New
#50
I'll bet you were even a Commodore Vic 20 Beta tester, or even Apple "E". . .I've been an OS Beta Tester, since.....well.....a long time, and many OS's ago. :)
But through all that downloading, installing and testing, only one OS remains on my main HD as my everyday OS.....Windows XP-Pro-SP3 (32bit).
It still works a treat and runs all of the programs, even old 16bit programs, that I use every day.
I've looked at every OS since XP with an open mind and still I don't see a one that I can use with the same ease that I have with XP.
I never try to get a customer of mine, to upgrade to a new OS. I'm still getting new customers who have XP and the only problem they are having with it is that their HD is so loaded the Malware, temp files and other pure CRAP, that the poor old OS can hardly even run.
It becomes like an old pick-up truck, with two tons of iron in the back of it. It labors under the excessive load!
After a thorough cleaning and some tweaking, that should have been done at Setup, I get comments like "WOW, it never ran that good when it was new!". All I can say is "yeah, I know, , , it's what I do!".
I've spent the last 35 years, trying to get the very best performance out of every PC that I've worked on.
Every OS has come out with a bunch of 'SAFE Defaults' that can be bypassed to greatly improve performance.
With regular maintenance, and a good package of Anti-Malware software, XP can still be running into the next Decade.
That's my own hope anyway.
So far, the only OS that I can ever see me using as a replacement for XP, would be Windows 10 Pro.(32 bit)
And, I don't even see me using that, for the foreseeable future, like till the formal full release hits the streets, and maybe with a few updates to fix any bugs.
Even XP wasn't really a GREAT OS, till SP3 came out.
Cheers Mates!
TechnoMage
PS: I have successfully installed an old 16 bit (DOS) game, purchased in 1990, (on a 3.5" Floppy Disk,) onto my laptop, now running Windows 10, ver 9926/32 bit. The OS had to add compatibility for the old software, but that was no problem, it did it all by itself. I had the same experience with Windows 8.1 Pro/32.
With good backward compatibility, Windows 10 might just be a good replacement for XP, Vista and Win-7.
If it can be had for free, all the better.
Just for fun, here's my new Windows 10 Desktop, with my old 16 bit MaJongg program running.