The more I hear about Windows 11...
Jul. 5th, 2023 07:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
solon_kitten...the more I wanna stick with Windows 7. I'm listening to the latest Windows Weekly podcast, and apparently, they've been forcing OneDrive integration into Win11 Home, and widgets are now showing ads at times? The longer Satya Nadella's tenure at Microsoft goes, the more sketchy Windows becomes, and I really don't like that.
It's funny too, because I was about to start on a blog post about Windows XP, and wanting to just stick to the XP Mode VM for a bit when I write, just for that feeling of being able to go offline again. Because ever since Windows 10 RTM, that OS has driven me bonkers, Windows 11 makes me scared shitless for my data, modern MacOS is too expensive for me, and modern Linux...well, I've ranted about that plenty, but I'll save it for its own post, because that's a novel in and of itself. Just...there is not a single modern OS that gives me a reason to trust it, much less use it.
That's part of why I cherish my MacBook Pro. It does what I need, I can play games that I enjoy (even with only 256MB of VRAM and 8GB of memory), my accessories work with it, and my selection of software is nice enough that I don't worry about not having something to do a thing I want to do. Between Windows 7, MacOS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8), and whatever I can run in VMs (including things like Win98, WinXP, NextSTEP, and Linux), I'm good. I'm perfectly good, and don't need to upgrade.
And for anyone who yells "It's insecure!", I say this: there is not a single machine on the internet that is secure. Not...a single...machine, on any OS. And with how many people store their data in the cloud, cloud servers are no more secure. They're computers on a network. It's never a matter of if, but when. At least with my stuff, I have air-gapped backups in multiple locations. I'm not nearly as worried about a local vulnerability, as I am someone hacking one of my accounts outside of my network. I can't do too much to protect myself there, outside of multi-factor authentication (which I use wherever possible) and fully randomized passwords (thank you, KeePassXC).
And with that rant out of my system, I'm going to finally get some sleep.
It's funny too, because I was about to start on a blog post about Windows XP, and wanting to just stick to the XP Mode VM for a bit when I write, just for that feeling of being able to go offline again. Because ever since Windows 10 RTM, that OS has driven me bonkers, Windows 11 makes me scared shitless for my data, modern MacOS is too expensive for me, and modern Linux...well, I've ranted about that plenty, but I'll save it for its own post, because that's a novel in and of itself. Just...there is not a single modern OS that gives me a reason to trust it, much less use it.
That's part of why I cherish my MacBook Pro. It does what I need, I can play games that I enjoy (even with only 256MB of VRAM and 8GB of memory), my accessories work with it, and my selection of software is nice enough that I don't worry about not having something to do a thing I want to do. Between Windows 7, MacOS X Snow Leopard (10.6.8), and whatever I can run in VMs (including things like Win98, WinXP, NextSTEP, and Linux), I'm good. I'm perfectly good, and don't need to upgrade.
And for anyone who yells "It's insecure!", I say this: there is not a single machine on the internet that is secure. Not...a single...machine, on any OS. And with how many people store their data in the cloud, cloud servers are no more secure. They're computers on a network. It's never a matter of if, but when. At least with my stuff, I have air-gapped backups in multiple locations. I'm not nearly as worried about a local vulnerability, as I am someone hacking one of my accounts outside of my network. I can't do too much to protect myself there, outside of multi-factor authentication (which I use wherever possible) and fully randomized passwords (thank you, KeePassXC).
And with that rant out of my system, I'm going to finally get some sleep.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-05 02:11 pm (UTC)In terms of software, there's also not much reason to upgrade because most of it is still capable to be installed on a machine with Win7 too.
I think it was... people said, unless you do modern gaming and play the latest shit, you don't really need Win11.
And security - yes, that's all relative anyway in an age where so much data and stuff is being stored on a cloud that is permanently ready for use.
If you just follow basic rules how to move around the internet, how to take care of your data, use some basic version of a free anti-virus at least (perhaps plus the services of 0patch, which adopted Win7 as an abandoned OS and keep developing small patches to close security gaps), then life with Win7 is still quite okay in 2023.
- Only it's a "life" which you need to take a lot of care of yourself instead of being able to just be a simple consumer. (Although I would say, using an Adblocker already does a good part of that "taking care" because you don't see a lot of stuff anymore that easily contains malicious code.)
For Win7 it's funny, still you get updates for the Windows tool to remove malicious software - and since the .Net Framework 6 once had to be installed here for some application to work, that also gets its regular updates.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-05 11:13 pm (UTC)And as for the web, I use uBlock Origin and NoScript to help mitigate those openings. ClamWin AV does a really good job as antivirus, and is constantly updated due to being based on the excellent ClamAV for BSD and Linux based systems. Plus it's free.
(no subject)
Date: 2023-07-06 12:54 am (UTC)I mean... as long as you got it all together what suits together, who says unconditionally you have to work with only the recent software editions?
At least if speaking for offline work, this isn't cast in stone... Everyone uses what he can make do best.
In terms of games and emulators, I wonder at times if everything would still work that properly as it does now with a newer OS. For some stuff, it required even some effort to get it working there because Windows games from the 90s were already quite old on that platform - but on an even more recent OS which doesn't even contain the option anymore that games can stay entirely offline...?
I'm not really sure if everything would still work as I can currently use it.
The only thing that keeps a bit nagging on me is to install me a more recent browser because life inside my email-account is a pain in the ass with the reduced basic layout. Some functions like encrypted emails I cannot use, or even see how large an email is/was (if you have to delete stuff to make room, this is impractical as I can't see what eats the most space).
Media libraries perhaps would also be available again because they don't want to work together with old Firefox engine (which is the core of Waterfox Classic).
Even learned recently that Dailmotion doesn't want to work anymore with a browser lower than Firefox 67! (Bitches...)
But, I still haven't made my decision yet which I would choose then...
Due to experience with Waterfox, I'd tend to the Current version of that instead of something else. As Firefox also isn't anymore what it once used to be...
(For all main deeling and wheelings I'd still use my "browser of choice" because of the addons that work in it, only I'd need or look for an option to use for entities where the labeling of "Firefox 57" that my browser returns to the website causes me troubles or a denial of service.)
I really don't like and procrastinate dealing with this topic because it seems so unnecessary. - I mean, stuff also worked correctly before and it would also be no big deal to still let it; it's only a matter of "wanting" from the side of bigger websites.