The Windows OS Thread - Formerly THE OS for gamers and normies, now sadly ruined by Pajeets

Valve's contributed very little.
In terms of the one part that every other company you've mentioned didn't cared about, which is gaming, they've contributed a ton. It's a good example of how Linux wouldn't ever go anywhere as a software kibbutz and that without corporate interest it's a toy.

When Valve wasn't interested in Linux, gaming on Linux was trash, and it was the one argument against Linux. When Valve got interested in Linux, they invested a lot of time and money into making it possible, and now it's becoming a viable option for gaming. But without Valve, it would still be garbage.

Linux is only good when there is a corporate incentive to make it good. When that's not there, it's a half-assed barely working shitheap of an OS. Just look at the recent KDE debacle where a theme could wipe your OS because it had root privileges. This is what happens with projects from software kibbutz's.
foss project.png
This image will forever remain accurate. You want your OS to actually take over Windows? Stop treating it like a kibbutz, treat it like a corporate project. I'd love for it to be a viable alternative, but as long as it's treated like a communist utopia it's never going to happen.
 
In terms of the one part that every other company you've mentioned didn't cared about, which is gaming, they've contributed a ton. It's a good example of how Linux wouldn't ever go anywhere as a software kibbutz and that without corporate interest it's a toy.

I know what you're getting at, but Valve has actually contributed very little to Linux itself--their preferred distro, is a rolling disaster of broken updates that Valve certainly hasn't made any better. They've worked hard at getting their software to run on Linux, but so have a lot of other commercial software companies.

I brought up the companies I did because without them, Linux would really not even be a particularly functional operating system for Valve to put Steam on to begin with. It would be a shambling mess that only offered basic functionality. Look at how much everyone bitches about NVIDIA not open-sourcing their drivers - because if NVIDIA won't directly contribute, the toejam-eaters are incapable of supporting NVIDIA GPUs themselves. In general, if a hardware company chooses not to contribute to Linux, you're unlikely to get their hardware working beyond stuff that conforms to open standards, like a USB mouse or something. That's what BeOS and FreeBSD are like.
 
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It's what the thread subverting KF Linux troon doesn't want to hear the most. It's not Linux that'll gain from Windows losing market share, it's Mac. 99% of Windows users just want something that works. Linux doesn't work.

You can't expect a normal person to wrap their head around which distro, DE, window server, init system and whatever the fuck to choose, you can't expect them to deal with the command line every time something doesn't work. Linux doesn't work, you average Windows user wants something that works. And what works? Mac. Your average Windows user would rather get a Mac Mini, and this is the real marker share shift that will happen. The Windows users that know how to tard wrangle it are as much of a minority as Linux users. They will most likely flock to Mac too. And when everyone flocks to Mac, there's no incentive in making Linux a good alternative to Windows.

The only reason Linux is what it is today is corporate incentive. If not for Valve's incentive, gaming on Linux would still be a nightmare. If not for just about every large corpo, Linux would forever remain a hobbyist project of some Finnish nerd. All the bullshit about community-made software, free as in freedom and all the fairy tales Linux cultists believe in are bullshit. Without corporations, Linux would be like GNU Hurd. It would be complete and utter shit. Linux users owe their OS to the very corporations they so deeply despise, but they're too blind to see that.
You're fixating too much on having to use one OS when different OSes have different use cases. Windows is designed for desktops first and foremost, and it is a largely functional system in that department. Try using it for certain use-cases like containers and it would be complete and utter shit.

Linux does not cater to the layman and that's OK. Not everyone should switch to it as their primary OS. If you are interested in what it has to offer there is alot of good - it still isn't for everyone. The more technical and interchangeable nature of Linux can make it much easier to find specific issues and isolate the cause. Questions related to Windows are typically bloated with poor explanations and guides that are allergic to the cli because it needs to accommodate less technical users.

Conversely, Windows is much more accommodating of the average person. Someone who makes PowerPoint presentations and edits Word documents does not interact with their operating system beyond a basic level - they interact with individual pieces of software, and that software is available on Windows. No amount of technical benefits on Linux will change that, and they do not care.

Choose the right OS for the job just like any other tool. If you have any investment in the server space I'd definitely recommend giving Linux a try - it's the king in that space for a reason. However, if you just want a traditional desktop experience it's probably not the right choice. It's a huge change in philosophy and shouldn't be misrepresented otherwise. It's a great learning experience and features like tiling window managers can be really cool - but it only accommodates certain workflows and takes extra investment.
 
It's a toss up whether to ask this in the Linux thread or the Windows one but I think this one is marginally a better fit.

I have various Linux VMs running in Hyper-V with GUIs and I access them by installing RDP services on them and accessing via RDP client on the Windows host. I could use the "Connect" function built into Hyper-V but that yields a tiny cramped little window. I cannot (easily) just use WSL or Docker containers for this purpose because my need for them is to do with separate networking connectivity than the host. Though I have toyed with trying to figure out a Docker approach to it.

My issue is that whilst this works, the GUI response is painfully slow. I presume because it doesn't have GPU access though I do have the connection going out to the router via the guests own router-allocated local network IP so it's introducing a couple of unnecessary hops. I looked into doing pass-thru from the guest (Xubuntu though I'm not tied to it) to the host for GPU access but I only have the one GPU on the host and partitioning GPU resources seems a nightmare of complexity and I'm not sure is even possible in this scenario. To give you some idea of the GUI response, when I type as a moderately competent touch-typist, words repeatedly lag behind until it reaches the point I have to stop and watch it for several seconds before the words catch up. Really interrupts my flow to the point that I'm now typing things in Notepad on the host and copy-pasting them into the guest.

I haven't tried VNC which I could do as a last resort though I suspect if anything that would be worse. I did try to set up a second virtual port to connect to the guest from the host via RDP without going via the router to eliminate that as a factor but I ran into difficulties. At the moment the best I've managed is to constrain the RDP session to be a smaller resolution (2048x1536) which gives me a rather small window on my monitor. It's annoying.

I'm looking for any suggestions. If there's an issue I might have missed, if there's something better than RDP I can use? Whatever. I'm not even sure RDP is the problem as for something like typing in a text box I would hope the RDP protocal is merely sending the changes which for this should be very small. So it might just be the lack of GPU. Seems rather pathetic, though.

This is a growing frustration for me which is to the point I'm going to have to abandon this approach. I'm almost figuring I'll have to switch the OSs around and have Linux as the host and Windows in a guest - which I really don't want to do for a variety of reasons.
 
Connect" function built into Hyper-V but that yields a tiny cramped little window
Maybe use scaling? I'm assuming your main display is a 4k or retina monitor so when hyper-v shows a 1080p signal it's tiny. I don't think you need a high definition display size for remote hosts, I usually find 900p to be fine, as 2048x1536 is high enough that if you don't give the client enough video resources it'll struggle even when displaying directly, and the video stream gets heavier the higher the resolution is.
 
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Maybe use scaling? I'm assuming your main display is a 4k or retina monitor so when hyper-v shows a 1080p signal it's tiny. I don't think you need a high definition display size for remote hosts, I usually find 900p to be fine, as 2048x1536 is high enough that if you don't give the client enough video resources it'll struggle even when displaying directly, and the video stream gets heavier the higher the resolution is.
Interesting and thanks. I'll give that a try shortly. My display is actually more than 4K, I use it for professional reasons and yes, that is huge. If I connect to the same VM from a laptop which is 1536x1024 then there is almost no lag on typing. So I don't think much of the issue is the network. I think it is the GPU-less VM struggling to keep up with the resolution it is asked for. Whether that is RDP or the VM itself, I don't know.

I'll see how your suggestion works. Although I think that will still mean I have a square 'monitor' which will be weird.
 
I'll see how your suggestion works. Although I think that will still mean I have a square 'monitor' which will be weird
You should have multiple resolutions to choose from within the client is, there should be plenty of widescreen options, and most OSs will let you set custom resolutions but that's a bit more involved and the methods is specific to each os
 
You should have multiple resolutions to choose from within the client is, there should be plenty of widescreen options, and most OSs will let you set custom resolutions but that's a bit more involved and the methods is specific to each os
There are and I lower it substantially. But even at a significantly lower resolution it still lags badly enough that typing becomes painful and it also leads to the RDP client just being one more window whilst I would far prefer a full screen experience.
 
Windows has been nagging me to change from Mail to New Outlook, and let me tell you, New Outlook is a real piece of shit.
  • Can't automatically detect email settings from anything other than Gmail and the like
  • Can't edit IMAP settings after creating an account
  • Sometimes just kinda fails to update the Inbox
  • Anything other than mainstream shit is hidden, have to fail setup first to access Advanced Options
  • Setup windows cannot be moved, so if you have your IMAP/POP3 info behind Outlook, you'll need to start from the beginning.
Good job, Pajeets!
 
Windows has been nagging me to change from Mail to New Outlook, and let me tell you, New Outlook is a real piece of shit.
  • Can't automatically detect email settings from anything other than Gmail and the like
  • Can't edit IMAP settings after creating an account
  • Sometimes just kinda fails to update the Inbox
  • Anything other than mainstream shit is hidden, have to fail setup first to access Advanced Options
  • Setup windows cannot be moved, so if you have your IMAP/POP3 info behind Outlook, you'll need to start from the beginning.
Good job, Pajeets!
It's sad to say but I think I honestly prefer Thunderbird to Outlook. Outlook has a lot of good stuff about it but so much baggage. Try something as simple as storing your email folders in a non-default location. Sure you can battle your way though interfaces from the XP days and counter-intuitive menu options, well done you - now try it with an IMAP folder for the backups.

Really needs a ground-up replacement. Something simpler and more robust and focused on its core purpose.
 
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It's sad to say but I think I honestly prefer Thunderbird to Outlook. Outlook has a lot of good stuff about it but so much baggage. Try something as simple as storing your email folders in a non-default location. Sure you can battle your way though interfaces from the XP days and counter-intuitive menu options, well done you - now try it with an IMAP folder for the backups.

I have been using Thunderbird for years. It is a pretty solid program and it also can be used to subscribe to RSS feeds.

Really needs a ground-up replacement. Something simpler and more robust and focused on its core purpose.

Isn't that what New Outlook supposed to be? A webapp that replaces both the original outlook and the UWP mail app? Atleast that's what i remember hearing years ago when the first build leaked.
 
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Windows has been nagging me to change from Mail to New Outlook, and let me tell you, New Outlook is a real piece of shit.
  • Can't automatically detect email settings from anything other than Gmail and the like
  • Can't edit IMAP settings after creating an account
  • Sometimes just kinda fails to update the Inbox
  • Anything other than mainstream shit is hidden, have to fail setup first to access Advanced Options
  • Setup windows cannot be moved, so if you have your IMAP/POP3 info behind Outlook, you'll need to start from the beginning.
Good job, Pajeets!
I've been using Thunderbird since forever. There's also this project, Betterbird, that adds some features and tweaks to Thunderbird that aren't in the upstream. It's more of a PITA to update since it doesn't have the same updater system, but all things considered it's a nice upgrade.
 
Linux is only good when there is a corporate incentive to make it good.
To be fair, it greately depends on which company has interest in supporting the product. If you see how RedHat employees act in front of valid criticism you would re-evaluate your argument: just look at what GNOME/GTK has become and then look at Wayland. They do have a company that pays their employees and yet the three afromentioned software pieces are dogshit. Personally I learned that as long as you get your stuff done, it should not matter what OS you decide to use, period.
Look at how much everyone bitches about NVIDIA not open-sourcing their drivers
I can assure you that the only people that bitch about Nvidia not open sourcing their drivers are probably the same FOSS evangelists that secretely use Steam on Linux or Windows but they don't tell you because Stallman says so.
Most Linux users that I've encountered in online spaces don't care about NVIDIA not open sourcing their shit. Wait until most people learn that Linux requires/loads firmware blobs to make hardware work.
 
I've been using Thunderbird since forever. There's also this project, Betterbird, that adds some features and tweaks to Thunderbird that aren't in the upstream. It's more of a PITA to update since it doesn't have the same updater system, but all things considered it's a nice upgrade.
Just use WingetUI to keep it up to date.
 
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Conversely, Windows is much more accommodating of the average person. Someone who makes PowerPoint presentations and edits Word documents does not interact with their operating system beyond a basic level - they interact with individual pieces of software, and that software is available on Windows. No amount of technical benefits on Linux will change that, and they do not care.
you might as well use linux in that case. if the user is that detached from the operating system it literally makes no difference since he won't know what makes linux "linux" (or windows etc.). this is even made worse by microsoft intentionally fucking with the user experience constantly, so the "it just werks" or "that's what I'm used to" has zero merit even on windows. meanwhile you can still run gnome 2 if you want (or mate at least).
 
you might as well use linux in that case
meanwhile you can still run gnome 2 if you want (or mate at least).
Tell me, in which parallel world you're living in do you expect the average person to install an outdated DE and go though God knows how many other hoops to switch to Linux just because they've been mildly inconvenienced with Windows 11's UI/UX changes while everything else under it works exactly the same that it worked for the past ten to twenty years they've been using Windows?
 
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