A Microsoft free, Android future. Is it practical yet? What would I miss?

[The Deerhunter]

I have been a MS Windows man since 1987 and loved XP and Win 7. I never did the Windows 8 thing at all. I tried & disliked Windows 10 although I have been told it has an optional Win 7 front end which makes it less of a wrench from Win 7.

Support for XP has gone from MS and Google have stopped supporting XP & Vista. It makes me wonder how long we have with Windows 7. AS MS is trying so hard to get us all onto Win 10, I am not being optimistic about a long retirement for Windows 7.

I already use Chrome, Gmail & Google Calendar plus a few other Google things (Earth, Maps, SNAV, various translation wiki & dictionary things too) One huge plus would be using Google speech to text feature in text creation programs. It is whole magnitudes better and quicker than Dragon.

I have never been interested in Apple (anything) but I wonder about putting a super tablet or 2-in-1 onto Android or even another notebook, (or even this one) and leaving the Windows environment forever.

I recently had a HDD failure followed by a ransomware attack and recoveries from both those was a real mission.

It would be so much easier just to be able to wipe everything and install the Free Android OS and download all the free or cheap apps i wanted, considering my data is already safe somewhere else. I thought having backups was the be-all and end-all but recovery of a Windows system crash was long, difficult and expensive.

Question (1) Is an Android (MS Free) future really practical yet?
Question (2) What are pitfalls that I don't know about?

Question (3) What things program or Windows features would I miss, or not be able to replace?

Thanks for your time, any and all who give me a relevant, cogent reply.

[KhunBENQ]

And you are prepared for the Linux crowd in this thread ?

[Chicog]

And you are prepared for the Linux crowd in this thread ?

And the macvangelists

[BudRight]

And you are prepared for the Linux crowd in this thread ?

I use Linux at work and dual boot Windows and Linux at home, but most of the time I'm in Windows. Why?

1. Games. Most of them don't run in Linux.

2. MS Office - Libre Office is just not as good.

3. iTunes. Wine has just not done the job for me.

4. Driver support. Go makefile/compile your own drivers for a while and you'll know what I mean.

5. I have Windows on an SSD and Linux on an mechanical drive

The solution to keep yourself free of random-ware and other kinds of Internet diseases is to work from a user account with limited privileges and/or browse from a virtual machine.

I don't know much about Android, but the Apple operating system is basically Linux with a pretty user interface. If you can afford it it's the best of both worlds, but without the games.

Edited May 2, 2016 by BudRight

[WhizBang]

Android is an offsoot of Linux. So give Linux a try.

I did, but am back with Windows. Yes, Windows 7. Have Windows 8.1 on my tablet. It's ok, but I would prefer 7. Tried Windows 10, hated it.

Recovery from a Windows crash should NOT be long, difficult and expensive. Just be dilligent in making backups or images. I prefer to make an image, as it restores everything to a known point in one go. I use Acronis, and have done for years.

As for Android. It's great on a phone, but, in my opinion, is not designed for larger devices, including tablets. On a computer, be it laptop or desktop, no way.

Edited May 2, 2016 by WhizBang

[impulse]

Just loaded up 3 new computers with Win10 x Office 365. Paid 1,950 baht each for the Win10 COA's on Lazada. Paid about that for a year of MS Office 365 on those 3 computers, plus another 2 yet to be decided (total 5 computers with one copy of Office 365 Home). Not nearly as painful as the bad old days when Windows would have cost $300 and Office the same for EACH computer.

Most importantly, going with any other OS would mean waving goodbye to tens of thousands of hours of learning lumps I've taken with Win 3.0 through Win10. (Read Outliers for the reference to 10,000 hours) And thousands more hours of program interfaces, and formatting documents, graphs and spreadsheets just the way I like them. And the formatting stays that way when I open them on the MS Office Suite. The data's still there in Freeware Suites, but the formatting- not so much.

Zillions of Win7, Win8 x Win10 blogs for solving problems, well supported with drivers from my printer, my monitors, my sound cards, and on and on. Tons of freeware, and of course, very well supported with commercial software.

Migration from Win7 and Win8 to Win10 has been pretty easy since the Win10 interface can look almost exactly like Win7, (until I figured out I like a lot of the Win10 features).

I had a Linux computer for a few weeks (as a 2nd machine so I could surf support blogs with my Win machines) and just gave up. Support blogs seemed to start with the assumption that I could write code for a living. Maybe if I stuck with it... but for about $80 per computer (Win10 + 1 year of Office), why bother?

That said, it appears Win10 is going the intrusive route, and that may push me to look elsewhere. But I suspect they're all headed that way... And so far, it seems I can control the snoopy-ness of the OS, and a lot of the intrusiveness is from the ancillary stuff like video players, music players, anti-virus, etc.

BTW, if I did ditch Windows, I'd look to Apple. I used Macs for years in the '90s and almost cried when my work forced me onto Win3.0, followed quickly and mercifully by Win95. Still, hated giving up Mac and the brand new System 7.

Edited May 2, 2016 by impulse

[BuaBS]

If you like win7 , you can keep win7. Just ignore microsoft and their "support" . 2 years now since they stopped win XP support , big deal , I'm still going strong everyday on a XP sp2 non updated computer, no problems. How do you get crashes and ransomware ? Ransomware is nearly nonexistent in Thailand ( poor country , no market for it) ...don't you protect your machine ?

Yes , I've read about and looked at linux , for when my 10 year old gives up , but I'm not happy with it.

I don't like how it treats partitions , external drives , second drives too, swap partition BS ( esp for SSD's). Don't like the updates , the 6 month cycle nor the 3 year LTS. Don't like all the software bundled with linux mint. Don't like much how it looks. Can't write to NTFS. Don't like the icons , and no hiding icons in the lower right corner.

Don't like the mediaplayers on linux , and the photoviewer and don't know if it can open Works documents.

They are working on Android on a PC , so it will work like a tablet , but that is no solution.

I don't want new versions of my software on linux.... I don't want new firefox , uT. No KMP for linux , VLP s-cks chunks.

Long story short : you like win 7 , stay with it with enough protection + lots of back ups.

Oh and despite all these bad things about linux , my next computer will be linux....win 10 NEVER.

Edited May 2, 2016 by BuaBS

[DogNo1]

I have been an enthusiastic Microsoft customer since 1987. I switched over from Quarterdeck to Windows 1.0 because of a little better clipboard management and application switching. I've been patient as they went from nested menu functions to multi-function icons and then hiding functions in ribbons in which clicking on certain areas, Mac-like, would have the functions appear. They made me very angry about ten years ago when they decided to stop selling Microsoft Money which I had taken a lot of trouble to learn. Now, they have so badly screwed up Hotmail, Outlook and Outlook.com that I find using their cloud-based mail a real pain. Through it all, Google has continued to work reliably and Gmail has a better-thought-out interface. I thought that using Microsoft's cloud storage and apps would provide the resources to do whatever I wanted on the cloud and have it all stored reliably on One Drive. With their latest screwups of Outlook Mail, I find myself using the Google applications more and more. I've tried hard to sort outlook out with several consultations with MS tech support but just can't do it. Somebody didn't plan the recent transition from Outlook to Mail very well.

[IMHO]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

[BuaBS]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

You are kidding right ?

Well , maybe when they make 17 to 20 inch tablets and connect a mouse and a keyboard....but that would make it a laptop. Small screen computers are toys , I don't like looking at small screens. And I don't want my sweaty fingers on the screen I'm looking at.

[patyh]

If your life pretty much revolves around the Google Eco-system, I highly recommend that you purchase yourself a chromebook.

The machine boots up fast, runs fast and will not get any virus. Furthermore, everything that you have will live within the google eco-system from Gmail, Google Docs, Google Drive etc..

Note that the above will only apply to you if you do not rely on any software on your current windows computer such as Photoshop, Microsoft office and any games that you may want to play.

Avoid no-brand nettop that runs Android, your life will be in ruin if you do that.

[IMHO]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

You are kidding right ?

Well , maybe when they make 17 to 20 inch tablets and connect a mouse and a keyboard....but that would make it a laptop. Small screen computers are toys , I don't like looking at small screens. And I don't want my sweaty fingers on the screen I'm looking at.

Not kidding. Look around and see how many people aren't buying PC's anymore

You only need big screens when they're sitting so far away from you, a larger format tablet like the 13" ones held in hand have comparable resolution and readability to something larger sitting at arm's length or more away on a desk. The 12.9" iPad Pro has a 2732x2048 pixel display, as an example. As for sweaty fingers on screens, just buy a keyboard cover

These days, the question isn't "what can't I do on tablet?" but rather "what can't I do on a desktop?" - touch screen + stylus + keyboard enables better user experiences than the old keyboard + mouse, IMHO.

Edited May 3, 2016 by IMHO

[yellowboat]

Linux Mint and Ubuntu are just as easy as XP. Depending on what you do, you may miss out on some things. Been MS free for two decades on the server and one decade on the desk top. Don't seem to have trouble with Open Office. It always works for me. It is one of my favorite charities.

Windows 7 is the least offensive of the MS offerings, so should you not be able to use some important programs, then 7 is okay.

[BuaBS]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

You are kidding right ?

Well , maybe when they make 17 to 20 inch tablets and connect a mouse and a keyboard....but that would make it a laptop. Small screen computers are toys , I don't like looking at small screens. And I don't want my sweaty fingers on the screen I'm looking at.

Not kidding. Look around and see how many people aren't buying PC's anymore

You only need big screens when they're sitting so far away from you, a larger format tablet like the 13" ones held in hand have comparable resolution and readability to something larger sitting at arm's length or more away on a desk. The 12.9" iPad Pro has a 2732x2048 pixel display, as an example. As for sweaty fingers on screens, just buy a keyboard cover

These days, the question isn't "what can't I do on tablet?" but rather "what can't I do on a desktop?" - touch screen + stylus + keyboard enables better user experiences than the old keyboard + mouse, IMHO.

Yes PC sales are down because of a saturated market. People also want a real MOBILE computer , easy to cary around ... so tablets and big phones are in fashion and they are cheaper too . I have a laptop screen 17 inch and do everything on it. Watching video on a less than 15 inch is a pain , no matter how close you are to your screen.

[12DrinkMore]

Windows 10 is awesome, for those who want to be productive. (but there will always be the old diehards who prefer using DOS/Win 95, or Win 7)

Linux is for masochists. who want to spend more time keeping the operating system running than using applications.

Android is a clunky dumb platform for launching a load of really nice mobile aps. But for basic things like moving files around it is a pain. They have even recently removed the ability to delete files on a memory card, so I had to plug it back into the camera to delete unwanted data. Android also varies from one manufacturer to another, which means a new voyage of discovery each time. Where is that setting?

With IOS you are stuck in the AppleWorld where almost every ap comes at a price. If you want to transfer files across to a PC you need a strange application called iTunes and a steep learning curve. To move files in the other direction into the AppleWorld is almost an impossibility.

Aah you say, you can always jailbreak the systems opening up whole new worlds of customisation. If "your thing" spending weeks tweaking the operating system, crashing it and then boring everybody in the bar to tears about how wonderful it is, carry on. Just don't bug me with stories.

Windows 10

Best operating system I have ever used.

[The Deerhunter]

Thank you for a wealth of info so far.

Some more points about me.

I do NOT play games in any form.

Mostly I browse, do Thai Visa, Skype. Gmail & Youtube, write documents in MS Word & run a few amateurish Excel spreadsheets on investments.

There apparently is an Android clone for MS office Word & Excel but apart from opening a few files on my Galaxy Note phone I have not tried them

I too am still using an XP desktop but more worried about Googles lack of support than Mickysoft's.

The ransomware popped in while I was "home" on business for a month, not here. Annoying but all data retrieved. Yes I guessed that the economy here was why it is an unknown here.

I have spent a desktop lifetime admiring Apple products but disliking the company & Mr. Jobs' ethics. I cannot see me going Apple.

A great wealth of good but somewhat contradictory advice here. Thank you all.

The consensus seems to be that Linux is great for nonconformist tech savvy people who like me have come to be bored with MS.

It seems logical that should stay where I am for now & look at Android in another year. It is getting there and is VERY intuitive, but it is not "there" quite yet.

PS I have considered Chrome books but want to keep some files on my desktop at this stage of WIfI connectivity. Definitely will look at upper end Chrome books next time.

Thanks for everything. I will check back in a day or two to see what else is posted. Cheers.

[MediaWatcher]

The biggest issue with Android, AND Linux, are the lack of drivers, eg, just try using ALL the features of your printer/scanner.

Android, try setting up a webcam, and please, this is not the cam on your smartphone.

[MediaWatcher]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

You are kidding right ?

Well , maybe when they make 17 to 20 inch tablets and connect a mouse and a keyboard....but that would make it a laptop. Small screen computers are toys , I don't like looking at small screens. And I don't want my sweaty fingers on the screen I'm looking at.

Not kidding. Look around and see how many people aren't buying PC's anymore

You only need big screens when they're sitting so far away from you, a larger format tablet like the 13" ones held in hand have comparable resolution and readability to something larger sitting at arm's length or more away on a desk. The 12.9" iPad Pro has a 2732x2048 pixel display, as an example. As for sweaty fingers on screens, just buy a keyboard cover

These days, the question isn't "what can't I do on tablet?" but rather "what can't I do on a desktop?" - touch screen + stylus + keyboard enables better user experiences than the old keyboard + mouse, IMHO.

Yes PC sales are down because of a saturated market. People also want a real MOBILE computer , easy to cary around ... so tablets and big phones are in fashion and they are cheaper too . I have a laptop screen 17 inch and do everything on it. Watching video on a less than 15 inch is a pain , no matter how close you are to your screen.

You need to update you knowledge base, tablets are in fact on the decline.

[marquis22]

Try Remix OS for windows on a laptop or PC.

I am waiting for my Pine 64 expandable single board computer to arrive and I will be installing Remix OS on it.

Their websites can explain all you need to know.

[JaseTheBass]

Windows 10 is awesome, for those who want to be productive. (but there will always be the old diehards who prefer using DOS/Win 95, or Win 7)

Linux is for masochists. who want to spend more time keeping the operating system running than using applications.

Android is a clunky dumb platform for launching a load of really nice mobile aps. But for basic things like moving files around it is a pain. They have even recently removed the ability to delete files on a memory card, so I had to plug it back into the camera to delete unwanted data. Android also varies from one manufacturer to another, which means a new voyage of discovery each time. Where is that setting?

With IOS you are stuck in the AppleWorld where almost every ap comes at a price. If you want to transfer files across to a PC you need a strange application called iTunes and a steep learning curve. To move files in the other direction into the AppleWorld is almost an impossibility.

Aah you say, you can always jailbreak the systems opening up whole new worlds of customisation. If "your thing" spending weeks tweaking the operating system, crashing it and then boring everybody in the bar to tears about how wonderful it is, carry on. Just don't bug me with stories.

Windows 10

Best operating system I have ever used.

As much as I dislike iTards I never have problem using files on my PC that have come from a Mac.

[Richard-BKK]

And you are prepared for the Linux crowd in this thread ?

I use Linux at work and dual boot Windows and Linux at home, but most of the time I'm in Windows. Why?

1. Games. Most of them don't run in Linux.

2. MS Office - Libre Office is just not as good.

3. iTunes. Wine has just not done the job for me.

4. Driver support. Go makefile/compile your own drivers for a while and you'll know what I mean.

5. I have Windows on an SSD and Linux on an mechanical drive

The solution to keep yourself free of random-ware and other kinds of Internet diseases is to work from a user account with limited privileges and/or browse from a virtual machine.

I don't know much about Android, but the Apple operating system is basically Linux with a pretty user interface. If you can afford it it's the best of both worlds, but without the games.

For games, since Steam supports Linux most new games are also available for Linux. According to Steam they have 1715 game titles available, you can check it out.. http://store.steampowered.com

For office I use mainly LibreOffice and only sometimes like 1 from 30 documents I get from other not work 100% (most of this documents contain scripts, which we should always be caution about if you are getting it from others). For the rare document that comes from a trusted source (really not much) I can open it with MS Office 2010 which I have installed with the help of Wine...

As an music player I use Rhythnbox and it plays my music nicely.

For drivers support, I need to say that you need to have very weird hardware to not have support for it in one of the major Linux distributions… Even an old TV card I had works without a glitch with Linux while it doesn't work with MS Windows 10.

Android is a Linux Operating system, as Linux is basically only the kernel – and Android uses the standard Linux kernel. Apple OSX is not related to Linux, the operating system is based on BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution).

Edited May 3, 2016 by Richard-BKK

[yellowboat]

The biggest issue with Android, AND Linux, are the lack of drivers, eg, just try using ALL the features of your printer/scanner.

Android, try setting up a webcam, and please, this is not the cam on your smartphone.

Yeah , printing is a problem, at least it was years ago. My printing needs are trivial

[The Deerhunter]

It all depends on what software you use.

For home users where most usage is general web browsing, shopping, email and lower-end gaming, there's no need to have a PC - and by ditching the desktop, you'd only be joining the majority of people.

Desktops/Notebooks are really only needed by business and power users these days.

You are kidding right ?

Well , maybe when they make 17 to 20 inch tablets and connect a mouse and a keyboard....but that would make it a laptop. Small screen computers are toys , I don't like looking at small screens. And I don't want my sweaty fingers on the screen I'm looking at.

Not kidding. Look around and see how many people aren't buying PC's anymore

You only need big screens when they're sitting so far away from you, a larger format tablet like the 13" ones held in hand have comparable resolution and readability to something larger sitting at arm's length or more away on a desk. The 12.9" iPad Pro has a 2732x2048 pixel display, as an example. As for sweaty fingers on screens, just buy a keyboard cover

These days, the question isn't "what can't I do on tablet?" but rather "what can't I do on a desktop?" - touch screen + stylus + keyboard enables better user experiences than the old keyboard + mouse, IMHO.

I use a note book now and only ever touch it to turn it on or off. A powered USB hub with portable drives, printer, USB Keyboard & USB mouse all plugged into the ACER notebook's USB port, via the powered hub, suits me. I guess I could even use wireless ones with the mini-dongle plugged into the hub I think. Device connectivity should not an issue as long as the tablet etc had a USB port and Android could handle multiple devices via that, Does anyone know the answer to that question?

Edited May 4, 2016 by The Deerhunter

[DaveBKK]

You need to update you knowledge base, tablets are in fact on the decline.

Tablet GROWTH has stalled. Apple is still selling 50 million iPads a year. How many PCs per year is are top PC vendors selling (Dell, HP)?

Quite frankly I have moved about 90% of my work to the iPad. I work with databases, spreadsheets, email, and online, meetings mostly. iPad can handle it all. Especially now with the split screen multi-tasking.

Granted many things I can still do *faster* on a Mac or PC.....but I *enjoy*'doing it on the iPad more. Just something about the OS and touch interface. It's delightful.