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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

#181

Post by banderman »

Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #23
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.

I'd switch to Linux in the blink of an eye if I didn't have to worry about my games working. WINE is great and all, but it's still not 100% compatible.

I switched to only playing and buying games that work on Linux a few years ago and haven't regretted a moment of it. Indie games might not be as shiny and realistic looking but they're typically more creative and deep.

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

#182

Post by emodendroket »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #65
Alupis wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 wo…

Time moves inexorably forward. Donate today and "a few years" will come.

Gimp has been in development since 1995.

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

#183

Post by badsectoracula »

emodendroket wrote: post #161
badsectoracula wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Open source video game console emulators are certainly not worse. If anything, the best by far emulator (Dolphin) is open source, but even beyond that almost every open source VGC emulator is also open source and those emulators tend to be the most long running ones (almost always because the developers of the closed source emulators lose interest). For some systems, you have only open source emulators.

There are several systems where your only option is Windows, unless the situation has changed drastically since I last looked into it. I remember Dreamcast, Saturn, DS, PSP, and PS2 being in this category, and also the options for N64/PSX not being very good, the last time I was interested. Of course, someone can respond to arguments about any program being missing with "well, I don't care about those," but you can't…

There are emulators on Linux in active development for all the systems you've mentioned, most even being available in Debian (and derivative) repositories.

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

#184

Post by thomastjeffery »

gmueckl wrote: post #173
thomastjeffery wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An open source project ... will never be able to compete with ... pays developers ... There are plenty of examples where they have done just that. Blender is probably the most obvious.

Blender is just the worst example that you could have picked. It is a tiny toy compared to the commercial packages in that field. It is like GIMP: just enough for those with simple needs. KDE 3 would have been a much better example. But these days are gone, too. What about R and Jenkins? Are there paid developers working on these?

> It is a tiny toy compared to the commercial packages in that field.

How so?

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

#185

Post by nottorp »

taurath wrote: post #147
nottorp wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find that as I grow older I'm less and less interested in the design-by-commitee AAA crap. The really interesting stuff is mostly in the small fry scene, and those tend to be cross platform. I do have a Windows install specifically for gaming, but I haven't booted it in ages. Edit: my main entertainment IS games.

My experience is most of the indy games coming out I’m interested in are windows only. Also really good games this generation like Divinity 2 have no Linux support

Well it depends what you like. I never tried any of the Divinitys because I'm under the impression that the storyline is unimaginative and just game mechanics mostly don't cut it for me (let's not mention how much time i spend in Minecraft though).

My 2nd place entertainment activity is reading, and there are few games that can approach a good book in storytelling.

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

#186

Post by youseecomrade »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #159
youseecomrade wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand your point. If you're talking about my setup it doesn't really matter (I only use Windows for gaming and at work). If it's about maintaining friends and family computers with dual boot then good luck with that. For the rest and vast majority of people, that panics when a desktop icon moves, dual boot will fry their brains.

The people whose brains are not fried by dual booting should be dual booting and moving the platform steadily forward to reduce the excuses for the people whose brains are fried by dual booting.

So basically you want me to setup dual boot, teach, offer free support for the rest of their lives, for every person that I know? Because that's the only group who could do what we are talking about.

Or maybe you want me to convince them they should pay someone else to do that because Stallman was right.

I'm sure some people are lucky enough to have friends and family who would accept your values instantly, learn the setup easily and be glad to pay someone else to do it. I can only speak from my own experiences and they don't reflect that (and as much as I might make a comment here and there I won't ever again try to push "my values" down someone's else throat).

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

#187

Post by emodendroket »

hokkos wrote: post #91

Windows has a new feature called "Controlled Folder Access", it is a security mecanism that protect from ransomware. It is a great idea, but the implementation is annoying. It block write access to selected directories, so lot of software fail to add a link to the desktop, or add files in the Documents folder. It should have protect agains delete not new file creation. Also the default Defender antivirus is so slow,…

To protect from ransomware you need to at least prevent modification of existing files.

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

#188

Post by da_chicken »

Bl4ckb0ne wrote: post #38
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.

Giving a feedback or testing an app with a newer version is easy

Yes, but not every user who needs a program can even do that.

The truth is that people are shit at using a computer (https://www.nngroup.com/articles/computer-skill-levels/). At some point we need to draw the obvious conclusion from that: users capable of useful contribution to a project are a significant minority compared to the number of users who need or wish to use that software. How many people develop software? About 5%. How many people need to use software? 95% or more? Point being, no matter how important or unimportant your software is, you are guaranteed to have a user base predominantly incapable of contributing to the project.

This is why the constant responses of, "Patches welcome," or similar in response to user complaints is so hostile to users. It's saying to users, "This application is only for experts," which is likely to only appeal to experts. Since experts are so rare, that doesn't seem like a particularly inspiring response. You're just driving users away from your project.

Yes, anybody can contribute to an open source project. No, not everybody is capable of doing so meaningfully. Yes, anybody can recognize a bad design or bug. No, not everybody is capable of recognizing a good or correct design or fixing a bug. If Linux is to ever become an operating system for the desktop, we must accept that the majority of users are not going to be developers, and a user cannot be expected to become a developer just because they want to use a computer. It is no longer 1975.

The only exception to the above is if your project has a user base entirely devoted to programmers. That's precisely why those projects get so much development time.

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

#189

Post by emodendroket »

badsectoracula wrote: post #183
emodendroket wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are several systems where your only option is Windows, unless the situation has changed drastically since I last looked into it. I remember Dreamcast, Saturn, DS, PSP, and PS2 being in this category, and also the options for N64/PSX not being very good, the last time I was interested. Of course, someone can respond to arguments about any program being missing with "well, I don't care about those," but you can't…

There are emulators on Linux in active development for all the systems you've mentioned, most even being available in Debian (and derivative) repositories.

I mean, great, but I don't want something that will maybe work in a few years when there's something that works well now.

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

#190

Post by guelo »

walterbell wrote: post #86
Feniks wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Microsoft is not, contrary to popular opinion, stupid. MS knew nobody was going to pay $€200+ for an OS anymore. So they had to find another way to monetize Windows.

Is that why they will soon charge $49 for Windows Pro users to install Win32 apps (i.e. disable S mode)? https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/windows-10-s-becomin...

I don't think your link says what you claim. The link says that users of Win S will have to pay $49 to upgrade to Pro. S is store-only mode, meaning it can't run anything that didn't come from the Store, whether it's win32 or otherwise.
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