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NewsMicrosoft AI Red Team building future of safer AI Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31 
GeneralRe: Microsoft AI Red Team building future of safer AI Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 8:10
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 8:10 
NewsGoogle launches Project IDX, a new AI-enabled browser-based development environment Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31 
NewsAnnouncing .NET 8 Preview 7 Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:31 
GeneralRe: Announcing .NET 8 Preview 7 Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 8:08
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 8:08 
NewsWhy don't more people use desktop Linux? I have a theory you might not like Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:16
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:16 
GeneralRe: Why don't more people use desktop Linux? I have a theory you might not like Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 8:05
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 8:05 
GeneralRe: Why don't more people use desktop Linux? I have a theory you might not like PinPopular
trønderen8-Aug-23 9:50
trønderen8-Aug-23 9:50 
"One 'standard' Linux" breaks fundamentally with the concepts of 'Mechanisms, not policy'. It tells the Linux guy that he no longer can create the user interface the way he thinks the best. The program logic cannot be structured the way he thinks the best. Maybe he will even have to adapt to some established professional vocabulary and set of concepts that he thinks inferior to his terminology and concepts of a professional field outside his own. He can't mandate his favorite file system. Can't make an entirely different menu style, selection style or text input style. Maybe he'll even be denied to promote his well justified technical arguments for 'letter to pål' being a different file from 'Letter to Pål' (or probably to his preference: 'lettertopal').

Windows killed the User Manual. That is what made Windows conquer the desktop. There was one way to set up a window and menu system. There was one way to open a file, to exit a program (vi, anyone?). One way to identify the program and version. One way to access online Help. After having tried two or three Windows programs, you could handle the rest of them without any User Manual.

That is what won the desktop. People felt familiar at once with all applications. No matter what you do to the Linux kernel and the desktop: Linux application developers will continue creating software the way they wish the software world to be. If it doesn't feel familiar to the user, it is the user's responsibility to familiarize himself with the developer's style and preferences. Windows never had that attitude, but said: To make the user feel at home, you should do it this way, do it so and such!

"the majority of desktop use cases these days are centered on the web browser". While that may be argued: If it was the case, who cares about which OS runs the browser? Run the same browser on any OS, and it appears the same to the user. What would then be the argument for replacing the underlaying OS, if the user won't notice anyway?

Today, there is a second reason - another one that the Linux open source community won't like: As soon as you step outside of software development, a large proportion of advanced applications are rather mediocre. Office tools? Half-done attempts at cloning competitors, with no clue about why this and that solution was chosen, won't cut it. Photo editing? To do it well, you must know the tasks as a photographer, not as a programmer. Sound and music editing? Just the same. Document editing? The same. Even if you go to hobbyist software like genealogy: If you have never actually traced your ancestry back to a single forefather that none of your living relatives knew about, you are missing an essential qualification for making a genealogy program. To really push it: You can't even make a program for managing an archive of cooking recipes in a functional way unless you have significant kitchen experience.

As a software developer, I have been using Linux (and earlier: various other *nix-es) at work, and seen high quality tools for software development. At home or in most non-SW-dev-environments: Sorry. The applications from the open-source community are much to obviously created by outsiders who do not know the real tasks and issues. The tools "don't feel right in the hand", even when they have all the functional check boxes checked. Those (few) that cut it are developed in professional application environments, usually far off from idealistic open-source activists.

An essential reason why Windows have retained desktop hegemony: Hadn't MS developed VS, Windows would have been dead today. VS has allowed developers to bring professionals into the software design process, and to some degree allowed professionals to take control over the software design process. Non-programmer professionals have, in the general case, had a much higher influence on and control over successful (non-SW-development) applications, compared to idealistic open source projects based on Linux.

If you switch to Linux, interoperability with other users/environments is always risky. Converting old media projects to Linux tools may be difficult, may be impossible. Moving document bases may discover a lot of quirks. You may frown upon 'legacy', but it is a reality. It is not sufficient to provide some tool with all boxes checked, it must both "feel good in the hand" and the benefits must, in a reasonable time frame, exceed the cost of legacy handling.

Outside the area of software development, this is on the most part not satisfied for any of my non-professional activities. I have tried to run dual setups at home, with Linux for my hobbyist programming. The advantages of Linux tools over VS, and the "advantages" Laugh | :laugh: of C++ over C# has never been enough to keep the home Linux installation running for very long before I realize that for home projects, I never prefer it. Just like two years ago, five years ago and ten years ago.

None of this is related to the choice of a distro. Even with a "perfect" distro, the problems of Linux remains.
GeneralRe: Why don't more people use desktop Linux? I have a theory you might not like Pin
obermd9-Aug-23 4:13
obermd9-Aug-23 4:13 
NewsNew Inception attack leaks secrets from all AMD Zen CPUs Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:16
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 7:16 
GeneralRe: New Inception attack leaks secrets from all AMD Zen CPUs Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 8:00
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 8:00 
NewsNow you can block OpenAI’s web crawler Pin
Kent Sharkey8-Aug-23 6:46
staffKent Sharkey8-Aug-23 6:46 
GeneralRe: Now you can block OpenAI’s web crawler Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 7:59
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 7:59 
NewsStackOverFlow says no to Chats Pin
BillWoodruff8-Aug-23 5:24
professionalBillWoodruff8-Aug-23 5:24 
GeneralRe: StackOverFlow says no to Chats Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 5:49
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 5:49 
GeneralRe: StackOverFlow says no to Chats Pin
Mike Hankey8-Aug-23 7:47
mveMike Hankey8-Aug-23 7:47 
GeneralRe: StackOverFlow says no to Chats Pin
obermd9-Aug-23 4:13
obermd9-Aug-23 4:13 
NewsChatGPT's odds of getting code questions correct are worse than a coin flip Pin
Graeme_Grant8-Aug-23 2:10
mvaGraeme_Grant8-Aug-23 2:10 
GeneralRe: ChatGPT's odds of getting code questions correct are worse than a coin flip Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 5:47
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 5:47 
NewsDARPA and NASA Aim to test nuclear rocket by 2026 Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31
staffKent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31 
GeneralRe: DARPA and NASA Aim to test nuclear rocket by 2026 Pin
Andre Oosthuizen7-Aug-23 23:37
mveAndre Oosthuizen7-Aug-23 23:37 
GeneralRe: DARPA and NASA Aim to test nuclear rocket by 2026 Pin
Nelek8-Aug-23 5:44
protectorNelek8-Aug-23 5:44 
NewsGoogle Search now has an AI-powered grammar checker Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31
staffKent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31 
GeneralRe: Google Search now has an AI-powered grammar checker Pin
Andre Oosthuizen7-Aug-23 23:39
mveAndre Oosthuizen7-Aug-23 23:39 
NewsMicrosoft drops support for dozens of Intel processors in latest Windows 11 system requirements update Pin
Kent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31
staffKent Sharkey7-Aug-23 8:31 

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