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Burn My Windows

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201–210 of 282 posts

Re: Burn My Windows

#201

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I’ve done a considerable amount of research on this topic over the last 20 years and for the at least 10 years of it the actual main reason Windows users don’t like Linux is simply because it’s not like Windows. It doesn’t matter how much better Linux might be or how crappy Windows might get, if people are comfortable in one thing then they generally don’t like switching to another thing that behaves differently. A…

> There is a difference between just liking the way things behave because you're comfortable with it and preferring the way it behaves because it is better. indeed there is. However the vast majority of people fall into the former category while assuming theyre the latter category. Or to put it another way, everyone cannot be right that their preference is technically superior. Ergo our preferences must be subjective…

> indeed there is. However the vast majority of people fall into the former category while assuming theyre the latter category.

That sounds arrogant and condescending. In order for that to be true you would have to presume that any given behavior was objectively better, and therefore anyone who prefers different behavior only does so because they are comfortable with the 'wrong' behavior.

> That’s a huuuuge generalisation there. The truth is it depends on the Linux distribution

No, it doesn't, and I'm really tired of hearing "you chose the wrong distro, bro" for literally every distro because none of them actually do what I, and many others, want. Why is it considered so insane to want a stable base system and be able to install applications of any level of bleeding-edgeness on top of it without jumping through a bunch of hoops?

> Linux will see more regular platform updates than Windows and macOS where you’re limited to service packs and new OS releases.

You clearly haven't kept in touch with Windows through the Windows 10 era.

> Yeah cross platform package management is broken in Linux. Snap, flatpak, etc. all have problems. Personally I think the real issue is that Linux is trying to emulate Windows and Mac with portable installers. If you want a platform where the responsibility is on the user to download and install applications manually then there are already mature options available for that (Windows and macOS). So there’s no point trying to compete there. Where Linux excels is with its package management taking the risk of application installation away from the operator.

I disagree with literally every statement in here except the first two sentences. There is no reason one cannot have "portable" applications that are also managed with a store or package manager! It just means that you don't actually have to and you don't need an army of unpaid volunteers to repackage shit constantly. And Linux, in my experience, doesn't excel at taking the risk away as I have seen updates break other package's dependencies plenty of times.

We're getting off in the weeds. My original point, I think, stands: Linux doesn't behave the way I think is best, therefore it isn't 'comfort' that makes me not like the way it behaves, it's my preference for a different --better in my reasoned opinion-- behavior.

> This won’t be to everyone’s preference but that’s fine because not every platform should behave the same.

If this is truly your opinion then you have phrased your initial assertion in a very poor and condescending sounding way. You very much make it sound like "people who don't like the way Linux behaves are just idiots who can't learn new things".

> And here lies the problem with people who say one is better than another: they look at the differences and say “I don’t like it” but think it’s a technical decision when in fact it’s just an emotive response based on what they’re comfort zone is.

Oh, I see, it's because you actually did think they're just idiots.

Re: Burn My Windows

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Isn't tackiness heavily context, culture, and timeframe dependent? All the more reason to not require them?

I believe the opposite: that there is sometimes the right place, the right project/people, and the right time to be whimsical. So not always, but also not never (as an abolitionist stance would see it).

Well I do have to admit that in this particular instance it is just as silly as the project itself, so it does fit.

Re: Burn My Windows

#203

Compiz was probably the single most impactful event for desktop linux of the mid 2000's. Not that it itself made much of a difference, but the ripples affect many areas we take for granted today. A few reasons: - it put linux ahead of windows and mac in terms of appearance; - it brought many new users and most were a good mix technical and enthusiasts; - it showed the advantages of modular software; - many plugins we…

Yes, Compiz, yet another point where Linux could have grabbed massive mindshare in the desktop market, when there was massive ... what do I say ... confusion? incompetence? exhibited by Windows especially.

And... it went nowhere. A shot at a truly amazing desktop that would put it even above OSX.

Squandered.

The desktop market is STILL, ten years after windows 8, STILL ripe for the taking.

Re: Burn My Windows

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> There is a difference between just liking the way things behave because you're comfortable with it and preferring the way it behaves because it is better. indeed there is. However the vast majority of people fall into the former category while assuming theyre the latter category. Or to put it another way, everyone cannot be right that their preference is technically superior. Ergo our preferences must be subjective…

> indeed there is. However the vast majority of people fall into the former category while assuming theyre the latter category. That sounds arrogant and condescending. In order for that to be true you would have to presume that any given behavior was objectively better, and therefore anyone who prefers different behavior only does so because they are comfortable with the 'wrong' behavior. > That’s a huuuuge generalis…

[deleted]

Re: Burn My Windows

#205
post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're just starting the 20s. I don't think I ever heard of the decade from 1910 to 1919 being referred to as the 10s, but I definitely heard of the 20s. Maybe the first 20 years of a century are kind of hard to name, so, yeah it's about time.

Can we now go back to storing year as 2 digits? /s

Show HN: How we saved $2MM in AWS transfer fees by storing years as 2 digits (2051)

Re: Burn My Windows

#206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No. When someone relates their negative experience with an OS you happen to use, that is not a personal attack What personal attacks are these? All I’ve seen thus far are adults having a mature conversation. > or invitation to expound upon your own contradictory experience That’s literally the point of social platforms. You cannot post an opinion on a public forum and then declare that other people are forbidden to…

> this started out a positive thread talking about Linux composing managers and there wasn’t any need for anyone to start arguing about how much better Windows was but that happened. That isn't what happened, this is my point about taking things personally. Let's look at what was actually said: > Compiz was great at drawing curious people in but I'd argue that Compiz helped many people write off Linux. After which th…

I know I said wouldn’t reply (and frankly this meta debate is every bit as worthless as I predicted it would be) but I feel I should point out that you haven’t traced the thread back up to the OP when conducting your analysis. You need to hit ‘parent’ on the post that you thought was top. Might need to do that a couple times in fact. That should add the context I was describing which you couldn’t see. :)

Re: Burn My Windows

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> linux is still far from being a diamond of UI design or consistency While I'll agree those are important for usability, I'm not sure they're necessary for adoption. Windows 10 uses a mix of UIs ranging from win32 windows 95 legacy to MAUI and most popular programs implement their own UI frameworks and it's doing ok.

A lot of people don't care about the experience of using a computer. If they did, there would be revolts and walk-outs against Outlook and Exchange, about SharePoint, and about every single version of Windows. I am an amateur font designer and even I find the font rendering on Windows (specially if you have mixed density screens) horrendous. It's like it has a dozen incompatible libraries using different font renderi…

I have used Linux since 2004, and the fonts were so horrid I read up on configuring FreeType to try make them less jarring.

Re: Burn My Windows

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> An OS is much more than cool looking visualizations [...] At the time it was easy to hear people complaining about how ugly linux was. Compiz helped a lot in that front. We were used to people saying "you can't do that on linux" and then things quickly changed to us saying "you can't do that on your OS". Let's not fake it: linux is still far from being a diamond of UI design or consistency, but well, competition ha…

> linux is still far from being a diamond of UI design or consistency YMMV. I myself am very happy with Gnome and would say it's about as nice to use as a Mac. You can, of course, install ugly applications with horrendous UIs, that use Athena or Motif widgets, limited only to X bitmapped fonts or an ncurses UI that would work on a VT-52, and so on - but that's kind of a feature of Linux - it's Unix and it runs a lot…

I think Gnome apps in Gnome are actually pretty alright.

Not really jarring anymore with ok functionality between apps. I wish gnome-shell was more stable and shipped with a dock…

Re: Burn My Windows

#209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll have to agree with this. Compiz was great at drawing curious people in but I'd argue that Compiz helped many people write off Linux. It definitely made Windows XP look outdated but after you scratch the surface and adopt Linux, you discover a world of hurt whether it be bad drivers that break your desktop and throw you to a different run level, poor interoperability between the different components or just the g…

It's a real shame, but unfortunately it seems endemic to the FOSS development ecosystem: people will work on things they think are cool; and stable, consistent, functional software is hard work and not very cool. Consequently we get a lot of opinionated little fiefdoms ruling over collections of frankensteined software and then the evangelical wonder why it isn't The Year of the Linux Desktop yet.

Yes, I think so too. And I have used Linux since 2004, macos since 2013. And have barely touched windows since 2009, but I have tried w10 and w11 briefly.

Re: Burn My Windows

#210
post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bunch of rose-tinted hogwash, this. > It pioneered useful things like selecting an area of the screen and saving it directly to a file Pioneered? This was a standard feature on Macs since January 1997. > It also showed how important compositing was on the desktop. No, that would be the Quartz and Quartz Extreme compositors released with Mac OSX 10.0-10.2 years prior. Compiz in the mid 2000s was a mixture of catching…

Maybe for the people that could afford to own a mac. Compiz was something I , a student could use though. And for free. Maybe it’s more accurate to say it brought it into the reach of everyone with a bit of willingness to learn how to install an obscure OS (as opposed to having a ton of money)?

Same. Apple products were so obnoxiously expensive.
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