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My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

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Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#221

Post by stereolambda »

codedokode wrote: post #204

I switched to Linux from Windows XP. Linux is great in almost every aspect except for memory usage and lots of tiny bugs and things getting constantly broken. If you are not fine with running commands in terminal, it might not work for you. Recent example: in Fedora the firewall in default configuration blocks DHCP packets when you try to share Internet via bluetooth. In Windows traditions no message is displayed on…

I sometimes wonder how much of the console barrier is just culture, and some things being deemed to be okay to be treated as "unapproachable" in a memey way. The same way corporate incompetence is maybe judged lighter that volunteer incompetence in tech, because of some social prestige aura.

The act of entering some specific text into a field in a computer is something many people experience with the URL bar, or even (for most users) the Google bar. The act of following a tutorial somewhere to achieve a thing is also something that is nowadays practiced in society. Maybe even moreso that earlier, even if people expect the tutorial to be video for some reason.

This makes me think the gap between Linux having a more approachable knowledge ecosystem and people willing to acquire a little more computer competence should be kind of realistic to close.

I was going to comment that many Linux projects can have questionable hyper-"safe" defaults, another example being KDE forcing you to reboot on GUI update at some point. (I'm aware that apparently people were reporting bugs that would go away after rebooting, and they couldn't figure out a better mitigation.) But on the other hand, there are probably distros other than Fedora willing to forego security and ideological purity for more hassle-free start for the average user. So there's choice.

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#222

Post by kuschku »

ihateolives wrote: post #126
nextos wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe the OP just needed to enable e.g. Nouveau with the appropriate kernel module parameters? I am regularly using a 14 year-old MacBook on plain X and it is surprisingly fast.

> just needed to enable e.g. Nouveau with the appropriate kernel module parameters? And that's why Linux will stay in the server for majority of people, not on their desktop. "You just need to enable something with some parameters and you're all set!" Seriously?

We're talking about a 21 year old OS as alternative. Back then, Windows would also require significant manual configuration to get it running. Windows may have become more "automagic" these days, but at least in the Windows XP era a common part of installing Windows was going to the local library to look at guides and manuals for setting up less common hardware.

Even something as simple as setting up a sound card with recent drivers required going to weird, slow-loading taiwanese websites with no english text to get the current drivers right from the manufacturer of the sound chip.

Even worse, with XP you had no GPU accelerated desktop at all. Sure, lower latency, but the PC noticeably struggled even moving windows if something happened in the background.

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#224

Post by gambiting »

arnaudsm wrote: post #164
bullen wrote: post #161

There is no bigger security risk with using old OS over time as hackers stop focusing on the old stuff because the attack surface is reduced simply by the number of victims being so low. As for why the mouse is fast in Windows the interrupts are handled by the kernel in a very special way to perform almost mind reading levels of speed even over the bloated USB stack. I suspect it to be a nightmare to maintain as USB…

Early SSDs had poor reliability, but modern ones seem to be lasting longer than HDDs according to this BlackBlaze report : https://www.backblaze.com/blog/ssd-drive-stats-mid-2022-revi...

>>Early SSDs had poor reliability,

Yeah but it's not like they are all guaranteed to fail. I still use an OCZ Agility 3 in one of my PCs to this very day, it runs 24/7. And that was probably one of the worst "early" SSDs for failure rates.

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#225

Post by sylens »

So many problems with this piece

>> My computer is also not some old rubbish. It has an Intel Core2Duo CPU with 4 Gb RAM. It was top of the line in 2009.

Just because you had a top of the line PC in 2009 does not disqualify it from being 'old rubbish' in 2023. A Core2Duo is ancient at this point.

>> The truth is I have never been hacked once in the eight years I have had this computer.

Or something has been compromised or exploited and you've had no idea because it's not something obvious like opening your CD-ROM drive automatically.

>> My belief is that computer security is highly overrated. With a decent firewall, which every router has these days, only your own activity can expose you to attack from hostile actors

This probably explains the author's mindset. An outdated belief system that the only thing you need is a firewall to stay safe on the modern Internet.

Even worse, the author's successor computer is a Windows 7 PC, which is already out of support

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#226

Post by gambiting »

codedokode wrote: post #220
jalapenos wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Amen. I bought a printer and trying to make it work with Ubuntu is just hell. Ubuntu is great, but it would be nice if there was some Ubuntu+ addon subscription service where I could pay to make the bullshit go away. I've got other stuff to do than still trying to get peripherals to work, in 2023.

The problem with Linux is that people buy random hardware without any research and expect it to support Linux. Try installing MacOS on a random laptop or Windows on M1 Mac and get the same result. There should be official compatibility list for laptops of all price ranges and whoever buys something not from the list needs to deal with issues themselves.

The problem with this argument is that the exact same crowd of people is saying

"just use linux instead of windows!"

at the same time as

"you can't expect linux to work on everything! do your research!"

So which one is it? Is Linux an OS that you can just replace Windows with straight away, or is it not? Most people don't care about the underlying reasoning why their printer doesn't work on linux - they just know it would have worked on windows fine.

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#227

Post by anthk »

>My belief is that computer security is highly overrated. With a decent firewall, which every router has these days, only your own activity can expose you to attack from hostile actors. All internet browsers also help you by warning when you are about to do something stupid like executing code from a remote source

HN uses might be young, but C# malware will run everywhere. Also, remember Blaster/Sasser? Good times.

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#228

Post by hulitu »

jacooper wrote: post #130

Reading this article, I feel the old age holding the author from adapting to new systems, I just end up in the mindset of I never ever want to be this person.

After some time you become tired of having to chase GUI elements which were hidden behind ribbons, chasing hidden scrollbars, fighting with various search dialogues or tabs on the titlebar when you want to move the window on another monitor, etc

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#229

Post by KronisLV »

LAC-Tech wrote: post #201
ihateolives wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> just needed to enable e.g. Nouveau with the appropriate kernel module parameters? And that's why Linux will stay in the server for majority of people, not on their desktop. "You just need to enable something with some parameters and you're all set!" Seriously?

Yes, seriously. I know how to enable something with parameters. if others don't - that's fine. They can learn or they can deal with other operating systems. I really don't care.

> I really don't care.

I don't think that this sort of attitude will result in an environment that's encouraging for more people to use Linux distros. A better approach might be going straight into suggesting whatever information helped you in the past.

For example, the Arch Wiki typically has useful information on many topics: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Nouveau

When dealing with other distros, there can be more specific sites too, like: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1032357/how-to-switch-from-n...

Not all of those are always up to date, though, so some digging around might be needed. Many will just give up or not even try, if they're faced with a dismissive attitude. Dialogue around what is the most helpful, accurate and up to date guide would be better!

Re: My long goodbye to Windows XP (2022)

#230

Post by hulitu »

wkat4242 wrote: post #113
ptero wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For me, the big change came with Windows 2000. It had user benefits from 9x in a stable package. That was the first version that I can play games on and also leave it running for months, just like a Linux box.

The funny thing though is that Windows 2000 was never meant for consumers playing games. They would have to put up with Windows ME, at least in Microsoft's eyes. Which was the first version you could play games on and leave it running for hours between crashes, lol. I also used Win 2k Pro and it was an amazing leap coming from 98, yes. My laptop came with ME but it sucked so bad I changed it after a week.

> ... Windows ME ... running for hours between crashes

It depended on the definition of "hours" but sometimes the "hours" were very short.

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