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Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

blogs.windows.com

531–540 of 550 posts

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#531
post #481

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Great argument buddy!

I was the same way (I suppose I still am since I never deleted the partition), scoop + tailored pwsh profile + 'debloat' tweaks etc. I never really understood any of the popular complaints about Windows/W11 since I always reign my install in.

There is no argument, just vague gesturing toward the grass. I recognized myself in your post.

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#532

I literraly can’t name one feature since Windows 7 what was worth it, even on the contrary: every update made the system worse. I had to restore Notepad, Calculator and Paint from Windows 7. What the hell Microsoft?

I can name features, but everything I can think of are technical features rather than obvious surface level stuff: DX12, better support for SSDs (Windows 7 doesn't natively support TRIM), HDR (I guess, but it still seems broken to me). And none of these are things that couldn't be implemented in Windows 7. The UI has nothing to do with these things, and there's no reason we couldn't have them without the trouble Wind…

> I guess, but it still seems broken to me

You would be correct. It uses a wrong tone curve (piecewise-sRGB vs gamma 2.2/2.4) which makes the darks look off: https://github.com/dylanraga/win11hdr-srgb-to-gamma2.2-icm

This was true at least as of 2023-25 when last checked, having been super annoyed by HDR just looking flat out wrong on my PC vs my Mac (which is probably the only OS that gets everything right given their large audience of Creative/visual professionals and mobile experience).

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#533
post #490

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I won't, as I don't take responsibility for someone stealing my street legal classic car, which is parked on the street right now without any special anti-theft device, and using it to run over you. If someone takes over my computer, I'm the victim as much as you. You can't force your security standards on me, just as you can't prohibit people from connecting an arbitrary version of Windows, Linux or MacOS to the Int…

An unpatched computer on the internet is basically like leaving a loaded gun visible on the ledge of your first-floor opened window. Aiding and abetting might come to mind, if someone gets hurt by that gun. Welcome to the 21st century.

Who decides whether a computer is "unpatched"? What patches are needed? To all running software? To system software? What is system software?

What about patches that bring new features that introduce new vulnerabilities? Can I claim I didn't want the update because I was concerned about the new AI thingy introducing EVEN more security issues and turning my reasonably secure, mostly patched, computer into your "loaded gun"?

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#534

It looks like it's the year of the MacOS desktop. I think since apple is looking at the lower-end consumer market, it must also be looking at the corporate desktop market. Supporting enterprise software/fleet is a whole different ballgame. But it does play well into apple's strength, in that apple is great at letting others experiment and learn lessons from their failures. If the new leadership at apples even glances…

moving away from microsoft in the eu is intended to cut digital reliance on the US. The EU governments will not switch to macs ever. If they did that, they might as well stick with windows, because apple is also american and beholden to american laws.

I get that, it's just geopolitics, but practically speaking, it is doable for some companies and governments, but can regular every day people manage their own linux desktops? the EU needs a mac competitor, and they're not spending to make that happen. They're just buying into Linux because of its popularity there, and they haven't seen the real price tag of "free as in beer" FOSS software.

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#535
post #508
post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

xbox is a catch-it-umbrella that includes all the studios bought, and game pass. The xbox hardware sales are beyond appalling[0], $220m a quarter, and it'd be below $1b yearly. That's revenue - the consoles have pretty terrible profit margin by design. (likely negative when it comes to xbox) No need for snarky remarks. [0]: https://www.tweaktown.com/news/111349/xbox-hardware-revenue-...

You realize it's a whole thing, right? Being a console ecosystem owner doesn't work if one doesn't have a console? Hence why it makes sense to look at their gaming division revenue as a whole: a large part of that revenue is attributable to shipped to date XBox units.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of that revenue is PlayStation. That's why they've been porting their entire catalog over, claimed the end of exclusives etc.

Last I heard the current Xbox generation has sold less than the last, at approximately 30 million. This gives it about 1/3rd the sales of Sony.

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#536

I recently got locked out of my machine because logging in with the mandatory Microsoft account-backed primary user of my machine didn't work anymore. It said I was offline and I had to use the "previous password" even though I didn't have a previous password for that account. Hacking around in the recovery console to add another administrator user worked, but then I couldn't reset the original user's password becaus…

> I can use Linux but I have decades of Windows muscle memory and I do a bunch of DirectX programming. I see a likely inversion of motives here: you earn your living coding or otherwise are deeply vested in Windows, so you are committed for survival to Windows and to fixing the absurd account problem that MSFT has inflicted on you. The expression "muscle memory" here just means the cognitive load of working with a te…

> When people advise you to switch to Linux if you can, they are giving solid advice.

I am forced to use Linux at work and I dread updating anything because the result is usually a broken system. I never have that problem with Windows.

So YMMV is as always valid here.

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#537

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Ubuntu servers have been in an undefined state since canonical botched a regular upgrade to 26.04 LTS due to the ongoing DDOS. Their status page says everything works. A simple ping tells me nothing works. Let's not pretend Microsoft has a monopoly on idiocy in the software world. All major Linux distros are hell bent on repeating the mistakes of Windows. Especially since the people in control of the stack (minus…

Linux has lot of bugs and issues, but they are not caused by intention to make users' life worse.

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Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#538

There's no amount of progress that will make me go back to Windows. 1. Microsoft accounts. No. 2. Ads in my OS. No. 3. Slow copying of files. No. 4. A maddening mix of UI/UX paradigms and implementations. No. 5. AI deeply embedded in my OS. No. I don't know wtf their design team is doing.

I like how there are still two control panel UIs after... Five years now?

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#539
post #505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been watching Linux from a safe distance for 25+ years. The one thing that remains constant over the decades is that whenever someone says "You're having this problem? Well what did you expect, you're using X distro. Obviously you should use Y distro, then all your problems will be solved" and then another person comes along and says "No, you idiot, Y distro is completely broken, any sane person would use Z dist…

It's always the exact same distro, and it has been for 10+ years. Nobody is recommending it anymore but users still come with issues due to that. There are different distros for different taste/needs, but Ubuntu always has been the worst choice of all.

Zero issues with Lubuntu on my road laptop for over a year now. I’ve tested most of the apps I would install at home.

Not everyone hits the edge cases.

Re: Windows quality update: Progress we've made since March

#540
post #231

Sweet Jesus, when are these guys going to understand that I want to be able to turn off automatic updates completely and forever . I'm fine if my computer melts and explodes if I didn't get the update, but let me do it on my own schedule permanently!

I understand your point and motivation completely. And I agree... However in today's world if you expose an unpatched "anything" to the internet then it is very possible that it will be discovered and eventually used to (silently) do things you don't want. Think DDOS farms, illegal software distribution etc... What is the middle ground? I don't think there is one. We need to have reliable, automatically updated OSes…

That'd be my responsibility and choice. Which is why I nuked Windows Update a long time ago.
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