I like the look of Brave but it won’t install on W7, only W10 or above.
1 Like
Just been talking to my partner about this and his view is that it’s actually becoming more and more reliable to use XP since no-one knows what to do with it 
2 Likes
I think there may still be a box in the loft with XP, but also bootable into 98 for playing a particular game. Probably also had a 3DFX graphics card and sound blaster 64 audio for music creation.
1 Like
We’ve got, I think, 4 XP based computers dating from days when XP was the platform we had to use for running particular courses 
I liked XP….
1 Like
TBH computers are just commodities now. There was a time they were interesting, slightly tricky devices that few understood, but now they’re just boring boxes that anyone can and does use (even though few still understand them). I don’t even get pleasure trying a new distro.
XP was from the time it was still fun, though becoming a little mass-market.
2 Likes
Yes indeed but it depends what you want to do with them. If you use one for utility e.g. browsing, streaming, emails, documents, spreadsheets then they are supremely uninteresting in my view. If you want to create software using them, that’s a whole different matter…
They’re just a tool for me now.
Me too and one I would find it very difficult to be without, not just for the internet.
For the record I’ve experienced no significant changes with the forum software, not on my 2016 Macbook Pro (using Firefox running on macOS Monteray 12.7.6), nor on my iPhone 13 mini (running Firefox on iOS 18.6.1).
1 Like
The change of the notifications is real to me but it has become different and in some way better.
2 Likes
Thank goodness someone added the e to discourse in the title. I don’t comment enough to have a high enough trust level these days so couldn’t do it myself, but my OCD was strong with that one… 
2 Likes
It’s only notifications for me on iPadOS 17.7.9 but I do run an Ablocker.
I’m pleased to be of service!
2 Likes
I did that for most of my working life, embedded products. We initially used Cygwin on Windows but quickly migrated to Linux as it was about 5 times faster on the same machine.
1 Like
Someone could have told me 
(I honestly thought that it didn’t have an e because it was a product name…. sigh….)
1 Like
“Security through obscurity” it’s called.
Back in the days when I worked at a high street bank, we had some software that had been written in the 70s, probably in COBOL or something else wildly unpopular these days. Few knew even how to run it, only one person knew how to maintain it.
This guy was on a good salary but very wisely quit to set up his own consultancy firm. He was immediately rehired via his new company, at a much significantly higher rate. He’d been there as a consultant for years when I was there, and last I heard he was still there doing the same thing
4 Likes
Oh my goodness - that brings back memories! Quite a few of us oldies did that sort of thing but, in my case, without the nous to gain much in the way of financial rewards
1 Like
Absolutely, loads of benefits. Like being able to claim back VAT on items vital to running his firm. Office furniture, mobile phones, iPads, Laptops, games consoles 
, all the IT stuff you ever wanted to play with, monitors (ie flatscreen TVs), paintings for his home office. Expenses on travel to the OAP COBOL conferences and other vital events. 
Got to be careful though because I think if you have only one client you can be deemed an employee by HMRC, so better to do some work for one or more others. I’m sure an ad in the appropriate journal would elicit a response.
1 Like
It does require a certain cheek to do that, although that seems normal in the IT industry. Of course when the specialised system is retired then the consultant leaves at 5 mins notice unless they are warned.
Yes this was always an issue when I did software training as a freelancer - it was tempting to do lots of work for one training company if they had plenty of demand and you got on well with them, but HMRC were very keen to make freelancers into employees and get them on PAYE…
Also as @Ancient_Mariner rightly mentioned, as a contractor you can be instantly out on your ear with no work if you rely too much on one client.
That happened to a photographer friend of mine who used to shoot a lot of weddings at a particular venue in Surrey - then the venue’s wedding coordinator left and the new one brought in “her people” - he lost over half his annual turnover in one fell swoop. 
For that reason I never used to put much effort into schmoozing wedding venue coordinators when I shot weddings, as they are too fickle and don’t seem to last long in the job anyway.
Case in point, a Somerset venue with whom I had what I thought was a cast iron agreement (though not in writing unfortunately) - I and one other photographer were going to be the exclusively recommended bods there and get the lion’s share of the work, in exchange for paying them a commission on our sales.
Six months went by with no recommendations from the venue - I checked on their website and they had four or five photographers listed, none of whom were me. 
I had provided them with a free sample album and also photographed some of their accommodation for free in view of our “relationship”.
Next (and last) time I did a wedding there and the woman emailed me afterwards asking for her commission I said “send me an invoice” and never heard from them again…
2 Likes