On Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:35:28 -0000 (UTC), Jethro_uk
wrote:

snip

Only people who need a native windows are the real time game players
where direct access to massively expensive video hardware is de
rigeur...

Ah, one area of computing that has - since I first started writing in
6502/8080/68000 assembler has never really interested me.

And that's a big point (programmer).

If you do want to run games and if you have a wide range of hardware
that may never had Linux drivers written for it, then it has to be
Windows (Steam Machine anyone?) ;-)

eg. Most of my laptops dual boot a Windows and a Linux and whilst in
most cases Linux might have installed quicker and easier (picked up
the drivers during install, not the Windows update or manually), and
if you just want to use the std built in apps (thinking say Mint here
V say W10) then you could probably do more 'soft stuff' OOTB on Linux
than Windows.

However, as soon as you try to add say some vehicle diagnostic
software you often find it's Windows only (especially clones of the
mainstream stuff). If you can get to run under WINE you then have to
deal with the app looking for a COMM: port but Linux not relating to
those directly / easily.

Or it finds some parts of the hardware but doesn't let you do all
things (you can print but not scan etc).

It can work the other way round of course, like the multiple XBox One
DVB-T2 tuners I have that work easily on Linux / TVHeadend but I don't
think can seen by Windows at all (ironic give MS designed / sold the
Xbox). Only because a man in a shed bothered to write the firmware for
it. Who knows if it will ever be updated though.

Although that is a bit of a contrived situation. As HP have shown. it's
entirely possible to support *nix to a high degree if you choose to.

Yeah. I have it on an i5 desktop and Mint Cinnamon 64 bit and it flys
.... but it's a matter of finding things to use it with over Windows on
the same machine that I can do much more with easier (partly because
of familiarity and partly because you have so many good (properly
finished and featured) and free programs under Windows). Forte Agent,
Irfanview are a couple of examples (and running them under WINE or in
a Windows VM isn't a solution to the 'issue' of there not being Linux
versions (and Pan isn't a clone of FA as FA doesn't hang like Pan does
on several reasonable machines).

I have two people currently running Linux as their primary OS, one the
only OS. He had it on a desktop and a laptop (both Mint) but the
desktop seems to have gone wrong again and whilst I fixed it (or it
fixed itself while I was trying stuff) the last time I went there to
look at it, I am far less confident re the thought / hope of any
faultfinding than I am Windows.

Like, Windows is fairly likely to run in a GUI Safe mode and from that
I can get them to launch Teamviewer and then see what I can do.

I can sometimes get them to boot a live Linux DVD, get online,
download TV and launch it and me get access, it's just I don't
generally have any idea what to do next, outside trying some randomly
Googled 'Fix your Linux' type commands and seeing if I can stumble on
something. ;-(

Linux (or more accurately, the GNU bit) is slowly getting better that
way though, more of a 'Control Panel' type thing so less need for the
CLI (driver Manager FWIW etc).

Now if you are a programmer then it makes much more sense. ;-)

Cheers, T i m