Windows 10 ousts Windows 7 as most popular with Steam gamers

[shaithis]

+ -2 to that comment. I've been working with PCs my whole life and I know how regular people interact with computers and it's no different in Linux than in Windows. <-- now *that* is a solid fact. However, myths... and myths... and myths are constantly being propagated about how Linux is soooooo difficult to use, while my grandma could install it and use it. Linux came a long way in the mean time and it's getting stronger with each day, chaps. On the other hand, Microsoft has somewhat lost the plot lately, aside from becoming a bully who doesn't care about their users, only to extort as much money from them as they can. For me, Windows 8 was a disaster, but Windows 10 is then a cataclysmic disaster, and it will stay that way.

Yes, if the linux distro you downloaded installs and works without issues.....your golden....until it breaks.

If it doesn't install smoothly and if/when it breaks, the chance of a regular user fixing it vs Windows is substantially less.

Installing an OS is nothing compared to fixing it when it goes wrong.

[crossy]

It's certainly not definitive (as the Hexus review says) but this: http://hexus.net/tech/reviews/system...achine/?page=3 doesn't paint a pretty picture. Identical hardware, the only difference being SteamOS v Windows.

Thanks for that info, very helpful. Shame if that's still the case, in which case it's a good thing that the new partition will also be used for serious stuff too. And in that use case Windows is definitely worse.

[crossy]

Yes, if the linux distro you downloaded installs and works without issues.....your golden....until it breaks.

If it doesn't install smoothly and if/when it breaks, the chance of a regular user fixing it vs Windows is substantially less.

Installing an OS is nothing compared to fixing it when it goes wrong.

True words, but maybe there more help for Windows mess ups because there's more users and, of course, there's more need of help for Windows. Lol

Lost count of the number of times that the "solution" to a Windows issue has been 'reinstall the OS'. There's just more options with a modern Linux distribution imho.

[peterb]

Yes, if the linux distro you downloaded installs and works without issues.....your golden....until it breaks.

If it doesn't install smoothly and if/when it breaks, the chance of a regular user fixing it vs Windows is substantially less.

Installing an OS is nothing compared to fixing it when it goes wrong.

I'd certainly agree that installing an OS is nothing compared with fixing it - it's when things go wrong that you start to learn.

I would take some issue about the ease of repairing Windows vs Linux. The Windows registry as a collection of distributed databases is not intuitive, whereas most of the configuration files for a *nix distribution are text files, with a plethora of online guidance in how to interpret them.

The construction of a Linux OS with a number of small applications doing one thing very well is at odds with the Windows monolithic approach, but there is no reason why a technically savvy user with an inquiring mind should not be able to fix a broken Linux system as easily as a broken Windows system. I know which one I'd prefer to work on.

[Corky34]

I find Linux easier to fix than Windows to frank, sure you can sometimes fix things with some nifty registry edits or maybe running a Microsoft FixIt but beyond that there's very little you can do if the problems in a dll or exe file, at least with Linux you don't have to wait, maybe forever, for a problem to be fixed as you can go into the source code and fix the problem yourself.

[peterb]

I find Linux easier to fix than Windows to frank, sure you can sometimes fix things with some nifty registry edits or maybe running a Microsoft FixIt but beyond that there's very little you can do if the problems in a dll or exe file, at least with Linux you don't have to wait, maybe forever, for a problem to be fixed as you can go into the source code and fix the problem yourself.

That's really fixing it! Puts my editing text files into perspective!

[badass]

I find Linux easier to fix than Windows to frank, sure you can sometimes fix things with some nifty registry edits or maybe running a Microsoft FixIt but beyond that there's very little you can do if the problems in a dll or exe file, at least with Linux you don't have to wait, maybe forever, for a problem to be fixed as you can go into the source code and fix the problem yourself.

Not sure if serious.......

[=assassin=]

I wonder how many of those Windows 10 installations were forced upon people

[Corky34]

That's really fixing it! Puts my editing text files into perspective!

Sorry didn't mean to imply that i would know how to re-write all the source code, it's just you can do a whole lot more editing text files with Linux (IMO) and if needs be recompile those edited text files into something, with Windows your stuck with either having to inject code into a process or just suppress (automatically delete) the error from the log.

[DanceswithUnix]

Yes, if the linux distro you downloaded installs and works without issues.....your golden....until it breaks.

If it doesn't install smoothly and if/when it breaks, the chance of a regular user fixing it vs Windows is substantially less.

Installing an OS is nothing compared to fixing it when it goes wrong.

Next time you fix Windows, take a moment to think how you would explain to an alien how you knew what to do. Chances are, after maybe even decades of experience with talking to people, reading forums and googling problems you "just know". That isn't Windows being easy, that it you being very informed. Your skill (well done ) not Microsoft's skill.

People have always thrown that accusation at Linux, as far back as the Windows 3.1 days when a fix involved typing arcane nonsense into config.sys and autoexec.bat to tune himem. Now it involves typing strings you couldn't possibly guess into registry keys that you wouldn't easily know existed.

Linux is just different not worse. These days I pretty much only use Windows as a games launcher, and I am a bit out of touch and find it really hard to fix. Linux is more systematic. Something goes wrong, you look in the logs, find a program giving an error, use the package manager (when is Windows going to get one of those?) to tell you which package contains that program and where the configuration files are, and whether anything in the package is corrupted. If it is, you can re-install that package rather than the entire OS.

Not sure if serious.......

Don't see why not. Even if you just spot something that could be improved in some examples or documentation, feed a suggestion to the program maintainer, get a thank you and see the world improve. But yes, some of us even hack on the code.

[crossy]

Interesting that the discussion seems to have headed to a VHS vs Betamax one! And I'm in the Betamax camp.

Is it just me or is 10 more of a pain to sort out when it goes wrong than 7? OK, most of that (in my case at least) is down to UEFI.

[peterb]

Well, UEFI is less well understood than MBR, but I guess MBR was a bit of a black art when it was developed. I remember reading the manual that came with the DOS version of Norton Tools (when that really was a program worth having) and having my mind boggle at the apparent complexity of both the boot, partition and FAT system. Now it seems so simple, and I guess in a few years, UEFI will seem the same, although it is obvious that there are fewer technical questions about operating systems now, either because fewer people build there own, or operating system installers are more effective.

Certainly following the recommended/predefined installation options for an OS of any flavour is pretty painless. It's when you go off piste and start doing your own thing that more than superficial knowledge is required.

[Tabbykatze]

I can imagine sub 10% of users would be able to intuitively know to just "go into the source code and fix it yourself". A larger percentage may be able to get the information from other users who have fixed it similarly via Google but this is not that different from fixing Windows, with the exception of tweaking the source code.

And I've counted a proportionate amount of Linux reinstalls amongst my friends to Windows reinstall. Mainly because of the exact same reasoning "It's getting slow, I cba to find what's wrong, I just reinstalled and apt-getted everything again". Sounds like a Windows reinstall response to me...

[DanceswithUnix]

I can imagine sub 10% of users would be able to intuitively know to just "go into the source code and fix it yourself". A larger percentage may be able to get the information from other users who have fixed it similarly via Google but this is not that different from fixing Windows, with the exception of tweaking the source code.

And I've counted a proportionate amount of Linux reinstalls amongst my friends to Windows reinstall. Mainly because of the exact same reasoning "It's getting slow, I cba to find what's wrong, I just reinstalled and apt-getted everything again". Sounds like a Windows reinstall response to me...

I don't think the proportion of users who can dive into the code is that important, chances are everyone knows someone who can so it becomes a real option even it you can't do it. Further than that, thanks to it being a proper multi user environment an admin can log into and start fixing a Linux box while the user is using it, none of this "Oh I just need to take over your desktop" single user stupidity.

I don't think you can pin people being lazy on Linux or Windows. I don't think that makes for a useful data point for or against either, but it does show that people will be people.

The difference is, I have been genuinely stumped by Windows on plenty of occasions, and the only thing to do is give up. I used to assume that was my lack of Windows knowledge, but then when I talk to IT departments I seem to get the response "bring the machine down and we will re-image it for you" so the only difference between me as an amateur and the Windows IT professionals is how fast and automated the re-install happens.

Contrast, at work we have Linux workstations issued as standard. If something goes wrong, it gets fixed because failing to understand it means you are just putting off when it happens again.

[Corky34]

I can imagine sub 10% of users would be able to intuitively know to just "go into the source code and fix it yourself". A larger percentage may be able to get the information from other users who have fixed it similarly via Google but this is not that different from fixing Windows, with the exception of tweaking the source code.

Seeing as the source code probably makes up over 90% of an operating system that's an awfully big exception, and yes while most users, myself included, wouldn't intuitively know to just go into the source code and fix it themselves if you're determined enough that's always a possibility.

To give you an example Windows 7 has always had an annoying problem where the Desktop Window Manager informs the end-user if their computer is low on memory and offers to change the color scheme, that's all nice and everything but if you choose the option to not change the color scheme and to stop prompting you it doesn't stop prompting you, it's a bug that Microsoft have never got around to fixing, if you want to get rid of that prompt you have to use a third party program whereas with Linux you could just edit out the relevant part so it stopped checking or actually remembered the end-users choice.

[DanceswithUnix]

To give you an example Windows 7 has always had an annoying problem where the Desktop Window Manager informs the end-user if their computer is low on memory and offers to change the color scheme, that's all nice and everything but if you choose the option to not change the color scheme and to stop prompting you it doesn't stop prompting you, it's a bug that Microsoft have never got around to fixing, if you want to get rid of that prompt you have to use a third party program whereas with Linux you could just edit out the relevant part so it stopped checking or actually remembered the end-users choice.

Does Windows 10 do that? Because I really really hate it when Windows 7 does that. That could actually nudge me towards Windows 10 if it is finally fixed.