My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore | Hacker News Reader

My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

howtogeek.com

693 pointsdoctorshady658 comments

I can't even remove 'Recommended' from the start menu, not even on a Pro for Workstations.

Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable?

I install Edge Beta to test something, and the I uninstall it. All of the sudden my search provider in my normal Edge is reset.

And the nagging everywhere. No I don't want 'back-up' my files (OneDrive is not backup, it's sync). And I don't want to be reminded later. I don't want to be reminded ever. All this fuzzy language makes me feel like I'm dealing with a kindergarden teacher addressing his/her pupils.

It's not my computer any more.

Oh, I update a driver. And 2 days later Windows installs an older version. Since when is 6.6.1.40 better than 6.6.1.72? Why would you do that?

Here are some things I found helpful using Windows at work (at home I use Fedora):

Debloat / Software Management: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil

Command line software management (Scoop): https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/12/automate-windows-app-setup-...

Comparison (Scoop/Chocolatey/Win-Get): https://daftdev.blog/2024/04/01/chocolatey-vs-scoop-vs-winge...

I would also recommend starship (https://starship.rs/) for your Powershell, which is cross platform and therefore usable for all popular shells. Scoop can also install and manage nerd fonts:

    scoop bucket add nerd-fonts
    scoop install nerd-fonts/JetBrains-Mono

Here is my starship.toml config:

    format="$all\u001b7${fill}$cmd_duration | $time\u001b8"
    
    [fill]
    symbol = " " 
    
    # right_format = """$cmd_duration$time"""
    
    [username]
    show_always = true
    format = '[$user[@](red)]($style)'
    
    [hostname]
    ssh_only = false
    format = "[$ssh_symbol$hostname]($style): "
    
    [time]
    disabled = false
    format = '[$time]($style)'
    
    [character]
    success_symbol = '[>](bold green)' 
    
    [git_branch]
    format = "[$symbol$branch(:$remote_branch)]($style)"
    
    [cmd_duration]
    min_time = 0 
    format = '   [$duration]($style) '
    show_milliseconds = true

Why do you even need those? Software and hardware should be under the human, helping, not hindering.

Better yet - just switch to Linux Mint.

PS sucks so I've always installed git bash and used it instead since I first discovered it ~12y ago

Starship seems quite promising, this is the first time I'm seeing it. But I'm a bit confused on how it works, can you go into a bit more details?

Can I use starship+ps to get all Unix and git tools or should I stick with my existing workflow with windows git bash?

the first tool does work for removing web results, but not so much for the "recommended" section. it can stay empty though.

also, while the tool is nice, it needs admin permissions to work.

> All this fuzzy language

That's not the exclusive problem to Microsoft - it happens all around us within the IT world. The corporations stopped acknowledging the permanent "No" anymore and the actual user choice. It's a plain harassment up until you give up and agree to what you get shoveled with.

Whenever I read comments regarding last two Windows versions and issues people had or have with these, or news about newest Microsoft "ideas" - I ask myself, where the hell are regulators?

> where the hell are regulators?

We have killed them. If a government tries to do anything against a company that isn't a perfect 1:1 mapping to an explicit thing in the law that they are breaking, the company will sue back and win. And if they try to pass such a law, the biggest companies are powerful enough to get rid of them next term, so they don't even try.

You get what you vote for.

If you want less government interference then less regulatory power will exist.

They are in Europe, and heavily criticized on HN everytime they regulate.

I love GDPR, yet so many complain about it for cookie banners, which are not even what the law requires: There Is No Cookie Banner Law (https://www.bitecode.dev/p/there-is-no-eu-cookie-banner-law)

Happens to me all the time with Google because I'm choosing not to pay for their backup. They constantly bother me about almost running out of space, even with a modal that requires you to use a toggle to dismiss it without accepting. It's gross.

I used to use O&O defrag and recently found out they're still going at it old school styles

https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10

and this free tool took care a lot of painful things in windows

Thanks for the suggestion!

Presumably all the executives, PMs, and designers all use Macs.

And half of software engineers (the other half have Linux laptops).

I only use Windows as a game launcher (and I’m still on Windows 10), I don’t understand why anyone would need it anymore except games.

Really? I thought Microsoft was pretty strict about dogfooding.

https://privacy.sexy is what you want/need!

Works well to disable various telemetry, bloat and other baddies.

Until it doesn't.

I shouldn't have to run on a privacy treadmill to stay in the same place.

Not justifying the shitty antics of MS, but most of the junk can be turned off by registry settings which most large organisations automate via GPO

This illustrates just how ridiculously screwed up Windows is now.

No one should have to resort to registry hacking or the many scripts or hacks available to regain control over basic UX, privacy, or usability selections. It is absolutely absurd.

Until some update resets all those values behind your back.

This wouldn't even be sooooo bad if we could still google how to disable and fix everything... but complete google search collapse is exacerbating microsofts shit to an unbelievable unfixable level.

Like if some drastic new search doesn't appear within a couple years we are talking IT not being able to fix problems anymore

But that turns me into a deshitifcation cron job, working for my operating system to work.

You can use Windows Firewall to block outbound connections from the Start bar. It would be nice if some basic features like calculator would still work, but no luck.

Wait... Windows calculator needs an internet connection to work?

If you have a w7 install the calc exe still works on 10/11

> And the nagging everywhere.

This. Oh my god this.

> Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable?

I'm not sure if it works on Win11, but this was used to disable it in Win10:

REG ADD HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search /v BingSearchEnabled /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f REG ADD HKCU\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search /v CortanaConsent /t REG_DWORD /d 0 /f

Windows is free unless you value your time... or your money

And people complain about using the CLI on Linux :D

> Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off

I hate this as well, same with Spotlight on the Mac. Doesn’t it make sense to look for things on my own device first?

Anyway, here’s a solution I found for Win11:

## Disable web search from run menu

1. Select Start, type regedit.exe and select the Registry Editor to launch it. Accept the UAC prompt that is displayed.

2. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Search

3. Right-click on Search and select New > Dword (32-bit) Value.

4. Name the value BingSearchEnabled.

5. Double-click on the new Dword and set data to 0.

From <https://www.ghacks.net/2021/11/26/how-to-turn-off-search-the...

My start menu hasnt even worked for over a year on 2 seperate computers now.

What do you mean when you say it doesn't "work"? You click the windows icon and nothing comes up? It displays but nothing is clickable? On 2 different machines? Really? This seems like hyperbole. It sounds like there's a specific feature that doesn't work for you as it used to, but instead of describing the issue you've thrown up your hands and declared it to not work. If it truly does not open or respond to clicks I'd love to know about it and retract this comment!

You may own it, but it serves a different master.

You don't own it, just paid for it.

> All this fuzzy language makes me feel like I'm dealing with a kindergarden teacher addressing his/her pupils.

Very fitting… both the kindergarten teacher addressing her pupils vs Windows abusing its users have the one thing in common - people who have zero chance of escaping their control and little influence to chamge their situation. In the business world, it’s called a captive market

Where is "Recommended" on the Start Menu? I don't even see that.

> Since when is 6.6.1.40 better than 6.6.1.72? Why would you do that?

well, recently, there was a compromised update to a software package and the recommendation was to roll back to a previous version. there are definite times when removing the latest not-so-greatest for a previous version is the best solution. there's no reason to lose the plot in your ranting. you just lose credibility in your arguments at that point

"The US federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has issued a security advisory recommending that the affected devices should roll back to a previous uncompromised version."[0]

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoor#Remediation

I wish there was a registry key you could set that would make it impossible for Microsoft to put up any kind of modal UI element whatsoever.

For some consolation: Windows Autoupdates can be disabled and likewise driver installs in general via Group Policy, which is available if you use Pro or above.

Windows updates can be disabled on any edition with my "I wasn't asking" approach of moving C:/Windows/system32/wua*.dll somewhere else. You can put these dlls back when and if you want to install updates.

Thanks! But I don't want to disable driver updates. I just don't want it to install older versions.

Is this the case for corporate installs? I cannot imagine the security teams at big banks like Chase, Bofa, Goldman, et al tolerating this.

In my experience large corporate Windows installs don’t have these hostile features.

But I don’t know how much credit is due to ongoing config work by central IT versus Microsoft.

Not exclusively a Microsoft/Windows problem. It reminds me the nagging "Update iOS" messages in iphone, that take you to a new screen to dismiss them. Also in iOS, you can't use their wallet app for tickets and other cards if you don't add a payment card there, because they have this huge banner that says "Get started with Apple Pay" and that can't be dismissed. Disgusting.

This is false. I don’t use Apple Pay and I have lots of tickets and such. You don’t add them from within the Wallet app. The Apple Pay prompt is shown whenever you don’t have any passes or whatever in the wallet.

Try adding some passes and see.

I am at a total loss as to why anyone is using windows in 2024.

I use it everyday in place of my MBP.

1) WSL2 is fantastic to work. Having various Linux images on my system is nice, this is huge for me alone

2) plenty of things work just better on windows like Docker

3) stuff like power tools is insanely useful

4) monitor, windows and desktop management is very well done in comparison to the mess of MacOS

5) I don't have all these issues the article describes. An automatic update has never broken my computer let alone ruined my flow

6) I don't see these ads, maybe in the start menu there are but I just never use it I have shortcuts

7) MacOS is way more annoying for me. I really dislike the filesystem, the window management, the fact that it will be always a third class citizen to Linux for software development (still have nightmares about installing Haskell and other languages on MacOS), the fact that it keeps resetting the output of my monitors at every sleep

I could provide other reasons but essentially it is way better for me and my use case than alternatives.

Unless I'm using a laptop, there I prefer MacOS for hardware.

Literally just adobe products on work machines where I can't sail the high seas and run it with WINE

> Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable?

YMMV, but this is what I used to disable web search on my Win 11 Pro workstation:

    Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
    
    [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer]
    "DisableSearchBoxSuggestions"=dword:00000001

On Pro it would be better to use the group policy editor. As a bonus this also ensures the setting survives updates, which is not always a given for raw registry edits.

It's frankly offensive that this utterly pointless "feature" can't just be disabled. Starting Photoshop used to be windowskey, "ph", enter. Now, by default, it will give you an Edge Bing search for "ph"...

But even if you wait a few seconds before confirming, you'll get some garbage like Windows Photos, even though that's literally never been used.

At least the start menu got a lot faster with the net search disabled, but dropping usage based ordering is just another sign that Windows is NOT aimed at power users anymore.

On an older version of Windows I used the Classic Shell start menu. It's rockin', and works how you'd expect a start menu to.

I have absolutely none of these problems on my Windows 11 pro for workstations desktop. My computer is very much my computer and I seem to have full total control over everything. I'm not sure what I do differently than everyone else but that's just how it is.

Try completely removing one drive to understand the rest of our pain. Even if you manage to get the program gone, somehow the default file save location for many applications is still a (now deleted) one drive folder. If you forget and click save.. well now you have one drive again.

You’re the ideal windows user…whatever that may be??

You're getting downvoted, as will I, because presenting an alternative anecdotal experience isn't acceptable in Windows threads. I've learned this the hard way.

Unfortunately just like the original post is anecdotal (I haven't had a machine fail to startup after an update since XP) not all anecdotes are born equal.

Interestingly, I don't see adverts myself, and I've never seen any at work. I -suspect- that's heavily regionalized.

Are there features I don't care for? Sure - I don't use OneDrive, I don't internet search from the Start bar, and I use Edge only occasionally. But it's not like somehow you -have- to use everything they ship.

I get it. An OS is personal. If you don't like Windows, use MacOS or Linux. All 3 have different approaches and one of them will fit you better than the others. Arguing over which is better or worse is like fighting over ice-cream flavors.

It's because people fuck with the registry, run those decrapifier scripts etc. They completely mess with the guts doing nonstandard things and eventually it turns into a mess. Ask me how I know.

After I started administering fleets of Windows machines, I learned that if you don't fuck with it, it's fine!

If you need to make changes, use group policy. Don't like OneDrive? Don't use it! Uninstalling it is going to fuck things up.

Install updates as they come. "But it breaks things!" No it doesn't. It only does if you've fucked your registry to hell.

Just leave things alone and stop trying to customize it like a Linux box is my advice. It is what it is and will work fine if you use it the way it's intended.

About a year ago I dumped Windows from my personal PC for good. I ran a Linux desktop at work for a decade, but my Steam collection get me with at least a bit of a tether to Microsoft. But Valve finally made Linux gaming a reality. I hope more people can make the switch someday because I'm quite happy with the system (Pop!_OS is my distro of choice these days).

I did this about three months ago in response to Windows insisting again that I must link my desktop user with my Live account. I'm blown away by how viable Linux gaming is now, entirely because of money dumped in by Valve. It's only looking better, too, the deck means people are motivated to at least make sure it boots in Wine, and if they support Vulkan the perf will likely work out well.

I installed Windows for a media PC for the first time in many years, and holy shit it’s insane. The dark patterns. The nags. It’s a given they are somehow tracking everything I do and selling all of my files. They are milking boomers who will never switch from Windows as a cash cow, longterm they know Windows is dead as a personal desktop. Their revenue is no longer dependent on Windows PC so it’s an end game scenario.

That's what finally gave me the confidence to switch to Linux a year ago. I'm running Manjaro on my main system and Valve's efforts in improving WINE/creating Proton have been fantastic. The amount of games that "just work" has been nothing short of amazing.

I also moved over to PopOS over a year ago and have been quite happy with the end result. Between Steam and Lutris I’ve been able to run everything I want to, and I don’t have to play whack-a-mole with Microsoft’s “features” that I’m not interested in.

Bonus points: I’m having fun with my computer again!

I also use Heroic Launcher with Epic Games as well on Pop_OS, check it out!

I am also have been using PopOS for gaming.

My last version of Windows was 7. After that I used a MacBook for work for a few years, and I somewhat missed windows for gaming (but mainly used a PS4 during that time so I got by). Then, a few years ago, I switched exclusively to Linux (I’ve usually had a dual boot or a second machine running Linux, but it was rarely my exclusive OS), and haven’t looked back. I’ve since also got a Steam Deck which has completely replaced my PS4, while I also play a few games like Crusader Kings on my Linux laptop.

Gaming is what kept a lot of people on windows over the years, but thanks to valve and the proton team, Linux gaming works as well as Windows gaming (and some people say better than — I certainly don’t have to deal with all the crap Microsoft tries to put into windows).

Some people refuse to use Linux because they’re afraid of having to tinker with it, but that hasn’t been my experience in over a decade. Things have generally just worked for me.

Would not say that Linux gaming works as well as Windows gaming. Plenty of things won't work in Proton, at least not out of the box, and you're kinda restricted to AMD GPUs. That's fine cause I don't play video games anymore, but people who really care about that will put up with a lot of MS's BS.

AoE2:DE is one example of incompatibility. Simple game (by modern standards) with no advanced anticheat.

I am VERY happy running games on a nag-free windows 11 retail install.

- I download games from gog via linux and put them on an NTFS partition

- I boot windows 11 in a proxmox VM with passthrough gpu + usb controller for sound

- I mount NTFS partition in VM, install and run games

- my windows 11 install has no network device

- tbh there was a windows defender nag, but I managed to disable it.

I've been wondering if I can do something similar for steam, but haven't touched my steam login in 5+ years. I think you can use a proxy for steam.

Windows is such execrable trash now that, when my late-2014 25-inch 5K Intel iMac got orphaned, I didn't even consider putting Windows on it. Now it's running Mint, and I use my M1 MacBook Pro in clamshell mode connected to a monitor.

That monitor, incidentally, is a 25-inch former iMac. I gutted it after it suffered the widespread burned-out-GPU problem that afflicted many (most?) Macs of circa-2010 vintage, and put an LCD driver board in it.

The unfortunate side effect of valve supporting linux better is they seemingly gave up on mac os.

Apple was also kinda asking for it

I suspect that the x86-64 to ARM transition had more to do with it.

Photo editing is my last holdout. And a European-compatible banking software.

Everything else works well on Linux. Gaming included. I've run Linux many years, in fact.

But Capture One and Lightroom are not available over there, which is what draws me back to MacOS. Of course I could just use darktable. Have done that for several years. But at the end of the day, I just prefer Capture One, and that's enough reason for me to switch my OS.

What banking software do you mean? For home use? Isn't browser based good enough?

Video editing is still a bit rough as well. Kdenlive's arguably more than a bit lacking, and a fair bit too unstable to rely on.

I switched to Pop OS in 2018 because I was in college, and I wanted to spend less time gaming. Unfortunately for me, that was also the year Valve released Proton, and my gaming didn't (immediately) drop very much :>

I think Proton is a great project (and CodeWeavers deserve credit there as well), but why does it have to be a choice?

I have been multi booting for 20 years, preferring Linux distributions the whole time, but other OSes when I want to use them.

I recently started using a dedicated Windows system for gaming and other Windows favored tasks. I am running a KVM switch, using AMD Graphics on a Linux system and Nvidia on this Windows system. I also have a macOS system, that I use as needed.

I do this with mobile devices as well. It doesn't seem worth it to squabble over choosing a path.

Not everyone has multiple desktop computers at home, especially powerful ones. (With an Apple device to top it up.)

But hardware is more affordable than ever (unless you want a really powerful GPU). What's worse is that you have to separate the tasks between OSes, you can't easily have a default computer for everything, with everything relevant locally available. It's fine if you keep Windows for gaming, and want gaming to be explicitly separate. It's harder if you need Windows for graphics / video, or for CAD/CAM, or for Office. Having important related bits and software on another box may be a hassle.

I don't know if I'd say its a choice between a squabble or no squabble, its just a different set of squabbles.

For me, there are evenings when I am hacking away on a hobby project for 2 or 3 hours. Then suddenly just go, 'I wanna just veg out for another 2 hours then go to bed.' When I'm in that mood, I don't even want to be bothered changing machines. Just hit the steam icon and veg. Thats also bout the only time I end up gaming though, haha.

Last time I dual booted though, I remember why I didn't for along time. Did a Windows update, windows rebooted my computer and it did something with grub and I couldn't easily boot into linux anymore.

If you have two GPUs, you can run a Windows VM in Linux and configure GPU passthrough for Nvidia card.

[1] Doesn't work for games requiring kernel-mode anti-cheat.

[2] https://looking-glass.io/ to use both GPUs on the same monitor.

I was that dude, but I hate using Windows! Microsoft kept giving me more and more reasons to stop using Windows, on a silver platter lol. So now my gaming PC runs fedora, and all of my other computers are Macs.

Why in gods name would I use windows in the first place!! 40 years of patch Tuesdays?? Get a Mac.

I used Windows from about 1993 to 2006. In 2006 I was given a Mac Mini as a thank you for completing an unpaid internship. I fell in love with macOS and have basically been a macOS user since.

At the start of the pandemic I bought a PC to game on. 16-core Ryzen, 64 gigabytes of ram. I'd been kind of pleasantly surprised with WSL and just general improvements in cohesiveness. It's still got that Windows jank under the hood though.

But then... It won't f**ing run Windows 11 because it doesn't have a TPM. And they pester me about buying a new computer. You have to be kidding me.

It's just absolutely incredible Microsoft decided to declare very powerful machines only a few years old essentially eWaste.

I'm probably going to give Desktop Linux another go, at least for a bit. I have no idea what distro though.

I ran Ubuntu on some of my older machines for a number of years. I actually loved Unity, I still think it was the best Linux desktop and I'm bummed they basically killed it.

I tried Pop_OS! a couple years ago on a MacBook Pro but it just up and imploded on me after a couple days Windows ME style. I've got Elementary OS on an old MacBook and I've had a decent time with it. The apps not made specifically for it though. Felt real out of place.

I would recommend checking out one of the Universal Blue images of Fedora Silverblue like Bazzite (for gaming) or Bluefin (for developers who are fans of Ubuntu but want something cleaner and less... Canonical). Because they're based on an image based distro they're incredibly resiliant and reliable, and they really use all the cutting edge (but proven) tech going into OSI-image based distros to the utmost to provide a really great user experience, taking care of all the pain points and rough edges of Silverblue and providing a really complete well rounded setup right out of the box full of stuff that's just done for you and full of nice little thoughtful touches. I've moves three friends to Bazzite (from Windows) and they love it. I use my own custom image based on one of their base images too, and run their version of Fedora CoreOS on my home server.

Your CPU should have a TPM built-in. It's most likely just disabled in the BIOS (it was often disabled by default on motherboard BIOSes in the pre-Windows 11 days). Have a look in the BIOS for something labeled fTPM or Firmware TPM.

"You can only use our OS if you opt in to some malware that pre-empts the OS" - Microsoft having a normal one

The best gaming machine indeed runs Linux, and is called Steam Deck.

I don't like macOS, but I'd take it over Windows without much hesitation. MacOS is like an authoritarian but tidy country. Windows is more and more like a corrupt third-world country :(

>But then... It won't f*ing run Windows 11 because it doesn't have a TPM.

You can keep using Windows 10. The LTSC version will be supported until 2032. Even the regular versions will get (paid) updates probably until 2028.

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/where-to-buy-tpm-2.0-for-w...

I recently started running Fedora KDE on my work laptop, and it has been pretty much perfect for me, so I'd recommend you give it a shot

If your gripe with Windows is that it requires TPM, the Mac is strict too.

Default Ubuntu is still pretty good. I have been using the default Fedora Workstation for almost a decade and it works great for me. I also don't spend time on tweaking it anymore (used to be the complete opposite). The defaults work, I concentrate on my work, side projects and games.

I switched to Linux Mint a couple of years ago and couldn't be happier.

So far I had one problem with a botched nvidia driver update, but with the magic of Timeshift, reverting that was painless, and I could upgrade properly later.

I haven't missed Windows a single time since making the switch.

I also love unity! I was devastated when it was dropped. It's been kinda revived recently iirc. I've since switched to Linux mint for my daily driver which I can highly recommend.

How were you able to buy a PC in ~2020 without TPM? I thought that's been built into every PC motherboard since ~2013ish (and ~2008ish for Intel).

Manjaro is pretty good for gaming. I found that arch based gives you access to more solutions and packages.

Try Fedora 40. If you love MacOS I would say you would enjoy the latest Gnome

People don't switch operating systems at the drop of a hat. There's got to be a pretty good reason for it. All the people switching away from Windows, those are probably users that are lost to Microsoft forever. I get that their money comes from other places, but I bet there's a second-order effect of people who don't use Windows—maybe even people who now hate Windows—not having any desire stick with their other products or services either. It's weird that they don't seem to care about this slow diminution of their brand.

I wonder if we're already lost (including myself in "we"). The average home user has ditched MS Office, and is using cloud apps such as Google Docs. They don't even have a reason to know what OS they're using. Things like battery life and wake-up times are what my work colleagues talk about at the lunch table. Setup might be a hassle, but occurs once in the life of the computer. Often, the discussion is in the context of an elderly relative who they're supporting.

At the workplace, a large Microsoft shop is buying a complex package of products and services that I can't even identify all of the pieces of. There's Microsoft stuff on my work computer, and on my company supplied iPhone. I must sheepishly confess that it all just works.

For myself at home, my main computer related interest is programming, and a programmer can live a platform-independent life if they want to. This is what I advocate, above and beyond my actual platform preference.

What I suggest to friends if they're thinking of switching (to Linux, Mac, Chrome) is: First, achieve platform-independence by finding the tools that work across OS's. Get up to speed on those tools. Second, switch platforms. That way, you're 99% up to speed before you even switch.

The issue is the people switching are the kinds of people who set up family computers and recommend things to others. So there is this huge hidden knock on effect of people going from pro-windows to nutrual or recommending a different os.

In the simplist terms, it's a similar reason youtube allows users with ad blockers, those people with ad blockers will still share videos to people without ad blockers.

Very short-sighted move from Microsoft. All of this gain now from ad revenue but long-term damage to the brand.

Switched to Linux in Windows' "golden age" - XP. Never looked back. There's one thing that reminds me that old Windows - cloud providers. Their configuration in UI looks a lot like group policies on Windows. Every time I have to deal with those IAM permissions in Google Cloud I get flashbacks, except now the UI is much slower

- stock is at all-time high

- "all the people" is probably actually well under 1% of users

- successfully switched all corporate accounts from single-purchase w/ occasional renewal to ongoing monthly subscription

- also a lot of of consumer subscriptions

- Azure

- Github

- LinkedIn

- OpenAI investment

I actually agree with you that the Windows experience is getting worse, quickly. But on balance, seems more is going right than going wrong.

a whole bunch of older pcs are going to be completely useless or quickly become virus machines next year when windows 10 hits end of life and windows 11 won't support the intel 7x00 series of chips. A lot of people are going to be making the decision what computer to get next.

Compatibility with hardware and software means I have to use it even if I don't want to.

Nothing electronic I own feels like mine anymore

My Mac, iPhone, and Apple TV are owned by Apple. My Sony TV is owned by Sony and Google. My Windows PC is owned by Microsoft. My Quest 2 is owned by Meta. My Kindle is owned by Amazon.

At best, the Mac and PC I could install Linux on to make them mine. The rest, not so much

I feel like I own my Mac because it doesn't bother me for anything and lets me do what I want. The iPhone, less so because it's secured against me in many ways.

You can replace the Kindle with Kobo. For the most part, Kobo just gets out of your way. Integrates tightly with Calibre. Easily hackable. Many extensions available with installation as simple as dropping a file on the device.

Not a perfect device but good enough that I feel like I own it.

Your Kindle feels like it's owned by Amazon because you're using their books as a service stuff. Zlibrary, Calibre, 24/7 airplane mode, and it's as yours as a ZX Spectrum my dude.

> Linux Respects Its Users

Maybe I'm just ranting, but Ubuntu seems to be by far the most common distro for Windows users, and they're definitely not perfect in this respect. I've been running Linux as my main OS for about 20 years and I can't rid myself of snaps. Synaptic will show that the package provided by Mozilla is the latest version and the snap is the installed version. If I reinstall, it goes back to the Mozilla package, only to mysteriously show the snap is the installed version within a few days.

I don't want to bring up the discussion of the Snap Store again, but this experience is pretty much what you get with Windows, just on a much smaller scale. I'd strongly encourage Windows users to install Mint or some other friendly alternative rather than going with the standard recommendation.

Ubuntu lost me over a decade ago or about a decade ago when I did an install and saw Amazon ads in the DE.

The good news is, as you highlight, today there are quiet a few good distros, some that are not that much more of a hassle then Ubuntu for people to get up and going.

And the whole wildly inconsistent UI elements of Linux shows it doesn't respect users.

You have one default app that does things one way (say, with a "Save" button, and a nice "Settings successfully changed!" message), and another that does things a totally different way (say, with an auto-save and no message that it's been saved).

Linux respects developers, in that it allows the people who make aspects of Linux to do anything any way they way -- but without consistency of UX, is it really respectful of users? Or does it just leave them at the mercy of the devs who often give the impression that they don't care about the user at all and can't be bothered to build anything consistently, or re-factor old code to bring it up to modern consistencies, or put even show a little empathy for users who aren't also advanced software developers.

Not everyone wants to learn how to build a car just to drive a car.

(Disclosure... My exposure to Linux is running various distributions on my Raspberry Pi side projects... Pi Hole, Retro Gaming, silly home automation toys. I tried to set up my elderly parents with Mint Linux and that was a complete disaster.)

I'm guessing most those people are just late and came in after the couple "exoduses" of sorts of people jumping ship from Ubuntu to the offshoot projects (Mint, etc.).

As far as my memory and perception of the situation go, there was a time where Ubuntu was #1 on distrowatch and couldn't conceivably be dethroned. Then, they added the spyware in '12 and snaps in '16, neither of which were by any measure without controversy, IMO. (And, spoiler alert -- they have since tumbled down from that position.)

Everything makes sense if you take a moment to understand the business structure of these projects.

Microsoft is a publicly traded, for-profit company.

Canonical Ltd (Ubuntu) is a privately held, for-profit company.

The Linux Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit organization.

Software in the Public Interest (Debian) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

See the pattern?

Use Linux Mint, it's Ubuntu without snap and some other crap.

I switched to Ubuntu from Windows gradually over the last two years and have now dropped Windows entirely. I agree, Ubuntu isn't perfect, but I was a Windows user for about 25 years and the difference in terms of control is night and day.

By the end, it was like Windows was shoving me into things like OneDrive that I hadn't (at least deliberately) installed, didn't want to use, and didn't understand. This set me up for a risk of breaking things when I'd treat it like the regular Windows filesystem, and eventually I did break Windows and had to reinstall.

I've had none of these problems with Ubuntu. I wouldn't be surprised if alternative Linuxes are even better, but I'm satisfied enough with Ubuntu that trying alternatives isn't a priority.

Yup, a 20+ years Linux user here. Most of that time I used Ubuntu but their insistence on shoving shitty snap system down everyone's throats broke the camel's back for me. Switched to Fedora two years ago. Another great example how a clueless business person can mess up otherwise great software.

https://www.kubuntuforums.net/forum/general/documentation/ho...

Removing snaps is trivial.

2024 won't be the year of the Linux desktop, but it will be the year of the Linux desktop for everyone who gives a damn about having control over their digital life. PopOS is lovely so far, I cringe every time I have to interface with Windows 11 for my job.

I don’t think Linux needs to win in one big swoop year. I can see it slowly eating away at windows until it’s as big as MacOS or bigger. I think there could be a tipping point when certain Linux distros are just better for almost everything and windows looks silly in comparison.

There's basically 2 reasons I haven't been able to switch to linux:

1) Fusion 360 - Just can't get it working under linux well enough. 2) Monitors - Always issues mixing highdpi and low dpi monitors in linux, my main is a 4k 144hz 43", the sides and tops are all 2560x1440 27s. Oh and there's my Ceiling 4k projector which I turn on to watch movies or baseball when I lean back and think. Which leads to the other issue, Nvidia seems to greatly limit the number of outputs you can have under linux compared to windows. With 6 monitors, I've never gotten it to work even with 6 of the same monitor, let alone my messed up setup.

Yes yes, woa was me. I've had linux as a daily driver for at least 10 years of my main computer use since 1998. I do really prefer it but so far just making the tradeoff.

Also I tend to play games that have anti-cheat like CoD / PubG, etc which further locks things out.

I do like the direction things are going

There’s basically 1 reason I haven’t switched back to Mac: I want a non reflective screen - I don’t want to look at an outline of myself when working, and I want a laptop I can work with in any position, not just where light sources and reflections behind me are carefully removed.

Just put an anti-glare screen on it. Tons of Mac users feel the same way and do this (myself among them).

And fwiw, you can make a glossy screen into a matte one with a cover, but you can't make a matte screen into a glossy one the same way. Which may be why Apple makes all their screens glossy.

It's sad to see Windows fall so far from the Win2k days but this trajectory has been obvious since Windows XP.

Fortunately or unfortunately, for most people for most things, the host OS hardly matters anymore. The operating system is now the browser. And this "doesn't feel like mine anymore" is 100x worse there because corporations have fogotten that they're voluntarily presenting data upon the request of an external client and what said client does with the data is none of their business. It's as if visiting a website and downloading the publicly available contents is a nation setting up an embassy of "foreign soil" on your hardware. Editing CSS (or whatever) is equivalent to vandalizing a physical storefront because the pixels on your monitor are theirs not yours despite it being your hardware. Even the very protocol of hypertext transport (HTTP/3) is now designed around being encryption verified JS application delivery for corporate person use cases with no allowances for HTML hypertext transport for human person use cases. So not even linux/mac/bsd/etc is free from the trend.

The first time I needed to install Linux on my computer was last week because Wireshark didn’t support 802.11 packet capture on Windows or WSL. So, I installed Ubuntu on my Surface Laptop 3, and my experience had been quite terrible. (Disclaimer: I’m a former Windows engineer, but I’ve also been using Linux since Slackware 3 occasionally)

* Setup started in 100% HiDPI scaling, making everything impossible to read. Every time I ran setup, I had to set it to 200% using display settings before I do anything else.

* Installation software crashed twice mid-installation. I was only able to complete installation on my third attempt.

After the installation, I noticed that Ubuntu doesn’t have the features below out of the box: https://x.com/esesci/status/1803374884858347856?s=46 You either had to go through painful and complicated configuration steps, or install third-party software:

* Hybrid sleep (is a must for laptops).

* Face login.

* Live full disk encryption on demand. I’m actually baffled by this as Bitlocker on Windows makes this trivial. I actually expected FDE to be enabled from the installation by default but I wasn’t even asked.

* Fast fractional scaling on HiDPI displays. 200% is just too big and 100% is too small, and 150% hogs the CPU (or GPU?). As I understand, fast fractional scaling is impossible with Linux because fractional scaling is a bitmap operation while it’s just a rendering parameter on Windows.

* No factory reset. If you ran a script that messed up your system, your only option is to reinstall the OS. The problem with that is, if you had to install it using a very slow USB stick in the first place, a reset operation also becomes a multi-hour operation while Windows could just use its local recovery image to reinstall itself in a much shorter time.

All in all, Ubuntu felt like a huge step back from Windows. I haven’t tried other distros, but I don’t think the difference would be significant for the issues I mentioned.

Yes, I also dislike the features in Windows that inconvenience people, but man, does Linux have a long way to go.

A lot of that is based on the hardware that you're using it on. If you want to run Linux and go out of your way to find the right hardware (like an Ubuntu certified model[0]) then your experience will be pretty darn close.

Fingerprint login, graphics scaling, sleep, and everything works out of the box on the Thinkpad I bought for my non-technical GF to run Ubuntu on. (She installed it herself!)

0: https://ubuntu.com/certified/laptops

>As I understand, fast fractional scaling is impossible with Linux because fractional scaling is a bitmap operation while it’s just a rendering parameter on Windows.

Windows, like every modern operating system 2006 or newer, has a graphics compositor to do basic things like allow GPU-accelerated window stretching, prevent screen tearing, and so on (OS X had one slightly earlier). Meanwhile while Linux has had multiple modern attempts to build a composited graphics stack (Compiz, Wayland) certain very vocal elements of the Linux community complain about any attempt to build a graphical stack you can't send via carrier pigeon and have dragged their feet or otherwise thwarted wide(r) adoption.

It's mainly because of your system of choice. For an alternative OS to run smoothly on a Windows-only device, the manufacturer needs to either have good documentation (so that someone else can do the work) or not do proprietary non-standard stuff.

See https://github.com/linux-surface/linux-surface/wiki/Supporte...

If you are using a recent version of Ubuntu, FDE and HiDPi should not be an issue except for old apps. Factory Reset doesn't exist on most desktop distros but things are moving towards other (and better IMHO) approaches. e.g. Deterministic NixOS or Fedora Atomic Desktops. Hybrid Sleep and Face login is not available OOTB but can be configured. I agree with your remaining points.

All good points but you were likely asked for encryption during setup, you just didn't notice (it's at the partition step).

You are correct that it's impossible to do after the fact whilst the system is live. LUKS is also not very resilient. Bitlocker stores several copy of its headers in case of sector damage. With luks2 you're SOL.

I know this is going to sound stereotypical Linux user-y, but it's really because Ubuntu is pretty terrible nowadays. Several of those are enabled by default on Fedora for example, and Fedora is nowadays about as easy to use as Ubuntu

If you'd been riding tricycles your whole life you'd fall off a bicycle the first time. Keep at it. It's worth it.

I don't see myself moving away from Windows due to the software ecosystem that has been built upon it for decades, but if I was forced to use the "Home" version I would be long gone. That being said, when I can, I use Linux on various PCs and it's a refreshing experience.

What software specifically is preventing you from moving, if you don't mind me asking?

I am chained to Windows (not the OP) all over the place.

CAD programs, e.g. SolidWorks, Alibre, SketchUp, eDrawings, Fusion 360? Windows.

CAM programs, e.g. BobCAM, MeshCAM, MasterCAM? Windows.

Office? Windows (LibreOffice is not a functional replacement - you can’t risk having documents being sent to clients looking bad).

FileMaker, Act! Pro, other desktop databases? Windows.

Router control software, e.g. Mach3, Mach4, UCCNC? Windows.

Adobe anything (GIMP is worse than a joke)? Or, if you don’t like Adobe, Affinity? Windows.

No shortage of Windows and Mac only programs in a business. Other than MasterCAM, my family uses or has used every piece of software I just listed in our small business. Linux is not an option; only for home hobbyist use, maybe. If you could get by with a Chromebook, Linux will work for you, otherwise it probably won’t. (This might sound like a slam, but remember Steam also runs on Chromebooks now.)

I run exclusively Linux, don't even really feel the need to keep a dual boot partition around, and have probably installed Arch Linux over 50 times, but I do understand that there are many a plethora of different Windows software ecosystems that aren't duplicated in Linux. I'm a firm believer in if there is a will there is way, but sometimes I've had to walk away and either say F this or break out the Window's partition. Luckily I don't "need" Adobe products, or perfect support for some of my hardware devices, or the exact right libraries for that kinda obscure game, or 99 other things. Linux is probably good for a vast majority of us though.

I was about 25 years into my career when I started a new job and the desktop was running windows. I explained I had never really used it and they would need to let me run Linux.

- no more solitaire

- cortana

- ads… ADS… in the OS

- forced updates

- windows live accounts (or is it microsoft.com? wait, no, I think it’s office.com?)

- two system settings screens

- major new versions after “last version of Windows ever: 10”

Oh man, the absolute clusterfuck of settings screens is irritating. OS settings interface isn't a fucking micro service project; it's like technically, yes, they're updating the same things underneath but I don't want to spend mental energy thinking about the best way to update network settings in <current year>

To be fair, I still have no idea how to set the DNS server on an Ubuntu server in a way that won’t get wiped out on reboot. Is it resolv.conf? Nope, that’s generated by another tool. systemd-resolve? I think that’s getting closer… network manager? By the time I figure it out they’ll add another one to the pile.

Windows settings have always been bad, but the new UI is truly an atrocity.

I think it's intentional because they don't really want users changing stuff, especially the spyware parts.

Android is also truly horrible, with some settings (like privacy settings) redirecting you to a sluggish embedded remote web page.

> two system settings screens

I dread the time when they remove the old one. Small settings that I like to tinker with are hidden here and I doubt program managers will care about them at all.

Example: customizing the mouse theme. Seems frivolous, but without changing the text cursor, increasing the cursor size too much makes it very difficult to pinpoint text since the effect point is on the center of a big cursor rather than on a clearly defined edge.

I just purchased the new Surface Laptop (7) coming from MacOS. I boot it up, ads are in the start menu, ads are in the weather app, ads are in the email application, ads are in the notifications, and edge’s start screen. I research a bit and you much pay $70/year for the office suite and $20/month for copilot+. Yah, nah, already returned it and back with macOS.

I actually thought everyone other than linux was forcing updates at this point. Do apple devices let you shut them off?

Apple devices don't even turn it on. iOS devices it's offered to you during setup, but on the Mac only Rapid Security Responses and XProtect autoupdates are on by default. Changes are a simple toggle. Auto check, on or off. Auto install, on or off.

Oh don’t tell me MacOS treats me as the true owner. Would you want to switch to Safari as the default browser?. Would you enable iCloud sync, your disk is low. Would you update tonight or tomorrow? Can be annoying just as Windows.

I don’t understand the complaints about the software updates (IME they are all letting me know it will happen tonight unless I stop it).

I asked me one time about safari. Over the life of each computer.

Macbooks won't apply updates unless you leave them plugged in overnight. If you do the totally normal thing of not charging a full battery, you get to enjoy the riveting experience of watching a slow update screen 30 minutes after you next use it.

MacOS has been no exception to the enshittification trend, but Windows has always led by piles of shit, and is now shitting laps around the competition. Apple is trying to sell Apple to you. Microshit is selling you.

Stallman for all his faults at least got this fundamental message right.. these software ain't free.

When I was logging into my work the other day, using MS Teams it suddenly dawned on me that my younger self is very disappointed. There I was in the process of logging into work VPN, the teams app is actually scanning my face couple of times... and god knows what else.

I don't know why people even need to write the disclaimer "for all his faults". Who doesn't have faults? At least his fault isn't being a greedy capitalist like most of our "thought leaders". Oddly nobody ever mentions those faults, though.

You raise an interesting question, so I'm resisting the urge to lazily guess.

Everyone could benefit from more grace. Him, myself, all of us.

We do all have faults. They aren't all the same, though. Measured responses are important.

I completely agree with RMS on a lot of things, how I interact with people (and his big area of contention) isn't one

Windows is just plain humiliating and embarrassing to use at this point. MacOS is starting to creep that way with lots of pushing for signing up for additional services, as well. It’s a real shame, but it’s no wonder no one wants to deal with a PC anymore outside of the office where most of the trash is turned off by corporate IT.

I don't think that's the right causal direction. People aren't using home PCs anymore because they use their phones, or their work laptop. At least that's my take.

Part of me wonders if all this advertisement and service hawking is related to a fear of massive market size reduction, overall.

There is a reason why it was renamed from "My Computer" to "This PC".

I've been out of the Windows loop for roughly as many years as the "skip every other Windows release" is holding: Windows 98 good, Windows Me bad, Windows XP good, Windows Vista bad, Windows 7 good, Windows 8 bad, Windows 10 good, Windows 11 bad ... has this meta rule changed? There seems wisdom or even intent behind it in that MS keeps correcting their overreaching changes every other release.

The one thing Windows gets right IMO is binary backward compatibilty, in particular with games, but also with older apps still from the pre-subscription era (3D modelling, Adobe sw, ...). Unfortunately, x86 seems kindof going under. Haven't tested extensively, but I wouldn't be surprised if a regular (non-pro) iPad can run old DOS games on RetroArch/dosbox longer on a charge than any outdated x86 hardware can. Right now, MS also again attempts to bring Windows onto ARM after their former attempt failed miserably with no exclusive software available that people actually wanted to use (cf Dells new ARM-based XPS and others). Is there instruction-level emulation with JIT on Windows ARM for x86/64 like Apple's Rosetta/Rosetta2?

I mean, it's a classic tactic used by many companies like supermarkets to increase prices, for example. For supermarkets it goes like this: increase price (e.g. 1.75 to 2.00 per unit) and simultaneously put the product on offer (e.g. 3 for 5.00). Then remove offer, leaving the price increased to 2.00 per unit. It basically softens the blow by tricking the consumer into thinking every step is at worst neutral.

It's the same tactics with Windows: introduce shockingly bad new version, but continue support of old version (seems neutral because "I'm never upgrading"). Force new users to new version. Release new "good" version with all the compromises of previous version (seems positive).

Use LTSC, it's marketed for "enterprise" but it's functionally identical to the regular versions with the bonus of advanced configuration that lets you disable AV, forced updates, telemetry, ads, etc.

Where can I buy a license / key for LTSC?

I looked on Microsoft's site but all it says is to contact their sales team. Did you have luck with that process? Usually when a company says 'contact sales' that means it is very expensive.

It seems like Microsoft are afraid to make it easily available because if word got out every enthusiast and power user would switch leaving them without the ongoing ad revenue.

> Where can I buy a license / key for LTSC?

You need to buy into Volume Licensing, which requires at least 4 licenses. You can't buy it directly from Microsoft, but there are resellers that will sell it to you ( https://appsource.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/partner-di... ). It works out to about $200.

Afterwards, you'll be able to buy an LTSC license. It's around $300 per device.

I'm pretty sure that individuals can't just buy any Enterprise edition, this one included. Everyone, or almost everyone who's running LTSC outside of enterprise settings is doing so through "other, mysterious ways" that I'm not sure I can mention on here. There may also be unrelated scripts that can strip a normal install of Win10 into something resembling LTSC, but I might be misremembering.

It is also not meant for regular PCs, so you won't be able to get a license legally.

Volume licensing only.

Windows, after 98SP2 and XP it just became absolutely untenable. (it started during XP already) Any pre-installed version was rife with junk one just wanted to get rid of. What still remains to this day, the inexplicable slowdown between a fresh install and a couple of months down the road, at boot time processes which keep writing to hd choking the os for tens of minutes, restore point hell, ... anti-virus which guaranteed ruins your OS ... software that somehow gets installed out of nowhere ... a printer completely impossible to install, then there's the 600mb HP printer software you need to install ... the endless dialog questions you are bombarded with at random times ... I think many people accept this as normal, part of how things are. I switched to Linux and it stays out of my way. I do recognize that some of its configs are difficult for the non-experienced user, however on the flip side you can actually do fixes yourself. Its comparable to someone who can work on his/her own car. YMMV.

About the first time there was some hidden Registry value jacking up my life, Windows made me feel like the product, instead of Microsoft's OS or application.

Open Source isn't challenge-free, but it's much closer to the chess experience that I seek than the poker experience of proprietary alternatives.

I don't understand the chess/poker metaphor; could you elaborate on that, please?

Been trying out AtlasOS recently (in a VM), which is one of those Open Source projects for debloating Windows: https://atlasos.net

It's been pretty good so far, and makes Win 11 seem like a usable desktop rather than the piece of shit that MS wants to inflict on people.

Linus Tech Tips reviewed it a while back, and gave it the thumbs up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dc7CIkZcWYE

Bizarrely, the earliest versions of AtlasOS used to disable security updates. No idea what was going through their heads when they did that.

Thankfully that stupidity has passed (after lots of people complained), so (security) updates work as expected these days.

I love the irony of how this article is plastered in so many awful video ads that is almost unreadable.

Huh? There are ads on that site? I guess it's on you that you're browsing the web without an adblocker.

The only reason I still dual boot win11 is for 3 programs that require windows only drivers. I purchased that laptop specifically because it supported dual ssd.

Win11 offline install and de-dork instructions is a must:

https://github.com/StellarSand/privacy-settings/blob/main/Pr...

Even then, one must assume win11 comes with a telemetry payload every second update.

Linux has its own share of issues, but is far easier to develop on (if you check the hardware support before purchase). The only parts of win11 that are any good was the FOSS they packaged in.

Strange times for sure, MS still chasing a set-top box market 30 years after it flopped =)

Update: This Debloating tool seems promising: https://github.com/LeDragoX/Win-Debloat-Tools

It’s one of many I was able to find!

My favourite version of windows was Windows 2000. It was a true get shit done and stay out of the way experience. I believe the enterprise server versions retained some of that appeal (might still).

I'll probably be building a new desktop in the next year or two, and I'll try running Debian on it first. (Or maybe a SteamOS fork.) I don't want to run Windows 11 on anything, and Windows 10 doesn't fully support new CPUs anymore, and official support for everything stops October 2025.

Forcing ads into something is a sure fire way to get me to stop using a product.

Although not non existent, I’ve found this to be less of an issue with the Surface laptops and look forward to trying the Surface CoPilot PCs. Have never had that much of an issue with Windows 11. I think Recall could be a useful feature once implemented. On non surface laptops, I still don’t understand why PC manufacturers are so beholden to McAfee?

McAfee pays the bridge trolls :)

I agree with the sentiment but this particular website is so chokefull of ads, it’s hard to take the complaints seriously

I hate the term, but this is a crude instance of 'whataboutism'. You don't run your life through howtogeek.

My friend recently got a new Windows PC. Out of the box, it spent maybe 15-20 minutes updating itself.

"We're getting things ready", reboot, create a Microsoft account, 10 data sharing settings to turn off, "almost ready..."

Iirc, a MacBook is ready to use without any updates.

I am exclusively a Linux user (mobile and desktop) but I gotta be fair: if updates upon installation are the main complaint...

Pretty sure some vendors update phones in the store to avoid bothering the customer with it. Seems like a lot of effort to boot the full inventory's amount of phones every time there's a security patch only so people don't have to download a diff on first launch (edit: found it https://www.macrumors.com/2024/03/27/what-new-machine-to-upd...)

Which Linux phone and on what phone hardware?

I just got a new MacBook Air a couple of days ago, and a couple weeks before that I helped my mom set up a new Win 11 laptop.

The Macbook's setup is definitely a bit faster than Windows, but it's not way faster. I still had to turn off a lot of the things it suggests, and I still was prompted to update the OS. However, the Macbook was less pushy and I felt the features at least seemed to offer some user value.

Win11 install was v.slow, much slower than Pop_OS!, say, and infinitely more annoying. And each user (on Home edition) that logs in has to be configured ... "we're still going to advertise to you, you may as well let us spy on you so you get adverts you'll like" ... sheesh.

You're immediately hit with apps you can't uninstall (Edge) too.

Fwiw, CS2 ran away smoother for me on Kubuntu than it does on Win11 (same hardware). I wasn't expecting that.

I think it will ask, but it’s optional. You can do it later if you’d prefer.

The only time it’s mandatory is if you are restoring from a back up or transferring from another computer with a newer operating system.

So if your old machine was on 10.20.1 but your new machine is 10.19.4 because that was the newest when it was put in box then you’ll have to update it first.

> a MacBook is ready to use without any updates.

Do you want to give this app access to downloads? To desktop? To microphone? What about this app? Sign in to iCloud. Sign in again. Maybe this time? Nope, sign in to iCloud.

I’ve picked my poison, and it’s Apple, but it’s far from perfect.

Those aren’t updates.

They’re obnoxious. I’m getting more annoyed with MacOS too for that and other reasons mostly around services.

But you can start using it without OS updates.

What is the alternative to the access problem? Would you prefer apps be able to access that stuff without permission? I get it’s annoying but at least it’s safe?

I have to admit, I read the article and the comments and can't help but smile a little. Personally, I switched from Windows to macOS & iOS (Linux on my second computer) back in 2013. Even though I am still ridiculed by Windows users for my Apple ecosystem, I have never regretted this step myself. macOS has never felt like it was patronizing me or getting in my way - it just works. While all my colleagues who use Windows are still busy setting up their development environment for every single project, I've been able to work for a long time because I configured the whole thing once many years ago. In short, my tolerance threshold for poor user experience in software has simply dropped to 0. And I can only encourage everyone to make the switch if you're not happy - sometimes the grass really is greener on the other side.

MacOS is not without its issues - the delays in application launch while it checks Apples whitelist for apps you've installed on your own machine, yourself, are pretty obnoxious.

What delay are you talking about? I never encountered such issues. Apps are launching extremely fast. With an ARM Mac almost instantly.

But maybe it’s just an issue if you are using the App Store variants of those apps. I don’t have experience in that. I am using zero apps from the App Store.

In addition to the obvious, Windows feels like a neglected ecosystem. They pile on new, half-baked features without fixing what’s already present and broken for years.

Try searching for a file by name. Third-parties have had this figured out for years and yet Microsoft can’t deliver accurate or quick results.

Two different interfaces for settings since the failed Metro experiment. The jarring introduction of old NT menus where they haven’t updated a setting to the new UI.

I could go on, but the author has done a good job of cataloguing a broken product.

It's pretty sad, but with each iteration of Windows, it feels more and more impersonal and intrusive. There could be a mass migration to MacOS and Linux for many of us.

MacOS is going through the same thing. It’s not nearly as bad, but Apple keeps pushing their services and being more in your face about it.

I don’t mind them trying. But don’t keep asking, or ask again on every update, or badge settings because I haven’t my added to my wallet, or keep telling me how much better a family plan is when I’m single. It’s not better, it’s a waste of money.

I can’t imagine switching off macOS/iOS. I don’t want Linux or Windows. But I’m getting less happy every year.

MacOS is getting worse, for sure, but compared to Windows, it's way "behind" in all the bad ways. As a life-long Windows user, who is also comfortable with Linux, MacOS seems to have the best of all worlds, currently.

Wait until you run a PiHole and see all the telemetry and dns requests that are made to *.apple.com even when you are not signed into iCloud.

Seriously. macOS is getting this same sort of thing, but it’s being slow walked.

There is no perfect choice here.

I left the MS Windows ecosystem in around 2001, did not really use XP or 7. I was on various linux distros until 2015- and for my needs at the time they were great! I used mostly desktops (power management/sleep not a big issue) and did not have to interop with "regular" users using MS Office, etc. I did some development, and in this area Linux excelled. I also had time to tweak and twiddle until things worked well.

2015 - 2021 I was on Mac OS. It was an improvement over Linux in several ways- mobile HW was great, sleep no problem, and I could interoperate. MacOS is great in so many ways (and as mentioned Apple HW is generally top-notch), but not perfect. For example, they don't really want you running "unapproved" (unsigned) software, and I understand network is needed to check if the software is approved: https://appleinsider.com/inside/macos/tips/how-to-launch-any... . Together with the fact that I had very little HW control (can't upgrade or replace parts myself on Macbooks especially) and that Apple make their stuff software pretty "sticky" (hard to get your data out) I ended my run using MacOS as my primary computer.

So now I am on MS Windows again, like the old days. It has the issues indicated in the article for sure- but I do feel a little more control than MacOS, strangely. Its easy, it mostly works and gets out of the way, and I can still upgrade RAM etc (for now, anyway- ARM PCs might be more like current MacBooks and could change this). Dev is better than in the past, and interop is no problem. The main reason I am on Windows is backward comparability. As I have aged, I value being able to use old things- and on this MS Windows is unmatched in my experience. I will see how long I last before the next leap ;-)

I agree with all the points you made. Windows is very open in many ways - at least relative to MacOS. In my main laptop, I have 2 SSD slots and the memory is also swappable. Not to mention what's possible with something like the Framework laptops.

Meanwhile, Linux may be far more open, but a lot of hardware might not work at 100% feature parity (e.g. various peripherals, especially anything bluetooth).

It's also true that the interop situation has gotten far better on Windows. WSL works very well. But I'd also say that all 3 main OSs have much better interop than in the past. For example, gaming on Linux is more than viable, thanks to Valve. Finally, The Browser has become an OS of its own. And Electron-based apps like VSCode, Discord, and many others, are multiplatform.

Personally, I find all the 3 of the main OSs to be very compelling and impressive. They each have their own set of pros and cons. For someone who just wants things to work, MacOS is a great choice - but one that feels quite limiting (but some people feel a sense of freedom in that, actually). Windows also works very well in that regard. It's just that for many, it feels like Microsoft is treating us Windows-folk as dumb cattle and that they are taking our loyalty for granted. Meanwhile, Linux.. is hard to define. It's a lot of things and it's a constantly moving target. For me, I have found Linux on the desktop to have the most pain points. Not ones that I cannot manage or work around, but ones I'd rather not have to deal with.

ChromeOS could step up as the Linux destination. One way or another, I'd like to see Windows get what it deserves for treating its users this way.

I still use Windows for gaming, and it still shocks me every time how poor quality it is.

Within minutes of turning it on I get broken features, disjointed UIs, poor performance, outdated software, and exploitative functionality. Not just from third parties, who are a big problem, but Microsoft itself! They've had decades to address these issues but instead just chase marketable ideas. If they course corrected even a little every year they'd have something viable but it doesn't seem like that's part of their corporate culture.

But I guess I'm wrong because they're a multi-trillion dollar company and still dominate the PC market.

I only ran Windows (11) for gaming and today I tried to install Steam with Proton and... all games just work. Some (like Quake Champions) even work better without lags and better graphics.

I think I might be able to completely get rid of Windows now.

> At this point, I have lost count of the number of times that I've left my perfectly working Windows computer at the end of my work day, only to return to a completely broken computer that won't boot the next morning.

Has this happened to anyone else? I've never experienced an official Windows update rendering a system unbootable. I've certainly broken Windows before, especially when messing with the MBR, dual booting, changing system files for customization etc., but never with a random Tuesday patch.

Never, between my windows PCs, family ones, and ones I manage at work I've never had one randomly not boot other than hardware failures.

They're all basically maintenance free, nothing really breaks and they just chug along.

Amazing to me that people are still only just realising this a full 15 years after I made the switch. And I was by no means some kind of pioneer. I honestly don't think I'd still be doing computers if free software wasn't a thing. Get the shackles off and dump Microsoft for good! It feels great. Give it time and before long you'll start doing things that Microsoft/Apple etc won't let you do. Compute freely, my friends.

Ditto this. I still have to use windows occasionally, but the extra friction over linux make me wince each time.

I sort of figured that anyone capable of leaving that abusive relationship would've done so long ago, but apparently Microsoft Windows still has something to lose.

Reading Microsoft's post on the EU's DMA shows that the only way they will make user experiences better is when forced to do so by regulation.

https://blogs.microsoft.com/eupolicy/2024/03/07/microsoft-dm...

I know the feeling. Recently I switched to Linux because of it. Now I’m running:

Manjaro Cinnamon LTE: I know there’s some controversy with Manjaro, but it’s been working fine for me and it drastically increased my laptop’s battery life.

AtlasOS, a trimmed down version of Windows 11 for gaming: I know it’s a bit controversial as well, but I’ll never install or store anything sensitive in it. Only games.

You could see where it was going when Candy Crush came installed with Windows 10 Enterprise.

If you treat Apple hardware like a subscription model where you make sure not to hang on to anything for too long (these engineering problems that happen after a couple years seems awfully convenient) then you get the arguably better OS / general computing experience without the risk of expensive hardware going wrong over time. And it's an expensive subscription model today, the days of a top spec Apple laptop for £1500 are gone, so a decent general computing experience is now at a premium.

Owning a MBP beyond a few years these days puts you in the ticking time bomb territory, at some point whether it's the soldered SSD endurance or an exploding SSD/T2 chip, it cannot be affordably repaired when it bricks.

In the meantime, hackintoshes have a little bit of life left, and Linux looks to me finally like its only another 5-10 years before the year of the desktop is here, and I say that positively having used it on and off for 25 years

I followed tutorials to remove the search using the internet.

Three days later the computer rebooted and had undone all my fixes and now search was back to using the web!

Definitely never felt like MY system. It feels like a creepy corporation changing my settings. Which is exactly what it does.

Another three days later, Recall was announced.

Three days later, I wiped Windows from all my computers.

All going well for me, I love Pop!_OS

Every problem has a top-level part and you only have to look at its main contributor: Bill Gates, to see where the problem comes from. Microsoft is based on cut-throat greed as its most fundamental principle. It overshadows everything else including all the friendly, intelligent and hard-working people that contributed to its products.

I’ve been really liking emacs across the 3 major OSs - pretty much works the same everywhere. The joke is that emacs itself is an OS, but it makes a decent shell. Setting save-desktop to 1 and it survives Windows reboots. Change some keybindings, get meta and control in the same location even when using MacOS.

I really hope there will be some way in the future to get a version of Windows (that's not for enterprise users) which gives you the choice to have Microsoft butt out of the daily running, appearance, and settings of your computer.

I have not looked much at the OS-modding scene recently, but there used to be huge communities around deep customisation, and they produced "distros" of Windows with very different defaults and much of the annoyances removed, and popular useful thirdparty software installed. It's not 100% legal of course, and that "choice to have Microsoft butt out" is usually an absolute --- no updates at all except ones you manually install, some things might not work (possibly a feature for some), and you are truly on your own (with the community) with those mods.

I'm using Ameliorated Windows (https://ameliorated.io/) for the Windows that I have (just keeping it on there for if I sell the laptop), but I use Garuda Linux KDE 99% of the time. It's gotten quite good. The AME version of Windows just runs a bunch of power shell scripts and guts Windows of all the bloat, similar to what Atlas OS does. Cool thing is they're open source too. Revi OS is another good one. Revi OS does less removal, AME is the middle ground, and Atlas OS removes the most. Have tried all three and the AME one works best for me. Haven't seen an ad in the OS since.

(The entire "pretense" [even that] of it ever having been your computer while running a Microsoft OS is just coming off. We have reached the point were it either does not pay or does not matter to keep the "pretense" on.-

And this, in a "paid" OS. One, on top of everything, where - other than money - you are paying with compute and ever increasing disk space for "updates" to cover the vendor's incompetence incorporating bug fixes on the fly ...

In no other area of human industry is this model tolerared: Would you buy a car only to gradually receive better (correct) tires aftermarket?)

> Would you buy a car only to gradually receive better (correct) tires aftermarket?

Isn't that what Tesla did with "Full Self-Driving"? And people are buying Teslas like crazy

Great point.-

(Then again, Tesla's aim has been bringing the "software model" to manufacturing. Thinking like primarily a "technology" company ...)

You MOST NOT GET in the way of me doing the thing I need to do on my computer.

My computer is how I interface with the critical functions of my life; family, friends, income, entertainment. That is important time to me.

If you put any friction in front of me accessing those things, you are getting the boot. Interruptive advertising? Popups and popovers? A forced login where none is necessary? Delete.

I don't give a baker's fuck how valuable you think your service is, you get about 5-10 seconds of my time before you're wasting it. This is why people want book summaries and reviews, why they scan headlines, why they'll install ad blockers.

Using Windows Server as a personal OS can be an option: https://www.windowsworkstation.com/win2016-2019/

can someone suggest tips to remove all the bloatware from HP/Dell/etc and reinstall a cleaner minimalistic windows in a laptop? How do I know all the compatible drivers that exactly map to my specific laptop? The vendor websites are sometimes ambiguous and I don't get the confidence that right drivers would be installed. If reinstallation is too much of a hassle, is there at least some kind of script that can remove all the non-essential bloatware and make windows lean?

If you want to make it easy, then the best way to go is to download Windows ISO from Microsoft. Then install Wifi driver if it is not working out of the box. Then install something like Dell Command Update to install the rest of the drivers.

Last weekend I finally removed windows from my private laptop, dual boot from my desktop and set up WSL on my work laptop at least.

I thought that some things like games would stop working, but instead I had to install absolutely no drivers, fix nothing, video playback on my laptop has gotten better (before I often switched to 720p on YouTube) and even high performance requirement games on my desktop just work thanks to proton. It’s actually the year of the linux desktop for me now.

Yesterday on my laptop a survey popped up in tray. "Would you recommend this computer to other people?". What the hell do you mean? I wouldn't recommend it to other people. They can't have it. It's mine!

It's especially bizzare that it's a 4 year old laptop with dying battery and Windows 10.

Was it a Window thing or a hardware manufacturer thing? Either way it was very strange

I hope you answered with a flat and aggressive 'No'!

I know iPads aren't macOS, but, despite the mention that "My Mac doesn't feel subsidized," one of the cheapest-feeling things to me about my iPad is that I've got an un-dismissible notification constantly asking me to upgrade my iCloud storage for $0.99/month. I don't mind being presented with such a reminder once, but it is literally permanent.

I hate when it outlook it shows me email following a keyword in "relevant" order and not in "recent" order.

It’s the dumbest, most complained about feature of the whole office suite - why would they enshittify search of emails? So bizarre.

I love windows. I hate how they are degrading the experience too. Testing where the line in the sand is very short sighted.

I have only used Windows under duress, i.e. at work. Windows 7 kept it down to an acceptable level of user-hostility.

Windows is the SF of operating systems. I first moved to SF because I wanted to be there, not because it had a job for me. It was amazing. Regular people lived there and did interesting things and raised the next generation. You could enjoy the city because it was a city built for people and that was amazing. Then tech completely took over. I noticed my friends that had kids move first. They were the canaries in the coal mine. The city stooped being a place that made people want to put roots down, they were just there because of the job, so people have stopped moving there and started moving away. When you can work from anywhere why work in a place you don't want to be? I became one of the people that left and I don't regret it, unfortunately.

Microsoft and their operating systems are exactly the same. I started using MS operating systems with DOS 2.0. I was hooked. Every new version really was an upgrade. I couldn't wait for each new release because they were all amazing and truly 'upgrades'. I used their stuff because it was good, not because I had to. Slowly however things started to change. Each new 'upgrade' came with things that didn't help and didn't improve. One day I realized they were upgrades, just not upgrades targeted at me. My machine slowly but surely became less and less mine. Eventually I couldn't take it anymore and jumped on the Linux bandwagon. The last two machines I have purchased haven't even made it to the windows startup screen before I wiped them and, just like SF, you would have to pay me a lot of money to move back.

I hope SF and Microsoft learn a lesson from this: If you aren't raising the next generation because they love your product then you are creating a group of people that will leave as soon as they get the chance.

Remember windows 7? Holy moly it was so good. It was like Jesus came down and designed an operating system.

Been on macOS for nearly a decade now. Ironically it still has some things that are objectively worse. Looking at you, lack of alt tabbing.

This app has solved alt-tabbing for me: https://alt-tab-macos.netlify.app/.

I just want to make sure you’re aware of Cmd-` (the key right above tab).

Ironic because Microsoft's biggest OS competitor Apple uses a lot of SF inspiration in their OS.

For the past few years I've had this thought in the back of my head . If I use a Samba server as a domain controller, how much cruft and hostility can I shave off a standard Windows 11 Pro installation with GPOs. I keep kicking around the idea of trying to do it as an exercise in absurdity.

If you have Pro, you don't even need the Samba server, you can just edit group policy locally.

True, but I want to be able to join a computer to my domain and everything gets applied automatically.

The absurdity being the creation of an enterprise environment to use enterprise tools to shape a personal computer into something that closely resembles an experience you used to get out of the box 15 years ago.

To build a castle so as not to be treated like livestock.

Fortunately O&O ShutUp10++ exists.

> Honestly, it might sound weird, but macOS feels like the offline Windows experience of old to me. In fact, the operating system tends to stay classy and out of my way as far as possible.

It does sound weird to be hoenst, as this has not been my experience at all. My Macs have never felt like my own, and the obtrusiveness has been of a different form.

But reading through, my experience with Win10/11 has been slightly different as well. I haven't come back the next morning to find it 'broken', so I do wonder if it's about use cases and regional settings too - after all, isn't there a reduced jank in the European zones?

I occasionally use a mac at work and I do see what the author is describing, but this flips on its head the moment I go off the "happy path".

For most of the usual things I do, I forget Apple the company exists and just use the computer as a neutral tool. Windows 10 and especially 11 on the other hand makes Microsoft's "presence" known at every turn, kind of like I'm working in a team composed of 70% Microsoft sales reps.

But the moment I want to exercise control over a Mac, like install some software, I hit the Apple "bouncer", telling me that I need to identify myself and do everything through them.

On every new Windows device I set up, I disable everything via a powershell script. The fact that no one complains about things missing tells me that very few people even make use of the "features" Windows now has.

I switched to Linux when I got frustrated because of windows just updating and restarting itself over night when I left my unfinished project for the next day to continue. That was a trigger for me

O&O shutup does a good job of disabling most of the modern Windows garbage though you may need to occasionally re-run it as sometimes Windows update decides to re-enable some garbage marketing you'd previously disabled.

I just got a new computer with windows 10 installed. First thing when it booted up, it asked me wher I live. Using that "fuzzy kindergarten teacher language". Ugh.

Destroyed that abomination with a nice debian install.

I prefer Linux (Ubuntu, Alpine, etc) over MacOS X because it can be locked down a lot easier and you have a lot more control over actually what's going on behind the scenes. not to mention all the software is free.

The experience of using Windows is so much better these days, IMO. I too started on Windows 3.1.

What? I have had this happen maybe three times in my 30 years of using Windows products (from automatic updates). Do people really forget what a pain it was to patch things from scratch in 98, Win2k, or Windows ME? (Probably before then as well, but I didn't have the Internet). I remember using CDs for service packs, specialized software to download updates that MS didn't serve anymore, so many things. When that process failed, it was a all night event for one system.

I do remember rampant malware on Windows (unless you kind of knew what you were doing) until about 2007 when windows defender actually started helping and you didn't need to nuke your computer with Malware Bytes or something every time you used a web browser.

This belly aching and nostalgia is everywhere on the web, and I really think there is a trend toward selecting only the good memories.

We get old. It gets harder to deal with change. IMO, drop the ego, and say what you really mean.

However, I agree with the privacy and advertising gripes.

Every time this comes up I read most of the comments. The control we have lost is so important. I'm finally getting to the point where I almost don't care and move on from windows entirely.

I grew out of Richard Stallman, but it's starting to grow back on me.

It never was...n The EULA stating you have a limited use right and stop... As any commercial software and black boxes. It's not just ads and co, it's the concept behind it's development.

The software I miss the most from Windows is MusicBee. The best music player I’ve ever used. I’ve tried Strawberry on Linux and it is the closest but way far off.

Swinsian on Mac OS is pretty good when im using a Mac.

Opening the web browser on fresh install was hilarious already 10 years ago with Msn front-page full of clickbait articles for the masses and some thumbnails even including women in binini.

If a hacker would attack the ms ecosystem, replace win with a similar looking lin, that just uses a vm to run win programs, goes back to win7 gui wise, what hat would that hacker wear?

Really i Don't like windows but the text editor or the official tools like powerpoint, mas word, Excel more good than LibreOffice. I use it for my paper because my collage.

Did you mean colleague or college?

In the latter case, some (most?) countries require the use of open software and standards in government and various regulated environments unless there's a specific and documented reason why that's practically impossible. You may be able to tell your college they need to support open software rather than requiring everyone to buy proprietary licenses and get familiar with those specific products

(A bit off-topic, but I can recommend using a translator to turn what you've written in English back into a language you're familiar with, to check that it says what your intended. That way, you practice writing and can check the result for good communication also. I've been doing this for German and this is helping me practice in situations where I otherwise would use a translator from my languages into German because the translation's correctness matters.)

For casual use Google is fine, otherwise use LaTeX

Try a Mac... you won't even have read-write access to parts of your own file system.

Thankfully Linux Desktop is now a completely viable thing for many many professions.

I use windows to run obscure hardware vendor tools that flash chips. Can I expect those to keep working under Proton? Is the serial port / USB pass-through stable?

M$ is cutting the branch it sitting on. Have been using Windows for over two decades now. And I clean wiped one of my brand new Windows 11 machine for Linux just a couple of days ago. And I was surprised to see how good Linux had became.

Put all that aside, satisfactory of Windows peeked at Windows 7. Never seriously used Windows 8. Windows 10 was trouble, but still much better than Windows 11. When Windows 10 started rolling out, I heard there was lots of issues, so I ignored the upgrade notice. Soon I noticed the fan on computer was running crazily in midnight, but when I checked in the day time, it looked alright. It went on for around half a year or so, I was woken up and was so annoyed decided to check what was happening. It was M$ trying to upgrade to Windows 10. Alright, let me upgrade then. The manual upgrade failed and the rollback also failed. Had to clean wipe and install Windows 10 to avoid such nonsense. Then I started to notice after almost every update, there would most likely something got fixed or broken randomly. Also the Active Hours setting just annoyed me, but still not quite enough to force me to go to Linux.

Windows 11 is even worse. Got a Surface pro for the kid, took a couple of hours to get it working. Then an upgrade broke the display driver. Uninstall of the offending patch failed, could not rollback neither. So first clean wipe for Windows 10. On my gaming PC, all my settings to disable those defender etc would be lost after an update, the UI is sometimes very lagging, don't want to touch it yet as too much effort required. Then I got a new PC with Ryzen 7840u and 64G RAM, after booting up, the CPU would constantly be around 20% for no obvious reason. Since I didn't really have anything installed, so I directly wiped it and installed Linux. It was so good. Video/Audio drivers installed correctly automatically. CPU usage when idle now drops to ~2%. The only thing I miss about is Visual Studio, but that's about it.

m$ has successfully stretched the "you don't own the software, you lease it" model to its extremes.

unpopular opinion - almost all annoyances are most affecting those who can then find a solution and apply it (provided they don't get a restricted account from work).

on the other hand, have to agree that when even those publishing such circumventions had enough, m$ got to tread a bit lightly.

I wish I could just pay and have an actual Pro version of Windows without ads, and also that Surface devices came with that version by default.

Because it’s not. Switch to Linux.

Just to put things in perspective - MacOS forces you to run on their update treadmill for the OS, and you can't even update your xcode dev environment if you refuse. Ditto with Linux, you can't refuse OS updates if you use a package manager because eventually you can't update anything without accepting all the dependencies. Windows for all its warts did do something well with binary compatibility. I am happy as a pig in poop with my work supplied LTSC install.

MacOS doesn't force updates for general users. But if you want to run the latest Xcode, yeah you need the latest OS.

Sorry, but the Linux part doesn't make sense. If you want to update system components from the system repository, it makes sense that the dependencies are rolled into it. But if you don't want to upgrade everything, you don't have to. Install a specific app version from flatpak, download binaries, or compile it yourself for your current system. You have so many ways to do this - same as you're doing on windows.

I experience nothing of this. Just run w10privacy once, takes 10 min.

We're basically at Vista again, but in a different dimension. This time instead of performance, it's invasiveness, and erosion of both discoverability and general cohesiveness.

Windows 11 installs all sorts of stupid stuff and turns it on.

I feel like I only know how to use Windows 10 and 11 because I know about all the old dialogs from old versions.

I struggled today on a Windows 10 computer with Wi-Fi and ethernet to turn on/off Wi-Fi due to mixed meaning of tile highlight state. Maybe it's just me.

And when Windows 11 installs updates and says "You're almost there" I say, "no, you're almost there and why are you doing this now."

I'm optimistic that eventually leadership will change and this will be corrected. Edit: or somehow a new OS will be developed that's backwards compatible with Windows.

Almost nobody cares about privacy or control. I wonder if there is a market there. Maybe you can make people perceive privacy as something valuable and capitalize on that and on Windows. But people mostly don't care and will put up with anything.

In addition to all the privacy and "MS knows best" bullshit...

None of the fucking app store icons work?

Terminal, one of the better additions of 10, shows up in the start menu with the image preview app icon...

I have tried all the stupid solutions around the icon cache to no avail.

I agree mostly, but not about updates. Updates are necessary for a system that it connected to the internet. And the more the publisher manages the system, the more likely it is that it's updated timely. If the user has a say, then the updates won't get applied, then the system might become compromised or deprecated, and in either case the user will blame the system, not themselves. So it ends up as a question of brand management.

Otherwise, yeah, Windows nowadays, especially the Windows 11 feels like a cheap bazaar.

Install LTSC

https://windowsreport.com/windows-recall-spotted-ltsc-server...

My prediction for power users: Linux distros away from Ubuntu. MacOS will be AI crap-ware in no time. People love this bullshit. As usual. Windows Adware AI crap-ware will stay for gamers and specific apps. And please, use simplewall. It's a free app which solves a lot of problems, as Little Snitch on macOS.

This article is full of made up shit. Is this AI generated content?

A reminder that microsoft owns more products, in different lifetime stages.

I thought of that recently, when I noticed that Github started displaying links promoting Copilot.

I will never own or use another Windows PC again. Full stop.

Felt similarly. Embraced NixOS. Not looked back.

NixOS and Guix are in some areas about a decade ahead of Mac and Windows. It's incredible what you can do with those (I can't work on new projects without guix shell anymore). It almost has the same feeling that in the 90s, when distros had package managers and proprietary OSes did not.

The saddest thing I see about Windows is that most people (outside work) refuse to switch because they need Windows for gaming. Like really? With so many ways to play these days you let your video game addiction keep you on this invasive, user hostile piece of crap OS? Really?

Enshittification.

Windows is the only reasonable option for someone who wants a modern desktop but doesn’t want a Mac. Apple has been integrating ID into their systems for years and nobody bats an eye. Do you want a computer that “feels like” something or do you want to get work done?

I sure manage to get a lot of modern work done on my Linux desktop.

And yet you still don't need to sign in with an Apple ID unless you want to. Microsoft makes it annoyingly hard to set up your computer with a local-only account.

People need to get over the in OS ads. They’re easily removable honestly. Personally I’ve never seen windows look this good in years. The whole system shell looks really good and well designed these days. On top of that the included features like wsl2 and hyperv are great.

I disagree that we should just "get over" ads, I fucking paid cold hard cash for a Windows license after all. It's either ads with a free license, or no ads with a license bought and paid for. No fucking double dipping.

That said, most if not all the nonsense can easily be disabled or removed so I agree with your overall position.

This is the road to hell. We all know that advertising eventually corrupts the advertising platform. It happened with radio, broadcast TV, cable TV and the web.

You'll be very sorry in a very short time if you put up with ads in an OS you paid for, on hardware you paid for. You're letting Microsoft externalize some of the cost of advertising to you.

And you need to get bent.

Pardon my French, but someone had to say it and you needed to hear it.

it's really not the ads that upset me, it's the remotely exploitable vulnerabilities that take Microsoft 3 years to fix that's kind of where I have a problem. I stopped using Microsoft products in like 1991 man sorry

There's no substance to any of these gripes. What advertising? The section hardly describes where/what that is. Sure there's Microsoft Store/app related things (if you use them) but other than that, isn't most of it third-party/manufacturer-included bloat and ads? I don't see any ads on my Win 11 install anywhere. I never use the Start menu except for my already pinned/frequently used apps. Most of my apps are no MS-related.... VS Code and OS stuff excepted. No ads there. Not using Edge browser so that eliminates any of that MS/Bing/whatever related ads. The file explorer mostly works. Problems with updates come and go, but are minor/years apart. There's no particular lock-in at the level of Mac OS, and I can manage my device/files/plug'n'play mostly without any restrictions. It still feels like my machine in ways that Macs never do.

If you're not a paid shill then you sure do a good job of it

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