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

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

#311
post #88
post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Too bad that of The Two Steves, Jobs gets the accolades and Wozniak gets ignored. Oh please, not this again. But OK, I'll bite: Wozniak was given plenty of recognition for his work at Apple. But he quit in 87, which was 25 years ago. What has he done since? Not that much, really. Steve Jobs, on the other hand, has brought tremendous contributions to a number of industries. In the light of this, it makes complete sen…

It's even worse than that, as Woz effectively left Apple after his plane crash in 1981. He continued to officially be an employee, but didn't contribute a whole lot after that point. Quitting in 1987 was more of a formality than anything. The last Apple computer Woz had a direct hand in designing was either the Apple II or the II+ (I can't quite figure out which), over three decades ago. Woz was a genius when it came…

Yet his biography is called "iWoz", why have people let him ride the fame train on other peoples work for so long.

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

#312
post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bringing tablet computing, multi-touch, voice control, quality screens (IPS etc), video-calling on phones, small utility software, ubiquitous (real) web access, to mainstream (before someone attacks: yes, all these existed for a long time, but only became common place after Apple pushed them)? Pushing hardware design way past what anyone else was doing in the past half dozen years? Cornering the music industry with a…

The singular man acting as CEO did all this, and more! He is smarter than everyone else ever . Or he just used smart and predatory business practices, and somehow was the only major player to realize eyecandy will win over configuration for everyone that wants just a "tv" into the internet.

still does more in a year than Woz has in his entire career

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

#313
post #67

First of all, this guy's biggest mistake was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install. Installing windows requires far less effort than cleansing a vendor's install of crapware. Users should not have to do this. I must fully agree that MS needs to start restricting what Vendors like HP can install on the PC's they sell. Second, I'm very curious to see how the Windows App store plays out. The…

> was failing to format his drive and start with a clean Windows install

HAHAHAHAHA IT'S LIKE I'M ACTUALLY LIVING IN 1997

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

#314
post #39

A few added things: - To those suggesting using Linux, I use Windows because I need to. I run programs that require Windows, and don't really want to start messing with Wine. Also, from seeing the recent Ubuntu stories here on HN, it really does seem like the people behind Ubuntu and Gnome in particular are guilty of the same thing with their "brand" - While Apple probably doesn't do this on MacOS they sure do try to…

Apple only use your email for sending Apple software and hardware news.

They don't sell you out to 3rd party advertisers like Microsoft has sold their Metro and Xbox UIs.

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

#315
post #21

The pleasure of uninstalling with a Delete keystroke is reason enough to move to MacOS. Say what you will against Apple, but I have been just plain peaceful ever since I smashed my blue-screened Windows laptop on the wall and walked out to buy a Mac years ago.

Sounds like you'd enjoy Metro.

if you can figure out how to uninstall things in it

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

#317
post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Every so often I have to call in and do the automated telephone activation reason number 1001 why I hate windows

It takes exactly 30 seconds and it is fully automated. Punch in a string of numbers, hear back the activation code. No personal information, no humans involved. I too was dreading doing over the phone activation, but it was remarkably nice experience.

sure, they make it easy as possible, but it's not optional. And I like to change the hardware in my desktop, which makes it a pain.

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

#318
Here's the interesting question.

Is it better to lock down user experience using a central software quality assurance and distribution system (allowing an OS developer to enforce rules to keep experiences powered by their OS consistent and easy, but massively hampering homebrew), or allow developers (and by extension marketing people) add whatever they want to software (leaving the market open for innovation, and by necessity, this crap as well)?

Windows 8 represents both experiences, side by side. User adoption will give us the answer.

Personally, I am happy to be part of the experiment.

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

#319
post #207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> More recent abominations like Gatekeeper are just icing on the cake. I'm sorry, but I just don't understand this line of reasoning. How can security measures like this harm most users, especially given it's something that can easily be turned off.

Surely you can see that "easily turned off" is relative to a user's experience, and that ease of disabling is not the only issue. If you ask most users to turn off a security feature so that they can run your software, they're going to think you're doing something shady. And that's pretty shitty. Now a lot of people will say "it's only $99/year; what's the big deal?" Well, first off, that's $99/year, forever, or your…

Fair enough. I agree the fee can be steep to some. As a user, a counterpoint:

I hate going to random websites and giving them my credit card and dealing with whatever license key they give me.

I hate trials. Cheaper apps I can buy more liberally are nicer.

I hate crappy software that spews stuff around my system. Even though some apps can never be subject to sandboxing, I think forcing the rest to clean up their interactions with the rest of the system is an advantage of the App Store. (But I am biased in this particular opinion.)

I like having all my updates in one place.

I think the App Store generally has the potential to provide much better discoverability than the combination of Google and some crappy websites. Even considering the fee, I think that if people get used to it, the store can provide a better version of the "find some cheap/free software written by a small developer" concept.

I like that my mom is much more likely to use the App Store than VersionTracker.

I think the Store is only the death of an ecosystem insofar as it replaces it with a slightly different, but mostly just improved ecosystem.

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

#320
post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely you can see that "easily turned off" is relative to a user's experience, and that ease of disabling is not the only issue. If you ask most users to turn off a security feature so that they can run your software, they're going to think you're doing something shady. And that's pretty shitty. Now a lot of people will say "it's only $99/year; what's the big deal?" Well, first off, that's $99/year, forever, or your…

Fair enough. I agree the fee can be steep to some. As a user, a counterpoint: I hate going to random websites and giving them my credit card and dealing with whatever license key they give me. I hate trials. Cheaper apps I can buy more liberally are nicer. I hate crappy software that spews stuff around my system. Even though some apps can never be subject to sandboxing, I think forcing the rest to clean up their inte…

>I think the Store is only the death of an ecosystem insofar as it replaces it with a slightly different, but mostly just improved ecosystem.

But it's not an ecosystem now. It's a garden. And maybe it seems improved from a user's perspective, but it is completely fucked from a developer's perspective. If we can agree that Apple has made selling outside the App Store nonviable, and that dealing with the App Store is complete hell for developers, then I think we can agree that this is a bad situation for developers.

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