Quest For The Packard Bell, The - Chapter VI (Post No. 19)

    Today's chapter is the very reason why I keep saying that I want to sweat about a Microsoft "boogeyman" that may/may not exist from the very get go. In other words; 

   Quest For The Packard Bell, Chapter VI: 

I try to go find an older model of computer, so that the other members who haven't already of Serenity Gaming don't have to.

    Now, I'll keep today's chapter short, and probably not go into too much detail more than I already have to, since I kind of already am working creatively on another project where I am writing something about the sixth iteration of a Quest for the Packard Bell. For now, finding such a rare computer for myself is not going to be a sprint race, and have my parents worry about how I'll cover my life's basics, but a marathon, where I'm probably going to be crossing the finish line when I've moved out of the bedroom where I spent years 21-31 sleeping in, and into where I will be spending my 32nd year's balance forward and that's when I will be designing it from the ground up - often telling my parents I won't be designing it for them --- since I just said that they aren't going to be using it, so no sense designing it for them if they won't end up using it. There's literally no sense. I mean, I'm probably going to continue making several downloads with a [REDACTED] account that I will never admit to my parents to even having, just going to put that out there right now. 

   Now, I've often said that I've gotten a little unduly paranoid about Windows 11, considering that some would say that it is more, "bad" than Windows 10. I mean, in a lot of ways, it's changed how I use Windows personally at home. Prior to this, and when I had used Windows 10 so much, I would've just preferred to use Windows 10 both at home, and in the workplace, favoring it over Windows 7 and saying that Windows 7 would be the larger security hole in the corporate network, and personally saying that any "main-role" PC not have Windows 7 on it, since that is automatically a security hole. 

   I've changed my mind, however, and now say that Windows 10 is now the computer that I have to keep out of the "main-role" that Windows 7 once held from 2015-2020, and that's when I regretted upgrading to. On the one hand, I was glad to leave ODD games behind, and in another, I realize now that progress came with a price. Also, some might think I just was letting the Claymore stay on my floor, collecting dust and spiderwebs, but I didn't want to use the computer for Zoom - I had built it precisely for a game machine. Oh well, I sold it two years into its service life, but only because I had crashed it. I guess I'm just going to have to get another gaming rig if I can swing it and probably take a little bit better care of that one. 

    I mean, I absolutely don't knock modern hardware or software by any means. I think it's absolutely great that we have more modern hardware than what we would have had anywhere from five, to ten, to fifteen, to twenty, to twenty-five, to thirty, to thirty-five, to forty years ago. However, I can't help but think we've kind of just had to make some compromises in the name of progress and that can either be a good, or bad thing --- depending on how you look at it. 

Example 1: Computer external media from the 1980s/1990s/2000s/2010s vs. now, in the 2020s. 

1980s: Most computers sold had no internal disk drive, so software was loaded off of floppy disks. This was likely either the floppy floppies, or the hard floppies. 

Early 1990s: Although computers started to have things like hard drives and compact disc drives in them, the floppy floppies from the 1980s stuck around for just a bit longer. This would be phased out by later in the decade.

Mid 1990s: Computers sold, usually IBM clones or Apple Macintoshes, even the Mac clones that did exist for a brief period around this time, had either just the floppy disk which took the hard floppies only, the hard floppy only combined with the CD drive, and that was pretty much it. Although some hobbyists may add the floppy floppy drives to their computers. 

Late 1990s: The colorful iMacs were the first all-in-one PCs which totally made floppy disks go the way of the floppy floppies. Although you could still add that connectivity back by means of external drives, which was a standard that persists even to today, as more computer manufacturers gradually adapted their manufacturing standards. 

Early 2000s: A continuation of the latter half of the 1990s, Macs continue to not have the floppy diskette drives in them, and PCs continue to have them --- for the sake of legacy compatibility. Of course, low capacity memory sticks (Think 64-128MB) start to be sold around this time. 

Mid 2000s: All computers across the board stop having the 3 1/2 floppy diskette drive offered as an option, similar to them all having DVD-R and ROM drives instead of CD-ROMs like they had since the early 1990s. 

Late 2000s: Similar to the early 2000s, no more floppy disk option, but the option was there if you really needed it to use an external. 

Early to Mid 2010s: Similar to the latter half of the 2000s, DVD drives stuck around, in a lot of senses. 

Late 2010s: DVD drives soon fell out of popularity in favor of USB drives.

2020s (present day as of October 24th, 2022): Computers sold have no external media drives like floppy or disc drives at all. But if the user wishes to add that capability back, they can use externals on computers with no slots, or build custom ones that have those legacy capabilities back if they want to. 

   True, the advances in OS capability and security may not be a terrible loss, and games from way back when, can be played with DOSBox. But, according to some game purists out there on this Earth, it's not really the best option to use emulation to play games of any era, old or new.