Back in 1995 it was, to my knowledge, the only OS capable of sharing CD-ROM's on the network. Even MS-DOS and Windows 3.11 machines could access it.

It was also capable of sharing Mainframe printers using a real null-printer-driver, which was not possible on Windows NT3.51 or NT4.0. Windows always messed with the Mainframe codes that it could not understand.

It was also easy to set up OS/2 as a gateway between different network hardware and protocols (Token Ring to Ethernet, or NetBios to IPX/SPX, ...)

It had REXX!

REXX was very powerful albeit a little quirky.

Novel Netware.

> I’ve lived in Europe my whole life. I’ve never been robbed or felt unsafe.

Really, where?

I have been robbed in Belgium and in France, have had a knife on my throat on a Sunday morning, and have had burglars twice (once in Antwerp, once in Leuven). About five of my bikes were stolen, and I've been conned by construction workers several times.

Southern Italy. We’ve had burglars once actually, but that’s about it. I’ve since then also lived in Switzerland and Sweden, which are obviously much safer. Perhaps I’m too optimistic, but I don’t see the point in worrying about this. I take my precautions like anyone else and that’s about it.

Anyhow, sorry to hear about your experience. That’s how statistics work I guess. For any particularly unlucky person there’s a correspondingly lucky person that averages them out.

Conning is definitely more of a thing, but I wouldn’t place it in the same league as pickpocketing of tourists. Which of course is a thing, I don’t want to deny it. Just that using it as a reason to avoid Europe is absolutely blowing it out of proportion.

I think you're severely underestimating how safe China has become. Nowadays people don't even lock their motorbikes, and can leave their laptops in coffeeshops unattended for half an hour. You definitely can't do either of that in Netherlands. Maybe in some small village where everybody knows everybody else it's still possible.

That is the baseline that Chinese are comparing to nowadays. That's why even many what we call safe places feel unsafe to them.

Also consider that just 15 years ago, China was definitely way unsafer than many European countries. China upgraded from a low public trust to high public trust society in front of people's living memories. This is what you have to consider when considering why Chinese people are happy with their government. All this voting stuff is just theoretical benefit. In Netherlands, our politics have been a mess for more than a decade. Voting certainly didn't solve the problems.

I actually forgot to mention something related to my travels. When I was in the UAE, I suddenly realized I had lost my keys. I called several hotels, but they all said they hadn’t found them. It was a difficult situation because I had to figure out a way to get a spare key from my company or have a new one made. The company has strict access control, so I couldn’t be 100% sure I’d be able to get in. In the end, after quite a bit of hassle, I managed to get the spare key from the company. When I finally got home, I found that my original keys had been hanging on my door—for eight full days. Countless delivery drivers, couriers, and possibly other people had passed through the building and seen it, but no one stole anything.

What you said is absolutely right. We’ve gotten used to this kind of society, so our expectations for safety when traveling are much higher than those of people from other countries. Credit cards are, of course, convenient, but in China we’re used to going out with just a phone—no wallet, no cards. No risk of fraud, no risk of robbery, convenient, fast, and safe.

My experience here in Antwerp is that a lot of places also play French, Italian, German, Swedish (Abba), Greek, Mexican, Brazilian, and many others, and of course Flemish music mixed with British and American. Never only (or mainly) American for as long as I live (I'm 55).

> When I think back to Windows 7, the good feeling isn't nostalgia. It was the last user-focused Windows.

I think Windows 98 was the last user-focused Windows. At least then all the useful settings were a single right-click away, and it just worked without invading your privacy.

(WinME never worked and WinXP was the first in a long series of shareholder-focused Windows.)

Congrats. I had the same thought when Windows XP came out in 2001. I triple booted OS/2 Warp with Win98 and Linux for a couple years. Linux only since 2003, I guess I missed a lot of MS fun.

It would be great if the USA invested half of its military budget in all these technologies instead of claiming that those Chinese investments are 'destroying' the USA economy. I have the impression that the USA is very capable, yet somehow chooses not to compete (on a technological investment level).

Because the US has moved onto a services economy. People don't want to build physical things. It's hard work, less pay, more pollution. They want to do consulting or software mostly.

And this has made the US more wealthy than ever with easier lives.

That works until it doesn't. Moderation in all things.

> That’s let’s than 7€/day

There is no daily Spanish football.

There are also things like 'interland breaks' or vacation periods when there is no football for two or more consecutive weeks, but the fee still needs to be payed.

I agree with the post, but it is not just operating systems, and it has been going in the 'closed wall' direction since before WinXP.

We had programs like 'pidgin' that allowed chatting with different protocols, whereas now even I (a Linux nerd with 30 years IT experience) have no clue how to take a backup of my Whatsapp/Facetime/... conversations. Completely closed protocols are winning over open ones.

There is a similar process going on with websites; they used to be open and readable for everyone. Today I cannot access most pages that are sent to me via mail or that are linked in forums, unless I create an account and agree to share everything with 799 partners. Never mind that all links are now safelinks.protection.outlook.

Hardware, too. You used to be able to figure out what was going on with hardware with an oscilloscope. You could get the oscilloscope onto a pin of a chip. You could replace chips. Now all of that is far beyond most people's reach.

I got to 19, bedtime now!

I remember typing whitehouse.com (hoping that was safe) in the early days of Internet... nope, it was not the same as whitehouse.gov!