Oh that's a good one. Sadly he's nowhere near nerdy enough to fully get it... and it's only on my laptop, I swear!!

On 11/2/2026 at 23:15, mSparks said:

Es porque podemos volar Xplane, desarrollar para Xplane, publicar en los foros y hablar en Discord, todo a la vez. Excepto en realidad virtual.

Mientras que Windows usaba todo, murió de viejo mientras esperaba que sus máquinas se encendieran e iniciaran XPlane.

Mi esposa acaba de cambiar de Windows a una MacBook Pro M5 esta semana. La única máquina Windows que tenemos ahora es una máquina virtual con Windows 8 para crear binarios de Windows, con algunas pruebas de plugins de XPlane en su antigua. No puedo dejar de recomendar Windows; todo está terriblemente anticuado, con una gran cantidad de patrones oscuros integrados y spyware. Simplemente no.

Let's thank God that we don't have to depend on Apple software, which has historically systematically ripped off its users by tying its operating system to hardware with prohibitive costs.

Have you ever wondered what percentage of the world's population can afford a Mac? If it were the only option right now, we would still be typing on an Olivetti.

There is no such thing as perfect software or operating system, and I say this as someone who has worked with Sun, Linux, Windows, and especially FreeBSD since the 1990s. Windows has done what others have failed to do: make home computing accessible to almost everyone.

 

 

1 hour ago, Aglos77 said:

.

Have you ever wondered what percentage of the world's population can afford a Mac? 

 

 

Macs are far cheaper than windows machines at the low end these days, by a wide margin.

2 hours ago, mSparks said:

Hoy en día las Mac son mucho más baratas que las máquinas con Windows en el segmento de gama baja, por un amplio margen.

That's not true. In Spain, for example, the most basic Mac Mini costs €719, and you have to add a screen, mouse, and keyboard to that. In the low end of Windows, you can find mini PCs for less than €300 if you already have it.

18 minutes ago, Aglos77 said:

That's not true. In Spain, for example, the most basic Mac Mini costs €719, and you have to add a screen, mouse, and keyboard to that. In the low end of Windows, you can find mini PCs for less than €300 if you already have it.

try running anything other then the most basic on that. You won't be able to start x-plane on those mini pcs. at all.

granted, x-plane will not run very great on the cheapest mac mini, but it will run with settings tuned down.

With that Mac Mini, simply upgrading to a 512 SSD, which I think is the minimum requirement nowadays to be able to work, already costs you almost a thousand euros. With that budget, there are mid-range computers running Windows or Linux that run X-Plane 12 at a more than acceptable quality, far above that Mac Mini. 

But we're talking about low-end equipment; neither the basic Mac Mini nor a mini PC are designed to run games.

What I mean is that if Windows had not existed, computing would not have reached the masses as it has in recent years. Until four days ago, Linux was a hostile environment for the average user, not because of its complexity, but because of the high fragmentation of distributions and working environments, and Apple has always had buyers with very high purchasing power in mind.

 

18 hours ago, Murmur said:

Just for a laugh... 😆

...

Wow, I feel more attacked than the US on Dec 7th, 1941.

Just kidding.

I use Arch, btw.

 

9 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

Let's thank God that we don't have to depend on Apple software, which has historically systematically ripped off its users by tying its operating system to hardware with prohibitive costs.

If you think about it, the high purchase cost for Apple devices pays for quite a bit more than what meets the eye. They design their own chips and devices, built for usability and longevity, they run specialized stores where you can buy and get their products repaired and they offer professional support and software updates for a very long time. Even the recycling cost could be factored into their pricing. And, as far as I know, they do not sell your data for targeted advertising and you can turn in your old device for a modest rebate on a new one. I think all of this is why Apple owners are the most content computer and mobile device users I know. Never heard much of a complaint.

By now, I think that regular laptops are the actual ripoff. Badly balanced hardware, ever cheaper build quality, data collection all around, driver updates by the grace of Microsoft, usage data collection all around and you're lucky if you get two years of support instead of one.

Edited February 13Feb 13 by Bjoern

2 hours ago, Bjoern said:

Vaya, me siento más atacado que Estados Unidos el 7 de diciembre de 1941.

Es una broma.

Por cierto, yo uso Arch.

 

Si lo piensas, el alto precio de compra de los dispositivos Apple compensa bastante más de lo que parece. Diseñan sus propios chips y dispositivos, pensados para la usabilidad y la longevidad, tienen tiendas especializadas donde puedes comprar y reparar sus productos, y ofrecen soporte profesional y actualizaciones de software durante  mucho  tiempo. Incluso el coste del reciclaje podría estar incluido en sus precios. Y, que yo sepa, no venden tus datos para publicidad dirigida y puedes entregar tu dispositivo antiguo para obtener un pequeño descuento en uno nuevo. Creo que todo esto explica por qué los usuarios de Apple son los usuarios de ordenadores y dispositivos móviles más satisfechos que conozco. Nunca he oído quejas.

A estas alturas, creo que las laptops normales son la verdadera estafa. Hardware mal equilibrado, calidad de construcción cada vez más baja, recopilación de datos por todas partes, actualizaciones de controladores por obra de Microsoft, recopilación de datos de uso por todas partes, y con suerte tienes dos años de soporte en lugar de uno.

Apple restricts hardware repairs outside official service channels.Many components (batteries, screens, Face ID modules) are tied to device serial numbers, so replacing them independently can cause warnings or loss of function.

Only Apple and authorized centers have access to calibration tools, diagnostics, and component pairing.

Legal and contractual pressure limits independent repair shops.
Devices are designed to be hard to repair: proprietary screws, glued or soldered parts, modular dependencies.
Justifications: security, user experience, privacy—but the effect is market control and dependence on official service.

Plenty of videos on youtube complaing how apple couldnt/woukdnt fix where independent repair shop did, cant think of one reason to buy apple, stealing your data for years, locked into a sytem you cant escape, being their mantra for years, windows and ms finally caught up.

11 hours ago, Aglos77 said:

That's not true. In Spain, for example, the most basic Mac Mini costs €719, and you have to add a screen, mouse, and keyboard to that. In the low end of Windows, you can find mini PCs for less than €300 if you already have it.

A graphics card capable of running xplane is going to cost at least that.

My point was that €719 from anyone else would cost you €2000 for similar performance.

You should look at the macbook airs, they are phenomenal mobile devices.

If you want something for xplane there is exactly zero reasons to purchase windows. Linux is both better and free.

On 2/14/2026 at 9:19 AM, mSparks said:

If you want something for xplane there is exactly zero reasons to purchase windows.

Not since win11 for sure win 10 still fine, 

1 hour ago, mjrhealth said:

Not since win11 for sure win 10 still fine, 

Since xplane 11.

In the xplane 9 and 10 days "needed" windows for fsx, even the early XP11 days a lot of nice stuff was windows only.

Thing with windows 11 is if you are going to have to learn a new OS UI it might as well be mac (which is a far better UI) and setup Linux on a decent base unit with a very similar UI.

Its been a good few years now since I ran into anything I wanted that needed windows,  I think the last thing was orbx central and that has a very nice Linux version now.

And to keep it on topic, at this point Linux support has become a must have for 3rd party devs imho, because even people who haven't switched yet have the strong impression they will need to, so no Linux support is a big red flag that hurts sales.

Edited February 16Feb 16 by mSparks

9 hours ago, mSparks said:

Since xplane 11.

In the xplane 9 and 10 days "needed" windows for fsx, even the early XP11 days a lot of nice stuff was windows only.

Thing with windows 11 is if you are going to have to learn a new OS UI it might as well be mac (which is a far better UI) and setup Linux on a decent base unit with a very similar UI.

Its been a good few years now since I ran into anything I wanted that needed windows,  I think the last thing was orbx central and that has a very nice Linux version now.

And to keep it on topic, at this point Linux support has become a must have for 3rd party devs imho, because even people who haven't switched yet have the strong impression they will need to, so no Linux support is a big red flag that hurts sales.

Yes we all know you have shares in linux, seems there Mint servers had a crash because so many are jumping ship because of win11, picked up an old (6years) off side of the road, had win installed, but put linux mint on it runs my minecraft server and amateur radio stuff. This PC is teh only one with Win on it, WIN10, Win11 is a no go.

5 hours ago, mjrhealth said:

Yes we all know you have shares in linux, seems there Mint servers had a crash because so many are jumping ship because of win11, picked up an old (6years) off side of the road, had win installed, but put linux mint on it runs my minecraft server and amateur radio stuff. This PC is teh only one with Win on it, WIN10, Win11 is a no go.

Strange ... I'm running both Win 10 and Win 11 on two computers with absolutely no problems whatsoever.  Don't necessarily like Microsoft, but they work fine.

54 minutes ago, mldavis2 said:

Strange ... I'm running both Win 10 and Win 11 on two computers with absolutely no problems whatsoever.  Don't necessarily like Microsoft, but they work fine.

You obviously have not being following MS antics with ai and data theft, or your not to concerned about your rights and privacy.