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Useless Windows 10 Features

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Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#371

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here is the 64 dollar question. What GPU driver?

I have an NVIDIA GTX960. When playing CS:GO (a relatively old game) I have stuttering, drastic FPS drops and more :(

Do you use the nvidia driver or nouveau which is known to be crap.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#372

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I think it's sad how much the community still underestimates gaming. I tried using wine or even using Steam directly on Linux, but playing any game with 30-40% less performance is ridiculous. If you really like games, Linux is unusable for anything big. I've had to dual boot Windows for the last 10 years just to play a game without stuttering, lag, huge FPS drops, etc. Nothing would make me happier than bein…

what setup do you have ? Because I play on Linux and I don't appreciate any performance drop. For example, Stellaris and Doom fly's on my machine.

NVIDIA GTX960 with an i7 and 16 GB of memory. That's not the issue.

I'd argue if it was the issue, even Windows wouldn't let me play any of these games with reasonable performance.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#373
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd argue that's only valid if you're a small company. Once you're a huge corporation with tons of stakeholders, it seems inevitable that you will compromise customers in favor of profits sooner or later.

I feel like this attitude lets big companies off the hook in a way. Yes, as the company grows it becomes more likely that they'll make these compromises, but that doesn't mean it's inevitable .

While I agree it seems like it lets them off the hook, that's not on them, it's on the society that shrugs that off as "normal".

But if you follow the logical path from capitalism, it is most definitely inevitable. There is no way to maximize profits without hurting the users.

If one company does the right thing, another will take it's place because it will generate more profit.

Can you imagine a CEO constantly telling it's shareholders that they will not increase profits because they want to "treat customers more fairly"? He'd be sacked in the first opportunity.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#374
post #142

The most critical useless feature (as it is now) is actually the Windows Store. What is Microsoft doing wrong that makes nobody use it? It could be a revolution (selling + updates).

I believe it only works for UWP apps, thereby making it almost completely useless. Also, nobody wants to give Microsoft a cut of the software price if they can help it.

Win32 apps have been supported in the Store for a couple years now. You'll find ("real") Office, Paint.NET, Inkscape, VLC, iTunes, iCloud, Photoshop, and more in the Microsoft Store today.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#375

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have an NVIDIA GTX960. When playing CS:GO (a relatively old game) I have stuttering, drastic FPS drops and more :(

Do you use the nvidia driver or nouveau which is known to be crap.

NVIDIA ones. I tried with proprietary, MESA and Nouveau. Never managed to get the same experience as on Windows.

It's a shame, because it literally can't be anything but the software. It's the same hardware with different OSes. Might even be windows specific optimizations on the games part, but in the end it doesn't matter.

The bottom line unfortunately is: it's significantly worse.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you use the nvidia driver or nouveau which is known to be crap.

NVIDIA ones. I tried with proprietary, MESA and Nouveau. Never managed to get the same experience as on Windows. It's a shame, because it literally can't be anything but the software. It's the same hardware with different OSes. Might even be windows specific optimizations on the games part, but in the end it doesn't matter. The bottom line unfortunately is: it's significantly worse.

I wonder if you are actually using the nvidia driver or just installed it. You could trivially have installed the nvidia driver but actually be using nouveau. Running glxinfo in a terminal would probably be informative.

The complexity of setting this up would be a good point to address. Linux Mint for example has a tool to do this for you. This is logically a workaround for nvidia actually contributing an open source driver that doesn't suck.

There is a supposedly much better supported open source driver for new AMD hardware as well. Another thing the community is doing.

If the problem is with the closed source driver there isn't much the community can do. It's very hard to reverse engineer a complex device like a gpu. If the problem isn't games in general but that particular game there again isn't much the community can do.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#377

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> According to people who have purchased from there, they're VL keys that can be used many times (e.g. 2500 times), so they just sell the same key over and over to multiple people Erm, no - that's not how Microsoft's volume licensing works. Volume keys are issued to enterprises that buy them, and only that organisation is licensed to use them. Unscrupulous employees have been known to sell the keys.

Did I say otherwise? That is exactly my point. The keys - bought by the enterprises - can be used many times, on their machines. However, people find those keys and sell them on eBay.

Apologies, it seems I misread the tone of your words.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#378

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but he doesn't want to pay and doesn't want some other app. So just accepts it.

I wouldn't call it being content, I'd call it being stuck in a situation that sucks. I mean, if I gave you a script that would patch up Solitaire executable to remove any and all ads and telemetry with a single click, wouldn't your dad want it if you offered?

> I wouldn't call it being content, I'd call it being stuck in a situation that sucks.

It is as content as they'll get unless they spend $$ to remove the ads. Clearly it isn't worth the upgrade so they must be okay with their decision.

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#379
post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe it only works for UWP apps, thereby making it almost completely useless. Also, nobody wants to give Microsoft a cut of the software price if they can help it.

Thankfully, it seems the store is improving slowly. https://www.theverge.com/2019/5/30/18645609/microsofts-unive... I think the Windows Store is incredibly important. Worked as a technician for a while, and the amount of garbage people installed from random sites is mind-boggling. Or programs that hadn't been updated in five years. Non-tech people need a safe source for installing software (that also automatically up…

The problem is that Win32 apps are inherently unsafe. If you want a safe source for installing software, you need a sandboxed app model, which on Windows means UWP or web apps. Unfortunately the Windows store eventually decided to compromise safety in the hopes of attracting more apps (the container format that Win32 apps in the store use isn't a real security sandbox).

Re: Useless Windows 10 Features

#380

I've installed Win10 on dozens of machines and I've never seen ads on the lock screen, in the taskbar, and in notifications like the article talks about. Maybe because I always say "no" to all those creepy tracking/advertising ID type options on the initial config screen and I always say no to Cortana at the same time. What I heard (and it seems reasonable) is that MS included games like Solitaire and Minesweeper in…

> What I heard (and it seems reasonable) is that MS included games like Solitaire and Minesweeper in 3.1 as a soft way of training the enormous user base who were using PCs for the first time in mouse functions like click, drag, right click and click precision. I guess now that everybody knows that , MS sees no practical reason to keep those games free.

That's fine, take them out of the OS. I'm not sure an OS should come preinstalled with games anyway.

But don't remove the games and then show me ads for them.

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