Windows 8... a bit shocking

[netmaestro]

I had to replace my laptop computer after carelessly allowing the screen to get broken and the computer I bought was loaded with Windows 8. My new laptop isn't a touchscreen, I don't like touchscreens and so the mouse/keyboard is how I interact with the OS. When I first booted up I was presented with a remarkably tablet-like layout and it was just loaded to the gills with things MS calls "apps". Apps indeed, virtually all of them are portals to buy stuff, a lot of it from Microsoft and some more from Lenovo, my laptop manufacturer. Even the Games folder, which in every version of Windows since its inception, had no games in it. Just an "app" that connects you to their xbox site, presumably with your wallet at the ready. I was able to uninstall most of this junk but one or two just refused to leave quietly. So once I had my Metro interface reasonably clean, I played with it just long enough to realize that I hated it. I learned quickly how to get to the desktop easily, and then the next problem: No start button. It's like they're trying to force people to use their Metro garbage. Really, who is so brain-dead as to put a tablet interface on a full windows computer? Who the hell wants that? So, off to CNet to see what they recommend for a Windows 8 start button. I chose their top pick and installed it, it works perfectly. Now, after much uninstalling and adding my own 3rd party start button, I'm happy with my new computer. It works just like the old Win7 one. Except for one thing, those annoying "charms" that slide out from the side of the screen when you move the mouse too close to a corner (easy to do a lot because of the location of most Close buttons).

Does anyone know how to stop those charms from coming out?

[TI-994A]

...Just an "app" that connects you to their xbox site, presumably with your wallet at the ready.

Thanks netmaestro; that line made my morning!

Does anyone know how to stop those charms from coming out?

Perhaps this could help: How to Disable Charms Bar Hint in Windows 8?

[skywalk]

Consider Windows 8.1

[netmaestro]

@TI-994A: Thanks for that link, I followed the instructions and successfully got rid of the charms bar hint! I'm getting there..

@skywalk: I read recently on a couple of sites that the start button is indeed coming back to Windows 8 with Blue, but that the makers of 3rd party start buttons aren't worried because the button they're giving Windows 8.1 does not have the same functionality that the Win7 start button had. I don't know any details but that's enough to put me off until more anecdotal evidence is available. Thanks for the link though, it's appreciated. Knowledge is a breastplate for the consumer, as long as he remembers to protect his nuts too.

[heartbone]

I recently installed UBUNTU 12.10 and it is really nice.
After installing and updating everything I realized that I DID NOT HAVE TO TYPE ANYTHING BUT MY USERID AND PASSWORD,
everything else was accomplished by clicking on menus.
That is a big change since the earlier versions.
Unless they've messed it up with the newest release,
UBUNTU is (finally) ready for the prime time, for sure.

YouTube videos, PDFs, MHTs, MP3s and every other multimedia file that I regularly use are very well handled.
It seems to handle network connections better and faster than either Windows XP Professional or Vista Ultimate.
It recognizes my gamepad, however I have not tried to install a printer yet.

It seems this UBUNTU OS is a much better alternative than Windows 8 (unless you depend on Microsoft Windows only software)
because it's fast, user friendly, and extremely low cost.

Instead of buying an expensive laptop, a used one running UBUNTU should do the job for most everyone.
(web browsing, e-mail, social apps, shopping)

The only time so far that I have had to bring up the terminal and type sudo to install anything was when installing PureBasic.

netmaestro, with a new system it's a good time to install UBUNTU alongside Windows (very small footprint)
and start experiencing the DRM free future of computing without the charm or expense.

The primary function of a computer OS is to provide an environment to run software.
From the desktop user point of view UBUNTU is a very straightforward computing environment
which presents a responsive and consistent OS user interface to the user,
without the gimmick of imposing a dumbed down smart phone simulator front end.

Microsoft continued to show their true colors of DRM imposition and system lock down with their original XBOX ONE implementation intentions.
I will not support any more of their user abuse (like no service pack for Win 7), and after working with UBUNTU the past week I do not plan to ever buy another new OS from them.
I may need to acquire a used Win 7 desktop for development/testing, as I do plan to support Windows 7, but I will not support 8.
If developing on Linux is not too difficult, then I'll concentrate on releasing my games for UBUNTU first, and then if there is any interest, for Windows up through version 7.
I plan to actually prohibit my games from running on Win 8 to dis Microsoft and to encourage Linux adoption.
If developing for LINUX turns out to be too difficult, I'll just stick with developing for the earlier Windows users.

[Olliv]

@HeartBone

Is there an equivalent to MSDN on Linux?

Olliv

[ts-soft]

@HeartBone

Is there an equivalent to MSDN on Linux?

Olliv

Somethink like this: https://developer.gnome.org/

or install devhelp.

[Danilo]

Is there an equivalent to MSDN on Linux?

DevHelp is a start for GTK+ docs, but afaik there is no MSDN like help system, because the thousands of libraries come
from many different hackers around the world. So it is mostly man pages, readme.txt, and online-wikis for each lib.

[heartbone]

@HeartBone

Is there an equivalent to MSDN on Linux?

Olliv

What ts-soft and Danilo said would normally be good enough. However my thinking is a bit different in response to your question.

Because of the open source nature of LINUX, the idea of proprietory code is discouraged.
As a result, any special status to officialy sanction certain developers to access code is not really necessary.

As a UNIX contract programmer at a few large companies over the years, I've used many flavors of workstation OSes including APOLLO DOMAIN, and AIX, in addition to regular System V Release 4 UNIX. I have seen too many, too thick Linux texts, describing the inner mysteries of the various libraries. Go to a used bookstore in a big city and you should find a few. A comprehensive GTK+ manual will be at least 3" thick.

If that detailed Linux library knowledge is your calling, then I feel that most any programmer will learn better from well commented working code examples, than from reading the detailed documentation. Of course that is probably why you are asking for something like MSDN.

However my gut feeling is that your request is sort of out of place on this forum because, we really don't need to know the details of the Linux libraries. My thinking is that the power contained within the PureBasic libraries relieves me from having to know the guts of Linux. If I'm wrong, then I've made a mistake in gertting my enthusiasm up for developing in UBUNTU Linux using PureBasic. However I think that so far it has done a great job in shielding me from needing MSDN. But I'm only doing BASIC game programming and not system programming as you must be.

Because only if you are doing system level interactions should you need to know the guts of the computer system. The idea of portable between different operating systems source code, is supposed to get you around having to learn the low level system internals to implement high level operations.

I have several games already written in AMOS and DarkBASIC that are ready to translate,
and although I am always tempted to do something new, my good friend is really bugging me to port MONEYSTOCK, as it currently only runs on the Amiga. It is a 20 year old mouse based game. The point is, I didn't have to know a lot about the internals of the Amiga because I stayed within the programming boundaries defined by the language. My thinking is that because the PureBasic compiler's functionality is a superset of the AMOS compiler, I shouldn't need to know the specifics of the Linux system to port my games.

I expect the learning of the specifics of how to setup the PureBasic calls, the values passed into the various functions will be challenging. Hopefully the answers will be available in some example source. If the answers are too hard to obtain then I'll backburner the effort and revert to Windows ports. It's nice to have options.

This was my first post from UBUNTU.

[Danilo]

If that detailed Linux library knowledge is your calling, then I feel that most any programmer will learn better from well commented working code examples, than from reading the detailed documentation. Of course that is probably why you are asking for something like MSDN.

Reading code examples is fine for learning, but for an overview of all library functions a reference documentation with
all functions, parameters, return values, etc. is required. I think this is what Olliv was asking for, mostly.
With so many libraries and today's big frameworks we are talking about many thousands or millions of functions/methods/classes -
nobody can have all this in his head anymore.

So after learning how a system/API works (books, tutorials), the reference documentation for system APIs and 3rd party libs
is most important in my opinion. If you can do with PB only, you already have the documentation included - but
for system APIs you need some good external reference docs.
Good reference docs can speed up development time drastically, because you will find very fast what you are looking for.
Some developers do it always online nowadays. I like to have it installed offline for faster access and access at times when
I am not able to use internet.

[Zach]

Yeah I don't think I would have very much fun using PureBasic without the Documentation if all I had to learn with was looking at commented code.


Some things just can't be learned by "watching". Although that may perhaps explain the enormous number of poor drivers on the road....

[blueb]

... and then the next problem: No start button.

Hi Nettie,
Five or six months ago I purchased 'StartIsBack' application for about $3.00. Now I can't tell my laptop from my Win7 desktop.

http://www.startisback.com/

--Bob

[IdeasVacuum]

....There is a wider issue though. Overall, the WinXP GUI is superior to Win7/Win8, being far more practical (yes I know a lot of the under-the-hood stuff is better in Win7). If Microsoft are really interested in selling Windows for the desktop in the future, they should go back to their roots and ensure that Win9 is at least as good as WinXP first.

....and Adobe going Cloud only? I have not found a professional User of Adobe products that thinks it's a step forward. What the Users think is that each release will be even more buggy than past efforts, requiring lots of User time patching-in updates, lack compatibility with older version files (an issue sharing files out-house more than in-house) and all of that for a long-term greater cost because they will have to renew more often than they do now.

These are both examples of development teams too detached from the professional people that actually use their products in the workplace. I remember way back when Vista was released and it simply was not good enough for the CAD application that the Microsoft hardware designers were using - they surely should have learnt their lesson then.

[Danilo]

Overall, the WinXP GUI is superior to Win7/Win8, being far more practical

Huh? It's the same Windows and Controls, just another design/skin, so what is superior in XP GUI?

[IdeasVacuum]

It's the same Windows and Controls

It's nearly the same, but not nearly enough! Things like missing productivity functions such as 'invert selection' in the edit (organize) menu. A lot of the Win7 GUI is different for the sake of being different, without adding to the User's productivity. I think Win7 got over-rated simply because it was so much better than Vista. The lack of service packs is very lamentable too for small businesses with a few PCs and no dedicated IT department.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
For those that need 'invert selection' on Win7:

Make your selection(s), then hit ALT to reveal the menu bar. Go to the Edit Menu, 'invert selection' is at the bottom.
The keyboard sequence is ALT+E+I.

It's also possible to add the menu bar to the display via the organize menu. Yet this is a lot of hassle, just to get back a function that was already to hand in WinXP - a similar faux pas to Win8's lack of a Start Button equivalent (and now Win8.1's too).