Microsoft causes learned helplessness

seitanic@lemmy.sdf.org to Linux@lemmy.ml – 475 points –
241

You are viewing a single comment

Microsoft errors be all like

Contact your administrator

Motherfucker, I am the admin.

Apple errors be all like

"Operation couldn't be completed (com.apple.mobilephone error 1035)"

What am I supposed to do with this?

Linux error be all like

"System program problem detected. Do you want to report it?"

Who am I reporting this to, Linus himself? He's just going to yell at me.

This stuff isn't intentional. It's just that MS is really bad at handling errors. So they just gave up and put a generic message.

They intentionally choose to handle errors poorly.

Just like they intentionally choose to handle updates poorly, DON'T YOU WANT TO REBOOT FOR THE FIFTHEENTH FUCKING TIME AND LOSE YOUR SESSION WITH 29 PROGRAMS OPEN ACROSS 8 DESKTOPS WHILE RUNNING A RENDERING PROCESS?

Meanwhile, Linux: why yes, I'll update the kernel in-place without rebooting and keep your 784 day uptime.

Is there a way to upgrade your kernel then unplug and replug a USB device without it breaking yet?

Yes. Are you using Arch? Install kernel-modules-hook

Some distros have something similar enabled by default.

Does that update the kernel in-place, or only fix up kernel modules to continue working after the update?

It moves the old kernel modules to the right location for the old kernel to still find them after you've upgraded. When you restart the system to use the new kernel, the old kernel module symlinks are cleaned up.

From what I understand, live kernel patching is only recommended for critical security fixes to server environments where you can't just boot off every user. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Kernel_live_patching

Fair enough, and my bad, I though the original question was about live upgrading the kernel, but looking at the thread again, they were just asking about the system not breaking. Thanks for putting the effort into explaining!

I've had to reboot my Linux computer every couple of weeks because of an update.

I reboot my Windows laptop maybe once every few months because of an update.