Hey AC, dont worry too much.

You can boot UEFI bios systems into legacy OSes pretty easily with a second stage loader scheme.

Such as GRUB2.

It works in the reverse too-- allowing UEFI expecting OSes to boot on BIOS systems. Since upgrading to a 4tb drive, I had to switch to GPT instead of MBR. I use GRUB2 on the "fake" MBR of the GPT table as the primary loader to satisfy my legacy BIOS's need for a primary boot sector and MBR partition table, and since GRUB2 is GPT aware, it can read the GPT partition table and then chainload the proper bootloader.

Works like a charm.

The real challenge would be getting UEFI expecting OSes that make use of UEFI features after bootup to run on legacy BIOS systems. For that, you need software implementations of UEFI, and those are a pain in the ass.

One way that windows 7 (in particular) slows down, comes from the use of the winSXS folder.

Basically, because the windows software ecosystem is so... Plagued.. with legacy software that expect older versions of system libraries, Microsoft invented a solution to detect those dependencies and satisfy them with those older libaries in a sandbox-- the WinSXS folder.

As time passes, and updates happen, system libraries get updated-- instead of being replaced, they get moved to the winsxs folder and archived. This is so when your bitchy internal-only legacy application that is oh-so-mission-critical that it simply cant be rewritten for a modern OS gets run, it can continue to run.

The downside is that as this treasure trove of old libraries grows, the penalty of the checking routine becomes more and more apparent. (also, it consumes more and more disk space.)

Other forms of slowdown are not specific to windows 7 and newer however.

The registry is a binary file that must be parsed to find entries inside it, and it too can become fragmented. As changes are CONSTANTLY happening to the registry, the (actual) structure of the registry can become more and more byzantine. Since such changes are completely unavoidable with daily use, the slow degradation of this system is also unavoidable unless you boot from a golden image each and every time. This has been a problem since at least the 9x days. Back then, you could automate registry defragmentation with a bootup script because of the complete lack of filesystem security on FAT-- (Tell regedit to dump the registry in its totality into an exported text file, then tell it to rebuild the registry from scratch using that text file dump, then cleanup the temporary files afterwards.) You cant do that with modern flavors of windows because 1) you cant invoke scripts that easily on bootup anymore 2) the registry files are protected with NTFS security descriptors, 3) the OS locks the registry basically as soon as NTLDR finishes, so you cant replace the registry files while live.

There are of course, the other causes of slowdown that come from cumulative misconfigurations that happen from automated updates, but meh.

Even with disk cleanup removing redundancies in the winSXS folder, it can still swell to be over 12gb in size.

A better solution is to turn NTFS compression on for the folder, then defragment the living shit out of it. (NTFS compression causes epic fragmentation.)

You dont want compression turned on as a rule, but when windows is basically warehousing data against an uncertain future, you might as well treat it like a "rarely used, if ever" archival store. The space is more valuable than the access speed in this case.

Just be wary! the compression cycle is very harmful to SSDs, but once compressed, the files dont change, so its fine afterward. Better to do with a disk image on a spinny disk, then port the whole image to the SSD.

Does your other OS hold on to outdated versions of system files for compatibility reasons, like windows 7+ does?

(Note, research the purpose of the WINSXS folder.)

Part of the issue is also that newer versions of windows want to move away from just being an OS, and toward being an entertainment venue all of its own.

That's MS marketing and the UI graphic designers faults though.

Fun little thing to do:

Take a weak kneed intel Atom board, and do some simple office use tests with it with various older versions of windows. Start with NT4, then use Win2k, the XP, then 7, then 8.1. See how the ability to do simple things degrades as the OS expects more and more hardware just to draw the damned UI.

Now, realize that the biggest selling point for new windows versions is NOT a new shiny UI-- but continued security updates. Now you will understand why corporations get bitchy. They have something that works, on the hardware they already have-- but are going to be forced to buy a whole new iteration of hardware, to get updated software that gets updates against security threats-- because otherwise MS does not get money.

If it werent for the lack of security updates, win2k would be ideal for nearly all corporate drone installations.

(Note, there are other useful features that were added with each version of windows, and I am not discounting that. What I am saying is that even with those kernel space and user space feature enhancements, they could have been rolled into service packs for the older products, and you would have had more responsive product overall. The need to reinvent the OS constantly drives the need to constantly make it look different, (to set it apart from its predecessor), which constantly increases the HW requirements. It is pathological.)

That's probably because somewhere in the google complex, there are some crusty old bureaucrats that just cant let go of the notion that "Proprietary == Profit!", and that "Control" takes many forms other than just "Stop all competition at all costs!"

Things like, "Look, we design and maintain the freaking OS. Here's how the location service API works, and how to make calls. Our location service package in Google Apps is purpose tailored for the Android platform, and we provide support for it-- however, if you want to have your device provide location services using a different library, it needs to conform to this API, and you are on your own if it breaks. We wish you luck, but if it breaks, dont come crying to us over it. Likewise, if you are linking against our location service software in your app using some method OTHER than the published API (Such as hooking some of our secret sauce inside that isn't normally exposed, hijacking some unanticipated feature of our location service daemon, or using some magic ID string for some other purpose that will then break if some 3rd party location service daemon is installed-) you are not developing for the android platform correctly, and if we catch you doing it, we will boot you from the playstore for not following best practices."

You still have market dominance. You still have control over the playstore. You still have control over quality of software on offically supported devices (so you dont look bad) ,AND you get to have a powerful shield against regulatory oppression.

BUT-- Somewhere in corporate la-la land, there is that cadre of old fucks who see an open platform and shit themselves because they dont have a strangle-hold death-grip on every little thing involved.

low RPM wind turbines can make use of graphite dust. Graphite is a mineral, and is geologically stable over time.

Alternatively, "lead bearings" are also a potential solution to that problem. Not everything needs to be made from oil.

Which is PRECISELY why the corporations MUST be controlled via strong force of law, NOT relaxed pampering and pandering.

Since a corporations fiduciary obligation is the center of the corporation's universe, and all other considerations take second or even third stage (if at all!), then some other agency MUST step in to intercede to protect the system from the otherwise inevitable collapse. THAT IS THE ROLE OF GOVERNMENT.

The problem is that government panders to the corporations and gives them whatever they want, (and what they want is less legal restrictions on their ability to meet their fiduciary obligations, at the expense of all other concerns and practices) instead of busting their chops and holding their asses to the fire so they have to fly right.

Going "But think of the poor corporations, just doing what they are forced to do by their evil share holders!" is bullshit. Instead, you should be demanding that government do its fucking job, instead of whoring itself out for career re-election dollars.

virtual machines might still hold a valuable feature in the future, since they would more strongly compartmentalize running code against exploit based escalation of privileges. Using chroot blocks processes from accessing files outside the jail, but does not prevent a running process from attacking the shared kernel space, and gaining access to the real root filesystem. An honest to goodness virtual machine offers additional layers of protection.

Given the increasing value in gaining unauthorized exclusive access (for criminals anyway-- That includes the spying antics of governments) to systems that host data for many different customers, the incentive to bust such jails and run amok on the server is only going to increase as the bean counters press more and more for "data based economy" models.

So while less sophisticated jails are faster and easier to deploy, they are also necessarily less secure than a fully blown VM with a full hypervisor monitoring them between them and the real server OS kernel, and thus more vulnerable, and thus more prone to being attacked-- That means that as the "Professional data criminal" element grows, the viability of these less sophisticated jails will diminish, and the viability of more sophisticated (but slower) jails will increase.

NOT homeopathic!! This is apothicary!

Homeopathic-- Made of two root words. Homeo == Same, Pathos == causes illness.

Homeopathy is a very strongly disproven notion from ancient days that if you consumed small quantities of a pathogen, your body would be strengthened against it.

Apothicary is radically different. Apothicaries (western ones anyway) ammased remedies that were ancient even in the dark ages, because they had proven to be effective at treating illnesses, and some theories as to the mechanisms of their action were created, and new remedies compounded based on those theories. They lacked modern science, and lacked the modern understanding of germs, but apothicary medicine was a pretty rigorous discipline, as opposed to the philosophical wishy-washiness of homeopathy.

[Eastern apothicaries however, developed a kind of magical hoodoo nonsense, which still lingers to this day. There is no medicinal value in tiger penis. No. There. isnt. It's just meat.]

It's a little late to reply here, but I worked for a fortune 500 doing remote technical support for high end storage controllers.

A very alarming number of the people maintaining these controllers that were from India were quite simply not competent, and it did not matter if they were physically IN india at the time, or were working outside of india.

We are talking "You take control and do it for me now?" kind of incompetent. You know, the kind that dont know what the ls command does level of incompetency.

In stark contrast, the support personel from pretty much every other country knew what they were doing, and just needed a little assist with oddball quirks of their controllers, and did not expect our support staff to do their jobs, in addition to our own.

So you can take your "Oh, you must be a priviledged american!" attitude, and shove it. No-- this is very specific to Indian tech workers. An alarming number of the ones I interacted with should never have been hired.

No, CHEATING is a cultural thing there. Many feel they have the RIGHT to cheat.

Cheating on university exams produces inferior quality graduates, that only make the system cumbersome and unpleasant.

However, there are whole industries that capitalize on this phenomenon. H1B visa mills are just one such industry.

Crackdowns on Indian cheating will directly affect their financial bottom lines. Expect hard pushback.

How can they crank out "qualified applicants" at bargain basement prices, if they cant get ahold of disreputable young people with dodgy diplomas for bargain basement prices?

The wive's tale must be TRUE!!

Mom always said that I would go blind!

(LOL)

No. The emdrive would have to accelerate endlessly, and would consume all available energy in the universe, and STILL not achieve lightspeed. It's the propulsion version of Xeno's paradox.