Topic: I Don't Do Windows (Read 47733 times)

Angryoptimist · « **Reply #220 on:** April 12, 2011, 02:53:03 PM »

Quote from: Rico on April 11, 2011, 10:17:54 PM

I'm building a small form-factor PC that's going to be used entirely for recording spoken events and concerts for a hall. I've checked the hardware for Linux compatibility (even the Nady USB-XLR adapter!) and am planning on just going Ubuntu with Audacity. This looks fairly simple—which makes me nervous—but if anyone has any particular tips feel free to share.

It'll be as easy as it seems.

Just the basic advice: don't go too long between software updates and always check out the bugs for programs that you really, really need to work before updating--this is mostly for machines you actually need to be doing something; for home machines, you can eschew this and instead periodically have Let's Swearing At Fixing Machine Time. Very nearly no problems are solved by restarting, and just about anything can be fixed with the machine live. Kernels: 2.6.37 is fun, 2.6.38 is that much more so--some nice patches hit. And never, ever install outside a package manager or home directory unless you have no choice but to do so and really, really need that program. It's smooth sailing if you keep an eye on things; occasionally bumpy sailing if you don't. That's about it.

Also: Thad, use a window manager.

Thad · « **Reply #221 on:** April 12, 2011, 04:17:24 PM »

Quote from: Rico on April 11, 2011, 10:17:54 PM

I'm building a small form-factor PC that's going to be used entirely for recording spoken events and concerts for a hall. I've checked the hardware for Linux compatibility (even the Nady USB-XLR adapter!) and am planning on just going Ubuntu with Audacity. This looks fairly simple—which makes me nervous—but if anyone has any particular tips feel free to share.

Biggest problem with Ubuntu right now is that it's in the middle of switching over its entire interface. For full functionality you'll probably want to stick with "Ubuntu Classic" or whatever the hell they're calling the GNOME 2.x version.

Quote from: Angryoptimist on April 12, 2011, 02:53:03 PM

Also: Thad, use a window manager.

My basic requirements are as follows:
1. Alt-tabbing across desktops;
2. Not having to hack fucking text files.

A nice Win7-style icons-only panel that I can stick on the side of the screen is preferred. Find me a match and I'll check it out, but at this point I'm not about to say "You know, Unity makes me hack too much shit from gconf, I think I'll go try LXDE instead!"

Angryoptimist · « **Reply #222 on:** April 13, 2011, 12:20:36 AM »

Quote from: Thad on April 12, 2011, 04:17:24 PM

Find me a match and I'll check it out, but at this point I'm not about to say "You know, Unity makes me hack too much shit from gconf, I think I'll go try LXDE instead!"

LXDE? As in Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment? I'm not sure where you pulled that from 'window manager', but it's not covered in my suggestion anyway.

My motivation for telling you to use a window manager in the first place: if you don't like where KDE4 has gone, and Gnome 3.0's irritations drive you to bitching about its failings, it's time to consider a proper window manager. If you're willing to try something different, you can find some pretty good stuff. I was also being a bit flippant.

Quote from: Thad on April 12, 2011, 04:17:24 PM

2. Not having to hack fucking text files.

You aren't hacking, and it's a fine way to configure things, as long as it's well done. There's no need to be melodramatic about it.

Quote from: Thad on April 12, 2011, 04:17:24 PM

A nice Win7-style icons-only panel that I can stick on the side of the screen is preferred.

I'm not familiar with that, but Gnome 2.x has panels and icons out the ass. I'm pretty sure you could put one on the side (unless you're talking about something that keeps track of open windows? I'm certain I've heard of something that does similar; don't remember what or where, having no interest in it personally). Failing that, there's a multitude of window managers out there, with many different goals--it's not unlikely that somebody's had a similar thought and replicated the functionality you want.

Although I think a good keyboard driven tiling window manager is a much better deal.

Thad · « **Reply #223 on:** April 13, 2011, 10:10:01 AM »

So vague handwaving and semantic nitpicking, then. It's like one of my posts, only without the information content.

Thad · « **Reply #224 on:** August 08, 2011, 08:08:28 AM »

Torvalds has opinions on GNOME 3:

Quote

You want a new terminal window. So you go to 'activities' and press the 'terminal' thing that you've made part of your normal desktop thing (but why can't I just have it on the desktop, instead of in that insane 'activities' mode?). What happens? Nothing. It brings your existing terminal to the forefront," he wrote. "That's just crazy crap. Now I need to use Shift-Control-N in an old terminal to bring up a new one. Yeah, that's a real user experience improvement. Sure.

Interestingly, this is the single most common complaint I've gotten from new Win7 users as part of the rollout I've been working on: clicking the IE icon in the taskbar no longer opens a new IE window. (What Win7 has over GNOME3 is that you can still launch shit from the desktop, so there IS another way of doing it.) This is, of course, a case of everyone aping Apple.

I actually prefer this behavior, but Linus makes a perfectly valid point: it should be optional. (It is, in KDE. And I believe you can also enable the old QuickLaunch in Win7 but it's not trivial for end users.)

JDigital · « **Reply #225 on:** August 08, 2011, 11:03:00 AM »

From the Linux user interface experience of "fuck it, copy Windows"

Thad · « **Reply #226 on:** August 26, 2011, 09:57:06 AM »

So apparently Windows 8's shell will finally include a filecopy mechanism that ISN'T designed for 1.44MB floppies, and will instead support pause/resume and won't stop a 2000-file copy operation if it hits a problem with one file in the set.

Granted, we've had robocopy since 1997, but (1) it's command-line and (2) it wasn't bundled with the OS until Vista, meaning it's STILL not a standard program on most business machines.

Thad · « **Reply #227 on:** August 30, 2011, 11:26:34 AM »

Win8 will also support mounting ISO's, a feature which Macs have only had for a decade and the various other *nixes since...when did ISO9660 become a standard?

Score one for common sense over completely asinine piracy placebos.

(Has anybody else ever gotten a validation error trying to play a legally-rented DVD under WMP...and then just opened up VLC?)

Brentai · « **Reply #228 on:** August 30, 2011, 12:25:07 PM »

Yes, although that hasn't happened in the decade or so since I bothered trying to use WMP.

Thad · « **Reply #229 on:** August 30, 2011, 12:35:22 PM »

Yeah, I keep forgetting to disable Autoplay on my HTPC.

Probably a moot point now that we've canceled the disc portion of Netflix. (A decision made even easier when the last movie I rented started skipping in the very last scene. Not that the time I watched Moon on Netflix Streaming and my Internet connection kept going out was any better.)

sei · « **Reply #230 on:** August 30, 2011, 05:17:29 PM »

Most savvy users I know have been using Daemon Tools Lite for mounting ISOs on Windows, in case anyone on these boards is too big of a fucking troglodyte to already know how.

Mongrel · « **Reply #231 on:** August 30, 2011, 05:18:55 PM »

Quote from: Thad on August 30, 2011, 12:35:22 PM

Yeah, I keep forgetting to disable Autoplay on my HTPC.

I have an OCD tin-foil hat friend (yes Buge, I'm talking about Brian again) who always did that without my asking whenever I got a new computer.

I didn't complain or reverse it, but I did laugh a bit.

Thad · « **Reply #232 on:** August 30, 2011, 05:23:34 PM »

It's a really obvious best practice. Like enabling file extensions. Or turning off system sounds.

Thad · « **Reply #233 on:** September 13, 2011, 11:24:25 AM »

Ars previews Win8.

At a glance, it looks like MS has finally gotten a touch interface right, but is making the same mistake everyone else is right now: assuming that users who AREN'T on a damn touchscreen should have the same interface as ones who are.

Ziiro · « **Reply #234 on:** September 13, 2011, 11:46:33 AM »

Tablet operating system? It's not a desktop system primarily? Or is it?

I'm a little confused here.

Thad · « **Reply #235 on:** September 13, 2011, 11:55:45 AM »

Depends what you mean by "primarily".

Yes, it's a desktop OS.

But their focus is making it usable on tablets.

My concern is that -- like Lion, GNOME 3, and Unity before it -- the focus on tablets will produce an interface that's not very good on desktops.

But keep in mind this is a very early preview build, and I would love to be wrong.

Ziiro · « **Reply #236 on:** September 13, 2011, 12:02:03 PM »

That's what I was afraid you were going to say. Yeah, here's to hoping they don't cock it up and make it horrible for M+KB users.

Thad · « **Reply #237 on:** September 13, 2011, 12:04:24 PM »

In fairness, I don't have the pure hate for Unity, GNOME 3, and Lion that some folks do. (You can probably find my comments on them earlier in this thread.) But there's a reason I prefer Win7 and KDE4.

It's also entirely possible that MS has had time to learn from the mistakes those other desktops have made, but I don't know that I'd say it's likely; MS is generally a lot less nimble than GNOME, Canonical, or even Apple.

Lottel · « **Reply #238 on:** September 13, 2011, 01:39:32 PM »

Looking at it a little more, it looks like the MetroUI stuff is just another program running on top of what looks like Windows7 with minor tweaks.
Later in the conference you can see them get rid of MetroUI and just use it like Windows7. Which is nice, I guess. I'd like the Metro stuff to have blended in a little deeper but I can see why they didn't do that at first. Oh well, skinners will come out and make it look a little more uniform, I'm hoping.

Oh and if you feel like doing some work tonight, you can install Windows8. Lemme know how that goes.

Thad · « **Reply #239 on:** September 14, 2011, 07:06:00 AM »

Seems like somebody at Ars read the comments section, because they've got a followup article that spends three paragraphs swearing that no, this is totally a desktop OS and not just for tablets, it's okay -- before admitting that yes the Start menu is totally gone and you're going to have to put up with a GNOME 3-style separate interface to launch your programs. And then giving the typical response to any GNOME/KDE user who has complained about his program launcher in the past 5 years: "If you don't like the way the launcher works, it's because you're doing it wrong. Why are you clicking on icons to launch programs, anyway? You should be typing filenames."

(In later screenshots, we see that the Start Menu is actually still there and still taking up space, you just can't launch programs from it anymore. If this is the way it stays in the final release, I think a hearty "Fuck you too, Microsoft" is in order, but I maintain hope that they'll do what they nearly always do and allow users to fall back to the old interface.)

News:

Author Topic: I Don't Do Windows (Read 47733 times)