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Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

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Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#201

Post by DougBTX »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #9

Seriously though, is all of this fixed in Windows 7, or are people just hyping that up because it sucks alot less than any previous Windows iterations? I don't think I've _ever_ seen a process that convoluted, and I've been using Linux OSes since _before_ the advent of dependency-resolvers like yum and apt (i.e, the bad old days of "RPM hell").

Re: Shutting down Windows 7, the process is now: mouse to the bottom left hand corner of the screen; mouse down; move mouse over shut down button; mouse up. About as few clicks as possible (including a Fitzz corner!), bested only by pressing the power button on the front of your PC - which I have mine set up to initiate shutdown directly.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#202

Post by forensic »

rapind wrote: post #176
mrshoe wrote: post #8

If Gates had maintained a dictatorial death grip on his company like Steve Jobs has, MS probably could have made some decent products. It's one thing to yell at the people who made this system via email. It's quite another to never allow them to ship it in the first place .

I can't shake the feeling that I've always been somehow out of touch, because I'm not really a fan of most apple software. First thing I do with osx is the same thing I always used to do with windows. Get rid of all the distracting annoying stuff (dock, dash, iEverything) then happily get down to business. I never did use vista but with all other windows versions I would always just remove a dozen or so things and ha…

It's a lot easier to remove all the junk from OSX.

It sounds like you haven't seen a brand new Windows machine in awhile. They are cluttered beyond belief. The OSX clutter, in comparison, is unnoticeable.

The other nice thing about OSX though is that the migration tools have always been totally painless for me - when I get a new mac I DON'T have to go remove that stuff because it saves my settings automatically. I haven't had to remove the clutter since my first MacBook in like 2006 - the settings were carried over. In Windows this rarely works, and when it does it takes a lot of work and doesn't do a complete job.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#203

Post by dasil003 »

rottencupcakes wrote: post #106
tptacek wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Utterly unfair comparison. The Apple and Microsoft business models are so unlike each other it's almost inaccurate to say they're in the same business. Apple can get product quality to the point they do because they laser focus on a few profitable segments. Microsoft's business model --- not "what Steve Ballmer thinks they should be doing this month" but their underlying business model --- involves them serving 80+%…

Did you watch Futurama last night? I have trouble believing that two detracting comments about Safeway ice cream were spontaneously made a day apart. "What do you say we go get some sewer coffee, sewer cake, and Safeway Ice Cream?" - Futurama

I assure you that more than one is made daily.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#204

Post by potatolicious »

forensic wrote: post #202
rapind wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't shake the feeling that I've always been somehow out of touch, because I'm not really a fan of most apple software. First thing I do with osx is the same thing I always used to do with windows. Get rid of all the distracting annoying stuff (dock, dash, iEverything) then happily get down to business. I never did use vista but with all other windows versions I would always just remove a dozen or so things and ha…

It's a lot easier to remove all the junk from OSX. It sounds like you haven't seen a brand new Windows machine in awhile. They are cluttered beyond belief. The OSX clutter, in comparison, is unnoticeable. The other nice thing about OSX though is that the migration tools have always been totally painless for me - when I get a new mac I DON'T have to go remove that stuff because it saves my settings automatically. I ha…

To be fair, a clean retail Windows install is just as clean as OSX. The clutter comes from shitty bundleware.

This is, IMHO, one of MS's greatest struggles - it is not enough for Microsoft to develop a culture of top notch user experiences, but also all third party OEMs. This is a problem that Apple does not contend with.

We see this with Windows phone also - no amount of software and UI can save a device designed and manufactured with rock bottom quality.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#205

Post by beambot »

whyenot wrote: post #159
johnthedebs wrote: post #152

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I see people write this all the time, and it makes me sick. Bill Gates decided he made enough money at Microsoft and wanted to pursue other things. That's fantastic, for him and millions of others. Steve Jobs has decided to do what he loves until he can't any more. That's also fantastic, for him and for millions of others. They're both making positive changes for lots and lots of people. Who are you, or anyone else,…

Steve Jobs releasing some new shiny thing that makes the lives of some very affluent people (on the global scale for wealth) magrinally better, doesn't compare, is not even in the same ball park, as ensuring that hundreds of thousands of people don't go blind in central Africa. That is my belief, and of course I understand that not everyone else shares it.

I actually believe that the iPhone will have a _huge_ (indirect) impact on subsaharan Africa, in a manner similar to traditional cellular technology.

Principally, the iPhone seems to have hastened the development of low-cost hand-held medical diagnostic equipment, including digital stethoscopes, portable ultrasound, eye examination, remote disease diagnosis, etc

Sometimes it takes a revolutionary product targeting affluent individuals to help drive innovation for everyone else.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#206

Post by caf »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #38
muhfuhkuh wrote: post #9

Seriously though, is all of this fixed in Windows 7, or are people just hyping that up because it sucks alot less than any previous Windows iterations? I don't think I've _ever_ seen a process that convoluted, and I've been using Linux OSes since _before_ the advent of dependency-resolvers like yum and apt (i.e, the bad old days of "RPM hell").

I'm a Windows person, but I've got Ubuntu on a netbook. It took me a couple of hours to figure out how to get the repository for XBMC set up so that it would let me install the program. Now I'd like to upgrade to Ubuntu 10.4, but I don't have quite enough space in the SSD to do it. I'd like to cut out some software that I don't really use on the netbook. But I can't figure out how to make it actually get rid of thing…

The output of the `deborphan` command might be of interest.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#207

Post by caf »

munchhausen wrote: post #178
Seth_Kriticos wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are kidding, right? Powershell just does not conform to the original UNIX sh standards, which is why even console wizards will avoid it. Same reason why tcsh and ksh didn't get traction, and they even have merit to them. Who is the target audience? UNIX command line people certainly aren't. Then who, people that managed to learn VB Scripting host? That's just not how things work.

> Same reason why tcsh and ksh didn't get traction, and they even have merit to them. In the world of enterprise Unix, ksh is king. It is used even for "serious" applications, not only as the sysadmin's glue of choice (the company where I work at was using, in 2009, a HR payroll application written in ksh. Had they not outsourced accounting to a third party, they would probably still be using it today). Granted, "leg…

ksh is king (for writing portable shell scripts) because it has long had a reputation for being the one shell that was available everywhere, and worked the same everywhere.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#208

Post by contextfree »

DougBTX wrote: post #201
muhfuhkuh wrote: post #9

Seriously though, is all of this fixed in Windows 7, or are people just hyping that up because it sucks alot less than any previous Windows iterations? I don't think I've _ever_ seen a process that convoluted, and I've been using Linux OSes since _before_ the advent of dependency-resolvers like yum and apt (i.e, the bad old days of "RPM hell").

Re: Shutting down Windows 7, the process is now: mouse to the bottom left hand corner of the screen; mouse down; move mouse over shut down button; mouse up. About as few clicks as possible (including a Fitzz corner!), bested only by pressing the power button on the front of your PC - which I have mine set up to initiate shutdown directly.

Or: Windows key, right arrow key, enter.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#209

Post by Someone »

shadowsun7 wrote: post #173
wwortiz wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can use ubuntu without opening the terminal, and have been able to for a while, the problem with linux is not the terminal it is whether or not the hardware is supported and software people need is supported.

I recommend that you sit behind a non-technical relative or friend, and watch them use Ubuntu without offering them any help . There are quite a number of things that they'd like to do that isn't clearly expressed - or even easily findable! - though Ubuntu's GUI. They will struggle with it for a bit. Plus: even if we set that aside, there will be certain bits of hardware you'll want to use that would require opening…

"Plus: even if we set that aside, there will be certain bits of hardware you'll want to use that would require opening the Terminal to configure/install."

Change your mindset from hacker to 'non-technical relative or friend', and that problem goes away.

"There will be certain bits of hardware you'll want to use that will not work with you new system." is how they would phrase it, and oftentimes, it does not really bother them at all.

Even if it would bother them, getting a Mac likely would not help, as it would get them the same results for some of their old hardware.

Re: Bill Gates: "Someone decided to trash the one part of Windows that was usable?"

#210

Post by gizmomagico »

angrycoder wrote: post #151
whyenot wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at what Gates has done since he loosened his grip at MS. The Gates foundation's global health and global development programs have done tremendously important work to reduce human suffering in the 3rd world. Nothing Gates could do at MS would come even close to what he is doing now to make the world a better place. Compare to Steve Jobs who knows how to make wonderful shiny devices that cost more than what many…

This point seems to come up every time Bill's name is mentioned these days. It is really funny how he has gone from Darth Vader to Mother Theresa in a few short years. I mean its nice that he is giving all his money away and making a difference, but everyone seems to skip over the fact that his money was made by running an evil empire and being one of the most reviled figures in the computer world.

Exactly. It's been a really effective PR-campaign though.
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