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Reason *TO* pick on Windows 10
"T" wrote
|Why is it again I need 300,386 different versions of Dot Net installed anyway? | The VC runtime is smaller, but probably much worse in terms of numbers. Programs are rigged to require the exact compile of a 10-15 MB runtime that they were written with. On XP I have 3 versions of the VC2005 runtime, 3 for 2008, along with 6 hotfixes, one for VC2010 and one for VC 2012. And I don't actually install much software. On the bright side, I could fit 50-100 of those in the space that the .Net slop takes up, and I don't even have the latest and bloatedest of those. But software on Windows works. Most doesn't require lots of extra support libraries that are not part of the install. And it won't be outdated in a year. I can write software that runs on Win98-Win10 without needing extra support libraries. How many of your programs in the latest Fedora will even run on 3-year-old Fedora, much less 15-year-old Red Hat? And how many 3-year-old programs will run on the latest version? In my experience, even updating the stuff that comes on the CD requires updating vast numbers of system libraries. That's why Windows is everywhere. They catered to businesses, made programming relatively easy, and made backward compatibility a religion. I'm using an 18 year old OS and most current software runs fine on it. And there's lots of software. The only way for Linux to look good is the extremely low expectations you have: You test in a VM, put up with lots of broken updates, and don't expect backward compatibility. For that matter, you don't even expect a good variety of software. Behind almost every Linux or Apple fan is a Windows box that they use "when they need to do work". Yes, you can set up a Grandma as long as you show her how to do web browsing and email. My very elderly father used to use a Linux kiosk-type system for the elderly, called Wow. It was a very limited, giant tablet with no access to the file system. People could also use an iPad. But having a good desktop that can be used for years without having to update, and with all the software you want available.... that's not going to happen. If only it was worth it for some charitable foundation to make it work, then there could be hope. If people decided that the public needs a good, unfettered, non-commercial, standardized system then Windows could be dropped. But the closest to that so far was Shuttleworth, who ended up shipping adware. Linux started with an idea something like that, but it was only geeks making an OS for geeks. The only real solution would be create an organization so big and connected that everyone would see it as worthwhile to invest their time and programming in that one system, which would then be universal. Sort of like what HTML is now, despite attempts by the likes of AOL, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Adobe to usurp the Internet. What's more likely to happen is that some pseudo- philanthropist like Bill Gates will decide to save the world with his brilliance and offer to create a free spyware product. Then we'll all be distracted discussing whether the Gatesmobile OS, or the Getty Foundation OS, is going to be the next big thing, until it finally isn't. (I just read the other day that Bill Gates, after having ceremoniously given away much of his wealth, is currently worth $96B. $6B more than last year. I guess generosity is good work if you can get it.) |
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