Posts by Jakester

Legacy Update expands archive of vanished Microsoft downloads

Re: Office 2003

Outlook 2003 probably will not work well with Microsoft 365 servers. Newer unsupported Microsoft Office versions do not fully communicate with Microsoft 365 servers.

'Windows sucks,' former Microsoft engineer says, explains how to fix it

Re: And here it is ...

I use both Linux and Windows (mostly Linux). The reason I use mostly Linux is it makes an excellent, easy to maintain server and a very responsive desktop system even with old computers. I use Windows for a few applications and to copy files from my Google Drive to copy to my server so they can be backup-up. Windows just happens to be superior for those particular tasks and Linux is superior for other tasks. So am I a Windows fanboi and a Linux fanboi? Each OS has its strengths and weaknesses.

I don't get into the battle of systemd vs not systemd. I don't notice any reliability or performance issues between the two configurations.

Oh, I also use Android for some tasks that just aren't available in Linux or Windows.

Lost in the Fluff

Important settings are buried in the fluff that gets blown around with every release of Windows and sometimes with security patches. I have used Windows since Windows 3.0. Settings were pretty much laid out logically through about Windows 98. After that, Microsoft started moving things around, sometimes renaming tools and settings. All that fluff confuses even the experts as many of the solutions to problems on the Microsoft website are incomplete or just plain wrong, even when the expert understands the problem, which often they don't and give an solution only remotely related to the issue.

AMD Ryzen CPUs fry twice in the face of heavy math load, GMP says

Re: Ouch

It may not be a heat-sink issue. The problem more likely is a high power load in a small section of the CPU and the thermal gradient between the section of CPU and heat sink is just too great.

One possible solution is rather drastic - active refrigeration which might be able to bring the temperature of the offending section of the CPU.

Microsoft keeps adding stuff into Windows we don't want – here's what we actually need

What I really want in a Windows OS is:

1.The complete removal of all the 'appx' applications, or at least the option to completely remove any and/or all 'appx' applications. This also means doing away with Microsoft Edge and put the system message output function back into the OS. I don't want any games, XBox game bars, or any other crap that really doesn't belong on a computer.

2. I don't know if these are 'appx' applications or not, but no installation of anything AI, 'internet search highlights',

3. A menu screen that allows more than 18 items pinned per screen. Microsoft, please move away from this stupid phone interface - I hate to tell you but Microsoft doesn't sell phones anymore.

4. No advertising for Microsoft (or any other crap). Microsoft, I don't want what you are pushing and it just pisses me off.

5. If Microsoft must keep using 'appx' applications, make it so that if it is installed for one, it is installed for all and that updates to the appx are made to all. Leave it up to the administrator of the pc/domain if all users are granted use of the programs or limited to individual users or groups.

6. Make it so 'sysprep' works, despite 'appx' programs so that a reference system can be tested with multiple users and deployed when needed.

7. A consistent look and feel where users/administrators have to hunt for tools/settings/programs from version to version.

8. A really bare Windows install with perhaps a Windows 'mini store' during or after Windows installation where the user can check which items to install that Microsoft seems to think everybody should have. That way, we wouldn't have to have crapola installed, potentially using resources (like OneDrive), for things we don't or will ever use. If we change our mind, we can go to the 'mini store' and put it in (or perhaps remove something we no longer want).

9. I do not want to have to use a Microsoft account. Microsoft keeps making it more and more difficult to install Windows without a Microsoft account. At work, for users who don't absolutely need Microsoft Office, I will install Libre Office so I don't have to go through the time-consuming process of registering and installing Office from the Microsoft website.

10. I don't want the constant nagging of 'Finish setting up your computer' and nagging of setting up backups, and other nags. I have my own method of backing up systems which are more versatile and drive-space efficient than the Microsoft method. The nag screens can be confusing to the users and sometimes difficult to close.

11. A little better quality control on Microsoft's part so that I don't have to deal with so many failed updates.

Microsoft broke DHCP for Windows Server last Patch Tuesday

Re: Quick question

Yes. Last fall I had to switch from Ubuntu 22.04LTS to Debian on servers that was used to share files and host virtual machines. An Ubuntu update broke VirtualBox where I could not get any virtual machine to run. I verified it was the Ubuntu update and not an installation that went bad by installing a fresh Ubuntu 22.04 on a test system and running a test virtual machine. I installed the latest updates and the virtual machines would not run. At the same time, I installed Debian 12 on a test system, ran the latest updates and installed VirtualBox. My virtual machines ran fine. It took me a couple hours to blow-out the Ubuntu installs on the production systems and install Debian. My setup scripts I used to install the applications and utilities I used in Ubuntu worked fine for Debian with only a couple name changes.

For technical reasons important to me (but not necessarily important to others) I had already decided to switch Linux distributions. The botched Ubuntu update just accelerated the process. While I had not decided that Debian would be the new OS for the servers, it was the top contender when I was forced to do the change.

Windows 11 migration heats up... on desktops

Re: Really?

The buyer really needs to beware. There are still 'bottom of the barrel' laptops out there from major manufacturers with Win 11 installed and only 4GB RAM and 64GB eMMC drives. Yes, these meet the 'minimum' Microsoft Win 11 requirements, but you can't upgrade with the annual feature upgrades. Most computers I have setup in 2025 came with Windows 11 22H2 installed. Windows takes more than 20GB with no applications installed. A 64 GB drive has overhead so the most space available on the drive is about 56 - 58 GB. With Windows 11 installed, there is less than 40GB free space left on the drive. I recently tried to do a release upgrade on a virtual machine with Win 11 release 23H2 to bring it up to 24H2 with 39GB free space on the drive. The upgrade would not proceed because there had to be a minimum of 40GB free.

My personal recommendation is an absolute minimum of 250GB SSD and 8GB RAM but prefer 500GB or 1TB SSD and 16GB RAM. You may have to do research on what processor is used on systems. There are some modern processors out there that are only slightly faster than the old Pentium4 from years ago.

A few years ago I did buy one of these low-end systems that had 4GB RAM (not upgradeable) and either a 64GB or 128GB eMMC drive (also soldered-in). However, it had a vacant NVME slot. I purchased it because it was on sale for $100 and I wanted a it to run Linux instead of Win 11. I kept the Win 11 install and installed Linux onto the NVME SSD I installed. It didn't run Windows very well (really slow) as the processor was also low-end. However it ran Linux very well and I could use it between 7 and 9 hours on a charge. I gave it to a friend after getting a good deal on another laptop that has 16GB RAM and a 1TB drive. I kept the Win 11 on the original eMMC drive, but rarely used it.

A classic crash from Classic Outlook when opening or creating emails

Re: Outlook 2007

It is extremely unlikely that Outlook 2007 will communicate with Microsoft 365 servers as Microsoft 365 no longer works properly with with Outlook 2016 and Outlook 2019. They still work with many non-Microsoft 365 e-mail servers.

Microsoft revives DOS-era Edit in a modern shell

I would also hope that they have fixed the intermittent bug when the user presses the <CR> key, sometimes the line would end with only a carriage-return and not the carriage-return--line-feed characters. This was a real headache back in my MS-DOS days when trying to compile programs. The Microsoft compilers would ignore the lines only terminated with the CR instead of the CRLF.

Devs sound alarm after Microsoft subtracts C/C++ extension from VS Code forks

I read in a blog years ago ... "Microsoft isn't the solution, Microsoft is the problem". I think there is some merit in that statement.

John Deere accused of being full of manure with its right-to-repair promises

Re: Im not a farmer or an American, so please...

I'm also not a farmer, but my brother is. One of his fellow farmers last year traded in two older combines for a new JD combine. Of course, the JD combine broke-down at the beginning of harvest and JD techs were unable to fix it. He had to borrow the two combines he traded in to finish his harvest.

The modern machinery by JD and other manufacturers do have some nice features for monitoring planting of crops and harvesting that can help with planting, pest control and harvesting. It is a really big plus if the equipment works. Delays in repair by even a few days can mean the difference between a profitable year and a heavy loss.

LibreOffice 24.8: Handy even if you're happy with Microsoft

I wondered why LO was able to fix Word documents, your explanation of how Word corrupts things make it clearer to me. LO has by my go-to program for fixing what Microsoft has put asunder.

WordStar 7, the last ever DOS version, is re-released for free

I have fond memories of Word Star for the PC Jr. It was the solution to writing source code for the PC because every text editor from Microsoft would periodically put in a <cr><cr><lf> instead of just a <cr><lf> which basically commented out the next line of code. The code changes to WS for PCjr were well documented to fit on the regular PC screen (PC Jr had only 56 characters per line, as I recall). I believe Egghead sold the WS for PC Jr for $30. That solved all the problems of skipped lines of code during compilation.

Windows Notepad gets spell check. Only took 41 years

Notepad-Absolutely

Not only Notepad, but WordPad for setup documentation.

Notepad because it used to not interfere with my spelling. I don't want Microsoft lackeys telling me that I mis-spelled a word that I want the way I typed it, much less change it.

Wordpad because it was always available on a new Windows installation, enough formatting features to make meaningful setup documentation, including hyperlinks so that a system could be setup using the documentation before ever installing any software.

Samsung workers treated for exposure to radiation in South Korea

Re: Maybe

All you have to do is tell someone that an interlock is impossible to defeat and that person can probably find a way around it in a couple weeks.

UN: E-waste is growing 5x faster than it can be recycled

Re: We don't hear you, the money is talking too loud

One computer I use regularly has the motherboard from an eMachine ET1331 (about 12 years old?). I use the system for general computing but also as a disk backup/copy station. I picked up a working ET1331 at a thrift store for a few dollars, but put in a case that has two SATA drive slots on top, plenty of drive bays. I like this motherboard because it has an IDE controller, SATA controller, floppy interface. I added an additional SATA card so that I can boot to multiple SATA drives, do drive cloning/backing, drive diagnostics, copy files from floppies (both 3-1/2 and 5-1/4). I normally use Linux on the system, but it actually runs Win 10 fairly well.

Yes, I am one of those who doesn't need the fastest, prettiest equipment to do what I want and need to do. Most of what I do is in Linux, but I do use Windows for a few tasks, so at some point I am going to have to bite the bullet on a Win 11 system for home.

The end of classic Outlook for Windows is coming. Are you ready?

Re: I need classic outlook

Well, you can archive your e-mail messages locally using IMAP, unfortunately, the only way I have found to do it is download one e-mail at a time. You then have to manage them somehow.

Google Drive misplaces months' worth of customer files

My Google Drive Data Seems OK

I do use Google Drive for convenience of having certain files in a convenient spot. Those files are important to me, which is why my original files are on my home server, which gets backed up nightly to external drives.

Excel Hell II: If the sickness can't be fixed, it must be contained

Using Excel as a medium to transfer data to another organization has always left me feeling uneasy. Unfortunately, one company I used to assist with computer support had to provide data to insurance companies, their payroll company, HR support company, and state agencies. The spreadsheets were crafted by the outside organizations, often had errors in the computing fields, and sometimes made it easy for the end-user to accidentally damage computational cells. I especially disliked the sheets that required macros be enabled. I always felt that these agencies should provide a program where the data can be input into a local database that could then export the data into a CSV file (or some other appropriate format) that could then be sent to the requesting agency to load into their database, rather than extracting from spreadsheets. But, that would require hiring database management professionals.

Middleweight champ MX Linux 23 delivers knockout punch

Much Better Than MXLinux 21

I started looking for alternative Linux distributions when Ubuntu went all-in on their crappy Snap applications. Nice concept on paper, but not in the computer. I had a production computer that I left Snaps in, although I don't use any Snap applications, and after under two years there were 31 loop mount points for Snap applications.

I was using both Debian 11 and MXLinux 21 because neither could do all the things I wanted that I did in Ubuntu. So far, I haven't found anything I do that I can't do with MXLinux 23. They fixed a minor issue with user and group numbering in MXLinux 21, The MX Tools is a handy set of tools that makes administering a system easy. The MX User Manual (almost 200 pages) on the desktop goes into much detail on the structure, use, and configuration of MXLinux (applicable to other distributions to a large degree).

The only trouble I encountered was setting up Samba shares. As in MXLinux 21, I added two lines in the Global section to force the user to the main user/administrator of the system, ie:

force user = myadmin

force group = myadmin

and then making sure the shared folder has ownership of 'myadmin:myadmin' (this version of Linux uses that syntax instead of the more familiar (to me) of 'myadmin.myadmin'.

The share still didn't work, although a Windows computer could tell the share was present. I had the go into the firewall with 'gufw' and set a predifined rule, SAMBA, to open the Samba ports to ipv4 and ipv6 traffic.

I spent less time installing MXLinux 23 and trouble-shooting why the shares didn't work than I ever spent on installing and setting up a Windows server.

Linux Mint cuts slice of 'Victoria' as 21.2 beta lands with dash of fresh Cinnamon

Re: Thank you!

>It is worth adapting to change when something better is offered, you know.

Just because there is a change to something, doesn't automatically make it better for me and others.

Minnesota governor OKs broad right-to-repair tech law

It is unfortunate that agricultural equipment is exempt from the bill. When a tractor, planter, combine, etc breaks-down, time is critical. A farmer can't just wait a week or two to get an authorized dealer's repair technician to start fixing. If the planting time window is lost, there is no crop. Sometimes, an alternate crop with a shorter time to maturity might be able to be planted. I'm so glad I am not a farmer having to deal with that with my tools of the trade.

All Microsoft Surface Pro X cameras just stopped working

Re: Certificate!

I guess while they are at it, they should put security certificates on it for the keyboard, touchpad, USB ports, power switch, and power adapter.

Ubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster scuttles into public view

Snap Is Crap

I tried a couple Snap applications with Ubuntu 20.04. Not a pleasant experience as the text editor would only allow a save into my home directory tree and not anywhere else, including my home server. I removed all Snaps and snapd from my Ubuntu desktop installs, but left them in on my server, just in case removing the Snaps broke things. Well, a couple years later and a total of 32 mount points all related to Snaps were present as well as the current and previous versions of the default Snaps that Ubuntu installed, which I don't use. I am still testing MXLinux 21 and Debian 11. I am now using those on my desktop and laptops and will be switching to one of those within the next year on my home server. My server needs are very modest and I can use the default samba server in MXLinux and slightly modifying the smb.conf file to not have to change anything on my Windows and Linux desktops and laptops. Ubuntu was great until about 2016 when it became less user friendly, less compatible with hardware (specifically video cards in 2016), started forcing Snaps on the users. Sure, Snaps makes it easier for Canonical, but it is a pain in the ass to us end users trying to actually use the crappy Snaps.

By order of Canonical: Official Ubuntu flavors must stop including Flatpak by default

Good Riddance

Snaps in Ubuntu were annoying (as in totally useless) and quickly created a huge mess of loop mounts. I had a total of 31 loop mounts on a system that I don't use any Snaps, but let them continue to invade because I didn't want to risk breaking the Ubuntu 20.04 installation by removing the Snap crap. I did a test install of Ubuntu 22.04 some time back and found that more and more Snap crap apps were being installed. I switched to Debian for most of my Linux needs and also use MX Linux. I realize Canonical wants to monetize their product, but they really need to concentrate on something that is productive. I have found nothing beneficial to the end user by using Snap apps, but unrealistically restrictive, making management of the system more challenging and trying to Snap schite to work like the original releases. I just don't have the time or desire to try to find solutions make their Snaps work. Canonical, you have successfully made it to the same la-la land as Microsoft software engineers and programmers to make you OS slow, inconvenient, buggy and call them features.

This is the end, Windows 7 and 8 friends: Microsoft drops support this week

Re: Windows 10 is not a problem

Yes, Win 10 will run on a 32G partition, but version upgrades are a problem because the last one I did required 10G free for the temporary files and that 10G requires the C: drive. Now a typical 32GB partition of the NvMe drive is about 28GB. Your 20GB install doesn't allow for version upgrades. On some of the 'laptops' with a 32GB drive, I have had to just do a fresh install and reinstall applications. Your mileage may vary.

Ubuntu 22.10 is out, with an extra remix in the family: Unity

Thanks for letting the world know that Unity is the new Ubuntu standard. When Unity was the default a few years ago, I had to switch to the LXDE desktop because Unity would not work with any of my video cards -- it would take about 10 seconds from pressing a key before the character would appear on the screen. I had then geared all my scripts for configurations and administrative functions for the LXDE desktop and was able to use up to Ubuntu 20.04. I tested Ubuntu 22.04 when it was released, but never implemented it because there were too many things I do that I couldn't do any more and the excessive boot times and program load times due to the unsnappy Snap programs. I switched to Debian with LXDE, which I should have done years ago. I spent less time getting Debian 11 installed and configured than I spent trying to get Ubuntu 22.04 to mount a CIFS share on my home server. I was never able to get the share to auto-mount on boot-up nor get it to mount with 'sudo mount -a'. So, no more Ubuntu for me. They need to focus on getting the core product to work and abandon those crappy Snaps. I like the Snap idea, but the implementation sucks and the rest of Ubuntu has suffered in the process.

The only Windows 10 updates for the year are coming. Spoiler alert: It's just security

Re: It's just security

Except for e-mail with Godaddy emails now switched to Microsoft's Office365 mail servers. This last patch Tuesday broke e-mails for my company unless you use a newer copy of Outlook. I prefer Thunderbird e-mail client, but it won't talk to the new Office365 servers after patch Tuesday.

Microsoft leaves the Office, rebrands everything as 365

Re: Survey missing option

In the early days of Windows 3.x, there were many Windows applications that were absolutely rock-solid and were $20 or less. Part of their robustness was they had all their configurations local to their own directory and didn't rely on the registry. The manufacturers had to make sure their software was solid to keep their prices low.

Removing an obsolete AMD fix makes Linux kernel 6 quicker

Re: Why mince words??

Every time I look at the lineup of laptops in the store, I see a mix of Intel and AMD units. How can you say they are rare?

California to phase out gas furnaces, water heaters by 2030

Re: Are they mandating the replacement tech?

Sorry, Nevada has many major fault lines as well.

Don't say Pentium or Celeron anymore, it's just Processor now, says Intel

Re: trademarks

It would be nice for Intel to have produced a few million Intel Processors with Intel Processor processor packaging, lose a court challenge and have to pull-back and destroy or relabel the Processor processors. I guess they could call it the iProcessor and take a chance with a trademark battle with Apple.

Appeals court already under fire for upholding Texas no-content-moderation law

Re: Here we go...

What about the year-round residents of Arizona and Texas who continue to have to help the many thousands of illegal immigrants into their communities? Many there are also blue-collar workers?

Martha's Vineyard declared themselves a sanctuary city, so if all those rich people have buggered off for the off season, then their homes and properties must certainly be vacant. What better sanctuary could they give to the immigrants they claim to welcome by giving them sanctuary in their vacant properties?

Voyager 1 data corrupted by onboard computer that 'stopped working years ago'

Not quite 70's tech, but I fire up a Radio Shack Model 100 laptop every once in awhile, just for grins. I bought it 20 years ago, just because it was very cheap and an interesting piece of computer history. I did have to clean the battery contacts when I got it.

'I wonder what this cable does': How to tell thicknet from a thickhead

About 30 years ago I expanded a thin=net network installation to a total of about 10 computers. A few months later, I got a call that their network was suddenly very unreliable. When I got to the location, things were not as they were when I completed the original expansion. When they moved their home-made cubicles, they pulled the thin-net cable through the small openings in the cubicles. Some of the cables caught on the wood or other obstructions and strippe feet of insulation from the cable and damaging much of the braided shielding as well. I was surprised the network worked at all. I replaced the bad sections of cable and all was well again.

Businesses should dump Windows for the Linux desktop

Unfortunately, held hostage by others

Linux (my current favorite is Ubuntu with the LXDE desktop) is far easier to configure and maintain than Windows. Microsoft seems to constantly change default programs the user has setup and sometimes changes printer defaults.

Unfortunately, a number of agencies the companies I do some work for have to provide some information to state agencies and the payroll company using only data extracted from Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. Unfortunately, Libre Office can't be used. That has been a thorn in my side for years. I don't like being forced to use one product because another agency uses that product.

Too little, too late: Intel's legacy is eroding

Good Riddance Optane

I was happy when Intel announced that they were dropping Optane for home users. I never saw any benefit from it and computer manufactures would have been smarter to increase RAM instead of putting int Optane. Optane was a real pain in the ass to try to do a backup or restore using a third party backup program booted from USB or CD because you had to put in the Optane driver to access the drive. Eventually I did discover that Optane could be disabled, first in Windows and then in BIOS and if done in that order, you didn't have to reinstall Windows. I always had a deep distrust of Optane because, without the Optane driver, you could not access data on the hard drive. Questions I never knew the answer to were things like if the Optane module failed, could you retrieve data from the drive using another computer? Could the Optane module be replaced and would you then be able to boot the system or do you have to reinstall Windows? Is there more than a 1 second difference in bootup time? I never really could see a difference in the laptops I worked on where I disabled Optane.

Perhaps Optane made sense in a server environment, but I have no experience with such a configuration.

Personally,Optane seems somewhat reminiscent of the RAMBUS DRAM technology. Yes, RAMBUS DRAM computers were faster than others of the time, but the monetary cost was high. As I recall, that technology also lost out to other technologies after only a couple years.

Dev's code manages to topple Microsoft's mighty SharePoint

Re: Buffer overflow DoS attack.

Well, SOMEBODY thought 640K was enough for anybody or they would not have put the BIOS in the upper memory space.Apparently Bill Gates and others weren't smart enough to tell the engineers and programmers that 640K was not enough.

Record players make comeback with Ikea, others pitching tricked-out turntables

Re: Digital transmission?

For my ears, the battle between vinyl and digital is irrelevant. I shop for used LPs that I like at local thrift stores and use my computer and an USB turntable to convert to mp3 files I can play in my car. Many of the albums I get are in very good or excellent shape and only need a good cleaning to get files with few clicks, pops or significant scratchiness. Sometimes for a serious pop or click, I can edit out a really offending ones. I have had passengers comment on how noise-free my recordings are (granted, car noise hides some of the defects).

Of course, the big advantage of digital is you can listen almost anywhere, anytime. To me, that trumps any difference in quality between digital and vinyl.

Internet connection now required for Windows 11 Pro Insider setup

Re: re: Windows is no longer fit for purpose

... and sometimes the Edge and One-Drive installation/updates that occur on every startup can run for hours taking 95-100% of the cpu resources the entire time. This is even if you don't use Edge or One-Drive. Sometimes rebooting the system will temporarily 'fix' the problem.

Linux Snap package tool fixes make-me-root bugs

I got rid of Snap in Ubuntu after a fresh install of Ubuntu Desktop resulted in boot times in excess of 3 minutes. I got rid of the Snap crap and boot times went down to 34 seconds (times are from power-on to completion of login). I probably could have lived with the 3 minute boot-up process if the crappy Snaps would actually let me save documents to locations other than my home directory and I didn't have to deal with the 19 or more loop mounts. Did I mention Snaps are crap for me as an end-user.

File suffixes: Who needs them? Well, this guy did

Also, what is very un-nice is to have extensions hidden, then have files such as BlahBlah.txt, BlahBlah.pdf, BlahBlah.exe, BlahBlah.htm, BlahBlah.ini, BlahBlah.zip, BlahBlah.gz, then all you can see in your directory is BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah, BlahBlah.

Update 'designed to improve user experience' takes down the Microsoft 365 Admin Portal

Re: 3 9s....

I was fed up with Microsoft Office bugs for decades as a PC support tech. At home, I used Star Office, when it was a commercial product and after it was acquired by Sun Microsystems. I quit upgrading when Oracle acquired it When Libre Office forked from the Star Office/Open Office development, I have been using that for all my spreadsheet and document writing. So far, I have had at least 99.99999% availability. Plus, I don't have to mess with any billing, registration, activation issues.

Running Windows 10? Microsoft is preparing to fire up the update engines

Re: But why would you want to keep running those old versions???

I have a 24-6rack digital recorder that requires a Win XP computer to control it. That-s another reason for running an old version.

Re: Old hardware though...?

Not 4-5 years down the road - it is 3 years down the road. That goes fast (only takes 3 years).

The inevitability of the Windows 11 UI: New Notepad enters the beta channel

Test EOL Characters

Years ago when I was doing simple programs with Microsoft's macro assembler with DOS 3 through DOS 5, I would have about 1 in 10 lines just ignored. Looking at the text file in Debug, I found that those lines ended with the hex character 0D instead of hex 0D 0A. Since Microsoft is designing Notepad from the ground up, who knows what crap is going to end up hidden in the file? Run tests before using it for important projects when it is released.

Currently not a problem for me, I quit any assembler programming after Win 95 was released - there were just too many APIs to try to keep track of.

How's 2022 going for you so far? Hopefully better than it is for IBM Cloud

Reminds me of a PC/Network support person a couple decades ago needed to acquire new computers to add to a network at a local hospital. He related that the IBM rep pitching his product proudly said something to the effect, "We know that standards are very important to you, which is why we keep updating them." Perhaps they changed the standards for their cloud.

Flash? Nu-uh. Windows 11 users complain of slow NVMe SSD performance

I manage:

Linux file servers: 3

Linux virtual machine hosts: 3

Linux based network file backup stations/backup vm stations: 3

Windows based servers: 0

Windows based virtual machine hosts: 0

Windows based backup stations/backup vm stations: 0

Personal equipment:

Linux file server/media center/backup: 1

Linux virtual machine hosts for network, server testing: 1

Linux based diagnostic/backup station: 1

Linux/Windows dual boot laptops: 3 (one kept in car for emergency spare)

Linux/Windows dual boot for getting work done: 2 (I can use Windows and Linux at the same time, whichever is best for the task at hand)

Windows only PC: 1 (for wife's use)

Windows only laptop: 1

Windows based servers: 0

My computers are relatively old: typically 5-9 years old. One laptop is just over 1 year old, but the processor does not support Windows 11.

I did perform a test install of Windows 11 on a computer at work. There are enough issues with the continued inconsistent look and feel of Windows that has continued on into 11 that I will only start upgrading those work computers when it becomes necessary. Some people like the glitz of meaningless and time-consuming changes, I like the glitter of consistency.

I never look to Microsoft and say, "That is the solution". I look to Microsoft and say, "That is the problem".

A Windows 11 tsunami? No, more of a ripple as Microsoft's latest OS hits 5% PC market

Re: It's not a ripple

I manage about 50 PCs. Three of the PCs might support Win 11, so I will start replacing computers mid 2022. I halted all new computer purchases when I discovered the then impending release of Win 11 and its implications. I wanted to replace some of these computers over the last several months, but I am unwilling to take a chance on getting a new computer then discover Win 11 won't run on it. I am waiting for mid-2022 to start replacing production computer so I can discover if all our applications work with Win 11. We had an accounting program that required a time-consuming work-around to get it to work with a new computer that didn't work correctly with Windows 10 until mid-2021, even though the manufacturer insisted it was fully Windows 11 compatible - network searches and my experiences proved their assertion incorrect. All the computers that don't meet the minimum requirements for Windows 11 do need to be replaced. The release of Windows 11 didn't speed-up my replacement schedule, it brought it to a standstill until I can verify our users will actually be able to run their programs.

Microsoft turns Windows Subsystem for Linux into an app for Windows

Re: Found a shortcut

I have a couple Windows VMs tunning on a Linux host. One is an accounting program which is the 'server' in a peer-peer configuration with 4 users. It automatically gets snapshots taken of the system nightly and backed-up. In case of a host computer failure, I can move the backed VM to another host and be running again in less than an hour. To start from scratch with a fresh install of Windows on a physical computer, install the application, perform the updates and restore the data will pretty much take a day to complete. With a VM, a failed set of Microsoft patches are easily reversed by going back one or two snapshots. I personally can see no benefit to the Windows Subsystem for Linux. If I want to do something in Linux, I will use a Linux computer rather than the less reliable Windows platform with whatever bastardized concept of a Linux subsystem they have come up with. Is the Linux Subsystem going to be another one of the Microsoft projects they support for a couple years then toss the skeleton of another abandoned idea out the back door?