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Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

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Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#21

Post by fgonzag »

josephcsible wrote: post #8
delfinom wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As long as it's not ubuntu for the first two points

Saying Ubuntu has telemetry like Windows is shaky at best. Ubuntu asks you whether you want it, doesn't mandate it for people who don't buy enterprise licenses, and doesn't sneak in new kinds of telemetry when you already disabled what's there. Saying Ubuntu overrides auto-update settings is just false. If you turn off automatic updates, nothing will automatically update.

Mind telling us how to disable auto updating in snaps (or for a specific snap)? You've just solved a huge issue for the ubuntu community

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#22

Post by nsriv »

irrational wrote: post #18
jleahy wrote: post #5

Does it have to be better, or even preferable? Is "it's sufficiently good for my needs but it's free" not enough? Whole industries have died because a free product has emerged that's "good enough" for 90+% of people. When was the last time anybody bought the electronic Encyclopedia Brittanica now we have Wikipedia?

Strangely I stumbled across an article today on the online Encyclopedia Brittanica which didn’t have an equivalent on Wikipedia. I wonder if anyone has ever done a comparison to find all the article on one but not the other.

This sounds like a cool project, git diff for encyclopedic knowledge

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#23

Post by cryptoquick »

bitwize wrote: post #9

Objective reasons to prefer anything else over Linux: Security. Linux is now the least secure desktop OS available, with limited sandboxing and no provision for checking binary signatures. It's 2020, the net is a dangerous place, and if you want to avoid malware, signature checks must be done on everything from the bootloader up through the user application code.

While Apple's Gatekeeper and Windows Defender may improve security, their privacy drawbacks are substantial, and as we discovered recently with Apple's Gatekeeper fiasco, yet another thing that could fail and prevent legitimate programs on the computer from opening. Furthermore, Windows Defender will occasionally quarantine binaries and DLLs that are harmless. For a non-power user, fixing these problems is non-trivial. Privacy vs Security is one argument, but the fact that the systems can occasionally break through no fault of the user is a major concern in its own right.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#24

Post by Kwpolska »

qz2 wrote: post #10
new_realist wrote: post #4

Where is the corresponding document listing objective reasons to prefer Windows over Linux? Without that, this effort cannot be taken seriously.

True. From a regular Fedora and occasional windows user Office runs on it, games work on it, Thinkpad touchpad drivers aren't shit, Microsoft To Do is still better than anything anyone else has come up with, fractional scaling that works properly, power management that works properly, half decent recovery options, best corporate SSO and device management on the market, smoothest full disk encryption.

> Microsoft To Do is still better than anything anyone else has come up with

Not really. It started as Wunderlist minus half the features plus a useless “My Day” system. When did they add the “All Tasks” smart list? (It’s at least 2 years by my count, I don’t know the exact numbers.) How did they launch without it (it was in Wunderlist)?

> smoothest full disk encryption

macOS’ FileVault 2 is the smoothest, and it’s available to everyone. BitLocker works best with hardware not every computer has, and you need Windows 10 Pro or better.

(I agree with the rest of your points.)

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#25

Post by young_unixer »

irrational wrote: post #18
jleahy wrote: post #5

Does it have to be better, or even preferable? Is "it's sufficiently good for my needs but it's free" not enough? Whole industries have died because a free product has emerged that's "good enough" for 90+% of people. When was the last time anybody bought the electronic Encyclopedia Brittanica now we have Wikipedia?

Strangely I stumbled across an article today on the online Encyclopedia Brittanica which didn’t have an equivalent on Wikipedia. I wonder if anyone has ever done a comparison to find all the article on one but not the other.

Just out of curiosity, what was the article?

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#26

Post by mixmastamyk »

jleahy wrote: post #5

Does it have to be better, or even preferable? Is "it's sufficiently good for my needs but it's free" not enough? Whole industries have died because a free product has emerged that's "good enough" for 90+% of people. When was the last time anybody bought the electronic Encyclopedia Brittanica now we have Wikipedia?

Perhaps, but there are lock-in effects preventing the encyclopedia situation from occurring.

When tax dollars are still being shuttled to the deep pockets of MS and Oracle, a more proactive stance is needed.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#27

Post by NuSkooler »

Disclaimer: I love Linux. I also like Windows (it's extremely solid).

RE path limitations. I actively -- and have for many years -- use paths much longer that 25x characters. Including in Windows Explorer. I can't recall the last time I had a issue, though IIRC there is some sort of operation (that I guess I never use?) via Explorer where one can run into issues.

The main issue, and it exists on Linux as well is this in code:

char path[MAX_PATH]; // or equiv

In Linux this generally gives you a 4k buffer so you're MUCH less likely to hit the issue of course.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#28

Post by ChrisSD »

The title doesn't appear to match the text. It seems to be mostly a list of things that might trip up Linux developers when moving to Windows. Which is fair enough but not why I clicked this link.

But to address the list's content, it would be interesting to update it to take into account developments made in more recent versions of Windows 10.

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#29

Post by fgonzag »

bitwize wrote: post #9

Objective reasons to prefer anything else over Linux: Security. Linux is now the least secure desktop OS available, with limited sandboxing and no provision for checking binary signatures. It's 2020, the net is a dangerous place, and if you want to avoid malware, signature checks must be done on everything from the bootloader up through the user application code.

Limited sandboxing? Ever heard of containers?

Re: Reasons to prefer Linux over Windows (2014)

#30

Post by ryukafalz »

qz2 wrote: post #10
new_realist wrote: post #4

Where is the corresponding document listing objective reasons to prefer Windows over Linux? Without that, this effort cannot be taken seriously.

True. From a regular Fedora and occasional windows user Office runs on it, games work on it, Thinkpad touchpad drivers aren't shit, Microsoft To Do is still better than anything anyone else has come up with, fractional scaling that works properly, power management that works properly, half decent recovery options, best corporate SSO and device management on the market, smoothest full disk encryption.

>smoothest full disk encryption

It may be smooth, but it also sends the disk encryption key to Microsoft unless you pay extra for Pro and above, so y'know...

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/finding-your-bit...

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