Favorite Operating System? 64-Bit

[babysheegoth]

Have windows 10 installed on 64bit.

Was under impression linux was good OS and considering 10 loosing support in 25' wanted to install it.

Through previous browsing under the impression Void might be good way to install linux unless there's better one?

[TPFanatic]

Linux mint works great on old thinkpads.

[babysheegoth]

Linux mint works great on old thinkpads.

Cinnamon, MATE, or Xfce?

Will all three work with the Synaptics Gesture Suite™ Device Driver?

[TPFanatic]

I used Mint XFCE on an X200s. I can’t speak for gestures since it doesn’t have a touchpad.

[mikemex]

Was under impression linux was good OS and considering 10 loosing support in 25' wanted to install it.

Linux has advanced a lot lately, but unfortunately, it remains a poorly organized and highly fragmented effort. Liberty and plurality are good for people; computers work better when they are standardized and predictable...

[babysheegoth]

Was under impression linux was good OS and considering 10 loosing support in 25' wanted to install it.

Linux has advanced a lot lately, but unfortunately, it remains a poorly organized and highly fragmented effort. Liberty and plurality are good for people; computers work better when they are standardized and predictable...

Feel like they're should be a poll then?

Would that be enough compromise?

[TPFanatic]

I’ve got win 10 on my x61 novelty build, it’s not really any slower than 7 x64 and i can still run my old Windows games OK. Also adopted 10 on my x230 and p71, the latter does run windows-only 3d software.

Linux has its purposes. I mainly use it for its live boots. It also just works brilliantly on the old thinkpads like t61, t500, x61 etc. I find Mint on the Core 2 is as fast as XP with modern security and browser support.

[babysheegoth]

I’ve got win 10 on my x61 novelty build, it’s not really any slower than 7 x64 and i can still run my old Windows games OK. Also adopted 10 on my x230 and p71, the latter does run windows-only 3d software.

Linux has its purposes. I mainly use it for its live boots. It also just works brilliantly on the old thinkpads like t61, t500, x61 etc. I find Mint on the Core 2 is as fast as XP with modern security and browser support.

My reasoning in again is due to 10' loosing support.

Mint is good version? Any preference to which of the three mint options?

If Synaptics Gesture Suite™ Device Driver isn't compatible I would cry.

[TPFanatic]

There’s 11 23h2 ( prior to the patch forbidding core 2)

If you want a supported OS you’ll need linux. I personally don’t really care about support on these dinosaurs they’ve been EOL for over a decade.

[babysheegoth]

There’s 11 23h2 ( prior to the patch forbidding core 2)

What does this mean?

[TPFanatic]

Windows 11, 23H2 build, is the version before 24H2 which is the current build which cannot function on a Core 2 processor.

So if you don’t want 10, you can go up to 11 23H2.

[ZaZ]

You can put it on a disc or USB to try it out and see how it goes. You don't even need to install it.

[mikemex]

Feel like they're should be a poll then?

Would that be enough compromise?

There isn't a single Linux OS. There are MANY "distributions" that are somewhat, but not totally, compatible with each other. Historically, this has prevented software developers from knowing fully what to expect and thus, releasing new software, including device drivers directly from manufacturers. That's because in Linux everything works by dependencies instead of formal specifications (read: anarchy). "Flatpak"s, for example, is the best example of solving a problem via brute force that I can think of: they essentially bundle everything but the kitchen sink with the application, in order to ensure that it has all the necessary dependencies in the versions the developers expect (again, no OS standard: unpredictable how it will work with a different library version from a different distribution). Therefore, software selection for Linux remains much more limited than for Windows.

I'm not really giving up on Linux: I have Ubuntu as a dual-boot OS in every machine I own. I'm just criticizing it from the point of view of the average user. Yes, there is a large selection of applications, but most of them are quite basic and complicated to use. For example, there isn't a substitute for AutoCAD in Linux yet. In general, there aren't many truly complex productive applications for it. I'm not aware of any major, widely used piece of software that began in Linux. In Steve Jobs's words "an application so good to make people buy the entire machine in order to run it".

I feel like Linux just reached a point of stagnation compared to Windows. In the early days of personal computing, like when computers ran Windows 98, Linux was way ahead technologically speaking, with its true 32 bit protected mode and such. But once M$ catched up with Windows NT series of OSes specifically targeting end users, starting with Windows 2000/XP, many of such advantages essentially vanished. Windows 10 is essentially flawless at this point: fast, stable, predictable, compatible. It already reached a high technological standard and M$ has just been working in integrating everything together. On improving the user experience. I do not like Windows 11, but I must admit that with every new release of Windows, the bar is risen up a little. Just compare the file copying dialogs of Windows XP and those of Windows 11: you've got real time statistics, it automatically skips problematic files so the entire process isn't interrupted while waiting for the user's input. It now has application-based power statistics, permissions. It selectively suspends background threads in order to save power. With its componentized driver model what was previously a chaotic array of security features (such as fingerprint readers) became absolutely straight-forward. I hate to admit it, but my X301 works better with Windows 10 than with Windows 7 in that regard. Even though I still don't know how to enable pre-desktop authentication under it...

Frankly speaking, running Linux is quite a downgrade from such experience. It looks amateur because... it is.

Windows 11, 23H2 build, is the version before 24H2 which is the current build which cannot function on a Core 2 processor.

24H2 is out? I didn't know that. Is M$ finally hunting down "unauthorized" users?

I can understand them not wanting us to run Windows 11 in a Core 2 Duo but I'll get really angry and vocal if they remove support for more modern machines (say, like Skylake and Kaby Lake). Anything with a W10 license on it should be allowed to run Windows 11.

[TPFanatic]

24h2 cleverly adds a boot requirement being to execute an instruction that doesn’t exist in Core 2. POPCNT. It’s similar imo to 8+’s NX bit and PAE requirement forcing out the 400mhz Pentium Ms and older.

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/02 ... older-pcs/

I ran XP as my primary OS til 2015 and 7 til 2023. I’ll be OK retaining 10 on my personal device until my interests demand newer software that needs the newer hardware that needs the newer OS to work properly. Might be Win 13 by that point, I skipped 8 and 8.1.

[mikemex]

Well it's more than just cutting off older CPUs: the architecture itself changed a lot during the following years. As far as I know, UEFI isn't available on T61 and back, so there is a single generation of Core 2 Duo machines that supports it, and it's generally accepted that the early implementations of UEFI are incomplete and unreliable, just like ACPI was in its early days. I believe it was around Skylake / Kaby Lake that both intel and M$ wanted to cut off Legacy support entirely. The baseline for USB became 3.0 with Skylake, for example, and it caused a lot of trouble to people wanting to install Windows 7 on such hardware (myself included). I don't think my more modern laptops have the "Compatibility Support Module" required to boot older OSes...

I don't see a legitimate reason to force such changes on people. But at the same time, I understand the decision of not wanting to support technological dead ends. BIOS days are over. XHCI is supposed to be a replacement for all previous standards (OHCI/UHCI/EHCI), so it makes sense just to support that.