Few years ago, when the brand new Windows was named as Vista, a company director selling products bearing the name Vista made such comment: There were over 90 percent users worldwide using Windows, it did not matter if it named as Windows Garbage, people would still be buying and using it. Obviously the director was frustrated at the clashing of product name with the software giant.
Windows is getting so easy to use to the extreme I resist to use Windows 8. I will stick with Windows 7. Linux is totally new to me. If possible, I prefer to learn Mac, but the MacBook is so expensive! I have done my best at mastering both Samsung Galaxy and Apple gadgets.
Windows 8.x is a complete and utter failure, and Microsoft has even admitted as much. There is a very credible rumor (for lack of a better word) that Windows 9 will be available as a FREE upgrade from Windows 7 or 8. You just know thereās gotta be a catch in there somewhereā¦maybe the upgrade is free, but the license is subscription-based. Certainly wouldnāt put it past them - Adobe has done that with a lot of their products. If you held a gun to my head and forced me to pick my favorite version of Windows, it would be Windows 2000.
ETA: http://redmondmag.com/articles/2014/08/04/windows-9-rumored-as-free-upgrade.aspx
If I am not mistaken,
Windows 2000=Windows NT 5.0
Yes, your seem to pick the best choice. (according to survey)
Correct, 2000=NT5. What survey are you referring to? Link?
Thanks for the link.
It says: In the larger OS world, though, Microsoft recently admitted that Windows has just 14 percent share of the overall market when mobile OSes are included in the estimate. 
Sorry, no links for that. I recalled back from memory.
Ahhhh, ok, understood.
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There should be a test people need to pass before being allowed onto the Internet.
Edit: Iāll go a step further. We should create a new Internet. Weāll only allow the technically competent on it. Weāll abandon this current Internet to the companies, their ads, the ridiculous social media sites, and the hordes of clueless users. They can go about their business as usual, surfing corporate sites, posting on Facebook and playing Farmville, and sending memes to each other with email.
That presumes that people divide easily into Candy crush /Farmville fanatics etc and the technically competent when in fact the make up of those using the internet is vastly more complex than that. There are plenty who, whilst they wouldnāt claim to be technically competent/proficient, use the internet for intelligent purposes. It also presumes that the technically competent are the only ones intelligent enough to make good use of the internet. However technical competency doesnāt necessarily mean intellectual superiority .
It can just mean an advanced set of skills in a certain area.
People easily fall into competent and incompetent. Sure there are those who can operate a computer yet waste their time with the same pursuits of the hordes of the clueless but they also tend to find more worthy uses and can operate their machines properly.
My point is that people should know how to use a computer before they are allowed on the Internet. If you donāt know what a CPU is, or RAM, or a virus, or how to secure your PC with updates, or any of a number of other basic simple things that are necessary, then you donāt need to be using a computer.
In the old days, people knew these things. Now itās all computer couch potatoes pressing the power on button then drooling their way through the Net.
They make people take tests to operate vehicles, there should be one to use a computer. Just think of all the time that would be saved if the technically competent didnāt have to fix the screw-ups of the rest.
Can I be both? 
I think it depends on whether you see the internet as merely a vehicle for technical and/or intellectual pursuits or also as a communication/social tool. Many will straddle both and some will mainly fall into one group or other.
There are certainly lots of intelligent people out there who are not technically minded, and also those who whilst technically minded are not particularly intelligent in other ways.
Would restricting the internet to the technically skilled really improve the internet?- I doubt it.
I spoke of this in my posts. I remember my tech-savvy father calling Compaq support in the late 90s, and being placed on interminable hold. Then once he finally got some Indian named āChipā or something on the phone after a 3-hour hold to find that support would be charged at a rate of $50/hour. I could see the veins in his neck bulge. This was during the heyday of Windows 98. Things havenāt improved much.
Take my wifeās computer. I bought her an ASUS laptop. Nice machine with a gorgeous display. She thrashed it with āfreeā programs that are dubious in nature at best. In all reality, they are packaged with secret nefarious crap. It came with Windows 7 I should add. Now itās a huge paperweight that struggles to boot. Open Firefox, and no matter what I do, it makes her homepage delta-9-homes.com or some crap. I gave up on it. Looked in the original box, and no recovery disk! I phone up ASUS, and they helpfully guide me to their estore where the disk sells for a handsome $50 and ships from overseas. How thoughtful! I paid for the laptop, which means I PAID for the Windows license, and now I have to PAY for the disk?!?! WTF?!?! She will be getting a nice shiny version of Linux Mint this weekend to experiment with and LEARN. It takes time. But back in the day, you too had to LEARN how to use your computer, else you would suffer like my dad did, and he worked in the technical division with 100s of awards and certification from the IRS and the US government. He knew computers and *nix, but couldnāt figure out the secrets to a Windows machine. Gnaw on that for a minute.
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Normally on an Asus computer you will have the recovery information on a reserved portion of your hard disk. All you have to do is hit f9 (i think) when booting up the machine, and you go into recovery mode.
That, of course, unless you havenāt for some reason formatted the disk and lost the recovery info, in which case they would ask you to pay for the original version of the software.Pretty annoying, I agree.
Nope, no Recovery Partition. Just a gross overreach by the company to buy their crap.
That s*ks. We usually download the exact same OS and install it, then we use the activation key on the back to make it legit. Usually worksā¦
Thought of doing that, but this is setup to run ASUS OEM software, and thatās what they key is for - impossible to find an ISO for that on the net. They really began cracking down after XP SP2. Also, that key on the back has been used once - itās no longer worth squat.
My husband says you have to install the exact same windows - be it professional or home edition , 64x or 32x and you can use your key just fine. Install it as a trial and run the key afterwards. If it doesnāt work, you are doing somethinfg wrong (like the type of OS you picked etc.
It can also be tailored to your hardware, as is the case with my wifeās laptop. If I were to buy the recovery disk, which Iām not, it will search for the specific hardware unique to that model number of laptop.