Huh, I thought it would just be a loud fart noise. Windows has never been a good operating system but it’s definitely taken a nosedive in the last decade. In the list of uninstalled apps?...
Huh, I thought it would just be a loud fart noise. Windows has never been a good operating system but it’s definitely taken a nosedive in the last decade.
Integrating AI where it’s most meaningful
In the list of uninstalled apps?
Seriously though, they're doing the bare minimum to stay competitive. People use Windows because they have to, not because they want to, and Microsoft knows this. They know it means they can just do the bare minimum.
Not many home users are actually forced into using Windows. There are workloads where Windows is defacto neccessary but these are specific. In my opninion it is more a question of priorities and...
Not many home users are actually forced into using Windows. There are workloads where Windows is defacto neccessary but these are specific. In my opninion it is more a question of priorities and cultural inertia.
A random person that wants to stop using Windows can do so easily. It would take a weekend as a stretch and willingness to learn
I think you drastically overestimate the average person's ability to install an operating system. Many people don't even know it's possible to install a new one.
I think you drastically overestimate the average person's ability to install an operating system. Many people don't even know it's possible to install a new one.
Indeed. All the family members and neighbors whose computers I work on because I'm in IT and "love computers" just buys whatever Dell or HP is offering and take whatever OS is on the box. When the...
Indeed. All the family members and neighbors whose computers I work on because I'm in IT and "love computers" just buys whatever Dell or HP is offering and take whatever OS is on the box. When the Windows box gets slow, which it will, like Windows always does, they'll buy a new one with whatever latest Windows OS is on it. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only way I've seen this insane cycle broken is to get them to spend the extra money and buy a Mac. The machine will last twice as long, or more, and once they get settled in I don't get calls for stupid issues that inevitably pop up in Windows. Eight or nine years later it still performs pretty much as well as the day they bought it. The only good thing about Windows is I end up getting people's old boxes when they buy a new one to replace a four year old now useless POS, and I get a pretty good box to throw Linux on.
I mean, my mom had a single Windows laptop for about 8 years, but she also spent $1200 on it when she bought it, and that was in like, 2008. The vast majority of Windows laptops are cheap...
I mean, my mom had a single Windows laptop for about 8 years, but she also spent $1200 on it when she bought it, and that was in like, 2008.
The vast majority of Windows laptops are cheap craptops, but when you spent real money, you can get something that will last. I bought my friend's kid a used ThinkPad 480s with an 8th gen Intel i5, and it's plenty fast for ordinary browsing and productivity. The build quality is great - - It looks almost brand new.
Agentsquirrel and you are both 100% on the money imo. Literally no regular person wants to fiddle with anything, they just want it to be the same all the time for as long as possible without...
Agentsquirrel and you are both 100% on the money imo. Literally no regular person wants to fiddle with anything, they just want it to be the same all the time for as long as possible without having to think about it.
I have the knowledge and ability to do it, but for the most part that’s what I also want! I run Mac, Windows, and Linux for specific purposes but I largely don’t do any customization, tweaks,...
I have the knowledge and ability to do it, but for the most part that’s what I also want! I run Mac, Windows, and Linux for specific purposes but I largely don’t do any customization, tweaks, etc..
I just want stuff to work and let me focus on what I think is valuable.
I'll second this. I got a Lenovo y510p many years ago and it eventually slowed down to useless under windows. Now it runs Debian (ancient GPU woes) and is still functioning as a solid work laptop...
I'll second this. I got a Lenovo y510p many years ago and it eventually slowed down to useless under windows. Now it runs Debian (ancient GPU woes) and is still functioning as a solid work laptop when I travel to this day. The expectation that laptops only last ~5 years really bothers me for some reason.
My Obama-era AMD bulldozer CPU with integrated graphics running Tumbleweed is still less laggy than a computer half its age running Windows. You know, the CPU that drove AMD down to $2 a...
My Obama-era AMD bulldozer CPU with integrated graphics running Tumbleweed is still less laggy than a computer half its age running Windows. You know, the CPU that drove AMD down to $2 a share...my second biggest regret in life is not following through on my hunch and sinking every dime I had into that.
Web browsing is even tolerable provided you're using an adblocker. Loading the spyware kinda kills it.
I don't think ability is as much of an issue here as the willingness. Instalation of an OS is simply not very complicated and can be done by following simple and straightforward guides. It can be...
I don't think ability is as much of an issue here as the willingness.
Instalation of an OS is simply not very complicated and can be done by following simple and straightforward guides. It can be scary to someone who has never done that before, I know it was for me, but nowadays the actual instalation is easy.
You could say the same about changing the brake rotors and pads on your car. Or hemming a pair of pants. Or pruning a fruit tree. None of those things are hard. But if you have zero experience in...
Instalation of an OS is simply not very complicated and can be done by following simple and straightforward guides.
You could say the same about changing the brake rotors and pads on your car. Or hemming a pair of pants. Or pruning a fruit tree. None of those things are hard. But if you have zero experience in those areas that simple thing can feel really overwhelming. Not to mention the very real cost of failure - you cant drive to work on Monday, a ruined pair of pants, or for installing an OS a computer that doesn't work at all. We all have those things that just feel so outside our ability to scare us off.
I'm also reminded of the George Carlin quote: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” .
This is such an important factor! I’m at the “NixOS, terraform, hundreds of cloud instances, tens of physical machines” end of the spectrum and I still stop and consider when to do major OS...
you cant drive to work on Monday, a ruined pair of pants, or for installing an OS a computer that doesn't work at all
This is such an important factor! I’m at the “NixOS, terraform, hundreds of cloud instances, tens of physical machines” end of the spectrum and I still stop and consider when to do major OS changes based on how long it’d take out of my day if I need to deal with a weird bootloader issue or new driver version incompatibility or whatever, or how big a problem it’d be to have that machine out of action for a few days if I won’t have time. For people who don’t have the experience of what might go wrong, and definitely don’t have the experience to be confident in fixing it if it does, that’s a much bigger deal!
There are a lot of people who are frustratingly uninformed too, and I’d argue that’s probably driving more general inertia than people who consciously decide to hold off in case of potential problems, but if we can get people to the point they’re considering the choices I think it’s good to acknowledge the potential time and stress costs if things don’t work as expected.
I'm not as sure. The average person doesn't understand what a file system is to use to even burn the installation media, let alone figure out what Linux distro to pick in the first place. Maybe if...
I'm not as sure. The average person doesn't understand what a file system is to use to even burn the installation media, let alone figure out what Linux distro to pick in the first place.
Maybe if they desperately needed to they would figure it out eventually, but I think the average person would have serious problems
Edit: now that I think of it, does the average user even keep around a USB drive anymore? Cloud storage has taken over everything and corporate laptops now typically block USB storage anyway.
Based on my time working in corporate IT, yes. Yes they do. We had an air gapped computer for scanning USB drives that customers would bring us. This was for a bank, so a lot of the customers were...
Edit: now that I think of it, does the average user even keep around a USB drive anymore? Cloud storage has taken over everything and corporate laptops now typically block USB storage anyway.
Based on my time working in corporate IT, yes. Yes they do. We had an air gapped computer for scanning USB drives that customers would bring us. This was for a bank, so a lot of the customers were using their own computers to do finances on. They were flabbergasted when we told them the loan officers computer had USB blocked.
This was a few years ago, but I don't doubt they still do the same thing
I’d argue that most people don’t know what an operating system is, especially older folks. It’s a computer, they wear out in a few years so you buy a new one.
I’d argue that most people don’t know what an operating system is, especially older folks. It’s a computer, they wear out in a few years so you buy a new one.
Pretty much any professional field that utilizes software probably has some critical piece that is Windows only (or at least, limited support on Mac/Linux). I pretty much need that software to do...
There are workloads where Windows is defacto neccessary but these are specific.
Pretty much any professional field that utilizes software probably has some critical piece that is Windows only (or at least, limited support on Mac/Linux). I pretty much need that software to do my current job.
This varies a lot by professional field. There are plenty that rely on Mac-only pieces of software instead. The degree to which that software is critical also varies, of course. My dad's work in...
Pretty much any professional field that utilizes software probably has some critical piece that is Windows only
This varies a lot by professional field. There are plenty that rely on Mac-only pieces of software instead.
The degree to which that software is critical also varies, of course. My dad's work in law utilizes software, but most of the "critical" tools are web-based, and no individual piece of software is so critical or limited to an OS that it prevented him from switching from Windows to Mac. There are plenty of professional fields that utilize software but wouldn't have growing pains beyond the switch from Microsoft Office to Libre Office -- and with how the web-based versions of Microsoft Office and Google's equivalents have taken off, some wouldn't even need to do that.
Microsoft Office is the big one for a lot of people. Libre Office has been fairly competitve for a while now, but it's always about network effects and familiarity for people. Admitedly not as...
Microsoft Office is the big one for a lot of people. Libre Office has been fairly competitve for a while now, but it's always about network effects and familiarity for people. Admitedly not as hard to replace as say, the Adobe suite for artists. But it's still friction to take into account .
Though, Microsoft having a huge lock in on corporate America will make this hard for years to come. Microsoft may not even truly need to worry about b2c at this point.
I vastly prefer Word and Excel to their Libre Office equivalents, but I think a lot more people then you think don't use any functionality that actually differs between the two. And again, the...
I vastly prefer Word and Excel to their Libre Office equivalents, but I think a lot more people then you think don't use any functionality that actually differs between the two. And again, the proliferation of browser-based alternatives is definitely changing the landscape there, as the downloaded programs are definitely not necessary for casual computer users the way they once were. Many people, especially those my age or younger, rely on Google Docs and Google sheets instead of ever using Microsoft Office.
It is all about priorities. Multi boot is possible, using a vm is possible, even using two computers is also possible and not that expensive buying a used bussiness laptop. I am also not sure how...
It is all about priorities. Multi boot is possible, using a vm is possible, even using two computers is also possible and not that expensive buying a used bussiness laptop.
I am also not sure how many people use their home computers profesionally instead of having a dedicated work device. And while a lot of people use mostly phones for everything, any desktop is an incredible quality of life jump.
I don't think MS is going to pivot at this point. It is all about priorities.
I can't say there hasn't been issues on arch myself, but a fair amount of the issues have been skill issues :P. I'd never recommend the average person tries it, but Arch has become a fairly stable...
I can't say there hasn't been issues on arch myself, but a fair amount of the issues have been skill issues :P. I'd never recommend the average person tries it, but Arch has become a fairly stable OS with a much lower barrier for entry than 4 years ago. And as more people have been joining, the more documentation and community help there's been!
I have friends in the Arch cult and they want me to join them when I enact my planned migration to Linux on the desktop this spring (I've been using Linux in other devices for decades, mostly but...
I have friends in the Arch cult and they want me to join them when I enact my planned migration to Linux on the desktop this spring (I've been using Linux in other devices for decades, mostly but not always via terminals). What are some good reasons why I should not choose Arch Linux as a distro?
Here are some of the weird things I usually run:
Obscure games
Coding and decompiling tools
Android platform tools
Karaoke creation pipeline tools
Organizer tools for writers
Native audio routing/Voicemeeter
VR (my friends do too so I don't expect this to be more of a problem than it is for them)
Ancient and/or obscure image manipulation software
Unity
OBS
Ultimate Vocal Remover
Google Earth, the software
Various visual database and REST API clients
Deluge (torrent client)
Ancient panorama creation software
Various Electron/ish applications
zkanji
foobar2k
(I've deliberately excluded various things that are FOSS and that I know for sure will run just fine on any linux distro.)
I'd say it depends on how "boring" you want the process to be. I've using using Ubuntu (or XUbuntu) as my primary desktop (work and personal) for over 15 years at this point having decided that...
I'd say it depends on how "boring" you want the process to be.
I've using using Ubuntu (or XUbuntu) as my primary desktop (work and personal) for over 15 years at this point having decided that 99% of the time I want to not have to think about the OS, just run my programs and let it stay out of the way. Basically the opposite of the Windows experience, boring is a win. Almost everything "just works" without fiddling (AMD CPU and GPU, though I have used nvidia in the past without drastic issues) and for things that do require some effort a quick search usually gives me answers on how to resolve.
I've got a laptop if I fancy fiddling with another OS, and I've considered installing Arch a few times, but currently that is running Ubuntu also as I can't find a compelling reason to jump to another distro right now.
Last few installs, mine and my GFs laptops, were basic:
Install vanilla Ubuntu, probably with all defaults (okay, I have preferences around swap storage but it is nothing major)
Disable/remove snap support and add flatpak
Copy over /home from previous install
Make sure my password manager is sorted (1password)
There isn't going to be much of an excuse not to if you are already computer-literate. Pretty much everything that is going to work on linux works on Arch with a bit of fiddling. I will say driver...
There isn't going to be much of an excuse not to if you are already computer-literate. Pretty much everything that is going to work on linux works on Arch with a bit of fiddling. I will say driver version control is a lot easier to do on something like Ubuntu without potentially borking things, so depending on the exact software you're running for things, that could be... a potential reason? That is stretching though.
As ResidueOfSanity put well, using something that isn't Arch will be more boring, and that absolutely is a positive most of the time.
If you're changing to Linux anyway, which specific distro you choose isn't going to affect what you can run significantly at all. VR would be my biggest worry from that list, but if your friends...
If you're changing to Linux anyway, which specific distro you choose isn't going to affect what you can run significantly at all. VR would be my biggest worry from that list, but if your friends already run it, you've basically got irl tutorials on that front. But the problems with running certain software aren't going to be that much different between different Linux distros, so there's no reason to not pick Arch if you're interested in it (I don't personally use it, I currently use Fedora KDE, but if I had enough Arch-pilled friends I might've ended up there).
I hit 3 years on Mint this past Christmas. Linux has its own share of annoyances, and I still haven't gone through the Linux guide online that I told myself I would do when I first switched over,...
I hit 3 years on Mint this past Christmas. Linux has its own share of annoyances, and I still haven't gone through the Linux guide online that I told myself I would do when I first switched over, but even so I'm feeling good enough about it that I'm dipping my toes into other distros and desktop environments to find my perfect fit.
A little over a week ago I got a newish, gently-used laptop off Craigslist for a friend, and testing that was the first time I've used Win 11 myself. I was not enthused.
I agree with you. I've been on mint since last summer. However, the latest compliance with California's age verification laws in the Systemd project is annoying and concerning. Which Linux mint...
I agree with you. I've been on mint since last summer.
However, the latest compliance with California's age verification laws in the Systemd project is annoying and concerning. Which Linux mint and several other distributions make use of.
I agree, very concerning. I am very against any sort of ID/Age verification laws and they are my line in the sand, I will not comply. If it is just a checkbox 'Are you over 18' I'm going to have...
I agree, very concerning. I am very against any sort of ID/Age verification laws and they are my line in the sand, I will not comply. If it is just a checkbox 'Are you over 18' I'm going to have to really think about it, Mint has been working really well for me, perfect no bullshit operating system for my uses. I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough with Linux to roll my own, it's going to have to be some sort of 'Just works' distro for me to use it. These are troubling times for personal online privacy.
This really feels like virtue signalling rather than a commitment to actual product improvement. I know I'm not a typical, representative user, but the big bugbears for me over the past five years...
This really feels like virtue signalling rather than a commitment to actual product improvement. I know I'm not a typical, representative user, but the big bugbears for me over the past five years or so have been:
obfuscation of settings
windows deciding it knows what I want better than I do when it comes to updates, installed apps, adjusting settings, etc.
sound: inconsistent sound device usage, a lack of per app volume control, seemingly a set of automatically determined volume adjustments that mean people's voice in group chats changes level significantly with this hidden adjustment not user editable
slow, non-performance focussed design (it doesn't feel like they even try and keep things lightweight any more)
UX getting slowly worse
lack of quality control: for six months to a year window snapping consistently misaligned the second window, thumb cache breaking and spending hours chugging away without being able to fix itself, etc.
feedback hub consistently feeling like yelling into the void, no triage of actual issues unless the community accidently stumbles upon it and upvotes it, search and issue grouping just not working at all
Winget is great, it occasionally breaking installs and not being able to fix them, and it being unable to tell you where a program was installed sucks
AppData as a whole
The horrible, horrible bloated mess of a settings store that is the registry
I'm sure I'm being unfairly pessimistic here, but Windows is the poster child of something you use daily but remains consistently shitty. It'd be great if Microsoft is actually trying to make a product people want to use again, but I really struggle to believe that is going to be the case
The good news you can still launch Control Panel to get to the real settings and not have to use that crappy Fisher Price Settings thing that was introduced in Windows 8. The bad news is you still...
The good news you can still launch Control Panel to get to the real settings and not have to use that crappy Fisher Price Settings thing that was introduced in Windows 8. The bad news is you still have to launch Control Panel to get to real settings.
Ah, the registry, that hierarchical database that dates back to the original Windows NT 3.5, if I remember correctly. I wonder how many dead, unused entries are in there.
what's so good about control panel ? aside from nostalgia? the UI is so confusing for me. the settings app isn't that good sure, but control panel feels worse to me in every way, I can never find...
what's so good about control panel ? aside from nostalgia? the UI is so confusing for me. the settings app isn't that good sure, but control panel feels worse to me in every way, I can never find the setting I'm looking for there and end up just using the search bar. I don't know why people keep praising it
I think because a lot of people have memorized control panel over the past 30+ years of using the same interface. Which is not an invalid reason to want it to stay. There should be a compelling...
I think because a lot of people have memorized control panel over the past 30+ years of using the same interface.
Which is not an invalid reason to want it to stay. There should be a compelling reason to replace things, and I don’t see the new system as being an improvement so it feels like change for no reason.
I always had a lot of custom sound settings that would ALWAYS get messed up after any big update. Having to adjust all my default communication and default devices and rerouting some virtual audio...
I always had a lot of custom sound settings that would ALWAYS get messed up after any big update. Having to adjust all my default communication and default devices and rerouting some virtual audio stuff. Really does feel like they think they know better than you; here are your new defaults, you will find out they have changed soon enough.
I also run Explorerpatcher which brings back all the windows 10 aesthetics and features that you just can't recreate on your own with native windows. My computer feels less like my own every iteration of windows.
Yeah you can fuck right off. Windows hasn't had solid QA testing for a decade now. Have we even had a 3 month stretch without some patch causing major issues? The sad reality is Microsoft isn't in...
Our commitment to Windows quality
Yeah you can fuck right off. Windows hasn't had solid QA testing for a decade now. Have we even had a 3 month stretch without some patch causing major issues? The sad reality is Microsoft isn't in the business of making a quality OS. They are in the business of selling ad's to the home user, and subscriptions to the business user. Everything else is secondary to that goal. Quality doesn't even make the top 10.
added after reading the article again
Honestly this is laughable. The big changes you are singing from the rooftops are adding two things back that windows had for years prior to 11, removing AI slop from the most basic of apps, and slightly un-fucking file explorer!? Really?! That's it?!
I recently installed Windows 10 LTSC IOT. As far as I am concerned, that is the already perfect Windows and they know it. Just make Windows LTSC/IOT the default going forward. We don't need more....
I recently installed Windows 10 LTSC IOT. As far as I am concerned, that is the already perfect Windows and they know it. Just make Windows LTSC/IOT the default going forward. We don't need more. We need less.
More taskbar customization, including vertical and top positions
Linux had that for at least 30 years, but okay. It's nice getting it now.
More control over widgets and feed experiences
Do you know anyone who truly cares about widgets and feeds? Remove the turd. Don't polish it.
Integrating AI where it’s most meaningful, with craft and focus...
How about no AI whatsoever? At least make it opt-in during Windows installation. Or better yet, make it a standalone program. Put it on PowerToys.
Reducing disruption from Windows Updates
That's actually good.
Also: make more crap opt-in during the install in all versions. I don't need Microsoft Teams and a bunch of other crap on my home computer. Make hybernation opt-in as it is not that relevant with SSDs. I don't need hiberfil.sys occupying 25GB on my C:\ partition.
LTSC is a slightly pared down version of Windows that gets only security updates, and for a longer period of time, but that’s really the extent of the differences. IoT LTSC is basically the same...
LTSC is a slightly pared down version of Windows that gets only security updates, and for a longer period of time, but that’s really the extent of the differences.
IoT LTSC is basically the same idea but even more stripped down to bare essential features, with an even longer support life. It’s really meant for embedded or industrial applications.
I have a simple litmus test for this: I'll believe it when the stop trying to block local accounts. (Adding some friction to encourage non-power users to stick to online accounts is fine since...
I have a simple litmus test for this:
I'll believe it when the stop trying to block local accounts. (Adding some friction to encourage non-power users to stick to online accounts is fine since they do have some advantages there. But stop trying to block me if I really do want to use a local account.)
If that happens, I'll give them some credit that maybe they're serious about this.
If anyone wants some context, this article has a bit of an angry take on what's going on https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/...
If anyone wants some context, this article has a bit of an angry take on what's going on
I don't daily drive Windows, but my gaming PC/oversized Steam box does run Windows 11 Education (leftover license from Uni) with that script and it's quite good. I don't see Copilot or ads anywhere.
I don't daily drive Windows, but my gaming PC/oversized Steam box does run Windows 11 Education (leftover license from Uni) with that script and it's quite good. I don't see Copilot or ads anywhere.
Maybe it depends on the use case, but I upgraded to 11 when they ended support for 10. I uninstalled copilot, haven't seen a single ad and have had no issues with Windows 11. But I use my computer...
Maybe it depends on the use case, but I upgraded to 11 when they ended support for 10. I uninstalled copilot, haven't seen a single ad and have had no issues with Windows 11. But I use my computer for gaming and web browsing so maybe it's a bigger problem for other work flows. I was worried going into it but it's been a non issue for me at least.
I'm terrified one of my extremely niche tools that I use won't function properly on 11 and I won't be given the option to downgrade. I've spent literally years getting my windows install to the...
I'm terrified one of my extremely niche tools that I use won't function properly on 11 and I won't be given the option to downgrade. I've spent literally years getting my windows install to the state it's in with all manner of tweaks and programs, I just want to keep using it as is as long as possible.
It'a not just you. I use Windows 11 daily. No ads, no telemetry (probably), no copilot, no OneDrive, no MS account login. Windows has definitely enshittified, and that will probably continue, but...
It'a not just you. I use Windows 11 daily. No ads, no telemetry (probably), no copilot, no OneDrive, no MS account login.
Windows has definitely enshittified, and that will probably continue, but at this point if you're even vaguely tech inclined it's not difficult to make it suck far less.
These threads always surprise me. I get being stuck with out of the box Windows annoyances for average users, most aren't even particularly bothered by them. But for non average users: just fix it. You don't even have to do the majority of it manually, there are various apps that will do it for you. You can have a comparatively pain free Windows installation 15 minutes from now.
I'm amazed it took this long for them to allow moving the taskbar to other sides of the display. That was one of my biggest annoyances when trying Windows 11 in 2023. Good to see them finally give...
I'm amazed it took this long for them to allow moving the taskbar to other sides of the display. That was one of my biggest annoyances when trying Windows 11 in 2023. Good to see them finally give you back some control over the updates and widgets. Also good to see them cut back a bit on putting Copilot in everything. I'm also interested in seeing how the new File Explorer performs. While I haven't used W11 much since 2023, it was frankly embarrassing for Microsoft just how slow the Explorer was at times.
Seems to just be Microsoft's Segoe font? Personally not a huge fan tbh, I prefer Helvetica-style fonts (ie. Inter or Apple's SF Pro), but I get where you're coming from
Seems to just be Microsoft's Segoe font? Personally not a huge fan tbh, I prefer Helvetica-style fonts (ie. Inter or Apple's SF Pro), but I get where you're coming from
Apple SF Pro font is just for Apple computers. Which is fine for me, but not for my websites. Edit: So is Segoe. Turns out only Roboto from Google is free to use...
Apple SF Pro font is just for Apple computers.
Which is fine for me, but not for my websites.
Edit: So is Segoe. Turns out only Roboto from Google is free to use...
Hilariously, this blog post reads like a whole lot of LLM slop. Obviously a lot of corpo-speak reads similarly to slop, so it's hard to tell the difference. But basically everything beneath the...
Hilariously, this blog post reads like a whole lot of LLM slop. Obviously a lot of corpo-speak reads similarly to slop, so it's hard to tell the difference. But basically everything beneath the "Delivering on Performance, Reliability and Craft" (no Oxford comma?!?) was most likely produced by an LLM. Hell, even that heading follows the typical LLM pattern of "3 phrases in a list with vaguely positive meanings." And why on earth do the headers in that section use square brackets?
Definitely smells like a company with peak LLM fever desperately trying to shore up their rapidly-dwindling power user sentiment. I can't imagine anyone disgruntled by the constant bugs and in-your-face chatbots having their opinion swayed by this kind of garbage.
Interesting that this EVP (Executive Vice President? Engineering Vice President?) calls himself an "engineer" in the letter introduction. Personally I wouldn't even call my small employer's Head of Engineering an "Engineer", let alone someone with VP in their title at a massive company like microsoft. Pretending that you're an IC, or, if you want to be technical and nitpicky, falsely claiming that you are an accredited engineer (a title that, outside of tech, actually has meaning) just rubs me wrong.
Huh, I thought it would just be a loud fart noise. Windows has never been a good operating system but it’s definitely taken a nosedive in the last decade.
In the list of uninstalled apps?
Seriously though, they're doing the bare minimum to stay competitive. People use Windows because they have to, not because they want to, and Microsoft knows this. They know it means they can just do the bare minimum.
Integrating AI? Let's start with search indexing that actually fucking works. Baby steps, Microsoft.
Not many home users are actually forced into using Windows. There are workloads where Windows is defacto neccessary but these are specific. In my opninion it is more a question of priorities and cultural inertia.
A random person that wants to stop using Windows can do so easily. It would take a weekend as a stretch and willingness to learn
I think you drastically overestimate the average person's ability to install an operating system. Many people don't even know it's possible to install a new one.
Indeed. All the family members and neighbors whose computers I work on because I'm in IT and "love computers" just buys whatever Dell or HP is offering and take whatever OS is on the box. When the Windows box gets slow, which it will, like Windows always does, they'll buy a new one with whatever latest Windows OS is on it. Lather, rinse, repeat. The only way I've seen this insane cycle broken is to get them to spend the extra money and buy a Mac. The machine will last twice as long, or more, and once they get settled in I don't get calls for stupid issues that inevitably pop up in Windows. Eight or nine years later it still performs pretty much as well as the day they bought it. The only good thing about Windows is I end up getting people's old boxes when they buy a new one to replace a four year old now useless POS, and I get a pretty good box to throw Linux on.
I mean, my mom had a single Windows laptop for about 8 years, but she also spent $1200 on it when she bought it, and that was in like, 2008.
The vast majority of Windows laptops are cheap craptops, but when you spent real money, you can get something that will last. I bought my friend's kid a used ThinkPad 480s with an 8th gen Intel i5, and it's plenty fast for ordinary browsing and productivity. The build quality is great - - It looks almost brand new.
Agentsquirrel and you are both 100% on the money imo. Literally no regular person wants to fiddle with anything, they just want it to be the same all the time for as long as possible without having to think about it.
I have the knowledge and ability to do it, but for the most part that’s what I also want! I run Mac, Windows, and Linux for specific purposes but I largely don’t do any customization, tweaks, etc..
I just want stuff to work and let me focus on what I think is valuable.
I'll second this. I got a Lenovo y510p many years ago and it eventually slowed down to useless under windows. Now it runs Debian (ancient GPU woes) and is still functioning as a solid work laptop when I travel to this day. The expectation that laptops only last ~5 years really bothers me for some reason.
My Obama-era AMD bulldozer CPU with integrated graphics running Tumbleweed is still less laggy than a computer half its age running Windows. You know, the CPU that drove AMD down to $2 a share...my second biggest regret in life is not following through on my hunch and sinking every dime I had into that.
Web browsing is even tolerable provided you're using an adblocker. Loading the spyware kinda kills it.
I don't think ability is as much of an issue here as the willingness.
Instalation of an OS is simply not very complicated and can be done by following simple and straightforward guides. It can be scary to someone who has never done that before, I know it was for me, but nowadays the actual instalation is easy.
You could say the same about changing the brake rotors and pads on your car. Or hemming a pair of pants. Or pruning a fruit tree. None of those things are hard. But if you have zero experience in those areas that simple thing can feel really overwhelming. Not to mention the very real cost of failure - you cant drive to work on Monday, a ruined pair of pants, or for installing an OS a computer that doesn't work at all. We all have those things that just feel so outside our ability to scare us off.
I'm also reminded of the George Carlin quote: “Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.” .
This is such an important factor! I’m at the “NixOS, terraform, hundreds of cloud instances, tens of physical machines” end of the spectrum and I still stop and consider when to do major OS changes based on how long it’d take out of my day if I need to deal with a weird bootloader issue or new driver version incompatibility or whatever, or how big a problem it’d be to have that machine out of action for a few days if I won’t have time. For people who don’t have the experience of what might go wrong, and definitely don’t have the experience to be confident in fixing it if it does, that’s a much bigger deal!
There are a lot of people who are frustratingly uninformed too, and I’d argue that’s probably driving more general inertia than people who consciously decide to hold off in case of potential problems, but if we can get people to the point they’re considering the choices I think it’s good to acknowledge the potential time and stress costs if things don’t work as expected.
I'm not as sure. The average person doesn't understand what a file system is to use to even burn the installation media, let alone figure out what Linux distro to pick in the first place.
Maybe if they desperately needed to they would figure it out eventually, but I think the average person would have serious problems
Edit: now that I think of it, does the average user even keep around a USB drive anymore? Cloud storage has taken over everything and corporate laptops now typically block USB storage anyway.
Based on my time working in corporate IT, yes. Yes they do. We had an air gapped computer for scanning USB drives that customers would bring us. This was for a bank, so a lot of the customers were using their own computers to do finances on. They were flabbergasted when we told them the loan officers computer had USB blocked.
This was a few years ago, but I don't doubt they still do the same thing
I’d argue that most people don’t know what an operating system is, especially older folks. It’s a computer, they wear out in a few years so you buy a new one.
Pretty much any professional field that utilizes software probably has some critical piece that is Windows only (or at least, limited support on Mac/Linux). I pretty much need that software to do my current job.
This varies a lot by professional field. There are plenty that rely on Mac-only pieces of software instead.
The degree to which that software is critical also varies, of course. My dad's work in law utilizes software, but most of the "critical" tools are web-based, and no individual piece of software is so critical or limited to an OS that it prevented him from switching from Windows to Mac. There are plenty of professional fields that utilize software but wouldn't have growing pains beyond the switch from Microsoft Office to Libre Office -- and with how the web-based versions of Microsoft Office and Google's equivalents have taken off, some wouldn't even need to do that.
Microsoft Office is the big one for a lot of people. Libre Office has been fairly competitve for a while now, but it's always about network effects and familiarity for people. Admitedly not as hard to replace as say, the Adobe suite for artists. But it's still friction to take into account .
Though, Microsoft having a huge lock in on corporate America will make this hard for years to come. Microsoft may not even truly need to worry about b2c at this point.
I vastly prefer Word and Excel to their Libre Office equivalents, but I think a lot more people then you think don't use any functionality that actually differs between the two. And again, the proliferation of browser-based alternatives is definitely changing the landscape there, as the downloaded programs are definitely not necessary for casual computer users the way they once were. Many people, especially those my age or younger, rely on Google Docs and Google sheets instead of ever using Microsoft Office.
It is all about priorities. Multi boot is possible, using a vm is possible, even using two computers is also possible and not that expensive buying a used bussiness laptop.
I am also not sure how many people use their home computers profesionally instead of having a dedicated work device. And while a lot of people use mostly phones for everything, any desktop is an incredible quality of life jump.
I don't think MS is going to pivot at this point. It is all about priorities.
I've been running Linux Mint for over 2 years now, I'll never be going back.
Big same. Arch Linux btw, going on ~4 months, buttery smooth experience with no surprises and no reason to go back.
I've been using Arch btw for over 2 years with no regerts
I can't say there hasn't been issues on arch myself, but a fair amount of the issues have been skill issues :P. I'd never recommend the average person tries it, but Arch has become a fairly stable OS with a much lower barrier for entry than 4 years ago. And as more people have been joining, the more documentation and community help there's been!
I have friends in the Arch cult and they want me to join them when I enact my planned migration to Linux on the desktop this spring (I've been using Linux in other devices for decades, mostly but not always via terminals). What are some good reasons why I should not choose Arch Linux as a distro?
Here are some of the weird things I usually run:
(I've deliberately excluded various things that are FOSS and that I know for sure will run just fine on any linux distro.)
I'd say it depends on how "boring" you want the process to be.
I've using using Ubuntu (or XUbuntu) as my primary desktop (work and personal) for over 15 years at this point having decided that 99% of the time I want to not have to think about the OS, just run my programs and let it stay out of the way. Basically the opposite of the Windows experience, boring is a win. Almost everything "just works" without fiddling (AMD CPU and GPU, though I have used nvidia in the past without drastic issues) and for things that do require some effort a quick search usually gives me answers on how to resolve.
I've got a laptop if I fancy fiddling with another OS, and I've considered installing Arch a few times, but currently that is running Ubuntu also as I can't find a compelling reason to jump to another distro right now.
Last few installs, mine and my GFs laptops, were basic:
Boring. Just what I need.
There isn't going to be much of an excuse not to if you are already computer-literate. Pretty much everything that is going to work on linux works on Arch with a bit of fiddling. I will say driver version control is a lot easier to do on something like Ubuntu without potentially borking things, so depending on the exact software you're running for things, that could be... a potential reason? That is stretching though.
As ResidueOfSanity put well, using something that isn't Arch will be more boring, and that absolutely is a positive most of the time.
If you're changing to Linux anyway, which specific distro you choose isn't going to affect what you can run significantly at all. VR would be my biggest worry from that list, but if your friends already run it, you've basically got irl tutorials on that front. But the problems with running certain software aren't going to be that much different between different Linux distros, so there's no reason to not pick Arch if you're interested in it (I don't personally use it, I currently use Fedora KDE, but if I had enough Arch-pilled friends I might've ended up there).
I hit 3 years on Mint this past Christmas. Linux has its own share of annoyances, and I still haven't gone through the Linux guide online that I told myself I would do when I first switched over, but even so I'm feeling good enough about it that I'm dipping my toes into other distros and desktop environments to find my perfect fit.
A little over a week ago I got a newish, gently-used laptop off Craigslist for a friend, and testing that was the first time I've used Win 11 myself. I was not enthused.
I agree with you. I've been on mint since last summer.
However, the latest compliance with California's age verification laws in the Systemd project is annoying and concerning. Which Linux mint and several other distributions make use of.
I agree, very concerning. I am very against any sort of ID/Age verification laws and they are my line in the sand, I will not comply. If it is just a checkbox 'Are you over 18' I'm going to have to really think about it, Mint has been working really well for me, perfect no bullshit operating system for my uses. I'm nowhere near knowledgeable enough with Linux to roll my own, it's going to have to be some sort of 'Just works' distro for me to use it. These are troubling times for personal online privacy.
This really feels like virtue signalling rather than a commitment to actual product improvement. I know I'm not a typical, representative user, but the big bugbears for me over the past five years or so have been:
I'm sure I'm being unfairly pessimistic here, but Windows is the poster child of something you use daily but remains consistently shitty. It'd be great if Microsoft is actually trying to make a product people want to use again, but I really struggle to believe that is going to be the case
The good news you can still launch Control Panel to get to the real settings and not have to use that crappy Fisher Price Settings thing that was introduced in Windows 8. The bad news is you still have to launch Control Panel to get to real settings.
Ah, the registry, that hierarchical database that dates back to the original Windows NT 3.5, if I remember correctly. I wonder how many dead, unused entries are in there.
what's so good about control panel ? aside from nostalgia? the UI is so confusing for me. the settings app isn't that good sure, but control panel feels worse to me in every way, I can never find the setting I'm looking for there and end up just using the search bar. I don't know why people keep praising it
I think because a lot of people have memorized control panel over the past 30+ years of using the same interface.
Which is not an invalid reason to want it to stay. There should be a compelling reason to replace things, and I don’t see the new system as being an improvement so it feels like change for no reason.
I always had a lot of custom sound settings that would ALWAYS get messed up after any big update. Having to adjust all my default communication and default devices and rerouting some virtual audio stuff. Really does feel like they think they know better than you; here are your new defaults, you will find out they have changed soon enough.
I also run Explorerpatcher which brings back all the windows 10 aesthetics and features that you just can't recreate on your own with native windows. My computer feels less like my own every iteration of windows.
Yes! "My computer feels less like my own every iteration of windows." captures it perfectly!
Yeah you can fuck right off. Windows hasn't had solid QA testing for a decade now. Have we even had a 3 month stretch without some patch causing major issues? The sad reality is Microsoft isn't in the business of making a quality OS. They are in the business of selling ad's to the home user, and subscriptions to the business user. Everything else is secondary to that goal. Quality doesn't even make the top 10.
added after reading the article again
Honestly this is laughable. The big changes you are singing from the rooftops are adding two things back that windows had for years prior to 11, removing AI slop from the most basic of apps, and slightly un-fucking file explorer!? Really?! That's it?!
I recently installed Windows 10 LTSC IOT. As far as I am concerned, that is the already perfect Windows and they know it. Just make Windows LTSC/IOT the default going forward. We don't need more. We need less.
Linux had that for at least 30 years, but okay. It's nice getting it now.
Do you know anyone who truly cares about widgets and feeds? Remove the turd. Don't polish it.
How about no AI whatsoever? At least make it opt-in during Windows installation. Or better yet, make it a standalone program. Put it on PowerToys.
That's actually good.
Also: make more crap opt-in during the install in all versions. I don't need Microsoft Teams and a bunch of other crap on my home computer. Make hybernation opt-in as it is not that relevant with SSDs. I don't need
hiberfil.sysoccupying 25GB on myC:\partition.What benefit does LTSC/IOT over standard Win10?
LTSC is a slightly pared down version of Windows that gets only security updates, and for a longer period of time, but that’s really the extent of the differences.
IoT LTSC is basically the same idea but even more stripped down to bare essential features, with an even longer support life. It’s really meant for embedded or industrial applications.
The big advantage for me is that it comes without much of the crap.
Even Windows had that for at least 30 years.
I have a simple litmus test for this:
I'll believe it when the stop trying to block local accounts. (Adding some friction to encourage non-power users to stick to online accounts is fine since they do have some advantages there. But stop trying to block me if I really do want to use a local account.)
If that happens, I'll give them some credit that maybe they're serious about this.
If anyone wants some context, this article has a bit of an angry take on what's going on
https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
More neutral but still frustrated
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/microsoft-keeps-insisting-that-its-deeply-committed-to-the-quality-of-windows-11/
I'm still holding out on upgrading to 11 as long as I can
No promises how it does, but a friend used Win11Debloat and had good things to say about it.
I don't daily drive Windows, but my gaming PC/oversized Steam box does run Windows 11 Education (leftover license from Uni) with that script and it's quite good. I don't see Copilot or ads anywhere.
Maybe it depends on the use case, but I upgraded to 11 when they ended support for 10. I uninstalled copilot, haven't seen a single ad and have had no issues with Windows 11. But I use my computer for gaming and web browsing so maybe it's a bigger problem for other work flows. I was worried going into it but it's been a non issue for me at least.
I'm terrified one of my extremely niche tools that I use won't function properly on 11 and I won't be given the option to downgrade. I've spent literally years getting my windows install to the state it's in with all manner of tweaks and programs, I just want to keep using it as is as long as possible.
That completely makes sense and is probably a good reason not to switch. I'm lucky that I don't use anything like that although I was concerned too.
It'a not just you. I use Windows 11 daily. No ads, no telemetry (probably), no copilot, no OneDrive, no MS account login.
Windows has definitely enshittified, and that will probably continue, but at this point if you're even vaguely tech inclined it's not difficult to make it suck far less.
These threads always surprise me. I get being stuck with out of the box Windows annoyances for average users, most aren't even particularly bothered by them. But for non average users: just fix it. You don't even have to do the majority of it manually, there are various apps that will do it for you. You can have a comparatively pain free Windows installation 15 minutes from now.
I'm amazed it took this long for them to allow moving the taskbar to other sides of the display. That was one of my biggest annoyances when trying Windows 11 in 2023. Good to see them finally give you back some control over the updates and widgets. Also good to see them cut back a bit on putting Copilot in everything. I'm also interested in seeing how the new File Explorer performs. While I haven't used W11 much since 2023, it was frankly embarrassing for Microsoft just how slow the Explorer was at times.
No mention of undoing the Copilot button.
Anyone else think that font on the blog is... amazing?
Not to be all American Psycho, but the lettering just really appeals to me.
Seems to just be Microsoft's Segoe font? Personally not a huge fan tbh, I prefer Helvetica-style fonts (ie. Inter or Apple's SF Pro), but I get where you're coming from
Apple SF Pro font is just for Apple computers.
Which is fine for me, but not for my websites.
Edit: So is Segoe. Turns out only Roboto from Google is free to use...
Yes, but Inter is almost the same (or even better) and is complete free to use
Hilariously, this blog post reads like a whole lot of LLM slop. Obviously a lot of corpo-speak reads similarly to slop, so it's hard to tell the difference. But basically everything beneath the "Delivering on Performance, Reliability and Craft" (no Oxford comma?!?) was most likely produced by an LLM. Hell, even that heading follows the typical LLM pattern of "3 phrases in a list with vaguely positive meanings." And why on earth do the headers in that section use square brackets?
Definitely smells like a company with peak LLM fever desperately trying to shore up their rapidly-dwindling power user sentiment. I can't imagine anyone disgruntled by the constant bugs and in-your-face chatbots having their opinion swayed by this kind of garbage.
Interesting that this EVP (Executive Vice President? Engineering Vice President?) calls himself an "engineer" in the letter introduction. Personally I wouldn't even call my small employer's Head of Engineering an "Engineer", let alone someone with VP in their title at a massive company like microsoft. Pretending that you're an IC, or, if you want to be technical and nitpicky, falsely claiming that you are an accredited engineer (a title that, outside of tech, actually has meaning) just rubs me wrong.