dr_st wrote on 2024-02-16, 19:57:You're preaching to the choir here... I ran Vista all the way until late 2020... […]
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You're preaching to the choir here... I ran Vista all the way until late 2020...
Yes, the kernel is almost as capable as Win7 (could even get Server 2008 security patches all the way up to 2023), and DX11 is supported on some level (but D2D 1.1, for example, is not).
However, there are a ton of OS libraries that were not ported / upgraded, so the application level compatibility started really falling behind after the official end-of-support in 2017, and even somewhat before that. Lack of OS-level support for modern 256-bit ciphers, for instance. It really started killing TLS compatibility.
I broke down when I saw that I have to struggle just to get basic applications like modern web browsers to play nice. This was around the time that Vista kernel extension projects got into higher gear, but as I said in my upgrade post - I didn't see the point of applying kludge after kludge to trick apps to think they run on Win7, when I could simply upgrade to Win7. If I really cared about some small difference in the UI - it is easier to apply a shell/UI customizer to make Win7 look like Vista.
Oh, I see. 2017 was about the time I've left Windows 7 behind!
I suppose I've missed about anything that happened past that.. 😅
Here's my story, please let me tell. 😃
My last Windows 7 PC broke in ~2017, and I saw no purpose to fix it anymore.
It just needed new caps, essentially, but since Windows 7 was going to be EOL soon and the CPU didn't have CMPXCHG16B instruction, it was the end of the road, anyway.
Because without that instruction, Windows 8.1 64-Bit and higher wouldn't have run on that motherboard anymore, anyway.
So Windows 7 was about the last OS for the hardware, anyway.
Everything newer (except Win 8.0) was not going to boot, anymore.
I could have bought a new PC, sure, but there was a catch: intel had planned to drop BIOS/CSM support.:
Newer mainboards nolonger could boot free, independent software. Or Windows 98.
Which meant to me, that x86 now was becoming a dead, proprietary platform without a future! 😢
So I decided to boycott x86. By giving up on CSM, they made the PC platform losing its soul.
Sounds like overreacting and drama, right? 🙂
Not to me. There were two things that historically made the PC successful: The PC BIOS and the open design (=unlicensed clones).
- With the death of the PC BIOS, there's no more reason to keep VGA/VESA BIOS on the graphics card.
- Without PC BIOS, Option-ROMs nolonger work.
- Without PC BIOS (CSM), legacy OSes like Windows 98 or DOS nolonger can be booted.
- Without PC BIOS, Real-Mode and the 8086 instruction set are now becoming superfluous.
- Without them needed, they will be removed from future x86 microchip silicon.
- Which in turn means that x86 virtualization will become less powerful or less accurate.
- Virtualization software then has to resort to incomplete 8086/i386 software emulation.
- Things like V86 or Intel-VT/AMD-V might be removed or feature-reduced in future processors, too.
So all in all, without CSM/BIOS being available, I realized there was no freedom in sight anymore.
Everything was going to be downhill.
X86 was going to be a platform that's sole purpose would be to run Windows 10/11.
Users couldn't run any prior OS as an alternative anymore, because they'd require CSM/BIOS.
Even if they had UEFI support, there was no legacy emulation as with BIOS (int13h, ps/2 mouse/keyboard emulation).
Windows 7 had been made incompatible on purpose with prior UEFI era systems already.
So all in all, UEFI and TPM/SecureBoot essentially meant that users nolonger do own their PC. No more full control to the user.
Even if SecureBoot is not a default setting and can be by-passed, it's just a matter of time once it's can nolonger be by-passed.
Knowing intel and Microsoft, future mainboards UEFI versions will surely be required to have TPM/SecureBoot permanently being enabled .
Otherwise, they won't get any approval.
But if OSes have to be signatured all the time, homebrew OSes like Kolibri OS or MenuetOS could nolonger be booted. Even if they had UEFI support.
If if I wanted to run my own booter floppy game, I couldn't anymore.
No signature, no boot. Bottom line: my PC nolonger belongs to me.
So I decided to rather not get a new PC anymore. It was just not worth it anymore.
I thought I could just as well leave the dying x86 platform behind and go ARM.
So I moved to an a Raspberry Pi as an interim solution (as the main computer, I mean).
Which I'm still working with, 7 years later.
It's not a great experience, but at least I'm still an user with an intact self-determination.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
//My video channel//