Not supporting an OS isn't the same as not being to play games with them.
It just means they're not going to try to make it work. If it works, then great, if not then that's your problem not Steam's.
Steam Is Dropping Support for Old Windows Operating Systems
It just means they're not going to try to make it work. If it works, then great, if not then that's your problem not Steam's.
To once again quote Timbuk 3: "The future's so bright, I gotta wear shades."Down the line...and more worrying: "Windows 12 will be a blend of cloud-powered and AI -driven experiences..." I don't like the sound of THAT...
pibbuR who fondly remembers OS/2 and when games (or one game?) were exclusively developed for that platform.
Yes, I agree with you, but it's still a hassle to me to try to run windows based games on Linux.
I mean, there is still a difference in the heads of the people - me included - when it comes to practical use.
Plus, in the bottom of it, there is still so much untranslated in Linux, because of the way it is built. There was many years ago a rather traumatic experience i had, that i tried to find out where a problem cme from, tried to read through man pages which I didn't understand, because they were written in English language filled with terms i just didn't understand, and that stuck with me as a trauma. In windows, however, everything seems to be translated.
People with English as their first language have it so much easier when it comes to understanding the internals (and probably the practical use of) Linux, no matter which distribution I'd choose. Maybe that's a prejuduice of mine, but it does go back to that traumatic experience I once had.
Ubuntu and SuSe were the only ones relatively well translated.
For my new PC, which I plan to buy within the next few years, I'd put a partition for a well translated Linux system on it as well. Especially since I own a nice, small and good Linux-based office package from Softmaker (a small German company).
I tried to make it run on a VM a few years ago. Didn't suceed. But, there should still be people ot there who are able to run eComStation (the successor) on modern PCs.
At my workplace (healthcare it department serving 10 hiospitals), starting PC took its time due to strict control of what programs different users were allowed to run, depending on what they were doing (for instance only people at the xray departments were allowed to run PACS - digital xray systems - clients). A lot of configuration were done each time a user logged on.
Anyhow, using Linux on the PC's was not possible, partially due to lots of clinical systems only having windows clients, and we had to standardize. Which also meant that every PC ran the same version of Windows, and we waited usually a couple of years before upgrading, because said clinical systems took their time to adapt to new versions. And of course, upgrading 20.000+ PCS (including replacing those that were to old) required thorough planning and testing.
We had a lot of Linux servers.
pibbur
At the beginning of this month - March - we had another major update on ALL win10 PCs.
Guess what hppened ? All settings were reset, and a few people even lost important things, because they did not save them on the virtualized clients (which were backupped). A few employees who were not familiar with the use of win10 simply kinda freaked out.
During the constant downloading of ALL clients AT ONCE - or so it appeared to us, the connection speed got abysmal low - so low indeed, that we could follow the mouse pointer on our virtualized clients with our eyes. And, what was the worst thing, it had been planned to be during the first 2 eeks of the month, where we had to do the complete accountancy stuff for the month before ! (Our firm is tiny, so this isn't done by a lot of people.) To say that this was going on our nerves is a great understatement. We simply could not work anymore.
I fear what will happen if the IT decides to upgrade everything to Win11 ... And, what's worst, is that Microsoft might decide - seemingly at a whim - to cancel all support for all older office and what not programs ... Not to mention that MS Office 365 shouldn't even be allowed on German PCs by law because of no data protection (cloud etc.).
Having to use win often feels to me - at work, at least - like being a bird in a gilded cage.
Guess what hppened ? All settings were reset, and a few people even lost important things, because they did not save them on the virtualized clients (which were backupped). A few employees who were not familiar with the use of win10 simply kinda freaked out.
During the constant downloading of ALL clients AT ONCE - or so it appeared to us, the connection speed got abysmal low - so low indeed, that we could follow the mouse pointer on our virtualized clients with our eyes. And, what was the worst thing, it had been planned to be during the first 2 eeks of the month, where we had to do the complete accountancy stuff for the month before ! (Our firm is tiny, so this isn't done by a lot of people.) To say that this was going on our nerves is a great understatement. We simply could not work anymore.
I fear what will happen if the IT decides to upgrade everything to Win11 ... And, what's worst, is that Microsoft might decide - seemingly at a whim - to cancel all support for all older office and what not programs ... Not to mention that MS Office 365 shouldn't even be allowed on German PCs by law because of no data protection (cloud etc.).
Having to use win often feels to me - at work, at least - like being a bird in a gilded cage.
But that's an IT problem, not Windows. IT should be able to keep settings to be as users put them and ensure things are downloaded correctly and fast. Your company needs a better IT person
I work in an org with 100 thousand users and they upgrade versions and it does not result in the computer slowing to a crawl.
Carnifex
SasqWatch
Uhm I'm hoping for windows twelve or whatever happens next to offer no online requrements, period, full stop. I'm looking for less vulnerabilities online, not more. Barring that I'll ride the windows eleven bus for as far as it takes me, and I always know I can go back to good old windows seven at any time, until that machine croaks.
If you mean word documents etc, you don't have to store them in the cloud. I don't. The only think I store there are copies of my backups.
pibbuR who stands firmly on the ground
Even when I do get my new computer, I'm still going to have windows 7 - will have it put in as a dual boot system, I decided. That way, I won't have a problem with games and can switch to windows 10 when needed for gaming, but otherwise use windows 7 as the default for everyday computing.
For me, it was always a matter of compatibility. Unless I was going to have a dual-boot setup, which seemed like it was more trouble than it's worth, I was never interested enough in Linux, etc, simply because not enough games supported them.
Yup, for a lot of gaming Windows is still required. Microsoft has been doing well by collaborating with gaming industry and forcing their OS as the go-to gaming platform on computers. I was hoping that Stadia and Steam OS would break the Microsoft rule and open gaming for Linux machines. There's still hope with Steam OS, although I doubt it. Seems like a better approach to mix Linux to Windows using WSL. I have no beef with Windows 10 & 11. They seem OK operating systems (seem, I have not used them a lot myself). Just that most of my work programs work under Unix, so I need constant access to terminal and Unix kernel. WSL seems trying to solve that issue and make more developers to choose Windows.
My point in my previous post was about the absurdity of sticking to older Windows versions (XP, 7 and 8) in new machines. Those are from the Ballmer era when Microsoft's saw open-source as a competitor instead of as an opportunity. The entire corporation appeared to be handicapped by their 90's ideology of controlling the market by force instead of collaboration that time. They are pretty bad OS compared to contemporary competitors in addition. I'd use Linux in my old machines instead even if that meant that I could not play some old games.
Steam OS has improved Wine, right? People are making all sorts of old games to work in Steam Deck (this is ignorant observation and might be complete bs).
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Because Windows had to carry for a long time really awful old pieces of code.
It took them 5 years to do a full rewrite of the whole thing, and the result was Vista, 7 being just an improvement of the Vista base code.
eComStation has since then been replaced by ArcaOs. I might want to try it for nostalgic reasons, but the personal editon cost 129USD, and they don't guarantee that it will (or refund you if it doesn't) work.
pibbuR/2
The UI also plays a role in my personal opinion for it. XP was just beautiful - in a colourful way - and Win 7 was the most beautiful version Windows ever had.
After that, hell happened, UI-wise.
I think it was something around 20 years ago, I read an infamous piece of opinion somewhere, written by a militant Linux-lover : It was in German language, and he condemned windows by full force bcause of its "klicki-bunti". "Bunt" being the German word for "colourful", and the only thing I remember from the context of this infamous phrase is, that he absolutely hated everything colourful. Like : "colour has nothing to do with an UI and colours should be totally absent from any proper UI" (my rephrasing).
This phrase of total hate "klicki-bunti" stuck within my mind since then. It became - for me - the sybol of Linux hate towards Windows : Solely or mainly because Windows was colourful.
I wrote elsewhere about my thoughts that colourfulness is often considered as being "immature" and "childish" in the current "western" cultures, and that colourfulness is often connected with women as well (especially as being part of misogyny). I think that this thought of mine was sparked with this phrase "klicki-bunti", as the try to say that Linux is or/and should be a manly product. [Or, cynically put, a man's toy. Like for all men who love to tinker with or within insanely complex systems only they can understand - which is one very cynical cliché about Linux, no matter how much better distributions have become).
I really don't think or believe that there will ever by a Linux distribution with the colourfulness of WinXP or the (relative) beauty Win7.
I tend to think/believe that, no matter how much work is put into Linux, it will remin a men's [toy] product, and this is especially visible through the various Linux UIs.
I regularly read an IT magazine, and from all the screenshots of newer distributions I have seen so far, there is none I would really call "bautiful" Perhapsm because men usually think in utilitaristic ways - that any UI should be rather a a tool than something to look at.
That's my current opinion.
I absolutely agree with your first statement and quote about the beauty of windows 7 and then also how the windows UI went to hell after that version.
Though I disagree regarding the theory of male/female point of view regarding color, I do agree that a utilitarian and plain, dull, operating system is not inspirational or the best way forward.