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The End of Windows

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Re: The End of Windows

#111

Post by ynniv »

ckaygusu wrote: post #87
ynniv wrote: post #48

This seems like a ridiculous strategy. Who would abandon an ecosystem that they own over 80% of? If they're spending too much money on it, stop adding features and harden what they already have. It's increasingly clear that macOS isn't business-level stable, and Linux isn't polished... No one has an Android device on their desk at work. Maybe if they stopped trying to take over the world they would realize that they…

> macOS isn't business-level stable. Can you elaborate this assertion? As far as stability goes, macs are top notch. I'd say in the business context Windows machines are prevalent because of successful MS strategies (in terms of marketing, not ethics) in 1995-2005 era, and it kind of stuck around.

Business is full of "just good enough" solutions, and loves control. Apple has shown that breaking backwards compatibility doesn't bother them, they're not going to build IT control features to the same level, and ... maybe macOS is going to be sacrificed at the alter of iOS? We're not sure these days. Meanwhile, custom Windows software from forever ago works just fine today, and that's good for business.

Re: The End of Windows

#112

Post by pjc50 »

jacquesm wrote: post #105
pjc50 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the more amazing bits of technology in Windows is that which allows the graphics drivers to crash and restart without taking down the system. They've spent so long fighting buggy third parties that this is the solution.

QnX did that in ... 1983.

I too remember the QnX demo disk with a web browser and desktop environment on a single floppy. But Linux still doesn't do this kind of isolation, partly due to philosophical opposition.

Edit for the audience: http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html

Re: The End of Windows

#113

Post by TheForumTroll »

Philipp__ wrote: post #39
bigmanwalter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux on desktop is pretty amazing. Haven't looked back in 3 years.

You gotta be kidding me. Good luck using multiple HiDPI monitors. The only reasonable way to use Linux is tiling wm with as less graphical interface as possible, in my case only xterm and emacs. Which is crazy, since it’s 2018. and I am using modern computer with modern OS like how computers were used before I was even born.

It doesn't sound like you have used Linux since 1998. It works "out of the box" with multiple screens no matter the DPI.

Re: The End of Windows

#114

Post by PeanutNore »

Philipp__ wrote: post #39
bigmanwalter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux on desktop is pretty amazing. Haven't looked back in 3 years.

You gotta be kidding me. Good luck using multiple HiDPI monitors. The only reasonable way to use Linux is tiling wm with as less graphical interface as possible, in my case only xterm and emacs. Which is crazy, since it’s 2018. and I am using modern computer with modern OS like how computers were used before I was even born.

Sounds like a pretty edgy edge case to me. In a more typical deployment like a laptop with a built in display or a desktop with a single 1080p or 1440p monitor you can pick from a variety of distributions that on firm "it just works" territory.

Re: The End of Windows

#115

Post by TheForumTroll »

mmjaa wrote: post #101
Philipp__ wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You gotta be kidding me. Good luck using multiple HiDPI monitors. The only reasonable way to use Linux is tiling wm with as less graphical interface as possible, in my case only xterm and emacs. Which is crazy, since it’s 2018. and I am using modern computer with modern OS like how computers were used before I was even born.

I'm not having any problems running two monitors in HiDPI with my Ubuntu Studio workstation .. everything just works and I enjoy it immensely. Curious what your issues are...

That he hasn't actually tried Linux.

Re: The End of Windows

#116

Post by amyjess »

pjmlp wrote: post #24
Twisell wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sources?

Personal anecdote of what I see being sold on consumer stores here in Germany. Or the restaurants or cocktail bars that happen to have tablets instead of paper menus. They started with iPads, but as their chains got bigger they moved to a mix of Android and W10 tablets. Source, personal anecdote getting out of the menu app into the OS.

I guess that's just a difference between Germany and the US (or at least Texas).

Most of the tablets I've seen in stores and restaurants are actual iPad hardware, the virtual keyboard used when entering information is the iOS keyboard, and the Square app follows the Apple design guidelines.

And the rare occasions when I encounter an Android tablet, I recognize it from the virtual keyboard. Case in point: the food hall I mentioned in my above post. When you buy something, it asks you if you'd like to enter your phone number so they can text you when your order's ready. When I chose to enter my number, I instantly recognized the keyboard for that as the Android 4.x keyboard.

Re: The End of Windows

#117

Post by _lbaq »

Philipp__ wrote: post #39
bigmanwalter wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux on desktop is pretty amazing. Haven't looked back in 3 years.

You gotta be kidding me. Good luck using multiple HiDPI monitors. The only reasonable way to use Linux is tiling wm with as less graphical interface as possible, in my case only xterm and emacs. Which is crazy, since it’s 2018. and I am using modern computer with modern OS like how computers were used before I was even born.

Using Fedora and two HiDPI monitors, one landscape 4k screen and one portrait 2k screen, Gnome works great in this setup.

Re: The End of Windows

#118

Post by TheForumTroll »

cornholio wrote: post #94

I would love for Microsoft to launch it's own Android-compatible ecosystem, starting from the open source base of Android and building alternatives to Google's proprietary technology (location & mapping, email, browsing, app store etc.). They are one of the few companies who have the capacity to do that and already have products in place to cover 80% of what is required. While I'm not exactly a fan of Microsoft, ther…

But even Google is moving away from Android! ;)

Re: The End of Windows

#119

Post by jacquesm »

pjc50 wrote: post #112
jacquesm wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

QnX did that in ... 1983.

I too remember the QnX demo disk with a web browser and desktop environment on a single floppy. But Linux still doesn't do this kind of isolation, partly due to philosophical opposition. Edit for the audience: http://toastytech.com/guis/qnxdemo.html

In the famous Torvalds - Tanenbaum discussion Torvalds got it terribly wrong, but Linux was good enough to get off the ground anyway so in the longer term might made right. But a microkernel based Linux would have been a serious game changer rather than a re-run. After all we already had plenty of free Unixes back then, and the descendants of those are all still more or less alive today.

The major sticking point in that whole discussion is that Tanenbaum may have been right in principle but Minix was not a very good illustration of what a micro kernel could look like. QnX on the other hand was awesome and to this day powers a very large chunk of the embedded sphere.

Re: The End of Windows

#120

Post by amyjess »

rootusrootus wrote: post #89
jsty wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Anecdata: most of the SMBs I know are using web/cloud-based accounting products, and like it for varying reasons (not having to manage / upgrade the software, easy to collaborate with their accountant) but a major one is being able to access their accounts from anything with a web browser.

As a counterpoint, my wife runs her own bookkeeping business and pretty much all of her clients are using Quickbooks on Windows workstations, with no real desire to try anything new. I know a couple people myself that are using cloud-based accounting products but they seem to be the exception. In both cases they are tech businesses, which perhaps makes them more open to trying something new than a typical small busin…

I'll take a guess and say that these are all older businesses.

Businesses that started before the advent of cloud software will continue to use QuickBooks because that's what the owners know, and why fix something that isn't broken? But newer businesses that started in the last few years will be much more likely to use cloud software because it's so much more convenient.

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