this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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I have had to spend so much more time thinking about drivers on Windows than on Linux it's not even funny
I don't know how Linux users are using Windows but whenever I see comments like these I'm surprised they aren't using OSX or a tablet instead of a computer by now because they clearly don't know what they're doing...
The problem is maintaining the os. Installing the drivers on windows is usually fine. Maintaining them is frustrating, because of how updates has to be done, and the dirty uninstall process, and the issues.
On many Linux distro it doesn't work perfectly, but maintenance is so trivial that people become used to it. And going back to a high maintenance OS is annoying. Like going back from a modern EV to ford model T. Some people like the experience of going back in time to the mid 90s with Windows, other prefer the simplicity of maintaining a Linux OS
I dont get it, can you provide some examples please? I installed windows 10 like 2 years ago on my “new” laptop. I have installed all drivers from my external hardrive. Since then I havent done anything related to drivers ever. If I plug something in, like an external screen, controller, mouse, headphones whatever, it installs itself automatically and just works. I havent done any maintenance either, except I will dust it off every other month or so. And thats pretty much the same with every PC I ever owned. What OS maintenance am I supposed to be doing? I sometimes do registry cleanup and disk defrags, but I thinks those are just placebos :D
There no real control of what and how you installed stuff. This create long term issues. This is why you perform registry clean up. But it is not enough, because of orphaned and conflicting dlls, inconsistent installation paths, conflicting versions. You probably don't see just because you are used to the issues and you think that's how things work.
If you install a better os, everything is accurately and centrally managed, making maintenance much more easy. Problem is with closed sourced software and drivers, because they break the normal processes of installation and maintenance, creating similar issues as in windows (not as bad because the os is better engineered)...
I dont notice them because they are not happening, or at least because I dont see them. Can you please provide specific examples of what I am supposed to be seeing that breaks?
Slowness of the system that increase with time since last reinstallation of the OS, dll conflicts (you also have a Wikipedia page https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/DLL_Hell), corrupted registry, conflicting drivers, configurations, libraries.
I am not saying anything controversial, it is one among the main complaints about windows, together with worse resource management and less general stability.
That's the reason you find windows for accountants, but no one uses windows for complex systems that have to be stable, reliable and maintainable.
Many casual users live with these issues, many move to mac, few move to linux
Like how the international space station ditched Windows for Linux because "...we needed an operating system that was stable and reliable – one that would give us in-house control.” or how NASA used Linux for the Mars helicopter.
I've never done any registry cleanup for years now, ever since I know better than to think Windows need any of that. How many years ago have you used Windows? You're like that Windows user that keeps telling people you can't game on Linux. It's old news by now.
Often the conversation here feels like the commenter hasn't used Windows since XP. I use Windows and Linux daily and I think most commenters are wrong with their trash talk of Windows but right with their prop talk of Linux.
This is so true, especially if you're doing any development. Everything just builds from the package before it more or less. So you don't end up with duplicates of the same code and end up with /programfileA/blah.whatever being different from /proframfileB/blah.whatever and fucking around for hours cause 'the file is updated, and it's pointed to the right file. Why does it say it's not'. Until you figure out it wasn't pointed to the right file/package and you kick yourself for missing such a stupid mistake. Ask me how I know lol
I unfortunately have to deal with it daily at work... With a premium laptop that cost thousands, and it is extremely less performant than much smaller and older machines with linux (I use linux at work as well).
I am not saying anything controversial. It is literally the reason why windows professionally is used for accountants, but it is practically never used for tasks that require performances, reliability, stability and long term maintainability.
Most casual users live with these issues, many move to mac, few move to linux. Victims of corporate IT like me must justify the budget to avoid the standard laptop and get the overpriced piece of extremely powerful hardware to have a daily experience slightly better than a raspberry pi running on respbian. Because outlook...
I am using a Netbook from 2009, Atom N570 1666Mhz, 2Gbyte RAM, 120GByte SSD. It is 550 gramm light, is so small it fits into the interior pocket of my jacket, runs eight hours on battery. And everything runs okeyish on it except maybe Youtube-Videos inside Firefox. So I set Firefox to start Youtube-Videos in VLC. Now I can even watch Youtube on my rusty old Netbook.
Worst problem: 32Bit support is running thin nowadays. It could run 64Bit but on that old system that actually costs quite some performance.