discouraged. As a long time Windows user, Linux was simply primitive. Then I discovered Linux Mint and it was better and far more user friendly right out of the box so to speak but not quite where it should be. Fast forward to Linux Mint 17 and I was impressed. I’m now running my LAN administrator desktop and two netbooks on LM 17.3. The OS has matured greatly. If the Linux community can just get past the snotty attitudes and provide actual help and instruction on a level such as this forum, it just might become popular on desktops. Just my opinions; others are welcome to theirs. As is the usual case, mileage may vary.
WU is not broken on 7 you just need manual install of 2 cab files and it will work normally and nooo they don't have win10 crap init
If Micro$oft had been more keen to maintain the user "control" of what the O/S does when it comes to privacy and the way updates are handled I think that more people would have taken the chance to upgrade from previous versions. In my case, I use a lot of CAD/CAE softwares which just recently has begun to support W10. Eventually I will have to make the shift, but I really do not like it the way Micro$oft has gone with user control/privacy. I have two computers running W10 at home. One is my HTPC. I have minimized the "whatever-it-is-that-M$-collects" and use it only for VLC and media players. This PC works great. W10 UI is nice. The machine boots really fast and there are no hangs. But I do not trust it with any "mission critical" stuff. I hear these things about Linux over and over again. This free O/S has been around for many years now, and new distros are released ever so often. But the adopters are few. Less than 2% of the worlds PC's are running some flavor of it (IOS excluded). In my case, the least common denominator for all softwares I use is ... Windows. So I stick with it. I have to. Nearly all our systems at my work on the other hand uses Linux. It used to be Ubuntu, but now it is Mint. These machines are used with proprietary home-made scientific software and that is all they are used for. No Office/Internet/Social/eMail applications att all. Datacollecting and hardware control. Thats it. I will most likely stick with W7 until Micro$oft simply throttles the security updates be it mistakes by releasing flawed KB's or reducing download bandwidths just to piss people off. In the meantime, I will look for regular KB archives and download them just to be sure that they are available should I have to make a reinstall. Unless Nadya Satella decides to give the users the same control of W10 as exists in W7...
I used Linux for a good while, however, games I wanted to play just didn't run well or at all natively on it, and I just decided to simply use W7 until I find something better in both gaming performance for native Windows games and a desktop environment I like. Windows Classic is my favourite Windows theme but I am so tired of anyone who sees my desktop asking me if I'm using Windows 2000. (Or if they aren't a technical type asking how old my computer is)
I just don't want to leave Windows 7. I like it just the way it is. I am dual booting (7&10) on just one of my five computers. That's enough for me. .
I'll dual-boot Windows 7 and Mint on my Shop PC. The music system stays Windows 7. Updates are disabled, and I use the Simplix pack. No muss, no fuss. @Juniper: The Classic theme is the best, IMHO.
Yup... it is as simple as that. I have yet to see anything I want that would not work on Win7, so absolutely no reason to change. XP to 7, was a step forward. From 7 to 8 or 10, is not. But as far as Classic is concerned, as I told before, VLC has quite a few functions that CLassic does not have.
@TM: I agree with regards to VLC and MPC. VLC is a little more "full featured". I was referring to the Windows Classic theme. If you turn off all screen effects, you can gain a little more performance for programs that eat a lot of resources. (Cubase comes to mind.)