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Microsoft is driving users away

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Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#401
post #325

Microsoft has been driving users away for no less than 10 years now and nothing much is changing IMO because Windows is what most people think of as "the computer". Non-technical users think they have no other choice, they shrug the defects off and try to get their job done. Though the article kind of piqued my interest by claiming that Microsoft "is in panic" -- any proof that they are indeed bleeding users more tha…

The appeal of the Linux desktop for the majority of people is that it runs chrome or Firefox just fine and is pretty much secure if you do your updates. That's how the majority of people use their computers. The underlaying OS is irrelevant as long as its not actively nagging it's users.

They better not try to enjoy YouTube though.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#402
post #401
post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The appeal of the Linux desktop for the majority of people is that it runs chrome or Firefox just fine and is pretty much secure if you do your updates. That's how the majority of people use their computers. The underlaying OS is irrelevant as long as its not actively nagging it's users.

They better not try to enjoy YouTube though.

Huh? Any issues with YouTube on Linux?

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#403

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can’t tell if you’re trolling (or maybe a chat bot)

Not in the slightest. Not in operating systems, not in browsers, not in video games, not in software as a whole. This is a post about Microsoft ruining their software. That software is distributed through automatic updates. Do you recall the campaign to get everyone on 10? That and the telemetry (spying) they added around the same time convinced me to disable updates. I eventually landed on a linux with only manual u…

I guess I understand where you're coming from (having used Windows before and deciding to leave for this kind of stuff).

My initial comment was to be understood in general, though, not in the specific context of obnoxious update strategies.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#405
post #366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming and pro audio plugins are the reasons for me to keep Windows bootable. However, recently Windows started to take more than 15 minutes for booting (except for sometimes, when it takes only 3 seconds as if to mock me), and none of the 30 suggestions or so I've tried could fix this big. Since the advice in such cases is always to re-install everything (nevermind 100+ audio plugins with proprietary DRM I'd need to…

If you have any HDDs still in your system, they could be failing.

Yes, that's good advice and I thought so, too, but I've been checking them many times and they're all fine. The problem persists for more than 2 years already.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#406
post #404
post #402

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Huh? Any issues with YouTube on Linux?

Depends on how lucky one feels getting VAAPI to work with their open source driver.

You don't have to use open source drivers. I only use them with intel CPU graphics where they work great IMO. AMD and Nvidia ship drivers, most distros somehow pack them. No issue there.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#407
It seems to me that these complaints about MS and Windows have been more or less the same since Windows 95/NT4. Yet somehow most people keep using it because 'gaming' or because 'corporate'? Or because Mac or Linux are not good enough?

Reading all the comments in these discussions I consider myself lucky to never have made the switch 'to' Windows. After triple booting DOS/W98, OS/2 and Linux for a while in the nineties, it was just Linux after 2003 because it is easy and it just works.

Also used Macbooks several years at work and the OS never got in the way of productivity. To me at least MacOS appears to work fine.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#408
post #406
post #404

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on how lucky one feels getting VAAPI to work with their open source driver.

You don't have to use open source drivers. I only use them with intel CPU graphics where they work great IMO. AMD and Nvidia ship drivers, most distros somehow pack them. No issue there.

I know, that it the usual answer since I started with Slackware Linux in 1995, it always work for someone else.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#409
post #408
post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to use open source drivers. I only use them with intel CPU graphics where they work great IMO. AMD and Nvidia ship drivers, most distros somehow pack them. No issue there.

I know, that it the usual answer since I started with Slackware Linux in 1995, it always work for someone else.

We don't have to go into details but I really wonder what kind of bad experience you had. I use Linux for ~20 years now and literally wasted weeks getting graphics to work the way I want. I know all about these pains.

However this was a long time ago. OS drivers were shit, official drivers horrible to install and maintain. Today all end customer facing Linux flavours feature a button do directly enable proprietary drivers on installs and just have them updated and maintained in your update routine.

There is literally zero friction other than a checkbox in the installer for a majority of setups.

Re: Microsoft is driving users away

#410

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, Windows 8 was a superior interface for the Surface and similar devices to either 10 or 11. While I wouldn't want to go back to 8 due to subsequent quality of life improvements for developers like WSL and winget, I still miss the UI every day. It looked clean and simple and worked great with a touchscreen and keyboard alike. Trying to navigate a Surface on Windows 11 with the utterly useless widgets…

The fact is that Windows 8.1 was far better that the shit hole that Windows 10/11 has become. Windows 7 was the last great Windows. Windows 8.1 was the last decent/good Windows.

I disagree. Win 8 was awful, but Win 10/11 -- while they're far from good -- at least removed several of the worst aspects of 8.
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