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comment by bhrgunatha
bhrgunatha  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Microsoft makes final, aggressive Windows 10 upgrade push

How can they get away with forcing an OS upgrade onto someone's computer?

I'm just about to buy a new desktop which I'll completely wipe free of Windows.

Once that's done I can copy the VMs I use for work onto a freshly installed OS

Next step is to remove Windows from my work laptop and upgrade that too.

I'm never going back to Windows as my main OS.

PSA: GRC make a utility to configure Windows to NOT upgrade.





OftenBen  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    How can they get away with forcing an OS upgrade onto someone's computer?

Fine Print. A user agrees to all kinds of things when they agree to use software.

When you sign the iTunes user agreement you agree to not use it to develop biochemical weapons, as an example.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Just to expand on it: consider looking around for a computer without preinstalled system or one with some of the *buntu flavours. No need to pay for a licence on something that you are not going to use. I don't know where are you from exactly, but it's quite doable to get pristine computers like that in Europe.

Of course if you would waste more time looking for one than it would cost you to buy one with Windows, consider my post as non-existent ;). I'm assuming that someone who fancies Arch is savvy enough in these matters.

bhrgunatha  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

My friends owns a shop that supplies businesses with desktops, so I'll get a good price on a package. The only other option is to build from scratch. My desktop is 8 years old and someone helped me source the parts and put it together. I just don't have the time, patience or inclination to do that this time. I'm getting lazy ;)

kleinbl00  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

If you can do your work on Xnix you're either a coder or you aren't doing real work.

There isn't a decent word processor, graphics program, audio editor or video editor with any compatibility whatsoever in the land of Xnix. This is why its penetration remains abysmal for all but hobbyists and coders.

bhrgunatha  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    or you aren't doing real work.

Depends on the work doesn't it? Hosting, embedded systems, hardware devices, control systems...

But you're right I'm a developer and not even on Linux - like I said my work is using a pile of crusty VMs running Windows.

But haven't you heard of GIMP ?? ;)

kleinbl00  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    But haven't you heard of GIMP ??

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tastyfruit  ·  3097 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    There isn't a decent word processor,

What's wrong with Google Docs or Libreoffice?

kleinbl00  ·  3097 days ago  ·  link  ·  

They can't format worth a shit.

If all you need is words on paper, you can use TextEdit. But if you need footnotes, captioned illustrations, columns and an index, Google Docs or Libreoffice will never get you there.

user-inactivated  ·  3097 days ago  ·  link  ·  

LibreOffice still fucks up embedded images.

goobster  ·  3097 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Seriously? Have you ever tried to produce a professional looking document in either of those apps?

The last company I contracted with was a Google-for-Work office, and every tool we used was produced by Google. Page numbers, footers, images inline with text (like graphs), images with annotations, formatting options, tables of content, indices... Your final document looks like a third grader put it together for her "social studies" class, or something.

I'm not familiar with you, your history, etc, but I work as a writer. It's my job. And while GoogleDocs is fine for brainstorming, collaboration, editing, etc, you cannot seriously use it for final, print quality, documents.

user-inactivated  ·  3097 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Ms Office is something like $400 a license, and we won't pay that. We are looking for alternatives, and Google was one of the options. Be bought a package and gave it to a power user to play with for a month before she gave up.

Say what you will about MS, Office is great.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Office - Libre/Open Office, LaTeX environment?

Video/audio editing - KDEnLive, Audacity (neither is my area of interest though)

Any programming IDE aside of the Visual Studio? Don't know much about others but it's likely not as abysmal as you might think.

Plus I'm a seventeen year old maths and physics student, what kind of work that requires stuff other than:

- Networking tools

- Text Editor

- Compiler / IDE

- Web Browser

- PDF/DVI/PS/DJVU/Oter reader

- Data processing tools that are more capable than Excel

should I be doing? By your logic 'real job' is being some sort of artist or designer. Keep with Mac or WIndows, but keep in mind that you (might) have an outdated view of things. Bit closed-minded to boot. Ten years ago no-one expected games or proprietary GPU drivers on Xnix, now they are getting more and more spotlight. Even Microsoft starts to go Open Source and released a lot of C# backend.

blackfox026  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    Video/audio editing - KDEnLive, Audacity (neither is my area of interest though)

the difference between Audacity and Ableton Live is similar to the difference between Notepad and Microsoft Word

kleinbl00  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

And the difference between Pro Tools and Ableton Live is such that it cannot fit within this metaphor.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Good to know. How does it compare to something like Bitwig? I have been doing some googling in the meantime and it seems like an Ubuntu-compatible alternative for Ableton Live. Got any experience?

By the way, I do want to stress that I was never really interested in audio/video editing. Until last week I didn't even needed something as simple as audacity.

iammyownrushmore  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Have you used LaTeX?? You have to have, and I really don't understand how you're even remotely including that as a replacement word processor.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Not word processor, but general formatting utility. I guess you are right, that's like adding HTML along because in the end it shows formatted output. My mistake.

iammyownrushmore  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Was partially curious if you maybe knew of a way to expedite it cause I foolishly decided to format my resume and CV in LaTeX, and, while it looks pretty, I am definitely feeling buyer's remorse :/

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I can give it a look if you want. I do have some background with LaTeX, but I am uncertain what do you want from me here. What tools were/are you using? The more you can tell me about both tools and your background with LaTeX the better.

By the way, if you don't want to deal with syntactical matters I can actually recommend Lyx. It offers a lot in terms of pre-made templates and you can use it to get quite a lot of power from the language without knowing a word in it. It's actually pretty close to actual word processors in that sense.

iammyownrushmore  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Haha, don't worry I don't want anything. I was just curious if you were going to hit me with some package that completely transformed it's usage or something that I was ignorant of. But in the end it's still LaTeX :)

I'll check out LyX though, but I'm definitely gunning for slighter learning curves these days.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No problem. If you would change your mind or have some more questions then don't hesitate. But it's not really just about this or that package. They add functionality but don't really transform it into something else. That would be almost like expecting C to change into Python after adding a library ;).

That aside, I have discovered Scribus recently and it feels a bit better to deliver some of the more complex designs. I'm in a similar position to you, only maybe a bit farther on the curve: I wish I knew how to make LaTeX do some of this stuff :P.

kleinbl00  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

As a professional who works in occupations that make money, you have listed a long list of toys.

In two hours I meet with an IT company to discuss the installation of a multi-head IP phone system. In two hours you go to bed. This is the problem with the Linux converts - you take the "I don't do what you do, but I've heard of this program called Audacity that appears to do audio, therefore your argument is invalid" approach and all it does is make you look foolish.

Devac  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    As a professional who works in occupations that make money, you have listed a long list of toys.

As someone who someday hopes to get a job in research, sure. Let's return to it in two or four years when I will at least have an option to work without parental consent.

    In two hours you go to bed.

Nope. It would be ~20:00 here, plus I have to prepare for my exams and classes. I don't really appreciate your attitude, but I can get what you wanted to convey with this. I'm a kid. Likely at least one third of your age? Got it.

    This is the problem with the Linux converts

I am not a convert. I never had any system other than Linux. It's not a boast nor point of pride, just a fact. My parents were using some Windows before I was even alive, my father was using linux at the university and other jobs he held. Mother is not particularly computer savvy, but I think she has some Apple desktop.

But it is another preconceived notion that you have applied to me. We have different needs and goals. We did not start in the same place in life. Just as with our smartphone discussion: I might have stated something too strongly or missed the point, but that does not mean I will never see the fault in Linux. However, on my side, it does all what I need. You want audio/video stuff, I want a system with package manager and easy to setup and use my tools. Or 'toys', whatever suits you.

I do respect both you and your opinions, but you seem to be very quick to judge while having little data. Wisdom and experience, no matter how vast, does not make you impervious to making mistakes about others. You should know it by now.

kleinbl00  ·  3109 days ago  ·  link  ·  

No, I just know that your fundamental attitude is "if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for everyone" and you won't listen to reason until someone steps up and calls you on your bullshit.