7 ms·

next question: why are people still using putty

by ikt 3y ago

doublerabbit 3y ago
Why shouldn't people use putty? I still use putty because it does what I need for it to do. No need to change just because MS has their own terminals application, which besides I far from trust.
- mcsniff 3y ago
  You trust them to run the entire OS and every stack included in it, but not to make an ssh client?
  - toast0 3y ago
    There's trust in the security sense, which yeah, you're stuck with the whole deal. But there's also trust in the rely on sense. Which at least I try to compartmentalize. I can trust Microsoft (or Google) to make an OS I can rely on to run other people's apps. If Microsoft or Google want to provide apps, they'll be evaluated as they are, not with a bias because the OS provider shipped them.
    - commandar 3y ago
      The client shipped with Windows is literally OpenSSH.
      - toast0 3y ago
        I don't have a problem using OpenSSH, really. But I'm not going to use a Microsoft terminal emulator, unless it has some advantage over the terminal emulator I've been using for decades, when the Microsoft product has no advantage other than Microsoft included it with the OS so I can save a 3.5 MB download. Same reason I don't use Internet Explorer / Edge / new Edge or Windows Media Player. On a level playing field, I would never use those products (well that's not true, IE 3 was ok when it came out, IE 4 and 6 were good when they were new, but I don't have a time machine), so why use them because the field is unlevel.
oblio 3y ago
They're used to it, tutorials online recommend it, admins install it out of inertia, some places have old Windows versions, etc.
toast0 3y ago
Putty met my needs in 2004 and my needs haven't changed. It still works as good in 2024. I'm not 100% sure when I started using putty, but I definitely used it in 2004. I still need a ssh client and terminal emulator for Windows. I still don't want to install a unix like environment just to have a terminal. I still don't want tabs in my terminal, lots of windows works just fine. I still need X11 forwarding so I can run programs on remote systems and display them on Windows (VcXsrv is an easier to get going X server than others I've used on Windows). I might like to have something that can do whatever magic so I can gcloud and aws auth on my remote machine without cutting and pasting giant urls and auth blobs to and fro all the time; but I'm using a auth token that needs to stay connected to the windows machine. In a more integrated corp environment this would probably be keberos/active directory/magic?
- baq 3y ago
  The difference in 2024 is that windows ships openssh client and server as a built-in optional component and it also ships a workable terminal emulator. No WSL needed in either case. (But yeah I'm still using putty, too)
  - geraldhh 3y ago
    same. if i want a term, it's putty. windows shell and builtin ssh is a backup for when i am working from a foreign system
  - toast0 3y ago
    Microsoft stopped shipping HyperTerminal, last I checked. It wasn't really worth the effort to make it do SSH. I'm not really a fan of cmd or powershell, although I guess I could use them in a pinch. Wouldn't look like what I'm used to though. :p
    - CoolCold 3y ago
      HyperTerminal is for greybeards :) What was meant is Windows Terminal
  - 3y ago
laxis96 3y ago
Because Windows does not have a good SSH implementation and PuTTY has always worked extremely well for me as a serial and SSH terminal (also, it starts up instantly and never crashed on me). Are there any better alternatives?
- n_plus_1_acc 3y ago
  Many people I know just use SSH from the WSL CLI.
  - LoganDark 3y ago
    PuTTY is from before WSL, and old habits die hard.
  - xorcist 3y ago
    That's a very limited terminal in terms of capabilities. Then there's things like x11-style copy-paste.
  - ale42 3y ago
    You can run SSH from a Windows terminal without even having the WSL installed...
  - CoolCold 3y ago
    I do like 99% of the time and in quite specific cases from the host machine (Windows native openssh) - mainly due to my environment is in WSL in terms of dotfiles, cmd line prompt, shell history and so on.
- nolongerthere 3y ago
  Windows 10 natively supports SSH as far as I can tell, I don’t use it a ton, but haven’t had any issues just typing ssh username@domain
- janosdebugs 3y ago
  Doesn't Windows ship OpenSSH these days?
sitzkrieg 3y ago
its great for serial and raw on windows.
jolmg 3y ago
There's some obscure settings that putty supports that other terminals do (did?) not. It's been a while so I don't remember all the details, but for example, some systems expected the DEL key and not Ctrl-C to interrupt. You can change the interrupt key with `stty` on other terminals, but it only allows setting the key to a single character, and DEL is typically an escape sequence.

next question: why are people still using putty

by ikt 3y ago

next question: why are people still using putty

Why shouldn't people use putty? I still use putty because it does what I need for it to do. No need to change just because MS has their own terminals application, which besides I far from trust.

mcsniff 3y ago
You trust them to run the entire OS and every stack included in it, but not to make an ssh client?
- toast0 3y ago
  There's trust in the security sense, which yeah, you're stuck with the whole deal. But there's also trust in the rely on sense. Which at least I try to compartmentalize. I can trust Microsoft (or Google) to make an OS I can rely on to run other people's apps. If Microsoft or Google want to provide apps, they'll be evaluated as they are, not with a bias because the OS provider shipped them.
  - commandar 3y ago
    The client shipped with Windows is literally OpenSSH.
    - toast0 3y ago
      I don't have a problem using OpenSSH, really. But I'm not going to use a Microsoft terminal emulator, unless it has some advantage over the terminal emulator I've been using for decades, when the Microsoft product has no advantage other than Microsoft included it with the OS so I can save a 3.5 MB download. Same reason I don't use Internet Explorer / Edge / new Edge or Windows Media Player. On a level playing field, I would never use those products (well that's not true, IE 3 was ok when it came out, IE 4 and 6 were good when they were new, but I don't have a time machine), so why use them because the field is unlevel.

oblio 3y ago

They're used to it, tutorials online recommend it, admins install it out of inertia, some places have old Windows versions, etc.

toast0 3y ago

Putty met my needs in 2004 and my needs haven't changed. It still works as good in 2024. I'm not 100% sure when I started using putty, but I definitely used it in 2004. I still need a ssh client and terminal emulator for Windows. I still don't want to install a unix like environment just to have a terminal. I still don't want tabs in my terminal, lots of windows works just fine. I still need X11 forwarding so I can run programs on remote systems and display them on Windows (VcXsrv is an easier to get going X server than others I've used on Windows). I might like to have something that can do whatever magic so I can gcloud and aws auth on my remote machine without cutting and pasting giant urls and auth blobs to and fro all the time; but I'm using a auth token that needs to stay connected to the windows machine. In a more integrated corp environment this would probably be keberos/active directory/magic?

baq 3y ago
The difference in 2024 is that windows ships openssh client and server as a built-in optional component and it also ships a workable terminal emulator. No WSL needed in either case. (But yeah I'm still using putty, too)
- geraldhh 3y ago
  same. if i want a term, it's putty. windows shell and builtin ssh is a backup for when i am working from a foreign system
- toast0 3y ago
  Microsoft stopped shipping HyperTerminal, last I checked. It wasn't really worth the effort to make it do SSH. I'm not really a fan of cmd or powershell, although I guess I could use them in a pinch. Wouldn't look like what I'm used to though. :p
  - CoolCold 3y ago
    HyperTerminal is for greybeards :) What was meant is Windows Terminal
- 3y ago

laxis96 3y ago

Because Windows does not have a good SSH implementation and PuTTY has always worked extremely well for me as a serial and SSH terminal (also, it starts up instantly and never crashed on me). Are there any better alternatives?

n_plus_1_acc 3y ago
Many people I know just use SSH from the WSL CLI.
- LoganDark 3y ago
  PuTTY is from before WSL, and old habits die hard.
- xorcist 3y ago
  That's a very limited terminal in terms of capabilities. Then there's things like x11-style copy-paste.
- ale42 3y ago
  You can run SSH from a Windows terminal without even having the WSL installed...
- CoolCold 3y ago
  I do like 99% of the time and in quite specific cases from the host machine (Windows native openssh) - mainly due to my environment is in WSL in terms of dotfiles, cmd line prompt, shell history and so on.
nolongerthere 3y ago
Windows 10 natively supports SSH as far as I can tell, I don’t use it a ton, but haven’t had any issues just typing ssh username@domain
janosdebugs 3y ago
Doesn't Windows ship OpenSSH these days?

sitzkrieg 3y ago

its great for serial and raw on windows.

jolmg 3y ago

There's some obscure settings that putty supports that other terminals do (did?) not. It's been a while so I don't remember all the details, but for example, some systems expected the DEL key and not Ctrl-C to interrupt. You can change the interrupt key with `stty` on other terminals, but it only allows setting the key to a single character, and DEL is typically an escape sequence.