I’ll answer this question up front – no, it doesn’t.
Aside from what I talk about in the video above, there’s this strange belief that any computer that’s old is worthless, and that those who use them must be equally worthless. Obviously, that’s not true.
Those who know how to wield older computers and operating systems ultimately end up being smarter electronics shoppers, because they know very well how to spot any “new” technology that’s nothing more than reinventing the wheel, so to speak.
For example, it is a bit ironic that the “modern” big-icon interface of mobile bears a striking resemblance to the Windows 95 Control Panel. It’s also ironic that the new Windows 8 Metro interface also bears a striking resemblance to the same thing.
And if you want to take that even further back, older folks remember the big-icon touch interface on those ridiculously large corporate copier machines. Sure, it’s totally primitive compared to what we have now, but the point is that the interface is the same thing we had before, but now smaller, much more colorful, animated and mobile.
The biggest kick-in-the-head insult all of us go through is that a lot of this new tech makes us feel cheated. New tech is not supposed to go backwards in features, yet that’s exactly what’s happening.
Plop a Win2000 PC box in front of you and you can do anything you want with it. Install anything you want. Make it do whatever you want. Can’t do that with a smartphone. Certain apps are “blocked” or “banned”. Most of the time the inner workings of the OS are completely hidden on purpose. The power of being a computer user is largely taken away from you, and that’s not progress as far as I’m concerned.
The upcoming desktop OSes in the future and current smartphones are basically designed like gaming consoles, as in, “You buy what we tell you to buy at the highest possible price, and don’t mess with what’s inside. Ever. Now pay up.”
Some would respond to this by saying, “Use Linux!” A fair answer, but you have to be more specific about it. Ubuntu + Unity is still the bane of the Linux community and there are tons of Linux users who wish it never happened because it follows the exact same “make it big, colorful and stupid” modus operandi. As a result, it’s no coincidence that Linux Mint is fast becoming the preferred choice because it’s decidedly more PC-like.
At the end of it all, you pretty much have to be a computer geek with a good understanding of what we had before so you know what to buy (or more importantly what not to buy) in the future.
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That’s why I love Slackware. I can set it up and do whatever I want it to do, total control. Windows 2000 Professional was the best version they ever made, in my opinion. Nothing irritates me more, than having to upgrade because of the OS. I think Unity, Windows, Android are bullying us into the “so called future.” I absolutely feel raped when I use a tablet or phone. I have to do what it wants me to do, it gets my blood pressure up. OS should do what we want and not the other way around. Great Retro Friday Rich.
Thanks, much appreciated. My beef with future OSes is that they treat the user as a child, as if to say, almost literally, “You can only run what we allow you to. That’s it. And you will pay for it all. And then you will pay again in 6 months when we purposely forbid your device to function any longer. You will then repeat this every 6 months. Forever. Thank you in advance for your money and cooperation. And don’t you dare complain about it.”
That’s pretty much the feeling I get from mobile devices these days.
I realy don’t think Windows 8 will be a very liked virsion of Windows. When I think of Windows 8, I think of a computer wih the Operating System an iPad has. So, I would just stick to Windows 7. Stupid Metro.
Yes, I also was extremely reluctant to leave the 2000 behind and switch over to XP. I resisted for about a year, by which time XP got reasonably improved to become acceptable.
I forgot to mention eComStation 2.1. It is not mainstream but you have total control over the OS. I find myself using it more on a daily basis. The big issue with it is compatible hardware.
Much the same can be said about the keyboard -> touchscreen -> stylus interface. What goes around…
Keyboard was better old (IBM Model M, ’nuff said), but I do prefer the new styluses and touchscreens. The early stylus was a rather sharp tip and had to be because you had to “push through the liquid” on PDA screens just to get it to respond. Modern roundy-tips are better. With touchscreens, Corning Gorilla Glass is amazing. Love the glass, but hate the OS in the phone, its limitations, the phone company, the crappy speaker, etc…
My upgrade psyche will take a blow when windows 8 comes out, because I’m most definitely sticking with win 7 and if I end up getting a new laptop with win 8 installed, I’ll be hunting down any drivers required to run windows 7 on it……that’s how much I hate metro.