Author Topic: Windows 10  (Read 3655 times)

quixoticgeek

  • Mostly Harmless
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #25 on: 27 January, 2020, 12:55:55 pm »
I confess that I can never find anything on Linux (and adding something to a menu seems impressively tortuous) – I can usually dig through my memory midden to remember where something is on Windows, but yes, just changing screen size seems a nightmare, settings are splattered all over the place. On a Mac I just bang cmd-space and start typing which seems to the way it ought to work (and if you want to add something to the dock, just drag it there).

With Linux there is no One True Way™, after booting my laptop and logging in, you are presented with a completely black screen. As an experiment, I once got a friend who was paid a high 5 figures as a linux sys admin and challenged them to open a terminal on my system. I gave him 15 minutes. He couldn't work it out.

I've been using the same window mangler since early this millennium, and so the short cuts are all just muscle memory. I know it's bloody obscure, they didn't call it evilwm for no reason. But because I know how to use it, it's incredibly efficient for screen real estate, and I can get a lot more on my screen than many, meaning I can get away with a smaller screen than most.

In your example, add something to a menu? On my laptop, what menu?

J
--
Beer, bikes, and backpacking
http://b.42q.eu/

ian

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #26 on: 27 January, 2020, 12:59:54 pm »
I did find a Mac-alike desktop manager for Ubuntu, but it was still painful. I don't use Linux often, most of the statistical shenanigans I can now do on a Mac. The only time I use Windows is when presenting on the 'official' laptop because some people find swapping an HDMI plug challenging.

As ever, much of it is familiarity. Windows users get trained by its idiosyncrasies. Sometimes this happens before the inevitable madness.

CommuteTooFar

  • Inadequate Randonneur
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #27 on: 27 January, 2020, 01:39:45 pm »
One of the problem with Macs is the price. Take a look at the recent Mac Pro. Want a video card,  On the PC an AMD Radeon RX 380 can be found for around £180.  The cost of a Radeon Pro RX 380 (slightly better) for your Mac Pro will set you back ten times that amount.   In design terms its better than the waste basket and is very nicely built. The price of the system is insane. You can have castors for the case but would you pay that much (£580)?  The 'old' technology can be forgiven they probably specified the Intel Xeon processor before the Epyc / Threadripper emerged to make that a very stupid choice. What can not be forgiven is the insistence that you must use Apple parts.  The hardware or operating system does not mandate this. Take storage an Apple storage device must be fitted to the machine or it will not boot.  Connect your favourite Chinese/Taiwanese/Korean usb stick copy MacOs to it boot off it with a Mac storage device in the machine.  Will not boot if the unused Mac device is not there.  Why do this?

To be fair you can probably find some very expensive absurdly idiosyncratic Windows boxes.

ian

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #28 on: 27 January, 2020, 01:48:01 pm »
Well, that's the Apple business model. People like me don't care what the video card is, we just care that it works and does whatever it does in a spritely fashion and honestly, I'm happy to pay more for simplicity. That's not for everyone, of course, but there are other computers.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #29 on: 27 January, 2020, 04:21:18 pm »
All working fine except that the slightly dubious licence key I got from the Bay of Thieves doesn't work.  Waiting for a new one.  Does anyone actually pay £120 for it?  If push comes to shove, I'll update my satnavs on someone else's machine.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #30 on: 27 January, 2020, 04:36:36 pm »
Oh well.  The old Win7 key activated it!
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Ben T

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #31 on: 27 January, 2020, 05:05:01 pm »
Would it not be cheaper to just get a garmin that you can just copy gpx files to via USB from any OS, like an eTrex 30, than get a whole new computer / OS   ;D ::-)

pdm

  • Sheffield hills? Nah... Just potholes.
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #32 on: 27 January, 2020, 05:38:34 pm »
I now use Windo$e for very little - occasionally for Mapsource to send stuff to an Etrex.
All other stuff is doable under my Linux systems more quickly and efficiently.
What I do is run a Win10 image under VirtualBox when I need it. This has the advantage that I can keep a vanilla backup of if unused in case of 1) silly infestations from the internet - not had any yet being a low users but here's hoping! - and 2) easy to copy it to another machine if needed without reinstalling everything.

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #33 on: 27 January, 2020, 05:39:01 pm »
It's the car satnavs, too.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

TheLurker

  • Goes well with magnolia.
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #34 on: 27 January, 2020, 08:45:27 pm »
I shall be given a new work W10 laptop tomorrow.  I am not looking forward to it.  I've been using the NT UI since the early 90s* and I am well and truly habituated if not indoctrinated.  I think know this is going to be painful.



* It was so long ago that my first ever NT installation was from 31 floppy disks and there was prob. with the drive which meant every single disk had to inserted, ejected and then re-inserted to carry on.
Τα πιο όμορφα ταξίδια γίνονται με τις δικές μας δυνάμεις - Φίλοι του Ποδήλατου

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #35 on: 27 January, 2020, 09:27:46 pm »
In which case you might be interested to know that Quicklaunch toolbar is still available (and available inside W10), as compared to the standard w10 method of "pinning" stuff  that shifts around and may be an open window or may be an application to launch. It's far more efficient on screen real estate than anything else, win or mac, squeezing four single click launches in the space of one.

ian

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #36 on: 28 January, 2020, 08:48:57 am »
I shall be given a new work W10 laptop tomorrow.  I am not looking forward to it.  I've been using the NT UI since the early 90s* and I am well and truly habituated if not indoctrinated.  I think know this is going to be painful.



* It was so long ago that my first ever NT installation was from 31 floppy disks and there was prob. with the drive which meant every single disk had to inserted, ejected and then re-inserted to carry on.

Oh god, I remember installing things via the 'insert disk 28 now' route. Which is disk 28? you'd panic, scrabbling through an unruly pile of disks you'd tipped out of a box.

In other news, since IT thrust their grubby fingers into my Macbook pie, I'm also impressed they've inserted proxy settings into Safari that mean I can't access any of our own products. Basically they send traffic by a third system which is supposed to protect us from nasties and, erm, inadvertently downloading pictures of ladies/gentlemen [delete as appropriate] who have misplaced many items of their clothing. I'm pretty sure none of our products deliver this experience. It seems to mung the URL path which our servers don't like. Cannot find server, bleats Safari. All a bit pointless, since they don't seem to have fudged Chrome.

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #37 on: 28 January, 2020, 04:23:21 pm »
... inadvertently downloading pictures of ladies/gentlemen [delete as appropriate] ...

A bit narrow minded aren't you?

(click to show/hide)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #38 on: 01 February, 2020, 04:39:39 pm »
Win10 is touchscreen-friendly until you turn off all that stuff.  Touchscreens are the same as light pens in the 1980s - they seem like a great idea until you actually use one for more than 2 minutes and realise how tired your hands get, just hanging in the air.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #39 on: 01 February, 2020, 06:22:01 pm »
Win10 is touchscreen-friendly until you turn off all that stuff.  Touchscreens are the same as light pens in the 1980s - they seem like a great idea until you actually use one for more than 2 minutes and realise how tired your hands get, just hanging in the air.

And the damned fingerprints, who thought of using a high resolution screen as a sweat/grease repository was a good idea anyway?

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #40 on: 01 February, 2020, 11:21:05 pm »
Touchscreens have their uses, but I wouldn't want to operate a desktop OS with one.  I suppose it's useful on Surface type devices.  (I also note that my Android tablet lives in a bag with a bluetooth keyboard, capacitive stylus and a microfibre cloth...)

The best thing I ever did with a light pen was combine it with a genlock to allow live video to be scribbled on, back in the days of the Amiga when that was impressive.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Windows 10
« Reply #41 on: 02 February, 2020, 12:11:49 pm »
I was idly golfing laptops on ebuyer the other day and noted that touchscreens seem to have fallen out of favour since I bought my current clockwork one in 2014.  The screen of which has a gert big crack in it from a failed attempt at cleaning it.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

ian

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #42 on: 02 February, 2020, 05:08:40 pm »
Touchscreen computers is one of those cases of solving a problem that doesn't exist. Existing mice, trackpads etc. are both more practical and ergonomic. Touchscreen works were those aren't feasible, i.e. for tablets and phones.

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #43 on: 02 February, 2020, 05:35:31 pm »
I have a habit of pointing at things on-screen. Not great with touch-screen laptops!
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Re: Windows 10
« Reply #44 on: 02 February, 2020, 05:51:37 pm »
My grate frend Jane has a Dell touch screen desktop PC.
No matter how sexy the designers have made it look ( a privilege for which Jane, doubtless, has paid) it looks skanky when covered in her greasy dab prints.