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Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

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Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#211

Post by 1718627440 »

Neikius wrote: post #152
sedatk wrote: post #93

> The only thing of note they have added to Windows in the last five years is Copilot That's a quite unfair take, especially when it fails to compare it with what things of note Linux distros have added over the last five years. Valve made Windows emulation better, yes. That's it. What else? Actually, I wouldn't even call Copilot a thing of note. It's just ChatGPT-in-a-popup at the moment. A real thing of note is WSL…

Something similar to reset PC would be snapshots and immutable systems. Touch is notorious for there are very few touch sensors that actually have drivers for linux and vendors keep using unsupported ones. Hybrid sleep... is actually a big problem as it replaced the regular sleep and now we are all in some deep deep muck. And fractional scaling works fine on wayland, it is a recent feature of the last 1-2 years but s…

Fractional scaling also works fine for decades in Xorg.

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#212

Post by 1718627440 »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #141
sedatk wrote: post #93

> The only thing of note they have added to Windows in the last five years is Copilot That's a quite unfair take, especially when it fails to compare it with what things of note Linux distros have added over the last five years. Valve made Windows emulation better, yes. That's it. What else? Actually, I wouldn't even call Copilot a thing of note. It's just ChatGPT-in-a-popup at the moment. A real thing of note is WSL…

> Hybrid-sleep Linux supports hybrid sleep. It might not be enabled by default because if you have a lot of RAM it has a tendency to burn out consumer SSDs. Consider what happens if you have 64GB of RAM, a 512GB consumer SSD that supports 100 full drive writes in total and you enter into hybrid sleep twice a day for three years. > Ability to enable FDE post-installation Copy entire filesystem to backup. This isn't ev…

> X has legacy issues with this:

I don't get these complaints. Can you explain to me what the problem with `xrandr --output HDMI1 --scale 0.8x0.8` is?

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#213

Post by drw85 »

cocoa19 wrote: post #89
blitz_skull wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an Apple Stan, I don’t understand what you’re referring to. MacOS is light years ahead of Windows in so many arenas, I’m not really sure what you could be referring to when you say “stagnation”. Every OS ever released has issues at launch, not sure if that’s what you mean by “regression”. But man… windows has been garbage for the better part of 2 decades now.

If light years means not inundate the OS with ads, shove AI down our throats and redesign every app with regressed UX, then sure.

Actually in the latest MacOS release it constantly trains local models for all kinds of junk without asking you at all.

I had to disable all that AI garbage in the settings after researching a bunch of local inference and training processes that were grinding my MacBook to a halt every time it woke up from sleep.

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#214

Post by drw85 »

llbbdd wrote: post #107
mekoka wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the last 15 years are any indication, in less than 15 years, Microsoft will make Azure Linux their main OS and they'll skin the desktop edition to resurrect Lindows. It'll take a 2-5 years campaign to move most of the remaining Windows user base to it. Oh and also, it'll probably be free.

In 15 years, Windows will still be running hospitals and governments and Linux will have dropped back well below 5% desktop usage because using Linux on the desktop in the modern day is an ideological decision and literally never a technical one

Microsoft themselves have actually made it a technical one. By dropping support for perfectly fine computer without TPM/SecureBoot, they have made it an actual technical decision to install an alternative to their OS.

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#215

Post by pezezin »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #124
pezezin wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been hearing the same for the last 20 years, if not longer, and yet the consumer computer remains strong.

Absolutely no one said consumer computing was going away in 2005. What were they supposed to be replaced with?

Something like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Network_Computer

(but looks like I got my timing wrong, as those were proposed 25~30 years ago!)

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#216

Post by pezezin »

Nextgrid wrote: post #172
pezezin wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been hearing the same for the last 20 years, if not longer, and yet the consumer computer remains strong.

> consumer computer remains strong Besides techies I'm seeing more and more people not even having a personal computer at all, doing most of their "computing" on their phone and using their work computer for the rare task that does require a real computer. The younger generations have actually regressed in computer proficiency, file management, etc.

That depends on your social circle. Among gamers, consoles are losing popularity and PC gaming is increasing, even in countries like Japan (where I live).

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#217

Post by joseda-hg »

llbbdd wrote: post #69
Nextgrid wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be very surprised if "consumer computer" will be anything but a niche thing in 25 years.

It might be just a remote UI over "Windows Cloud Eternal" at that point but if by then we've moved to "Apple Forever OS" or "The Eternal Year of the Linux Desktop" I'll make a balanced diet out of hats

Honestly, a Phone/Dex style thin client that you connect to a bigger screen and that remotes into Windows Cloud Eternal seems like a solid sale for them

They sell you compute, plus a phone that gets renewed every 2-5 Years

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#218

Post by duxup »

rconti wrote: post #14

The web/webapps/mobile helped lead to this era of "desktop PCs" (to include laptops) where the browser mattered more than the OS. It allowed Apple to become resurgent in the desktop market because OS compatibility mattered less than ever. It's not weird that it led to Apple regaining _some_ market share because clearly there was demand for the Apple/MacOS/OS X experience that may have been tempered by incompatibility…

I feel like when I fire up my mac(s) the OS really is there for me to use, new features, better or worse do in fact feel like they're there FOR me with some thought of me as a user.

Windows, it feels like the OS is pointed AT ME more than anything else. I used to be happy with windows, it wasn't great but it was utilitarian enough that I could get things done ... not anymore, the OS is a hurdle.

I understand longer time Apple users say macOS used to be better, I don't know about that, but the experience with apple silicon and so forth has been great for me. If Apple wasn't trying they could have just stuck with x86...

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#219

Post by [deleted] »

1718627440 wrote: post #209
AOsborn wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

File transfer that just works . My mum can use airdrop. She sends us things. She doesn't need to install anything or configure things. She just uses the first-party UI. It's the same with Airpods. Bluetooth headphones? Yeah, you can buy some for $20, who needs Apple ones? Apparently everyone. Turns out providing great noise cancellation and bluetooth that just works means the product is appealing to general consumers…

File transfer over SSH also just works. You can even mount it, so you can work directly on the remote version without any program support. It was deliberately killed by computing-device-as-a-service vendors.

[deleted]

Re: Are consumers just tech debt to Microsoft?

#220

Post by CharlieDigital »

raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #178
mschild wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Something that most sub 1000€ laptops could do over a decade ago, requires a macbook costing well above 2000€ in 2025. I'm running multiple types of machines in my home for work and personal use but macs have been by far the worst offender for multiscreen support for a long time.

Most $1000 laptops supported three monitors a decade ago?

Vintage 2015? Yes. Any Dell Latitude (mid tier business line) would have supported 3 monitors and would have been in the ~$1000 range, especially picked up off of Dell Outlet. I have Dell Latitude Windows machines from 2011 that supported 3 monitors.
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