The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible • Hacker News Board

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#271

Post by ChuckMcM » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 5:42 PM UTC

tarabukka wrote: post #232

ChuckMcM wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to see the list (or at least types) of programs you use that require Windows. I've got a CAD program that I've been using forever that does (TurboCAD) and I'm more facile in Corel Draw than Inkscape (which is horribly, horribly under-performing on the same hardware booted into Ubuntu 12.10).

Does Corel Draw use some kind of graphics hardware acceleration (e.g. Direct2D)? I find that GTK software completely ignores hardware accelerated rendering most of the time; Cairo (which renders most of the GNOME UI now) is pretty much completely a software renderer, and the GNOME 3 desktop only uses OpenGL for window compositing, not most drawing, as far as I'm aware.

Coincidentally perhaps, both Corel and TurboCAD use accelerated graphics for rendering.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#272

Post by Shamanmuni » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 5:43 PM UTC

rcb wrote: post #120

After almost 20 years of running Linux, FreeBSD (and even NextStep!) on x86 bare metal, I've for the time being gone back to Windows. It's a fast dual-head box. One screen is all Windows (and I'm typing this from IE 10), and the other is xmonad and emacs on Arch Linux on VirtualBox. I'm also an Apple user (and AAPL shareholder), owning two (2010 and 2011 model) MBPs, and it is my opinion that Windows 8 is gorgeous an…

Sorry, but the skeptical in me says this comment reeks of advertising. I don't know if it was your intention or not, but it feels like you try really hard to establish "geek cred" and then make some grandiose claims about Windows 8. It seems like you were comparing Windows 8 to a really non-standard Linux environment and then out of nowhere you claim performance is at least 25% better to three DE's which weren't in your dual-head box. Odd.

Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof (some benchmarks, maybe), you are not providing any of that.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#273

Post by acheron » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 5:46 PM UTC

randomchars wrote: post #263

ChuckMcM wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be interesting to see the list (or at least types) of programs you use that require Windows. I've got a CAD program that I've been using forever that does (TurboCAD) and I'm more facile in Corel Draw than Inkscape (which is horribly, horribly under-performing on the same hardware booted into Ubuntu 12.10).

For many this list has just one item: - Adobe Photoshop If you rely on it for work, than you can't just switch to Linux. GIMP is closer to paint than to PS.

You are contending that Photoshop requires Windows? You sure you want to go with that?

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#274

Post by tsm » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 6:05 PM UTC

npsimons wrote: post #270

tsm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with mobile devices is that when they are prefilled with OEM crap (mine came with Motoblur, Blockbuster, and several other terrible media-streaming apps), there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Windows may have a terrible default experience, but at least it's fixable.

You have heard of rooting and using something like TitaniumBackup to force remove apps, right? And of course, there's always the option of going with the clean versions direct from Google.

With my particular phone (Droid2 Global) you can't root if you've upgraded to 2.3. Nor can you downgrade to 2.2 and then root. Basically I'm just stuck on castrated Gingerbread for the life of the phone.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#275

Post by keypusher » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 6:19 PM UTC

This is like going to McDonald's and expecting a gourmet burger. The author bought an HP laptop, of course it's going to be full of useless crap.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#276

Post by randomchars » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

acheron wrote: post #273

randomchars wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For many this list has just one item: - Adobe Photoshop If you rely on it for work, than you can't just switch to Linux. GIMP is closer to paint than to PS.

You are contending that Photoshop requires Windows? You sure you want to go with that?

Yeah, I do. (Though it runs on OS X too.) What's wrong with that?

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#277

Post by mogrim » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 7:39 PM UTC

aristidb wrote: post #28

tsm wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with mobile devices is that when they are prefilled with OEM crap (mine came with Motoblur, Blockbuster, and several other terrible media-streaming apps), there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. Windows may have a terrible default experience, but at least it's fixable.

OK, admittedly the fact that I stick to Google Nexus and Apple brand kind of makes me oblivious to the existence of all that crapware. But as far as I can tell, some people actually like what HTC and Samsung are doing with their Android.

Go on then, tell me how I can uninstall Facebook and Google Goggles from my Nexus One?

(Slightly tongue-in-cheek - my Nexus One is nothing like as bad as my Galaxy Tab for crapware that comes pre-installed.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#278

Post by enjoy-your-stay » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 8:12 PM UTC

endemic wrote: post #253

ricardobeat wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, just 20 minutes ago I was using my "TV" and it's nice unix shell to develop a cross-platform multiplayer game. And you could say it's usability and experience over configuration, not eye-candy (remember Aero Glass? KDE Plasma?), althought nice-looking interfaces can help with both. No, he didn't do all this himself, but he was captaining the ship. Has Sergey Brin changed the way people use the internet?

"Has Sergey Brin changed the way people use the internet?" Let me Google that for you.

You could just as easily alta-vista, or yahoo that because people used those search engines originally, and they existed way before Google did.

Google however turned a better product and has therefore captured the lion's share of the market. But they Google search engine is pretty much a copy in functionality of previous ones that came before.

Of course Google have brought other things to the internet (maps comes to mind), but the search engine didn't change how people used the internet - we were searching long before Google.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#279

Post by omnisci » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 8:24 PM UTC

Uhh, reading this thread is disappointing.

Windows is not a bad OS, it has it's pluses and minus just like OSX. Sometimes I love my windows box, other times I really like my iMac. To blame the OP's issues on windows is short sited, it's like blaming android for touch wiz or motorblur. These problems are with the 3rd party groups putting shit on top of their products. This is why Mac is doing well. It isn't that the OS is "better," it's just that you have go through 290-38080823 popups when you are trying to check the email on your AOL account.

As others have pointed out, MS needs to step up to the plate and really force vendors to release just a vanilla version of Windows. At the enterprise level this saves time/money. Either that, or send machines without OSes installed allowing the customer to put their own images directly on to the computer. MS is losing customers specifically for this reason. That and their laptops aren't "pretty". If MS followed the android lead (ie: nexus), they might be able to recover some of their customer base.

Re: The amount of crap Windows users have to put up with is incredible

#280

Post by CountSessine » Sun, Nov 11, 2012, 8:29 PM UTC

internetf1fan wrote: post #226

CountSessine wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While I agree that OEM computers come installed with a lot of crap, that's not a Windows problem, that's an OEM problem. Windows is as successful as it is because of Microsoft's cooperation with crappy OEMs who are only too happy to betray their customers for a quick buck. You can't have Windows without the OEMs - show me the Microsoft PC you plan to buy. Microsoft does the best they can, working within their constra…

Erm no the DoJ anti trust ruling means that Ms can't dictate what the oems can or can't install on their machines.

If you go back and carefully read my post, I said nothing about whether Microsoft could 'dictate' to the OEMs - only that Microsoft doesn't want to sell hardware PCs and that hardware PC OEMs are almost necessarily bad because the market for PCs rewards low price and hardware component stats, not the overall usability, quality, or unique innovation of the product.

Microsoft under Gates and Balmer demonstrated very clearly that they couldn't be trusted to exert their influence over the hardware OEMs. They couldn't resist using their power to hammer small start-ups selling potentially threatening new technologies. So yes, they've lost this lever that might otherwise have been used to protect PC buyers.