Hacker News Reader

Comment by tiku | Hacker News Reader

Yes, all we need, another layer in Windows. I recently went to Windows 11 and it is stunning that you still have multiple places for settings.

How are we going to name the classic settings? Classic classic control panel?

View on HN

Hey, don't stop them now - I'm having a great time watching Windows independently recreate every complaint about Linux GUIs:D If you thought QT/GTK was bad, wait 'til you see multiple styles and not-quite-overlapping settings panels from a single company!

E-Mail (32-Bit) ... Just leaving this here

The classic Control Panel allows everyone to add an icon to it. Most of those additions are quite pointless, like the Mail icon, which belongs to Microsoft Outlook and opens a configuration window you can easily access from within Outlook itself. The modern settings UIs are not extensible like this, nor should they be.

There's a talk that I enjoy a lot about this "multiple places for settings" problem. About how lots of software end up resembling

1. The maker's org chart (Conway's law) ...

2. ...multiplied by time

Casey Muratori: The Only Unbreakable Law - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IUj1EZwpJY

His examples are precisely the Windows settings :) . More precisely, the various audio/mixer UIs.

Adult Control Panel? I always think "Adult" when I'm trying to bring up the legacy panels instead of the function-crippled slow modern iterations.

I would love concept of "adult computing", where I can mark a checkbox "I herby guarantee that I'm not going to blame $company for me being a moron and installing malware/destabilizing device due to changing random options". Then device starts behaving like piece of hardware I own, shows error messages that actually tell something and in general doesn't assume if I drop dead if presented with more than two buttons on single screen

Oups, i'm afraid you are describing 1999 :/

Do you also agree to pay me compensation if your computer is part of a bot ring that is ddos’ing me or spamming me or spamming my users, because you installed malware?

Can you put up a bond for this or proof that you carry insurance for this?

You're free to sue me like for any other harm. Also, do you think that now you are protected against that? Will Google/Apple pay you compensation if due to to their negligence locked down devices become part of botnet?

Edit: but honestly if I could pass "driver test" for computer, pay insurance in the range of my car insurance and it would mean that I will never meet error message without details and I would not ever be locked out from configuring my device, however I please, I would take that deal.

Don't forget about 'netsh' and all the PowerShell cmdlets and objects that can manipulate windows settings.....

The CLI is all we really need... If Microsoft can expose all settings via CLI or PS, then folks will build the advanced config UIs for them!

That is what Nano Server is all about.

Windows has always offered control via COM interfaces to system settings.

Have you considered Linux?

It's arguably worse there. You got regular settings + GNOME Tweaks + a bunch of settings that can only be changed via CLI or some .ini file.

That's a fair assessment. I'm in the process of moving to Linux because I find windows 11 to be so incredibly awful. I'm using Ubuntu and it's been mostly a good transition, but learning a new operating system does have a learning curve for me.

Also: which desktop? At least you can install multiple desktops and switch at login.

FWIW, I like Cinnamon best, but I also like KDE and XFCE (plus, XFCE works especially well over remote desktops and inside virtual machines). I've never cared for later versions of GNOME and ran away screaming.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com