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

[Baraka Obama]

Bugs, bugs, and more bugs, Linux DE world is a trash fire of bugs and workarounds

I use MacOS every day and the number of retarded bugs I see every day in MacOS (try using the SMB client), and not just bugs but design flaws that make me want to tear my hair out (Finder reading the wrong view settings from a .DS_Store file littered somewhere by some other Mac).

I'd honestly argue my critical path Linux use, XFCE on Devuan, has less bugs than I regularly run into with MacOS. It's a bit naive to say it's wholly ideological, for most cases I'd expect it's also a way to have more control over your computer in a world where both Windows and MacOS are actively degrading with each new update.

 

[Computer Guardian]

The main reason to use a Linux DE is always ideological (like you're morally opposed to closed-source software or something), and any argument for using Linux always devolves into the evangelist admitting that it sucks shit, but it's worth dealing with all the ways it sucks because then you get to say you use Linux.

This is extra funny when one of the "best distros" is SteamOS, owned by Valve, a big corporation and open sourced most of the stuff used in SteamOS is only open source ethier because they just took already existing open source stuff, or absolutely had to because they were forking off another open source project like Wine being forked into Proton, so they're literally trading one proprietary master for another one that "isn't as bad" when they're just doing a better job at hiding it.

 

[the rat]

This is extra funny when one of the "best distros" is SteamOS, owned by Valve, a big corporation and open sourced most of the stuff used in SteamOS is only open source ethier because they just took already existing open source stuff, or absolutely had to because they were forking off another open source project like Wine being forked into Proton, so they're literally trading one proprietary master for another one that "isn't as bad" when they're just doing a better job at hiding it.

"SteamOS is the best!!!!!!!!"

It's just a well configured Arch installation for the Steam Deck with KDE, proton and steam with big picture mode enabled while using a custom compositor all pre-installed.

 

[The Ugly One]

"I'm sick of mandatory updates and 15-year-old hardware being unsupported; I'm switching to SteamOS."

Yeah, about that...

One of the games that supposedly doesn't work in Windows, but works fine in Wine under Linux, is Dungeon Siege. When I read that, I found my old DS CD that I've inexplicably kept for a quarter of a century, put it in a USB drive, ran the installer and...

...

...it just worked. I played it from beginning to end. It was fine.

 

[geckogoy]

"I'm sick of mandatory updates and 15-year-old hardware being unsupported; I'm switching to SteamOS."

Yeah, about that...

One of the games that supposedly doesn't work in Windows, but works fine in Wine under Linux, is Dungeon Siege. When I read that, I found my old DS CD that I've inexplicably kept for a quarter of a century, put it in a USB drive, ran the installer and...

...

...it just worked. I played it from beginning to end. It was fine.

People seriously underestimate wine backwards compatibility, especially for older stuff

Everyone says windows is the king of that but they are actually rather bad at it particularly in comparison

 

[Moist Boys]

Between Proton and DOSBox, I haven't needed run old versions of Windows to play games. I saw something anecdotally that Proton runs 90% of Windows games if you don't play kernel level anti-cheat online trash.

Windows 11 compatibility mode is pretty terrible for older software. It's surprising because they have all the source code to make it work.

 

[Jang Joo]

Not as good as windows 8

That's a sentence

 

[Curry Teafag]

Windows 11 compatibility mode is pretty terrible for older software. It's surprising because they have all the source code to make it work.

One might want to use 32-bit Windows 10, IoT LTSC being supported until January 2032 just like the 64-bit version, but the 'newest' 32-bit drivers are often terribly outdated, like NVidia's 391 from 2018.

That's a sentence

It's an ellipsis.

 

[The Ugly One]

Between Proton and DOSBox,

DOSBox is an emulator that is available for Windows as well.

I haven't needed run old versions of Windows to play games. I saw something anecdotally that Proton runs 90% of Windows games if you don't play kernel level anti-cheat online trash.

"1 in 10 games don't work, and among those 1 in 10 games are all the biggest games of the year" is pretty poor compatibility.

Windows 11 compatibility mode is pretty terrible for older software. It's surprising because they have all the source code to make it work.

Works on my machine. I keep hearing it doesn't work, and yet I can't ever seem to make it not work.

 

[Tremolo]

That's a sentence

Win 8 sucked but had novelty, of any shitty old OS I can see why it has some diehards (it and the Lumia series, which weren't even bad really)

 

[Curry Teafag]

After the 8.1 patch, Win 8 never gave me any issues I would remember. It always booted reliably, I could configure everything to my liking. Retards couldn't handle it, but then they can't handle any OS.

 

[Slav Power]

One might want to use 32-bit Windows 10

Wholly unnecessary honestly. For old, old software you'll be better off with emulators like DOSBox-X or 86Box, I believe both support COM passthrough if you need to use some antiquated software for antiquated hardware. As for games, which is apparently all that Windows is for given how much the Linux people tout Valve securing their own business as some grand victory over Microsoft, you have heaps of wrappers to fill in the compatibility blanks. DxWrapper, dgVoodoo, DxWnd, you can even use DXVK which is the sole reason Linux gaming is something to parade around since it's just native Win32/64 binaries that work just as well in a Windows environment. And it's not like Linux has it better when it comes to setting up those old games for compatibility, the only reason it's "better" is because Lutris comes pre-packaged with all the tweaks, but that does not mean that it's something Windows can't do no matter how much Linux people lie by omission.

 

[Curry Teafag]

If you have a surplus system, actual DOS may be even better for retro stuff. It may run faster than DOSBox. Depends on a lot of details, of course.

 

[The Ugly One]

Wholly unnecessary honestly. For old, old software you'll be better off with emulators like DOSBox-X or 86Box, I believe both support COM passthrough if you need to use some antiquated software for antiquated hardware. As for games, which is apparently all that Windows is for given how much the Linux people tout Valve securing their own business as some grand victory over Microsoft, you have heaps of wrappers to fill in the compatibility blanks. DxWrapper, dgVoodoo, DxWnd, you can even use DXVK which is the sole reason Linux gaming is something to parade around since it's just native Win32/64 binaries that work just as well in a Windows environment. And it's not like Linux has it better when it comes to setting up those old games for compatibility, the only reason it's "better" is because Lutris comes pre-packaged with all the tweaks, but that does not mean that it's something Windows can't do no matter how much Linux people lie by omission.

Linux people seem to unironically think that DOS emulators and 3Dfx wrappers aren't available on Windows.

 

[Baraka Obama]

If you have a surplus system, actual DOS may be even better for retro stuff. It may run faster than DOSBox. Depends on a lot of details, of course.

DOSBox is very good but running real hardware scratches an itch you didn't even know you had. Even a Windows 98 box with a good sound card and a CRT monitor makes playing DOS games really special.

 

[Curry Teafag]

DOSBox is very good but running real hardware scratches an itch you didn't even know you had. Even a Windows 98 box with a good sound card and a CRT monitor makes playing DOS games really special.

I got stuff running using SB emulation and a few GPU tweaks under FreeDOS on a 2nd-gen Ryzen and a GTX 1070. The SB emulator will run on stuff like Intel HDA and similar.

 

[Overly Serious]

I use DiskGenius in Windows proper and Clonezilla for general use. It fits my needs, so YMMV based on features you require.

Macrium Reflect running in a Windows RE I boot into.

Thanks both. I'm evaluating now. I've also come across Acronis which seems viable. I need to be able to encrypt the backups.

Are you aware of Windows 10/ Windows 11 Tablet Mode?
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Not as good as windows 8, but it has similar use cases.

I used to have it on Windows 10. It wasn't quite as nice as proper Windows 8. Unfortunately so far as I know there's not a setting to turn it on in Windows 11 the way there was in Windows 10. So far as I know it depends on having a touch device and detaching the keyboard.

It's not the worst for me particularly because, like @Slav Power comments, real men just type what they want and it appears (though apparently not for @jeff7989 for some reason).

My favorite is when people are told "switch to Linux, that fixes it" when they are mad that some favorite game or app dropped support for some 10-year-old version of Windows when most commercial Linux applications won't work if your Linux is more than maybe one major release out of date.

I'll do you one better. My favourite is when some poor older parents get Linux foisted on them by their kid because "Linux wont go wrong". Not only does it go wrong, but the poor parents struggle to use it even when it's working.

Pity the parents whose children get into Linux evangelism when the poor silver-haired dears just want to know how to Skype their grandkids.

 

[Curry Teafag]

I'll do you one better. My favourite is when some poor older parents get Linux foisted on them by their kid because "Linux wont go wrong". Not only does it go wrong, but the poor parents struggle to use it even when it's working.

Pity the parents whose children get into Linux evangelism when the poor silver-haired dears just want to know how to Skype their grandkids.

Doesn't matter which OS your parents use, you need to make sure you can remotely admin it to be able to help them.

 

[The Ugly One]

Everyone says windows is the king of that but they are actually rather bad at it particularly in comparison

• 684 games on this list don't work with Wine, that's a full 60% of the 1,136 games that use anti-cheat:
  
  https://areweanticheatyet.com/table/2/?search=&sortOrder=&sortBy=
• On WineDB, there are 16,450 applications. 3,187 apps have a "Bronze" rating, meaning they have significant outstanding bugs, and 5,326 work with a "garbage" rating, meaning they aren't usable. That's nearly half the total applications in the DB.

Anyone who claims Wine is better at running Windows apps than Windows is simply making things up.

 

[geckogoy]

• 684 games on this list don't work with Wine, that's a full 60% of the 1,136 games that use anti-cheat:
  
  https://areweanticheatyet.com/table/2/?search=&sortOrder=&sortBy=
• On WineDB, there are 16,450 applications. 3,187 apps have a "Bronze" rating, meaning they have significant outstanding bugs, and 5,326 work with a "garbage" rating, meaning they aren't usable. That's nearly half the total applications in the DB.

Anyone who claims Wine is better at running Windows apps than Windows is simply making things up.

Insofar as the conversation was backwards compatibility, having to resort to kernel level anti cheat to get a decent list of incompatible games is pretty pathetic.

Anyhow, semi often stuff from the 2000s and 90s doesn't work on windows anymore but does on wine