'Linux'.. WOW, I'm almost toltally SOLD now!!!

[PKTKS]

Doubt it will happen. Most of the bare metal OS and hypervisors out there these days are Linux.

... but they are "heavily modified property" of them..

Like ANDROID modified kernel..  and considering that  UEFI
now integrates http ( server farm ) transparent boot ...

they can just force a UEFI image which just http boots such hypervisor
and nothing more they will need besides a toaster on the other end...

Paul

[Bassman59]

To ALL though, and since then, I've learnt that in the 'Mac' system, their 'emphasis' seems to be on simplicity & user-friendliness, without either
the 'need' or desire (Apple don't WANT you to know too much!). You have a 'Document' you've written/created, what is the File-Name Extension??
(Don't worry about it... and look for it in 'Documents'!!).  I hate that forced control, but I understand the apparent 'simplicity' for general Home users. 

Back before macOS was based on Unix (that is before OS X 10.0, which according to Wikipedia was 20 years ago, March 2001!), Mac OS did not use file extensions in the manner of DOS and whatever to indicate file types. Remember, back in the DOS days, the eight dot three file name was standard because of filesystem limits, and the file extension was more traditional indicator of file type, and DOS actually didn't care (with the exception of .exe and .com for executable files and .bat for batch files). You could give any file any three-letter (or 2, or 1) extension you wanted and the application didn't care. That's all because the file system pre-dated the notion of a graphical user interface, and specifically where you could click on a file icon and that would launch the application meant to edit it.

Mac OS, being a GUI from the start, used content types and magic "content creator" codes to inform the OS what application created a file and could be used to edit it. However, with macOS now being Unix-based, file extensions are actually used, and like modern Unix and Windows, the file extension is not limited to just three characters. Now, by default the file extension is hidden (in the Finder) for most things, as the type of file is obvious from its icon. Display of file extensions is easily enabled, of course. (There is a minor annoyance: being Unix, many applications use "dot files," like .cproject in Eclipse, and by default macOS does not display those files in the Finder. It's exactly like if you did the ls command without the -a argument. Unfortunately, when you select all of the files in a directory, the hidden dot files are not selected. But there's a fix, you can enable that display either temporarily or permanently.)

The 'File' system on a 'Mac' seems to be like looking under the hood of a modern car, for people that barely know how to put some petrol/diesel in it!...
THAT being said, I've noticed over the years, that places like 'Medical-Centres', (and all their networked Doctors etc.), GENERALLY all use MAC Systems?? 
So I guess that says something about the proven reliability etc of such systems....

The macOS file system is a standard Unix file system. User-created files can be stored anywhere, of course. Now for convenience, there are default storage locations for most files. Typically, that is in /Users/yourname/Documents because ... well, why not? And the various Apple programs like Music (the former iTunes) and iMovie and Photos have default folders called /Users/yourname/Music and /Users/yourname/Movies and /Users/yourname/Photos, and of course you can move all of those to some other location.

Anyway, Unix users are comfortable with that file structure.

As for why medical offices and others uses Macs? Remember: the IT people select the software that fits the business's needs, and then they buy the hardware that runs that software. For example, a previous employer (going back quite a few years now) ran the BOM and ordering and inventory stuff all on a nice Filemaker database -- on Macs. It was quite reliable and it did what was necessary. Also it was a fuck of a lot less expensive than an Oracle database solution.

I never initially understood why 'Apple' changed years ago to incorporating/using 'Intel' style CPU's ?  I'm not complaining either, as it means that 'we' are
now able to utilize such modern Virtualization Software...  such as 'VirtualBox'. Although!!... 'VirtualBox' is by FAR in-superior to VMWARE, even using the
totally free version called 'Player'. However, in that case, you DO need the 'UnLocker' patch, freely downloaded, to add such 'MacOS' Guests... 

They switched from PowerPC to Intel processors because at the time, there was no roadmap for higher-performance/lower-power-consumption PowerPC processors after the G5 from IBM or Motorola. Intel clearly had products that met that need. What needs to be stated again is how seamless Apple made the transition from PPC to x86. (And they're doing it again, for the third time, with the M1.)

After 20 years of Unix-based macOS, I still don't understand why tools vendors (all of the FPGA vendors, for example) haven't offered macOS versions of their software. Instead, you're stuck dealing with specific variants of Linux and spending way too much time fucking with getting it all to work. macOS presents a standardized GUI and there are obviously multiplatform GUI toolkits that can be used to make the applications look the same across all platforms. All of the standard Linux/Unix development tools work on it, which is why once Mac OS X was released, much of the scientific computing community moved from Linux to the Mac.

Of course, when you ask them they say, "Nobody's asked for Mac support!" and then you can say, "bullshit" and point to many examples: MatLab, Mathematica, all of the microcontroller development platforms based on Eclipse (SiLabs, TI, NXP, ST) and NetBeans (Microchip/Atmel) ...

[Bassman59]

Or do what I do: run windows with Linux in VMs 

Yeah, rather than dicking about trying to get Xilinx ISE to run in Windows 10, I created a Linux VM with VirtualBox, and that works well enough. Still, fuck you, Xilinx.

[bd139]

Doubt it will happen. Most of the bare metal OS and hypervisors out there these days are Linux.

... but they are "heavily modified property" of them..

Like ANDROID modified kernel..  and considering that  UEFI
now integrates http ( server farm ) transparent boot ...

they can just force a UEFI image which just http boots such hypervisor
and nothing more they will need besides a toaster on the other end...

Paul

No one would buy that.

[Ed.Kloonk]

This guy.

[rsjsouza]

After 20 years of Unix-based macOS, I still don't understand why tools vendors (all of the FPGA vendors, for example) haven't offered macOS versions of their software.

In the case of the software suite I used to support, it was an easy answer: macOS users are a noisy but infinitesimal crowd. 1% of downloads when compared to 10% for Linux and the rest for Windows. Still, it was enough to actually create a version for this OS, to which was quite reasonably well received. Over the years, though, the California Fruit Co. made sure to screw our lives to the point that our first release does not work anymore after all the certification/signing and ending 32-bit support (among other shenanigans like overhauling the USB/serial subsystem, which broke compatibility on day one).

[bd139]

This guy.

Sieving primes is a fairly useless synthetic benchmark for testing OS performance. Especially as most of his stuff would quite happily lurk entirely in the CPU cache.  You want to hit network, IO and lots of RAM for that and the kernel’s API. NT’s syscall overhead is high enough to make a 10% difference in benchmarks on its own. On top of that, NT’s disk cache is hopeless.

[bd139]

After 20 years of Unix-based macOS, I still don't understand why tools vendors (all of the FPGA vendors, for example) haven't offered macOS versions of their software.

In the case of the software suite I used to support, it was an easy answer: macOS users are a noisy but infinitesimal crowd. 1% of downloads when compared to 10% for Linux and the rest for Windows. Still, it was enough to actually create a version for this OS, to which was quite reasonably well received. Over the years, though, the California Fruit Co. made sure to screw our lives to the point that our first release does not work anymore after all the certification/signing and ending 32-bit support (among other shenanigans like overhauling the USB/serial subsystem, which broke compatibility on day one).

Yes have to say that I agree. Fine example: Qt still doesn’t work properly on Big Sur.

[james_s]

Yeah, rather than dicking about trying to get Xilinx ISE to run in Windows 10, I created a Linux VM with VirtualBox, and that works well enough. Still, fuck you, Xilinx.

ISE is ancient, why would Xilinx bother to make it work with Win10? They're focused on Vivado now and have been for quite a few years. I run ISE on Win7x64, it works perfectly on that.

[olkipukki]

Yes have to say that I agree. Fine example: Qt still doesn’t work properly on Big Sur.

..and M1 

https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/macos.html
https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/macos.html

[DiTBho]

I haven't seen such an issue for a long time despite keeping some old/obsolete libs and doing multiple dist upgrades.

In my experiences, it happened on "rolling distro" when I compiled and installed stuff and didn't keep things weekly updated but rather spent a few months without doing it.

On Gentoo this is a known problem, because the portage changes a lot during a month.

On Debian and Arch I have never seen this problem, but things are managed differently, they are binary-based distro and you can update with a half-yearly rate without any problem.

[olkipukki]

They're focused on Vivado now and have been for quite a few years.

Sure, they probably do and don't bother to progress further at the same time

https://www.xilinx.com/content/dam/xilinx/support/documentation/sw_manuals/xilinx2020_2/ug973-vivado-release-notes-install-license.pdf
@see Supported Operating Systems

used to be before 2020 version
https://www.xilinx.com/support/answers/54242.html

Basically, Windows 10 or Ubuntu    (or Amazon Linux for guys who is runing tools in the cloud), RHEL/SLES left behind and everything else out of scope.

[olkipukki]

Qt still doesn't work properly on Gnome . Hi-DPI and native theme supports are still horrible.

Is it all good with GNOME and Hi-DPI now? 

https://www.eevblog.com/forum/general-computing/what-linux-desktop-(not-for-a-hobby)/msg3307586/#msg3307586
GNOME cannot do a fraction scale adjustments via UI right now (no comments)

[coromonadalix]

Yeah, rather than dicking about trying to get Xilinx ISE to run in Windows 10, I created a Linux VM with VirtualBox, and that works well enough. Still, fuck you, Xilinx.

ISE is ancient, why would Xilinx bother to make it work with Win10? They're focused on Vivado now and have been for quite a few years. I run ISE on Win7x64, it works perfectly on that.

ISE worked fine on win10   just have to hack mod  dll's names  ....   was to make it work on win 8  and up  had to do it to use old Xilinx cpld's  up to version ISE 10.x  ...  BUT not tested the latest versions up to 14.x

[rsjsouza]

Yeah, rather than dicking about trying to get Xilinx ISE to run in Windows 10, I created a Linux VM with VirtualBox, and that works well enough. Still, fuck you, Xilinx.

ISE is ancient, why would Xilinx bother to make it work with Win10? They're focused on Vivado now and have been for quite a few years. I run ISE on Win7x64, it works perfectly on that.

ISE worked fine on win10   just have to hack mod  dll's names  ....   was to make it work on win 8  and up  had to do it to use old Xilinx cpld's  up to version ISE 10.x  ...  BUT not tested the latest versions up to 14.x

Yeah, that is the dychotomy of modern pro software: making it work through some simple procedures/hacks can be done in many instances, but making the modifications in-house, adapting the test jigs to acommodate the hacks and officially declaring support is a whole other story, especially with older software that was already "frozen" in the dev tree due to age and/or priorities.
That is one of the beautiful things of the internet: someone will eventually find an unsupported way and others will follow.

[bingo600]

I have been a linux user for 15+ years now, and i have no (major) issues.
Ps: I don't do gaming , and might not have the Latest in laptops (My TP T430s , is my current).

I'm using Linux Mint (19.3) - Mate edition (Gnome 2) for all my laptops/desktops.
And Debian for servers.

My i7-Desktop was bought w. Nvidia GFX , as they have nice linux support.


Mint uses Ubuntu as the engine , but has better driversupport , and Mate (Gnome2)
I was running Ubuntu until the end of 10.4 , where they switched to their own desktop manager , that imho was terrible.
I switched to Mint at that time , and have never looked back.

I'm running
Xilinx ISE 14 , and Altera 13.x on Mint 17.3 (had to do a bit of tweaking, but not too bad)
When switching to 19.3 , i made a Mint 17.3 (FGPA VM - in virtual box) , and that's now my FPGA Machine.
I'm not using Vivado yet , as i don't have any fancy boards.


I'm not a power user (as in multiple screens or advanced sound).
But i have no issue with sound , or BT headsets or ....


I'm a Network guy , and electronics & computers is my hobby , so Solidworks or Altium or ... , is not something i use.
The only things i "really miss" is :
Atmel AVR debugger and Microsoft Visio.

But if i want to solve that i suppose i could install Win10 in a Vbox VM.


I do have one Win7 PC , as i have to update maps on my Garmin GPS , it's booted 2..3 times a year.


I have not missed Windows

/Bingo

[Karel]

Is it all good with GNOME and Hi-DPI now? 

I try to avoid anything written with Qt. For wx and Gtk programs, they scale well in Gnome Desktop.

That being said, Gnome Desktop exposes scaled resolution to apps, so if your app captures a 200% scaled 4K screen, it will only capture at 1080p, as it was fed 1080p source from the toolkit. If you stream, you need to either use a hardware or low level recording tool.

Also, canvases can only output at scaled resolution too. So if you draw on the screen, you draw 1080p on a 200% scaled 4K screen. As expected, this may not be pixel perfect from time to time. This is particularly bad for remote desktop clients, like Remmina.

HiDPI is much better on KDE, as I have heard, but I am just too lazy to explore it. Last time I tried it I found it to be very unnatural to my baked in Gnome thinking.

In order to provide good scaling without getting fuzzy, the applications need to be updated.
I maintain a Qt application that runs on Linux, Mac and windows and some time ago I adapted the whole interface to automatic scaling
using some basic rules:

- NEVER use setGeometry() or setFixedSize() for widgets!

- Use QVBoxLayout and QHBoxLayout to position the widgets on a dialog. Use insertStretch and setStretch so that Qt will
  adapt the geometry of all widgets correctly when the user resizes the dialog.

- Give the user the possibility to change the fontsize of the application, the default is to use the same font and fontsize as the
  desktop is using. Qt automatically adapt the sizes of widgets like pushbuttons and menus to make the text fit, no issues there with Qt.
  (but only if you apply the above rules!)

- When drawing/creating your own widgets using QPainter, calculate the dimensions of everything you draw based on the actual size
  of your widget during a paint event. In order to know how much space a text string uses given the actual font and fontsize, use QFontMetrics.

By following these rules, my Qt application run perfectly fine on old screens (1024x768) and modern top of the line hidpi 4K screens,
no matter the physical size of the screen.

Unfortunately, not all programmers follow these rules or update there existing applications.

[DiTBho]

I am on Haiku now, wow it's like silk

No applications, only a few available, but I am going to write one myself

[Ed.Kloonk]

Two videos released today. Both putting the boot into their systems that won't boot windows 10.   

[Twoflower]

I do have one Win7 PC , as i have to update maps on my Garmin GPS , it's booted 2..3 times a year.

If you're using Openstreetmaps for the maps you probably can skip that too. I understand that the OSM maps might have some limitations, but as it is free you can give it a try. And you can select of many different flavors (e.g. VeloMap for bicycles). I use mkgmap to convert the files and my Oregon is happy with it.

[madires]

Two videos released today. Both putting the boot into their systems that won't boot windows 10.   

It's nothing new, MS started screwing up updates over a decade ago. Back then you had the chance to wait and skip bad updates. But now you're forced to install update rollups and can't dodge the bullets anymore. Meanwhile MS is causing so much trouble that windows became a liability. Give them some more time and they will sink their own ship.

[xrunner]

Been running Linux Mint on a Ryzen 7 board for years - doing Seti@home (project now paused) and now Einstein@home project.

No issues to speak of. 

[PKTKS]

Two videos released today. Both putting the boot into their systems that won't boot windows 10.   

( )  Meanwhile MS is causing so much trouble that windows became a liability. Give them some more time and they will sink their own ship.

liability ? 

it's been time already
You know what  they say about the first ones to abandon ship...

Currently (and for quite some time) MS is the lowest possible shit-ware
anyone can install on a computer.. 

MS is ground zero of computer shit

I can't bear the idea of people boasting running that WSL thing,,
and  advocating MS thingos  like power-shit-shell in *NIX

geez do they realize that PERL, RUBY, AWK, TCL .. and even python
sweat hearts are several decades ahead that shit ? 

unbearable

Paul

[bd139]

I'll give you the WSL and Powershell argument as I don't like them at all but quite frankly there are a lot of doomsayers, zealots and whingers out there who have conspicuous virtues about their shit. And I'm quite fed up with all of it because most people have precisely fuck all experience compared to those of us actually in the trenches on both platforms.

3 windows 10 machines here. No problems at all. Day job is keeling a large fintech on the rails that almost entirely runs on Linux. I've got 11 linux machines running on the hypervisor under the desk which is also windows 10 running vbox.



Sometimes the right side is both sides. The best tool is the one you use, not the one you talk about using.

I've used Linux professionally for about 24 years now. Windows about 30. They're as bad as each other 

[PKTKS]

(..)
3 windows 10 machines here. No problems at all.
(..)

I've used Linux professionally for about 24 years now. Windows about 30. They're as bad as each other 

Hardly... question is "when their shit will hit *your* fan.. "

They are obviously  in a decadent spiral descent ...

Trying to pile  *NIX inside their shit hole..

second question is "When this shit hits their gaming audience..."

what they will FUD next.?

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows-10-update-bsod-frame-rate-plummeting

serious problems for their last trench
Paul

PS>  I have my own pile of WINTEL MS shit on my scrap bags..

Interesting (just BLAH non focused points)
https://www.pcmag.com/news/cleaning-up-the-e-waste-mess-big-tech-needs-to-do-more

But the figure is amazing clear to show what they did and
how they filled their pockets so fast..

Figure shows their irresponsible methods.. in permanent effect