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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

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Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#51

Post by monochromatic »

wizbright wrote: post #32
unethical_ban wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because the XBOX and PS and Switch are totally safe, open source products that respect personal information. Linux has more gaming than it did 5-10 years ago, but if someone wants to play a game at top performance on PC, you typically need to choose Windows.

Even if a game performs better on PC, whose to say it isn't optimized? Some of Vavle's own games have performed better via the Linux build compared to Windows or Mac. It's also super sketchy to not be able to see what's fully happening in one's system.

How do you feel about the closed BIOS and Management Engine that underlie everything?

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#52

Post by devopsforlyfe »

m_fayer wrote: post #21
Scramblejams wrote: post #4

It’s hard to believe that the loss of goodwill is worth whatever revenue Microsoft’s gaining from this, so I have to assume this is them dipping their toe into a strategy that attempts to make them more relevant to users. Maybe a reaction to the Windows app store’s lack of success? Thoughts?

Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. To me it's another nail in the coffin of general purpose computing. We've accepted that mobile devices/OSs are not for general purpose computing and expect that they come with a "lifestyle" to hawk, now o…

Linux is the only remaining OS for general purpose desktop computing that has a non-negligible market share.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#53

Post by gambiting »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #35
pjc50 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PS4 is also a closed ecosystem, far more so than PC gaming on Windows? Inevitably people end up with a requirement for some Windows program that trips up users or administrators in the workplace. Some workplaces (e.g. mine) are fully paid-up committed Microsoft shops where everyone has MSDN.

>PS4 is also a closed ecosystem, far more so than PC gaming on Windows? Baby steps. I don't own a PS4 anyway, but I'm so tired of discussing Windows with people who whine about losing their games that I feel the need to specify an out.

And I feel a need to point out that you behave like a jerk in this thread and well below the standard HN is known for. If you have a problem with Windows, that's fine, calling people pathetic is not.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#54

Post by swaggyBoatswain »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #12
falcolas wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's never that simple, especially for professional users and gamers. Those whose applications are only available for Windows. Sure, there are some open source alternatives, but they are only rarely as good, and even more seldom better, than their Windows counterparts.

Gamers who bend over for the sake of their hobby are a pathetic bunch. Linux has many, many great games, and if that's not enough supplement it with a PS4 or something and you'll never be bored. Most professionals would have no problem using Linux for their needs. What applications are you suggesting aren't up to snuff?

There's a huge range of applications that are only macOS or windows only that are a miles better in everyway.

For instance, apple's sketch. You won't find anything like it even on Windows.

For instance, windows PC. You have a ton of native autohotkey applications for writing macros, powerful 3rd party file explorers like directoryOpus, etc. You can't play video games on it, naturally gamedevelopment is a hassle as well. You can't run CAD programs, etc

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#55

Post by jwagenet »

falcolas wrote: post #39
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Linux has more gaming than it did 5-10 years ago, but if someone wants to play a game at top performance on PC, you typically need to choose Windows. You can make an argument about the size of the respective platform's game libraries, but not about their performance. Games on Linux often perform as well as or better than Windows. There's no clear trend that suggests the performance of games on Linux are worse than o…

Many people use monitors with 144hz refresh rates. And increased FPS means you can turn graphics up, or enable more sophisticated anti-aliasing solutions, without impacting absolute performance.

This is not true: If you increase your target FPS to meet a monitor refresh rate, you must turn down your AA or other graphics settings to compensate when using the same hardware. Going from a 60 Hz to 144 Hz monitor more than doubles the FPS required for Vsync, which requires double the hardware performance to take advantage of the high refresh rate.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#56

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

Alupis wrote: post #47
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Linux has more gaming than it did 5-10 years ago, but if someone wants to play a game at top performance on PC, you typically need to choose Windows. You can make an argument about the size of the respective platform's game libraries, but not about their performance. Games on Linux often perform as well as or better than Windows. There's no clear trend that suggests the performance of games on Linux are worse than o…

More and more games are coming to Linux, for sure (I'm a huge fan of games on Linux!), but Linux still is missing the latest-and-greatest AAA titles... think the Call of Duty's, Battlefield's, Skyrim's, Fallout's, Wolfenstein's... and many many more.

>think the Call of Duty's

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

>Skyrim's

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

>Fallout's

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

>Wolfenstein's

https://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=version&iI...

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#57

Post by striking »

Alupis wrote: post #47
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Linux has more gaming than it did 5-10 years ago, but if someone wants to play a game at top performance on PC, you typically need to choose Windows. You can make an argument about the size of the respective platform's game libraries, but not about their performance. Games on Linux often perform as well as or better than Windows. There's no clear trend that suggests the performance of games on Linux are worse than o…

More and more games are coming to Linux, for sure (I'm a huge fan of games on Linux!), but Linux still is missing the latest-and-greatest AAA titles... think the Call of Duty's, Battlefield's, Skyrim's, Fallout's, Wolfenstein's... and many many more.

Wine recently got a DX11 layer, so we're a lot closer to that than before.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#58

Post by Sir_Substance »

falcolas wrote: post #7
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #2

When you choose Windows, the computer uses you. When you choose Linux, you use the computer. Stop complaining and start switching. It should be apparent by now that Microsoft isn't going to stop their bad behavior.

It's never that simple, especially for professional users and gamers. Those whose applications are only available for Windows. Sure, there are some open source alternatives, but they are only rarely as good, and even more seldom better, than their Windows counterparts.

>It's never that simple, especially for professional users and gamers. Those whose applications are only available for Windows.

I'm both, and you're definitely wrong. 155 of my 343 steam games have direct native ports. I've just stopped playing stellaris and started playing KSP. I've been a linux gamer for the last three years and it's been a better experience, not worse. I dominate on ballistic overkill because the input lag is noticeably lower on linux.

I'm also a software developer, and with the exception of dotnet development, software development is a considerably smoother and more consistant experience on linux. It grates every day to have to use windows at work, and I do half of my work inside a linux VM.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#59

Post by Alupis »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #37
da_chicken wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not every user is capable of being a developer for every application they want to use.

Then donate however many thousands of dollars you were going to spend on Autodesk/etc licenses to Blender, Krita, Gimp, etc. Blender and Krita are competitive with their commercial counterparts and Gimp is getting there.

I'm a very strong advocate of Open Source Software, and all things Linux as well.

I've used Gimp, Inkscape, and others... but sometimes you just need to get work done, and the closed source proprietary application is what you need, I'm sorry to say.

Donating thousands of dollars to Gimp today isn't going to put it on par with Photoshop today... I wish it would. Maybe it could be in a few years... but I need to get work done right now.

Sometimes you do need a commercial interest behind something to drive it's progress. That doesn't mean it has to be closed and proprietary, but they often are, sadly.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#60

Post by youseecomrade »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #2

When you choose Windows, the computer uses you. When you choose Linux, you use the computer. Stop complaining and start switching. It should be apparent by now that Microsoft isn't going to stop their bad behavior.

The majority of people who could use Linux exclusively (only need a browser, don't need Office compatibility, nothing fancy) buy a "just works" Windows laptop or tablet and I bet 99% of them don't even know what Linux is. Even then you get some weird cases like banking software not working on Linux and they ask you to install Windows again. And kids wants to play what their friends are playing, it's hard to break the cycle. Oh you want to play PUBG? Too bad. Some games you might even be able to make it work with some baby sitting but it will drain all your energy and you are not getting paid for the job.

If you want Linux to have a chance it needs to play the long game and that won't ever happen. Everything I own except my gaming PC is Linux but it's not even worth trying to convert others. I find pretty immature to suggest "if your job demands Windows, just quit", "just spend 20 hours trying to make this thing that just works in Windows", "you don't need AAA games". I say immature because I was doing this shit a few years ago and I still cringe about it.

In my experience trying to teach people about the importance of privacy is mostly futile. What worked was, and I only did this to a close family friend, to show him what I could learn about him just by showing what was stored in AppData and many other folders. Some thumbnails will be forever ingrained in my mind.

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