Me neither but here we are 
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If we’re discussing Win7 then…
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Something I like about Win10 is there were tools to make it work more like Win7, from back before they thought my computer was a tablet.
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I am hanging onto my Win10 laptop (Asus 17") for as long as I possibly can. It has all of the data / files from my Win7 laptop on it.
We have Win11 at work and, while I like some features, I find some things annoying. Because old.
Anyway, I’m making a big assumption that, in Win11 world, you need to both lease your software and keep all of your data / files in OneDrive (the Cloud). I’ve been told that Win11 machines don’t have all the gigs my Win10 laptop does. Please, someone, tell me I can own my software and have all my stuff local!
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I can’t speak to the spyware embedded in it, or how much it surveils you, but you can keep your files locally, and own some of your software… it’s not great, but you temper your expectations with microsoft.
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And also use Windows? Yes, but they are certainly making that more of an uphill battle with each successive release.
If you’re willing to give up Windows for something like Linux, you can get back everything you’ve given up over the years (and more!), but of course there are always trade offs.
If it has important data on it, please make sure there is more than one copy.
I’m not aware of that being a trend, but that would be interesting if true. Storage is generally still one of the few things you can customize on a new PC, so I would be surprised if vendors are limiting that due to Windows 11. If you’d like more control over your PC (laptop) hardware, might I suggest considering Framework?
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I have never used OneDrive and I’m on Win 11 both at home and at work. Sometimes with Excel it makes it less obvious to save stuff locally, but it’s all there.
I use StartAllBack to set up the taskbar and menu etc. the way I want instead of Windows 11 style.
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On my personal computer, which has Win11, i don’t have anything with OneDrive and Windows does not ask me to use it, or try backing stuff onto it. I have heard from folks here where they had the opposite experience, where they were unable to stop OneDrive from backing their files but it should be entirely possible to avoid it being an annoyance.
The one thing i do hate and i don’t know how to completely disable or if its even possible is getting rid of the Edge browser. But my understanding is that Windows 11 needs Edge in order for some functionality to work, so you can’t entirely nuke it.
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I haven’t noticed Edge running at all on my home machine, since installing other things. But Visual Studio on my work machine always spawns about a half dozen Edge processes in the background.
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Occasionally i’ll miss click something and Windows decides it wants to open whatever that is with Edge, despite that its not my default browser. It doesn’t happen often, but those few times is enough to really annoy me.
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Very helpful, everyone! Thank you! You all are the BEST!
I may make the leap and go to Linux. I plan on buying my next laptop just before I retire (so I can get the employee discount) and, after I retire, I’ll have a lot more time to tinker. At least, I hope so! That will be next August (2026), unless Doge has something else to say about it before then.
Tech is changing a lot faster than it did over the first 40 years of my career… JCL and Assembler / COBOL with flat file and VSAM data → Mainframe SAS, also with flat file and VSAM data → Unix and PC SAS with flat file, VSAM and DB2 data → SAS Enterprise Guide (desktop interface with Unix server) and DB2, Sybase, SQL Server, Oracle and flat file data → Corporate mandates to get away from DB2, Sybase, SQL Server, Oracle and flat file data with no clear vision of what tools we’ll be able to use to access any of the new data sources.
All in all, I’m glad I’ll be retiring in just over a year!
OOPS! I got sidetracked from tech reminisce to retirement anticipation! 
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That’s a pretty storied career, 40 years! Congrats on the upcoming retirement, hope you enjoy it.
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I noticed this topic just now and remembered that I must have an old analog camera lost somewhere in the house. So I went to the Intereeb looking for places where they still sell photographic film and was shocked by the prices. I was wondering how much it must cost to develop and print the photos…
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I have my dad’s Canon film camera, needs maintenance but would also need film. I haven’t looked into prices for the film but i would love to have it fixed up at the very least, i can’t see myself getting rid of it and i know it takes beautiful pictures. As far as places that can develop the film i believe places still process film but it might potentially involve you shipping it to a photo lab.
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I once found some old films at my mother’s house that were used around 1984. I took them to a lab and, to my surprise, they were able to develop them. I didn’t print them, since they gave me everything digitized on a USB stick. It wasn’t that expensive. I think there are still half a dozen places that develop film around here.
ETA
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What show was that?
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Or, even better, System 7.
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There’s some album cover material there.
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When I first saw the pictures, I thought the same thing. If I knew how to play an instrument and was in an indie rock band, I would use the little Playmobil photos (how I loved those little German people). Of course I would release my songs on a beautiful vinyl album.
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Babylon 5.
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