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Windows 11: Just say no

computerworld.com

231–240 of 539 posts

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#231

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…

> Google Desktop Search RIP or FileLocator Pro I don't use such apps, not because I don't like them, but because these days I just don't trust them to not surreptitiously send an index of my system to them. I wrote my own file search programs. It's not hard, just a few lines of code. I use them every day.

Make sure to turn off the tracking and sending built in to windows if you're concerned.

https://www.wired.com/story/windows-10-privacy-settings/

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#232
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between Proton and WSL we're getting closer to a true "write once run anywhere" world where host platform won't matter so much. Devs will be free to develop with whatever tech stack they like most, make a canonical build, and other platforms will be able to run it. What's going to be hilarious is that much like dosbox became the best way to run old dos programs even if they might still technically run on windows, win…

Maybe with Proton, but WSL will not be an option when shipping software to general users.

Why not?

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#233

Ive been using win 11 on my laptop for a couple months now. I like the new UI, it feels simpler and less gaudy. The drop down menu expansion thing is fine. I also prefer the redesign of the settings app. I find casting my screen and bluetooth works better. Windows has been missing something decent window snapping features forever and although it's a bit clunky I appreciate that it's there. The only thing that has ann…

I also have the issue with the taskbar sometimes not disappearing but I've had the same issue on Windows 10, various Linux DEs and macOS. It must for some reason be a more difficult problem than it would seem.

The biggest issue I have with Windows 11 is that the taskbar can't be moved from the bottom without a registry hack. I find the biggest UI improvement to be in the file manager.

I also find the whole thing to be a little better performing than Windows 10.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#234

Am I alone in assuming they'll just do the Windows 10 unwanted upgrade, again, when 11 adoption rate isn't where they want it to be? Choice doesn't matter to these mega corps, so long as we use their stores and view their ads. Thank god for Gnu and Linux!

They’ll have to be able to figure out where it will run first. Amazing to me that this is still in question.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#235
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/

Doesn't ReactOS use the libraries from wine? So you could just run Linux.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#236
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and UI elements that haven't been updated since Windows 2K. Windows 2K + cleartype would be perfect.

Plus individual screen dpi scaling from whenever that was. And the usb handling from win10. Oh and the audio device switcher is so much better in w10 than w7. Actually people seem to focus a lot on UX but in terms of the core features (handling my hardware and managing processes) windows has improved a lot . I also fondly remember win2k but I think it would be absolutely awful to use now.

The new win 10 audio swapping is a horrible abomination. The capstone being the removal of audio settings from the system tray. I feel like I could rant for an hour on the topic. The per app sound controller is good when it works, but frequently likes to jump to other devices with something resembling free will.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#237

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…

> 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

That sounds a lot like how Windows 8 went.

My personal opinion: they should have frozen the UI at Win7. The kernel improvements since that time are fine. Iterative, under the hood improvements over UI revolution.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what drives me nuts. Why do they keep messing with the UI? Nobody wants that! Even Apple and Google have both figured out that screwing around with UX every release is a recipe for making your customers HATE you. What I, and probably non-power users want out of windows is for it to be faster and use less power. I'd honestly be happy to go back to a Win95 interface with the latest kernel. Microsoft needs to fi…

> It's not broke, stop trying to fix it. There could have been better ways to keep it modern, but just leaving everything alone because “it works” isn’t really an option. First comes Unicode, then 4K/High-dpi scaling, then touch support and so on. Once high DPI screens arrived, UIs that scaled poorly literally don’t work.

The UI did scale, but lots of apps were poorly coded.

> Marlett is a TrueType font that has been used in Microsoft Windows since Windows 95. The operating system uses this font to create user interface icons that are used in the menus and windows.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marlett

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#239
post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Farmers can get paid to not grow crops.

Damn... the idea that maybe we should be banding together as a democracy and cutting deals to subsidize the engineering work of companies that are willing to "lay fallow" their design teams is fascinating.

Bonuses paid to design teams that are a direct function of the length between unprompted UI adjustments and redesigns?

Iteration on designs is of course permitted, but there’s more pressure on “get it right” rather than “dirty MVP”. Once launched, changes can’t go to prod-lest they lose their bonus-and emphasis is more on more in-depth and longer-term user research and refining the design.

This way design teams are still doing valuable work, and there’s no crunch to both design something and then get it out ASAP. The next time front-end teams come back to work on any kind of UI refresh everything is already sorted and ready to go.

Re: Windows 11: Just say no

#240
post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Between Proton and WSL we're getting closer to a true "write once run anywhere" world where host platform won't matter so much. Devs will be free to develop with whatever tech stack they like most, make a canonical build, and other platforms will be able to run it. What's going to be hilarious is that much like dosbox became the best way to run old dos programs even if they might still technically run on windows, win…

Maybe with Proton, but WSL will not be an option when shipping software to general users.

They said the same things about Java and .NET Framework
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