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France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

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Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#701

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because I would have to reboot into windows including any active applications I have? That also means I would have to maintain TWO operating systems instead of just one. Now I have a form of WSL (LSW heh). There is a reason why everyone on windows uses WSL these days, same concept applies for LSW, but for games.

> Because I would have to reboot into windows including any active applications I have? In a gaming-only setup, Windows requires virtually no maintenance. Plus gaming itself is a monotasking activity. I actually find it positive having to reboot, so I start with a gaming session, and I only play, and when I'm done I'm done. I get the appeal of everything-in-Linux (it was my setup) but it's also a hassle.

> In a gaming-only setup, Windows requires virtually no maintenance.

This is not remotely true anymore with Windows updates automatically restarting computers, windows updates pushing breaking changes especially in regards to GPU drivers, and more anticheats requiring secure boot.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#702
post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They tried it a long time ago, but it seems to be rolled back to Windows again. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux I hope our French friends can learn from this initiative during the adoption phase.

I seem to remember many people saying it was done by the mayor because Microsoft moved their German headquarters > Reiter denied that he had initiated the reversal in gratitude for Microsoft moving its German headquarters from Unterschleißheim back to Munich https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LiMux

There exists a relevant, even German, quote: “Never believe anything in politics until it has been officially denied.” ― Otto von Bismarck (first chancellor of Germany from 1871 to 1890)

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#703
post #58
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interestingly, there are zero non-US powerful laptops. The closest option is the Moore Threads MTT AI Book (12-core 2.65Ghz, 32GB DDR5, 1TB SSD, 14 inch). It cannot reach a modern Ryzen in performance though. It's fascinating that only the US can make good computers. I'm not from/in the US so I'm not saying that from a patriotic point of view. How hard can it be to pop a good ARM chip in a laptop and compete with HP,…

> It's fascinating that only the US can make good computers. Lenovo is Chinese, right? Xiaomi, Samsung... can you really not name one non-US company making computers?

They all have Intel or AMD chips. My surprise is that there are no good, non-US ARM options. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#704

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Honest question: Why? Because it works really well for a corporate environment where you require central management for your devices. Yes, the environments of Linux and Windows are different as you said, and unfortunately that means one will generally be better than the other within certain contexts. The corporate workstation use case is a gigantic one that Windows is currently dominating in, and this is terrible f…

I'm not up on my current windows security, but windows has been dominating for decades, much of which it's security was non existent, being originally a single user system. Linux being a nix is multi user from the ground up. So you seem to be making a conclusion that isn't warranted. That isn't to say any of this is wrong per se. Just that being the best does not necessarily lead to success.

Fair enough, but I think many people miss that something can be suboptimal in one way and very optimal in another. As an example, plenty of people here hail ffmpeg as the most optimal way to convert videos between formats, and for the technically inclined it sure is. Despite that, probably 99% of people that have ever needed to convert a video haven't touched it/don't know its name and never will because its interface is totally suboptimal. "It is the best and not successful" can be read as a true statement, but it leaves out that it is the best in this one sense and is far from the best in another sense.

To bring this back to the point I have found that AD is well documented, functions generally the same everywhere, and has an intuitive enough interface that you can get not-super-techy interns on the helpdesk up to speed on reseting passwords in it in short order. I couldn't say the same for any Linux management system I've touched, so even though you could say "system management on Linux is the best" and have that be a true statement, you're still missing where it fails and why that area matters to businesses.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#705
post #454
post #411

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are web apps much less efficient to use?

Yes, slower start, more memory/cpu use, likely worse UI as the transition broke desktop conventions and/or just lost some power features in the process

Eh. I suppose to each their own, but my experience as a user and developer is… that it depends on a lot of factors.

Many web apps open faster than many apps I have installed. Some of these apps have a faster mobile web app version.

And then, of course, there’s Apple’s increasingly bad choices in interaction and interface design. Some web apps are superior because they stick to simpler or more appealing design.

Linear comes to mind, their iOS app post-Liquid Glass is unappealing. Their macOS version is effectively a web app, and a very good one at that. Things is native and wonderful. Apple’s own apps can be both slow and ugly (hi App Store!).

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#706

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Things run very well out of the box. > a good number of wheels, pedals, joysticks, VR headsets, and other wild and wacky input devices might not work that well or not at all > If a game has an aggressive anticheat, like Battlefield 6 or Valorant, it will not work and you can forget about it > Not sure about VR, but I know it was a bit dire 1-2 years ago The determination of the average Linux user to ignore the faul…

There's Windows games that don't work on Windows 11 but do on Linux (e.g., Red Alert 2). There's wacky gaming peripherals that work on Linux but not on Windows 11 (Try an OG Xbox controller for example). Hell, MS has even removed support for a bunch of VR headsets when they nixed support for Windows Mixed Reality. Why do Windows users ignore the faults of Windows?

> don't work on Windows 11 but do on Linux (e.g., Red Alert 2).

Huh? But I do play Red Alert 2 on Windows 11 and it works just fine. Also can play online through CNCnet.

Is this something about a particular version not working, or some copy protection issue?

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#707

All the comments about Linux gaming make me want to give my $0.02. I've been gaming on Linux, with no Windows installed anywhere, for around 6 years. In the first 3 years, it was a massive pain. Games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R. would consistently have issues with mouse input, weird acceleration, a lot of games wouldn't run at all. This is NO LONGER the case at all. Things run very well out of the box. All games I want to pl…

All games I want to play run very well and mostly the process is just "install -> play". This is largely true for games running directly through Steam, it can get pretty annoying for games that exist outside Steam. Especially when you have to do things like apply an ".msi" style patch to a game . It's doable, but the number of steps and tools you may have to pull in (such as protontricks) does get to be a bit of a pa…

Lutris solves that

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#708
post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right but windows also aims to be backwards compatible which means it was trying to run things designed for a single user system undermining protections.

That makes absolutely no sense. 'vim' wasn't designed for multi-user use. Nor was emacs. Applications don't need to somehow be "designed" for multi-user systems. It's up to the underlying system to enforce application isolation in various ways, which NT has and does.

Does vim expect to be able to delete files in /bin?

If vim tried to create, modify and delete files willy nilly It would quickly run into problems. I would guess vim keeps it's temp files in /tmp and config files in ~/.vimrc?

Windows doesn't/didn't have any of this. If you want to be compatible with lotus123 and lotus123 writes it's tmp files to the root directory, you need to keep it writable, or you break lotus123.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#709

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not up on my current windows security, but windows has been dominating for decades, much of which it's security was non existent, being originally a single user system. Linux being a nix is multi user from the ground up. So you seem to be making a conclusion that isn't warranted. That isn't to say any of this is wrong per se. Just that being the best does not necessarily lead to success.

Fair enough, but I think many people miss that something can be suboptimal in one way and very optimal in another. As an example, plenty of people here hail ffmpeg as the most optimal way to convert videos between formats, and for the technically inclined it sure is. Despite that, probably 99% of people that have ever needed to convert a video haven't touched it/don't know its name and never will because its interfac…

I don't think we disagree. Problem is Linux users, of which I'm one, self selected to reject that ease because it's limiting. There's still a tension now, eg Gnome that is insistent on going all Mac in removing all options.

My personal suspicion is that you aren't going to get Linux to become what the windows users want it to be without it stopping being Linux. We've seen this with Android. So in some ways the rejection of centralisation on the Linux community is the thing that keeps it being Linux, for better or worse.

Re: France to ditch Windows for Linux to reduce reliance on US tech

#710

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's Windows games that don't work on Windows 11 but do on Linux (e.g., Red Alert 2). There's wacky gaming peripherals that work on Linux but not on Windows 11 (Try an OG Xbox controller for example). Hell, MS has even removed support for a bunch of VR headsets when they nixed support for Windows Mixed Reality. Why do Windows users ignore the faults of Windows?

> don't work on Windows 11 but do on Linux (e.g., Red Alert 2). Huh? But I do play Red Alert 2 on Windows 11 and it works just fine. Also can play online through CNCnet. Is this something about a particular version not working, or some copy protection issue?

It can be made to work with patches like those provided by CNCnet, but in my experience just installing it doesn't tend to work.
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