My Windows XP x64 desktop. I have it installed on my main PC alongside other operating systems, and boot into it to either mess about with, get a nostalgia hit, or play around and try to get stuff not-supporting-XP working.
Windows XP remains surprisingly usable today. There are several updated web browsers - one recent appearance is Supermium, which ports the newest/almost-newest Chromium and permits use of Discord, Youtube etc without a sweat under XP (plus it has several privacy tweaks from Ungoogled Chromium, for those conscious of that).
Windows XP had an especially vibrant custom theme landscape - in part because it remained supported and widely used for a humongous amount of time. As such people made great-quality custom themes that encompass all kinds of design trends that popped up over the years. The theme used by me here is "Watercolor Emico: Black" by Jamush, which is one of my all-time favorites.
In service of 4/13, which happened yesterday, I have put up a Homestuck wallpaper, in this instance one of my favorite ones that has stuck around with me on those XP x64 setups ^^. I believe that this
is the original, but it has a couple of small quirks, like the way darker space on the right. I have wrangled it quite a bit on my own end, but I don't remember what I precisely did since it's been ages. It does appear to be a vectorized picture of Skaia, which would make it "recreatable" for anyone interested.
Overall, I enjoy using this system - I normally use Linux, but when I get a desire to use Windows this usually does perfectly. It does, however, have several things that later Windowses clearly do better - for example, the audio system got greatly enhanced in Vista, with per-application volume settings. Additionally, and this may be a problem with my drivers, I get pops and slight skips in certain programs and games (for example, VVVVVV) under XP that I do not get on other systems. Older Windowses certainly had their own warts indeed (as someone who generally doesn't like newer Windowses, I do apprecieate being able to use older Windows versions regularly, to have further perspective on what changes in the later versions I would call definite improvements, and what I would rather have be similar to the older versions ^^)
A very important thing to note is that my hardware is old enough for XP x64 to still be supported driver-wise. You generally can't install Windows XP on newer hardware by default, and while there are modded drivers, custom drivers and workarounds, it is certainly not a task for the feeble. Additionally, the XP x64, being based on Server 2003, and not being a particularly common system (Vista/7 were the first x64 OS's that properly "took off" to put it highly clumsily), has spottier driver support than "regular" 32-bit XP. Indeed, I have to use my GPU with a single screen, as plugging in a second monitor bluescreens the computer! (this is an issue with the driver under specifically 64-bit systems, and while there is a patched version for a later driver version than what I use, that driver version has its own issues and keeps resetting itself into washed-out-colors-mode (clamping the colours to 16-235/"limited RGB" ). So I stick with the older driver version and just use it with a single screen)
So yeah, have an inpromptu-and-overlong description of an OS install I have particularly enjoyed messing about with recently :D
Sooooo.....something I am very happy about happened today! I got a girlfriend! Shsjdhwisjs
Yeah-
this is how it went;
I drew a badly drawn cat, and handed it to her and said "have a very ugly cat, will you be my girlfriend?" She took the paper and my pencil, and wrote 'yes' and I started laughing and crying cause, emotions-
