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The day Windows died

thomasbandt.com

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Re: The day Windows died

#621

Post by piyush_soni »

anthk wrote: post #601
blaerk wrote: post #529

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running dos, win9x and others was quite a lot of fixing stuff as well. Getting your hardware to work with games and is took some patience and a lot of trial and error “back in the days”.

- You install chipset drivers? BSOD - IE with too many windows? BSOD - Process stack being mad? BSOD

Anyone who's used Windows recently can say it happens a _lot_ less now. And also, I see not a "Blue" screen of death, but other screens of death on my work macbook all the time (all official 2019 MBP, no customizations). :| .. It just suddenly restarts and then opens up a 'white window of death' to make me report the kernel problems to Apple. I have saved a few screenshots as well.

Re: The day Windows died

#622

Post by piyush_soni »

jai_ wrote: post #597
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.

It feels like of bleak to discourage childish computer tinkering on a website named "Hacker News". Not entirely sure what this says about the direction of this website.

I'm totally for computer tinkering, but at the age of learning something like 'MIT Scratch' or even C/C++/Python, if they have to deal with all these problems, a lot of potential computer scientists might actually get discouraged and end up giving it all up thinking 'Computers' are very difficult.

Re: The day Windows died

#623

Post by ewokone »

elihu wrote: post #485

I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad from Costco for about $500. The last time I bought a computer preloaded with Windows was about a decade ago. My experience so far: I turn it on, there's a license agreement. Actually, there's two. One is from Microsoft, and it's rather long but I guess it's about par for the course. Then there's the Lenovo license agreement, which is actually a bunch of other license agreements concaten…

This comment and the OP post, exactly happened to me. I hate windows. My daily driver is osx and Linux. A windows vm has been cut down to deliver maximum performance, no bullshit. If it would be this out-of-the-box, no tracking, profiling etc included, it could be awesome.

Re: The day Windows died

#624

Post by mrjin »

Aeolun wrote: post #572
elihu wrote: post #485

I just bought a Lenovo Ideapad from Costco for about $500. The last time I bought a computer preloaded with Windows was about a decade ago. My experience so far: I turn it on, there's a license agreement. Actually, there's two. One is from Microsoft, and it's rather long but I guess it's about par for the course. Then there's the Lenovo license agreement, which is actually a bunch of other license agreements concaten…

> I guess I'll crawl back into my cave and keep using Linux for the foreseeable future. I’d been using Windows for so long, dealing with all the issues, random installs, shutdowns and all the crap. Then one fateful day 3 years ago I installed linux, and I haven’t had to think about my computer ever since. It’s absurd.

I'm one the verge. I switched all my secondary devices to Linux and all of a sudden, I hardly heard fans running any more.

I literally had enough with Russian roulette like Windows Update, all kinds of spyware for a long time but it's really really hard to find substitution for some of the stuffs I use also the drives were not that good on Linux.

Re: The day Windows died

#625

Post by rldjbpin »

seeing many comments suggesting sticking with linux. as someone who's used both, i like how many linux users are happy to jump the hoops in their favourite distro for any technical issue but refuse to do it in windows whenever it affects your privacy.

windows sucks, but when your work requires non-foss stuff, odds are that you are stuck with using it. tinfoilers can go full foss on their computer, down to the bios, but still have to access internet resources that don't respect your privacy. you really have to go out of your way to preserve your privacy in today's day and age.

just have the same level of expectations between all the options.

Re: The day Windows died

#626

Post by diffeomorphism »

spaceman_2020 wrote: post #417
grumpyprole wrote: post #370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you buy a laptop with good Linux support, e.g. a ThinkPad. It should be fine for well over a decade in my experience. That is better value than Apple offer.

Thinkpads are solid devices but they’re really falling behind in screen and trackpads. Most higher end Thinkpad models have 1080p screens with 300-400 nits of brightness at most. The base M2 Macbook Air is 2560x1664 with 500 nits brightness. And it’s cheaper than a Gen2 Thinkpad T14. And of course, all Thinkpads can’t hold a candle to Macbook trackpads

That is just wrong? Most of them have "3k" or "4k+" displays, aka more than macs. Heck, my 5year old Thinkpad has a 2560x1440 500 nit display. You can get 1080p as an option, but why do you want to?

It also has a very nice glass track pad, which as far as hardware is concerned is arguably better than the mac one. The difference is software support, which is better on Mac.

Re: The day Windows died

#627

Post by corgihamlet »

jchw wrote: post #476
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.

Not everyone was out to become a computer scientist when microcomputers booted to BASIC, but I don't find many people regretting their time growing up with those computers. I will give you that Linux is needlessly complex due to undesirable issues, but that's the price of admission for a highly hackable system, since there are no serious alternatives. As for kids, I wouldn't underestimate them. If what you want to gi…

I have read several stories that Gen-Z students often have serious issues understanding the concepts of files and directories. Their main way of interacting with such things is through "sharing" and links to Google Docs and whatever.

Re: The day Windows died

#628

Post by Ekaros »

mikerg87 wrote: post #23

It’s not Windows. It’s the broken social contract the entire PC industry has in believing it’s ok flood us with ads and surveillance driven “marketing”. Any retail PC is a sewer of bloat and crap ware.

Just look at Android phones. I really believe that if Linux was dominant what would end up being shipped on these computers would be entirely filled with random crap that someone paid to be there.

Re: The day Windows died

#629

Post by pjmlp »

majkinetor wrote: post #590
pjmlp wrote: post #436

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then accept reality that you have 0 control. You will always be unhappy with whatever setup. Its not realistic that 3rd party will replicate your mind state about how your OS should look like.

I already gave up on "The Year of Desktop Linux" around the time Windows 7 came out, and VMWare/Virtual Box were good enough to run it.

And in what concerns WebOS, Android and ChromeOS, if it is Linux kernel, BSD, Fuchsia or whatever powering Chrome and Android Runtime, I couldn't care less.

Re: The day Windows died

#630

Post by diffeomorphism »

petilon wrote: post #258
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…

> despite the extra up front cost, apple stuff is a better value What extra up front cost? The Macbook Air costs $799 at BestBuy. Do you mean to say a similar quality Windows machine costs less? Only Samsung makes computers that are comparable to the Macbook. This Samsung [2] arguably has a better screen but costs $1450. (There are cheaper Samsungs but they don't have 200% screen resolution.) [1] https://www.bestbuy.…

Are prices that different in the US? An M2 MacBook air starts at 1500€ here (more than double of your price) and that is with the infamously crippled storage and just 8gb ram. Fix both and the price is 2000€. It no doubt is a nice machine, but at 2000 that is to be expected.
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