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The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

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Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#151
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do you think Windows is a tire fire and OSX is usable? I used my first OSX machine ever earlier this year. I wanted to add some extra keyboard commands, so I had to download a 3rd party program that had to unlock accessibility controls and essentially take full control of the machine. That's absurd to me. I also hit tons of external display problems. Things wouldn't connect or sync right, desktops not correctly m…

You can customize a almost everything using the Keyboard panel of System Preferences. Yes, 3rd party tools like Karabiner are needed for control of absolutely everything but that is pretty rare. Also note that accessibility must be “unlocked” because it fundamentally adds a security risk: processes that can inspect inputs in arbitrary unknown applications have a lot of power. What macOS does is actually a feature and…

> These menu commands are not available with less than 3 Spaces created.

Well, discoverability certainly has been a problem with Apple software lately.

Take Force Touch as an example. Perhaps the menu items will show up with fewer than three Spaces created if you just press it harder?

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#152
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A paid Linux! That's what I said on this comment about "Ask HN – What innovation would you want to see", which 84 people upvoted: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12570030 I wish we would have executed on that wish a year ago, because with the two Microsoft & Apple events, it's clear there is demand for "a Surface Studio, but not with Windows 10". Yesterday people effectively said they stay on Macs because of mac…

I feel the exact same way. I've been a Mac user for over ten years largely because of OS X, but I've been disappointed in Apple's direction for the past few years, and yesterday's MacBook Pro announcement was the last straw for me. Linux is a wonderful server OS, and in fact I do most of my development inside of a VirtualBox VM running Debian, but in order for me to move to a full Linux workflow, I need to use some p…

I'd buy it!

Who's going to fund the upfront development? "We're going to make a new desktop OS that takes on both Apple and Microsoft" sounds like a hard sell for the VC crowd.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#153

I keep reading about how unhappy people are with Apples latest reveal. I feel the same way. No way am I upgrading my 2015 Mac Book Pro with the new one. Still, Apple will not change a thing unless people actually vote with their wallets. If you're really so upset, do NOT buy this damn computer! If this latest line sees very little sells, they'll get the idea.

Suppose you need a new computer for work. Your other options are Windows or a Linux desktop experience, both of which are vastly worse in other ways. (No, I don't want to dork around with spending days compiling kernel patches and installing soundcard drivers before I can use the computer.) I'd gladly buy any other laptop that was simple and just worked out of the box in the sense that a Mac does. But there aren't an…

I'm not sure when you last used Linux, but nobody compiles their own custom kernel with patches anymore.

You don't have to make up stuff to make a point; yes, Linux is probably not as polished as MacOS (though I doubt that), but it's much more user friendly now than you make it out to be.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#154

I'll keep buying Apple hardware (even if the latest rev isn't great) since macOS is the only usable operating system. Windows is (still/increasingly?) a tire fire that's only useful if you're a gamer, and Linux is for programmer-masochists.

Linux is most definitely not for masochists; when did you last use it? Ubuntu, elementary OS, Mint, etc all offer pretty polished user experiences.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose you need a new computer for work. Your other options are Windows or a Linux desktop experience, both of which are vastly worse in other ways. (No, I don't want to dork around with spending days compiling kernel patches and installing soundcard drivers before I can use the computer.) I'd gladly buy any other laptop that was simple and just worked out of the box in the sense that a Mac does. But there aren't an…

I'm not sure when you last used Linux, but nobody compiles their own custom kernel with patches anymore. You don't have to make up stuff to make a point; yes, Linux is probably not as polished as MacOS (though I doubt that), but it's much more user friendly now than you make it out to be.

I use Linux on a daily basis, including recently building a Linux desktop machine from scratch. Its usability is much better than it was in 1999, yes, but it's still a very far cry from the polished, just-works user experience of the Mac.

No, I should not have to edit any text files to get the GUI to come up.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#156
post #52

The thing is, hardware is important but software is arguably more important because it's what you interact with every day (yes, you interact with the hardware too but not directly, besides the keyboard and touch pad). In that respect, I trust Apple more than either Microsoft or Google. I will not trust Google with any of my data unless it's necessary and Microsoft isn't so great in my eyes either due to their ad and…

Apple hardware is good. Not a fan of treatment apple OS. For me Ubuntu is now a far better developer OS. I just want a similar hardware with Mac touchpad working to make the shift wrt laptop.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#157

I keep reading about how unhappy people are with Apples latest reveal. I feel the same way. No way am I upgrading my 2015 Mac Book Pro with the new one. Still, Apple will not change a thing unless people actually vote with their wallets. If you're really so upset, do NOT buy this damn computer! If this latest line sees very little sells, they'll get the idea.

Suppose you need a new computer for work. Your other options are Windows or a Linux desktop experience, both of which are vastly worse in other ways. (No, I don't want to dork around with spending days compiling kernel patches and installing soundcard drivers before I can use the computer.) I'd gladly buy any other laptop that was simple and just worked out of the box in the sense that a Mac does. But there aren't an…

I've been using Linux as my primary OS since 2009. Not once I had to compiled anything at all. It works surprisingly well with almost any hardware you throw at it.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As most new apps start to be built on UWP that issue will go away. Also, I am not sure what DPI issues you're facing but I have run W10 on my rMBP for quite some time and it's been thoroughly pleasant. Perhaps your issues are fuzzy text due to mixed DPI, multi monitor setup?

UWP apps have a lot of limitations compared to WPF/Win32 apps. As I understand it, UWP apps can't record audio in the background or act as a Bluetooth accessory, to give two examples. So, even if a developer is willing to invest the time to rewrite an app to use UWP, the app will lose a lot of functionality. Microsoft has again poorly architected their APIs. Unlike macOS, where there's no penalty to adopting the late…

I mean, you can just use WPF + the desktop bridge in these cases. There's still some work for the desktop bridge to catch up, but it's perfectly feasible (aside from, you know, feeling like a traditional Windows desktop app vs a "Modern" one without a lot of work styling WPF controls).

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS has something better: all the settings in one place. Windows used to have something like that too, I think it was called the Control Panel.

No, it doesn't. Preferences, but also 'defaults write ...', or just edit a plist...

Technically correct but very few people care about "defaults write". I can't remember the last time I used it, but I do use RegEdit often enough.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#160
post #76
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you edit which keys do what on Windows? I had to do registry edits to get the caps lock to function as control which is baked into the macOS preferences. You can also add as many shortcuts as you like that control anything on macOS in the Keyboard pane. Sure you can't remap every key to something different out of the box but I don't think you can do that on Windows either.

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/globalization/keyboardlayou...

That's a tool you have to download. It doesn't come with the OS.
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