If you must run Windows 10 • Hacker News Board

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#131

Post by Osiris » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:08 AM UTC

charlesdaniels wrote: post #34

owenwil wrote: post #2

I see a lot of angry posts like this, but fail to understand how it's reflected in reality in 2019—I agree that Windows 10 was a little messy at launch, but it's come a long way from where many of these complaints seem to stem from. Yeah, Windows has a bad rap, but in the last 2-4 years has come leaps and bounds from where it was—implementing great, thoughtfully designed features on a regular basis, for free. With WS…

As someone who has used Linux (with a few brief stints into macOS and BSD) for quite some time (since about 2012) coming from Windows before that, I don't understand the people who constantly defend Windows in these types of posts... In principle, the feature set that Windows 10 ships could be useful. I don't find it appealing personally, but if it works well for you then that's great. The issue that I have had is th…

Are you comparing Linux reliability to Windows?

I have a Linux desktop and a laptop (Linux preinstalled) and resume from sleep works about 50% of the time (usually GPU driver crashed during resume).

I've run normal updates that have broken the boot, or cause X to stop starting up. I get more nervous running updates on Linux than Windows.

At work a guy changed the password on his LUKS volume and it hosed his entire encrypted partition and he lost all his days.

Linux is very easy to break and very hard to fix.

Windows is definitely more reliable as a daily driver than Linux, in my experience.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#132

Post by Osiris » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:17 AM UTC

kakwa_ wrote: post #114

tootie wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish developers at least would be more indignant about Apple's closed ecosystem. The fact that you can't run OSX VMs, can't run iOS simulators anywhere but OSX, can't run builds without OSX. You have to pay Apple to deploy software to your Apple phone from your Apple computer. Microsoft was never this bad.

Well, at least for OSX, you can technically run VMs, I've been doing it for a few years now (I needed one to troubleshoot CMake issues specific to OSX). For iOS, I would grant that. One last point is that OS X is partially Open Source (at least Darwin is) even if in actuality, nobody really cares about it (like building something on top of Darwin). In the end, neither of MS or Apple is my preferred choice anyway. I m…

He meant that you can't run OS X inside a VM.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#133

Post by jftuga » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:19 AM UTC

throw0101a wrote: post #80

This post recommends LTSC because it has been pre-de-crappified (e.e., no Candy Crush pre-installed). However in January 2020 Microsoft will not support Office 365 (ProPlus?) on LTSC. This is because the 'official' LTSC use case is for things like medical devices, and not "regular" desktops. It's just that many IT sites got tired of the Windows 10 what-a-mole with non-helpful features, phone home stuff, etc, that the…

Office 2019 can be installed on LTSC.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#134

Post by pixl97 » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:24 AM UTC

wvenable wrote: post #65

hyperman1 wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's basically the problem: If they stay on cours improving the UI, in 5 years or so we reach the consistency, polish, performance and usability that windows 2000 used to have. There are some nice improvements since then too, but also a lot of user-hostile functionality. It doesn't seem wort the trade off to me.

The most obvious change right now is Microsoft slowly changing over to the Settings app from the Control Panel. It's really interesting how many more items it gets with every release. Sure, maybe the control panel was "consistent" in 2000 but it was always user-hostile. The settings app, when finished, will be much better for users. And if they keep the Control Panel around for power-users -- all the better. I apprec…

Honestly if you're a power user, powershell is where the control is these days.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#135

Post by lawnchair_larry » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:30 AM UTC

owenwil wrote: post #37

hackcasual wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people are tired of an OS that by default phones home about actions you do on it, include advertisement in your start area, and regularly push updates to add new features that also break existing software.

The 'phones home' argument doesn't really add up—there's plenty of control over this at this point, and every OS is calling home, macOS included, to some degree. The advertisements thing happens out of the box, and is trivial to remove (if my memory is correct, Safari harasses you about being the default browser, too, if you try to change it). The updates to add features thing.... isn't an issue for me, but YMMV.

You cannot disable or control the phoning home. It’s pervasive. MS is obsessed with using telemetry to track everything you do, and they don’t believe users should have a choice.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#136

Post by musicale » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:40 AM UTC

secabeen wrote: post #88

Look at his list of terrible things in Windows, and compare to MacOS. Other than telemetry, MacOS is very similar: * no Cortana (MacOS has Siri on all systems) * no semiannual feature upgrades (Mac OS upgrades annually) * not a single tile on the default Start menu (UI difference, mostly personal taste) * telemetry can be set to 0 (the lowest level) (MacOS has some telemetry, although the specific amount is less, and…

- macOS gets security updates for 2 previous versions usually, and Macs themselves get OS updates for 5 years (though sometimes longer)

- macOS isn't bundled with unkillable freemium games

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#137

Post by m463 » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 1:47 AM UTC

habitue wrote: post #106

I feel like there's this continuum: Linux: Free, Doesn't spy on you MacOS: Costs money, Doesn't spy on you ChromeOS: Free, Spies on you Windows: Costs money, Spies on you

Some points:

- macos phones home a lot (and this has increased release by release)

- so does ubuntu (snap)

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#138

Post by ocdtrekkie » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 3:16 AM UTC

user5994461 wrote: post #125

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a number of challenges with using Server as a desktop OS. Sometimes utilities I want to use are $20-40 for a desktop PC, and $1000+ to install on a server OS, even though they are the same software. Sometimes apps just won't work because they are checking what OS you are using and don't like it. Recently I tried setting up a Windows Server 2019 install... to use as a home server... on my Intel NUC, only to…

Last I worked on that, drivers had to be quite explicit about which OS version they support. Intel wouldn't be able to make drivers compatible with Windows Server 2019 given the OS was probably just released and the driver probably predates it.

The drivers won't install on any version of Server for this chipset. And Intel has stated the reason why, it is an intentional choice.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#139

Post by halfarmbandit » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 4:51 AM UTC

plorkyeran wrote: post #89

eslaught wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Safari harasses you about being the default browser But does it advertise to you by default? This seems not comparable at all. Pretty much every browser will want you to set it as default (and at least the option to stop the nagging is usually front and center). Maybe this is just me, but advertising by default in something as basic as a start screen seems very user hostile....

I get semi-regular notifications in macOS telling me I should give Safari another try and I haven't found any way to turn them off.

I have been on MacOS for a few years now and I have never received a notification about safari.

Re: If you must run Windows 10

#140

Post by squarefoot » Wed, Aug 28, 2019, 4:59 AM UTC

Before I abandoned the Windows ecosystem, I loved Ninite (https://ninite.com/). It repackages most well known free software creating a single installer which will contain all of them, minus bloatware, adware, toolbars etc, so that one can replicate identical installs of the same software on several machines very easily and much faster.

Another interesting repository was http://www.aplusfreeware.com/last_freeware_versions.html It contained the last free version of lots of well known software before their makers decided to turn them commercial, add adware or discontinue them.