151–160 of 166 posts
great article and I think shows the way forward. HN has a very technical userbase and overestimates linux as an desktop operating system. Desktop ubuntu installs are down year over year. If you're not a software engineer, getting linux working well (even ubuntu) and keeping it that way is pretty much impossible. Comparatively, W10 will boot on any hardware and take care of itself. even a mechanical or EE engineer wit…
great article and I think shows the way forward. HN has a very technical userbase and overestimates linux as an desktop operating system. Desktop ubuntu installs are down year over year. If you're not a software engineer, getting linux working well (even ubuntu) and keeping it that way is pretty much impossible. Comparatively, W10 will boot on any hardware and take care of itself. even a mechanical or EE engineer wit…
Since when are all the technically inclined people software "engineers"?
I'm not so sure about this idea though, if Microsoft would ever take this path, it'll probably be far far in the future.
I think Microsoft releases and Edge version for Linux in an attempt to get Linux users on board to use their products. People using this will probably be less reluctant to try other Microsoft products as well.
Edge is based on Chromium, which is already Linux native. It probably took Microsoft minimal effort to release a Linux binary as well, making this a win-win situation for them.
Now to strengthen that argument; Microsoft did not release any other enduser software for native Linux yet, such as Office or other Windowws native tools. At least, I'm not aware of any. Maybe this is something they'll take on in the future, only one can dream. Now I know there's .NET Core and PowerShell, but I'd hardly call that enduser software.
At the same time they're working on various things that seem like a vender-lockin. I'll give two examples.
The first is the Windows/Microsoft Store and UWP. More and more applications (and AAA games) are released through this store as UWP apps. These UWP apps (and the store) cannot be emulated (yes I know Wine is not an emulator) on a Linux host at this moment and function as a DRM layer, nor do I think this will happen anytime soon.
As second example, take DirectX. Microsoft recently showed plans for supporting DirectX on Linux (https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directx-heart-linux/). There's a catch though, this only works on Linux in WSL, locking you to a Microsoft Windows host.
It seems to me, these aren't here to enhance Linux, nor to brighten the path to start using Linux more under the hood. These things only appeal to Windows users, and it rather seems like Microsoft is attempting to lock users to Windows hosts to me.
Obviously I don't know where they're headed. I sure hope more and more Windows software will become usable on a Linux host, and I like the idea of Windows using Linux as true kernel.
This might sound like a rant, but it's not intended to be. Just wanted to extend yourarticle with these notes so everybody can come up with their own ideas on this topic.
By the way, the comment box on your website seems broken.
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We technical people should really start to understand that we're not the average use. Not even close. I'd have no problem in mutilating Windows enough to make it usable, and keeping an eye for when it tries to do something nasty. But the average user won't, and will have a computing experience filled with unnecessary advertising, encumbered by background processing and bandwitdh usage (telemetry collection and other…
Advertising? I've never seen an ad. Are you talking about some OEM Windows install with extra bits??
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Yup, that one. Thought is well known by now. 1st tool to download after a fresh install, even before I download Total Commander.
How do you know it's safe? I cringe at giving admin rights to a .exe downloaded from the net.
I think it will happen soon, within the next year. Edge first, then office, finally onedrive
I'm buying a new computer. Currently I have only ubuntu linux machines and was just saying to someone that I would actually consider trying windows and WSL because it would let me use the linux tools I want alongside MS office, and it might be interesting to play with windows versions of things. The reason I wont actually do it though is because I'm sure that windows will be filled with commercially oriented intrusio…
Also, the author of this article seems ignorant of the fact that Windows' kernel internals are one of its strongest features - Cutler's NT Kernel incorporated many things he learned from building VMS, and while the shell and outer parts of Windows have often left a lot to desire, the NT (not DOS/Win9X) kernel is and always has been excellent. I don't see Windows evolving to run on a Linux kernel - that would be only viable with vast improvements/changes to the Linux kernel.
I'm buying a new computer. Currently I have only ubuntu linux machines and was just saying to someone that I would actually consider trying windows and WSL because it would let me use the linux tools I want alongside MS office, and it might be interesting to play with windows versions of things. The reason I wont actually do it though is because I'm sure that windows will be filled with commercially oriented intrusio…
But Windows lets you do things no Linux distro really can - use modern, state-of-the-art interface technologies like multitouch, pens, and dials. A Surface with WSL is about the ideal setup, with the best of both worlds. Also, the author of this article seems ignorant of the fact that Windows' kernel internals are one of its strongest features - Cutler's NT Kernel incorporated many things he learned from building VMS…
I would not be surprised at all if he's ignorant of Windows' kernel internals or, really, much else about Windows.
> [...] ESR, is an American software developer, open-source software advocate, and author of the 1997 essay and 1999 book The Cathedral and the Bazaar. -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_S._Raymond
In fact, this article likely would have gained little attention were it written by anyone else.
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How do you know it's safe? I cringe at giving admin rights to a .exe downloaded from the net.
You don't / can't know it's safe. It's not open source, and it has no good reason not to be open source.
I'm buying a new computer. Currently I have only ubuntu linux machines and was just saying to someone that I would actually consider trying windows and WSL because it would let me use the linux tools I want alongside MS office, and it might be interesting to play with windows versions of things. The reason I wont actually do it though is because I'm sure that windows will be filled with commercially oriented intrusio…
I use Windows 10 with Classic Start Menu. I see no adverts. I do see some notifications, almost all of which are useful. Probably you should try things first, before jumping to conclusions - I find Windows 10 a pretty good experience, and yes, I have also been using Linux for about 30 years.
I don't need to smoke crack to know that I don't want anything to do with it.