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Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

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Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#151
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't see how Apple hasn't done the best job in terms of operating systems. macOS hasn't changed significantly in the last decade; it's essentially the same interface, but less skeumorphism. The only bug I've experienced that's close to being serious is the touchbar freezing(seriously wtf). Windows, on the other hand, has changed significantly. Sure, it runs 32-bit programs, but the interface difference between 7 a…

The problem of Linux DEs seems to be that they're run by UX geeks. Which makes sense. Who else would be willing to dedicate the amount of time to get them working? The downside is that utility comes in absolutely last place with UX geeks. Ergo, you get a full UI redesign at every opportunity. But... that's why you pay people: to do boring things. Like port an old UI into a more modern underlying framework without cha…

I find plaingnome on top of Ubuntu not needing any feeling. My kids grew up on that and were really confused and found it hard when they had to use Windows and OSX in school.

I, for one, cannot get my head around the OSX UI, I find it impossible to use.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#152
post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In order to prevent malware from hijacking popular file extensions, anytime an application "improperly" tries to set itself as a default app, it will revert to the Windows 10 default instead. If you are having issues with this, it's probably bring caused by a legacy app or script doing something in a way that is no longer allowed.

I might be wrong, of course, but the OS should respect the user preference. The OS must not, under any condition, override the user preference - especially, as you say, in case of "malware hijacking popular file extension".

The reason Microsoft do this is to respect the user preferences[1]. When a program goes through the proper channels, Windows pops up the dialog which says "you have installed a new program which can handle {Foo} filetype, would you like to open it in the new program, or the one you were using?"

When a program skips this user-respecting dialog, and edits the registry directly to take control of a file extension without user consent, Windows detects it and resets, to give control back to the user instead of letting random software take over. It's part of Raymond Chen's "What if two programs did this?[2]" and "I bet someone got a nice payrise for hijacking user file extensions" comments on his OldNewThing blog.

[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170517-00/?p=96...

[2] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20050607-00/?p=35...

[3] See also: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20190724-00/?p=10...

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#153

I'm no Windows fanboy but there's a lot of misinformation here. In the spirit of bullying the reader with a big list of points, here are some examples of incorrect claims in TFA: 1. It's not hard to disable Cortana and internet-assisted start menu search completion. I assume that's what they mean by "keyboard scanning and voice recording" because I don't think there's anything else like that in the OS. It is possible…

I agree with much of what you say but I wanted to clarify one point.

> 3. I like UAC. The article claims that giving users a dialog box to permit admin access is good for malware, but the alternative is taking admin away from users altogether on their own computers. I don't think this is an acceptable tradeoff.

The UAC is about persuading legitimate developers to do the right thing. In that respect it has been successful. Many developers have learned they should not be annoying users with the admin dialog unless they really do need enhanced privileges.

The UAC has no other benefit. It's not a security barrier (malware can bypass it, or get the user to). If you're running on an admin account you are admin and all win32 programs running on your desktop have admin rights. They just need an elevated token to make use of them which, as I said, is easy enough to gain. The exception is if programs create their own sandbox to run sub-processes with limited rights.

UWP is an attempt to sandbox applications by default and thus allow the user to be admin without programs being admin by default. However its uptake has been slow.

In short, it's not the UAC that's the issue. It's Windows permission model. Microsoft is aware of this and is attempting change.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#154
When Win10 came out, we had several meetings about privacy concerns. I did not understand the concern. Smart phones spy on their users all the time, and no one really cares. Why, all of a sudden, is it an issue when desktops/laptops do the same thing that phones have done for almost a decade now? No one gave me a good answer to that question.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

MacOS doesn't have 95% of the listed issues. And we don't have any other desktop OSes which are ready for prime time.

And we don't have any other desktop OSes which are ready for prime time. People keep saying that, but how often is it really true these days? As a professional software developer, the tools available on UNIXy platforms are already much better in many cases than the Windows ports. For a typical home user who is mostly interested in things like email and social networking, and maybe needs to write up some notes or do a…

I'm a systems administrator for a small MSP. I've used Linux as my primary OS for 9 years, despise using Windows, and I can tell you with 100% confidence that nothing but Windows is ready for prime time, and for one major reason: _ease of administration_.

Think of the growth cycle of the vast majority of businesses. Almost all businesses are started and run by non-IT people. They buy Windows machines because they're simple(don't have to worry about OS installation, chosing a distro, etc), have Microsoft Office, and work with any and all enterprise software they use. This gives them a key advantage for small businesses. Like it or not, Linux is just relatively hard.

Where Windows _really_ shines, though, is when a small business transitions to being a big-small or medium-sized business. If you have a couple dozen computers and a couple dozen users to manage, do you think it would be worth it to have a linux admin spin up an LDAP server with kerberos and all the bells and whistles needed, then be hired to manage that infrastructure? No, they're going to contract someone to spin up a windows server to manage user logins, create a network share, and call it a day. The infrastructure is super-stable, and when the cost of labor is considered, it is considerably cheaper than letting the system be the plaything of a local Linux zealot.

It's only when you consider big and massive businesses that Linux can really be viable, and even then it ain't cheap. Most big businesses grew in a Windows environment, and switching the core of your IT infrastructure sure as hell better be worth it to warrant the massive labor costs, IT fire fighting, and drop in employee productivity that will result.

No, Linux infrastructure and desktops really only make sense for companies that are either highly technical, need absolute control of their hardware, are _extremely_ price sensitive, are (or hope to become) massive, or a combination of these.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#156
post #154

When Win10 came out, we had several meetings about privacy concerns. I did not understand the concern. Smart phones spy on their users all the time, and no one really cares. Why, all of a sudden, is it an issue when desktops/laptops do the same thing that phones have done for almost a decade now? No one gave me a good answer to that question.

I believe iOS phones give users a lot more control over their data than Windows PCs do now.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#157
post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure I've ever heard of anyone having this problem aside from that large server update a year or two ago and their "desktop experience". Can anyone tell me more?

Literally today it opened a PDF file with Edge for me. And, of course, file association page does not have a searh box to help find .txt among hundreds of useless and unassigned extensions.

See: https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20170517-00/?p=96... for an explanation.

"A customer reported that each time they restart their Windows 10 PC, the file association for PDF documents keeps getting reset to the default, which is Microsoft Edge. [..]"

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#158

I'm no Windows fanboy but there's a lot of misinformation here. In the spirit of bullying the reader with a big list of points, here are some examples of incorrect claims in TFA: 1. It's not hard to disable Cortana and internet-assisted start menu search completion. I assume that's what they mean by "keyboard scanning and voice recording" because I don't think there's anything else like that in the OS. It is possible…

> It's not hard to disable Cortana Wrong. For people who disabled Cortana, it kept re-enabling itself automatically after updates. I think that problem is mostly gone now, but it was definitely an issue all the way up till earlier this year. > Disk fragmentation hasn't been an issue The article has one tiny line-item about fragmentation and it was about architecture. I agree that it's not an issue for most people, bu…

> To the best of my knowledge, it's impossible to get a start menu without all the tips and ads without using a 3rd party Windows-10-decrapifyer/debloater kind of thing.

I wonder how I did that. I never install regcleaners or similar tools. I disabled some setting and manually right-clicked and deleted a handful of tiles in the start menu. That was many Windows 10 updates ago. I have never seen anything in my Start menu that I didn't expect to be there since.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#159

Windows 10 is can be infuriating. But I can't find any other OS that is a good alternative. It's the worst OS, except for all the other OSes out there. 1. Best in gaming. 2. Engineering applications (CAD/Matlab/LabView) are usually windows-first 3. Good software development ecosystem. Now with Windows Subsystem for Linux, the need for having another OS is diminishing. 4. User interface is great. A lot of customizatio…

#1 true. #2 yes but slowly moving to the web. #3 Linux is way ahead. #4 There are quite a few distributions, I think you should look around. I use KDE happily. I frankly find Windows rather bare bones in what you get. It seems everything needs another app, and they're all a pain in the ass.

I don't know about moving to the web on #2. From what I have seen the web alternatives of those products, if they even exist, are tailored to the hobbyist, semi-professional market.

Things like Siemens NX _can't_ move to the web, since we are talking about entire development platforms, not just applications.

Re: Why Windows 10 Sucks or Everything Wrong with Microsoft Windows

#160
At this point I'm not sure that a desktop OS with this wide hardware compatibility and backwards compatibility can be written any better than Windows 10.

The thing is, if you are an experienced user with willingness to search for solutions, you can fix most of the problems. Disable updates completely, disable cortana, stop 99% of the telemetry, use alternative utilities instead of the built-in ones, fix security issues with network rules etc.

It takes time and patience, but in the end you get a good work environment that is relatively stable, compatible with literally every hardware and also has the absolutely widest selection of software available. That is all I want from an OS.

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