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The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

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Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#201

Post by dawnerd »

LeoNatan25 wrote: post #73
blinkingled wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well to be fair HiDPI issues are application issues as opposed to core Windows issues.

It's first and foremost a bad DPI independence API design, largely due to a terrible backwards compatibility of an even more terrible legacy stack. It is fixed somewhat in their modern stacks, such as WPF and UWP, but the vast majority of Windows software is not written with these frameworks. While it is understandable why the legacy baggage is there and cannot be removed, the end result is a big mess, still to this…

I have a number of mac apps that don't scale. Biggest offender, although also on windows, is steam. I don't know what it is about game developers but they just can't seem to manage ui scaling.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#202

Post by Matthias247 »

cmelbye wrote: post #69
blinkingled wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well to be fair HiDPI issues are application issues as opposed to core Windows issues.

Why was the transition to HiDPI so much less painful on macOS, then? Because Apple designed the core OS to handle it much better, and make it easier to support for developers. (which was years in the making, far before the launch of rMBP.)

Not it was easier because they also control the hardware and defined HiDPI to be always exactly 200%, compared to various scaling factors that windows needs to support.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#203

Post by SyneRyder »

threeseed wrote: post #24
aaron-lebo wrote: post #7

> Just check out its striking video for the Surface Studio — it is so influenced by Apple’s playbook that I’m surprised there’s no Jony Ive narration. What's happened is that other companies have figured out how to emulate Steve Jobs's playbook that's now several decades old and there's nobody at Apple to write new plays. Jobs always talked about how Microsoft didn't have taste and when you look at MS products up unt…

> Apple doesn't have anything to stand out anymore They have execution and commitment. When I buy a MacBook Pro I can expect to get many years of use out of it. The hardware execution is almost always exemplary and they will continue to support it on the software side during that tenure. Buying a Windows or Android product feels like you're only going to be supported for a year or two and that's it.

I have a 2006 and a 2007 MacBook still in use. They still work, but Apple stopped supporting them with macOS & security updates years ago, understandably... so I installed Windows 10 on both of them. And not only do the machines run Windows 10 quite well, but Microsoft will be providing security updates through at least 2020. That's the point where I started to question how much support Apple provides vs Microsoft.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#204

Post by Jonnax »

lqdc13 wrote: post #185
blahi wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I try to install Ubuntu every 18-24 months or so. A problem occurs in about 2 days that I have to google and spend hours in frustrations. No, thanks. 2016 is not the year of Linux on the desktop.

Did you try it on a desktop or a laptop? It doesn't work as well on laptops because of the graphics cards drivers and sleep/hibernation.

Intel only has an open source driver so any laptop with integrated works great.

Also haven't had sleep or hibernation issues in years. Though I've used Thinkpads and Dell XPSs which are probably the best supported laptops for Linux.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#205

Post by rbanffy »

verisimilidude wrote: post #193
rbanffy wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still find the Surface Studio is not exactly breathtaking. I dislike the chrome arms - they are part of the computer and shouldn't stand out like that. I like the computer being on the base, usually a piece of dead space, but that makes the design of the arms more complicated as they need to carry signals back and forth. It's good, but nothing I would be surprised seeing coming out of HP or Sony.

The arms are probably chrome to invite attention and imply motion. "Hey, play with me, I move!" It's a signal to potential buyers that they're not looking at yet another all-in-one computer. I think it's a smart choice. If you're staring at the arms enough to be bothered, then you're probably not the target market for this device; the arms are completely hidden when used in drafting/drawing profile. For what it's wor…

> For what it's worth, Apple created a similarly attention-grabbing hinge on their G4 iMac back in the day.

Yes, but that was 14 years ago.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#206

Post by thaumasiotes »

Tossrock wrote: post #199
thaumasiotes wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Sometime in the 90s, everyone standardized on the clamshell laptop with a 4:3 screen (later moving to widescreen) How did that happen? It used to be that a normal laptop had a 4:3 screen and a ridiculous, huge laptop had a huge, 16:10 screen. Now both of those are gone, and normal laptops have even shorter 16:9 (!) screens. It's hard to think of a more user-hostile progression. I don't want to work in a series of c…

Because most people use computers to consume content (ie video), which is largely produced in widescreen.

You don't lose anything by watching 16:9 video on a 16:10 screen.

Nothing's stopping you from watching it on a 4:3 screen, either, although at that point you've shrunk the image pretty noticeably.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#207

Post by TazeTSchnitzel »

DashRattlesnake wrote: post #190
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

macOS has something better: all the settings in one place. Windows used to have something like that too, I think it was called the Control Panel.

> macOS has something better: all the settings in one place. All twelve of them.

I know that's snark, but I just went and counted them anyway. There's at least 413 individual different settings in macOS Sierra's System Preferences, excluding Flash Player.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#208

Post by cma »

blinkingled wrote: post #70
cmelbye wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why was the transition to HiDPI so much less painful on macOS, then? Because Apple designed the core OS to handle it much better, and make it easier to support for developers. (which was years in the making, far before the launch of rMBP.)

How many apps from the 90s do you know that still work on macOS?

Sure, but their hi-DPI approach was much more backwards compatible capable than Microsoft's. Having apps still work, but be tiny and unreadable or haveing their UI exploded all over the place isn't a great exampe of backwards compatibility.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#209

Post by pritambaral »

basch wrote: post #71
nilkn wrote: post #64

[deleted]

>a developer who needs a Unix-based OS. Windows 10 includes binary compatibility. bit-for-bit, checksum-for-checksum Ubuntu ELF binaries running directly in Windows. all of Ubuntu user space. a full copy of ubuntu built in. Windows not working as a unix-like os for developers isnt reality anymore.

> Windows 10 includes binary compatibility. bit-for-bit, checksum-for-checksum Ubuntu ELF binaries running directly in Windows

Windows 10 tries. It doesn't run the actual Linux kernel, and doesn't implement quite some portions of it. There is no boot process, so system services can't be run the same way they can on a real Linux install. The VFS is buggy and slow. The install hangs and borks sometimes, without a clear way out. And it still can't run Ubuntu 16.04. And the biggest disparity: no GUI support.

Re: The bizarre role reversal of Apple and Microsoft

#210

Post by cptskippy »

erichocean wrote: post #25
cptskippy wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Apple's biggest challenge seems to be convincing their current customers they need a new phone at all. That's not much of a challenge for Apple. There is always a laundry list of features that people want but that aren't necessarily mature (e.g. Wireless Charging, NFC, waterproofing) and Apple keeps those in it's back pocket incubating. Occasionally it pulls one out and slaps it on one of their devices to boost sal…

Pretty sure iPhones today have NFC, it's just not available for anything other than Apple Pay.

They do but it's locked down. They might one day open that up or create peripherals to use it. Similar to how the 3rd or 4th gen iPod Touch magically gained Bluetooth via software updates.
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