Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit | mfro's commentslogin

Some might claim a browser is an OS. Some do claim emacs is an OS. Tlon claims urbit is an OS. It’s a fairly fluid term nowadays.

They're like an OS by analogy, but all of them require an actual OS to interface with the hardware. I don't think making that term fluid is a good idea. If we did, how would I refer to... "an actual OS"?

You’re definitely right there should be distinction. I think “baremetal OS” is the term some people would use.

I think the problem is the distinction here between chips and boards. The entire GPU assembly can absolutely be worn down from continuous use, thermal pads, paste, VRMs, fans do degrade. The chip itself may be fine but it's very rare to find anyone willing to transplant a GPU from one board to another.

Windows is still a solid 'gets out of the way' operating system (with numerous tweaks, customizations, and stripping) when it works. If they focus on fixing UX issues and improving stability and performance, it may be enough to slow the rise of desktop Linux.

Better support for F#, or really any language other than C# is a longshot though. Those resources were likely 'reallocated' to AI R&D indefinitely.


> Windows is still a solid 'gets out of the way' operating system

A good way to put it.

There are third-party tools that Microsoft really need to adopt to make Windows a bit nicer (WizTree, VoidTools Everything, adopt improvements from Total Commander, make more PowerToys default), but broadly it is still a decent OS. There are issues like slow `CloseHandle()` because of Defender (which needs to be a bit less zealous), and maybe more first-party adoption of WinGet.

On the other hand, every time I use desktop Linux I get some paper cut because some edge case that I just don't ever think about is broken on Linux, whether it be my multi-monitor high pixel density layout, my USB audio interface and peripherals, or my touchpad sensitivity and gestures that Windows was widely derided for in the early 2010s and suddenly after 'Precision Touchpads'[1] no one ever complained about again, or random GPU glitches even on Intel/AMD integrated graphics that I have literally never seen on the Windows desktop, or poor battery life (Windows somehow gets 2-3x the battery life of Linux).


As someone that ran the Insider channel from ~2014-2019, Windows has been in a real weal-and-woe situation. Some parts are so hopelessly bad that they can never be fixed (eg. UI frameworks) while others are extremely promising and justify using Windows for ordinary work (eg. WSL). It's easy to subscribe to either extreme and assume that Windows is doomed or perfect because some specific feature exists.

Five years of Windows Insider made me pretty weary, though. Being downstream of Microsoft's changes is like reading tea leaves, WSL2 had broken networking for four years before any fix ever came up. I can appreciate the work that Microsoft does to ship a stable OS to millions of users, but my impatience got the better of me in the end. I switched to Linux waiting for WSL2 to get fixed, and while it's not a perfect experience it does consistently improve in a transparent and open manner.


Just get an M1 macbook air. Way cheaper, and you get can 16GB of memory.


Agree, i bought a second hand one about a year ago, 16gb, 500gb for about 200usd. Super machine


It’s not always exhaustion, though. I work with several people who blindly spout AI responses out of sheer laziness.


I take it first thing in the morning and only have this issue early in the day. I don't know if that has some effect on its efficacy but it is more convenient for me.


Doesn’t work for me. The absolute most infuriating thing is that copying text out of OneNote pastes as AN IMAGE. The only way around this is sanitizing the text in a notepad on the host machine itself.


Incredible


For me it just depends on the project. Sometimes one or the other performs better. If I am digging into something tough and I think it's hallucinating or misunderstanding, I will typically try another model.


Considering the Steam Machine will come with SteamOS, it looks like they are going all in.


Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: