Windows XP 2024 Edition is everything I want from a new OS

I can't recall the name of that Windows version, but it was hugely appealing for the technical minded while it lasted - because it was basically like getting LTSC from Dell/HP/Lenovo (without you having to do the install yourself).

Of the devices that still run Windows in our home, all but one of them run some version of LTSC.

> No bloat, no ads, no forced updates, virtually nothing installed by default, and minimal telemetry.

No Store, no Cortana, no Edge. What's not to like? ;)

However: I do not publicly endorse software piracy, and so do not recommend using this guide; legitimate LTSC licenses are only possible to come by for Businesses with a minimum spend of 5 licenses.[1] :(

[0]: https://boards.4chan.org/g/thread/98121318

[1]: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-do...

In some ways MS still impresses me (WSL, VSCode) but in so many other ways I'm in awe of how bad the Windows experience is. Case in point: try to do some sort of OS config change and get an opaque hex error code. That's it. Google it and pray.

Obligatory: https://xkcd.com/979/

It's alright but not amazing like the old LTSB was in the days of Windows 7.

Remove-AppxProvisionedPackage -AllUsers -Online

Microsoft.Microsoft3DViewer Microsoft.WindowsCalculator Microsoft.WindowsCamera Clipchamp.Clipchamp Microsoft.WindowsAlarms Microsoft.549981C3F5F10 Microsoft.WindowsFeedbackHub Microsoft.GetHelp Microsoft.WindowsMaps Microsoft.ZuneVideo Microsoft.BingNews Microsoft.WindowsNotepad Microsoft.MicrosoftOfficeHub Microsoft.Office.OneNote Microsoft.Paint Microsoft.MSPaint Microsoft.People Microsoft.Windows.Photos Microsoft.PowerAutomateDesktop MicrosoftCorporationII.QuickAssist Microsoft.SkypeApp Microsoft.ScreenSketch Microsoft.MicrosoftSolitaireCollection Microsoft.MicrosoftStickyNotes Microsoft.Getstarted Microsoft.Todos Microsoft.WindowsSoundRecorder Microsoft.BingWeather Microsoft.ZuneMusic Microsoft.WindowsTerminal Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI Microsoft.XboxApp Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay Microsoft.GamingApp Microsoft.YourPhone

Do you have to install a tool that modifies the internals of your OS in order to see how it could look like? Imagine if you had to set up a painting on your wall before you could even see what it's a painting of.

I'm still on Win10, but I use WindowBlinds to skin it to look like Win2K. Eventually, when I upgrade my CPU, I'm going to need Win11 to get the Intel Thread Director, so I know I'm going to need to either buy a new version of WindowBlinds and Start11. Would be nice to run a FOSS alternative.

By comparison, you’d be hard pressed to find a non-enthusiast who really remembers the differences between 95/98/ME/2000 because they largely looked similar.

Unlike 2000, it was also aimed at home use. The prior home use system was ME which was also not very well received at the time. XP unified the business and home segments.

Add to that, the immense PR failure that was Vista, and a very long life for XP, it’s not surprising that it has the most fondness in people’s psyche.

No benefit to go earlier really.

But yes, windows 2000 professional was the best windows ever.

then after XP came Vista which suffered from security pop up fatigue. and bad drivers. 7 was stable but microsoft had learned their lesson had tried to cut its life cycle short (not releasing service packs pushing os updates etc...) rather than let it it go one for decades like XP costing them licenses revenue. Ever since we have instead we have starting with widows 8 been given an unending pile of shitty os's that get worse with each forced update.

AFAIK, win2000 didn’t do games very well. I think I remember it not supporting d3d or OpenGL, or something along these lines. It’s problematic when most of the value in windows for home users is the gaming library.

You mean, are present in Linux TODAY.

Installing Linux 22-years ago, when XP shipped, was hugely painful and only the most technical would attempt it.

Windows XP marked the begin of an era when corporations replaced analog processes with digital.

It sounds so foreign now, but in the late 90s - it was still common for corporations to send printed memo to employees as the predominate form of internal communication.

So there's a lot of nostalgia for XP, because it was the first OS used by the masses.

I tried different versions of Ubuntu, Debian, different kernels, different window managers, different graphics drivers, stripping things out of the system etc.

After going down the rabbit hole, I finally ripped out pulseaudio and replaced with ALSA.

In Windows or MacOS I would have been up and running immediately.

Now I'm completely burnt out and the creative urge is long gone.

Linux is my daily driver and I love it, but my god, some things are still way more fucking difficult than they need to be.

It reminds me of screwing around 20 years ago with wifi ndiswrapper stuff or multimonitor xrandr incantations.

Sadly, a lot of us have. Most laptops and assembled PCs you buy come bundled with windows and you can’t return it for a refund even if the first thing you do is ripping it out and installing a better FOSS OS. You’ve still paid MS for their dumpster fire of an OS you didn’t even want.

Contrary to today when Microsoft bundles bloatware directly with the OS itself. You can't install a clean copy because a clean copy just doesn't exist.

https://www.nliteos.com/nlite.html

This is in no way the business incentive of a major OS, and you've painted an extraordiarily rosy picture of OS development.

More fundamentally, how do they convince users to continue spending money?

> A lot of people don’t care about the carrots though. Their computer does everything they need it to and does so reliably. In a lot of ways the OS is a solved problem, but the companies who make them still need to pay the bills for all the security work that will always need to be done.

Exactly. Consumer desktop/laptop operating systems (Linux/MacOS/Windows) have been largely stagnant for years, at least in terms of offering meaningfully better ways to get things done[1]. That's a problem for the commercial offerings: why would anyone buy the new version if it doesn't do anything new/better than its predecessor?

Microsoft's path is pretty clear: the OS is evolving into an internet terminal. Consumers don't pay for the OS: they pay a subscription to do anything, with features increasingly delivered online and, crucially, all their data "managed" (aka controlled by) by Microsoft too. Device sales don't matter first order in that model: it's a dumb terminal. But Microsoft has to keep the device manufacturers sweet: it's imperative consumers use Microsoft's dumb terminal, because it's connected to Microsoft's services. It would be a disaster if HP, Dell et al decided to use some other front end. Microsoft will do whatever it takes to remain the dominant desktop.

Apple has more of a dilemma. It's always been about the integrated experience, and hardware sales are a first-order driver of revenue and profitability. So it needs to keep consumers buying hardware as well as trying to up its rental offerings (iCloud etc). Moving to its own silicon has powered that for the last few years (more supply chain control, better performance, and good marketing on why it's better).

>It makes me wonder if Apple (for example) put macOS into a no-new-features mode and just improved security from here-on-out what the long term effects would be for users and the industry.

That's arguably what MacOS has been for the last few years: security updates plus support for their own silicon.

Beyond the hype, LLMs possibly offer an opportunity for a notable change in desktop interaction (note 'change' not necessarily 'better' - I'm withholding judgement on that). An OS that could respond to users' queries/instructions directly could be better than having to click about semi-randomly to find the right menu option.

[1] which doesn't detract from e.g. security upgrades, different peripheral connection standards, hardware improvements, etc.

The OS does not have "appeal." It either works and facilitates my use of my own hardware or it does not.

The only reason to think this way is because you want to turn your paying customers PCs into advertising machines that violate their privacy and turn their hardware against them. There's not amount of "appeal" you can cram into your product that will get me to work against my own interests.

If there's a genuine delay before you can complete showing me something, then sure, animate away. If you can render what I want to see instantly, don't make me suffer through an animation for it.

Hierarchy (organization) is better than search. We all know this because whenever hierarchy is replaced with search, search had to reimplement hierarchy to be usable! E.g., grouping and nesting of pinned Win10+ start menu items.

Control Panel did have groups in Win XP. They suck. I always disable it.

Windows 10 removed a ton of context menus. Windows 11 removed more. They both suck. Stop hiding things from me.

Here's an overly nitpicky but very in-depth description: http://hallofshame.gp.co.at/find95.htm

Sure, coming from gray OSes from the 90’s, it could have appeared as "childish" but I really think this was just because people somehow internalized that "pro = sad gray". And for what its worth, I’m still convinced that we never had something better than the slightly 3D beige controls of Windows XP.

Now, any app is more colored than Windows XP but nothing is coherent anymore, there is no more "OS look" anywhere, it’s just the applications, their colors and their branding. Even Apple is losing this battle update after update.

I think it (metaphorically) says something about how we lost control of our computers.

So, like it still is now.