Desktop died, not sure what to do about computer

[sanantone]

I had one problem with Wiindows 10. Some video drivers needed to be updated or the computer would crash. After I updated my driver, my laptop has not crashed with Windows 10.

[Johann]

I had one problem with Wiindows 10. Some video drivers needed to be updated or the computer would crash. After I updated my driver, my laptop has not crashed with Windows 10.

Sounds OK to me. I've nothing against Windows 10 for reliability etc. I'm just one of those people (seems we're a pretty big crowd) who just flat don't like it - mostly because they perceive hindrances to their normal workflow.

My beef with Microsoft is that they seem (to me) obsessed with what THEY want to produce - with little or no regard for how it affects customers / end users. I started back in DOS days. Digital Research DOS 3.41 in 1989. I still have a copy AND a machine with a floppy. I still sometimes boot old machines with DOS, when trying to fix them. As I see it, it took Microsoft till several years later to really get DOS right, with Version 6.22! I've used Windows 3.1, (forget 3.0 and before) Win95, 98, 2000, XP, 7 - all with negligible amounts of trouble. You'll note I safely avoided Vista and Windows Me - nicknamed "Mistake Edition." A couple of minor resentments along the way , like taking out "edit" - the command-line editor, missing from Windows 7 - and some reduced backward-compatibility with a very few old 16-bit programs that nobody uses - except me.

There were MAJOR benefits from the new versions - but NEVER from Microsoft itself. The benefits were from the software developers, who made better and better programs to run on the new versions of Windows. These are the people who saved Microsoft's bacon, time and time again. I hope they can pull it off this time, but I'm not sure if I'll ever really need to find out. What I have now - works. I'll keep it and I have umpteen distros of Linux, as well. And buckets of software for it! And what software I don't have for it is free and one click away! Seems Windows 10 has led quite a few to come to this decision.

J.

[jsd]

DOS 6 forever! I think I still have my "DOS for Dummies" book somewhere.

[Johann]

DOS 6 forever! I think I still have my "DOS for Dummies" book somewhere.

What would I EVER do without my "Dummies" books! Dos, Linux, Windows, Rabbits, Spanish, C++, Digital Photography (8 in 1) ....

For 90 cents, I picked up a mint "Murphy's Law of DOS" book, a few weeks ago in a thrift store. I also have a h-u-g-e and ultra-complete text on DOS by Mark Minasi, that I had to use in College about 24 years ago, when I was a young whipper-snapper of 50.

I still use DOS applications - either on my 1988 Sharp laptop or on my Windows machine, via Dosbox or VDOS, which is brilliant, within its limitations - and both are FREE! VDOS gives you crisp, full-screen, 16-color display on your flat monitor for DOS word processing, spreadsheets or anything ASCII. And I have the original disks and manual that came with my first DOS - Digital Research 3.41 in 1989.

J.

[jsd]

I started with For Dummies with DOS for Dummies and Red Hat for Dummies, but at some point I switched to "Complete Idiot's Guide to..." and have various old topics from them too.

I don't know the last time I actually used DOS, not counting your routine windows command line utilities.

[Johann]

I don't know the last time I actually used DOS, not counting your routine windows command line utilities.

Been thinking of making a T-shirt:

REAL MEN USE DOS

• smoke Old Golds
• use Wildroot Cream Oil
• drive Packards

And I saw this on a T-shirt, years ago:

C:\DOS
C:\DOS\RUN
RUN\DOS\RUN

J.

[Johann]

I don't know the last time I actually used DOS, not counting your routine windows command line utilities.

I was going to give up at one point, when machines would no longer support DOS, but along came DOSBox and VDOS. Like Michael Corleone (Al Pacino,) "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!"

J.

[Brian12]

What do you guys think of amd processors? It looks like I can get a laptop an amd a12 with r5 or r7 graphics for a decent price. One is an hp, r7 graphics, and the other is a lenovo with r5 graphics. The lenovo has 8 gig of memory and bluetooth and the hp has 6 gig of memory. I still don't like windows 10 but I need a laptop and I don't want to drop 800 dollars for one right now. The new ipad also just came out with a faster processor and multitasking. I'd really like to get it but I'm not sure what good it would be for an online class.

[bjcheung77]

Get what you can afford, something that you can run for a few years before the next upgrade...
AMD processors are fine, I have an HP laptop that I use and it's been great so far...

[icampy]

They're pretty sweet....look up the specific CPU in the machines you are looking at and read reviews. Also read reviews for the integrated system, the laptop itself.