"All Operating Systems Suck" | Hacker News Reader

"All Operating Systems Suck"

harmful.cat-v.org

18 pointsbehnamoh15 comments

I always think I type insanely fast and the processor has trouble keeping up with me, but I've yet to use a computer that didn't "hesitate" and "think about" what it was doing or going to do, with a delay in the mix.

So I can't knock you for saying that all operating systems suck, because with all the processing speed available, you would think that computers would be more capable of multi-tasking, especially if the only thing you really have open is a few tabs in a browser.

So then what is it really? The browser has a massive leak? Or the operating system can't handle it?

Mac OS -- used it for a few years and even tried upgrading my OS to the latest version. Even a fresh format. The OS seems to just be... slow!

Windows 7 and Windows 10? You would think they would have patched it all up and got it together, but it still doesn't mind introducing malware and other programs that tend to slow it down over time.

Linux has been decent, but there are moments where you can see it is processing something.

And the love of my life? Chromebook? Chrome OS? It can only handle a certain amount of tabs before it has this memory leakage that causes everything to slow down and at times, the computer will just freeze to the point where you need to hard boot it. Or you have to restart it every few days to let it "refresh" itself.

Certainly understandable that the operating system itself is just a platform, but they could be much improved upon when it comes to performance.

How can you possibly be sure that the system hanging to process is the fault of a poor OS, rather than a poor application?

It is more than likely due to poor application. There are lots of times where developers simply do not "close" the database connection which causes leaks. When I worked with Visual Basic and a few of the older programs, this was the number one cause for Windows slowing down, because applications would make connections to a database or forget to kill their loops.

I had been hired as a programmer to fix autobody shop software many, many moons ago. And that was certainly a huge part of the problem.

I'm not blaming the OS as it really is just a "platform" for applications to run on. But I'm sure operating systems could do better to improve performance or monitor the activity of applications running. I know Windows has some tools nowadays that alert the user: "This application is taking longer than expected" and gives you the options to wait for it or kill the task.

So my main operating system is ChromeOS. I love it because it loads fast and is fairly easy to use and I've learned to do my programming on a Chromebook. I used to use Linux to make up for what was lacking, but over the years, extensions have been released. Online web apps are so useful that it has eliminated the need for Linux on a Chromebook. But even so... I rarely ever restart the Chromebook, and somehow it manages to freeze up over time. Is it ChromeOS's fault? Likely not. More that Chrome itself, the browser, from extensions and tabs open just tends to use a lot of resources.

I know there have been experimental features and things where if you switch off the tab and are off it for a while, Chrome will no longer use it, and when you click back on to it, it will refresh itself. So... there are definitely things that applications themselves can do. But I am sure there are things that the OS can do as well beyond just being a platform.

If the apps you were using at crash time vary a lot, but the (frequent) crashes are quite predictable when you're running more than you usually do seemingly no matter what the app combo is.

> You may also be interested in the Operating System Hall of Shame: http://www.tcp.co.uk/staff/simes/non-tcp/hall-of-shame.html

I am interested, but it's down and the wayback machine doesn't seem to have it. Does anybody know who simes is or where to find that page?

'simes' is Simon Burr, beyond that I can't help.

Reminds me of an internet oldie, the song "Every OS Sucks" by Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85p7JZXNy8

> Linux sucks differently every time a kernel is released.

I actually laughed.

It's interesting to speculate what would happen to the content of this article if it were an HN comment. Do you think it would be considered insightful?

It would be flagged and dead very quickly.

To the content: MS-DOS doesn't qualify? OK. But CP/M does? What's up with that?

This is just a rant. Very mildly amusing, but just a rant.

Probably not and I do appreciate that about HN.

But it sure was funny when I first saw it on /. years ago.

Why don't they have Emacs in that list?

LynxOS (hard RTOS) is quite nice. I hope Linux gets hard real time support for userland, some day :-)

RIP Uriel ;_;

> All Apple OS's really suck.

I know I should take this with a grain of salt, but I can't help to feel a slight hate for Apple.

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