That's not the point, though. The competitor (Windows) mostly has none of these problems, and that's pretty much what matters EOD. If you cannot expect a generic PC to run Linux, `$currentYear is the year of the Linux Desktop` will continue to be little more than hyperbole. That's a big problem if we're looking for widespread adoption.
Lol. Try running Windows on non standard or even non x86 hardware. Your point here doesn't make much sense.
Define "standard."
As far as I understand, non-standard or non-x86 aren't really mainstream. Windows for ARM-like devices is nowhere close to being ready for prime time.
That's not the point, though. The competitor (Windows) mostly has none of these problems, and that's pretty much what matters EOD. If you cannot expect a generic PC to run Linux, `$currentYear is the year of the Linux Desktop` will continue to be little more than hyperbole. That's a big problem if we're looking for widespread adoption.
>The competitor (Windows) mostly has none of these problems, Windows tends to self destruct via forced updates over time. So far I have not had a single windows installation that didn't require a reinstall after a certain amount of time has passed. The type of failure is different but it's significantly worse. This is coming from someone who uses Arch Linux, a bleeding edge distro that isn't known for it's stability…
Absolutely true, if not maintained.
The only reason this isn't the case in Linux/MacOS most likely is simply due to the lack of crapware targeting these platforms though (because the reward profile significantly favors targeting Windows more).
You can see this in action with Android vs iOS too (no flamewar here folks). Android tends to get bogged down quite easily if active maintenance isn't done due to the proliferation of nefarious background workers.
So my personal anecdote also involves mint - I've set one up for someone years ago(probably around 2013-2014) and you're right, it had no issues. However, when I came over to visit last year I wanted to do some maintenance, so "apt-get update" and "apt-get upgrade" would be the start. Nope, turns out that the update servers for that version of Mint have been switched off long time ago and none of the links resolve an…
This was what turned me off from Linux Mint for my own use. The catch-22 of you need to upgrade to a supported version, but the servers / packages you would need in order to do the upgrade were turned off in the meantime. To be fair, Linux Mint states that a complete reinstall is the recommended way, but since I do development, it's a pain to have to locate and reinstall from scratch all the packages I need. Also I t…
I actually remember running into this issue a lot when building Docker images. Generally you want your docker image to be reproducible so you'd want to lock versions of your dependencies. But when doing this with apt-get install, a lot of the time I find that when a new version of a package is released, the old one gets removed and becomes no longer accessible, so locking versions actually ends up resulting in _more_…
The entire software industry has shifted to a stance of not caring when updates break user workflow, experience, functionality and habits. For basically any modern piece of software, whether/when to take each update, rather than being a no-brainer, is a very difficult decision: it is impossible for the end user to separate security/functionality fixes from workflow/functionality-breaking behaviour changes. Everything…
Yep. I think I'll literally stop taking Android upgrades because of this. Just few years ago I'd get really excited every time new version of firmware was released for my phone, but now I loathe it - every single damn time the interface changes and you can't do anything about it. Like now I have taken the upgrade to Android Pie for my OnePlus 5T, and....the clock moved to the left now. Ok, google for a solution - nope, can't move it back to the right. Someone somewhere decided that this is "better" so the customer has to accept it. Like you said, I'm getting really fed up with this - is it my phone, or not????
My father was willing to switch, my mother was not. So: my father is now on his third Linux machine in 16 years (two laptops and now a NUC hiding behind a 24" monitor). Normal updates are handled automatically; I do a major upgrade once a year. rsnapshot backs up to an external disk three times a day. Every so often he tells me that he wants to do something new, and asks if it's possible; the answer is always yes. My…
Which distro are you using? I am particularly interested in the auto-install of normal updates.
I really would like to do the same. My father is always complaining about Windows problems that just don't happen with Mint/Ubuntu, and my mom has an machine that's too weak and old to run windows properly. The one thing that prevent me to do that is that they use their computer for work. While I'm certain that I wouldn't have any problem doing their job with Linux, they ask me "can you absolutely guarantee that I'll…
I can guarantee you that there is no equivalent to word on Linux. All compatible office suites display word documents differently, and none come close to feature parity if we're talking about advanced macros and similar. There is no alternative to Windows If they need Microsoft office for work... Or a VM just to run that shitty application. Same applies to video conferencing software. If he is forced to use a specifi…
I've found WPS Office (https://www.wps.com/linux) to be pretty good in terms of both compatibility and UI similarity.
I have sent my father (who I no longer interact with) and my mother, a laptop with ubuntu installed. I have not had to support that thing for 5 years. it just runs. no updates, no virus scan ads. Its been amazing. i installed VLC player and firefox. They are living the life being "connected"
No updates for 5 years including security updates?
No updates at all. Its not my problem and I have expressed the dangers. Family situation prevents this kind of support and they wont stop using it. No issues at all. My fiance's aunt on the other hand (using windows) has had to call me frequently for virus/slow down/connecting printers etc.Its been a pain.
it's a pain to have to locate and reinstall from scratch all the packages I need. dpkg --get-selections | cut -f1 > ~/installed_pkgs.log cat installed_pkgs.log | xargs sudo apt install
Except it doesn't work that way as some package name have changed and the command fails due to some package not existing anymore. It give something to start with but still requires human intervention from someone who knows how to navigate in this mess.
When package names change, or don't exist any more, it requires human intervention even when the rest of the update process is automatic. This is the difference between `apt-get upgrade` and `apt-get dist-upgrade`. All you're really doing by putting off the update in that case is compressing all the little bits of human intervention you'd have been doing during every update, into one big push.
till you're on vacation and they go to the apple store and they "helpfully" set a secure password on the device. Happened to my mom. She doesn't always remember to write things down. Now I'm on a 3 way call with apple trying to get the password reset for an hour then talking her through resetting it on her several devices. They wouldn't let her set what she thought the password was.
Yes, recent iOS updates tried to force people like my parents to have passwords or logins that are too complex and simply unnecessary for them. If you use iPad in your own home, there's no reason to "authenticate" on every open (my parents surely don't want/can't perform the fingerprinting every time -- not to mention that if the device prompt them to enter a new complex code they might even type in twice but they wi…
Having done a security review on a photos app for a company with high customer trust, and knowing what people put in their photo shares... photo and document shares are one of the highest risk areas for people. I didn't know about this until the review but when it was pointed out to me, it's obvious that for some people having their photos stolen is massively worse than credit card fraud or other recoverable things. You can't get those docs and photos back.
However that means that you are right, it's nuclear launch code level security for everyone's photos.