3 ms·

> Really, Microsoft? Most of us rely on Windows, it has an absolute stranglehold on the OS market, [...] It only has a stranglehold on you, if you or your empl

by neilv 3y ago

> Really, Microsoft? Most of us rely on Windows, it has an absolute stranglehold on the OS market, [...] It only has a stranglehold on you, if you or your employer let it. Personally, I did the hard switch from MS one day in grad school, in a lab where we had to meet with companies on an almost daily basis, but many students disliked how a particular software company behaved. (Besides company practices, the reps I saw in lab meetings and demos/posters did this weird interrogating ideas-stealing, unlike any other reps.) Knowing this, the PI told my research group that nobody had to meet with this particular company if they didn't want to, "...but don't you dare use their software." Challenge accepted. I installed Linux, made a Web page for other people in my lab to do the same ("https://www.neilvandyke.org/lab-linux-1999/ https://www.neilvandyke.org/lab-linux-1999/"), and was very quickly glad to be free of that company. (I also volunteered to be the one to meet with the tobacco-involved conglomerate company, which was the other company that many students didn't like, since I wanted to still be seen as a team player, and it was the lesser of two evils, from my perspective thinking about the future of information/computation/communication.)

Osiris 3y ago
While I understand your point of view, I think you are over-simplifying. I use Linux, macos, and Windows. I have specific reasons for using each for a specific use case. I use Linux for work because I appreciate the ability to customize my interface exactly how I need it. But it's also a lot of work to get many different programs configured and working together. I use macOS for iOS development and for my personal laptop when traveling because the battery life on the Mac is easily 5x what my Linux laptop gets. I use Windows for gaming because I have Game Pass and I have no desire to spend hours or days fiddling with Linux to see if it's possible to run games with AntiCheat and other stupid DRM. So I have a Windows computer just for gaming. I have no desire to pigeonhole myself into one system for purely ideological reasons. I consider myself pragmatic.
- neilv 3y ago
  > I have no desire to pigeonhole myself into one system for purely ideological reasons. I consider myself pragmatic. "Purely ideological reasons" aren't the only reasons to avoid MS. I could talk for hours about pragmatic reasons for avoiding them, and have. The Web has copious information about reasons to avoid them, for decades. Given this, still dismissing it as "purely ideological reasons", and suggesting how MS can be a part of this healthy breakfast, might as well be PR handling on their behalf.
  - psjs 3y ago
    As Zizek would say, you have to be most wary when the ideological subjects start saying they are acting without ideology.

by neilv 3y ago

Osiris 3y ago

While I understand your point of view, I think you are over-simplifying. I use Linux, macos, and Windows. I have specific reasons for using each for a specific use case. I use Linux for work because I appreciate the ability to customize my interface exactly how I need it. But it's also a lot of work to get many different programs configured and working together. I use macOS for iOS development and for my personal laptop when traveling because the battery life on the Mac is easily 5x what my Linux laptop gets. I use Windows for gaming because I have Game Pass and I have no desire to spend hours or days fiddling with Linux to see if it's possible to run games with AntiCheat and other stupid DRM. So I have a Windows computer just for gaming. I have no desire to pigeonhole myself into one system for purely ideological reasons. I consider myself pragmatic.

neilv 3y ago
> I have no desire to pigeonhole myself into one system for purely ideological reasons. I consider myself pragmatic. "Purely ideological reasons" aren't the only reasons to avoid MS. I could talk for hours about pragmatic reasons for avoiding them, and have. The Web has copious information about reasons to avoid them, for decades. Given this, still dismissing it as "purely ideological reasons", and suggesting how MS can be a part of this healthy breakfast, might as well be PR handling on their behalf.
- psjs 3y ago
  As Zizek would say, you have to be most wary when the ideological subjects start saying they are acting without ideology.