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Comment by dependenttypes | Hacker News Reader

> I will probably get downvoted a lot

Because this is not relevant with the topic at all?

It's kinda relevant: I imagine sending kids an assignment 3 years old and make them run with current software versions... A lot of them would be disgusted by this back-and-forth installing, tweaking, re-installing, virtual envs, all of that, and will only uses windows let's say, which hides almost everything from the user these days. I typed "python" on windows the other day and it open the MS-Store, asked me to install Python3.8.3. I said OK. Then: where did it put it? The folder is like a crazy sequence of numbers somewhere in the structure. Is this right? For users, maybe, for developers, a nightmare.

I still don't see the relevance.

How does this relate in any way to "proprietary vs free/libre" software used in classes?

Proprietary sw: easy to use/maintain, fun, works most of the time, professional developers behind it, profit.

Open source sw these days: several versions, constant tweaking, works so-so (depends on the software), semi-professional developers working on it (I am not saying they're not good) or amateurs (with amateur designs), not for profit, of course. EDIT: remove double 'multiple versions'.

Proprietary sw: once discontinued for one reason or another, you're pretty much fucked up

OSS: You can still manage to sorta make it work

I guess my point is, if the software GP talked about was proprietary, he wouldn't have known what was wrong in the first place.

> I typed "python" on windows the other day and it open the MS-Store, asked me to install Python3.8.3. I said OK.

This is exactly why the proprietary software like Windows is so bad for you

I know! That's exactly my point! I didn't like it when it landed somewhere in my drive. I'm not saying proprietary is good, I'm saying it's better (these days), despite this little things that they do for high-level users. In a nutshell: they don't know who their users are: beginners, intermediate, advanced. They have to appease a lot of users, so they do these things and usually get away scot free.

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