Computor Downtime bummer!

[retrorod]

I am going through the computer blues. I have had a great 7 year old refurbished Dell desktop with Windows XP going for a couple years since my previous PC had a hard-drive crash! Have been perfectly happy until the pop-up warnings of discontinuation of Micro Soft support of that OS. Freaked out and spent $140 on getting converted to Window 7.....AND I AM L-O-S-T again.....

 

MAN....I HATE CHANGE!.....and their ain't NO HOPE...here to tell ya' ! Anyone else going through this?

[quapman]

If you think Windows 7 is bad your gonna love Windows 8.

 

Have XP,, obsolete as of yesterday, on my old desktop. It's so old it's not even worth the upgrade.

 

Have been using Windows 7 at work for about the past year. Had some minor growing pains but it still

resembled XP to some extent so the change wasn't over the top.

 

Bought a laptop in haste a few months back for my little music corner man cave in the basement and didn't even

realize till I brought it home that it was running Windows 8.

I hate it so much I am seriously considering installing 7 on it.

 

So ya I feel your pain,, but believe me, it gets worse.

 

If my wife were up to it I would run linux. I used mandrake at home for almost 2 years but my wife never got used

to it so I had to go back to sucky Windows. I hate Windows.

 

Give me a linux OS any day.

 

Microsoft likes to grab a big handful of your ballsack and lead you around by it.

Arrrhghhhhhh...

 

I feel your pain bro.

[Jeff-7]

Even with it being end of lifed there is nothing to stop you from continuing to use it. You simply won't get any more updates or support directly from Microsoft. There are still businesses running their entire company on Windows 95.

I like Windows 7 a lot, have windows 8 on my work laptop and it's more of a learning curve than the transition from XP to 7. Still not that big of a deal but it took away some of the easier user functions from previous OS versions. I'm in the middle of upgrading the OS (and in a lot of cases replacing computers while I'm at it) for the entire company right now. Most XP machines will be upgraded to Vista (or 7 depending on compatability with programs we use). PCI compliance may force the issue for retail business, and HIPPA for our pharmacies.

[Kaiser Bill]

Retrorod... you and I are going through the same stuff right now. I've been without my main computer for over two weeks. Finally found someone that says they can fix it.

 

In the meantime, I'm using a $239 Toshiba laptop that's slower than molasses in January. I hope to be getting my 27" MAC back very soon. I can barely get on line with this machine. I only used it for SKYPE prior to the MAC dying.

 

I hate change also...by the time I learn this machines ins and outs, I'll have to go back and re-learn the MAC all over again. AGGGGGGGHHHHHH!

[rocketman]

I just recently moved CUBASE over to another machine. I bought the latest version, 7.5. It was an absolute nightmare. Their VST instruments were "updated" into another program. After about 10 email exchanges with Steinberg they finally told me that I had to manually update each VST track myself for EVERY tune I wrote. That was pain enough, but some of the old VST instruments weren't in the new "update." I can't stand when you get new software and it won't load stuff that I did just a year ago using their latest version!

 

When I went to grad school in the early 90s my professor bought a Sun Spark Workstation that ran Unix. In my 4 years of grad school we never turned that machine off and it never crashed either! Microsoft Windows still crashes to this day. Think about that.

[Ryan H]

Thank god Microsoft admitted that Windows 8 as a desktop OS was a failure, and the next version (Windows 9?) should more closely resemble 7/XP in format. The return of the Start Menu instead of a "Start Screen". Read it in an article.

 

-Ryan

[Bender 4 Life]

yep...my 12 yr old computer still running XP has also gasped from old age.

gonna keep using it until we get something newer/better/stronger/faster/able to leap tall buildings etc.

after the new rig is up and running, i'll probably reinstall W95 in this one so I can play "Titanic-Adventure out of time" and those other lovely 256 color games again.

[Kelvinator]

I just replaced 3 XP computers with refurbished units running windows 7. We still run the business with an XP that's never seen the internet, and kept one old PC as a back-up. I'll admit I'm computerly challenged and allergic to change - I'm still using the original version of MS Works. Why do they have to keep improving things until they don't work?

[brc]

Been there, done that.

I have three lap tops, 1 with Windows 7, 2 with XP, and all three took a sh-- the same week, with different issues.

I got so pissed off I bought another new lap top, but it came with Windows 8.

I hated Windows 8 so bad I cleared off the new computer <my personal items>, and took it back.I had the 3 older computers repaired, although it cost a lot more than buying a new one. Its frustrating as all hell. I am not a computer wiz by no means, I can do minor upgrades, but mostly I just get into trouble when I work on them. But I swear, I will always have a back up computer, even if its an older version of Windows 7 or XP

[IanHenry]

Been there, done that.

I have three lap tops, 1 with Windows 7, 2 with XP, and all three took a sh-- the same week, with different issues.

I got so pissed off I bought another new lap top, but it came with Windows 8.

I hated Windows 8 so bad I cleared off the new computer <my personal items>, and took it back.I had the 3 older computers repaired, although it cost a lot more than buying a new one. Its frustrating as all hell. I am not a computer wiz by no means, I can do minor upgrades, but mostly I just get into trouble when I work on them. But I swear, I will always have a back up computer, even if its an older version of Windows 7 or XP

I think you should have just bought a copy of Windows 7 and re installed it on the new lap top (that's if you can still find a copy)Windows 7 is a great operating system but Windows 8 is pants. I'd read somewhere that several of the large PC manufacturers here in the U.K had stopped supplying Windows 8 (unless you specified that you wanted it) and gone back to Windows 7! It sounds like a bit of an own goal for Micro$oft, but historically the seem to produce a good system then follow it up with a bad one, i.e XP, Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, so maybe Windows 9 will be all right!

 

Ian

[retrorod]

I just replaced 3 XP computers with refurbished units running windows 7. We still run the business with an XP that's never seen the internet, and kept one old PC as a back-up. I'll admit I'm computerly challenged and allergic to change - I'm still using the original version of MS Works. Why do they have to keep improving things until they don't work?

 

Thanks to all, who....have 'validated' my feelings on this subject! I realize that now....16 years later....that I DO take this "new technology"???"!!!! ..for granted....................however....I would like to see " modern-'****'" last 20-30 years, like '****' did........ "back in the day".....

[surfpup]

My school district issued laptop is running some new version of Windows. Also they recently installed the latest version of Office 365 and moved our email over to Outlook. Everyone's b!tching. I rarely touch it. It's a glorified overhead projector in my classroom. Instead I do all my administrative tasks on my MacBook Pro. The IT guys are always like... "yeah this new flux capacitor based stuff won't work on your Mac" and yet it always does. Then they go... "You're doing (insert administrative task here) on your Mac?" with disbelief. I don't think they like me (or my Mac).

[retrorod]

Mac-users SWEAR by them....I believe it!

 

I may "cross-over" sooner than later....

 

 

 

[surfpup]

I may "cross-over" sooner than later....

 

Which reminds me, I was talking to a friend of mine at our gig last night. Hadn't seen him in years. He's a computer guy - works for Dell now. Guess what Dell just bought him this week... a brand new 15" MacBook Pro! Swear to God. Cracked me up.

[Kelvinator]

Thanks to all, who....have 'validated' my feelings on this subject! I realize that now....16 years later....that I DO take this "new technology"???"!!!! ..for granted....................however....I would like to see " modern-'****'" last 20-30 years, like '****' did........ "back in the day".....

 

You're Welcome, although I'm not sure a validation from me is a good thing... I'm still driving a truck built in the last century, and I can't find the input jack for my ipod (shouldn't it be next to the cassette player?).

[brc]

I am still using Windows 7 on one computer, and Vista on two others. All three were just repaired, but both my daughters, my brothers and pretty much every one else in my family have changed over to Macs. They all swear by them. Maybe it IS time for a change.

I only use mine for e-mails, goofing off on the net,pictures of family, but it is so frustrating when they are not working right.

But I have learned to back up the things that are important in case they do crash.

For the cost of repairing a computer, you can find a decent used one on Flea-Bay, if you are in the need

[milod]

Excluding what I use at work, I have 4 "home" computers running XP.

 

Just got a pretty hot laptop with Win 8.1.

 

I was told this that and the other software wouldn't work with Win8, and they're full of prune juice or the results thereof for most of my more important software so far. Audacity will be added next. I did buy an inexpensive word processor/package - WordPerfect office from Corel.

 

Also switched the 8.1 so I have a familiar-looking desktop to work with.

 

My major complaint at this point is that you get fibbed to by computer "experts" on the software compatibility issues and that there's almost always a batch of "freeware" that one isn't certain is part of the OS or if you can dump it. I'll have that figured out fairly soon.

 

The concept of a one-style OS for phones, pads, laptops and desktops isn't all that bad, but if 1/4 to 1/2 of your users feel they're forced to buy new software - well, that's what got the company I work for to drop Macs in favor of PCs when the switch was made to OSX variations since both the hardware and software replacements were less expensive. It also was a screwup either way when it came to terabytes of files that would not be compatible with either new software or hardware systems.

 

I think that being enamored with "new technology" is fine. I am in many ways. But I become more than a little angered by a failure of even an attempt for true backward compatibility. I have a batch of material from the '80s and '90s that is lost forever except <duh> in printouts from software that doesn't exist and in formats unreadable by current software.

 

But that includes the Mac, too.

 

The corporations, however, at this point are run by younger and/or "youth-think" folks who realize that people aren't buying computers so much to do work, as to bring entertainment and communications. The new "stuff" does tend to work well enough for those folks, but not for professional use. Unfortunately the professional user gets scrod. ("Scrod" is the pluperfect subjunctive of a familiar verb that may or may not be allowed on the forum software.)

 

m

[retrorod]

Well, its been several days since getting my Windows 7 equipped PC back and I am settling in with it. There were some brief moments of angst while trying to get my Email acct back.... .

 

I have realized that I am a creature of habit (much like my dog) and really don,t like to learn "new tricks"....unless I back into them accidentally....Ha! I have only recently been introduced to MR. ANDROID and I know my limitations as I watch my kids and grandkids navigate around the smartphones with the agility of a "squirrel in a tree".....