2021: Linux on the desktop, Free Software 9/11

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > YOSPOS > 2021: Linux on the desktop, Free Software 9/11

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mystes: May 31, 2006

Schadenboner posted:

It baffles me that, in 2018, Outlook still doesn't make a desktop folder to keep opened files in rather than putting them in a six-deep hidden folder somewhere in AppData?

Like, ok: email shouldn't be used as a file transfer or a versioning system but it's used that way just about everywhere I've seen or heard about?

E: Same thing with the nicknames file, now that I think of it. IIRC that's where autocomplete gets stored which, for most users, is the only address book they have. Why is this not kept somewhere more permanent?

The appdata thing is mildly annoying, but Outlook also allows you to irrecoverably modify attachments to your copy of emails you've received depending on where you open them from in outlook which is totally insane.

Edit: Basically to avoid all this weirdness I always just drag attachments to a folder rather than open them directly in outlook.

mystes fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Nov 12, 2018

# ¿ Nov 12, 2018 02:50

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:47

mystes: May 31, 2006

BIGFOOT EROTICA posted:

turning on the gpo to prevent creation of pst files is the greatest thing

Can you actually prevent pst files from being created or just disable the UI for it?

# ¿ Nov 12, 2018 18:29

mystes: May 31, 2006

Pinterest Mom posted:

https://twitter.com/mehedih_/status/1063475635580997632

Didn't this happen like 6 months ago? Or was it just on insider builds or for only some users or something?

# ¿ Nov 16, 2018 18:12

mystes: May 31, 2006

Pinterest Mom posted:

The ads will apparently appear for all users � even if you don�t use a Microsoft email service like Outlook and only have Gmail, Yahoo, G Suite, or other third-party accounts, you will still see the ads until you purchase an Office 365 subscription. And that, of course, is quite ridiculous. �The ads at the top of the message list come from Microsoft. You�ll see them whether you are using a Microsoft email account, like Outlook.com, or an account from another email service provider, like Google,� the app says, asking users to purchase Office 365 to get an ad-free experience.

They're basically testing to see if they can charge to remove ads from programs like on smartphones, but with email it's similar to what email providers like google are already doing on their web interfaces so people are more likely to accept it.

If people tolerate it there will probably be a lot more attempts to work ads into other programs that are built into windows.

mystes fucked around with this message at 19:08 on Nov 16, 2018

# ¿ Nov 16, 2018 19:06

mystes: May 31, 2006

Samuel L. ACKSYN posted:

microsoft access is one of those things thats often there but no one uses it or even knows truly what it is

like the briefcase in win 9x

Access is based on an obsolete vision that end users who were somewhat technically inclined but weren't necessarily programmers would be allowed to do things like create databases.

It was similar to the obsolete idea of having "desktop publishing" software for normal users instead of the current situation where professionals shell out lots of money for Creative Cloud and everyone else uses Word for page layout.

# ¿ Nov 21, 2018 18:58

mystes: May 31, 2006

infernal machines posted:

nintendo, in their infinite wisdom, made their online enabled portable console require the use of a companion app and a weird cable to use voice chat

I would have thought "use a cellphone for online voice chat" just meant you have to literally call people to simulate voice chat, but this is possibly even dumber?

Edit: I can understand why the Wii and Wii U didn't have voice chat, but doesn't the Switch finally have an actual multitasking operating system that could presumably support it?

mystes fucked around with this message at 19:30 on Nov 28, 2018

# ¿ Nov 28, 2018 19:28

mystes: May 31, 2006

Wait is the cable plugging into the switch or just the phone? I assumed the voice chat was completely independent of the console and handled entirely through the phone, but I realized I'm not actually sure from the picture.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2018 19:34

mystes: May 31, 2006

infernal machines posted:

it plugs into both, to get audio from the switch and phone, and send audio to the phone. but it's only needed if you want to use the headset

Oh I see so it's just so you can hear the output from the switch over the headset rather than from your TV. That explains why they needed to make a special cable rather than just using a normal phone headset, I guess, but it presumably does mean that the phone is handling all of the actual voice chat which is bizarre in the first place.

# ¿ Nov 28, 2018 19:39

mystes: May 31, 2006

They must have made the decision really late in the console's development, but do they seriously not have anything else they could plug a headset into?

# ¿ Nov 28, 2018 19:46

mystes: May 31, 2006

Farmer Crack-rear end posted:

i'm still convinced there was a huge push in ms to brand everything as 'one'

"Everything" as in OneDrive and Xbox One?

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 05:17

mystes: May 31, 2006

Ok, 3 products?

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 05:20

mystes: May 31, 2006

James Baud posted:

So, my keyboard's calculator launcher button was the first sign this morning, but I tried a few other ways to run it:

Has this thing even changed since Win 3.11 beyond a couple floating point bugfixes?

They replaced it with a completely different UWP app. I think the current calc.exe is just a launcher.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 20:12

mystes: May 31, 2006

Shaggar posted:

shift-windows-s is pretty good but they need to add a box highlight selection tool

I've always thought that that the snipping tool is pretty terrible because although it theoretically allows you to do basic annotations but (as far as I know) it doesn't have undo. I don't know why they've never bothered to just add undo to it. It's really annoying having to take another screenshot if you add a highlight and then want to change it.

# ¿ Nov 29, 2018 21:21

mystes: May 31, 2006

Pinterest Mom posted:

I have a 32gb iPad and a switch with a 256gb memory card in it, a switch version might come in handy if I want to dl a bunch of shows before I go on a trip or whatever

If only nintendo would make an SD card adapter for your iPad.

# ¿ Nov 30, 2018 17:32

mystes: May 31, 2006

Endless Mike posted:

lol do you think nintendo is developing the app and not just saying "yeah sure put netflix on our thing whatever"

Is netflix seriously going to bother developing an app for the switch itself considering what a pain it probably is to develop for compared to other platforms since it's Nintendo?

# ¿ Dec 1, 2018 00:12

mystes: May 31, 2006

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

i *think* it has it now and in the past, but there was a window where they just killed it off due to exploits yeah

That's pretty drastic, wow.

# ¿ Dec 2, 2018 02:53

mystes: May 31, 2006

Nintendo just needs to license their IP for NES themed retirement homes.

# ¿ Dec 3, 2018 23:47

mystes: May 31, 2006

pseudorandom name posted:

lol https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft-building-chromium-powered-web-browser-windows-10

Jesus christ after all the effort they're going to throw out everything and gently caress everything up by ensuring chromium browsers have even more market share?

At this point if people aren't using edge it's not because of problems with it's engine for crying out loud.

# ¿ Dec 4, 2018 04:20

mystes: May 31, 2006

Didn't microsoft just try to introduce some sort of web authentication system that was basically like client certificates with a new UI a few years ago? I can't remember what it was called and I'm completely failing at googling it though.

Edit: Found it. It was "cardspace" and "a few years ago" was apparently like 2010-2011.

mystes fucked around with this message at 19:26 on Dec 4, 2018

# ¿ Dec 4, 2018 19:22

mystes: May 31, 2006

All that stuff is very much tied to windows apis so there isn't much hope for Linux support, but they announced a while ago that they are working on porting xamarin forms so hopefully that will happen.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 04:10

mystes: May 31, 2006

Cybernetic Vermin posted:

it is not very charming a thing to think about, but it is probably a very realistic way to make it into a library capable of very good apps to just attach some wine fragments for a lot of the little details which are otherwise annoying to make cross-platform, and then do a proper port of the actual back-end painting stuff

we'll see

Even assuming that it's possible/practical, I don't think there's enough interest in WPF now for anyone to bother.

# ¿ Dec 5, 2018 20:57

mystes: May 31, 2006

Schadenboner posted:

Deleting a file and hitting delete no longer throws up a confirmation in W10, it did in W7 and every previous edition I'm aware of?

You mean actually deleting rather than sending it to the recycle bin?

Edit: Oh hmm

# ¿ Dec 6, 2018 04:03

mystes: May 31, 2006

infernal machines posted:

If you get more can you build them up into other shapes?

# ¿ Dec 6, 2018 18:04

mystes: May 31, 2006

Lambert posted:

Chromium ... god?!

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 01:57

mystes: May 31, 2006

Now that chrome has 100% control of the web maybe they'll just go back to pnacl.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 04:27

mystes: May 31, 2006

I thought it was unlikely before but after the edge thing maybe cloud gaming doesn't seem so outrageous.

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 06:07

mystes: May 31, 2006

Kilometres Davis posted:

Why can't I use python in excel yet?

I can never avoid excel at least let me avoid VBA

I think if you have 365 or 2019 you can write UDFs in javascript.

If you're trying to do something more complicated but can use a plugin, Excel DNA allows you to use c# with Excel pretty easily.

mystes fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Dec 7, 2018

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 16:25

mystes: May 31, 2006

BangersInMyKnickers posted:

Microsoft make the xbone support 802.1x you fuckers

Maybe if they rebrand some other product to Xbox for Business?

# ¿ Dec 7, 2018 20:23

mystes: May 31, 2006

The only really bad part is the inconsistent shortcuts between office programs. Ctrl+f being forwarding in Outlook is the worst. Iirc this was because that was how it was in whatever Bill Gates had been using and he made them change it to that even though they wanted it to be find to be consistent with other programs.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 04:17

mystes: May 31, 2006

Krankenstyle posted:

not in the version my job uses, which is definitely 8+ because of the stupid start menu

It was added in an update a year or two ago I think so if you're on some ancient ltsb build you might not have it.

# ¿ Dec 8, 2018 05:46

mystes: May 31, 2006

El_Elegante posted:

is it possible Microsoft is happy to maintain a gaming division at a loss in order to seem culturally relevant to
consumers?

I can theoretically imagine them wanting to keep the xbox so they can use it to force xbox developers to also support the windows store or something like that.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 17:50

mystes: May 31, 2006

FMguru posted:

lol how come no one told me walmart is making their own line of gaming PCs? varicolor led keyboard lighting and all
surprise! theyre poo poo (verge score 5.0, which is like a -2 on a normal 1-10 scale)

The keyboard/trackpad aren't very good and a 1060 isn't enough to take advantage of the refresh rate but these are pretty common problems on tons of laptops. Support basically consisted of being able to replace the laptop if necessary, but that's basically the same as any other laptop.

So basically it's the same as an average laptop by any other company.

# ¿ Dec 10, 2018 18:22

mystes: May 31, 2006

pseudorandom name posted:

its too bad the Office plugin API doesn't use COM, otherwise they could just make the 64-bit version of Office host the COM objects in a separate 32-bit process and use normal COM proxying to marshall the method calls between the processes

I think it does use COM but the extensions are loaded in-process?

# ¿ Dec 11, 2018 03:31

mystes: May 31, 2006

James Baud posted:

That's 100% of github.com now, though...

Github: Where do you want to Go today?

# ¿ Dec 11, 2018 18:11

mystes: May 31, 2006

Lambert posted:

Microsoft's websites really tend to be extremely slow, kind of embarrassing for a software company.

Loading fast is a sign that a website isn't web 2.0 enough.

# ¿ Dec 11, 2018 19:17

mystes: May 31, 2006

cinci zoo sniper posted:

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/12/microsoft-is-putting-together-a-microsoft-365-subscription-for-home-users/

Wasn't there a similar story about Google like 6 months ago? They were supposed to be doing some bundle that would include google drive space as well as tech support for other google products or something. It seemed similar in that they wanted to introduce some sort of subscription without actually knowing what would make sense to put in it.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2018 19:32

mystes: May 31, 2006

orange sky posted:

Imagine if everyone was taught to use latex since we were kids

I think with everything moving to the cloud we're headed for a future where people won't even know how to use a word processor more complicated than wordpad.

Similarly, "Desktop publishing" software for consumers used to be a thing but then Indesign became the only remaining page layout program, and trying to sell it to home users would only cut into Adobe's revenue.

# ¿ Dec 16, 2018 19:45

mystes: May 31, 2006

mystes posted:

Wasn't there a similar story about Google like 6 months ago? They were supposed to be doing some bundle that would include google drive space as well as tech support for other google products or something. It seemed similar in that they wanted to introduce some sort of subscription without actually knowing what would make sense to put in it.

BTW, it seems like this Google service actually exists for the moment: https://techcrunch.com/2018/08/15/google-one-is-now-open-to-all/

# ¿ Dec 16, 2018 20:12

mystes: May 31, 2006

infernal machines posted:

Wait you can't even view legacy .doc files without specifically enabling them now?

mystes fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Dec 17, 2018

# ¿ Dec 17, 2018 17:23

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# ¿ May 15, 2024 18:47

mystes: May 31, 2006

infernal machines posted:

it's a macro malware vector

Ah, I don't think I would have been duped if I actually say that inside a word document but it looks pretty convincing.

# ¿ Dec 17, 2018 17:27

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Serious Hardware/Software Crap > YOSPOS > 2021: Linux on the desktop, Free Software 9/11

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