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Comment by hjk_bear | Hacker News Reader

Dave's Garage is a channel with genuinely interesting content and is very knowledgeable about all things Microsoft/Windows.

However (I hate to be this guy) take everything he says about non Microsoft/Windows stuff with a huge grain of salt. Especially after this comment he made [1]:

>"No, Windows is a closed-source operating system loved by millions. Linux is an open-source operating system which includes a binary blob from Linus Torvalds built into EVERY release that ONLY he has the source code for. Pick your poison. They're both closed, one just has the illusion of transparency."

I thought this was fake but you can check the link as the comment is not deleted yet.

Again I reiterate, Dave's garage has very interesting content, but take everything out of his expertise with some scepticism.

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqWjq2SdzpI&lc=UgwFYyE8lw0hQ...

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That comment is replying to someone saying "Windows is a rootkit". To me it looks like someone replying to an absurd, untrue statement about Windows with an obviously untrue, absurd statement about Linux.

Unless this is part of a larger pattern of inaccurately describing Linux, I don't believe he literally believes what he is saying in this comment.

I don't know, doesn't read like a joke exaggeration to me.

I think the most likely thing is that he's confused about firmware blobs and is mixing things up.

He probably never looked much at Linux and just heard a few things here and there. He was at Microsoft during the Balmer "Linux is cancer" and "get the facts" era, so that probably coloured his view a bit.

That said, I agree you shouldn't attach too much meaning to a singular comment like this. Maybe he was joking after all, or maybe he was just wrong. We're all wrong sometimes, and that's okay.

Edit: he seems to have an entire "Linux vs Windows Round 1: Open Source vs Proprietary" video, but I didn't watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9ZADRy5W0c

I actually have been checking out his channel after watching the Dave Cutler interview and he generally has level headed takes about Linux from what I’ve watched. That comment is… a doozy though.

But generally it seems like he uses all three of Linux, Windows, and Mac and talks positively about each of the three.

"loved by millions"? In all my years in the IT sector, I'm not sure I've ever met anyone who actually loved Windows. I've certainly seen my share of Apple fans (some people call them "cultists"), and of course plenty of Linux/FOSS devotees, but I've certainly never seen this kind of devotion in Windows users.

I’m not as devoted to Windows as Apple people are to Apple, but I will happily go on record and say that at least from the perspective of a user, I’m a fan of windows.

But you don't love it unlike some more devoted people?

You need intense love to use a mac without (real) games, or Linux without (meaningful) GUI. Windows has both, so it doesn't require devotion to use.

Not everyone plays games, and Linux has no GUI? lol? "I don't like it" is not the same as "it doesn't exist".

Not the OP, however in my case while not enough to have an Apple tattoo [0], enough to have long stopped being an UNIX zealot since Windows 7 came around, fed up with "Year of Desktop Linux".

My first UNIX was Xenix in 1993, by the way.

[0] - https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/1341309

You might not see devoted Windows users like mac or Linux but if the Windows users were to try the other two, the majority of them are not going to like the experience and the limitations they come with.

Honestly, if you surprised me with a computer running Windows XP I think the most immediate feeling I would feel for that computer is love. Windows 95/98 would also bring up some feelings but not as much as XP.

But yeah, "business as usual" Windows without nostalgia attached is hard to love, in my opinion. For the most part it just works decently but has a "It doesn't seem like I'm in control of my computer, really" feel to it.

I guess you don't hang around demoscene and game developer folks.

For some one running many line of bussines applications in a enerpise I loved NT 4 to NT 6.1! So I guess you now meet sombody @shiroyama!

I don't love Windows, I just don't despise it like Linux.

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