Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by kurkosdr
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140183/mozilla-opts-to-extended-windows-7-8-8-1-support/#comment-10441472">kurkosdr</a>.
Quick retro lookup chart:
- Windows 98SE -> Last version of Windows to be backwards compatible with Windows 9x apps and games and with MS-DOS all the way down to MS-DOS 1.1 (you will have to reboot to MS-DOS mode for non-DPMI apps and games though), also, last version of Windows to be compatible with Windows 9x drivers obviously
- Windows XP -> Last version of Windows to be backwards compatible with Windows NT 5.x drivers and generally a good option for devices with 32-bit-only drivers (since most of them target WinXP 32-bit), also last version of Windows to support full-screen MS-DOS apps*, also, rarely some win32 apps won't work on Vista/7 and need Windows XP specifically.
- Windows 7 -> Last version of Windows to have secrdrv and CableCard support (though Windows 8.1 with a Pro Pack can be used for that, in fact it's what I did in order to avoid installing hacked Windows 7 ESU on my systems, and yes, I really purchased a Windows 8.1 Pro Pack from eBay)
*I know you can install XPDM drivers on Windows VIsta/7 to get full screen MS-DOS apps, but don't, it will break apps that need WDDM drivers
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by kurkosdr
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140183/mozilla-opts-to-extended-windows-7-8-8-1-support/#comment-10441459">Enturbulated</a>.
Oh, there are multiple reasons to stay on Windows 7: It supports secdrv (you can enable it with a simple command), it has Windows Media Center (and accompanying CableCard support), it has first-party DVD-Video support, it doesn't include a truckload of crapware, and the UI isn't an eyesore. Also, Windows 7 doesn't have an OS-wide login functionality, so any data they gather cannot be attached to an account, and doesn't heckle you to provide an account.
Problem is, you can't stay on Windows 7 for much longer because stuff races past you by the day. Everyone from GPU vendors to browser vendors dropped support the moment Windows 7 ESU expired. New GPUs don't support Windows 7 and neither do the latest versions of Chrome and Firefox. Once Firefox 115 ESR stops receiving patches you are officially browser-less unless you are willing to use forks of Chrome or Firefox that go by the name of PaleMoon/NewMoon/whatever and whose patching level is questionable. Windows 7 is now a retro box much like Windows XP or Windows 98SE.
Comment on No more boot loader: please use the kernel instead by Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140181/no-more-boot-loader-lease-use-the-kernel-instead/#comment-10441469">teco.sb</a>.
It's not something I normally require, but the initrd is extremely limited environment and it doesn't always have the tools you need to fix the problem. This could be fixed now, but as an example I was unable to fix an issue with lvm2 thin volumes from initrd because the tooling required wasn't installed. So I had to boot from another live OS.
Incidentally the last time I had to use initrd was when I was testing btrfs raid. The boot fails when a drive is removed from the array, waiting for an admin to login to the console. IMHO this makes btrfs totally useless for production environments since it doesn't offer the same level of fail over redundancy as mdraid.
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by kurkosdr
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140183/mozilla-opts-to-extended-windows-7-8-8-1-support/#comment-10441461">Alfman</a>.
The issue is that Firefox supports Windows 7/8/8.1 only in the ESR branch of version 115, so the problem is that the "master" version of Firefox will further and further diverge from the codebase of the ESR branch of version 115, so eventually the ESR branch of version 115 will have to be retired (unless Mozilla has infinite people to throw at ESR maintenance which they don't). It's why all ESR versions of Firefox have an expiration date.
Comment on No more boot loader: please use the kernel instead by teco.sb
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140181/no-more-boot-loader-lease-use-the-kernel-instead/#comment-10441454">runciblebatleth</a>.
Wouldn't the fact that the kernel ships with a built-in initramfs mitigate against this type of problem? Back in the initrd days, I know a shell was included (typically dash or busybox ash) and that's the shell you dropped into when something went haywire in the boot process. Wouldn't the packaged initramfs have the same capabilities, mitigating the need for init=/bin/sh?
In the places I run Linux (at home only), I have not had a boot issue in at least a dozen years. The last time it happened it was because of a botched experiment and ended up with an incompatible version of a library in /usr/local. As far as I understand, you would still be able to chroot into a system from an initramfs environment and fix things manually, assuming your /bin/sh is operational. No?
Disclaimer: I don't know about this stuff as much as I would like.
Comment on Google extends Linux kernel support to keep Android devices secure for longer by kwanbis
I don't get it. Firefox providing support to a Windows version that is 14 years old is good. The linux maintainers moving from 6 to 2 years is also good? I think is horrible that we cannot have a system for at least 5 years.
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by j0scher
Excellent idea. Even if they just get 50% of Windows 7 holdouts to move to Firefox, this would increase the Firefox browser marketshare by 50%. And when/if these guys switch to newer Windows or to Linux one day, they may just decide to stick with Firefox.
Comment on Google extends Linux kernel support to keep Android devices secure for longer by gggeek
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140185/google-extends-linux-kernel-support-to-keep-android-devices-secure-for-longer/#comment-10441455">Alfman</a>.
I think this might slowly be coming to an end though.
Just as the race for moar-faster! pcs ended with consumers not caring any more about the cpu/ram they get, as it's always more than enough anyway (and in recent times even accepting smaller and smaller ssd, having bought in in the cloud-is-your-storage model), so it is happening with smartphones. I just bought the same previous-gen Galaxy I had bought last year, after it got stolen, as its current-gen sibling has no discernible improvements and actually removes one feature I need. We are at the inflection point where the majority of phones gets replaced when either their battery has degraded too much, or they get lost/stolen/dropped-in-water.
Comment on No more boot loader: please use the kernel instead by nia_netbsd
Translation: "we can't keep track of our own churn any more"
Comment on Design and build the next version of OSAlert by stags@isdino.com
I would argue that there is a general agreement that WordPress is bad and should be replaced where easy to do so (front end) and that static site generators are probably the best solution.
Which SSG exactly isn't really important in my mind, in the end of the day the suggestion is a static front end that will be fast and robust instead of the WP one.
...I wonder if there's an SSG written in rust...
Comment on Google extends Linux kernel support to keep Android devices secure for longer by Bringbackanonposting
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140185/google-extends-linux-kernel-support-to-keep-android-devices-secure-for-longer/#comment-10441455">Alfman</a>.
100%
Comment on No more boot loader: please use the kernel instead by chriscox
Can vary, but generally speaking, UEFI can be brought up (sometimes easily, sometimes not) so that you can "select" what to boot.
Which for many, may provide the main feature they got out of grub.
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by Alfman
In reply to <a href="https://www.osnews.com/story/140183/mozilla-opts-to-extended-windows-7-8-8-1-support/#comment-10441458">kurkosdr</a>.
kurkosdr,
<blockquote>Unfortunately, it’s only for the ESR version 115, so it’s going to run out sooner than later, they can’t keep maintaining that old codebase for very long.</blockquote>
I would expect most if not all the OS interfacing code is highly abstracted in the browser to keep it portable. In principal, if they're not dependent on windows 10/11 features as Thom said, then the same win32 APIs should keep working without requiring much maintenance at all.
I figure most software remains API-compatible at the source level, however the problem I've encountered at work is that executables built under new versions of VS get linked to standard libraries that are not backwards compatible. MS does that on purpose to stop execution on older versions of windows regardless of whether the software could/did work before. It can be a nuance for software publishers who didn't really intend to drop support "we don't care what version of windows you use our software on". I don't know whether this impacts firefox specifically with the compiler & libraries they use.
Comment on No more boot loader: please use the kernel instead by Enturbulated
Increases required effort for troubleshooting while providing dubious benefit? Sounds like a Microsoft solution.
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by Enturbulated
No particular point.
YMMV, but from where I'm standing, the ONE remaining good reason to hold off on upgrading from to Win10 was removed when the data gathering frameworks from Win10 were backported into 7/8/8.1. Which was a good reason to try and migrate away permanently.
Comment on Mozilla opts to extended Windows 7/8/8.1 support by kurkosdr
Unfortunately, it's only for the ESR version 115, so it's going to run out sooner than later, they can't keep maintaining that old codebase for very long.