Dos / Win
I started with DOS 3.1 and used DOS PowerTOOLS in my 3rd-Party support business -
C: DOS RUN until Windows 3.1 came out. Back then 640 K was
'full house' RAM memory and there were tricks that could be applied to operate "
Beyond 640 K." Windows was a real PITA because it used more memory than the hardware would reasonably provide - and each new release of Windows used even more RAM and so the capability of the machines lagged behind the operating system's needs for years. I could revert to DOS and perform most functions while Windows was still sitting there, thinking, and wasting my time.
Then Bill and his associates really began in earnest to control everything concerning any machine operations that was running his software. I put up with that for a while but eventually chose to go Linux with Red Hat, then Knoppix, Fedora, Debian, Rocky, Manjaro, etc.
It was a task setting up a Linux machine in those early years because you had to search hi & lo to try to find drivers that would support your modem, printer, soundcard, video card and all. Sometimes manufacturers would provide Linux drivers for their products but usually not.
The reason we all switched from one distro to another was because one would become real popular and they'd have a highly motivated volunteer team to stay on top of things with updates and development packages. But slowly, the excitement would cool and other distros would pick up the pace with better support and options.
Rocky never seemed to get far off of the ground and I went to Mint and for the past couple of years I've been using
MX Linux. Wow! This is by far the best OS that I've ever used!!! It's absolutely fast, easy and seamless!
That said, I still maintain a Windows machine in the other room for unique situations where I need to pay an insurance bill or program the memories in a VHF radio when the programs at the other end were written expressly for Windows. It's typically only switched on a couple or three times a month.
One thing that really ticked me off was when I'd hear the Windows 10 machine in the other room up and running and downloading files. Now THAT was exasperating! So I went into the BIOS and changed the path to avert the BOOT files so it couldn't find the files that Bill needed to start the machine up. But you know what? A couple of weeks ago I used the Win machine to file a medical receipt and apparently while I was active, Bill found what I'd done to avoid his meddling and he rerouted the path.
How do I know this? Well, the other day, I heard Bill in there playing with files on my Win machine and it was all booted up and running. Out of curiosity, I shut it down and restarted it - and the path to the BOOT sector had been alleviated and the machine started right up with no intervention by me on the keyboard. I guess he doesn't like people restricting his control of their computers.
