Windows 10 - free upgrade to those with PC using Windows 7 or 8

[Freeshadow]

Incapable OR unwilling. Pity is, that since computers evolved beyond command line a lot of people got one who rather shouldn't have done so.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by wodin

Ken Thompson was either very short sighted or was very afraid for his status in geekdom. I'd vote for short sighted.

Much like the Singularity, sometimes it's virtully impossible for even brilliant people to see what's going to happen beyond some revolutionary, paradigm-shifting change.

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Incapable OR unwilling. Pity is, that since computers evolved beyond command line a lot of people got one who rather shouldn't have done so.

But then again, some people refuse to see it even in hindsight....
Seriously though, I felt the same way as a support person at the time. AOL was the Devil for letting those lusers out of their cages!
But in fairness, we would not have the diversity of online services and information we do if the evolution of the Internet was left exclusively to tech geeks.

[wodin]

Originally Posted by ApK

But in fairness, we would not have the diversity of online services and information we do if the evolution of the Internet was left exclusively to to tech geeks.

Yup!!

[JSWolf]

What I like is when you tell someone to use the command line, you get HUH!?.

[copyrite]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What I like is when you tell someone to use the command line, you get HUH!?.

While I disagree with you on most things Kindle :: ... gotta agree with you with this.

If they're trying to figure out a keyboard command to do something at work, they come ask me, all those mouse-clickers.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by Freeshadow

Incapable OR unwilling. Pity is, that since computers evolved beyond command line a lot of people got one who rather shouldn't have done so.

Damn. That is the truest statement on computing I ever saw while not making it myself.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by wodin

X-windows and its derivative Graphical User Interfaces (GUI)s were probably the best thing that ever happened to computer evolution. They both drove hardware development and made computing available to the unwashed masses, who were generally incapable of understanding command line interfaces.

Ken Thompson was either very short sighted or was very afraid for his status in geekdom. I'd vote for short sighted.

Ken Thompson, short sighted? No, it's because of that specific time in which he spoke those words. At that time, a program was very 'simple':

You put stuff in it. The program does something with it, and it puts stuff out. In doing so, it solved a problem. If a program didn't do this, it was useless and wasteful of computing resources. Yes, a GUI solved the problem of lack of userfriendlyness, but it didn't solve stuff like 'what is the result of adding 2 and 5?", and thus it wasn't deemed necessary.

That man did not just use a computer. He defined computers as we know them today. (And chess computers/programs as well.) He developed an operating system (Unix), 45 years ago, that is either still in use today, has descendants that are in use, or have been cloned/based on said stuff.

If someone in the computer industry should attain god status, then it would be Ken Thompson; and his colleague Dennis Ritchie as well. And Brian Kerningham would make a nice demi-god.

Every operating system in (meaningful) use today is a Unix/Unix-like, except for Windows... and ironically, it has been moving into Unix territory for the last 10 years, with a more powerful command-line, detaching of the user interface (for the new Windows 10 Core), and detaching some of the more user-centric sub-systems so they don't need to be installed on a server.

[wodin]

[QUOTE=Katsunami;3240637]
... You put stuff in it. The program does something with it, and it puts stuff out. In doing so, it solved a problem. If a program didn't do this, it was useless and wasteful of computing resources... /QUOTE]

As I said, short sighted. A hand held calculator does that much, but a modern smart phone is magic!

[Greg Anos]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

Ken Thompson, short sighted? No, it's because of that specific time in which he spoke those words. At that time, a program was very 'simple':

You put stuff in it. The program does something with it, and it puts stuff out. In doing so, it solved a problem. If a program didn't do this, it was useless and wasteful of computing resources. Yes, a GUI solved the problem of lack of userfriendlyness, but it didn't solve stuff like 'what is the result of adding 2 and 5?", and thus it wasn't deemed necessary.

That man did not just use a computer. He defined computers as we know them today. (And chess computers/programs as well.) He developed an operating system (Unix), 45 years ago, that is either still in use today, has descendants that are in use, or have been cloned/based on said stuff.

If someone in the computer industry should attain god status, then it would be Ken Thompson; and his colleague Dennis Ritchie as well. And Brian Kerningham would make a nice demi-god.

Every operating system in (meaningful) use today is a Unix/Unix-like, except for Windows... and ironically, it has been moving into Unix territory for the last 10 years, with a more powerful command-line, detaching of the user interface (for the new Windows 10 Core), and detaching some of the more user-centric sub-systems so they don't need to be installed on a server.

I vote for Ma COBOL for Goddess...

(For the younger generation (Grace Murray Hopper)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ApK

At some point things in the Microsoft world switched from when most of the time spent configuring an OS was spent getting it to do stuff you wanted, to when most of the time is spent preventing it from doing stuff you don't.

Yep. Like trying to force an upgrade on you that you don't want. Now, if you want to use the newer CPUs -- and if you still want to use Windows -- it'll have to be Windows 10, if you want support. Microsoft is being about as subtle as a 10 pound hammer about forcing everyone to Windows 10. And no one knows yet how much it'll cost when "free" shuts down.

I jumped the Windows ship 8 years ago, but -- unfortunately -- my wife still uses Windows 7 and she doesn't want to go to Windows 10. So I have to be vigilant. I also have to be sure to buy used PCs for her going forward.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

You are not getting the point. Was just an example. Win10 is meant to be run on each and every device you own. Just so everything runs and looks the same. Why they have universal apps. You can setup any cloud system you want, but you have to set it up first. What MS is doing so that you don't have to set it up, just log in and go - whether it is your tablet, phone, computer. You can argue that you can do everything better with linux (which one - all a garbled mess with incompatible to each other distros). Which OS do you recommend that will run on everything?

Talk about a garbled mess ... First off, I don't need the same OS on everything. I don't need everything to "run and look the same." A desktop computer is, by its very nature, fundamentally different than a phone or tablet. For example, my phone is mostly a phone. I like to get my email and keep notes (Evernote) -- which works fine on Linux. I also -- occasionally -- read books on it or play a game of pinochle -- sometimes I look something up on the Internet or ask it to navigate to a specific address. Why does it need to be a small Linux computer? (although, it IS Linux, the Android variety). All Linux distributions are "Linux" -- only someone who doesn't use Linux would fall for the M$ FUD that it's a "garbled mess." I call it choice. I can choose (and customize) the exact desktop I want, instead of accommodating myself to what Microsoft thinks I should want.

At any rate, it's all a pipe dream anyhow. Windows phones are going nowhere. That's why the new M$ CEO is pushing for Cloud computing apps that work on any platform. He's seen the handwriting on the all.

[kennyc]

And now MS has changed their support policy, effective immediately they will not support win 7 or 8 on new hardware.

"With no warning, Microsoft stops use of Windows 7 & 8.1 on new PCs How dumb is that?"

http://www.computerworld.com/article...re-itbwcw.html

[PeterT]

Kennyc; this applies to new Skylake CPUs from intel, not to older classes of CPUs.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Kennyc; this applies to new Skylake CPUs from intel, not to older classes of CPUs.

Yes, I think that is what he meant by "new PCs"...

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Kennyc; this applies to new Skylake CPUs from intel, not to older classes of CPUs.

Exactly. If you want to run Windows 7 on a brand new computer, you're out of luck. That's why I said I'll have to buy used PCs for my wife going forward. I -- personally -- use Linux. I can choose whatever hardware I want.