Ask Paul: July 29 (Premium)

After a week away, my Ask Paul skills are a little rusty, but here’s a great set of reader questions to get them back in shape.

HP laptops and USB-C

harmjr asks:

Have you noticed in your reviews of HP a move away on the part of HP from USB C power cables. I been shopping for a new HP laptop and noticed majority of them have a pin/barrel connector? Only a couple of USB-C power connectors. I concerned because I want something to connect to USB-C dock and provide power & data.

No, not as a rule, though you do see that from time to time. I have noticed that USB-C-based chargers are going up in capacity (and size) though. Very interesting.

Regarding a proprietary plug, if it still supports USB-C charging, I’m all for it. This frees up a USB-C port for other things and, if you forget your charging cable, there’s likely a compatible USB-C charger around somewhere.

Cruise recap

Harrymyhre asks:

I hope you do a cruise re-cap. Looked like the food was awesome.

Thanks. I did write a quick What I Use post, but I do have a follow-up sketched out. I expected to write that one quickly but it’s been busier than expected this week, plus we’re exhausted from travel.

Fingerprint readers

erichk asks:

Paul, has your experience with fingerprint readers been positive? I have two devices with fingerprint readers, a Dell Inspiron laptop and my 2017 iPad. In each case, it was reliable at the start, but then slowly degraded to the point where I basically gave up.

My experiences with fingerprint readers across device types are very positive. The exceptions stand out in my mind: some earlier OnePlus handsets (later fixed), the Pixel 6 Pro. But I’ve had great success across most PCs—Surface, HP, and Lenovo primarily—most modern smartphones (recent Samsung flagships, the old rear-facing Pixel units), and the iPad Pro. The 2017 iPad you mention is the old round Touch ID unit, right? Those were kind of hit or miss, I guess, but it’s been a while since I’ve used one. But even the smaller fingerprint readers (iPad Pro, the newer model ThinkPad X1s) have always been really reliable for me.

I prefer using a fingerprint reader over an IR camera to sign in on PCs because it’s deliberate. I don’t always want to sign in as I sit down in front of a PC.

Apple books

christianwilson

Less a question and more of a book recommendation. Have you read Ken Kocienda’s book “Creative Selection”? Ken is known as the developer who built the iPhone keyboard and the book is about his time at Apple. He spends time looking at other projects, like the development of Safari, which is an eye-opening story to me. You even get a peek behind the curtain of what it is like to demo in front of Steve Jobs. It is a good book and I think you’d appreciate the technical look and thought processes that went into a few of Apple’s key products.

I have: I listened to it on Audible and while I don’t remember the details, I feel like I discussed this book with Brad maybe last summer and it’s possible he read it at the time as well. Regardless, I read any/everything about Apple, Google, and Microsoft that’s out there. And for whatever it’s worth, After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost its Soul is one of the best Apple and business books I’ve read in many, many years. (Actually, I did write a short review.)

Windows Subsystem for Android

helix2301 asks:

Is the sub system for android while great really lags behind when compared to emulators like game connect and others who have been doing this for years with a lot success my question is what is Microsoft play here there are bigger players in the space how or will it be a revenue generator for them?

I don’t understand the business side of things, but I guess I don’t see this as a direct revenue generator but rather as one of many reasons why customers might stick with or choose Windows. Of course, that assumes that Microsoft/Amazon gets this up to a respectable level of quality, which obviously hasn’t happened yet. Not sure if anyone remembers this, but Microsoft made announcements related to this product at Build, noting that hundreds of new apps and games were available, but that still hasn’t happened. One imagines the goal is to get this out of preview and in a better state.

Twitchy

helix2301 also asks:

My other question is twitch what do you think Amazon’s play is or was with it? It’s the red headed step child of Amazon services besides giving out some free loot with prime services and hooking Luna to it they have done anything with it which is ok with me but I was wondering if you had any insight on this.

Not sure I have insight per se, but I view Twitch as a sort of complementary thing for them as it can run at scale on AWS and it’s one of many pieces in their gaming strategy. But Twitch is also expanding beyond gaming and could see general success as a TikTok competitor serving a more mainstream audience. This is already happening, of course. But even if it doesn’t all come together, gaming is becoming more of a mainstream activity, and so they’re nicely positioned with over 150 million users.

Microsoft tried and failed to compete with Twitch and YouTube. You have to think they’d snap up Twitch in a heartbeat if they could.

What to study

spacecamel asks:

I am going to preface this question by realizing that your crystal ball works about as well as mine. My youngest is starting university this fall and asked what he should study. I repeated the standard answer of computer science as a way to have full-time employment for 40 years. However, I am wondering your thoughts on this advice. Did I give him bad advice? Considering you have been watching this industry for a few years and just put two through university, I thought you might have a different option which I should advise.

This assumes he has some interest and acumen in this subject, of course. And if that’s true, there are plenty of great careers within that umbrella, and lots of headroom. My son started off pursuing what I’ll call a software development path, but it shifted to “human-centric computing,” which is a very interesting and modern pursuit that combines software development, user experience, and psychology. The idea is to approach any product design with an eye on accessibility and usability. Now we have ridiculous conversations about how everything is bad UI. There’s a lot of work to do out there.

More broadly, there are lots of things I might have done differently in my own life, and lots of advice I might give to others based on whatever experiences I’ve had. But the one thing I wish for myself, and I’d wish for others, is the ability to be more mechanically self-sufficient. I can’t build, make, or repair physical things and I wish had more skills in this area. Anyone who is not sure about what career to take should seriously consider training in what I’ll call a hard skill: plumbing, woodworking, electricity, and so on. These jobs will always be needed and can be quite lucrative.

The difference between a computer science career and a “hard” job is location flexibility. For the most part, the former can be done from anywhere while the latter will require a single location where you build up a clientele and reputation. Some will prefer the former, some the latter.

Also, I didn’t settle into what I do now until my very late 20s. I had no idea what I wanted when I was 18 or 20, and no clue what directions life would take.

Windows 10X?

anoldamigauser asks:

Since the vast majority of users can get by using a Chromebook or an iPad as their primary computing device, neither of which are compatible with legacy Win32 apps, do you think that Microsoft made a mistake cancelling Windows 10X and rolling the UI into Windows 11? They seem to have upset power users and enthusiasts by dumbing down the interface, yet normal people still have to deal with all the maintenance issues that come with legacy Windows.

The issue for Microsoft is that they very much want that simpler, lighter client but its customer base very much expects Windows app compatibility and has no interest in a Microsoft platform that can’t do that. Thinking about Windows 10X without Windows app compatibility, what’s the point? Why would anyone choose this thing? Even our imagined EdgeOS makes a bit more sense in that it’s a Chrome OS without all the Google stuff. I feel like educational institutions and some businesses would rally around that.

Anyway, I think Windows 10X failed because Microsoft couldn’t figure out the Win32 container technology. It was either too slow, too incompatible, or both. But I still feel very strongly that if they could figure this out, Windows 10X could still be successful. Then again, this hasn’t helped Windows on ARM yet, has it?

It seems to me that 10X started out with the idea of a simpler OS, but grew to something much more complex, that had to support containers for legacy applications.

Yeah. I don’t have a handle on when these features were added into the mix, but it doesn’t matter: as noted, Windows 10X isn’t viable without Win32 app support. So if the container idea came later, that’s fine. They have to do it somehow.

Offline Office on the web

anoldamigauser also asks:

On a related note, when do you think the Online Office applications will support offline work?

I cannot believe they do not support offline yet. It’s … crazy. I have no idea when this might happen or what’s holding it up. But I suspect getting Outlook.com and Outlook on the web updated and with offline support comes first. And that offline support across the Office Web Apps could happen after that.

Which Linux?

shenjibg asks:

I am homeschooling and teaching coding. I want to run a Minecraft server so I can teach making mods. I am currently teaching them python, html, and JavaScript. I feel they will enjoy a project of creating mods. I was hoping to choose a flavor of Linux that would let me do this with my kids. On “Windows Weekly” a few months back you said you were trying out a flavor of Linux. I searched and have been unable to find that reference. I remember Leo was saying he was using “Pop”. I do not remember the version you recommended. Could you please post which flavor of Linux?

I’m no expert here, but I have tried PopOS!, ElementaryOS, and other Linux distributions in recent months. But the one I recommended—and have paid for—is called Zorin OS. It seems like a good choice for users coming from Windows.