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posted by
n1
on Wednesday October 21 2015, @09:08PM
from the we-put-a-man-on-the-moon,-but-we-wont-do-that dept.
from the we-put-a-man-on-the-moon,-but-we-wont-do-that dept.
Microsoft's telemetry features in Windows 10 are a privacy advocate's nightmare. Now that Microsoft is trying to back port these "features" into existing versions of Windows, it seems like many of us have no future upgrade path. Sure there is Linux, but I have some older Windows software that I still want to use. ReactOS is still out there, but does not look like there have been any updates in a while.
Does the Soylent community believe it is possible to get this project going full steam to producing a useable alternative for existing Windows users?
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by buswolley on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:17PM
Mostly what keeps people on Windows are games and Office.
The industry wants to move toward streaming games over internet, and Steam is pushing game compatibility. with **nix.
MS is pushing online MSOfgice tools as a complete replacement of local Office software.
Virtualization and more powerful hardware means running these softwares on a Linux host is not a hassle or a drag.
Windows OS is not needed.
Windows 10 will be the last MS 'success'
subicular junctures
(Score: 3, Disagree) by moondoctor on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:25PM
High-end software plays a big role too. CAD is a good example. In general, if you want to do 'real' work windows is your only option.
(Score: 2) by SubiculumHammer on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:55PM
Sure. But that is a small minority, especially since most of that category (professional software tools belong to Linux powered workstations). I suppose I should include Photoshop though for a MS win.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday October 21 2015, @11:27PM
Photoshop works fine on wine for me, it's an older version though. And, I haven't even used it in years because gimp does what I need.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Francis on Thursday October 22 2015, @12:14AM
I haven't used Photoshop in years, but if you need something that's compatible with Photoshop saves and runs on Linux, you might take a look at http://www.thebloomapp.com/features/ [thebloomapp.com] . It's still in development, but it's already rather impressive.
But, that being said, professionals that need to interoperate with work by other professionals are pretty much stuck using PS as it's the only way to guarantee complete compatibility.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @03:33AM
Wow, seriously, they're handing out mod points to retards now, apparently.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @01:17PM
You mean, you got mod points?
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Thursday October 22 2015, @04:56AM
Indeed. I have 20 years of experience driving Mastercam. That $20k seat of software determines the OS and hardware requirements, and it only runs on Windows.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by moondrake on Thursday October 22 2015, @12:55PM
This is not true. I regularly use an expensive commercial package for modeling and simulating scientific and engineering problems called COMSOL. Its linux version is not bad, and actually (depends a bit on your setup) more powerful under linux (better memory management and clustering options). My demands for CAD are fairly simple so I just use the limited features in COMSOL one of the free programs. But Siemens NX, VariCAD, and several others all have linux versions.
Just the fact that your specific CAD software is not available does not mean you can not use linux for serious work. Complain to your vendor, or buy a competing product! (and I say this knowing that your specific workflow may make it impossible to use linux. Its wrong however to think you are the general case).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @10:28PM
I guess all us professional physicists and astronomers don't do real work. When you write your own code, doing anything on Windows is a major PITA. Even the tools of our trade, Matlab, IDL/ENVI, Mathematica, work much smoother outside of Windows. Where I sit, all the people doing "real work" are doing it on Macs or Linux boxes. We then have to stuff our results into PPT docs because the PHB's gotta have their slide packages.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Wednesday October 21 2015, @10:27PM
While I could hope that Windows 10 will be the last MS 'success'. I have my serious doubts. People are adverse to change. Apple would be a much bigger player in the desktop market, if they had kept their computers in schools. Computers require Training. You have already lost, if you don't start early. I could be wrong about the last batch of young people coming through, but I still see MS in the labs.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @02:01AM
People always bring up Office, games, Adobe or AudoDesk software, but Windows has a software stack that goes into the millions perhaps even billions - and each single of those programs could be a show stopper for somebody wishing to migrate.
(Score: 1) by Francis on Thursday October 22 2015, @03:35AM
Those ones get listed because you have to be able to use the save files from one installation on another version. It's the same reason why people keep updating those programs even though the new features may not be necessary. If you don't update, then the files might not be completely compatible with the version that other people are using.
And you'll notice that most of those programs are ones used by businesses and professionals. The more day to day stuff doesn't have as much trouble attracting developers and an audience to support the work. But, for things like AutoCAD, a halfway functioning version isn't going to cut it, it has to be completely compatible otherwise it's worthless. The same can not be said for most other categories of software.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday October 22 2015, @02:06AM
That's like people have been saying Apple is a bubble stock, bubble company for 10 years. Some wishful thinking in there.