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Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by wgerard on Monday February 10, 2020 @09:21AM (#22289291)
> I just don't understand why people run windows.

There are many, many products that either run significantly better on windows (Office) or are completely unavailable on other OSs (many video games).

That's changing, for sure. But there's still a long tail of products that semi-necessitate windows.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by reaperducer on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:24PM (#22291120)
or are completely unavailable on other OSs (many video games)

I get a chuckle whenever I realize how things have changed.

In the early to mid-80's, there was a popular mantra that the IBM PC ecosystem was for "serous work," and anything else was "just for games," which was a slap at Apple (then dominant for business, but rapidly slipping) and the other alternatives.

Today, it seems that for the majority of ordinary people, the only reason they stay in the Wintel ecosystem is for games.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by CamperBob2 on Monday February 10, 2020 @04:12PM (#22293416)
Games back then weren't an important part of our culture. They are now. Consequently they are a requirement.

Seems simple enough to understand.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by reaperducer on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @11:12AM (#22299563)
Games back then weren't an important part of our culture.

The mind boggles.

I think you've just outed yourself as someone who wasn't alive or awake back then.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by CamperBob2 on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @10:53PM (#22305575)
I was writing games back then, thank you very much. :-P
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by Sohcahtoa82 on Monday February 10, 2020 @04:30PM (#22293594)
> the only reason they stay in the Wintel ecosystem is for games.

Is it still "Wintel" when a lot of gamers are going AMD now?

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by yellowapple on Monday February 10, 2020 @08:22PM (#22295154)
It is until AMD goes mainstream with an instruction set not developed by Intel.
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by angrygoat on Monday February 10, 2020 @09:07PM (#22295358)
Such as AMD64? :)
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by yellowapple on Tuesday February 11, 2020 @03:13PM (#22302301)
Okay, or directly descended from an instruction set designed by Intel :P
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by heavenlyblue on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:11PM (#22290966)
How is office better than Google Docs?
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by zaat on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:21PM (#22291078)
Try using bi-directional text, or including equations in Docs. It is practically unusable.

Excel is so powerful that people are doing with it stupid things and than their businesses rely on them. That stuff will never work in Docs.

Office is a killer product, with extremely rich feature set that works very well. Sadly, there is nothing in the market that even close. It is the main (perhaps only) reason I still have to use a Windows VM.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by t-writescode on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:21PM (#22291073)
For real document creation, Word and Latex are the best out there, bar none.

For detailed and powerful spreadsheet use there is nothing that compares to Excel. This coming from someone forced to use Google Sheets at a former company, after having Excel.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by xnyan on Monday February 10, 2020 @03:03PM (#22292662)
Advanced formatting. I could do things in Microsoft office that Google Docs can’t even dream about.

As much as it pains me to say it the power of excel is uncomparable, especially for people who can’t program and are never going to learn how.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by PeterisP on Monday February 10, 2020 @04:14PM (#22293446)
Interoperability.

For me, a common use case is to receive a large document from someone using MS Office, make small alterations or comments, and send it back... while being certain that I have not changed anything else (including formatting and layout of included illustrations) that I did not want to change. Neither Google Docs nor OpenOffice currently support that, simply opening and saving a nontrivial Word document changes the layout.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by andrewshadura on Monday February 10, 2020 @05:55PM (#22294313)
OpenOffice doesn't exist anymore, and hasn't for a decade.
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by wgerard on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:33PM (#22291227)
FWIW, I don't think it is necessarily.

But, a lot of people are forced to use office for various reasons - trying to edit a docx in Docs/Pages/LibreOffice, for example, can be really frustrating for any number of reasons (fonts, margins, etc. all sometimes break spectacularly).

So if you're using office quite frequently, windows can be very appealing.

Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by t-writescode on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:39PM (#22291314)
Not to mention how just plain ugly LibreOffice’s page renderer is. The kerning and spacing and shapes just seem so off all the time.
Re:Microsoft begins showing an anti-Firefox ad in the Window... by njsubedi on Monday February 10, 2020 @12:19PM (#22291042)
Works completely offline?