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Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

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Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#31

Post by einr »

svrtknst wrote: post #8

I'm not being factious, but is there any Linux distro with a desktop experience that matches Windows and macos? Like, yes, I know there are many flaws with both. A lot of sound, technical issues with windows and macos. A slew of UX ones as well. But despite W11 carrying around remnants of Windows 98 still, both of those OSes _feel nice_. Multiple desktops work well, nice gestures, simple installers and applications.…

This is the same stuff that comes up every time in these threads, and at some point, you have to consider that maybe you're holding it wrong. For example: "installing programs is a mix of flatpaks, APKs, and building from source"? Like Windows and macOS aren't hellish wastelands of unreliable and inconsistent installations? Really?

Microsoft Store? .msi? Custom .exe installer that litters random junk in inscrutable places and that is impossible to know how to cleanly uninstall? Just a zip file that you dump somewhere? Chocolatey? WinGet?

Or, macOS: Is it a .dmg with an .app that you drag to Applications? A standard installer? A custom installer that does who knows what? App Store? Homebrew? MacPorts? Just a tar.gz with random crap in it?

Meanwhile, 99% of my Linux software is "apt install foo" and that's it.

Linux can be a much cleaner and more coherent desktop experience than Windows but at some point you have to respect that you are using a fundamentally different operating system. If you're trying to use Windows on your Linux computer, you are going to have a bad time.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#32

Post by Eric_WVGG »

> Since I already committed to ditching my partner in favor of a more attractive ex…

This was a funny sentence to read, as my first thought as I started the article was “Windows users are starting to remind me of people stuck in cycles of abusive relationships.”

Windows has been in a cycle of abusively bad releases followed by sheepish "sorry, we learned our lesson" releases for nearly thirty years. What is the author’s plan for five years from now, just hope that Windows 12 isn't garbage?

All I can figure is that every generation spawns a new set of users who never knew any better, a segment of them reaching the breaking point, but can't be bothered to influence the next generation.

regardless: this is always who Windows was. Get out and get help.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#33

Post by mongol »

One thing that is pretty impressive with Windows 11 however is WSL. I can just run a X program and it pops up as its own Window. So for example, I can run Chrome on Ubuntu on Windows, out of the box. On Windows 10, WSL is good for the command line, but Windows 11 takes it much further.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#34

Post by snailmailman »

stronglikedan wrote: post #3

hate is the perfect word. you can't even drag anything onto the taskbar icons yet, and maybe never will be able to. just one small example of many, of why hate is the perfect word

The removal of several features from windows 10 is infuriating. Why can’t the taskbar be moved to the side? Why can’t the taskbar be made smaller? Why can I pick the smaller icons, but the taskbar remains the same size, with massive margins and blank space?

At least they finally added back the “don’t combine taskbar icons” but it’s still lacking basic functionality that was previously there.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#35

Post by deltoidmaximus »

anonymars wrote: post #12
lousken wrote: post #7

Hate is a weak word, basic stuff like notepad, snipping tool or terminal don't even work today https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/windows-...

My most recent astonishment was they've shoved copilot into notepad. Why did they get rid of Wordpad and ruin notepad again? It's like they've forgotten the entire purpose of Task Manager, Notepad, etc. Then again (gestures at World Economic Forum today)...feels like I'm mainlining crazy pills these days.

Telemetry said a lot of people were using notepad so if they shove AI into it the AI usage number goes up.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#36

Post by Zardoz84 »

mongol wrote: post #33

One thing that is pretty impressive with Windows 11 however is WSL. I can just run a X program and it pops up as its own Window. So for example, I can run Chrome on Ubuntu on Windows, out of the box. On Windows 10, WSL is good for the command line, but Windows 11 takes it much further.

Why the pain of working with W11, when you can run Ubuntu or, better, any other distro in your machine.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#37

Post by yonatan8070 »

greenavocado wrote: post #23
baby_souffle wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Is ther eany OS/desktop where you dont pay the "linux tax" when it comes to how the GUI feels? That'll depend on how much time you want to invest. /r/unixporn has a lot of _beautiful_ looking desktops but almost all of them come with a non-trivial list of configuration files and plugins ... etc. > or have missed a lot of features that commercial OSes have, installing programs is a mix of flatpaks, APKs, and buildin…

AppImage is the clear winner on the Linux desktop for things that aren't in the repos or for users that are unwilling to engage with apt too much. AppImage provides a macOS like Application experience. Flatpak is on life support; there isn't much going on there but it still works.

> Flatpak is on life support; there isn't much going on there but it still works.

Since when is Flatpak on life support? Everybody (except Ubuntu) is pushing for it, from the regular desktop distros like Feodra all the way to image based distros like KDE Linux and Fedora Silverblue.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#38

Post by rdtsc »

svrtknst wrote: post #8

I'm not being factious, but is there any Linux distro with a desktop experience that matches Windows and macos? Like, yes, I know there are many flaws with both. A lot of sound, technical issues with windows and macos. A slew of UX ones as well. But despite W11 carrying around remnants of Windows 98 still, both of those OSes _feel nice_. Multiple desktops work well, nice gestures, simple installers and applications.…

It’s hard to say what really nice means. I have been using Ubuntu for more than a decade for all my home laptops. But I also researched models are very compatible with Linux. Also besides steam, some basic libreoffice spreadsheets and dev tools we mostly use browser and web based things. So our coverage of all the possible Desktop apps and configurations is minimal.

So I never felt like paying a “linux tax”. Quite the opposite, when I dual boot into Windows 10 it irritates me to no end. Random web based link and ads in the start menu. Updates are kind of a pain - they halt both the shutdown and the startup process. I don’t like the flat UI look in general.

As far as overall consistency and polish nothing beats MacOS but well Macs cost more. So if you look for design and UI polish and have the money that’s probably a better choice.

Re: Hate is a strong word, but I don't like Windows 11

#40

Post by jimnotgym »

I used Ubuntu at home for years, but went back to Windows when my last Thinkpad died, around the time WSL became a thing. Then I stopped coding and just became a Windows user. But it just got worse every week. Slower and more annoying. I think I'm going to ditch my family Office subscription and install Ubuntu again.
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