Vivaldi 5.7 won't install on Win 8.1
-
@Eggcorn Microsoft has made this computer non-upgradable because of TPM 2.0. This is a high-end superfast PC I built myself using the best components available at the time (2015). The CPU chip alone cost $1100. I have mission-critical programs on it that won't run on Windows 10 or 11. Is everyone supposed to be a corporation or a hospital with huge staff? What happens to users like me?
I've been using computers since 1982, in the days of CP/M. I've managed hundreds of updates since then. But this is now churning, just forcing people to upgrade whether the new features are usable or not. It's only partially about security.
I'm jumping ship.
Thanks for the offer of suggesting another browser. I already have Edge, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, in addition to Vivaldi. Vivaldi has been my favorite, but I suppose I'll go back to Firefox. It is not beholden to Chromium.
-
@rbeeson Here's another thread that might help you: "How to Secure Operating Systems which don't get Security Updates?"
-
@rbeeson , as said before, Chromiums and in near future also FF and forks end the support of Win 7/8.1. If you can't upgrade the OS, the only you can do is to use Linux in dual-boot, using Windows locally and Linux to go online with an updated Vivaldi. Otherwise you can't use an updated Browser anymore, which isn't advisable because it lose more and more security in few month and eventually the access to some Websites and services which refuse outdated browsers.
It is a pity that is repeated as technologies advance, as it also happened before with Windows XP and others, but there is little that can be done. -
@rbeeson said in Vivaldi 5.7 won't install on Win 8.1:
Thanks for the offer of suggesting another browser. I already have Edge, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, in addition to Vivaldi. Vivaldi has been my favorite, but I suppose I'll go back to Firefox. It is not beholden to Chromium.
While Firefox might be a current alternative, do realize that it's likely to also go unsupported in June 2023 as well. Per Martin Brinkman at https://www.ghacks.net/2022/11/01/mozilla-may-extend-firefox-on-windows-7-and-8-1-support/ regarding Firefox supporting Win7 and 8.1:
"... Mozilla considers two main options right now:
End support in January 2023.
Extend support until at least June 2023
...
The second option that Mozilla considers extends support until the release of the next Firefox ESR version. Firefox users on Windows 7 and 8.1 would be moved to Firefox 102 ESR, the current Extended Support Release branch, and would receive updates until Firefox 102 ESR is moved to Firefox 114 ESR; this happens in August 2023. What appears to be clear is that Mozilla's support for Windows 7 and 8.1 will end in 2023
..."Obviously, Mozilla chose to continue support beyond Jan 2023, so June 2023 looms now as its endpoint. Whether support gets extended further than that remains uncertain, but unlikely. In any case, Firefox's days supporting Win7 and 8.1 are clearly numbered, so switching to Firefox will at best be only a very temporary solution for Win7 and 8.1 users wishing to operate a supported browser.
-
@Blackbird Many thanks for that link. I can feel the noose tightening by the minute. As I said earlier, I've been through many of these cycles, and gotten through them without too much difficulty, but this one seems different somehow.
Ah well. Thanks to everyone for your suggestions. It has certainly helped me clarify my options.
-
@rbeeson It's a shame if none of your mission-critical software has a Linux version (or Linux counterpart).
With such a nice, if older machine, you could go wild on an OS that has no nooses.
I've been tempted to dump Windows more than once, and if things keep going the way they are, I may yet do it.
Volunteer Mod and tester on Windows 11 Home X64, i7-13700 @ 5.4 GHz turbo; Intel UHD 770 graphics; 1TB NV2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD; 32 GB DDR4-3200 RAM. Community Code of Conduct
-
@Ayespy Just as one example, there is Pro Tools 11. It was the last version of Pro Tools that did not require a subscription. (I try my best to avoid subscription-based software, for obvious reasons.) And there is no version of it made for Linux. In addition, it works with the Avid M-Box 3, which is a DAW that was designed to work with this version of Pro Tools, and is no longer made. It is incompatible with later versions of Windows. (It has enough problems even with the current version.) If I upgrade the PC, I have to upgrade the DAW. New DAWs will not work with Windows 8.1. To use a new DAW I have to use a new subscription-based version of Pro Tools.
And on it goes. I'm talking about multiple thousands of dollars in outlay, and thousands of hours of work, and I'm not a youngster anymore.
I have almost 200 programs on this PC, which I had thought would be my last when I built it. It has 14 TB of HDD storage on it. Most of the new stuff has a maximum of 4TB in SSD storage, with no bays for spinning HDDs, which are better for storage of files that aren't used often.
It seems to me that the current state of PC development is perilously close to the Tesla/ChatGPT model. I can't believe that people are so willing to turn their fate over to mindless software that does not have real eyes or ears. Software only does what it is programmed to do. And in my opinion no human will ever be able to devise a piece of software that can anticipate every possible unexpected event requiring a human response.
-
@rbeeson said in Vivaldi 5.7 won't install on Win 8.1:
@Blackbird Many thanks for that link. I can feel the noose tightening by the minute. As I said earlier, I've been through many of these cycles, and gotten through them without too much difficulty, but this one seems different somehow. ...
Having witnessed computer-related technology first-hand as a designer since the 1970's, I've made note of one reality. As the digital world has evolved in a direction of ever-increasing homogeneity and market consolidation, several not-so-great side effects have emerged that impinge on browsers.
Back in the Olde Opera forums, I argued unsuccessfully up to the end that their replacement of the Presto engine with chromium would make them dependent on a lot more then simply the code bits... it would also drive their browser update schedules (to accommodate chromium version releases), it would force various non-chromium features into 3rd-party extensions (hence, beyond the browser-makers' control), it would impose externally-driven limitations on what they could do with their browser, and it would lead to the effective loss of developer control regarding when to drop browser support for older OS's. This has unfortunately all largely now come to pass across the browser universe in one way or another, and has led to an environment where much of what happens occurs in lock-step with both Microsoft's profit-driven OS release/obsolescence schedule and the chromium consortium's prevailing development whims (heavily influenced by Google). For whatever reasons, Mozilla, though not a chromium browser, seems to be increasingly sucked into the same vortex as well.
Vivaldi, though a chromium-based browser, has done what I believe to be a remarkable job of swimming against part of this tide, at least in terms of feature-sets, user-convenience, and customizeability. But it's largely powerless to alter the latest-greatest, planned-obsolescence OS mentality that governs the digital marketplace today. Increasingly, I am convinced that Linux offers a remedy for this... but working within the Linux universe carries its own costs for those needing easy interoperability with the majority of users in the dominant Microsoft universe. And so, here we find ourselves...
-
@Blackbird Wonderful analysis on your part. Many thanks. I'm too old (as I suspect you might be) to keep fighting this. Some of the best programs I ever used were developed for OS/2, which I used from 1998-2003. If IBM hadn't bailed out, I'd still be using it. Some of the OS/2 developers moved over to Windows, and I still use their programs wherever I can. They just have a different way of looking at the universe.
-
Pale Moon offers you a browsing experience in a browser completely built from its own, independently developed source that has been forked off from Firefox/Mozilla code a number of years ago, with carefully selected features and optimizations to improve the browser's stability and user experience, while offering full customization and a growing collection of extensions and themes to make the browser truly your own.
I wonder how Pale Moon is doing these days. Used to be a great browser until extension support started to degrade.
-
@rbeeson , not all Windows Tools have versions for Linux, but on the other Hand, some Windows Tools in Linux are not needed, because of own features.
Anyway if there are no versions for Linux of an Windows app, there can exist valid alternatives for Linux. You can take a look in AlternativeTo if it is the case.>Laptop ACER, AMD Ryzen, GPU AMD Radeon RAM 16GB, SSD 512GB -Win11 Home 64 v24H2| Vivaldi last stable|
-
@endemion I had used Pale Moon a few years ago, when this happened to XP. I just tried it again yesterday, and it seems to work fine and is mostly up to date. I worry a bit about the security. It can't deal with web extensions, such as the Malwarebytes browser guard. I'll tweak it some more and see what I find out.
-
@rbeeson , yes, but you are in the same thing, since Gecko Browsers are also going to stop supporting Win7/8.1 this year. That is to say, it doesn't matter if you install Firefox or one of its Forks, it will only stretch the problem until the summer, by far. There is no other way than to use Linux in Dual boot, if you want to continue using Windows 7 or 8.1 for some apps you have, but for the internet the train has already left.
Q4OS would be a good choice for people not used to Linux, its UI is very similar to Windows and it can also be installed like any program, with its own installer, it doesn't have to deal with burning ISOs.>Laptop ACER, AMD Ryzen, GPU AMD Radeon RAM 16GB, SSD 512GB -Win11 Home 64 v24H2| Vivaldi last stable|
-
@Catweazle Thanks for that link. Really useful.
-
With options like WindowsXLite.com it's easy to upgrade and continue in the Curl Top
with and Updated 
The only thing stoping about the Upgrades would be the Tech knowledge, contacts to help on achieving it, time spent in to get the same set up or not wanting to go into the whole process.
It's easier than Linux since it's mostly the same despite some aesthetic changes and some setting distribution.
Other than than, the few money you may consider to invest in a SSD plus 4Gb Ram extra 'til 8Gb at least, is worth to run fluidly enough for many more years.
Here got some i5U 5th Gen and adding those extras the computers run so well being they are from 2016 and will be used mostly for browsing and some low level games.
I guess they would run old Photoshop and Premier and similar for casual things too.
"You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you" · Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi
-
@Catweazle Also, many thanks for the Q4OS link.
-
I see that there are potential problems with mounting NTFS drives in Linux. I had the same problem with OS/2, which used HPFS. Can anyone comment on this?
-
-
@Zalex108 I just checked WindowssXLite, and it only seems to have options for Win 10 and 11. Nothing for 8.1.
-
Yes,
I meant to Upgrade the OS to this kind of since the Telemetry and unnecessarily default apps are removed keeping the option to install them just if you want / need.Here I'm using the Neon Dreams edition with windows updates also using the WXL WindowsXLite package.
