I remember the oxymoron: "Electrically Erasable Programmable Read Only Memory". Ah, the luxury of not needing UV light to erase your ROM!
Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
171–180 of 588 posts
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t use keyboard shortcuts TBH.
How do you program without any keybindings?
I use control-C, V, Z, S, that’s about it. What key bindings do you think are required to program? Some people program using voice input and no keys at all!
If you can write words in a file you can program.
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#173Taring everything with the same brush. There was a time, not so long ago, when it was impossible to install Windows over the Internet because so many other machines were compromised and your machine would, with certainty, also end up compromised before it had gotten as far as applying the latest service pack. Then we got automatic updates, and we all breathed a sigh of relief because things got better . We had empiri…
People use computers to do things.
When automated updates make it harder for them to do the things they want to do, especially out of no action on their own, they are going to dislike the automatic updates.
And when trying to avoid the automated updates - which is what they see as the source of making it harder to do the things they want to do - is met with automated updates being forced even harder on them, they're going to dislike those automated updates even more.
The key isn't to not have automated updates, it is for those automated updates to not make it harder for people to do the things they want to do with their computers. Automated updates should be as transparent and frictionless as possible.
Take a hint out of the Linux kernel: Linus realized very early that updating the kernel should not break people's programs because that would cause them to not update the kernel. So the kernel developers try their hardest to avoid breaking people's programs. And this ends with kernel updates being one of the safest updates on a Linux system you can do.
Everything should be like kernel updates.
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#174Software version control by users is going the way of ham radio and people who repair their own cars. Not completely extinct, but such a small set of technically capable people that in practice it doesn't matter. Real users don't know and don't care about software versions. They want computing experiences that "just work". They don't care or know about where the software runs, if there is telemetry, what the underlyi…
> Real users don't know and don't care about software versions.
I read the same stuff about performance (e.g. when Electron is brought up) or using native UIs or even using native apps in the first place.
But i wonder, is it really that "real users" do not care about these or that they are not in a position to understand their impact and communicate their dislike? After all, my aunt for example constantly complains about how her laptop is slow, but she certainly cannot tell me what she means with that - is it the browser she's using, is it some software she's using, is it her internet connection making stuff in Facebook come slower, is the computer thrashing the disk (though with 8GB of RAM and an SSD that shouldn't be noticeable... yet somehow it is), etc. I can barely understand myself when she explains it to me over the phone, how can some developer who doesn't even really care about understanding my aunt is going to get any feedback about her experience and what she'd value?
(and honestly IMO all of these sound like excuses for developers putting their own experience above their users')
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not illegal to resell software (at least in the EU).
Illegal != breach of contract. They control the activation servers, they can just refuse activation if they felt you've violated the contract.
"Europe's highest court ruled on Tuesday that the trading of 'used' software licenses is legal and that the author of such software cannot oppose any resale." [1]
[1] https://www.computerworld.com/article/2505356/eu-court-rules...
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#176Sounds like the author wants to use debian
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s funny you mention Microsoft, because I have a windows machine to play games on. It regularly updates itself and re-enables telemetry I had disabled, shows spammy news in the start menu and ads for Microsoft products in my toolbar, and reinstalls skype every time I try to get rid of it.
I wonder if there are some differences between Windows 10 versions (like Home, Professional etc) there. I have never had that happen. I have Windows 10 Pro.
I have Windows 10 Pro. It is horrible. And, I have no choice in any of it.
Advertisements pop up at random times. I am constantly turning things off, and they get turned back on again. I am diligent about checking for updates at the end of my work day, and then turning off scheduled updates. I cannot afford to wait for a "Do not turn off your computer" screen.
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s funny you mention Microsoft, because I have a windows machine to play games on. It regularly updates itself and re-enables telemetry I had disabled, shows spammy news in the start menu and ads for Microsoft products in my toolbar, and reinstalls skype every time I try to get rid of it.
I wonder if there are some differences between Windows 10 versions (like Home, Professional etc) there. I have never had that happen. I have Windows 10 Pro.
I multiboot Windows 10 Pro and a variety of Unixen. Been doing it for decades and it's been getting harder lately because Microsoft's updates have been acting more and more like they own the place.
The most recent nag-you-to-use-edge update didn't just forget to restore the defaultness of my Arch EFI entry--a mistake I could forgive--it deleted it. Luckily I could boot into Debian and restore the entry because the asshats at Microsoft didn't expect there to be a second Linux lying around.
Also, it somehow discovered that I'm not I'm Greenwich, and changed my hardware clock to local time (thereby confusing the other OS'es).
Not sure what telemetry mattnewton was talking about, but I can confirm that in general, Microsoft updates are not to be trusted.
I just booted Windows for the first time this month earlier this evening. Saw it installing updates when I shut it down. God knows what messes I'll be cleaning up in the morning.
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#179I had been using a great app that’s been around since before the iPhone came out (PocketMoney on Palm). They rewrote it for IOS, and it was able to import the database from the Palm version. Really great. Then sadly the author died, and it languished for a while until it was sold to someone else. The new owner seemed to try to keep it going, but then finally gave up last year and crammed an absolutely awful “update”…
I'll check if I am able to extract the data.
Re: Why Johnny Won't Upgrade
#180I had been using a great app that’s been around since before the iPhone came out (PocketMoney on Palm). They rewrote it for IOS, and it was able to import the database from the Palm version. Really great. Then sadly the author died, and it languished for a while until it was sold to someone else. The new owner seemed to try to keep it going, but then finally gave up last year and crammed an absolutely awful “update”…
I'm aware that I will sound condescending but... that's exactly why people "invented" opensource (and/or free software if you prefer).
I'm sorry for your problem nonetheless.