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Our commitment to Windows quality

blogs.windows.com

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Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#331

Post by maxrecursion »

lm28469 wrote: post #252
dmos62 wrote: post #195

I'm somewhat surprised that Windows is still most of personal computers. In my eyes, it's fundamentally inferior to Linux, and its superficial superiority only comes from the ecosystem, which is to say adoption, not some inherent trait. But then, since Linux adoption didn't meaningfully change in the last 20 years, I'm forced to confront the fact that either I'm wrong about its fundamentals, or the market is able to…

I recently installed Fedora and holy shit it's still not production ready. During the initial setup you need to input your location, you have a choice between clicking on the map or typing the city, I don't remember which it is but one of them makes your system freeze, no way to get out other than a reboot. It's documented since Fedora 42, and was still there on Fedora 43 Every time my swap is full the entire system…

I have been daily driving fedora on my laptop for over a year now and haven't ran into a single issue. Not saying you're lying, but if you are having that many serious problems it might be a hardware issue.

The OS is definitely stable and perfectly fine to use.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#332

Post by hatthew »

dmos62 wrote: post #195

I'm somewhat surprised that Windows is still most of personal computers. In my eyes, it's fundamentally inferior to Linux, and its superficial superiority only comes from the ecosystem, which is to say adoption, not some inherent trait. But then, since Linux adoption didn't meaningfully change in the last 20 years, I'm forced to confront the fact that either I'm wrong about its fundamentals, or the market is able to…

I am a very technical person, living on a computer for the majority of my life by this point, and I've spent at least 3000 hours on each of the big 3 OSes. I like windows, because 95% of things just work. I love the philosophy of linux, I love its technical specificity, I love that with enough effort it's possible to do almost anything on it. But at the end of the day the computer is a means to an end, and windows is the sweet spot between customizability and fiddliness that lets me focus on the end rather than the means.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#333

Post by lawik »

The cadence these topics were written in was so Apple keynote video that I had Tim Cook's voice presenting it in my head. I hope that's not just me.

More in the topic. Good that Windows Update will suck less. Did the Discover-something-or-other-imply less start-memu ads, I couldn't tell..

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#334

Post by brailsafe »

seba_dos1 wrote: post #297
raw_anon_1111 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and its superficial superiority only comes from the ecosystem So the only superiority is that it runs the apps most people want to run? And this is why geeks are always the “Less space than Nomad. No Wireless. Lame” types or the HN equivalent when talking about DropBox: “For a Linux user, you can already build such a system yourself quite trivially by getting an FTP account, mounting it locally with curlftpfs, and…

But it still was lame and ultimately made the world a worse place; and mounting remote storage is convenient and often preferable to something like Dropbox for several reasons. The fact that these aren't what matters for gaining wide popularity doesn't make such statements false.

> ultimately made the world a worse place

I feel like people dramatically overestimate their impact on "the world" by way of making niche software choices or consumer products or whatever.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#336

Post by Macha »

ChicagoDave wrote: post #105

No one wants copilot. You can make it an app, but any OS level integration is a non-starter. My next laptop will be a MacBook Pro. My Surface Laptop 5 will be collecting dust in case I need it, but that’s highly unlikely.

Microsoft directors want Copilot so they can make the case to executive leadership that they're aligned with that vision. It's why even in this announcement, the admission that they've maybe taken the whole AI OS thing a bit too far is phrased positively for AI with "Integrating AI where it’s most meaningful, with craft and focus", so the skim reading exec or financial journalist can read it as "good, Windows is still integrating AI"

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#337

Post by tonymet »

Microsoft deserves credit where credit is due. Windows Insider is a great program that takes a lot of effort to manage, and this mea culpa is a response to community feedback .

Windows is a fabulous operating system. I encourage people to see it as a tool and as an engineering marvel, rather than as an enemy or target of ridicule. I’ve been tremendously productive on Windows, and I have run every desktop OS , including Gentoo (when it used to take 2+ days to compile), BeOS, OS2 , Redhat on Power PC, FreeBSD and loads of niche operating systems.

If you like Operating systems, and hate Windows, I encourage you to read Show Stoppers about Dave Cutler making NT. It’s an amazing accomplishment, and will probably convert you from a Windows hater to an NT Kernel appreciator.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#338

Post by 190n »

hirako2000 wrote: post #237

> pause updates for longer when needed > all while reducing update noise with fewer automatic restarts and notifications. Pause for longer.. why not just stop. And resume when wanted. Fewer automatic restart. What about no automatic restart. I couldn't read any further. Mind bended leadership to think this sort of wording after the obvious fiasco would make users hopeful. I stopped using windows personally 15 years a…

Later in the post they expand on that point:

> More direct control over updates, including the ability to pause updates for as long as you need

So it does sound like you'll be able to pause updates forever and also therefore not automatically reboot.

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#339

Post by philistine »

thewebguyd wrote: post #143
karel-3d wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

it's funny because from Apple side, the OS is not that rosy either, it's buggier it has ever been. (that's an overstatement, early OS X were buggy too, but they just switched to Unix after OS9, so, understandable.) it's just better than Windows, which is just aggressively bad. (and I guess Linux is eating their gamers market with Proton? but I am not a gamer)

Can't help but feel like Microsoft is getting pressured by the laptop OEMs to make Windows not suck, because of the MacBook Neo is going to eat all their lunches.

It's death by a thousand cuts for Windows.

- The OS is getting buggier, with every large update getting press coverage on scary bugs.

- The OS is getting overbearing; constant nagging for upsells on Microsoft products with terrible attach rates.

- The OS is getting focused on hype; the latest trend is AI?Let's force a new button on people that will break decades-old workflows. Let's put AI everywhere.

- The OS is getting slow; there's no focus on speed and the place where 85% of the market resides (laptops) is getting completely trounced by Apple Silicon.

- The OS is getting squeezed; under 300$ it's all terrible e-waste in six months Chromebooks. Over 500$ Apple is aggressively entering the market with the Neo. Over 1,000$ Apple has owned a commanding share of the profits there for decades.

There are 994 more problems with Windows but I've made my point; there's just no end in sight to the problems with Windows. I haven't mentioned it's become a minor part of Microsoft's profits!

Re: Our commitment to Windows quality

#340

Post by sonofhans »

hirako2000 wrote: post #237

> pause updates for longer when needed > all while reducing update noise with fewer automatic restarts and notifications. Pause for longer.. why not just stop. And resume when wanted. Fewer automatic restart. What about no automatic restart. I couldn't read any further. Mind bended leadership to think this sort of wording after the obvious fiasco would make users hopeful. I stopped using windows personally 15 years a…

> “why not just stop”

Because most regular people will never choose to turn them back on, that’s why. We already know what the world looks like when millions of computers run an unsecured OS. Last I heard, a stock Windows 98 machine lasted 30 seconds online before being compromised. Automatic updates are good, and they’re here to stay.

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