Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish I've imagined a "Twilight Zone"-esque short about a man who every day wakes up in an alternate timeline where everything's almost the same except that all devices have completely different (often absurd) controls which he has to relearn every day. He ends up living in the Canadian wilderness in a log cabin he built himself.
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish That's just to keep you alert
My brothers once tried to establish a system, where the F1 key would alternately trigger HELP or Format 
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@DirtyAnCom @ptoothfish absolutely! And not just hated; turns out a blind reach for a knob (or, forgive my human-factors fanboying masquerading as nostalgia, a row of 6 fat station buttons) is *safer* than looking away from the road at a touch screen.
@cascheranno @DirtyAnCom @ptoothfish
In principle I like putting big screens in cars. Then one can have a nice large map, and show other relevant information. And also do the "big" settings one usually does once or rarely - while not driving.
But for everything which has to be controlled either regularly while driving or is time critical there has to be an other appropriate (easy, takes practically no attention) way for doing the command.
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish I have a 2024 Snodgras Rapier and a 2024 Snodgras Defender and it would be so nice if the steering wheel controls were identical, the dash controls were identical, the dashboard instrument placement were identical, and so on. Sadly the Snodgras Motor Company has no concept of uniformity in controls. It also doesn't seem to believe there is value in building common parts in bulk.
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish I always think about how much "cleaner" the car would look if, for example, there was just one pedal which opened a series of menus hiding functions like "brake"
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish :spittake: God I laughed so hard at this. And then imagined mandatory drill upgrades that moved the power button each time. And then laughed some more.
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@ptoothfish
How timely. After weeks of tearing my hair out trying to deal with confusing and non-functonal aspects of the new Outlook, my supervisor asked me why I don't just use Outlook (classic). I replaced my shortcuts today and it's going much better. Windows 11 still sucks, though.@tanquist @ptoothfish I dread the day when we're forced onto the new outlook. Been toggling that toggle on every computer I've used for years now.
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish Yes, all the time, but I'm left-handed and chronically cranky and I prefer motorcycles.
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish I'm looking at YOU KDE Plasma and Fedora... KDE Fedora 42 forced 6.5 on users like a normal update and it totally broke the start menu's search logic, which is the core workflow for 99% of KDE users...
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
Not have I wished my drill would take pictures of everything I do, so the manufacturer could merge my designs with others and sell them through “AI”.
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@ptoothfish I always think about how much "cleaner" the car would look if, for example, there was just one pedal which opened a series of menus hiding functions like "brake"
@nicelady @ptoothfish That's not as far fetched as it sounds.
One Snodgras has a button to enable a driver convenience.
One Snodgras has it on the touch screen.
I tested another Snodgras that had it one or two levels deep on the touch screen.
The driver convenience I believe to have been intentionally made difficult to get to in order to upsell to a more expensive Snodgras model. -
Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish Worse is when you’ve had a car for 12 years and realize it has a feature you never knew it had!
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish I‘d ask *which* operating system, but, well… ehm…
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@cascheranno @DirtyAnCom @ptoothfish
In principle I like putting big screens in cars. Then one can have a nice large map, and show other relevant information. And also do the "big" settings one usually does once or rarely - while not driving.
But for everything which has to be controlled either regularly while driving or is time critical there has to be an other appropriate (easy, takes practically no attention) way for doing the command.
@jonasgraphie @cascheranno @ptoothfish I like a nice screen for maps, too, and that's about it. But, also, I do feel like I was "smarter" before having GPS constantly telling me where to go. At one time, I had a real estate license (hated being a real estate agent and didn't last long), and knowing how to get around my city by memory was a sense of pride. Ultimately, I prefer just a phone in a mount for navigation. Phones have gotten pretty big. Heads-up displays were a concept I really digged, too.
But all the other things, like climate control and radio, are way less attention-grabbing when there is a physical button. It feels safer when you can just reach down and turn a dial or press a button without taking my eyes off the road.
I have committed to only driving used cars that are 20+ years old, because I don't want all the tracking and like the physicality of them. Plus, old cars are easier to fix and maintain, oneself. #RightToRepair
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish actually the operating system need not change other than improved capabilities and performance. User Interfaces generally don’t need to change other than correcting mistakes. Applications changing the UI obviously either got it wrong the first time or are just trying to justify cost increase for the same functionality.
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@ptoothfish I‘d ask *which* operating system, but, well… ehm…
@GiffordJames i had one in mind but everyone hating on every operating system has been insightful
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@ptoothfish :spittake: God I laughed so hard at this. And then imagined mandatory drill upgrades that moved the power button each time. And then laughed some more.
@virtualbri This sounds like a Hitchhiker’s Guide bit. @ptoothfish
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@virtualbri This sounds like a Hitchhiker’s Guide bit. @ptoothfish
@jacobrealo @virtualbri wouldn't it make drills and impact drivers more fun if forward and reverse were just random?
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Ever driven the same car or used the same camera or power drill for 8-10 years and thought: "I wish all these buttons and levers were suddenly in different places and did different things"?
Yeah. Me neither.
This is a toot about operating systems.
@ptoothfish also tesla's
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@jacobrealo @virtualbri wouldn't it make drills and impact drivers more fun if forward and reverse were just random?
