Pale Moon forum

With the release of KB4493132 those that use Windows Update directly (i.e. not managed by WSUS or similar) and don't research updates before installing them will be getting "reminders" about the nearing end of support date for Windows 7 SP1. So I thought I'd make a poll and see everyone's thoughts/plans.

I've never used Win 7, I started with XP and hung in there for as long as I could before moving to Win 8.1. Last week my HDD failed (a total loss) so I've been running Win 10 since last Friday. I must say that so far I am impressed (after a bit of tweaking here and there of course).

I picked two options. I'm already using Linux Mint for most things at home, but also have Win 7 on a separate partition. I may migrate it to 10 some day, but I'm not in a hurry.

Edit: Also using Win 10 at work, but I didn't factor that on for this poll.

There is no real option for for me in the list. I have Win 8.1 but have no intentions of using it much.
Have no fear. When the time comes someone at the "Seven forums" or "MDL forums" or somewhere will come up with a registry hack, so win 7 can receive updates from "Win 7 embedded posready" as they did for Win XP.

With the advent of Windows 8, which was released in October of 2012 and my immediate disdain for Windows 8, I started to look at different linux distros (distributions) because I knew the road Microsoft was going to take Windows on was not a road I wanted to travel. With all the public complaints Windows 8 was receiving, I knew I was on the right path for choosing a different operating system other than Windows.

I didn't need any Windows only programs. So making the choice to switch to linux was the logical choice for me. I read up on all the linux distributions I was interested in (Mint, Manjaro, Linux Lite and SolydXK) and took each one for a "test drive" for a few weeks. I eventually settled on linux Mint 14 in the Xfce desktop environment. When Windows 8.1 was released, it felt like a "bandaid" trying to cover a "gash that needed 10 stitches" instead of a bandaid.

Fast forward to July of 2015 when Windows 10 was released. When I saw Microsoft would not allow users to control any of their cumulative and quality (so called quality I might add) Windows 10 updates, my decision to go to linux was the right one for me.

Since I have 4 computers, I bought a second hard drive for all of them. The best move (for me) was not putting two operating systems (Linux & Windows) on one hard drive since if something happens with one operating system, one can lose both operating systems. This is why I have Mint on one hard drive and Windows 7 on a separate second hard drive.

I keep Windows 7 around for one reason. My sister-in-law mainly uses Windows 7 so I have all of my Windows 7 hard drives setup to where they are a carbon copy of her Windows 7 hard drive. I test out/update her windows programs on my windows hard drives "first". If there is problem anywhere program wise on my Windows 7 hard drives, I tell her not to install any of her updated programs or in installing certain KB updates from Microsoft.

Since she lives 221 miles from me, I take care of her computer via Teamviewer. Since my sister-in-law has an iPhone and an iPad, she told me when Windows 7 reaches it's end of life on January 14, 2020; she will be purchasing an Apple tower desktop computer and be done with Microsoft.

She also told me she will get a second hard drive for the Apple desktop computer so I can install Linux Mint with Xfce on that hard drive and configure it for her. Just as a backup operating system/distro. I'll also install a few programs from the Synaptic Package Manager and she'll be good to go. The only third party linux programs I'll have to install for her are Pale Moon and Teamviewer.

I'm now on Linux Mint 19.1 (Tessa) Xfce and have been very happy with my decision to switch over to Linux from Windows. Since 2012, I have been very happy using Linux Mint. When Mint 19.2 (Tina) Xfce is released around the first week of July, I'll install Tina on my experimental linux hard drive and then if I like it (which I'm sure I will), then I'll update all of my Mint 19.1 hard drives to (19.2).

I expect to relegate Windows 7 to a VM on Linux eventually.. Or I won't. Does it matter?

New Tobin Paradigm wrote: ↑

2019-04-20, 12:10

I expect to relegate Windows 7 to a VM on Linux eventually.. Or I won't. Does it matter?

Quite a few linux Mint users on the Mint Forums use Windows 7 and install it in a folder in Virtual Box. They do so because they might need a Windows only program. As an example. There is a windows only cad cam program named, "Shape3D".

https://www.shape3d.com/Products/Shape3dLite.aspx

This program allows a person to custom design a standup paddle board to their own specifications. Once complete, they can record the results in file, give it to shaper or company with the necessary machinery who can turn the file info into a sup.

There are cad programs written for linux and the one I tinker with is, "Onshape".

https://www.onshape.com/products/standard

But for someone who needs a windows only program that runs in Windows 7, installing the windows only program inside a Windows 7 folder running in linux Virtual Box in your linux distro of your choice is the way to go (in my opinion).

Well I am not a moron so I won't be using Mint or Virtual Box. I am a system administrator by skill if not by fancy pieces of paper, so I will be using enterprise grade systems for the linux.

If I'm forced to Linux I'll be using an enterprise Linux as well, because those are the only ones with at least some semblance of predictability. My computer needs to be a reliable tool for work.

In terms of stability, I haven't had any issues with Linux Mint once I got the Nvidia graphics driver working. But YMMV depending on what you need to do with it.

Also, this topic title reminds me of a Deus Ex quote. "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here."

Shoot, I just finally migrated from XP just a year ago to W7. And I tried every flavor of
Linux I could find, some I liked, but had hardware issues (sound card).
Or (video card) lack of any type of decent color control software. And some others I could
not stand. And on top of that, I have some very good (windows) paid programs that
I'm not willing to give up, and the idea that I would have to run a virtual box to use
something is simply not my cup of tea. No, I suppose I will keep using W7 for awhile
longer and will just have to see what happens in the next couple of years.

From what I understand, PM will still run on W7 even after "end of life" for
at least a little while so I have some breathing room.

My main machine is Windows 10 for the last two years. I also have a couple of Windows 7 laptops - they will remain on Windows 7 as along as they live, little point in upgrading them.

As W10 is unacceptable to me due to its regime of dictatorial updates I've looked at Linux occasionally (I'm on W7 atm). I might try Devuan as it's the only one that I have seen that doesn't have Systemd - my knowledge of this is sparse, but I get the impression that Systemd is a bag o'cr@p!

I am currently using puppy linux on a supposedly dead laptop.Puppy is great as i can install it and boot from my external HDD as the internal drive had died,under normal conditions this laptop would of been confined to the bin but thankfully i revived it.

I already use Windows 10 on most of my computers, but I keep Windows 7 on one particular computer that I don't like to reboot often because it has a lot of little things that I want to keep running constantly. While I can't recommend continuing to use Windows 7 for the average user for security reasons, you can probably get away with it if you know what you're doing and aren't entirely dependent on official support to protect your computer.

I don't think the situation is that dire, though, because it took a long time after the official end of support for people to get bumped off XP entirely. Just because Microsoft stops supporting it doesn't mean all the third-party vendors will do so at the same time. There may well be third-party AV solutions and office suites available for a few years after the end of support. I think the incentive to keep Windows 7 alive is much stronger this time around because a lot of people don't like the "Windows as a service" concept and are strongly invested in backwards compatibility. People are making the decision to stick with Windows 7 far more deliberately and with more determination than sticking with XP, which mostly had to do with the older hardware not supporting Vista/7. It went away as people upgraded to 64-bit systems with more than 4GB of RAM, whereas we have yet to push the limits of Windows 7 to such an extent that we really need the newer version. And that's without considering what unofficial patches like KernelEx and hackers will do in desperation to run newer programs on it and extend the life.