The day Windows died • Hacker News Board

Re: The day Windows died

#41

Post by treve » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

doctor_eval wrote: post #13

Having never lived in a Windows world I had no idea what life was like on the other side. So many times on HN I read about how MacOS is bad for the user, locked down, rubbish etc etc. But if this article is true then Windows 11 is absolutely insane. That is what anti consumer looks like. Not SIP. Not poor documentation. Not first party apps. While those of us who use Apple’s OS fear for the worst, those in Windows ap…

I built a gaming PC recently, so also new to Windows (normally Linux main). I was very surprised to see advertising in the operating system, for an operating system that people pay at least $190 CAD for.

This issue is made worse by every hardware vendor needing to install their own bulky applications with their own popups. It's extremely noisy.

My main take is that Microsoft has lost all pride in Windows and they're uninterested in actually competing.

Re: The day Windows died

#42

Post by pedalpete » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

doctor_eval wrote: post #13

Having never lived in a Windows world I had no idea what life was like on the other side. So many times on HN I read about how MacOS is bad for the user, locked down, rubbish etc etc. But if this article is true then Windows 11 is absolutely insane. That is what anti consumer looks like. Not SIP. Not poor documentation. Not first party apps. While those of us who use Apple’s OS fear for the worst, those in Windows ap…

This is unfortunately the new state of Windows, and why I also may be switching away after being a dedicated user since Windows 3.1

I doubt I'll go to Mac, I'm just not a fan, so looking at different linux options, even though I barely do any coding anymore.

Windows used to have bloatware and shareware, but I never felt it was in your face like it is now.

But it really is the volume of advertising and crap that has gone into Windows 11 which is why I've stayed on 10 and am avoiding upgrading.

Re: The day Windows died

#43

Post by whateveracct » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

DonHopkins wrote: post #32

josephcsible wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is what anti consumer looks like. Not SIP. It's not an either-or. Both of those are super anti-consumer. If you want an OS without anti-consumer "features", then install Linux.

Linux is only free if your time is worthless. ;)

Windows and macOS have both wasted plenty of my time over the years too!

Re: The day Windows died

#44

Post by fortran77 » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:57 PM UTC

uberman wrote: post #2

Something smells off about this. The author pulled an old laptop from under their desk and was able to install windows 11? Not likely in my experience. How did the author even get a windows 11 install since they claim they have not used windows since version 8. Will any win8 laptop even support an upgrade to 11? I doubt it. Why not get linux running on the old laptop. Mint likely installs just fine. I'm not saying wi…

I agree. It smelled funny to me, too.

Re: The day Windows died

#45

Post by pedalpete » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

surgical_fire wrote: post #24

josephcsible wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That is what anti consumer looks like. Not SIP. It's not an either-or. Both of those are super anti-consumer. If you want an OS without anti-consumer "features", then install Linux.

I recently moved back to Linux, perhaps permanently. What kept me from it was not being able to reliably play games, but I can confirm that is no longer a problem. I can't properly describe how happy this makes me.

What distro did you go for? I'm thinking about moving to linux, I'm avoiding a Windows 11 upgrade, and am not a fan of mac.

Re: The day Windows died

#46

Post by 000ooo000 » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

I don't have a computing-age child yet, but I aim to steer them down the Linux road. I've been given 3-4 Macbooks over the years which are now far too old to run modern macOS at any reasonable level of performance, but I suspect they will run Ubuntu etc just fine and make a decent first machine. Maybe starting out in this environment will also prompt the same curiosity that I developed which led into confidence/skill/a career, just by having access to settings and the like (which seem to be increasingly stowed away or removed altogether).

I also hope that starting out in Linux instills the same "ugh, GTFO my machine" response in them that I get when I encounter the kind of default/forced cruft the OP did.

Re: The day Windows died

#47

Post by nashashmi » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

doctor_eval wrote: post #13

Having never lived in a Windows world I had no idea what life was like on the other side. So many times on HN I read about how MacOS is bad for the user, locked down, rubbish etc etc. But if this article is true then Windows 11 is absolutely insane. That is what anti consumer looks like. Not SIP. Not poor documentation. Not first party apps. While those of us who use Apple’s OS fear for the worst, those in Windows ap…

That was life when vendors would pre install all sorts of crap. Then you would do a fresh install of windows and lose all of those stuff. (Tears!)

Now this comes by default with windows. I think Microsoft too is feeling the blandness of its product without vendor crapware.

Re: The day Windows died

#48

Post by josephcsible » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #28

drpixie wrote: post #15

> Some people recommended tools to me which can be used to switch most of those things off. But honestly: How do you trust a system (or its manufacturer) if you can't even know if those settings, which you deliberately chose, persist? No doubt you've all noticed how your carefully crafted config gets trashed by routine window's updates %#%$$#%#! If you use windows, you're pushing against a company that 1) you've give…

What configs are you talking about? Because most things in the official UIs are carefully crafted to be permanent user preferences that windows updates don't touch.

If this is a good-faith question, then I assume you don't use Windows as your primary OS. After most major Windows updates, you'll see new crapware in the Start menu and get nagged to set up a Microsoft account and have your default programs switched back to the Microsoft ones, no matter how many times you said "no, and never ask again" before.

Re: The day Windows died

#49

Post by zamalek » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

judge2020 wrote: post #28

drpixie wrote: post #15

> Some people recommended tools to me which can be used to switch most of those things off. But honestly: How do you trust a system (or its manufacturer) if you can't even know if those settings, which you deliberately chose, persist? No doubt you've all noticed how your carefully crafted config gets trashed by routine window's updates %#%$$#%#! If you use windows, you're pushing against a company that 1) you've give…

What configs are you talking about? Because most things in the official UIs are carefully crafted to be permanent user preferences that windows updates don't touch.

You'll find apps and things that wiggle their way back onto the start menu, at least that's what happened minutes prior to me downloading a Fedora ISO last year.

Re: The day Windows died

#50

Post by surgical_fire » Sun, Apr 02, 2023, 10:58 PM UTC

bee_rider wrote: post #19

I use 10, but only as essentially a glorified console. Time for work? Time to boot into the Linux partition. I look vaguely fondly back on XP, 98, and 95… but at least, XP was pretty bad with frequent crashes. And of course the idea of security was added on afterwards, which was not really successful and kind of a dumb idea. Anyway I think the death-date of Windows is essentially a personal thing. It is the first day…

I installed Mint here. RetroArch works like a charm. Steam games are surprisingly smooth thanks to Proton - some games require some minor tinkering to work, but I am amazed at how well it works.

I got even games from other stores that don't officially support Proton (such as GoG) to work with the help of Lutris.

If Windows for you is just a console, might be time to re-evaluate on that.

I don't even hate Windows btw. I was using 10 and it worked mostly fine to my tastes, especially with WSL. But Linux is just so much better in every way.