Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Windows needs a change in priorities

den.dev

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

411–420 of 884 posts

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#411

Post by emptysongglass »

I read through the nearly 400 comments and no one brought up using the LTSC edition of Windows, which actually gets out of your way or that you don't own the OS when you use a proprietary operating system.

I'm not really sure what to make of this as it seems people prefer to complain as if they were hostages to the whims of others.

I buy my computers with Linux pre-installed on supported machines. All those complaints of Linux "still not working" in 2022 effortlessly glide over the obvious: you're already making it an unfair fight when you adopt an OS to a non-native machine.

If you don't own the OS what's the point of complaining? MacOS and Windows will never have the best interests of the user at heart because that's not where the capital incentives are. It's really as simple as that. Are you going to develop a patch for Windows that makes Windows do as you want? If you do, who at Microsoft is going to take your PR? No one?

This behavior should be blindingly obvious to anyone who thinks for a second where the incentives are. If the incentives are not aligned with yours, it's time to a. consider paying for a volume license for LTSC so you can get the experience you want that you pay for and vote with your dollars or b. use an OS that isn't abusive.

C. moan and complain isn't actually a productive strategy because the money bundled into your OS cost is neglible to the value of your metrics and pushing a subscription to Office that actually makes Microsoft money. People keep smashing this button in the vain hope something will change. Stop and think. Follow the money. Do something about your situation that doesn't enrage you so often.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#413

Post by pjmlp »

jiggawatts wrote: post #353
userbinator wrote: post #347

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't say that, it's basically what keeps Windows alive.

Win32 is on life support. Many new features added since Vista don't work with it at all, or require complex code to enable in Win32 apps.

They surely do, because COM is part of Win32.

Now I admit it is a bit more complex than calling C functions, but only if one insists in calling COM from C.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#414

Post by throwuxiytayq »

ahmedalsudani wrote: post #408
leshenka wrote: post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike Meta/Alphabet, Microsoft actually has something that’s not shameful

You don't think any of those are "not shameful"? - Google search - Google maps - YouTube - FB Messenger/WhatsApp - Instagram - Oculus - FB Marketplace

To be honest, yeah, I can't decide which one is the biggest anti-user shitshow. My personal favorite is YT which likes to make at least one universally disliked decision per year. But I'm sure everyone has their own.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#415

Post by Gigachad »

kyriakos wrote: post #377
Gigachad wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The skype thing kinda makes sense. People want software which just works without configuration. When you sign in to an iphone or macbook, it immediately sets up facetime which is always active waiting for a call in the background. No one complains because this is expected and it has always happened. But then Microsoft wants to give their users the same conveniance as Apple users get with their "just works" setup and…

I see your point but maybe the reactions are because most of these efforts feel half baked? For example they are forcing teams on users, which I use as a daily driver at my work and I feel that it's the worst piece of software I have to use. On top of that the way things are integrated always looks and feels forced. Like going into lengths to hide control panel in windows 10 even if it's still there and while the set…

I agree it’s an implementation issue. Windows always feels like annoying nagware while macOS and iOS largely get out of your way. Teams would pop up with a window on every boot to annoy you while FaceTime just sits in the background.

But the power users on this site would rather we have some kind of advanced configuration page where every single feature of windows should be opt in. While simultaneously praising the Apple “just works” system.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#416

Post by grumpyprole »

artificialLimbs wrote: post #190

I stopped playing Minecraft recently again. I first quit a few years ago, but wanted to show it to my young son. Trying to go back and EVEN JUST INSTALL it now is filled with Microsoft-ian circles of login catastrophe and "upgrade your account" nightmares. The installation process was so difficult, I will never play again.

I tried to play Minecraft with my kids yesterday. It forced us to migrate accounts, but after clicking lots of buttons, the presumably final Microsoft account creation part just hung and wouldn't finish. My kids were like "By why can't we just play? We paid for it!". They couldn't understand why "Microsoft accounts" were even needed for local network play. Neither can I.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#417

Post by rapind »

leshenka wrote: post #366
29athrowaway wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Unlike Meta/Alphabet, Microsoft actually has something that’s not shameful

Off the top of my head, Project Zero?

I never forgave M$ for IE6 though, so I’m biased. A new generation is being lulled into thing they’re the good guys.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#418

Post by pjmlp »

emptysongglass wrote: post #411

I read through the nearly 400 comments and no one brought up using the LTSC edition of Windows, which actually gets out of your way or that you don't own the OS when you use a proprietary operating system. I'm not really sure what to make of this as it seems people prefer to complain as if they were hostages to the whims of others. I buy my computers with Linux pre-installed on supported machines. All those complaint…

> I buy my computers with Linux pre-installed on supported machines. All those complaints of Linux "still not working" in 2022 effortlessly glide over the obvious: you're already making it an unfair fight when you adopt an OS to a non-native machine

I did as well, an Asus 1215B netbook, remember those?

The wlan still has issues to work properly to this day, the graphics card should be able to do OpenGL 4.1/DirectX 11, yet the AMD driver only does OpenGL 3.3.

Good that it was shipped with official Linux support.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#419

Post by oblio »

skoskie wrote: post #122
foerbert wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really? I made the same move (or at least finished it 100%) at the same time, and that's not a problem I've ever seen. Some (surprisingly few, actually) don't perform well under Wine/Proton, or at all, but random freezing I've never seen. And certainly not all of my games.

But it’s linux, so one obscure setting in a config file or slightly different hardware can make all the difference. I say this as a linux user since WinXP. The whole OS market is pretty rough right now.

> The whole OS market is pretty rough right now.

It's like this since it became clear smartphones were going to become the bigger market, so around 2012 or so.

Investment into desktop everything went down: OSes, apps, games, etc.

Heck, you can see this even for Open Source desktop stuff. There was a flurry of releases of cross platform Open Source software around 2009 or so: KDE4, better support for GTK on Windows, etc. All of that has slowed down or frozen in time.

Mobile has sucked all the money and hype from desktop development.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#420

Post by jart »

Shared404 wrote: post #337
jart wrote: post #324

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's why I was used the word consumers. Rolling your own crypto will let you work around the requirement of asking Microsoft for permission to install our own operating system. But it limits the audience for your work to the technical class.

/me removes foot from mouth I see what you mean now, I screwed up reading your first comment.

I think this is the first time someone has ever reacted non-negatively towards me online after I brought up the subject. UEFI has good PR and I think people refuse to believe the implications of what happened. It would be like having Google officially be the only CA for HTTPS certificates and then removing HTTP from Chrome. That's basically what the security community did with PCs.
Post reply on HN