theelf wrote on 2022-12-02, 20:56:

I dont like cleartype neither, sometimes get difficult to read

it takes 20 to 30 minutes reading to get huge eyes irritation - the veins in my eyes become irritated, red and visible - I don't know how that's called in English - maybe "red eyes", but it's something I cannot fake (as doctor House would say, i.e. the patient eyes don't lie) and it's not subjective. It takes 1-1.5 hours to get terrible headache as well. At the same time no ClearType and I can read 12 hours straight - not a single blood vessel irritated in my eyes and my head is completely clear. I guess people with LCD/LED cannot spot the difference, but I am sure it affects them subconsciously - I mean even they cannot consciously realize how blurry it is the blurriness is there after all. Win7 is possible to at least partially disable ClearType, but not fully as how that's possible (and even by default) with WinXP. Most strange to me is that there is no broad discussion about that.

I see no problem with ClearType on semi-modern hires LCD.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2022-12-03, 01:46:

I see no problem with ClearType on semi-modern hires LCD.

I dont see any problem neither in my TFT, but i hate blurry text. I love sharp edges!

[insert Shadow the Hedgehog with a gun picture for maximum edginess]

I haven't used Windows XP as a main OS since November 2011 when I finally got a computer that was fast enough to run Windows 7 properly. Even before then, it was feeling old-fashioned to me, but I didn't have a choice since I couldn't afford a legitimate Windows 7 license until some point in that year and the only newer Windows version I had was Vista. Back then I still disliked Vista because I remembered all of the bad press that it got, and the computers I had weren't exactly powerful enough to run it properly.

Even before support ended in April 2014, I couldn't imagine myself still using XP as a daily driver OS considering how quickly software was dropping support for it, and once I got used to Windows 7+, it felt old-fashioned in comparison. Let alone using it as a main OS today when I'm close to retiring my Windows 7 computer and considering upgrading my Windows 8.1 computer to 10 (LTSC if I can get it legitimately, otherwise Pro with some tweaks to tame it to my liking).

the whole point of cleartype was to gauge the color positions of LCD screens in each pixel to make a font sharper. it's pointless on most CRT screens and generally makes it look painfully like chromatic aberration

mattw wrote on 2022-12-02, 20:48:

I am still using it, because "ClearType" makes my eyes hurt and causes me headaches. Interestingly, it's not just me - if I google "ClearType" together with eyes hurt or headaches there are many complains but most of them circa 2005-2007. I guess people no longer have big CRTs like 20+ inches to see the big difference and how blurry is the so-called "ClearType". I must say for me "ClearType" is psychotropic conspiracy, MKUltra-type experiment that is going on for decades now.

ClearType from the very start has been aiming for LCDs. Everyone would tell you it is a mistake to turn it on if you use a CRT. Of course, modern Windows doesn't let you turn it off completely, because it's assumed no one has a CRT these days. At least not connected to their modern PC. A fair assumption, all in all

KCompRoom2000 wrote on 2022-12-03, 02:33:

I haven't used Windows XP as a main OS since November 2011 when I finally got a computer that was fast enough to run Windows 7 properly. Even before then, it was feeling old-fashioned to me, but I didn't have a choice since I couldn't afford a legitimate Windows 7 license until some point in that year and the only newer Windows version I had was Vista. Back then I still disliked Vista because I remembered all of the bad press that it got, and the computers I had weren't exactly powerful enough to run it properly.

Even before support ended in April 2014, I couldn't imagine myself still using XP as a daily driver OS considering how quickly software was dropping support for it, and once I got used to Windows 7+, it felt old-fashioned in comparison. Let alone using it as a main OS today when I'm close to retiring my Windows 7 computer and considering upgrading my Windows 8.1 computer to 10 (LTSC if I can get it legitimately, otherwise Pro with some tweaks to tame it to my liking).

Well thats the point of the thread, but I cant say "quickly"

its 2022 and a lot of new software still run well on XP, but like i say, some not, that are important in every day, like web browser. Ok, Chrome 86 still is modern but for how long?

about other software, for example programming, cygwin drop support for XP some time ago, mingw64 too, QT, etc etc but for my needs some old version is more than enough, like I still use office 2000, or Paint Shop Pro 7, Visual Studio 6 & 2010, seamonkey for email, etc etc

I use Excel EVERY DAY, a LOT, but... the more complex thing i do is

A=(B*2)/3

or something like this... why i will need new office? in fact, i can use lotus and will be same jaja

About old-fashioned, i feel that THIS IS the more important thing... i want to feel comfortable using the OS, i see anything that is not classic windows style and look so horrible... my god, windows XP luna, Vista+ themes are the most horrible thing ever...

Most new software no longer works properly on XP (and even Vista), and that's a fact.

If you are comfortable with old software, there's no problem. Stay with XP. Stay with Win2K even if you prefer the old-fashioned "look and feel".

dr_st wrote on 2022-12-04, 15:05:

Most new software no longer works properly on XP (and even Vista), and that's a fact.

If you are comfortable with old software, there's no problem. Stay with XP. Stay with Win2K even if you prefer the old-fashioned "look and feel".

mm.. a lot of software still works fine, i cant say "most" not work.In my everyday i found maybe 50% of whatever i download works fine, it depends your work area or interest. Most of no corporative software still works fine

Of course, this thread is about stay with old OS, and still use new software alternatives for things are a must, like 360browser or use alternatives, like a second computer+X client, whatever idea

I do not miss old versions of Office at all because of the constant Word crashes. Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2007. All of them were unstable AF. That was so aggravating. Word crashes very rarely now.

Errius wrote on 2022-12-05, 11:30:

I do not miss old versions of Office at all because of the constant Word crashes. Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2007. All of them were unstable AF. That was so aggravating. Word crashes very rarely now.

Almost never had any word crash in 97 or 2000, even with docx plugin and a lot of new documents, only crash I remember had was with rare japanese docs and was corrupted from a old floppy

I found office very very stable. I cant say anithing about new versions, i dont like at all

Oh man, Word used to crash constantly in the old days. Especially typing in footnotes. I would always dread editing footnotes because there was a high probability of a crash. And this problem persisted after converting all my documents to docx with Word 2007.

I'm editing the same documents today and I never get a crash. (Well sometimes, but only when I do something stupid, like accidentally paste a whole document into the footnote.)

Probably crappy addins causing instability.

It's true that more and more newer apps don't run under WinXP (there's attempt to fight against with One-core API) but also Win7. E.g. I just tried new QEMU 7.1 and got missing api-ms-win-core-path-l1-1-0.dll fixed by this hack https://github.com/nalexandru/api-ms-win-core-path-HACK. Also Win7 don't properly support modern HW like intel big+little hybrid CPU, missing drivers for nvidia, ets. simply dead OS too.
But I don't need to use always the latest version of apps, some are still well usable. And I need use old apps and drivers too for special HW that is not supported by newer OSes (even virt. is no solution for all cases). OS visual is not so hard issue, I always set Win2k look when possible (XP-7) and for Win10 I use OpenShell (simply must have to be able to use W10). I don't use any built in windows craps like explorer so I don't bother much except windows decorations looks too flat, like win 1.0 (good joke to bring w10 close to 1.0 😀

Errius wrote on 2022-12-05, 11:30:

I do not miss old versions of Office at all because of the constant Word crashes. Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2007. All of them were unstable AF. That was so aggravating. Word crashes very rarely now.

Office 97 and 2000 were good, but Office XP was HORRENDOUS.

Office 2007 was mostly reliable again but the first iteration of the Ribbon interface made me punch through quite a few monitors at work..

Errius wrote on 2022-12-05, 11:30:

I do not miss old versions of Office at all because of the constant Word crashes. Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2007. All of them were unstable AF. That was so aggravating. Word crashes very rarely now.

I miss the UIs from the old Offices. I strongly prefer text menus to the cartoony icons we have now. I think the devs are under the impression that icons are easier to use, but I think they are far worse. Now I have to hover over icons that I don't know to see what they do. They also take up a lot of space, so you have to dig down into submenus to find what you want sometimes.

Ensign Nemo wrote on 2022-12-06, 18:51:

Errius wrote on 2022-12-05, 11:30:

I do not miss old versions of Office at all because of the constant Word crashes. Word 97, Word 2000, Word XP, Word 2007. All of them were unstable AF. That was so aggravating. Word crashes very rarely now.

I miss the UIs from the old Offices. I strongly prefer text menus to the cartoony icons we have now. I think the devs are under the impression that icons are easier to use, but I think they are far worse. Now I have to hover over icons that I don't know to see what they do. They also take up a lot of space, so you have to dig down into submenus to find what you want sometimes.

Love pre 2003 Office UI, simple and effective, very easy to customize, standar! nothing better than just a bar with options and a bar with icons, thats all

Never had problems with office 2000, 97, etc even when i was working in support for companies office was never a problem

As someone that used Office 97 for most of the decade between 2009 and 2019, even via WINE, I can't say I remember it crashing.

Must have been my documents then. Some of these were (and still are) very large/complex with lots of embedded objects (mostly images, but also Excel sheets, text files, even audio and video). Plus I always have multiple documents open simultaneously, sometimes very many (10-20). A Word crash when you have so many documents open is a HUGE aggravation. (Word 2007's crash recovery is good, so work was rarely lost, but it was still a big waste of time.)