Using a Windows 7 laptop as a daily driver in 2024

[NikoB]

Continuing the topic I started a long time ago of intentional damage to the vision of Chrome/Edge and FF(without editing the config) users. About incorrect grayscale anti-aliasing in all modern browsers, which I have documented:
www.notebookchat.com/index.php?topic=191611.45#msg584618

[George]

Computers that have older OS's don't "just stop working" because there are newer versions available

No, they do not but at one point they become so slow, one has no choice but to purchase a new system. Software ages too, slowly but surely becoming incompatible with the latest standards and file formats and so on. It's not necessarily about planned obsolescence. (I do agree that Big Tech companies want us to buy new phones/tablets/computers every year.)
[/quote]

LOL!! "They become slow" - not on their own.

While with many OS's "updates" involve enlarging the kernel (less user usable RAM) and without off system storage of data storage & file systems get filled up leaving less swap space to work with however computers and the software that run's on them don't "age".

*IF* however you follow the lemming/sheep requirement of having the "latest and greatest" at all times then newer versions almost always use more system resources to to pretty much the same things and often introduce default file formats that are incompatible with prior versions.

BTW: all that is needed to exchange email these days is ether a smart phone or a computer with a modern web browser.

Disclaimer: I recently spent a decade at a modern company that utilized +20yo file formats to exchange data with some of their vendors. (and YES +20yo applications are still in use in 2024!!)

[NikoB]

BTW: all that is needed to exchange email these days is ether a smart phone or a computer with a modern web browser.

Not at all, if you are polling dozens of mailboxes with a bunch of rules, you will go crazy trying to poll everything in a web browser.
Oultook Express from Windows XP remains the best program for receiving such complex mail. But unfortunately, He no longer exists and he has problems with databases larger than 1GB per file.

Today there are no good email programs for Windows, especially with the ability to import complete Outlook Express databases with full complex rules for sorting them.

[George]

The average person just wants to check email and watch videos on youtube. Why do they need to spend 1200 on a x86 windows machine, when for half the price you can get android/iOS that does the same thing, except with double the battery life, way lighter and no noise/heat? Not to mention far less chance getting virus or crashing.

As many of the OEM's are realizing that for MOST people, their 'smart phone' and/or complimented with an Android or iOS tablet is ALL they need for personal use.

While most modern 'professional' software is designed and compiled to run on Windows (and usually the most recent version of it) the Linux distro's are slowly making inroads/progress with 'casual' applications and uses for computer hardware.

Even in 2024 there are LARGE 'islands' of 'embedded' XP and other OS use. I've named them 'islands' as companies and org's have the systems in use without any WAN or LAN connection what-so-ever. Years ago I worked at a OEM where our 'pick&place' machines used OS2. (there are many industrial/commercial machines that still use XP)

The CAD/CAM software on my old XP desktop still works just as good today as it did when I installed it >10yrs ago. Granted in today's world I'll need to swap to using one of my more 'modern' boxes to transfer the files created on the XP box from my LAN NAS to a hardware vendor via the internet.

Are there newer versions of the application available? Sure. Can the newer versions do more than what I have? Absolutely. Do I have any ACTUAL NEED or desire to drop a few killobucks on features I have no use for? No.

'Other stuff' will always exist that have different feature sets. 'different' is not automatically 'better' just is different.

BTW: I've used Open Office for seemingly Decades. Copies for WIN and MAC sit on my NAS. It works for what *I* need it for.