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Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

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Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#281

Post by oldandboring »

Today's reminder of how old I'm getting: this is totally predictable. Microsoft has been doing this for 30 years. Disclaimer: I'm aware of these things and have used most of them, but really none as a daily driver since Windows 2000. So I'm probably leaving some stuff out.

Windows 95 and 98 were great releases. Windows ME was so bad they scrapped the Win9x codebase entirely.

Windows 2000 was game-changing. One of the best OS releases of all time. Windows XP was very successful as well (although I, and many others, despised its default theme). Windows Vista was monumentally bad.

Windows 7 was the release they HAD to get right and they did.

Windows 8 was Vista all over again. Everyone hated it. The iPad had just come out and everyone lost their minds trying to develop some kind of convergence UX where everybody was convinced modal/tablet was the future. The OSS guys got into it to: Unity Desktop and GNOME3 went in the same direction. In fact GNOME is still like this.

Windows 10 unwound the experiments again and took us back to the good old Start Menu.

Windows 11, from a UI perspective, at least still feels like Windows. I get the annoyances though.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#283

Post by bayindirh »

Ranxer wrote: post #104
jeppester wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only way this get better is if the user gets to choose between an OS with ads, lock-in, telemetry etc. and then one with none of that. As it is now, buying a laptop in a store is a "pick your poison" situation.

Better yet: don't pick any poison at all -- both System76 and Tuxedo Computers (as examples, sometimes you can buy a latop without an OS and save the money, same goes for PCs) offer laptops with Linux installed: no Microslop tax, and hardware that's guaranteed to work with OSS.

Personally I'm a huge Linux supporter and user. I try my best to not to use any non-free software, and while I prefer macOS laptops, I always have an exit strategy if I decide to ditch the platform.

Recently, I decided to start making music again after a decade of hiatus. I got a nice audio interface and some hardware which can do nifty things. The catch?

None of the supporting software for my hardware runs on Linux. I either need to run a VM to configure these things, or use the macOS versions of the software. I chose the latter because it's not meaningful to passthrough all the devices to change some parameters and give device back to Linux. I also don't use Wine. I don't want to install something that big into my daily driver.

While Linux is great for many, many things, there are some things still sorely lacking in the ecosystem. Why can't I adjust monitoring/routing in a class-compliant audio device? Why my effect processors' USB protocol is not open so I can't play with it parameters from Linux?

We still have a long way to go in some areas.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#284

Post by bluegatty »

dahcryn wrote: post #80
9dev wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That was the reason we ditched Slack. I hate Teams with a passion, but we're not going to pay 6k per year for a chat app if we get Teams for free. There's just no way to defend that decision.

6k would be a no-brainer. In our office, we'd definitely need the enterprise version for compliance reasons, not because of the features. That's about 14/user/month. At a workforce of roughly 2500, that's a 4million+ yearly cost for something that is comparable to something you can get without that pricetag. It's no competition at all at that point. Think about it, would you be willing to ask your boss to pay 4 milli…

That's a very upside down way to think about it.

The question is: "are staffers $14 / mo more productive with it, than the free version?"

The answer may also boil down to satisfaction, support calls, other things, aka 'total cost of ownership' as well.

Not 'But it costs $X million!'.

Companies will spend a fortune giving staff the right monitor, or chair, but literally don't think they're smart enough to know the dam tool they use all day?

Let them pick their chat software, like they pick their monitors.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#285

Post by lynx97 »

alexb_ wrote: post #120
Ranxer wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Better yet: don't pick any poison at all -- both System76 and Tuxedo Computers (as examples, sometimes you can buy a latop without an OS and save the money, same goes for PCs) offer laptops with Linux installed: no Microslop tax, and hardware that's guaranteed to work with OSS.

Most people want a computer that works with their software. No, "learn the FOSS version" is not a solution. Especially because nearly everyone has some niche thing they like, some 5% that isn't covered by the FOSS solutions, that only a niche Windows program can actually do correctly. And that doesn't even get into gaming.

> And that doesn't even get into gaming.

Or Accessibility, which the Linux desktop is notoriously bad with, since, what, 20 years. The constant push to rewrite things typically forgets making Accessibility a priority, for the sake of "progress".

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#286

Post by bmn__ »

bonoboTP wrote: post #207
randoadmin wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, considering that you can run almost anything (excluding games and specialized graphics software) with 99.99999% guaranteed result via WinApps, I don't see what the issue is for a hypothetical member of the majority population. It's not 2016 anymore, you don't have to switch to LibreOffice if you need an office suite of apps. That obviously would be preferable, but if you're an avid Microsoft ecosystem user, jus…

What percentage of MS Office user can, in your estimation, complete the steps as described in this readme? https://github.com/winapps-org/winapps

That's barking up the wrong tree. Github shows instructions for software developers. A normal user would just install Winapps from package manager, like with all the other Linux software.

Your critique should be channelled into a productive direction and point the finger at the maintainers why this is not packaged yet. https://repology.org/projects/?search=winapps https://pkgs.org/search/?q=winapps

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#287

Post by swiftcoder »

aleph_minus_one wrote: post #273
fainpul wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then at least let the company that makes your niche software know that you want a Linux version of it, even if you don't use Linux (yet). We need to solve this chicken / egg problem. Nobody wants to use Windows, they want to use some specific application. If most software is available on Linux too, then consumers can actually choose their OS.

> Then at least let the company that makes your niche software know that you want a Linux version of it, even if you don't use Linux (yet). We need to solve this chicken / egg problem. To solve the chicken/egg problem, the GNU/Linux distributions should generate some very (in particular binary) stable interface for writing applications (including GUI applications) on GNU/Linux - like WinAPI on Windows. With "stable"…

It's an old joke, but it's also accurate in this case - isn't what you are asking for just WINE?

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#288

Post by timpera »

zabzonk wrote: post #97

> injected advertisements into the Windows 11 Start menu's "Recommended" section. These showed up labeled "Promoted" and pushed apps like Opera browser and some password manager nobody asked for. And the Start menu was just one surface, they also placed ads on the lock screen, in the Settings homepage hawking Game Pass subscriptions sorry, I have never seen these supposed ads in win11. the lock screen does display ic…

Same for me - I find Windows 11 pretty good and I've never seen an ad in the Start menu. It might be specific to some editions or regions?

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#289

Post by shmeeed »

anthonylevine wrote: post #119
edgyquant wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it’s directly putting the blame on developers

"I'm on HN and whenever I see React mentioned I'm constitutionally incapable of not saying something dumb"

Seen in the context of the thread, with the both of you never addressing the actual problem at hand but instead reflexively and vigorously defending React against an alleged attack, I'm sorry to say this reads like an admission.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#290

Post by tmtvl »

jacquesm wrote: post #157
raddan wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don’t need a laptop, you can also build a machine from parts. This is probably the best way to run a desktop computer.

Anybody on HN that didn't know that you can build a machine from parts or isn't capable do doing so is probably on the wrong website ;)

I have two left hands (and one of them is backwards) and components spontaneously disintegrate when I touch them. I know I'm not capable of building a computer so I bought mine from Tuxedo computers, who sell computers running GNU/Linux. I might be the GNU/Linux whisperer who manages to not have any major issues, but that doesn't correlate with the type of technical aptitude which would let me turn a heap of components into a working machine. I even managed to break a laptop by trying to replace the CMOS battery.
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