@phlogiston yeah.
I love #Pixxabox-style cases so much I convinced @fuchsiii into getting one for her #WindowsXP - #Windows7 / #Wine testing/debug rig...
But then again I'm the guy who constantly shoves every drive bay full...
I am considering learning to program, not as a career but for myself. I have been wanting to do this for a long time but never really started. One thing I do know is that I like procedural languages as opposed to object-oriented ones. I am strongly considering QuickBASIC 4.5 or 7.1, and Turbo Pascal 6.0, but I don't know which to choose as a beginner. I know there are flavours of these that can work with Windows XP and 7, and maybe, one day, I will try them in their 32-bit varients. But for now, I am focusing on the DOS ones,since they are probably easier to learn and use. Is there anything I should know as a totally blind programmer? If I did choose to switch to a Windows varient of one of these languages, how difficult would the transition be?
If it helps, these are the sorts of programs I use in Windows.
Notepad Classic, Jarte (can simply use Edit or Wordperfect 5.1, or MS Word 5.5, but simple editor may be good for project)
MPCHC (mp3 player, I don't mind a simpler one)
Virtual Recorder (simple mp3 recorder/may be difficult in DOS)
Thunderbird 102 (most likely too advanced for a beginner)
TweeseCake, TWBlue (for Mastodon/there is already a DOStodon, but don't know if it's accessible)
Reddit for Blind, Luna for Reddit
Cook Timer (simple timers exist, but this may be good to create as a beginner project)
Openbook, Kurzweil 1000 (ocr and pdf converter, too advanced for beginner)
various audio and text-based games
#16-bit #32-bit #accessibility #BASIC #blind #DOS #programming #QuickBASIC #TurboPascal #Windows7 #WindowsXP
Quelli cresciuti con Windows XP capiranno.
Lo sfondo del desktop nel 1996 vs nel 2025.
(Spoiler: non è invecchiato benissimo 
)
immagine pubblicata nel gruppo Computer e Retrocomputer: @computer
For those who don't know the size of the problem:
In 2006 I bought a new [entry level] Computer with 256 MB of RAM and a single-core P4 Celeron with 2,8 GHz.
This thing ran #WindowsXP and #NeedForSpeedMostWanted just fine.
Nowadays it would crash trying to open #Slack even on a minimalist #Linux distro like @bunsenlabs in @dillo, a lightweight browser ...
And now imagine that some folks have to use #Slack, #MicrosoftTeams, #Telegram, #Signal, #WhatApp, #WeChat, #QQ and #LineMessenger at the same time on their machine, and you can imagine that this will make entry-level desktops already scream harder than if someone were to loop the Lost Coast benchmark on them...
Everywhere else we'd not accept such a #bloatware IRL.
@Linkshaender I couldn't find anyplace where it was legal to get closer to anyone's field, sadly. But I found the right area because of the folks who run this feed store, who are also in the market for 'an old XP desktop computer: doesn't have to work' 
The store was guarded by a dog named Lily who I sadly did not get a photo of, but I did get to scritch.
@benjohn @foone nodds in agreement
My elderly friend Elaine's system has been aging poorly lately. It's got 6GB of RAM and a dual-core cpu.
She mainly uses it to keep in touch with family and play open source games like mahjong and solitaire.
She explicitly requested #LinuxMint w/ #cinnamon because #Windows is too complicated (she came from #windowsxp before trying #Windows8 )
NewEgg had a $240 Optiplex 7040 that is a massive upgrade over her old AIO. SSD, 32GB DDR4, Quad Core i5, etc.
Old hardware still has a use.
@kopio @shaknais Doesn't matter.
I'd just recommend to yeet #Windows and be done with it.
Even if that was a #WindowsXP-era machine, something like @bunsenlabs would turn it into a perfectly fine desktop that barely sips resources.
Seriously, #Linux #distros should really have a sort-of #Tour program like #WindowsXP:
The NC10 was dead. BIOS beeps, no POST, nothing.
I tried Debian. I tried 7. I gave up.
Then I didn’t.
I stuck the motherboard in the oven.
And somehow, it booted.
What followed was two full days of ISO failures, update errors, driver hell, and one buried ISO that saved everything.
XP is back. On the original hardware.
New post is up:
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/dead-os-walking-30-days-on-windows-xp-in-2025-day-5-what-happens-now/
#DeadOSWalking #windowsxp #retrocomputing
In your opinion, what is the "correct" version of MS Visual Studio to run on #WindowsXP?
Does anyone have an #accessible #irc #client for #WindowsXP? Discord, as you can imagine, is proving rather difficult to use, so I'd like to use IRC instead for the communities I'm a part of that have both. Thanks in advance!
People keep telling me I don’t know how good I have it. That modern systems are easy, and that accessibility has come so far I should be grateful. So I decided to test that claim the hard way.
I’m running Windows XP for a month. Not in a VM. Not themed. Real XP. Real hardware. A 2009 Samsung NC10, with 2GB of RAM, an SSD, and the original drivers I had to dig up from the depths of the internet.
No speech at install. I used OCR to get through it.
Display drivers broke four times.
Serpent is the only browser I could get working.
I installed Office 2003.
Got JAWS 15 running after a registry hack.
NVDA still works fine.
I even played some old audio games I never got to try growing up.
I haven’t found a decent ad blocker or antivirus yet. I’m not expecting this to go smoothly. I don’t even really believe I’ll make it the full 30 days. But I’m doing it anyway.
Day 1 is up. Written and published from Windows XP.
https://fireborn.mataroa.blog/blog/dead-os-walking-30-days-on-windows-xp-in-2025/
#WindowsXP #Accessibility #BlindComputing #RetroTech
#NVDA #JAWS #audiogames
#30DaysOfXP
@cleverboi @FandaSin @BrodieOnLinux @neal to answer your question stuff like @rasteri 's #Wee86 * & #WeeCee ** are quite common in #embedded & #industrial setups because as much superior the #Atom Z520 and E3815 are, these have been discontinued unlike the #Vortex86 SoCs!
Yes, I hate #Microsoft & dislike the fact that people.use #MSDOS despite it being deprecated longer than #WindowsXP exists but someone's gotta have to do #DataRecovery or at least #backup & #restore said systems' drives...
https://infosec.space/@kkarhan/114738983433662865
*Please only add me if you're over twenty-one.
Since the Bio field has such a short character limit, consider this to be my profile/biography.
I don't write about American politics, race, anticapitalism, world affairs (wars, poverty, oppression, etc.), loneliness, bad self-esteem, or anxiety/depression, and will not add those who do so often. The same is true of those who feel it necessary to use obscenities constantly. I am not a modern programmer or gamer, I do not use Linux, and I don't care what social network you use.*
Hello. You may have seen me on Friendica.world or blob.cat. Both had accessibility issues, so I am now here, but my other accounts are still open (dandylover1 on both). Also, if you wish to add me to MSN/Windows Live Messenger via Escargot, I am dandylover1@escargot.chat.
Georgiana Brummell is not my legal name, but it is what I use. I chose it in honour of Beau Brummell. I live in New Jersey and am forty-one years old. Some of my interests include studying dandyism, nineteenth-century English grammar, Upper Received Pronunciation, the Italian language, British history, the Regency, opera, and MS-DOS and its current varients. I like coffee, tea, wine, cooking, classic literature, nature and historical documentaries, old BBC radio shows, gardening, hot weather, and playing cards and dice. I love opera, particularly singers from the 1940's and earlier, with Tito Schipa, Beniamino Gigli, Ferruccio Tagliavini, and Mattia Battistini being my favourite singers. I also enjoy English and Viennese operettas. In classical music, I like Baroque through early Romantic. I prefer antique menswear (usually Edwardian) and accessories. I love wit, wordplay, and dry humour without vulgarity, though I do enjoy adult fun. I am happily childfree and am not religious. I have been totally blind since I was two months old, due to Retinopathy of Prematurity.
I am also single and searching. If you are a single, childfree, intelligent, well-dressed man over sixty, please write to me. I will accept platonic friends twenty-one and older.
This is my journal. Anyone can read or comment, whether or not he is a member.
Interests
Windows XP Installation Music (Vapourwave edit)
mvstang
@fuchsiii @krutonium it was.
I had a laptop with dedicaded GPU and 2GB of RAM back then and it striggled so hard that I literally downgraded to #WindowsXP!
/with_errors [and_without]
