Live data from Hacker News

Windows needs a change in priorities

den.dev

491–500 of 884 posts

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#491
post #311

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Unless you care about gaming MacOS has been rock solid for at least a decade. For what it is worth I am no mac fanboy, I am typing this to you on a windows 10 computer in my shop(that I use for gaming, among other things).

In what way macOS being rock solid can help Windows users having issues such as those described in the article?

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#492

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think Chrome OS is going to save you, you haven't been paying attention to Google for the past 10 years.

I didn't say it was going to save me. I do think I had a type that said 'good future.' I meant to put something along the lines of 'good probability of a future.' Chrome OS is going to be another user hostile environment for sure. But the point is, Chrome OS has a good shot at displacing windows not because it is better or less user hostile, but because it is putting cheap machines in the hands of kids who will one d…

Purchasing decision are made by business executives. I use windows because i am forced by my employer.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#493

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One hopes it never will, because everything post-Win32 seems to be much worse. UWP (what is used for the new Control Panel/"Settings") is particularly frustrating. ...which is very strange that MS seems to be continuing to rewrite stuff in it, when it's already started saying things like this a few years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19873198

> ...which is very strange that MS seems to be continuing to rewrite stuff in it From what I understand, the thinking is something like: - There currently aren't any great alternatives for an attractive, touch-friendly, modern-looking UI framework. UWP applications generally feel pretty good to use despite UWP's problems. - MS already has to support UWP apps forever (once something ships with Windows it's immortal),…

You're saying that within 5 years the illness will become terminal.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#494
It seems Windows releases come in series of two, one good, one bad.

Windows XP, Windows Vista. Windows 7, Windows 8. Windows 10, Windows 11.

After each successful release Microsoft pull a bunch of crap. Users aren't happy and they rather use the older version than upgrade to the new one. Microsoft comes to its senses, release a better version and the cycle repeats.

So we should kind of wait for Windows 12.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#495
post #24

This article nails a lot of the issues with Windows 11. I bit the bullet and upgraded to Windows 11 late last year thinking it must be an improvement over Windows 10. It turned out to be a big step backwards. - Changing the default browser is a lot of work instead of a single click. - I can't move the task bar to the side, even though almost every monitor nowadays has much more horizontal space than vertical. - All a…

It seems to frequently be true that Microsoft releases a horrifying nightmare OS, polishes is up and removes hated features, and then releases a new version. It's been a bit of a pattern. Windows 8 -> Windows 10 Windows Vista -> Windows 7 and even before that: Windows Me -> Windows 2000 -> Windows XP was a pretty solid chain that shows it over three releases (personally I think XP was buggier, I don't know what the i…

I really need to dig very deep into my memory; wasn't Windows ME kind of dead on arrival? And MS themselves half acknowledged it by releasing XP within a few months.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#496

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't even use a desktop environment. Gonna be using a window manager for ever. Most of everything is run on the command line anyway.

How do you browse the Internet then?

> How do you browse the Internet then?

I assume by

> using a window manager for ever

I've used WindowMaker as a Window manager for decades. Only recently did I decide to switch to Mate because I wanted a taskbar at the bottom with useful things like applets to show and switch Wifi/network, volume control and often-used icons/launchers.

TBH, if I could get things like tint2 and yabar working with the mate applets, I'd probably switch back to WindowMaker in a heartbeat.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What little new stuff they're putting out (e.g.: Visual Studio Code) is a tyre fire of low quality tools I have no idea why you would say this. VS Code is an incredibly popular and well-liked product.

It is popular because it filled a niche where next to nothing existed, so for people in those fields anything is a step up. For people like me forced to come over from Visual Studio and other editors, it's a huge step down. For example, instead of making improvements to the PowerShell Integrated Scripting Environment (ISE), Microsoft marked it as deprecated and "forced" everyone over to Visual Studio Code, whether th…

There are a ton of editors both free and paid for that niche you mentioned. Visual Studio code wasn't even the first one made with Electron, there was one called Atom before it. I have used and continue to use Sublime Text, and at work they install Notepad++ on all computers by default.

I guess though if you're coming from raw notepad then that is a step up.

And with anything "browser based" like VS Code you're going to always spawn a ton of processes to do even the simplest things.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#498

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

Facebook marketplace is full of stolen goods boosted by meth heads that they won't do anything about.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#499
post #299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see this argument in every thread about Linux. There's always this one magical user where everything "just works", has had 0 issues and everything's just dandy.

What are some specific issues? Most of the stuff I hear is either hardware related or some software someone used on Windows doesn't exist on Linux. For hardware issues it depends on the hardware you're using. Since most drivers aren't open source, full Linux support often comes a while after it's released. I don't use the most recent hardware and haven't had a problem where something doesn't "just work" in years. I d…

There's 3 categories in my experience:

- Hardware support - if you don't have any special needs, it tends to work well, but as soon as you go into exotic stuff like digitizers or DP daisy chaining, GPU switching, or you are just plain unlucky, expect a world of hurt

- UI Papercuts: There's a ton of these - like extracting files in GUI is by far the least intuitive under GNOME compared to other OS's, no thumbnails, pdf reader can't be set to exactly how I like it, and made to remember it, etc. - every DE has its own niggles. The fact that every DE has its own set of apps - if using GNOME it comes with its own pdf reader, god forbid you use a third-party one, creates a strange culty feeling among app devs. Also, closed source, monetized apps are reviled, even if they solve a problem better than anything open source.

- Development experience: Ironically terrible. Binary compatibility is nonexistent, compiling stuff generally involves apt-geting (or equivalent) packages and hoping you have the right versions in the repos. Some of the stuff in the repos doesn't even work (insta-crashes), due to being built wrong.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#500

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish this was true, but there are a heck of a lot of office workers who have grown up with Windows and can never be trained to use anything else. You'll get a lot of resistance and rationalisation about why they don't think Linux or BSD or whatever isn't as good, and that the training time is better used to just work.

You're not wrong, but office users should be locked to a browser in 2022 anyway. What do they need Windows for? They can all use a web browser. Microsoft has done an amazing job convincing the office world they need Windows, when they don't need a single feature that it provides in 99% of cases.

MS Office in browser is like Teams: terrible. Aparently MS decided to rewrite the UI for the browser app and even they acknoledge that is not working (do you want to open in desktop app ?)
Post reply on HN