Windows 10 [2014 - 2017]

[Blazkowicz]

Considering how loud the music is at clubs and the ambient noise and so on - again, would you really hear the difference?

Shitty acoustics, badly set up hardware, input gain too high on the consoles, crap music and shit/botched EQ : all these are worse problems than 128K music.
For music you do care about, CD quality is nice though (including e.g. 320K Lame MP3)

 

[Blazkowicz]

The mention of directories makes me think you had to deal a lot with mem.sys, config.sys and autoexec.bat. I am glad DosBox exists nowadays, it makes life much easier. Wish I could remember the names of some programs (not applications) , that used to play MOD and S3M music files many years ago. There were some talented people making music in the PC scene and I would like to have those programs back.

My most recent MSDos experience was playing Ultima VIII under DosBox, a game that EA gave for free for a month -I think you are still in time to get it if you are interested and have an Origin account. The sound has the charm of the old sound in games. The very first moments of the game show a campfire and the sound is so welcoming and charming.

Win9x was easier than Dosbox for me. I did ran Windows ME : that was short-lived (till a younger brother installed Windows XP SP0 over it). Amazingly Windows ME was really fine! I did install the patch to boot under DOS but it was only really good to flash the BIOS (or run old EGA games with PC speaker). The Windows part was fast, stable and good looking. Windows ME was shitty because you can't configure EMS memory for games that need it!

 

[Albuquerque]

Having never played with Windows ME, I had no idea that they stopped shipping EMM386.EXE with the OS. Is that really true? I suppose for purposes of Windows-only needs, it certainly makes sense. Of course, Microsoft being d-bags for no other apparent reason also makes sense

 

[Cyan]

Wasnt Direct x 11, the last direct X eva!
so win 10 the final one? yeah nah

Rumours that Windows 10 might be the last Windows continue.

http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-windows-10-is-the-last-version-of-windows/

Rumours have been also circulating around saying as of late stating that the OS could become open source.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2921234/windows/what-if-windows-went-open-source-tomorrow.html

 

[Grall]

Having never played with Windows ME, I had no idea that they stopped shipping EMM386.EXE with the OS. Is that really true?

EMM386 was a horrific kludge for the DOS era, I'm pretty sure it's entirely uncompatible with the way modern OSes handle memory, not to mention it couldn't possibly function in today's multi-gigabyte systems anyway since it doesn't understand 64-bit CPUs/addressing.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Having never played with Windows ME, I had no idea that they stopped shipping EMM386.EXE with the OS. Is that really true? I suppose for purposes of Windows-only needs, it certainly makes sense. Of course, Microsoft being d-bags for no other apparent reason also makes sense

It seems that it wiped your autoexec and config.sys every time, replaced with blank ones. For DOS extender games (meaning doom, duke3D and up) it didn't matter, so they really did cater to the need for running '95-97 games or 94-97 games as well as random old apps, and some modernity in (complete USB support, system restore) but they got shat upon and the tech was going too obsolete anyway. Not unlike Mac OS 9 - that one could have gotten much more hatred than it did. It had its own 1980s idiosyncrasies (ask the user to allocate memory for an application)

 

[Grall]

but they got shat upon

Rightfully, as WinME was complete and utter tosh. On my then-PC, an install lasted...maybe a couple months, at most? After that it started eating more and more system resources, to the point you couldn't even use it at all even after a cold boot. System restore was twitchy as hell, it used lots of disk space and didn't always work properly, nuked stuff it shouldn't and didn't restore things it should, and so on. It was simply bad, that's all.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Rightfully, as WinME was complete and utter tosh. On my then-PC, an install lasted...maybe a couple months, at most? After that it started eating more and more system resources, to the point you couldn't even use it at all even after a cold boot. System restore was twitchy as hell, it used lots of disk space and didn't always work properly, nuked stuff it shouldn't and didn't restore things it should, and so on. It was simply bad, that's all.

It's a shame as I and many others local to me had no problems with WinME being stable and performant. Of course, there were others in my area that had luck such as yours. But they also had similar problems with Win98se...and Win98...and Win95. For them we just chalked it up as systemic to the user. And then there were a very few that had stable Win98se installs but problematic WinME installs.

But yeah, I actually quite liked ME, other than not having easy access to creating a DOS bootdisk with ME. But then anyone that needed to create a DOS bootdisk likely had easy access to 98 or 98se anyway. Assuming they didn't still have their original DOS disks.

Not unlike Mac OS 9 - that one could have gotten much more hatred than it did. It had its own 1980s idiosyncrasies (ask the user to allocate memory for an application)

Ugh, Mac OS9, now that was truly a piece of crap. And made Windows ME seem like god's gift to computing.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

It's a shame as I and many others local to me had no problems with WinME being stable and performant.

ME was great while it actually worked properly, I liked it a lot. It was just that it rotted HELLA fast, and it became a chore re-installing it over and over every couple months.

Of course, there were others in my area that had luck such as yours. But they also had similar problems with Win98se...and Win98...and Win95. For them we just chalked it up as systemic to the user.

Lol, did you just backhandedly call me a noob? Because, I never had the kind of issues with previous windowses that I had with ME. It was quite unique in that regard. Winvista, which seemingly everyone + dog ragged endlessly on, worked fantastically on my then-system.

ME has been the only real black sheep in the windows family thus far, out of the versions I've run personally.

Ugh, Mac OS9, now that was truly a piece of crap. And made Windows ME seem like god's gift to computing.

Truer words have never been spoken, I think. System 9 was so unstable you could make it crash doing just about anything. Starting a program, whatever. It was total and utter shit, I'm amazed that anyone could tolerate it at all.

 

[Gubbi]

Rumours that Windows 10 might be the last Windows continue.

http://microsoft-news.com/microsoft-windows-10-is-the-last-version-of-windows/

People interpret "The last version of Windows" as the end of Windows.

It won't be.

Windows will be a subscription based service in the future.

Considering the amount of crap MS receives whenever they make a major revision (2000, Vista, 8) and how much praise the receive for minor upgrades (XP, 7 and hopefully 10) and how succesful Apple has been selling service packs for $20, one can wonder why they didn't change earlier.

Rumours have been also circulating around saying as of late stating that the OS could become open source.

http://www.networkworld.com/article/2921234/windows/what-if-windows-went-open-source-tomorrow.html

That I seriously doubt, at least not all of it.

Cheers

 

[Gubbi]

Rightfully, as WinME was complete and utter tosh.

I never ran Win98/ME myself, but supported plenty of friends and family that did. I'm glad that is over.

I ran NT4 Workstation from around 97 (because of studies/work). It used less resources than Win98 and was much faster and more stable. The lack of Direct3D meant I was limited to games using OpenGL (or Glide) until Win 2K launched.

Cheers

 

[rcf]

Windows will be a subscription based service in the future.Cheers

I don't believe the "cloud OS" thing, but subscription is a possibility.
If that happens I will migrate to Linux or FreeBSD (unfortunately), and I guess lots of people would do the same.

 

[Kaotik]

Windows will be a subscription based service in the future.

It most likely won't be (or there might be such option too, but not the only one)

MS already outlined their plans on how they'll collect revenue in future from Windows clients and it didn't include subscriptions.
Instead, it will include "advertising", as in, slot in start menu will show "newly installed program" but if there is no such, it will instead suggest an app from the store based on what programs you're using. This can be disabled by user.
Search is another big thing, that's why the search bar (also called cortana) is now always visible instead of hidden in start menu - when you type in to start a program/search for file/something, it will in addition to your actual search results show similar/related results from store and from web (using Bing). In example they gave user searched for star wars game he had installed, it showed other star wars games on store and related searches (using Bing)
There were some other things too, which I can't remember, but it all focused around encouraging people to use store and bing.

 

[Cyan]

I don't believe the "cloud OS" thing, but subscription is a possibility.
If that happens I will migrate to Linux or FreeBSD (unfortunately), and I guess lots of people would do the same.

I think Windows 10 will be the last Windows as it is, building a strong OS and working from there, and it will be the base upon which they will update the OS with "expansions" or service packs, like Redstone, with the difference that some of those service packs won't be free. I could live with that, but I totally hate the idea of a subscription.

 

[Grall]

but subscription is a possibility.

Never. Who would accept having to insert $10 or whatever into their floppy disc hatch to be able to continue using their own PC? Absolutely nobody, that's who...

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Lol, did you just backhandedly call me a noob? Because, I never had the kind of issues with previous windowses that I had with ME. It was quite unique in that regard. Winvista, which seemingly everyone + dog ragged endlessly on, worked fantastically on my then-system.

LoL, no. There was also this that probably applies to you.

And then there were a very few that had stable Win98se installs but problematic WinME installs.

Another thing to keep in mind. When WinME came out, malware (browser toolbars for example) started to see a sharp rise in the wild. My Aunt for example had not to many issues with 98se, but plenty with WinME. So one day she had me put 98se back on her machine. Did that and it was fine for all of 1-2 months. Then it was operating just as well (badly) as her previous WinME install.

After that she finally relented to put anti-malware stuff on her computer to keep it relatively safer. But still wouldn't go back to ME because ME was just associated with bad, despite her having the same problems with 98se.

And then Code Red came out in 2001 and blasted virtually every Windows machine (2k included) into the stone age. And that's when people finally started to really take anti-malware seriously. Sort of. I still knew plenty of people that refused to use any anti-malware program, sigh. But at least I made a lot of money off those silly gits.

Regards,
SB

 

[Blazkowicz]

There's an "it works on my machine" fallacy. Some people did have real driver or software issues with Windows ME ; personnally the worst crashfest I used was Windows 95 (and wtf were these messages on boot? Did Windows 95 really deleted three of its own .vxd files then complain about it?). But on some boring PC where you only do word processing and solitaire it might be fine.

Vista mostly worked like intended, except driver issues from weak vendors. When it was slow like hell it was by design (what, you think that an OS should be blind fast with 64MB RAM and this one is a pig with 1GB? Get on with the times). In fact things have been pretty uneventful since then. Everything is silly fast and reliable, not many driver issues (but most vital components come only from Intel, AMD, Realtek and nvidia)
Malware still is a plague, in some ways better : hopefully most everyone has auto-updates on Windows, antivirus and browser, but in other ways worse : "cryptoware", spying etc.
Web browser is the biggest thing that can get you into swap hell : go use a 32bit Chrome/Chromium or a 64bit Firefox on a machine with 2GB RAM..

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Vista mostly worked like intended, except driver issues from weak vendors.

Interestingly enough, Windows XP was far worse than Vista at launch. OMG, the driver headaches. And interestingly enough many of the same vendors that were bad with drivers on XP were bad with drivers on Vista. HP, for example took a year or more to get working drivers for some of their printers for XP. And I'm not talking about drivers for typical consumer printers. But ones meant for SOHO or commercial installations (office printers). It was crazy.

Regards,
SB

 

[Grall]

Interestingly enough, Windows XP was far worse than Vista at launch. OMG, the driver headaches.

I was late to the party with both XP and Vista (later for XP than Vista, incidentally), so I never noticed any of these hiccups. Both ran fast and smooth on the rigs I had at the time, and were pretty danged great for the time. Wouldn't ever consider going back to XP today though. It wouldn't even work for me, as I've got 16 gigs of RAM these days, and some games I don't even play needing more than the three XP can handle (although only if you smack it around a bit)...

 

[Arwin]

Vista was quite good if you ask me, BUT there were some really awkward usability issues at a very basic interface level, like huge icons with no text, strange layout inheritence logic when you changed it, etc. Windows 7 was only really a UI fix, but one that did wonders for its image, and showing once again that good user interaces are hugely important. Windows 8, although a necessary step, was a step backward for many in that regard (though there were as many advances that particularly power-users like me really appreciated, such as far better multi-display support)