Live data from Hacker News

Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

helgeklein.com

241–250 of 296 posts

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure it doesn't help, but even with all that stuff disabled it's bad. svchost.exe's mysterious machinations, windows updates, superfetch (or whatever they call it now), one drive syncing, malware checking, app updates, it's like 'everything everywhere all at once' for Windows. You can make a case for all those things, of course. Just why does it have to launch into them all immediately upon startup? On a beefier…

Recent versions of Win10 still perform quite well on old hardware for me - could be that you just need a clean install?

Yes, clean install usually helps, but it wasn't my laptop so I didn't want to jump to extreme solutions straight away (otherwise I might have put Ubuntu on it!)

I think what the main problem was they hadn't used it in a while and accumulated a backlog of mandatory Windows Updates. While these chugged away they got frustrated with an almost unresponsive computer, turned it off, install interrupted for the same thing to happen all over again. I can see how doing this stuff in the background makes sense as you don't necessarily want to bother the user with it, but when it impacts performance so badly maybe it's better to throw up the message and the progress bar. At least they know what's up!

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#242
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can come down to one program that doesn't have a good alternative on another OS, my version of that are the DAWs / music production tools I know and love. Wine solves a lot of this (but not all) for Windows programs, the macOS equivalent Darling[0] seems to still has some way to go until GUI programs are reliably supported. [0] https://github.com/darlinghq/darling

If you’re open to switching to Reaper, it’s my understanding that their Linux version is coming along well. I’ve read good things about it plus LinVST. Of course, I’m also unwilling to test this myself and I’ll probably run MacOS until the day I stop making music.

Reaper on Linux is really quite impressive IMO

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#243

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

Linux still has horrible font rendering, which makes web browsing uncomfortable. It doesn't come close to Windows or Mac. Fonts often appear soapy, kerning is off etc.

I disagree. Which "Linux" are you even talking about? (it's not the Kernel that's relevant here of course)

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#244
post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no I'm not using any zoom or extra scaling. It's the native scaling of mbp retina display. Screenshot is ~2 times bigger than what I actually see. edit: your second screenshot looks very sharp and nice on my display.

Retina display is at least 200% or more scaling, right? You're comparing hires text rendering to lowres. Screenshot is 2x bigger because browser doesn't know about pixel density and scales it 2x by default. It does the same to those low res screenshots so they look normal sized on 4K but they're blurry because they're being image scaled. See: https://johankj.github.io/devicePixelRatio/ If you see more than 1 at 100%…

Yes retina display is 2x. But saying a display is 4k doesn't tell anything about its pixel density or scaling.

I look at the original commenters screenshot at 50% browser scaling but it's still blurry. I guess there is an element of image compression there.

On the other hand; from my own experience (I own linux, macos and windows pcs) on the same display Macos text rendering is much more sharper and pleasant to look at.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#245

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

> what holds you back to switch to Linux?

Currently Linux has reached a state where I could tolerate most of the things I hate about it and would be willing to do so to be rid of Microsoft's bullshit, except for the following: VR in Linux is a garbage fire, DCS is hit and miss, and my 1080ti will likely be an endless source of problems.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#246
post #127
post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can come down to one program that doesn't have a good alternative on another OS, my version of that are the DAWs / music production tools I know and love. Wine solves a lot of this (but not all) for Windows programs, the macOS equivalent Darling[0] seems to still has some way to go until GUI programs are reliably supported. [0] https://github.com/darlinghq/darling

Bitwig is the best Linux DAW in my experience, although it isn't FOSS. Running third party VSTs is also much more of a pain if even possible. I'm also stuck with Logic... for now at least.

IIRC Bitwig was founded by ex-Ableton developers. I haven't tried it yet, but that's good pedigree.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on my experience, I blame the 3rd party stuff. All kinds of software and devices just love to add background processes to the system. I guess this is the price you pay for system where everything is possible.

I'm sure it doesn't help, but even with all that stuff disabled it's bad. svchost.exe's mysterious machinations, windows updates, superfetch (or whatever they call it now), one drive syncing, malware checking, app updates, it's like 'everything everywhere all at once' for Windows. You can make a case for all those things, of course. Just why does it have to launch into them all immediately upon startup? On a beefier…

Couldn't have said it better, Windows 10 is the first Windows that does "Everything everywhere all at once" without any regard to what other resources are in use. It is basically unusable on any 5400rpm hard drive.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#248

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised people on hackernews are still regurgitating talking points from 20 years ago - Linux on Desktop is quite terrible ? When was the last time you used Linux .. I have been using Linux systems from the past 10-15 years and they have been my daily driver for almost everything - and I live on my computer. Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

I am surprised people on hackernews still don't seem to understand that, on the whole, happy Linux users are a self-selecting group based on their own skills, understanding and tolerances. I'm not saying that people don't have good experiences with Linux desktops. I'm saying that those experiences are still nowhere near universal, especially when you start to involve people who aren't really power users. The most com…

Yes.. but are we really saying that people can install Windows and ride off into the sunset?

IME there are always people who "get stuck" with their computer or end up in "nuke from orbit" situations.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#249

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

I use Linux (primarily NixOS and Arch) for most things. I like MacOS for work, too, though.

The one thing I keep Windows for is gaming. More specifically for game streaming. Steam Link works okay (and is cross platform), but I haven't seen anything as performant and meets my needs as much as Nvidia Gamestream (Windows-only for server-side streaming). I use Moonlight to connect to it. I haven't found any alternatives that work as well that are also available for Linux.

I wish there were a game streaming application (open source preferably) as performant as Gamestream that worked as well on Linux.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's obvious. It's much less expensive to buy a Windows PC than a Mac. Linux on the desktop is still quite terrible in a number of ways (particularly if you are ever unfortunate enough to deal with drivers and kernel modules for your slightly uncommon hardware). Chromebooks still don't rate that highly and haven't really entered the public consciousness as a result. Not to mention that many people are using Windows…

I am surprised people on hackernews are still regurgitating talking points from 20 years ago - Linux on Desktop is quite terrible ? When was the last time you used Linux .. I have been using Linux systems from the past 10-15 years and they have been my daily driver for almost everything - and I live on my computer. Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

> Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved.

Which doesn't mean others didn't have issues, huh? Also some people might have not specific knowledge to solve the issues.

Post reply on HN