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Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

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Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#181

Post by my123 »

cma wrote: post #178
yodsanklai wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a MacBook now, but I'd love to go to a Surface Studio. If they can work to get up-to-date hardware in all of their offerings ... The problem isn't so much the hardware but the OS. I have awful memories of Windows. I suppose it has gotten better, but I wonder if it's a realistic replacement to Mac OS X? Essentially, I want something that just works and where I can use common unix tools. Maybe the new Unix sub…

One big issue is still the 260-character path-name limitation. Deep source directories choke on that, especially if you copy them around for backup, etc. You end up abbreviating class names in the file names and mess up searchability. You end up using single letter directories like 'C:\b\' instead of 'C:\backup\', etc. as workarounds. It all feels very MS DOS.

Windows no longer has that limit since a decade at least.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#182

Post by my123 »

cma wrote: post #178
yodsanklai wrote: post #157

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I have a MacBook now, but I'd love to go to a Surface Studio. If they can work to get up-to-date hardware in all of their offerings ... The problem isn't so much the hardware but the OS. I have awful memories of Windows. I suppose it has gotten better, but I wonder if it's a realistic replacement to Mac OS X? Essentially, I want something that just works and where I can use common unix tools. Maybe the new Unix sub…

One big issue is still the 260-character path-name limitation. Deep source directories choke on that, especially if you copy them around for backup, etc. You end up abbreviating class names in the file names and mess up searchability. You end up using single letter directories like 'C:\b\' instead of 'C:\backup\', etc. as workarounds. It all feels very MS DOS.

This limit never existed in the NT kernel, it's a Win32 SubSystem limit that can be workarounded with \??\ at the beginning of the path

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#183

Post by dr_zoidberg »

Silhouette wrote: post #154
jon_richards wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Opt-in will never happen for things like this. There are just too many people who don't care. Look at the rates of organ-donors when comparing opt-in to opt-out. I'd be happy if they made things opt-out. As in you can opt out of them. I just had a miserable time getting my default documents folder to not be the onedrive folder so things stopped saving there and microsoft stopped complaining about me being over my pit…

I'd be happy if they made things opt-out. I tend to agree. Windows 10 is better in some respects than earlier versions and worse in others, but right now most of those don't matter very much. The forced updates, forced telemetry, and emphasis on online services make it a non-starter for small businesses like ours. I've given up even feeling Schadenfreude when I read reports of friends or colleagues who have moved to…

Reboots after update have been moved to a "Yeah, remind me later -wink- -wink-" popup, kinda like Windows 7 handled them. I'm not even in a country where we get first in line the big updates (Anniversary update took a couple of weeks to reach me, and it was a bit messy because the f*cker took like 4 hours once it decided to get installed ¬¬ ).

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#184

Post by Retric »

my123 wrote: post #181
cma wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One big issue is still the 260-character path-name limitation. Deep source directories choke on that, especially if you copy them around for backup, etc. You end up abbreviating class names in the file names and mess up searchability. You end up using single letter directories like 'C:\b\' instead of 'C:\backup\', etc. as workarounds. It all feels very MS DOS.

Windows no longer has that limit since a decade at least.

I hit this on windows 8. So, there might might be a workaround, but it's still an issue for most users.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#185

Post by wmccullough »

wklauss wrote: post #149
wmccullough wrote: post #140

Lot of people in this thread crapping on Microsoft. I don't know that Microsoft is more brave or more innovative than Apple yet, but I know one thing, they are more brave and innovative than Microsoft five years ago. That's all that matters. While I'm sure the grand plan is to eat Apple's lunch, they seem more focused on being better than themselves. I think they are onto something with the Surface line, they just ne…

> Steve Jobs was just much better at having many of those failures never see the light of day. Not even that. A lot of his failures saw the light of day, we have just forgotten about them. The same we will do with the current ones. This, BTW, applies to all companies. To reach this point the Surface line has gone through a lot of mediocre products and bad decisions, we just don't think about them anymore. And Windows…

I agree completely, you articulated that way better than I could.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#186

Post by cygned »

UnoriginalGuy wrote: post #158
cygned wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have spent twice the money you stated for a new MacBook Pro 13". I'd say, the primary point is "it just works". I know, once it's been delivered, I'll install a couple of tools, transfer some files and it will work. It won't get slower, it won't crash, the hardware won't break. And I don't have to waste time keeping that thing alive. Maybe I was just lucky with my previous Macs but that's the experience I've had in…

The latest iPhone literally cannot plug into the latest MBPs. The MBP also lacks the chip the AirPods need to work smoothly. I think it is safe to say "just works" is officially dead at Apple.

Ha! That's a good point, though.

> The MBP also lacks the chip the AirPods need to work smoothly.

Could you elaborate a bit?

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#187

Post by wlll »

yodsanklai wrote: post #157
wmccullough wrote: post #140

Lot of people in this thread crapping on Microsoft. I don't know that Microsoft is more brave or more innovative than Apple yet, but I know one thing, they are more brave and innovative than Microsoft five years ago. That's all that matters. While I'm sure the grand plan is to eat Apple's lunch, they seem more focused on being better than themselves. I think they are onto something with the Surface line, they just ne…

> I have a MacBook now, but I'd love to go to a Surface Studio. If they can work to get up-to-date hardware in all of their offerings ... The problem isn't so much the hardware but the OS. I have awful memories of Windows. I suppose it has gotten better, but I wonder if it's a realistic replacement to Mac OS X? Essentially, I want something that just works and where I can use common unix tools. Maybe the new Unix sub…

When this comes up a lot of my time is spent trying to tell this to people. Why don't I have a Dell XPS? It's faster and has more memory and bla bla.

The computer is a useful tool only when it has an OS. What you run on it is as important as the hardware itself. The combination of Hardware and OS is what makes the tool what it is, and comparing them each separately doesn't make any sense in my opinion.

And that is where Apple wins for me currently. I spend a lot of time in the terminal, and Windows just doesn't have that unix base that I'm comfortable with. Sure I can get a terminal on it, but it feels like a program I'm running, not actually being in control of the machine.

Linux is my real fallback option, but then I don't get paid to worry about wether my local backups are working OK, or why my laptop won't sleep or wether my GPU is working etc.

I don't think Apple is going in the direction that will benefit a lot of developers, but they've got a long way to fall before they become a second choice for me.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#188

Post by wmccullough »

pjc50 wrote: post #146
wmccullough wrote: post #140

Lot of people in this thread crapping on Microsoft. I don't know that Microsoft is more brave or more innovative than Apple yet, but I know one thing, they are more brave and innovative than Microsoft five years ago. That's all that matters. While I'm sure the grand plan is to eat Apple's lunch, they seem more focused on being better than themselves. I think they are onto something with the Surface line, they just ne…

The telemetry data will continue to harm them so long as it's a mystery. They need to say what's in it. Maybe one of the EU data protection commissioners or an alert PCI-DSS auditor will ask the right question with legal force.

I totally agree. Even if it's harmless data, they need to let users opt-out while explaining what the data is and why it's being used.

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#189

Post by jamesrcole »

mercurysmessage wrote: post #131
jamesrcole wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking for myself, I hate headphone cables. They always get knotted up when stored away, and they're always getting caught on things while I'm wearing the headphones. I'm looking forwards to when wireless headphones are more ubiquitous and cheaper.

Wireless will never have as good of a sound quality as wired does, however. It's a trade-off.

I don't have any specific knowledge about this stuff, but how could that possibly be true?

If quality is just a matter of sending enough information through then why could wireless never be enough?

Re: Microsoft is now a braver, more innovative company than Apple

#190

Post by matthewking »

SamUK96 wrote: post #25
sidcool wrote: post #3

Not so fast. Let the respective products come to market. Armchair visionary technologists have already spelled death of Apple and Resurrection of Microsoft. Not so fast.

To be fair, Apple's last 3-4 Quarters have been huge consecutive disappointments, and this line up was their last chance to turn that around I believe. And they've clearly failed. Who will pay $1,500 on a laptop that has second-grade components, a rather standard keyboard, etc. etc. Heck, Asus' Zenbook 3 line costs around $1500 and it has the best possible components, better screen, better keyboard, better everything…

> Who will pay $1,500 on a laptop that has second-grade components, a rather standard keyboard, etc. etc.

People that really like macOS and have no other choice. I'm not happy with the new hardware at all, I can see other alternatives that Id be much happier with but then Id have to use Linux or Windows on the desktop. So either I put up with it and stick with Apple or change my OS too, against my will. Neither option is a particularly good one, so it comes down to lesser of two evils. They've put us in a bit of a bind.

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