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Comment by errantspark | Hacker News Reader

It's so mind boggling to me that we're okay with this level of uncertainty about the systems we rely on every day. I run LTSC with updates disabled because the idea that something that's working one day would stop working the next drives me up the wall. I have a linux phone (which is awful) because at least when that breaks it's my fault and I can always just put it back into a known working state.

I hate how my relationship with Microsoft/Google etc is essentially one where they're constantly pushing the boundaries of what I'm willing to put up with. It's fucking abusive.

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This is in a pre-release build. I'm not happy to hear about it, but in reality Windows 10 has been incredibly reliable. Can't remember the last time I saw a crash to be honest, and I use it for 8-10 hours a day most of the time.

You mean the same windows 10 that I never bother to boot into because every time I do various services decide to do so many indexing and updating tasks that it pegs the hard drive at 100% for hours?

I should be able to launch windows every couple of months without having to wait so long to do anything that I forget why I even booted into windows in the first place.

This drives me insane. I try to boot up and play a game, only to find my FPS cut in half due to some background d operation that Windows has determined critical. But not critical enough to tell me beforehand.

Same. Windows is literally just a Fortnite OS, and it manages to mess up often enough to be a problem.

All mainstream games targetting a reliable OS (Linux?) will be coming soon if they continue this way.

Not to mention the fake fullscreen mode that is actually windowed borderless with the compositor disabled.

You used to be able to "disable fullscreen optimizations" in properties to get real exclusive fullscreen mode, but now you have to edit a registry entry for that binary, and even that doesn't work most of the time.

I have this beautiful 144hz monitor for a reason: latency sucks.

No, I think they mean the stable Windows 10 that pushes Xbox, Skype, Microsoft Office, SkyDrive, and Candy Crush onto you.

The one that "helpfully" resets default applications and privacy settings to the ones Microsoft wants you to use, and then whines at you (or gives vague threats) when you do choose something else.

The one that turned logging in from pretty much an instant thing to a random wait while you get a "We're just setting things up for you" message on a pulsing background, and not-at-all-reassuring messages that "All your files are right where you left them".

windows education edition doesn't have ads, or candy crush.

That's of limited help.

It doesn't apply to anyone who's not eligible for that edition, isn't aware of it's existence, is just using the version that came with their device, or needs some specific feature in the 'Pro' variants (or whatever it's called now).

I remember having to bump up an edition from Home to get Bitlocker support for full-disk-encryption and something else.

e: While I've now migrated off Windows for a few years now, I still occasionally have to help family members who're wondering why X or Y no longer works, because MS decided to reset preferences.

There is an education variant of every windows version. Home education, pro education etc.

Fine, okay, but what's the eligibility criteria?

As far as I can tell you have to go through an Academic Licensing service, which would immediately tell me to go away since I'm not a school/university/whatever.

It's simply not available to most people.

My spider senses are detecting sarcasm.

No, it's not your computer if you run Windows on it.

The only way for you to get control over your computer is to run Linux, and today that's very easy.

> but in reality Windows 10 has been incredibly reliable

True, but it depends on which component. For a year it couldn't sort and move symbols on the desktop without bugs.

On some systems there is a "Microsoft Compatibility Telemetry" process that will take all your CPU. Don't know, MS could farm bitcoins for all we know.

There are a lot of small issues, but yes, overall it got more dependent, although I think Win7 was stable as well.

Still, overall it doesn't really improve, it mostly gets worse. The infestation with ads shouldn't be allowed in any operating system. These are ideas from guys Steve Jobs warned us about.

> ... we're okay with this level of uncertainty about the systems we rely on every day.

I'm not included in this "we". And I definitely pay a price for that by sacrificing some convenience. I'm sure the price would be lower if more people were willing to make the same sacrifices.

I can understand most end users being okay with that. Most are not educated to know the problems or alternatives. But developers should consider how contributions in code or money could improve competition and encourage development of better software for everyone.

I, on the other hand, would need to sacrifice a lot of convenience to be included in this "we"

Isn't it true for a lot of things we rely on every day ?

Remembering the days of commuting by train, wether the train will come on time or not was a lottery. Traveling by car, accidents, jams, not being able to park etc. are mundane.

Elevator/escalators being in maintenance was also a common sight.

Things being broken feels part of life, and we learn to plan ahead, have alternatives or deal with it when there is nothing to help.

I think computers and remote services entering our everyday lives is part of that.

A computer is a tool. You buy it to perform what it is advertised to do, just like a socket wrench set. But unlike a socket wrench set, the manufacturer could break into your home in the night and replace your rachet and make it incompatible with your old sockets that still work.

Microsoft Teams is a service, so more like trains or taxis in the physical world. Tomorrow train operators could all be on strike and we'd just be SOL.

I think the change that people haven't completely caught on with is a lot of digital tools becoming services. A bit like how enterprises used to own printers, and those are now rented appliances paid by month or by printed page.

Teams is not a service. Is a program used to talk to other people, like buying tickets for the train or talking with the passengers. Teams has to run in an environment when it is not alone. You need to get on the train, search for a place etc. TBH teams behaves more like a service than like a program. Using teams is like talking to somebody at the other end of the train.

Microsoft teams is two things:

1. An online service with a private API endpoint.

2. A client program that communicates over that API endpoint.

So this is more like having a car (client program) that the company owns parked in your driveway (your OS), and you can't drive on the company's private roads (the service API) without using that specific car, oh and the company is allowed to repave your driveway whenever they like.

I would much rather have my own car and my own driveway, thank-you-very-much.

> It's so mind boggling to me that we're okay with this level of uncertainty about the systems we rely on every day.

I'm not OK with it. It's one of the many reasons why I stopped using Windows on my own machines a decade or so ago. Sadly, though, I still have to use it at work, and every workday, I'm reminded why I stopped using Windows.

Not being glib, but have you ever tried just getting rid of your laptop, smartphone, internet, TV, etc?

They certainly add the occasional convenience, but it's actually really easy to go a week or three at a time without any of it.

That's always an option, and it's a fairly good one if it's making you feel how you describe.

Getting rid of my laptop and internet for a few weeks and I expect to make a living how?

This is part of the problem. People feel trapped in their ecosystems. Despite the value added, the technology is suffocating a lot of people (think broader than just "Tech Workers" too).

I think that this is for certain true but the solution of the problem is where the onteresting part is because most people do not want to go and live im a cabin

Taking a break from your laptop doesn't mean you become a hermit in the woods.

i've got a desktop computer at my office. it's still "having a computer", but i find there's a good difference between having a computer that you think of as "yours" versus a computer that's just a work tool.

i've also got a laptop right now, but i've gone years at a time without having a personal computer at home. it's perfectly doable.

Um, oh how I've dreamt of this reality... despite all the problems they have caused, computers are just too damn useful to give up on. We just need to learn to control the larger system that produces them better.

So your advice is to throw up your hands, back off from technology entirely, cede all territory to bigcos, and just sit back and watch them run rampant right over everyone else too. Stepping away is not stepping "out", there is no "out" anymore.

I'm gonna come camp out on your front porch, it's fine ok? Not to be glib but if this bothers you have you considered just moving out of your house? Maybe house living is just not for you man, just walk away.

I have spent many a summer at a cabin with no internet, potable water or plumbing. I love it, it's a beautiful time. It's one of my favorite places to be in the whole wide world.

That being said I also love technology. It's fucking magic and I'm a mage. I have immense power over one of the most effective forces in the world and I spend a depressing amount of it to circumvent annoyances forced upon me by people trying to part me from my money. It's so frustrating because I love what technology is and what it can enable for people, and I hate how trash the baseline is, and I especially hate most people don't even know how good things could be if we y'know had open standards and shit. I know that there isn't an easy fix, but my frustration is none the less valid. So much of humanity's effort in tech is spent on bullshit that doesn't add value at best, and is actively detrimental to all but a few humans on average.

> we're okay with this level of uncertainty

no, you are not the customer.. executive management, legal and finance are the target customer

I sometimes like to joke that seeing a company push for Windows / Teams, and, more generally, software that fights against you instead of helping you do your job must be some kind of signaling. "Look how well-off we are, we can afford to pay our employees full-time while they only work half the time".

Which linux phone?

I’m not ok with it. Nothing in my house runs Windows and even my phone runs Linux with a fairly normal X11 DE at this point.

At work all the coorperate crapware makes the machine so unstable anyway Microsoft’s malware would just be one more thing. It’s a broken window (heh) situation.

I installed OpenBSD about 10 years ago and have used nothing else on my personal computers since then. It does occasionally have breaking changes in its updates, but they never happen without you taking action to initiate them.

The idea that we're OK with random popups, feature promotions, nags to use this or that or enable some setting, and outright advertising on our computers is just mind-boggling.

Why did you choose this very OS? Considering there are many of BSDs and Linux as well.

OpenBSD tends to be minimalist and pragmatic. I’ve used it before, it’s a good no-nonsense OS.

Yes. I've decided to switch from Linux to BSD for various reasons. That's going to be a slow switch, though -- I have a lot of machines that need to addressed.

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