From TFA: Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC) makes it easy to make Android apps work on Chrome OS. "“The ARC solution was a blessing, and helped us to recycle 95 percent of the Android code and optimizations".
Also, I don't know why the author decided to include ReactOS in the list of supported OSs since there's no special version of VLC for it, it just runs the Windows binary.
For once Windows was behind on something respect to Linux:)
I all seriousness, now if Microsoft would stop the insanity and return Windows to being just an OS instead an OS, spying and advertisement device I'd consider upgrading from Win 7.
...but I'm actually surprised there's >100.000 people in world ready to buy a 1.500$ smartwatch. Which, in all likelihood, is something that will stop working after a few years and will be "current" for a couple of them at most.
I didn't mind too much either, but mostly because I understand a project the size of Firefox needs money to keep running. Anyway, I don't think there's a way to make money without annoying the users at least a little bit
I'm planning to go exactly this route when Windows 7 is no longer viable (newer hardware and software will stop working on it): Use Linux for everything except for Windows games for which I'll have a Windows partition that will be used exclusively as a games console. Steam Big Picture UI will make it easy.
I've been following the project for a few years and yes, the progress is slow. They do have a team of passionate developers but they're few and not everyone has the will of learning enough of the Windows internals to develop a clone of it.
I'd like them to suceed but they need many more people.
That being said, it does go forward. For example, you can now start Steam and I've been able to make a couple of simple indie games work.
+1000. Bonus points for Microsoft for making Windows 10 with an ugly UI (debatable I know) and on top of it much less customizable than previous versions.
Make the defaults ugly if they may be but don't take away customization options from power users. I guess they don't want me to use their products anymore
And I'm gonna be sad to see them go.
I use them to group tabs by topic: I one group for example I have Android API tabs, in other Redmine tabs, etc. It works very well for me.
It also doesn't surprise me that they are a seldom used feature because, since it's not an expected feature of a browser you first have to learn of its existence and then use it. It's very much a "power user" feature.
I hope there's a way to implement a similar functionality with extensions.
Exactly! I wouldn't be so pissed off at Microsoft if they made all this shit optional, but making it mandatory I feel pushed around by a bully and also that they get so valuable from that that they can't allow users to disable it.
If they made all the things I dislike about Win 10 optional I wouldn't care they were offered, I might even use some of them
Don't worry about the inconsitent control panels, Microsoft have stated they will migrate everything to the mobile oriented "Settings" app.
I don't know how they're going to put all the current options there without making a mess. Well, they'll probably remove many of them for "streamlining" the OS.
Soon we'll have all the "greatness" of Windows Phone on our PCs.
Not wanting having privileges you've had up to now (your every keystroke not being spied) being taken away is now being a luddite?
Gosh, you may not care about it, but why do you justify commercial companies when they do these things to us?
I don't like that kind of shit on Android which I use because I find it to be the least bad of the mobile OSs, but I sure as hell don't want it on my desktop, work, computer.
I've been happy with Microsoft products up to now, but they don't suit me anymore. I might have to go to Linux as my next desktop OS where I'll be able to have 20 century features such as: No spying, an OS which doesn't try to sell you something at every step, an OS with an UI fit for desktop usage.
I sure as hell don't like Pocket forced integration either, but I understand that Mozilla must make money to keep going on.
I don't have a good solution to this problem but it's obviously a very thin line between "acceptable commercial add-ons that make Mozilla money" and "intrusive add-ons that turn users away".
I'd gladly contribute a few dollars every year if that meant I'd get a cleaner browser but making a Firefox an ad-sponsored or paid without ads product is difficult since it's open source.
I live in Europe and I don't pirate software anymore but most people I know don't pay for apps (I've bought some). I guess we're just not used to it.
Also, I think the fact that Android doesn't limit you to apps from the official app store makes pirating easier. I bought some apps legally (e.g.: through humble bundle) which are delivered as simple apk's. You don't need to be root to install whatever apk you come across.
Not tracking down, but disagreement with rights holders was just the reason Night Dive couldn't re release No One Lives Forever which, by all accounts, it's a very nice game.
I could try to download a pirate version but I'd rather have a version optimized for modern computers and give some money to Night Dive
This, exactly this. Up to now, I considered Windows (7) fit to my purposes, but 10 isn't (many complaints to fit here but mainly the fact that they're turning it into a mobile OS with most of the UI and programs going to touch first optimization, and the new philosophy of Microsoft: "Your computer is my computer to do as I please"), and I now seriously considering moving to Linux when Windows 7 is no longer viable. I would hate to lose the ability of playing many Windows games so I might opt for using Linux full time except for a Windows partitions to use games.
I would essentialy treat Windows as a gaming console and move all my serious computing to Linux.
I understand Mozilla have to make money to keep going but they have to be very careful about their monetization strategies: Annoy the user too much and you'll lose many users instead of making more money.
I personally would be open to paying a small amount of money per year to have no monetization "features" at all.
Nothing except their own desire to sell you their newer phones. The telcos have very little to do with it since they still stop releasing updates for the unbranded version of their phones after a year or two after release.
I guess they just don't see it as a money-generating move.
Root is supposed to be impossible to get in Android phones. What you're complaining about is fixing of security bugs (yes, I know you know but this is worth being underlined).
How it should be is that you could get to be root in Android as a system feature not because of security bugs, but we know Google wouldn't like that. I still think a user should be able to do 99% of things that require root like running a firewall or mounting the system partition read/write so that you can delete apps which you'll never use but are stored there.
Yep. It seems we're going backwards, and Windows 10 is not helping at all. Its UI is slowly being transformed into a franken mix of desktop and mobile UIs and that's likely to leave no one happy. I know I'm not since the new UI is worse for desktop usage.
They're even going to replace the complex and information-heavy Control Panel with a touch optimized version. I can't imagine how many options they will have to remove or how many tens of pages of touch optimized buttons and textboxes they're gonna have to add.
Everyone would be better off if they made two totally different UIs for Windows: one optimized for desktop usage and other for touch and not force users to use UIs designed for both metaphores.
I don't know if you're aware of this but Libreoffice are already working on a version for Android. I think so far it only supports document viewing but editing is definitely on the cards.
I came to say exactly this. And we should be getting to this because it seems it's the only way Microsoft will stop taking such liberties with our PCs.
I have no hopes they'll ever release a version of Windows that I want to use but this would at least send them the message that they can't do whatever they want with out PCs and have no consequences.
From TFA: Android Runtime for Chrome (ARC) makes it easy to make Android apps work on Chrome OS. "“The ARC solution was a blessing, and helped us to recycle 95 percent of the Android code and optimizations".
Also, I don't know why the author decided to include ReactOS in the list of supported OSs since there's no special version of VLC for it, it just runs the Windows binary.
For once Windows was behind on something respect to Linux :)
I all seriousness, now if Microsoft would stop the insanity and return Windows to being just an OS instead an OS, spying and advertisement device I'd consider upgrading from Win 7.
should not count as a donation since we all know Ms wants lots of people in their ecosystem at whatever price.
May I ask why do you dislike Android? And what makes Windows Phone better for you? Thanks
...but I'm actually surprised there's >100.000 people in world ready to buy a 1.500$ smartwatch. Which, in all likelihood, is something that will stop working after a few years and will be "current" for a couple of them at most.
I didn't mind too much either, but mostly because I understand a project the size of Firefox needs money to keep running. Anyway, I don't think there's a way to make money without annoying the users at least a little bit
Yeah, totally agree. I refuse to use Win 10 because all of the spying Microsoft included there but for these kids that would be completely normal
I'm planning to go exactly this route when Windows 7 is no longer viable (newer hardware and software will stop working on it): Use Linux for everything except for Windows games for which I'll have a Windows partition that will be used exclusively as a games console. Steam Big Picture UI will make it easy.
I've been following the project for a few years and yes, the progress is slow. They do have a team of passionate developers but they're few and not everyone has the will of learning enough of the Windows internals to develop a clone of it.
I'd like them to suceed but they need many more people.
That being said, it does go forward. For example, you can now start Steam and I've been able to make a couple of simple indie games work.
+1000. Bonus points for Microsoft for making Windows 10 with an ugly UI (debatable I know) and on top of it much less customizable than previous versions.
Make the defaults ugly if they may be but don't take away customization options from power users. I guess they don't want me to use their products anymore
And I'm gonna be sad to see them go.
I use them to group tabs by topic: I one group for example I have Android API tabs, in other Redmine tabs, etc. It works very well for me.
It also doesn't surprise me that they are a seldom used feature because, since it's not an expected feature of a browser you first have to learn of its existence and then use it. It's very much a "power user" feature. I hope there's a way to implement a similar functionality with extensions.
Exactly! I wouldn't be so pissed off at Microsoft if they made all this shit optional, but making it mandatory I feel pushed around by a bully and also that they get so valuable from that that they can't allow users to disable it.
If they made all the things I dislike about Win 10 optional I wouldn't care they were offered, I might even use some of them
Don't worry about the inconsitent control panels, Microsoft have stated they will migrate everything to the mobile oriented "Settings" app.
I don't know how they're going to put all the current options there without making a mess. Well, they'll probably remove many of them for "streamlining" the OS.
Soon we'll have all the "greatness" of Windows Phone on our PCs.
Not wanting having privileges you've had up to now (your every keystroke not being spied) being taken away is now being a luddite?
Gosh, you may not care about it, but why do you justify commercial companies when they do these things to us?
I don't like that kind of shit on Android which I use because I find it to be the least bad of the mobile OSs, but I sure as hell don't want it on my desktop, work, computer.
I've been happy with Microsoft products up to now, but they don't suit me anymore. I might have to go to Linux as my next desktop OS where I'll be able to have 20 century features such as: No spying, an OS which doesn't try to sell you something at every step, an OS with an UI fit for desktop usage.
I sure as hell don't like Pocket forced integration either, but I understand that Mozilla must make money to keep going on.
I don't have a good solution to this problem but it's obviously a very thin line between "acceptable commercial add-ons that make Mozilla money" and "intrusive add-ons that turn users away".
I'd gladly contribute a few dollars every year if that meant I'd get a cleaner browser but making a Firefox an ad-sponsored or paid without ads product is difficult since it's open source.
I live in Europe and I don't pirate software anymore but most people I know don't pay for apps (I've bought some). I guess we're just not used to it.
Also, I think the fact that Android doesn't limit you to apps from the official app store makes pirating easier. I bought some apps legally (e.g.: through humble bundle) which are delivered as simple apk's. You don't need to be root to install whatever apk you come across.
Not tracking down, but disagreement with rights holders was just the reason Night Dive couldn't re release No One Lives Forever which, by all accounts, it's a very nice game.
I could try to download a pirate version but I'd rather have a version optimized for modern computers and give some money to Night Dive
The only part of Linux Android uses is the kernel. Well, and some native libraries, but it's definitely not a Linux system as we usually know them
This, exactly this. Up to now, I considered Windows (7) fit to my purposes, but 10 isn't (many complaints to fit here but mainly the fact that they're turning it into a mobile OS with most of the UI and programs going to touch first optimization, and the new philosophy of Microsoft: "Your computer is my computer to do as I please"), and I now seriously considering moving to Linux when Windows 7 is no longer viable. I would hate to lose the ability of playing many Windows games so I might opt for using Linux full time except for a Windows partitions to use games.
I would essentialy treat Windows as a gaming console and move all my serious computing to Linux.
I understand Mozilla have to make money to keep going but they have to be very careful about their monetization strategies: Annoy the user too much and you'll lose many users instead of making more money.
I personally would be open to paying a small amount of money per year to have no monetization "features" at all.
What prevents Samsung from doing the same?
Nothing except their own desire to sell you their newer phones. The telcos have very little to do with it since they still stop releasing updates for the unbranded version of their phones after a year or two after release.
I guess they just don't see it as a money-generating move.
Root is supposed to be impossible to get in Android phones. What you're complaining about is fixing of security bugs (yes, I know you know but this is worth being underlined).
How it should be is that you could get to be root in Android as a system feature not because of security bugs, but we know Google wouldn't like that. I still think a user should be able to do 99% of things that require root like running a firewall or mounting the system partition read/write so that you can delete apps which you'll never use but are stored there.
Yep. It seems we're going backwards, and Windows 10 is not helping at all. Its UI is slowly being transformed into a franken mix of desktop and mobile UIs and that's likely to leave no one happy. I know I'm not since the new UI is worse for desktop usage.
They're even going to replace the complex and information-heavy Control Panel with a touch optimized version. I can't imagine how many options they will have to remove or how many tens of pages of touch optimized buttons and textboxes they're gonna have to add.
Everyone would be better off if they made two totally different UIs for Windows: one optimized for desktop usage and other for touch and not force users to use UIs designed for both metaphores.
I don't know if you're aware of this but Libreoffice are already working on a version for Android. I think so far it only supports document viewing but editing is definitely on the cards.
I came to say exactly this. And we should be getting to this because it seems it's the only way Microsoft will stop taking such liberties with our PCs.
I have no hopes they'll ever release a version of Windows that I want to use but this would at least send them the message that they can't do whatever they want with out PCs and have no consequences.