The End of Windows • Hacker News Board

Re: The End of Windows

#471

Post by ozim » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:23 PM UTC

ohazi wrote: post #248

> Smartphones first addressed needs the PC couldn’t, then over time started taking over PC functionality directly I still don't understand how anybody gets any real work done on a smartphone. Has work suddenly gotten so simplistic that most people really don't need a keyboard? They're dragging and tapping and writing IM-like sentence fragments riddled with autocorrect typos? And this is acceptable? Seriously?

I can get do a lot of writing on Huawei Mate 9. Droid Vim works amazingly fine for editing. For writing Swype keybord feels faster than writing on full keyboard. I can have my GIT repo on the phone. Jira also has app. So basically a lot of low level tasks is no problem. Of course big project with a lot of files, compiling and building is not going to be on the phone but you can have CI/CD pipeline and do not have to compile locally.

"Management" needs email + spreadsheet, spreadsheets are not good enough on phone screen, but on tablet I think those would do. Just like reading code files with a lot of lines.

I think most of the work is thinking about meat and core of the problem. Writing it down with typos or not is not a problem. You do not write corporate communication statement that will go to millions of customers every day. I do not mind getting email from coworker with typos. When I ask my boss about 5 mins conversation I am not going to write "Dear sir or madam can I have 5 minutes of your time. Sincerly, O.". More like "Hi, Can we talk for 5 mins?". Work is not simplistic writing it down or improving later depends on context. You have great idea and phone, write it down, if you have to show it to millions of customers, then at least 2 other people have to read it anyway.

Re: The End of Windows

#472

Post by Silhouette » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:24 PM UTC

discreditable wrote: post #317

Multicomp wrote: post #292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you kidding? I'd be ecstatic to go purchase a new boxed copy of Windows 11 Pro 2018, so long as it was basically Windows 7 shell with Windows 10 kernel and security updates, no UWP/Cortana/store/telemetry addons, and settings that stay set. I'd even buy the Windows 12 Pro 2021 version when the time came for fundamental internals shifting like wider WSL access.

You might but no one else would. Most people use the OS that came with their computer until it dies.

You might but no one else would.

I would. An update to Windows 7 that worked well with modern hardware and had modern security updates but otherwise ignored almost everything Microsoft have done in more recent versions would be a significant improvement on anything currently available for those of us who value stability and security over bells and whistles.

Re: The End of Windows

#473

Post by Feniks » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:25 PM UTC

alkonaut wrote: post #102

asveikau wrote: post #33

I still can't wrap my head around everything that was wrongheaded about Windows 8, and I was working there for most of its dev cycle. One wonders what would have happened if they just sort of let Windows be Windows. I.e. if they had continued iterating on core stuff but left UI and general philosophy resembling Win7's trajectory and not tried to force people into WinRT/UWP/store. Even though Win10 attempted correctiv…

They bet the farm on “store”. Why? Because they must have done the math and realized that the enterprise and “creative pro” desktop with classic expensive desktop apps is a dead end. Was that calculation correct? Who knows. But I have to think they did that analysis very carefully.

The calculation is correct. Microsoft fears Chrome OS and rightly so. Old Windows as we know it was a mass market dead end.

The technophile crowd can always just use win10 Enterprise and tweak it.

Re: The End of Windows

#474

Post by Stratoscope » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:29 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #442

shados wrote: post #440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

2560x1440 on a 27 inch at a reasonable distance is pretty darn close to optimal IMO, so 4k, to me, is for 34" monitors (but 27 inch I feel is optimal on 60-75 inch desks, which is what I usually work with, so 4k rarely matters). I'm with you on accurately calibrated monitors though! God most of them suck out of the box.

I never get comments like these, as if the text just gets smaller as the resolution increases, rather than what actually happens (the text gets crisper). 5120x2880 is so nice because you can’t see the pixels and words almost look like they are on paper.

Seconded. 2560x1440 on a 27" panel is only 109 pixels per inch. I use a ThinkPad with that same resolution on a 14" display, with a 24" 4K UHD next to it in portrait mode.

Both displays are around 200 pixels per inch, plus or minus. It's great not having to see the pixels, so much more pleasant and easy on the eyes.

Also the combination of a portrait display with the landscape display is really nice. I can read an entire PDF page without scrolling.

Re: The End of Windows

#475

Post by nulagrithom » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:33 PM UTC

rconti wrote: post #357

nulagrithom wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The enterprise tooling for macOS is woefully insufficient. Windows has provisions for performing all sorts of tasks across a fleet of desktops. I can automate deployment of a Windows desktop to the point where all you have to do is boot it up and join it to the domain (which makes it easier to hire someone to do it as well). What's more is that these settings will work across updates. I've gotten really sick of the s…

I was going to reply to the original thread with [citation needed], but thankfully someone already did it. The fleetwide maintenance is the issue, not stability. That said, everywhere I've worked the past 8 years, across 3 jobs, was virtually Mac-only. But yes, the valley is an outlier.

> The fleetwide maintenance is the issue, not stability.

From the medium to enterprise range, maintenance and stability issues are often one in the same. Breaking automated maintenance and/or deployment leads to instability.

Keep in mind I don't mean "kernel panic" levels of instability or even "programs crashing" levels of instability. The smallest of changes can cause a mountain of work in large environments. Simply changing the icon of an often used program can cause a deluge of tickets.

This level of stability and control is something that macOS doesn't even come close to recognizing.

Re: The End of Windows

#476

Post by jake_the_third » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:38 PM UTC

shinratdr wrote: post #394

013a wrote: post #333

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that's the mistake Ballmer made with Windows Phone. He and the other leadership saw the rise of the smartphone and thought "that's the future". The reality is more nuanced; the smartphone created a new market, but it definitely hasn't supplanted the existing "home computer" market, or even really hurt it in any way. Microsoft should have recognized that, recognized they were late to the party, just let Google…

> The reality is more nuanced; the smartphone created a new market, but it definitely hasn't supplanted the existing "home computer" market, or even really hurt it in any way. This is demonstrably wrong. The home computer market isn't even a market that exists in many parts of the world. To see that phones can supplant the home computer market almost entirely in Africa and India and say it has no effect here is crazy…

> The home computer market isn't even a market that exists in many parts of the world.

That doesn't make GP's statement demonstrably wrong. The home computer market isn't a market that exists in many parts of the world because it never existed there in the first place.

The smart device market may have affected the growth of the home computer market, but I also believe that it hasn't supplanted its existing users by any meaningful measure. At least, not yet.

Re: The End of Windows

#477

Post by NeoBasilisk » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:43 PM UTC

MikkoFinell wrote: post #177

jimktrains2 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many games that run well in Linux, including a large portion of the Steam library! If you meant a specific game to run, well then you need to weight your pros and cons and stop whining when you make your decision. Alternatively, dual boot.

Alternatively, grow up and stop playing games.

I hope you don't watch movies or TV/shows or play sports

Re: The End of Windows

#478

Post by NeoBasilisk » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:45 PM UTC

TheForumTroll wrote: post #128

alkonaut wrote: post #109

You can have my windows when I can game properly somewhere else (and no, no you can’t).

Xbox and PlayStation. The "problem" is that you want to game on your PC, not that there isn't another viable option.

Why game on a console if you can afford to do so on PC?

Re: The End of Windows

#479

Post by deno » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:50 PM UTC

sjapkee wrote: post #437

bhauer wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That hardware report is surprising to me in many ways. * In 2018, the most popular resolution for users of Firefox is still 1366x768. And only 1920x1080 is making any headway against the dominance of 1366x768. As much as I am surrounded by the culture of multiple 4K+ displays, apparently this is not at all commonplace. 4K doesn't even get listed, presumably lumped into the "Other" category. * In 2018, the most popula…

There is no real need in 4K resolution, so that's why is's not so popular.

People that think they don’t need 4K either haven’t seen a 4K display in person or have poor eyesight. It’s a leap like upgrading from HDD to SDD, in the display world.

Unless you just need your monitor for gaming. New gen temporal aliasing mostly makes up for the lack of pixels.

Re: The End of Windows

#480

Post by mschuster91 » Mon, Apr 02, 2018, 9:55 PM UTC

bitmapbrother wrote: post #461

cptskippy wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And with every shift towards ads You mean like Apple asking me to use iCloud every single time I unlock my Mac? Or every time I power on my test iOS devices? Or do you mean up I have to open the App Store to apply MacOS updates and click past the ads? Windows 10 adds some shortcuts to the start menu during the bi-annual updates, they're annoying but once they're deleted they don't come back. They also have an add i…

>You mean like Apple asking me to use iCloud every single time I unlock my Mac? Or every time I power on my test iOS devices? Or do you mean up I have to open the App Store to apply MacOS updates and click past the ads? I don't get asked to use iCloud every time I unlock a Mac. Additionally, I don't recall a Mac ever displaying ads in their file explorer asking me to upgrade my SkyDrive storage. Nor do I ever recall…

> I also don't recall ever having to proactively prevent the mass collection of "telemetry" data when installing Mac OS.

To be fair, it will ask you once at profile creation if you agree to sending telemetry. To the best of my knowledge though, Apple respects the choice and does not reset it quietly like Windows does.