Re: For The Gamers

On 2024-12-23, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:

Le 2024-12-23 à 01:21, RonB a écrit :

On 2024-12-22, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:

Le 2024-12-22 à 00:30, RonB a écrit :

On 2024-12-21, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:

Le 2024-12-21 à 17:36, RonB a écrit :

On 2024-12-21, CrudeSausage <crude@sausa.ge> wrote:

Le 2024-12-21 à 14:02, rbowman a écrit :

https://www.wired.com/story/2024-was-the-year-the-bottom-fell-out-of-the-
games-industry/
>
I'd seen a few articles but never paid much attention. RPI put a lot of
effort into their video game degree program and thought the spinoffs might
revitalize the upstate NY economy. I wonder if they missed the boat or if
the industry will spring back?
>
Linux: who really cares if games run on Linux? It's a serious OS for
serious people.

>
If it were a serious operating system for serious people, businesses and
academic institutions would be willing to run it, and invest in the
people necessary to troubleshoot it. Instead, both have realized that
its free cost does not result in savings of any kind because the
problems it causes often can't be resolved by even the most gifted of
technical staff. That's why they use Windows, even with the security issues.

>
The reason they use Windows is because it runs Microsoft Office (and
businesses are "married" to this crap)

>
They do use Microsoft Office but there is no denying that it is superior
to what's available to Linux. Perhaps WPS Office can compete at some
level, but most people I know who use spreadsheet software say that
LibreOffice is sorely lacking in the functionality they use daily.
Additionally, they say that the functionality it does provide is nowhere
near the level of Microsoft's.

>
I'm denying it. I despise MicroCrap Office. Worthless bloatware.
>
I used Calc in OpenOffice at work before LibreOffice ever existed. For my
purposes it worked fine. Spreadsheets are overused for data purposes anyhow.
If you want a database use a database software.

>
Your opinion on spreadsheets and the software used to make them won't
sway people like my wife who calculates financial risk and needs to
report it to the investors. For people like her, Calc is not even up for
consideration because Microsoft's software is robust and has been
offering reliable service for decades. There were stronger competitors
to Excel than Calc in the past, competitors that had already made lots
of headway, and they too were left in the dust. It's not all because of
"shady business practises" either.

 
I don't think "robustness" has anything to do with it. I think it comes down
to what the others expect. It's basically a monopoly product and, as I
mentioned with Windows, monopolies have an inertia loop that's hard for
businesses to exit from. It has nothing to do with the supposed "quality" of
the product — it has everything to do with "this is what we're used to
using."

>
Well, I can tell you that there are certain advanced features people
need in Microsoft Office which seem to be unavailable to LibreOffice
users. Of course, they might just be somewhere else in the open suite,
like when I received a document with forms in .DOCX and had someone here
convert it to the equivalent in .ODT. At the same time, I don't use any
of the advanced features so LibreOffice has always been more than enough
for me. The only reason I use Microsoft's suite is because I got a
license for cheap. I can also use the 365 license I get from work for
free. Since I routinely receive documents from them to fill out, I have
no proper use for Libre.

I guess I've never had any use for these advanced features. All I know is
that, when we would get Word Documents at the print shop, we had a heck of a
time cleaning them up for Desk Top Application. Lot of hidden code.

In my opinion M$ Office is bloated crapware that tries to "think" for you.
But I was only occasionally forced to use it so I never got in stuck in the
"inertia loop."

>
I would extend that to Windows itself too. The way it has implemented AI
makes it clear that they don't want you thinking. Of course, there are
certain places where I appreciate the AI like in Brave Search or Bing
Search. There, if there is a certain technological question like what is
the benefit of one monitor over another, the engine quickly scours the
web for information and summarizes the data for me. That is much easier
than navigating to a bunch of websites which cannon a series of ads at me.

I turn off AI in my searches. I don't know about Brave or Bing, but in
Firefox you just add the udm14 add-on and AI results are gone in Google.

My wife uses Power Point. She originally used it because a template she
purchased only worked with Power Point. Now she's used to using it, so
she'll probably keep using it as long as she needs to prepare classes. Just
the way it works. People use what they're used to using. Inertia.
 
That's why so many still use the inferior Microsoft Windows crap OS.

>
I can't argue that habit plays a big part in what people choose to use.
At the same time, that's why I usually load Linux Mint for whatever user
I help: it's not that unfamiliar.

Linux Mint is often suggested for those moving from Windows because it does
work similarly (at least at the Desktop level). I'm sure that design is not
by accident.

--
“Evil is not able to create anything new, it can only distort and destroy
what has been invented or made by the forces of good.”  —J.R.R. Tolkien