SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
CowboyTeal writes:
"Windows 8 is still being disputed as either the product of a genius or a nerdy sadist but that doesn't mean Windows 9 isn't in the works. That said, how would you guys improve Windows if you could change anything about it? Has windows 8 improved or degraded your overall experience of the Windows platform? If you're not a Windows user, what features would you like to see in Windows for possible assimilation?"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
It's raisins that make Post Raisin Bran so raisiny ...
(Score: 2, Flamebait) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 02 2014, @04:36PM
I can live with the Windows update process as it is but I have a similar dream that Linux will one day get plug-and-play - and finally catch up to Windows 95 in that regard ;-)
But seriously, folks, maybe I'm just confused on this. Does Linux, 1) already have plug-and-play, 2) lack it by design, or 3) lack it because it just isn't there yet? I read an article awhile back that suggested it was 2), but I really don't know, so this is an honest question, not a troll.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 02 2014, @07:45PM
It has plug and play already.
Have I been trolled?
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Sunday March 02 2014, @08:59PM
Have I been trolled?
Apparently. I just did a fresh Mint install this week to my more or less generic Dell box, and everything just worked. Took all of ten minutes including formatting the new drive.
Bonus: even Windows Vista is running better now, inside VirtualBox.....
(Score: 2) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 02 2014, @10:20PM
No, it wasn't a troll, it was an honest question. (I hope those are being allowed here, even if they were systematically surpressed at The-Site-Which-Must-Not-Be-Named... ;-) Thanks for answering it. I haven't tried Linux in a couple of years, but the (apparent) lack of plug-and-play support at that time was one of the main reasons I quickly abandoned it. I went through a great deal of misery back then trying to get sound to come out via ALSA.
However, I recognize that things improve over the years, so it's not surprising they've finally gotten something like that going. However, from an article I had read a few months ago, I got the idea that the Linux kernel simply wasn't designed to allow that. The article suggested that people actually enjoyed recompiling the kernel to add drivers. But the article was wrong, or maybe I misunderstood. (Likewise, this message is *not* a troll. Feel free not to respond if you have any doubts.)
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Sunday March 02 2014, @11:55PM
I've never recompiled anything, and wouldn't know where to start. I have though downloaded a handful of distros and installed them from a USB stick. Or first tried them as a live instance.
Mainstream linux is pretty painless these days for average systems.
(Score: 2) by TheloniousToady on Monday March 03 2014, @01:58AM
Glad to hear it's working for you. I recently tried installing Linux as a dual boot on a Windows 8 machine that I had just built. It installed and ran fine in a little nominal use. But when I tried to boot it later from the HDD, it wouldn't boot, I think due to the UEFI issue. So, I kindda lost interest and rebooted into Windows.
In a general sense, this has pretty-much been my experience with Linux over the years, starting with Red Hat 6 many years ago. It always basically works, but there always seems to be some sort of significant snag that I run into - and a different one each time. Last time it was audio, this time it's UEFI. Each problem I've run into is surmountable (including the most recent one), but I end up just going back to Windows.
I admire those of you who either have better luck with Linux or who actually enjoy solving these sorts problems. I keep hoping, so I'll try Linux again in a few months or years.
(Score: 1) by EvilJim on Wednesday March 05 2014, @12:10AM
I've got ubuntu 3 or 4 running on a pentium 233 laptop with 64mb ram, never could get the S3 video drivers working properly so stuck with VESA, that and my older 486dx4-100 laptop with 16mb ram are the only two systems I've had to re-compile a kernel for or mess with driver settings to get working. even USB plug and play works fine. running Deli Linux on the 486. all of my more recent machines just work straight out of the box, oh except one where I had to de-blacklist the wifi card after an update.
(Score: 1) by tangomargarine on Monday March 03 2014, @09:56PM
If what you're *actually* trying to refer to is AutoRun, yes, Linux lacks that by design. Although I'm sure those damn Gnome devs will put it in one of these days (if they haven't already).
I have been plugging arbitrary flash drives/external disks into my desktop and Ubuntu autodetects them since 2007 at least.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 1) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Sunday March 02 2014, @09:56PM
I can live with the Windows update process as it is but I have a similar dream that Linux will one day get plug-and-play - and finally catch up to Windows 95 in that regard ;-)
But seriously, folks, maybe I'm just confused on this. Does Linux, 1) already have plug-and-play, 2) lack it by design, or 3) lack it because it just isn't there yet? I read an article awhile back that suggested it was 2), but I really don't know, so this is an honest question, not a troll.
I don't know about (2) and (3), but every I've installed it on a PC (whether it's a desktop, laptop or netbook) everything "just worked" (advertising term borrowed from some computer company or other).
Sometimes I've had to select one of the installed sound drivers, and the scanner I have tries really hard to not play nice with Linux, but that's it.
It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
(Score: 2) by TheloniousToady on Sunday March 02 2014, @10:27PM
Darn, I was hoping that, unlike Slashdot, I could express some sort of mild pro-Windows/anti-Linux sentiment without being labelled as "Flamebait". (Didn't anybody notice the "wink"? ;-) Is Soylent going to be the narrow, dogmatic place that Slashdot is? Can't we have "News for Nerds" or something like that without enforcing humorless dogma about the Windows/Linux divide and related issues like the copyleft/BSD/proprietary divide?
I try not to use my own moderator points in a dogmatic fashion here or elsewhere, so please don't do it to me.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @05:07AM
Didn't anybody notice the "wink"?
Wit is in the eye/ear of the beholder [google.com]. You need to try harder.
As for your original point, as others have alluded to, if you have hardware that doesn't "just work" it's because you have chosen a sucky product from a sucky manufacturer with sucky support.
For years and years, the Linux Driver Project has offered labor (gratis) to make products Linux-compatible.
If a manufacturer's products aren't, it's because that vendor is standing in the doorway and blocking progress [googleusercontent.com].(orig) [lwn.net]
Even Broadcom, who has a reputation for zero Linux support (wouldn't even release specs and made everyone reverse-engineer everything), is coming around [google.com].
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 03 2014, @05:20AM
An interesting point of view: if something doesn't run well on Linux, it must be the hardware manufacturer's fault. Maybe so, but personally, I enjoy being "free" to use whatever hardware I want...
(Score: 1) by tangomargarine on Monday March 03 2014, @10:01PM
I guess if you value the "freedom" to only run Windows...
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 04 2014, @02:01AM
it must be the hardware manufacturer's fault
Exactly my point. Glad you got it.
Now, who do you think produced the device driver for that item so that it would run under Windoze? M$?
Bzzzzt. Wrong. The hardware manufacture who refused to support Linux was the same bunch who produced that Windoze-compatible driver.
I enjoy being "free" to use whatever hardware I want
As tangomargarine intimated, you guys who not only enjoy slavery but will willing purchase your own chains are really strange.
-- gewg_
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 30 2014, @11:23PM
An example of fringe gear (a dance pad):
Convention wisdom would say that getting a Windoze device driver that works would be duck soup.
Convention wisdom (aka Windoze fanboys' opinions) would say that there is no Linux support for the device.
Wrong on both counts. [googleusercontent.com] (orig) [archlinux.org]
-- gewg_