AS AT MAY 2014
Posted on 11/01/2014 7:13:49 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
if anyone wants to send me their xp cds i’ll take them.
Linux can make a good server, but as a consumer desktop, well, the numbers speak for themselves.
Windows 8 had been forced on people when they bought new computers.
I'm not going to make crazy argument that the numbers are lies. Since they didn't come from hussein, they're probably in the ballpark. But as one metric (and I'm not implying this is widespread), I am likely counted among those using some form of Windows in spite of never having it on my desktop. I have to set the User Agent in my web browser to "Windows/IE 11" due to the number of sites that (IMHO) gratuitously reject or provide a subpar user experience if the platform discerned is anything other than Mac or Windows in general or IE in particular. I set that globally for all sites so the nginx access logs for Free Republic are showing my connection (wrongly) as coming from a Windows system.
For those of us who mainly get on the internet to read Freerepublic and e-mail, all I can say is; "Huh? What are you talking about?
Haters gonna hate.
Knowing that support for XP was ending, some people probably opted to upgrade to Win 7 instead of Win 8.
Not to long ago there was a rampant rumor that more than 75% of the world’s ATMs had XP technology driving the cash dispenser.
Anyone know if that is a truism?!?
Thanks for asking and I'll cover everything point by point.
1). One may use a "User Agent" setting so that regardless of the operating system or web browser, it can masquerade as something else. My bank and credit card companies will allow only a Windows or Mac to access their web sites. So I have to "fake" my platform's identity so that it appears to be Windows. Frankly, this is often due to sloppy web design since the underlying client operating system is of no consequence. The web was designed to be platform neutral so, yes, it does irk me that I have to masquerade the fact that I use Linux.
2). As for the reference to "nginx". That's the webserver software used by Free Republic. A few years ago, they used "Apache" but for reasons I'm not privy to, Jim and/or John changed to "nginx". There's also a database backend that powers Free Republic but I'm not certain what it is, probably MySQL since that's the one widely used on Linux.
3). The access log is maintained by the webserver software. Every single connection is logged with a timestamp, the incoming IP address, the page being viewed and the "User Agent". The latter field in the log allows one to discern which web browser and operating system is used by the incoming connection. So if Jim and John are curious and scan the logs, for my connection, they would be misled into thinking that I'm using Internet Explorer and Windows. The reality is that I'm using the Midori browser and Linux.
In short, those of us with a Linux desktop system who can't (or don't want) to run Internet Explorer have to fib about out identity so numerous sites won't reject us. I could take the trouble of masquerading my identify on a site-by-site basis but it was just easier to set it up globally for all sites.
So there you have it -- a lengthy reply and I sure hope it covered everything you wanted to know. If not, just ask for a clarification. As should be apparent, I enjoy talking about this stuff. :)
I have zero problem with Windows 8.1.
Took a little getting used to.
I use it like Win 7 and haven’t seen the tile screen in months.
I also have 8.1 and so far it has been pretty stable.
Just remember- even numbered “Star Trek” movies and odd numbered windows releases and you’ll be just fine.
CC
Alright, thanks, I think I got it.
There were a lot of Windows 8 PCs still in stores & warehouses when 8.1 was releases; I’ve seen them available as recently as this summer.
I think the only legit beef was having it boot to the Start screen by default, an issue that they were pretty quick to fix. Booting to the Metro interface is fine for tablets but stupid for laptops & desktops. The only other issues I had were that Firefox wasn’t playing nice with it (solved by installing Waterfox, a 64-bit Firefox build) and I had to hunt around to get at some of the settings. But as you said, a lot of people panic over the slightest change.
Most ABMs run Windows Embedded, a version of XP that is still supported by Microsoft.
Well I did the upgrade without evening knowing about it.
My damned laptop uploaded 8.1 without my ever approving it. Now my laptop is in a constant state of overdrive as Windows 8.1 constantly takes up most of my CPU and disk drive.
Why? I’ve no idea. Task Manager allows me to watch, sit and wonder why the hell my laptop is hotter than the surface of the sun after the ‘ upgrade ‘.
Thanks Windows - you suck.
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