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PLEX, this last week pushed out changes to its ROKU users (I am one). That made using PLEX nearly impossible for some people. Light and Dark gray color palate. White text on light gray background, to the point of the PLEX 1/4 screen height logo and spinning-working throbber being lost on the background.
So war ensues... See Plex.tv support forums if you must.
My question to you all, "What is TECH's responsibility to the Handicapped?".
Should good TECH also have a backdoor method allowing those with usability issues to still use the product, when TECH changes directions? What about lifetime pre-paid services that are now unusable? Should there be immediate return of funds, so we can buy the second best solution (now the best choice for us)? Should any change be signed off by a third party auditor to insure continued usability?
So again, asked differently, what is TECH's moral responsibility?
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:20PM (2 children)
That's all well and good, but the ONLY reason I have the option of fixing the issue is because I am technical. If I wasn't technical, then what would my option be?
My point is that from an average end-user perspective, having software freedom is completely meaningless if all the options suck equally and I don't have the skill to evaluate and/or fix the differences that are relevant to me.
And yes, my laptop has one of those Nvidia Optimus abominations where the connections crisscross between the dedicated GTX1070 and the integrated intel-whatever chip. And I can't use the Nouveau driver because the whole OS locks up on boot when I try so I have to disable it on boot and install the Nvidia blob. But I have to use the out of date one that comes from the Ubuntu PPA because installing the Nvidia provided one breaks everything.
But the zbox I'm using as a media centre has only the intel chip and has the same problem. In that case I ended up saying hell with it and just used the SPDIF instead.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Thursday December 20 2018, @07:58PM (1 child)
Already answered that one:
None of us are born "technical". I taught myself how to program in sixth grade by reading tutorials on cplusplus.com. Anyone can do the same. Or hire someone else who did.
Yup. My laptop's got an NVidia card and I had similar driver issues. First and last NVidia product I will ever buy. The proprietary driver sucks because NVidia doesn't give a damn, and the open source driver isn't fully functional because NVidia doesn't give a damn.
Never heard of the zbox before though, that looks like an interesting device....quite surprising that you're having that kind of issue with an Intel card. Of course, you probably wouldn't have these issues if you used an open standard instead of a proprietary one like HDMI...that thing is *designed* to break your connectivity. ;)
Seriously though...I'm sure you could fix it with enough googling and maybe a couple forum posts...Pulseaudio is a bit obnoxious (of course it is, it's Poettering crap...) and it tries to hide shit from you, so you've gotta find someone who knows where to look to figure out the issue. Or you can just use a different connector, as you already did, because it gives you that flexibility and that's a much lazier solution. :)
But once again, nobody said it was easy, just that it gives you freedom. You know what would make life pretty damn easy? Being locked in a padded cell. Don't have to get a job, don't have to pay your bills, don't have to worry about a single damn thing. But is that really all that matters? Is it better to be a child and simply do whatever your parents say, or is it better to be an adult and make your own damn choices -- and deal with your own consequences too?
(Score: 2) by ilsa on Thursday December 20 2018, @09:12PM
If I get a cookie with that, I would be seriously tempted. After the last couple days I've had, I could really really use a cookie. :P
The problem with HDMI is that it's now effectively ubiquitous. It's exceedingly difficult to find something that *isn't* HDMI. So we're basically SOL regardless.
You omitted the one option that most people invariably pick. Throw their hands up in the air, claim that this is crap, and walk away to look for something that does do what they want.
Depending on what the issue is, sometimes it's just not worth solving. For example, with this Nvidia issue, my solution is to say, "hell with it" and have Windows installed on a separate partition. I don't need audio /w HDMI often enough to justify the time I would need to spend solving the issue. At some point if I'm bored I may try just for the sake of solving it, but at this point I can't return the device and get my money back, so the work around is good enough to keep me going.
With the ZBox, threw my hands up in the air because I already had a tiresome day and I didn't want to dick around with temperamental hardware. I just wanted to unwind with a movie and a glass of wine. Of course, if I did the same thing today I'd probably just use a raspberry Pi now since it's now performant enough to do so. (Oh wait, even THAT uses HDMI.... >_ )
It's really unfortunate that Nvidia's head is shoved so far that it turned itself into a Klein bottle, but if I want a laptop that can play fancier games (I like Skyrim, sorry not sorry...), then to my knowledge there is no other option. Intel performance is crap for anything other than powerpoint presentations, and last I checked, AMD has not only virtually zero laptop presence but their drivers are crap too.
(Or I can go Apple and spend $5000 on $1000 worth of hardware, yadda yadda)
...what were we talking about again?