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Windows needs to stop showing tabloid news

(www.tomshardware.com)
1725 points taubek | 13 comments | 27 Mar 23 05:20 UTC | HN request time: 0.919s | source | bottom
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stathibus ◴[27 Mar 23 05:31 UTC] No.35323176[source]▶
It's gets easier and easier every year to want an alternative to Windows, but it remains impossible to actually switch, at least for me.
replies(2): >>35323331 #>>35323368 #
outsomnia ◴[27 Mar 23 05:55 UTC] No.35323331[source]▶
What's this year's lock-in / excuse... games?
replies(9): >>35323388 #>>35323488 #>>35323490 #>>35323522 #>>35323557 #>>35323628 #>>35323778 #>>35324082 #>>35324495 #
1. bytehowl ◴[27 Mar 23 07:17 UTC] No.35323778[source]▶
I have recently put Fedora with KDE on my work laptop and here are a couple of reasons off the top of my head (I believe I have come across more, but can't remember them right now) why I'm currently not considering switching from W10 on my home stuff:

- I don't game that much anymore, but yeah, I hear games are still far from 100% on Linux.

- There are various graphical issues linked to fractional scaling (I think), such as random lines appearing near the edges of windows or windows leaving behind lines when being dragged around, etc.

- My external monitor doesn't appear to be affected by energy management settings (dimming/sleeping after some time, etc.) whatsoever.

- There is no option to disable the touchpad when a mouse is connected.

- Middle mouse button is paste instead of autoscroll with seemingly no global way to change it (I wonder who came up with THAT genius bit of UX).

- A lot of things can still only be achieved via the terminal.

replies(3): >>35324003 #>>35324158 #>>35324287 #
2. nunodonato ◴[27 Mar 23 07:47 UTC] No.35324003[source]▶
Pasting with middle-mouse button was a thing even before auto-scroll existed! And yes, for us who grew with it, its a damn good feature, I couldn't care less for auto-scroll, but I love my middle-mouse paste :)
replies(2): >>35324227 #>>35324461 #
3. dagw ◴[27 Mar 23 08:13 UTC] No.35324158[source]▶
Middle mouse button is paste instead of autoscroll with seemingly no global way to change it

Unix was the first to start using 3 button mice as standard, almost a decade before they really showed up in Windows world, and paste on middle mouse click has always been the standard behaviour in the Unix world, so changing it now would be very weird for *nix users. Whether Linux should follow the common Unix defaults or Windows defaults for their UI/UX has been a long running debate in the community.

I would personally be really confused and annoyed if I sat down at a Linux machine and middle click didn't paste, because that is the behaviour I've been seeing for literally 25 years.

replies(1): >>35324366 #
4. gpderetta ◴[27 Mar 23 08:23 UTC] No.35324227[source]▶
When I use Windows I'm always annoyed by the lack of advanced WM features: focus-follow-mouse, windows always on top, etc. But the thing I miss the most is the transparent copy on select and paste on mid-button. I always have to end up doing it twice.
replies(1): >>35324497 #
5. haunter ◴[27 Mar 23 08:33 UTC] No.35324287[source]▶
I installed Fedora recently and 30s in the first bug: dnfdragora missing the update button

https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/dnfdragora-missing-up...

replies(1): >>35324744 #
6. bytehowl ◴[27 Mar 23 08:47 UTC] No.35324366[source]▶
Well, sticking with outdated 30-year-old defaults seems to be par for the course when it comes to Linux. I just wish there was an OPTION to change them (especially when Linux fans keep pushing the narrative about how much more customizable it is).
replies(1): >>35324993 #
7. bytehowl ◴[27 Mar 23 09:02 UTC] No.35324461[source]▶
Your hand never leaves the position where you can just Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V. Scrolling through a long document requires either a ton of mouse-wheeling, fiddling around with the scrollbar or letting go of the mouse and using PgUp/Dn, and out of those, only the scrollbar can be faster than autoscroll.

Either way, it should be a configurable option, not hardcoded deep inside the bowels of the system, which appears to be the case as far as I have been able to determine.

8. dagw ◴[27 Mar 23 09:07 UTC] No.35324497{3}[source]▶
focus-follow-mouse, windows always on top

For what it's worth Windows has (had? don't know about Windows 11) both of these, but they're either buried in the registry or need Microsoft PowerToys to enable.

replies(1): >>35324521 #
9. gpderetta ◴[27 Mar 23 09:12 UTC] No.35324521{4}[source]▶
The only place I really use windows is at work, so I'm not at liberty to install additional applications unfortunately.

I did manage to enable follow focus a while ago, but it didn't behave as I was used to (I don't remember the details), so I disabled it.

10. sph ◴[27 Mar 23 09:55 UTC] No.35324744[source]▶
dnfdragora is terrible. Either you use GNOME Software/Discover, or dnf from the command line.

Just don't use dnfdragora, and it is not an official GUI anyway.

11. cycomanic ◴[27 Mar 23 10:39 UTC] No.35324993{3}[source]▶
Why outdated? The Linux way of copy paste (or better select and middle click) is so much better than using ctrl+c/v, if you want to stick to your inferior behaviour that's fine (I have a mouse wheel for scrolling) a quick Google brought up this https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/101867/make-mouse-m...

Just don't force us to use the same behaviour by default.

replies(2): >>35325184 #>>35326555 #
12. bytehowl ◴[27 Mar 23 11:09 UTC] No.35325184{4}[source]▶
Outdated because it has been replaced by a better feature which has no equivalent anywhere else on the keyboard or mouse on other systems - as far as I can tell, not even Mac with its Unix heritage uses MMB paste.

Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V is superior. The shortcuts are easily accessible and you can use it to select and replace a specific part in the middle of text. If you try that with MMB-pasting, you will just overwrite your clipboard with the part of the text you want to replace, due to the selection-to-clipboard feature.

The answers from your "quick Google" only provided solutions for specific programs, solutions with self-admitted performance issues and a solution for X11 when I'm on Wayland. At a glance, the latter two look pretty hacky too.

Lastly, stop putting words in my mouth. I have said my issue was that the "Middle mouse button is paste instead of autoscroll with seemingly no global way to change it" and "I just wish there was an OPTION to change them". It is YOU who is forcing your defaults on me, without even a consideration that my preference may also be valid.

13. dagw ◴[27 Mar 23 13:39 UTC] No.35326555{4}[source]▶
While I don't agree the parent posters view on the middle mouse, if you actually read the link you posted you would find that none of the answers suggested there actually solve the problem and in fact offer pretty convincing evidence that reproducing the desired behaviour cannot be reasonably done in Linux. Dismissively saying "you're holding it wrong" or posting links to irrelevant forum posts while telling people to RTFM isn't a winning argument for Linux. If you're going to tell someone to RTFM at least make sure you're pointing them to the correct M that contains the answer they're looking for.