I'm so happy that I've migrated to Fedora back in 2017. Haven't looked back.

-Attronarch (July 03, 2021, 12:07 PM)

I messed around with Redhat 6.0 back in the day.  At least back then it seemed like not everyone who created an rpm package used the same assumptions or something.  I moved to Mandrake 9.1 that was similar but used the Debian Advanced Package Tool.  Nearly all the installs seemed to work out of the box.  They changed the name to Mandriva and there may still be single CD setups available for download.  But I don't think the support offerings are still there.  So many distros now and so little time.  :) 

As much as anything I believe Linux got simpler to install successfully on the first attempt simply because PCI won the bus wars..   8)

Why Windows 11 won't run on your new $5,000 Surface PC, but a Mac from 2013 can run the next-gen macOS from zdnet

-wraith808 (July 03, 2021, 05:44 AM)

What that article says (or insinuates) is that Microsoft announced that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows when they thought there would be higher adoption of UWP and the Microsoft Store, so they could rake in ~30% of all sales taking place on their store and not have to concern themselves with earning money from selling new versions of Windows. Now that they've seen relatively little adoption of their storefront, they've decided to re-theme Windows 10 and force people to pay them for it by requiring them to buy a new computer (and therefore require a new Windows license for the new hardware since Windows 10 licenses are tied to the hardware) to run it.

-Deozaan (July 03, 2021, 08:53 AM)

It is kind of weird that Bill Gates was ousted supposedly to shift the focus from desktop hobbyists and office software to a device centric market.  Then they abandon Windows phones altogether.  I remember when I got the Gateway machine it was billed as a server and came with network switches and ethernet card.  It claimed to be capable of running W2K server.  It did, until I tried to create a domain.  I took the domain stuff off but it still crashed on boot every two weeks with the boot error "Illegal opcode in the kernel."  I never saw that error before or since.  It did run NT Server 4.0 fine though.  But if I bought a bunch of them thinking to set my business up on W2K server I'd be pissed.  ;D

That's ok though, because I now think Windows in general has come to its end of life, for me, even if it could be installed on this laptop. My next laptop will come with some sort of Linux pre-installed, not Windows. (How's ReactOS coming along, btw?)

-app103 (June 28, 2021, 02:08 AM)

I have been looking through the midrange Laptops for a while now.  It seems now I have to wait until I can get one with W11 pre-installed.  The two Laptops I have purchased so far have had non-functional(we are not allowed to use the word "broken" now apparently) Windows Update mechanisms.  The "free update" to the next Windows version never happens.  So I just assume it will be three in a row if I go with Windows.

The chromebook side of things seems not much better.  There seems to be no logic to the variety of features in a price range.  The exception being that touchscreen is a given.

Walmart just made available a bunch of Gateway Windows Laptops.  The customer reviews seem to indicate kick ass performance in a flimsy housing for cheap.  For example a Ryzen 5 machine with 16GB ram and 256GB SSD for $499. Again though, the W10 with free version update song and dance.  I think I liked things better when they released service packs!   8)