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The day Windows died

thomasbandt.com

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Re: The day Windows died

#431

Post by herbst »

zargon wrote: post #381
herbst wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've only ever had second hand ThinkPad T series laptops and a brand new 2015 MBP. The MBP had by far the most hardware issues of any devices I ever had (second screen only on power, running hot enough to cook on it, battery life was mediocre from the start, ...). Every single ThinkPad I ever owned is still ready in my drawer. My ~15yo T420 still has like 6 hours battery life and works like a charm The build quality…

True of older ThinkPads but Lenovo seems to have finally broken them. My current T14s Gen 3 AMD has modern standby problems. Fails to resume from sleep about once a week. Trying to get Lenovo to do something about it.

Sadly yes. My newest device is a T480s that I use as daily driver (without issues) but I likely will never get that shiny ThinkPad carbon :/

Re: The day Windows died

#432

Post by throw_m239339 »

localghost3000 wrote: post #167

I am sure I will get all kinds of hate for saying this: despite the extra up front cost, apple stuff is a better value. Lets take device lifetime: I have a 2013 MBP 15 and 2015 MBP 15. I use them for intensive things like music production. Both devices work flawlessly. I also a System 76 Oryx Pro which cost more than any mac I own. The webcam failed 5 months in, several keys don't work anymore, and it gets hotter tha…

> I am sure I will get all kinds of hate for saying this: despite the extra up front cost, apple stuff is a better value.

No it isn't better value, it's expensive for what it is, especially when you can find $200 refurbished Asus Vivobooks out there with a Ryzen 5/7 APU and run linux on them. Apple products are insanely expensive and are often plagued by specific problems due to Apple obsession with (thin) design at the expense of usability.

Re: The day Windows died

#433

Post by SargeDebian »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #403
piyush_soni wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And of course it's Linux, so there's infinite opportunity to get under the hood and tinker. - Or keep trying to fix the environment + hardware compatibility issues and not do the actual work/study. Or keep editing some random xorg.conf file because his monitor's display suddenly became weird. Or try to fix some other random files since the sound driver doesn't work. He's 10. I'm 40 and still horrified to deal with…

This is very much true. The first time I had mouse scrollwheel issues on Linux, I was just casually told to create a bash file to change config settings. Not user friendly at all.

When was this?

Re: The day Windows died

#434

Post by jyrkesh »

apatheticonion wrote: post #332

It's really sad that there is no where for us to go in the desktop OS space right now. I, weirdly, daily drive all 3 OSes. MacOS; Work issued laptop and longish-time user (about 6 years with it). Windows; Desktop PC mostly for games. I've been using Windows since I could walk. Fedora; Desktop PC, dual booted which I use for most everything else. I cannot believe how much of a dumpster fire Windows has become. From th…

I'm in a similar boat. I use MacOS with the work-issued laptop, and due to a longstanding effort from Apple to make inroads in education, I used Macs at school since OS8. But for everything else--gaming, web, Telegram, remote admin--I think Win 11 is fine.

I ran Gentoo exclusively on multiple boxes for years. I still use NixOS to host a few workloads for friends and family. But if I want to just __do stuff__, Windows is still the easiest way to just plug anything in, run any program, sync any thing, whatever...and now it has a bunch of trapdoors to more native Cygwin-type things...and I just don't want to reboot or keep two systems up to date anymore.

But yes, there's sketchy telemetry and phone home, and I'd _rather_ run something where the code's at least _theoretically_ been reviewed by someone who's not in the state's pocket. But I'm just tired, and it's good enough...

Re: The day Windows died

#435

Post by pmontra »

piyush_soni wrote: post #380
safety1st wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is basically about the author's nostalgia for his early days of computing with Windows 95 and how he wanted his son to have the same experience. This post is screaming out for Linux. Linux is the solution to his dilemma. If he reformats that drive and puts say Kubuntu on it - the kid's first PC experience is going to be a vaguely retro 90's style shell with a start menu, the start menu is going to have a Ga…

> And of course it's Linux, so there's infinite opportunity to get under the hood and tinker. - Or keep trying to fix the environment + hardware compatibility issues and not do the actual work/study. Or keep editing some random xorg.conf file because his monitor's display suddenly became weird. Or try to fix some other random files since the sound driver doesn't work. He's 10. I'm 40 and still horrified to deal with…

It either works or it doesn't. Workarounds are usually permanent.

Example: I booted a friend's Thinkpad t440p with an Ubuntu 22.04 pen drive to check that she was OK with it and that there were no issues. All went well (screen, touchpad, USB, printer, scanner) except resume from sleep: the pointer froze. An internet search returned the workaround from many years ago

  sudo modprobe -r psmouse
  sudo modprobe psmouse
It worked and my friend was OK to add it to systemd post resume script. Given the age of the workaround it will never be fixed so it's up to the user. Maybe the kernel or the distro should make some checks on the hardware and take care of it but I guess that there are thousands of those combinations. Lenovo is doing that work with Microsoft for their hw on Windows, they are not doing it with Canonical on Ubuntu nor they are sending patches to the kernel.

Re: The day Windows died

#436

Post by pjmlp »

einr wrote: post #394
piyush_soni wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And of course it's Linux, so there's infinite opportunity to get under the hood and tinker. - Or keep trying to fix the environment + hardware compatibility issues and not do the actual work/study. Or keep editing some random xorg.conf file because his monitor's display suddenly became weird. Or try to fix some other random files since the sound driver doesn't work. He's 10. I'm 40 and still horrified to deal with…

Or keep trying to fix the environment + hardware compatibility issues and not work on the actual study. Or keep editing some random xorg.conf file because his monitor's display suddenly became weird. Or try to fix some other random files since the sound driver doesn't work. He's 10. I was doing this stuff in Linux when I was… well, not 10, but 12. Today I work with computers. What do you think ”tinkering” means? I do…

Not everyone wants to tinker when it isn't part of the job description.

Re: The day Windows died

#437

Post by CoolCold »

piyush_soni wrote: post #380
safety1st wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This post is basically about the author's nostalgia for his early days of computing with Windows 95 and how he wanted his son to have the same experience. This post is screaming out for Linux. Linux is the solution to his dilemma. If he reformats that drive and puts say Kubuntu on it - the kid's first PC experience is going to be a vaguely retro 90's style shell with a start menu, the start menu is going to have a Ga…

> And of course it's Linux, so there's infinite opportunity to get under the hood and tinker. - Or keep trying to fix the environment + hardware compatibility issues and not do the actual work/study. Or keep editing some random xorg.conf file because his monitor's display suddenly became weird. Or try to fix some other random files since the sound driver doesn't work. He's 10. I'm 40 and still horrified to deal with…

Couldn't it be WhatsApp and TikTok what a "general customer" wants actually?

Could it be MS has stats from MS Store to actually see what users install (say I have WhatsApp from the Store, among several others, not mentioning Office). We don't have numbers from the telemetry, but they have, so we guess, but they may actually know. Not something unrealistic for me.

As side note, I find astonishing things, for good or bad, when looking out of my nerdy bubble.

Re: The day Windows died

#438

Post by pjmlp »

localghost3000 wrote: post #195
lannisterstark wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ever seen a thinkpad?

Yes. I own two. A t410 and a t450. Definitely more durable but no resale value. I use them for experimental linux installs these days.

I use computers until they are ready to go into laptop graveyard, no need for resale value.

Re: The day Windows died

#439

Post by CoolCold »

Couldn't it be WhatsApp and TikTok what a "general customer" wants actually?

Could it be MS has stats from MS Store to actually see what users install (say I have WhatsApp from the Store, among several others, not mentioning Office). We don't have numbers from the telemetry, but they have, so we guess, but they may actually know. Not something unrealistic for me.

As side note, I find astonishing things, for good or bad, when looking out of my nerdy bubble.

Re: The day Windows died

#440

Post by phendrenad2 »

einr wrote: post #407
piyush_soni wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not everyone is here to become a Computer Scientist or even a computer professional unfortunately, they want to study their favorite subject, do screen recordings, make nice presentations etc. Our company uses RHEL / CentOS distributions of Linux. And they still suffer from all these weird problems I don't find 'fun' to fix because I have actual work to do, but I have to anyway.

Sure. But the article here is specifically about someone who wants their child to learn about computers by tinkering and trial and error.

Uh, the article isn't about that at all. It's about how cluttered, user-hostile, and specifically kid-unfriendly Windows has become in the latest iteration. Linux isn't the answer because it replaces those "features" with different kinds of user-hostility (everything is geared towards people who are on the road to becoming software developers, or are close friends with someone who is).
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