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@Naich @ardi60 Totally agree.
I mean, Windows is just such a weird proprietary distro.
It doesn't use the latest Linux kernel, or even a mainstream POSIX-compliant alternative like BSD. Instead, you have a strange CP/M-like monolithic kernel — I think they used to call it DOS — that's been extended to behave more like VAX and MP/M.
It also doesn't use either X11 or Wayland as a display manager. Instead, you have an incredibly unintuitive overblown WINE-like subsystem handling the display.
Because it doesn't natively use Wayland or X11, you are limited in the desktop environments that you can use. There's really limited support for KDE, despite the best efforts of volunteers.
Instead, there's a buggy and error-prone proprietary window manager that ships with it by default. A bit like how Canonical tried to make Unity the default desktop for Ubuntu.
And confusingly, they've named that window manager Windows as well!
That window manager lacks many of the features an everyday Gnome or KDE user would expect out of the box.
It also doesn't ship with a standard package manager, and most of the packages ship as x86 binaries, so installing software works differently to how an everyday Linux user would expect.
There's also only one company maintaining all of these projects. It insists on closed source, and it has a long history of abandoning its projects.
And sure, if you're a nerd who's into alternative operating systems, toying with Windows can be fun.
But if your grandpa is used to Linux, frankly he'll be utterly bamboozled by the Windows experience.
I'm sorry to be glib, because Windows does have some nice ideas.
But.
Windows on the desktop just isn't ready for your average, everyday Linux user.
#Linux #Windows #PC #OpenSource #GNU #GNULinux #BSD #FreeBSD #Microsoft #KDE #Gnome #Ubuntu #GPL #LinusTrovalds #Linus #BillGates #OperatingSystem #DesktopLinux #POSIX #UNIX #Distro
@ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60 And if you thought that was confusing, the same company also makes a “Windows Subsystem for Linux” but appears to have got the name backwards — it’s not FOR Linux, at all!
@whophd @ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60
I've wondered about the history of the naming before [1], anyone knows why they shortened the subsystem name when they moved from UNIX to Linux?
[1] https://social.sdf.org/@njsg/112036879129063493
#Windows #Interix
@njsg @ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60 https://ioc.exchange/@whophd/112250340170877759
@ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60 Windows is quite flaky, with some rather poor suspend support, but word is that it'll be ready for the desktop any decade now.
@ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60
🥥 Brava, AJ!
Thank YOU so much for these pointed and perceptive observations on the Windows operating system vs open source, such as Linux. 🥥
@ajsadauskas @Naich @ardi60 I have been forced to use windows in various consulting roles. The assumption that you can do efficient dev work using wsl is not valid. As I see it the main reason employees are forced to use windows is because of the ecosystem. So much is ‘controlled’ by group policy in AD. I increasingly find myself using the webui for teams and outlook, so why would you need a windows desktop at all?
I agree with every single bit of this but felt like I was being attacked the whole time I read it. Maybe it's PTSD from asking questions in Linux forums as a kid and getting ripped into with long replies. Does anybody else feel that way?