Quoting Magmarock
Quoting dadahl
Meanwhile in Windows there is only one way to do a thing, and its users insist that is the only way to do it.
Sounds a bit like the Stockholm Syndrome to me.
I don’t think you understand what Stockholm Syndrome is. Windows would be to take physical forum and start kidnapping people by point of gun before that could happen. Anyway, just no, there are many ways to do things in Windows. One of the perks of being the most used Desktop os is that every program is made for it. You can even get repositories for it such as chocolatey. Buuuuuuut, no one really uses it. This is because… no one wants to use repositories. They want to use exe’s. Not even microsoft themselves can get people off of it. They tried it with the Windows store and it went about as well as the metro start menu. People want what’s familiar. So here’s an idea. Give them what they want instead of telling them what they should want. This goes for both Linux and Microsoft.
Windows holds people hostage in more ways than one. Not just with a single way of doing things but a single bad way of doing things. You might want to take a look at how the winsxs folder works. In a way windows has its own repository. The problem is it's copied in its entirety on all devices and it keeps growing whether you use something or not. It started off small and now since Win8 contains basically the whole windows installation. This has become a problem on modern devices with limited memory and even for people with SSDs.
The problem is that of DLL hell. In the early days (640kB is enough) computers didn't have a lot of memory. Microsoft's solution to the problem was that DLLs would be stored centrally and each version have a unique name. Programs became dependent on a single version and would sometimes need a newer version or an older one. Microsoft introduced the winsxs folder to manage it all. The correct approach would have been to store DLLs with and bundle them with their programs (this also makes backing up easier) but this isn't what Microsoft did. As memory requirements became inconsequential they kept growing the poorly managed winsxs to where it is now a problem for disk space management.
Same for storing data. Programmers are encouraged to use windows' data folders. Not only does this make it harder to backup individual programs, nothing is stored with the program, but is makes it harder to reinstall the OS. The idea is that you can now backup all your programs together but reality is much more complicated. You now have to first locate it, assuming you can as access is disabled by default, and then transfer it back after reinstalling and sifting out which program's data you want to keep.
The criticisms leveled against MS are valid. We actually have no idea how far their snooping goes. In Win10 they have included the ability to read text input fields and send it over the internet. What if it happens to read your Veracrypt password. Since its own disk encryption is completely closed source we have no idea how many vulnerabilities and backdoors it still contains. When Win10 was launched they did release an update that tricked people into installing it as it was unclear whether you were giving permission or not. One case was in the middle of Africa where it cost one charity organisation thousands of Dollars over a satellite link.
Quoting Magmarock
Quoting dadahl
Meanwhile, I remember how some Windows 95 games would automatically install DirectX 1 over top of later versions of DirectX.
Direct X doesn’t work that way and never has. It seems the more you use Linux the less you know how Windows does things.
Actually he's correct. I installed a Win95 game and it insisted on installing DX3 or something over a later version because it couldn't detect it. Dark Reign 2 was unplayable because the version I had was incompatible with it resulting in an upturned screen unless I installed the expected version.
Quoting Magmarock
Quoting dadahl
Haven't ever heard anyone suggest that games companies should make their games first for Linux.
Then you haven’t been around the community for very long, but you can start with a youtuber called “The Linux Gamer”
I actually understand the point. Many gamers are on windows simply because of support. If more publishers had all their games for Linux they'd jump ship. So it's a catch 22. Publishers claim not enough people on linux but unless they start making their games for linux the situation won't change. The problem isn't it being too hard or no demand but rather not enough support because of a makeshift imaginary situation.
Quoting Magmarock
Quoting dadahl
Glad to hear that Windows is starting to have package managers. I was starting to get worried. Though if they are having trouble getting adoption (at least according to you) perhaps they're doing something wrong?
Yeah there is. The fact that they exist. No one WANTS to use them. People are content going to websites and grabbing installers; for what should be, really obvious reasons.
Or perhaps the real problem is that it defeats the purpose when you have to deal with both repositories AND installers.
Quoting Magmarock
Quoting dadahl
Still don't understand how downloading files on Linux=DRM, but not on Windows.
Because Linux doesn’t have exe installers. Linux needs a constant internet connection to work and without it, it’s just dead weight. With Windows it needs the internet to activate but once you have the exe you can copy it or just hold onto it and it will work. Exe files are portable while a collection of deb files unique to a distribution is not.
It only needs a constant connection if you want it up to date, much like windows. Linux works just fine without it and your programs won't stop working. In fact I've seen it's windows which complains more and more about internet connections with each version and the next version would probably require one to just keep working.
