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Windows 11: Just say no

computerworld.com

21–30 of 539 posts

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#21
Windows 11 is half-baked.

But it isn't just half-baked because it was rushed out while ignoring all the feedback (although it absolutely was). It is also half-baked because Microsoft's management has no particular strategy or plan for what they want Windows to be.

So Windows 11 just feels like an "and kitchen sink" where someone picked up an iPad, noted down a bunch of random features without rhyme or reason and then told the people below them to shove them into Windows for some reason.

Then you step back and realize that very "101" features on Windows are still incomplete like the migration to Settings, Windows Search being objectively worse than the Power Toys Run (let alone Google Desktop Search RIP or FileLocator Pro), and UI elements that haven't been updated since Windows 2K.

As cliché as this sounds, Microsoft needs someone with a vision for Windows at the helm, someone they trust enough to go hands off and let them materialize that vision. Regardless of what that vision is, at least then Windows would be a something, rather than a whole host of competing ideas and contradictions i.e. a mess.

PS - Ironically the "Windows 11 PC Health Check" app symbolizes Windows 11's problems: Released in a half-complete state, pulled, then re-released as a "Preview" also in a half-complete state. The app to check if you're ready for Windows 11 is a "preview" less than 30 days before the FULL retail release of Windows 11... It is almost too perfect.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#22
I... have been using win11 on a few machines (gaming and a work/coding computer included) and... it's just a reskin with some long overdue features. The way MS does updates now means no more huge monolithic releases and also means the update is smooth and mostly problem free.

It even updates the windows sandbox (which has needed an update for YEARS) which might be worth it by itself.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#23
post #7

I have to agree, even though I have plenty of pro-Windows comments. To me Windows 11 feels like Vista, and to everyone that got burned with the rewrites on the WinRT side, just using plain Win32/MFC/Forms/WPF feels liberating. Multiple teams are fighting UI politics over WinUI, MAUI on top of WinUI, React Native with WinUI, and classical UWP is not going away (Windows 11 Store is written in it), then ASP.NET team is…

I wonder if ReactOS will hit 1.0 by the time that Windows 10 goes out of support in 2024.

It would be interesting to see older systems retasked to a free clone OS, potentially running most/all of the same software.

https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-in-2020/

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#24
post #7

I have to agree, even though I have plenty of pro-Windows comments. To me Windows 11 feels like Vista, and to everyone that got burned with the rewrites on the WinRT side, just using plain Win32/MFC/Forms/WPF feels liberating. Multiple teams are fighting UI politics over WinUI, MAUI on top of WinUI, React Native with WinUI, and classical UWP is not going away (Windows 11 Store is written in it), then ASP.NET team is…

I migrated from Win32 to Qt two years ago. Never looked back. Much easier to program dialogs & UI. Qt gives you macOS as well. ( And UWP if you insist). WinRT is the OS/2 of the 21st century.

I have some concerns with Qt. Not the functionality, but the implementation of some of it. My primary concern is that it doesn't respect the OS's anti-aliasing settings. It defaults to making fonts anti-aliased, even if you don't want them to be. Because of this, last year I stopped updating an app using Qt.

The higher resolution a display is, the less and less you need anti-aliasing so it's unnecessary in the 4K and up era. Also while I am not on a 4K display, I find AA fonts blurry compared to nice crisp hinted non-AA fonts.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#25
post #17
post #9

Maybe it has better security, but it has worse privacy. Windows 10 is my last MS OS. Heading back to Linux as my daily driver with a System 76 machine.

I've been using Linux as my primary OS for about a year now and have had a great experience [Manjaro KDE on a ThinkPad T14s AMD]. It's really so much more pleasant to use than windows these days. On rare occasion I need to be able to use RemoteApp for work, and have a win10 VirtualBox machine for those situations. Though I actually boot into windows even less than I thought I might when I first switched.

> so much more pleasant to use than windows

Is there anything in contention with windows in that regard? Maybe the mobile OSes?

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#26

Windows 11 is half-baked. But it isn't just half-baked because it was rushed out while ignoring all the feedback (although it absolutely was). It is also half-baked because Microsoft's management has no particular strategy or plan for what they want Windows to be. So Windows 11 just feels like an "and kitchen sink" where someone picked up an iPad, noted down a bunch of random features without rhyme or reason and then…

and UI elements that haven't been updated since Windows 2K.

Also known as "the good part"... Everything else about Windows UI since then has only gotten less usable and more hostile.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#27
post #23
post #7

I have to agree, even though I have plenty of pro-Windows comments. To me Windows 11 feels like Vista, and to everyone that got burned with the rewrites on the WinRT side, just using plain Win32/MFC/Forms/WPF feels liberating. Multiple teams are fighting UI politics over WinUI, MAUI on top of WinUI, React Native with WinUI, and classical UWP is not going away (Windows 11 Store is written in it), then ASP.NET team is…

I wonder if ReactOS will hit 1.0 by the time that Windows 10 goes out of support in 2024. It would be interesting to see older systems retasked to a free clone OS, potentially running most/all of the same software. https://reactos.org/project-news/reactos-in-2020/

They won't let it happen. For now they decided to just ignore the project and not give it any publicity, but the moment it gains popularity, they will definitely react. Until now they attacked it indirectly through their kernel developer saying ReactOS stole his code - in spite of the fact they took all necessary measures not to and underwent an audit. This is the same old strategy Microsoft supported during the SCO trial.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#28

Windows 11 is half-baked. But it isn't just half-baked because it was rushed out while ignoring all the feedback (although it absolutely was). It is also half-baked because Microsoft's management has no particular strategy or plan for what they want Windows to be. So Windows 11 just feels like an "and kitchen sink" where someone picked up an iPad, noted down a bunch of random features without rhyme or reason and then…

> Windows Search being objectively worse than the Power Toys Run

Oh no, that's the one feature I was looking forward to, and only because I was hoping it would be better than Power Toys Run.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#30
post #9

Maybe it has better security, but it has worse privacy. Windows 10 is my last MS OS. Heading back to Linux as my daily driver with a System 76 machine.

Got my first Linux machine because of that, partially at least. I like an OS, for which I don't need an account, that just runs on hardware I own.

Found this out the other day: you can have local only accounts for Windows, although it's pretty hidden nowadays.

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/can-i-sign-in-to...

(Search in the page "Switch from a Microsoft account to a local account")

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