Yet Another Cycling Forum
General Category => The Knowledge => Ctrl-Alt-Del => Topic started by: tereck on 07 February, 2023, 09:39:06 am
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Not intended as a dissing thread btw, purely out of interest. Horses for courses etc.
I have a Win 10 just-in-case machine that gets powered up periodically (and is ready some time later once it's loaded all it's updates!) for the occasions when I need it, as some companies seem resolutely stuck to Windows only platforms. However, my Win10 box has decided once again to not recognise my Garmin device, and I really really can't be bothered sorting it out again.
The bulk of the stuff I do, and play with, is on linux and android (ok, same thing, but you know what I mean) and I genuinely have little recourse to, nor need for, Windows - perhaps to restore an android device to stock when I've stuffed something up for instance, and there's probably a 3rd party unix based to do that to. I digress.
I'm thinking of wiping the Win10 machine for a linux OS (Mint is my preference) - or perhaps dual booting it. I've messed around with virtual platforms (VirtualBox) and Wine (it's hit and miss) but am considering going without Windows completely. Could I successfully image it in the event I might need to rebuild it? Or is there some Windows trickery that will prevent that. Or could I go Windows free? Do you?
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As a Mac user I very occasionally use Windows when I cannot find a suitable application in MacOS. Something like astronomical photo stacking. I also use it when someone uses a platform specific application to create something and it will not open properly on my OS. Something like Powerpoint comes to mind, and definitely M$ Publisher (although it is exceptionally rare that anything created in Publisher is worth opening).
I used to have to run it for the business, but persuaded my coder partner to go Mac and the code is all platform agnostic now. I use Parallels, and probably don’t have to. When I have to switch to the M series of processors Windows will have to go, unless M$ see the light and produce a useful RISC version of Windows.
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I also use it when someone uses a platform specific application to create something and it will not open properly on my OS. Something like Powerpoint comes to mind
Ah, good point, thank you. Not everything is under my control. My cycling club did once go through a (very short lived) phase some years ago of sending stuff out as Powerpoint documents. There are cross platform readers of course, and I don't recall receiving anything unopenable recently, but I will gave that some deeper thought.
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Most Powerpoint docs will open on the Mac, but alignment, fonts and transitions are often just wrong.
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Most Powerpoint docs will open on the Mac, but alignment, fonts and transitions are often just wrong.
Isn’t that just a feature of Powerpoint in general rather than any platform incompatibility wossname :demon:
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Most of the Apps I use for work are Windows-only.
I don't play games on PC anymore.
Nearly all my leisure computer use is on Android (and by hour of use, it is reading).
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Not yet. Android is the likely long term platform of choice but at present Windows is still required.
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I've run Linux on my computers exclusively for about 15 years. In the beginning there were some flaky bits (eg graphics drivers) but I haven't known any for as long as I can remember. As well as the ubiquitous web browser I use LibreOffice & Google for docs & spreadsheets (no need for presentations), Inkscape and GIMP for graphics, Shotwell to manage my photos and I run an old version of AutoSketch under WiNE for when I need some simple CAD (just home projects, and ICBA to learn a new app). There are also plenty of utilities for other more menial tasks (eg backup, text editing, music management and pretty much anything else you can think of).
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As a very basic user I haven't come across anything I cant do on a Mac in about 10 years. I use MS office for work and nobody has complained about compatability for years either (they might complain about the content, but that's different!)
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Yes. My only "home" computer has been a basic Chromebook for a number of years now.
I do have Windows on my work laptop, but it's only ever used for work stuff.
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At home I only have a Mac and it does all that I need. I don’t do gaming so that side of it was never an issue.
The choice of personal finance software was pretty thin but I found something in the end (Banktivity/iBank).
I use windows at work and absolutely don’t miss it at home. I’d rather do without it!
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I've been using Linux as my main desktop for over 20 years. I got a Mac recently for free but I don't use it much.
J
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My personal computer is linux. Has been since 2020.
Very occasionally i can't do some kind of helping / collaboration because they're using something very windows based. (Camera club competition software usually.) Mostly google drive apps let me collaborate without compatibility issues.
I do have an ancient mac mini that gets brought out less than once a year for some device setup.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
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All Linux here. Although I did buy an iPad 12.9 for music score reading last week. I have an old laptop that's dual boot with Ubuntu and Windows 7 but it's a while since I bothered with it.
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At home I did years ago; for work I use a Mac for 95% of what I do. So if I need Windows I Remote Desktop and run from there. Essentially it’s to run application that’s IE only or more importantly the 5% that hasn’t been ported over, SQL management tools, because I haven’t found a suitable OSX replacement and to change my password.
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I have a dual boot Linux / Windows 10 machine. I use Windows less and less, mainly for my scanner whose drivers won't work under non Windows and Adobe Acrobat Pro for OCRing/scanning documents which I do in bulk after scanning them. I do also do PowerPointy bollocks in Windows as Google or Libre Office equivalents aren't great - although one of my employers is 'all Google' so even that is dying out.
Kim does all the cleverness to make my machine dual boot. Windows is getting bloaty more than the Linux as this desktop is now 7.5 years old since we built it. It is OK in Linux 95% of the time so I don't see the need to upgrade/rebuild yet.
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I'm pretty much all Linux on the desktop. I have a couple of Windows VMs that I occasionally spin up for things that need Real Excel, Garmin Basecamp[1], and the nasty software for the label printer[2]. Scanning gets outsourced to barakta.
I currently have custody of the Official BHPC Jam-Filled Babbage-Engine, which is running Windows 11. The race timing software works just fine on Linux or Mac, but we need Excel to run the VBA macros that do sign-on and post-processing of results.
[1] Necessary for making Routes that can be navigated properly in Follow Road mode.
[2] 95% of what I need can be done on the front panel, but occasionally I need fine control of layout or arbitrary graphics. There's an incomplete attempt at a CUPS driver that isn't very good at different label sizes.
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Kim does all the cleverness to make my machine dual boot.
For 'cleverness' read: "unplugs the Linux SSD every time Windows threatens to do something to the bootloader", interspersed with occasional frantic googling when Windows goes ahead and fucks it all up without bothering with threats.
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Mac user for 30+ years.
Going windowless used to be really difficult - almost impossible really.
Since Office 365 is now a coud based i.e. browser based as opposed to platform based – almost (there are still some small things) all issues are removed.
I work for 2 separate companies – one is Mac orientated (design) the other Windows (member support).
I use the same MacBook for both organisations.
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Mac user for 30+ years.
Going windowless used to be really difficult - almost impossible really.
Since Office 365 is now a coud based i.e. browser based as opposed to platform based – almost (there are still some small things) all issues are removed.
I work for 2 separate companies – one is Mac orientated (design) the other Windows (member support).
I use the same MacBook for both organisations.
Eh?
I'm using Office 365 and it very definitely is a local installation.
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Let me pitch in.. I have been a Linux enthusiast since it was first invented. I switched from Solaris to early Linux boxes on PCs I don't know how long ago.
Since then I have made my living building and managing Linux supercomputers.
On my desk I use whatever the company I am working for has as standard. Usually a Windows laptop.
Companies run on Excel and Word, and probably will do for a long time.
When I need to communicate with Linux systems I sue MobaXterm - which is just marvellous. ssh RDP VNC and sets up ssh tunnels so I can use remote Web resources just like local
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That used to be my survival technique when poor hardware support made Linux on the desktop impractical. An SSH or X-session isn't particularly challenging for the host OS, and took a lot of the frustration out of Windows 9x.
Over the years Linux hardware support has become decent, and Windows has become a lot more stable and better performing (albeit increasingly confusing for the user). Now it's pretty much a case of what software you need to run, and since 90% of the time that's a web browser, it doesn't really matter. So it comes down to whether you *really* need a headline application like Excel or Acrobat that isn't available on Linux for commercial reasons, or some niche product that's only available on whatever platform out of general inertia.
I know unisex spaceadmins who live on a Chromebook, because all they need is a browser and an SSH client.
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Eh?
I'm using Office 365 and it very definitely is a local installation.
I log in via https://www.office.com
All documents stored in cloud and editable in the browser.
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All documents stored in cloud and editable in the browser.
What could *possibly* go wrong?
AIUI Office 365 can be both a desktop application and a web app, and in classic Microsoft tradition, they've obfuscated this in their use of product names.
(Presumably they consider the subscription model to be at least as lucrative as selling operating systems as a loss-leader.)
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If you install the one drive app on Win10 you can then sync your cloud storage and hard drive storage
If you then install the desktop versions of the Office applications (I believe all personal licences have this) you effectivley have standard office desktop with cloud back up and viewing.
I find it handy because
a) I can also easily access the stuff via my phone
b) I can also easily access the stuff on my TV NUC
c) MS charge about the same as Google do for 1Tb of space and when it comes to apps Google utterly suck.
Biggest problem is i have all my photos on it as well as on my NAS, I am near 1Tb, MS insist on monthly payment for extra space, so dreading hitting that.
Also if your employer has the option, the equivalent of the home user version of office gives you a discount, which i found out about 2 weeks after I renewed last year but I now have the code on my account so it'll be cheaper next time.
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Not touched a windoze enabled machine since I retired. We have Mac OS on the desktop and laptop and iOS on tablets and phones.
At work, both of us used windoze although Dr Beardy used the imac at home for work stuff without any really issue. I think I could have done most of my job on a Mac, but it would have had to be exclusively for work and provided by them. Windoze was the only option. In earlier years, it would have been nigh on impossible to use a Mac, mainly due to document sharing being a pain in the arris
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Other than a brief spell of Win-curiosity when I boarded the current mothership, I've survived without Windows since XP. I still have flashbacks, of course, but regular 240v ECT keeps them at bay. In the early days of Mac (it wasn't a path of purposeful conversion, I saw a Macbook c2007 and thought that looks nicer than my Windows laptop, I was still baking my own desktop PCs at the time) I ran a Windows VM but I can't remember the last time I needed to do that. I think it's still XP.
Office365 is 99.9% compatible re formating etc. between Windows and Macs, my mothership are mostly Windows, and there's never a problem (Windows still doesn't know how to manage fonts, but at this stage, that's more nostalgia than a failing). There are still a few missing features (like really, a way to manage links and embedded objects, I mean really). You just have to accept that Powerpoint and Word are awful regardless. OK, I have a secret dungeonlove for Excel but then who doesn't?
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My needs are very simple.
Daily computing using a Chromebook including the Linux shell for a couple of applications.
Amateur radio (FT8 & browser) with Linux mint on an ancient laptop.
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If you install the one drive app on Win10 you can then sync your cloud storage and hard drive storage
If you then install the desktop versions of the Office applications (I believe all personal licences have this) you effectivley have standard office desktop with cloud back up and viewing.
I find it handy because
a) I can also easily access the stuff via my phone
b) I can also easily access the stuff on my TV NUC
c) MS charge about the same as Google do for 1Tb of space and when it comes to apps Google utterly suck.
Biggest problem is i have all my photos on it as well as on my NAS, I am near 1Tb, MS insist on monthly payment for extra space, so dreading hitting that.
Also if your employer has the option, the equivalent of the home user version of office gives you a discount, which i found out about 2 weeks after I renewed last year but I now have the code on my account so it'll be cheaper next time.
One drive storage is really, really dangerous.
It doesn't apply the sync with any intelligence.
Say you have a document you started work on while connected to the cloud.
Later on, you carry on editing the document, while not connected.
Now connect.
Most of the time, One drive will overwrite the local file (i.e. the one last updated) with the file from the cloud storage. Overwriting your changes.
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Office 364, anyone? (https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/07/outlook_down/)
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Ok, wells, I've got the few Windows progs I use/need (Garmin really) up and running under VirtualBox on my linux laptop (actually makes more sense on there too tbh, rather than firing up another machine for a single task) I've used Vbox before, maybe 4 years ago, and it seems to have come on some (their 'community' forum is still frightening however) I had to configure a little for USB, network connections and screen resolution but the solutions were all but a web search away.
So next step is to perhaps take the plunge and wipe the Win10 machine.... might think about that for a day or two though. I do have an old, old machine that could put Win2k on (the last version I was comfortable with) just in case just in case. I do like a good tinker I do.
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I have been musing over this topic and my thoughts come to this: because of some things that I do I cannot conceive not having at least one windows machine in the Bear-o-drome going forward. The pace of tech and changes to our lives will certainly reduce a need for Windows specifically but may result in expenditure on tablets instead. Couch surfing seems to be replacing "sit at a pc" surfing. Laptops are just meh imo.
We have one pc which is fairly new and is Windows 11 compliant meaning that it might just get support for the next decade at which point the choices available will be so much more varied and interesting.
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I have been musing over this topic and my thoughts come to this: because of some things that I do I cannot conceive not having at least one windows machine in the Bear-o-drome going forward. The pace of tech and changes to our lives will certainly reduce a need for Windows specifically but may result in expenditure on tablets instead. Couch surfing seems to be replacing "sit at a pc" surfing. Laptops are just meh imo.
We have one pc which is fairly new and is Windows 11 compliant meaning that it might just get support for the next decade at which point the choices available will be so much more varied and interesting.
Can't agree with you there.
In my last two places of work, very very few people used a 'desktop PC'. Instead, they had laptops and docking stations.
A properly specced machine doesn't need upgrading, or replacing, for multiple years now. The 2-yearly turnover of 'new software, have to upgrade PC' just isn't there anymore.
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I need it to drive a film scanner and to update two satnavs. Otherwise, I never use it at home.
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I have been musing over this topic and my thoughts come to this: because of some things that I do I cannot conceive not having at least one windows machine in the Bear-o-drome going forward. The pace of tech and changes to our lives will certainly reduce a need for Windows specifically but may result in expenditure on tablets instead. Couch surfing seems to be replacing "sit at a pc" surfing. Laptops are just meh imo.
We have one pc which is fairly new and is Windows 11 compliant meaning that it might just get support for the next decade at which point the choices available will be so much more varied and interesting.
Can't agree with you there.
In my last two places of work, very very few people used a 'desktop PC'. Instead, they had laptops and docking stations.
This is clearly the way things now are, but I'm of the mind that a laptop used as a desktop (ie. with extra monitors and input devices) is basically a desktop, and the main thing driving the demise of proper desktops for home use isn't so much portability as people not having room for desks any more.
I know some younger people (who by this stage have never known anything different - see above) live on laptops, but I find trying to get anything done with a single screen and trackpad is an exercise in frustration. If portability is the thing, then I prefer some sort of fondleslab - they're perfectly capable of being a network client or (with a keyboard) note-taking device, with obvious battery and value/ruggedness advantages.
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I don’t know whether Professor Larrington actually has a desktop – I suspect not – but then as an academic she's firmly embedded in the FruitCo multiverse. She did just get a new! SHINY!! MacBook which seems not to play nicely with the Internets at Fort Larrington, which is a bit of a headscratcher as Speedtest showed 250+ mega-wossnames/s download speed. It really shouldn’t take thirty seconds to open a web page.
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I'm 80% WFH (4 days at home, one in the office) and portability is very important - current workplace has docking stations on all desks, no desktop PCs at all.
Previous workplace was also hybrid, but they still had desktops in the office - I found it a PITA, because nothing ever seemed to synchronise properly. I like being able to go in to the office, plug in and go without having to faff about because things aren't quite set up the same.
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I accept that laptops work for some and that's great, but not for me. The screens are too small, the keyboards are always a compromise, the touchpads are awful things - all in my personal experience. I have tolerated laptops when I needed one for my work but as I no longer do ..
mllePB works from home and has two company laptops. One stays connected to a 28 inch screen and uses a Logitech cordless keyboard and mouse. It is in effect a defacto desktop.
We have our own desktop machine that is similarly attached but has a hot swappable caddy for 2.5 inch drives and enough usb ports for connecting the likes of fitness trackers, scanners, smartphones (for data transfer mainly), webcams for Zooming, etc. It works for us.
We do have desk space which makes having a proper desktop machine viable. I like to be able to choose my screen and my input devices and I still enjoy the upgrade possibilities that a desktop gives me.
Horses for courses.
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I'm 80% WFH (4 days at home, one in the office) and portability is very important - current workplace has docking stations on all desks, no desktop PCs at all.
Previous workplace was also hybrid, but they still had desktops in the office - I found it a PITA, because nothing ever seemed to synchronise properly. I like being able to go in to the office, plug in and go without having to faff about because things aren't quite set up the same.
Corporate IT seem to like them for similar reasons - if a laptop misbehaves, the user can bring it to them (and potentially swap it for a fresh one from the shelf), rather than having to send a PFY out to wrangle a desktop. And less mucking about with profiles and synchronisation if each user is only using one machine.
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I have been musing over this topic and my thoughts come to this: because of some things that I do I cannot conceive not having at least one windows machine in the Bear-o-drome going forward. The pace of tech and changes to our lives will certainly reduce a need for Windows specifically but may result in expenditure on tablets instead. Couch surfing seems to be replacing "sit at a pc" surfing. Laptops are just meh imo.
We have one pc which is fairly new and is Windows 11 compliant meaning that it might just get support for the next decade at which point the choices available will be so much more varied and interesting.
Can't agree with you there.
In my last two places of work, very very few people used a 'desktop PC'. Instead, they had laptops and docking stations.
This is clearly the way things now are, but I'm of the mind that a laptop used as a desktop (ie. with extra monitors and input devices) is basically a desktop, and the main thing driving the demise of proper desktops for home use isn't so much portability as people not having room for desks any more.
I know some younger people (who by this stage have never known anything different - see above) live on laptops, but I find trying to get anything done with a single screen and trackpad is an exercise in frustration. If portability is the thing, then I prefer some sort of fondleslab - they're perfectly capable of being a network client or (with a keyboard) note-taking device, with obvious battery and value/ruggedness advantages.
Nods in agreement.
Slightly OT: When my youngest son and his partner moved house recently they made having an adequately sized office for two proper workstations a priority. Since March/April 2020 he has been at home 100% of the time and she now does 2 days a week in the workplace mainly due to her senior role. She says that she could easily perform her job 100% from home but the company provides her expensive hybrid Mercedes and pays her a healthy whack so if her fellow senior execs want to meet in one place on a regular basis she'll ride the wave.
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Not only could I not live without Windows, I couldn't get by without the DOS emulator that I've needed ever since W7 came along and could no longer run native DOS applications that I use almost daily.
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This ^^^^. I do a lot of command-line faffage and while it would certainly be possible to do similar with some variety of Weenix I'd have to (re)learn an awful lot of Stuffs.
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I have owned three Windows PCs over the years, but two of them were sufficiently long ago that they were never connected to the internet. MrsC acquired the third when she was made redundant and the company closed the site. 'Take anything you want.' (The chair I am sitting on at this very moment was another gain from there.) I think that must have been on line, but I never used it. MrsC was studying at the time so it was her machine mainly for that.
Other than that we have had one Mac Performa, three iMacs, four Mac laptops and a variety of phones and iPads, and a short lived Linux box (courtesy of Greenbank sometime OTP) which I used as a mail server for a time.
The last Windows machine was decommissioned nearly 20 years ago.
I used to spend some considerable time using the raw unix on the iMacs, but haven't needed to for ages as more of the functionality I used was provided in other ways.
Having spent time playing with DOS command lines for a previous job, I was determined never to have to do the same again! Hence the Macs.
So, the short answer is 'it's perfectly possible to survive with out a Windows machine'. Likewise, these days you can do everything you want on a Windows box. It's largely personal preference.
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I would really like to live without Windows.
Sadly one of my hobbies seems to demand the occasional use of it.
And my $job demands constant use of it.
Primarily a Linux user on my own $dime.
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I accept that laptops work for some and that's great, but not for me. The screens are too small, the keyboards are always a compromise, the touchpads are awful things - all in my personal experience. I have tolerated laptops when I needed one for my work but as I no longer do ..
That's ok. Real laptops come with nipples...
I never could get the hang of touch pads, and am very glad that I've been able to use a ThinkPad since the last millennium. The nipple is a much much nicer interface.
On my laptops I disable the touchpad in software. Something that adds to the confusion of anyone trying to use my machines. That and using evilwm as a window manager make my machines almost impossible for most people to use.
J
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I accept that laptops work for some and that's great, but not for me. The screens are too small, the keyboards are always a compromise, the touchpads are awful things - all in my personal experience. I have tolerated laptops when I needed one for my work but as I no longer do ..
That's ok. Real laptops come with nipples...
I never could get the hang of touch pads, and am very glad that I've been able to use a ThinkPad since the last millennium. The nipple is a much much nicer interface.
You're both wrong and the trackball is the best pointing device for a laptop. Shame they went out of fashion at around the time they worked out how to make Pentiums that could count.
On my laptops I disable the touchpad in software.
I don't quite go that far, though I disable tapclick with extreme prejudice. This doesn't work well on modern touchpads that don't have physical mouseclick buttons. (When I tried it on the Shiny! New! BHPC jam-filled Babbage-Engine it left me unable to right-click.)
The thing about touchpads is that they're so variable in their performance. Unsurprisingly, the Mega-Global Fruit Co seem to be able to make touchpads that work properly, in an upside-down scrolling kind of way. With other manufacturers, the frustration level varies from 'as good as Apple' to 'glitchy piece of crap', and seems largely unrelated to whether the machine is high or low end, or the brand's general reputation for quality. I'm also suspicious that it may in fact be illegal to make a laptop with a functional touchpad and a nice keyboard.
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I accept that laptops work for some and that's great, but not for me. The screens are too small, the keyboards are always a compromise, the touchpads are awful things - all in my personal experience. I have tolerated laptops when I needed one for my work but as I no longer do ..
That's ok. Real laptops come with nipples...
I never could get the hang of touch pads, and am very glad that I've been able to use a ThinkPad since the last millennium. The nipple is a much much nicer interface.
You're both wrong and the trackball is the best pointing device for a laptop. Shame they went out of fashion at around the time they worked out how to make Pentiums that could count.
Isn't that cos they are so bulky? I'll choose a nipple over a trackball any day. I even use the nipple for PCB design, something which horrified several developers of the software I use.
On my laptops I disable the touchpad in software.
I don't quite go that far, though I disable tapclick with extreme prejudice. This doesn't work well on modern touchpads that don't have physical mouseclick buttons. (When I tried it on the Shiny! New! BHPC jam-filled Babbage-Engine it left me unable to right-click.)
The thing about touchpads is that they're so variable in their performance. Unsurprisingly, the Mega-Global Fruit Co seem to be able to make touchpads that work properly, in an upside-down scrolling kind of way. With other manufacturers, the frustration level varies from 'as good as Apple' to 'glitchy piece of crap', and seems largely unrelated to whether the machine is high or low end, or the brand's general reputation for quality.
I have to do support for a fleet of about 50 Scottish laptops[1] at work, and can never work out how to do selection of blocks of text. It's a right pain in the arse. I don't understand how people use touchpads. Or like touch pads. Some people even go so far as to have an external touch pad. As if the ergonomics of having to move your hands away from the home row aren't bad enough on a normal fondle pad...
It's like desktop environments where selection of text doesn't copy it, what sort of barbarian has time to remember to hit control c when they have copied some text? Just highlight, and middle click. Or where focus follows mouse isn't an option. Utter madness...
J
[1] you should never call it a MacBook in the office, but simply refer to it as the Scottish laptop...
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I accept that laptops work for some and that's great, but not for me. The screens are too small, the keyboards are always a compromise, the touchpads are awful things - all in my personal experience. I have tolerated laptops when I needed one for my work but as I no longer do ..
That's ok. Real laptops come with nipples...
I never could get the hang of touch pads, and am very glad that I've been able to use a ThinkPad since the last millennium. The nipple is a much much nicer interface.
You're both wrong and the trackball is the best pointing device for a laptop. Shame they went out of fashion at around the time they worked out how to make Pentiums that could count.
Isn't that cos they are so bulky? I'll choose a nipple over a trackball any day. I even use the nipple for PCB design, something which horrified several developers of the software I use.
I expect so. But that's the argument they're using to remove headphone jacks from phones, and I'm perfectly willing to die on that hill.
I have to do support for a fleet of about 50 Scottish laptops[1] at work, and can never work out how to do selection of blocks of text.
Yes, I have similar issues, due to not having owned a personal laptop for a several of years, and therefore having missed most of the more recent conventions for touchpad gestures.
It's like desktop environments where selection of text doesn't copy it, what sort of barbarian has time to remember to hit control c when they have copied some text? Just highlight, and middle click. Or where focus follows mouse isn't an option. Utter madness...
With you there. Although the only thing worse than having to press a key to copy is having two different clipboards to keep track of.
It's high time someone worked out how to use the ubiquitous webcams to impliment focus-follows-gaze. It would solve so many problems (and likely create exciting new ones).
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How do the nipple/pad people feel about laptops with touchscreens?
My old boss used to hate them on the basis that whenever he had meetings with HR people, they'd put their sticky fingers on his screen to manipulate stuff. He couldn't see a purpose to them.
I pointed out that they are better than a trackpad or nipple when using a laptop on a train - the one-to-one correlation between finger and movement make the train vibrations less of an issue.
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How do the nipple/pad people feel about laptops with touchscreens?
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Kill it. Kill it with fire. Do not want finger marks all over my screen.
My old boss used to hate them on the basis that whenever he had meetings with HR people, they'd put their sticky fingers on his screen to manipulate stuff. He couldn't see a purpose to them.
I pointed out that they are better than a trackpad or nipple when using a laptop on a train - the one-to-one correlation between finger and movement make the train vibrations less of an issue.
Never had that problem with a nipple...
J
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Like ian, the last Windows machine I owned ran on XP. Until I started my new job last year, I'd not used Windows at all for maybe 12 years. The last non-fruit phone I owned was a SonyEricsson W950i (mid/late-2000s?).
Most of my working life has been in consumer magazine editorial production, which is almost entirely Mac-based across the industry. It made sense to be Mac-based at home as well, especially when I was working freelance.
Current job is in public sector corporate comms, which is a different world entirely. All the office stuff is Windows-based, but it's a slightly weird set-up for our team. Most people across the organisation do their office work through a Citrix workspace, whether that be from their company laptops or via the desktop thin clients in the office. But we use Adobe products for our work, which aren't compatible with Citrix, so we have standalone machines (only time I need to log in to the Citrix workspace is if I want to use the office printers).
At home, I use my work laptop as a de facto desktop, docked to a decent-sized monitor.
In the office (two days a week), I can't connect to the desktop monitors, so I'm confined to the tiny laptop screen. :facepalm:
On the flip side, one of the benefits of having a standalone machine is that I can install stuff on it myself - which is handy, because there's one app I use regularly that is Windows-only. I'm aware that I will probably be in trouble when IT find out, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it. Being outside the Citrix workspace also means web use isn't restricted, so I can, for example, post to yacf from my work machine, as I am doing right now (I'm too paranoid to use my work machine to look at porn though - or would be if I had any interest in porn. O:-) ).
If I didn't have that ability to install that one app on my work machine, I would use it via a Windows VM on my Macbook. But that is the sole need I have for Windows in my life outside work.
As it happens, I very rarely use my Macbook now - no point lugging two laptops about when my work machine suffices for everything I need. It did take a while to get used to working in a Windows environment but after nine months, I mostly know my way round it now.
How do the nipple/pad people feel about laptops with touchscreens?
My work machine is a Surface book, which has a detachable touchscreen so you can use it as a tablet. I find it occasionally useful.
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Had a touchscreen on my old Asus. Never used it. It cracked while I was cleaning it. Not impressed.
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Touchscreens on laptops are to catch you out when you point at something on the screen and it reacts.
I can see the use if the machine lets you fold the screen all the way round or detach it so you can hold it in a clipboard style for the sort of thing where that might be useful, but it seems mostly pointless on one with normal hinges.
As a former[1] Psion user I have a bit more time for the Wacom-style stylus as an input device, which would seem to work well in the above use case, as well as being far better suited to driving a desktop OS (to say nothing of drawing or handwriting, if those are your thing) than gefingerpoken. I think that sort of thing's having a renaissance courtesy of the Mega-Global Fruit Co[2], after flopping comprehensively in the mid noughts.
[1] I think my 5MX last got used about three years ago when I needed a serial terminal to configure a network thing.
[2] A full-sized iPad with the stylus thingy and some suitable art software is a thing of beauty that I'm singularly unqualified to use.
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I loathe nipple mice, they fuck up the keyboard, are on the wrong side and I don't find them intuitive.
I'm OK with a decent trackpad but strongly prefer PROPER buttons none of this all-in-one shit, tapclick needs to die.
I don't find touchscreens very useful on laptops, think both my work ones have it but it's utterly anti-ergonomic for me. I got into a load of shit at ex-work when I kicked off about ShittyBadSoftwareTM and the 'techie' (not very techie person who had to link between crap developers and human users) got very angry with me cos "use the touchscreen" didn't work and triggered my RSI faster than anything else. I was trying to get them to provide a keyboard navigable interface. These days I'd have a legal right to it thanks to PSBAR2018 and I'd be enforcing as such.
I have a fairly shite external track pad cos I'm getting hand/finger pain from scrollwheeling too much so a friend gave me an old track pad for scrolling which is annoying ergonomically but "is a change" so avoids overload.
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As a former[1] Psion user...
[1] I think my 5MX last got used about three years ago when I needed a serial terminal to configure a network thing.
I still have my 3MX knocking around somewhere, but it's a long, long time since I last used it.