6 ms·

If no one is paying you, is there still any good reason to use Windows?

rlv-dan 7y ago
It's what many (most?) people are used to and comfortable using. And that's a big part in decision making for humans. (Provided they even know of the alternatives.)
burrows 7y ago
Windows is terrible.
kungtotte 7y ago
Gaming is still better on Windows. It's improved greatly with Steam's work on Proton, at a guess I'd say at least 75% of my library is now playable with no extra work from my side. On Windows it's still 100% though.
- fartcannon 7y ago
  It's not 100% anymore. In fact, WINE supports packages that Windows no longer can.
  - kungtotte 7y ago
    Windows programs in general, or games available on Steam? Because I'm talking about the latter. As far as I know there are no games on Steam that won't run under Windows any more.
- waddlesworth 7y ago
  I tried gaming on Linux awhile back, my biggest problem was how spotty the nVidia drivers are. I realise nVidia is mostly to blame here, but it's definitely still a problem that's preventing me from ever really being able to game on Linux (Ubuntu.) With a goal of 1440p@144hz, and someone who appreciates visual fidelity, I own an RTX 2080 Ti, and there's just far too much of a performance penalty for linux gaming.
  - Fnoord 7y ago
    > I own an RTX 2080 Ti Why did you buy that if you planned to game on Linux? I got a Vega 56 and it works great. Right now I'd opt for one of the newly released cards. With a Ryzen 3... AMD is back!
    - acollins1331 7y ago
      Maybe he does other stuff too. CUDA cores are worth their weight in gold and AMD has none. (Ryzen + RTX Titan user here)
BLKNSLVR 7y ago
I'm personally attempting to transition away from Windows altogether, but it's a long-term organic process driven by hardware changeovers and decommissionings (including a recent involuntary one) rather than remove Windows function X by date Y. I have Windows on a VM that I remote desktop to for things like budgeting and banking that I'd rather not keep on a "throwaway" type device. Two things that keep me on Windows is Excel (I use enough features that LibreOffice doesn't support) and Remote Desktop (it's just better than alternatives I've tried - I use xfreerdp to connect which support multi-monitor). Admittedly, I haven't looked into alternatives to Remote Desktop as the remote access server for a long time. Whilst vnc was always serviceable, it was never quite the "real" desktop experience that Remote Desktop provides.
- acollins1331 7y ago
  TeamViewer!
moksly 7y ago
Visual Studio Code with remote and Windows Subsystem for Linux is arguable the best mix “development / personal use” environment I’ve ever been in, and the surface pro 6 is probably the first time I’ve been excited about a computer since my 2012 MacBook. I had originally planned to buy an XPS 13 and run Ubuntu, because I actually don’t like Windows 10. I use Office365 Essentials though and that’s just a hassle to setup on Linux, where as it integrates seamlessly into Windows 10. It was also cheaper to buy the surface. I got one of the cheaper versions with an i5, and re-selling my used MBP 2018 paid for the entire thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I was really on the fence about going Windows, like I said, I actually don’t like it that much. It’s grown on me though. For personal use it’s really not that different than OSX. Then you get actual updated unix cli. You can even get SUSE enterprise server to run stuff in what resembles a real deployment environment. It’s all sandboxed so it doesn’t fill up your personal machine with development tools and servers unless you’re actually working on it. You get one-note and you get to take notes or draw architecture with a pen. The keyboard and trackpad are better than the MacBook and the thing weighs nothing. It even has a MagSafe charger. It really feels like something Apple should have build.
cm2187 7y ago
Having to relearn the whole stack. Networking, virtualisation, UI of the OS, web servers, database, scripting, programming language and IDE compatible with the OS, and for that programming language desktop framework, web framework, finding and understanding 3rd party libraries. None of this is my day job, it is knowledge and muscle memory I accumulated over 20 years being invested in and toying with the microsoft ecosystem (.net, visual studio, sql server, iis, hyper-v, etc). Changing OS means pretty much restarting from scratch. It is tempting (I am deeply uncomfortable with the new Microsoft) but I just can’t afford to invest that much time and energy.

It's what many (most?) people are used to and comfortable using. And that's a big part in decision making for humans. (Provided they even know of the alternatives.)

burrows 7y ago

Windows is terrible.

kungtotte 7y ago

Gaming is still better on Windows. It's improved greatly with Steam's work on Proton, at a guess I'd say at least 75% of my library is now playable with no extra work from my side. On Windows it's still 100% though.

fartcannon 7y ago
It's not 100% anymore. In fact, WINE supports packages that Windows no longer can.
- kungtotte 7y ago
  Windows programs in general, or games available on Steam? Because I'm talking about the latter. As far as I know there are no games on Steam that won't run under Windows any more.
waddlesworth 7y ago
I tried gaming on Linux awhile back, my biggest problem was how spotty the nVidia drivers are. I realise nVidia is mostly to blame here, but it's definitely still a problem that's preventing me from ever really being able to game on Linux (Ubuntu.) With a goal of 1440p@144hz, and someone who appreciates visual fidelity, I own an RTX 2080 Ti, and there's just far too much of a performance penalty for linux gaming.
- Fnoord 7y ago
  > I own an RTX 2080 Ti Why did you buy that if you planned to game on Linux? I got a Vega 56 and it works great. Right now I'd opt for one of the newly released cards. With a Ryzen 3... AMD is back!
  - acollins1331 7y ago
    Maybe he does other stuff too. CUDA cores are worth their weight in gold and AMD has none. (Ryzen + RTX Titan user here)

BLKNSLVR 7y ago

I'm personally attempting to transition away from Windows altogether, but it's a long-term organic process driven by hardware changeovers and decommissionings (including a recent involuntary one) rather than remove Windows function X by date Y. I have Windows on a VM that I remote desktop to for things like budgeting and banking that I'd rather not keep on a "throwaway" type device. Two things that keep me on Windows is Excel (I use enough features that LibreOffice doesn't support) and Remote Desktop (it's just better than alternatives I've tried - I use xfreerdp to connect which support multi-monitor). Admittedly, I haven't looked into alternatives to Remote Desktop as the remote access server for a long time. Whilst vnc was always serviceable, it was never quite the "real" desktop experience that Remote Desktop provides.

acollins1331 7y ago
TeamViewer!

moksly 7y ago

Visual Studio Code with remote and Windows Subsystem for Linux is arguable the best mix “development / personal use” environment I’ve ever been in, and the surface pro 6 is probably the first time I’ve been excited about a computer since my 2012 MacBook. I had originally planned to buy an XPS 13 and run Ubuntu, because I actually don’t like Windows 10. I use Office365 Essentials though and that’s just a hassle to setup on Linux, where as it integrates seamlessly into Windows 10. It was also cheaper to buy the surface. I got one of the cheaper versions with an i5, and re-selling my used MBP 2018 paid for the entire thing. Maybe it’s just me, but I was really on the fence about going Windows, like I said, I actually don’t like it that much. It’s grown on me though. For personal use it’s really not that different than OSX. Then you get actual updated unix cli. You can even get SUSE enterprise server to run stuff in what resembles a real deployment environment. It’s all sandboxed so it doesn’t fill up your personal machine with development tools and servers unless you’re actually working on it. You get one-note and you get to take notes or draw architecture with a pen. The keyboard and trackpad are better than the MacBook and the thing weighs nothing. It even has a MagSafe charger. It really feels like something Apple should have build.

cm2187 7y ago

Having to relearn the whole stack. Networking, virtualisation, UI of the OS, web servers, database, scripting, programming language and IDE compatible with the OS, and for that programming language desktop framework, web framework, finding and understanding 3rd party libraries. None of this is my day job, it is knowledge and muscle memory I accumulated over 20 years being invested in and toying with the microsoft ecosystem (.net, visual studio, sql server, iis, hyper-v, etc). Changing OS means pretty much restarting from scratch. It is tempting (I am deeply uncomfortable with the new Microsoft) but I just can’t afford to invest that much time and energy.