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Windows needs a change in priorities

den.dev

121–130 of 884 posts

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#121
post #17

Windows at this point is a ball and chain around even Microsoft's leg. They pivoted to a "cloud and services" company under Nadella because they can't make money off Windows anymore -- except by strip-mining its reputation and ubiquity by turning it into adware/spyware. Truly we live in the worst timeline.

If it pushes people towards better OSes (any *nix IMO) that's a good thing. I was tired of Windows back in the XP days.

Imo, the best OS has the software that I want to run.

I think wine is doing a more important job than MS at allowing windows to die

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#122

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like switching to linux when win 7 support ended was the right move. All my games may randomly freeze for no discernible reason, but at least I don't have to deal with that BS.

Really? I made the same move (or at least finished it 100%) at the same time, and that's not a problem I've ever seen. Some (surprisingly few, actually) don't perform well under Wine/Proton, or at all, but random freezing I've never seen. And certainly not all of my games.

But it’s linux, so one obscure setting in a config file or slightly different hardware can make all the difference. I say this as a linux user since WinXP.

The whole OS market is pretty rough right now.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#123
post #20

The only direction Windows should go is being more modular and less features. Speed is probably the only feature all users want. So make all features modular with advanced user being able to remove and get a lean and mean OS. We want less, we want speed. P. S. It is about time to upgrade the File System. It is too slow...

The problem with this is fragmentation, if I understand you correctly.

It's one of the two reasons why Linux isn't ubiquitous on the desktop. (The other being open source doesn't provide enough incentive to do the boring unsexy work)

Fragmentation kills support. Imagine non technical users searching for help on an issue. First finding articles on Windows, then version X, then getting 'only applies with piece X, Y, Z installed'. That's already a problem and the suggestion of making Windows less 'batteries included' would make it harder for the mainstream users, who are the bulk of users.

Fragmentation also kills products, it increases development costs, reduces velocity etc.

Microsoft knew/knows how to make a better product, they just don't choose to because they evaluate they can make more money by screwing consumers over.

In my opinion we need regulation regarding anti-features. It's not perfect but it's the approach that is the answer in the non-digital world.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#124
post #56

Talking about dark patterns, here are a couple I've noticed. In Windows, I'm very careful about NOT signing in to anything Microsoft, unless I have to. I make sure I use a local administrator account instead of a Microsoft account. Yesterday I had to open Microsoft Edge for something that would only work in Edge, and lo-and-behold, Microsoft had taken my Xbox Game Pass sign-in and applied to Edge, then informed me th…

Looks like switching to linux when win 7 support ended was the right move. All my games may randomly freeze for no discernible reason, but at least I don't have to deal with that BS.

I do this switch 13 years ago just before 7 was released to macOS.

So mine last Windows was XP.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#125
post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As an officer worker, there are many many things I do that cannot be done in a web browser. File comparison tools, macros and complex excel queries, hard applications for both new and legacy critical programs... Can this be done on Linux? Frequently. Can it be done in a web browser? Rarely effectively and often not at all.

Isn't Excel feature-complete in the browser now, macros and all? https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365

In theory, yes.

However Excel Online breaks down quickly with large file sizes, loses formatting and struggles mightily with complex macros.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#126

> I can literally run a game written for Windows 95 on Windows 11 without major issues That probably isn't a good thing. Not without firing up some kind of explicit emulator.

Yeah, I read that, and wondered if that is a real justification for, well, anything.

I have and can run Linux binaries I had compiled (statically) from the late 90s. Doesn't mean that I should. If you are running ancient games, run them on the ancient OS.

Using this as a reason to dismiss Mac and Linux? Not the best thought out argument. Kinda makes the opposite point than the author intended.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#127
Windows 11 is probably the last straw that pushes me to Linux. I'm still using Windows 10 on my Lenovo 470S laptop, but my next one is going to be a Linux one. I still have to keep a Windows gig somewhere to play old school games but that's pretty much all I need.

I'll also try to avoid any job that requires MS Office. Nowadays I have to "Save as" to easily navigate to a local folder, otherwise it takes quite a few steps to move away from the OneDrive default folder. Windows 10 is bad enough, but whatever I heard about 11 seems to be much worse.

MSFT has made the decision to suck money on Cloud, which is fine. I'd like to remind you not to fall into the WSL trap. Use a standalone Linux instead. Once you are getting used to WSL you are probably getting sucked into Windows anyway.

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Looks like switching to linux when win 7 support ended was the right move. All my games may randomly freeze for no discernible reason, but at least I don't have to deal with that BS.

Really? I made the same move (or at least finished it 100%) at the same time, and that's not a problem I've ever seen. Some (surprisingly few, actually) don't perform well under Wine/Proton, or at all, but random freezing I've never seen. And certainly not all of my games.

It's all games, both proton and native, on a specific computer. The issue didn't occur for a long time when I first installed, so I'm pretty sure its a software/config problem which a reinstall would fix. I just haven't gotten around to it. Probably a nvidia driver problem tbh (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2lhwb_OckQ)

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#129
post #8

This post resonates with me a lot, as I share many of the same complaints. The UI inconsistencies are one thing (that you would hope get ironed out over time), but the level of ads creeping ever higher is alarming. The “accidental” inclusion of an ad in Windows Explorer this week may have tipped their hand - if that’s the direction they are going, I’m moving off the platform entirely.

>The UI inconsistencies are one thing (that you would hope get ironed out over time) Windows 8 was released ten years ago. All the old-style control panel dialogs are still with us. Regedit will never get ported to the new UI toolkit.

Should it be? I imagine the number of people who use Regedit is less than one per cent, and those people really don’t care what it looks like? (yes, RegEdit is a terrible UX but for me familiarity makes me less likely to make mistakes in a tool you really don’t want to make mistakes in!)

Re: Windows needs a change in priorities

#130
post #89
post #49

Why do I get redirected to https://den.dev/ukraine ? This isn't a good idea. edit: https://archive.ph/q8ayE

Agree. Those tricky Ukrainians become annoying

Yes, I'm Russian. No, I don't support what's happening right now and I stand with Ukraine. No, I can't do anything about it. Now get out of the way and let me read the article.

These performative acts of shoving politics where it doesn't belong doesn't do anything to change the situation, they just make people like me angry.

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