Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11 • Hacker News Board

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#611

Post by rawgabbit » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:20 PM UTC

rmah wrote: post #500

nicoburns wrote: post #380

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the only way this gets better for consumers is if customer response more often insisted further roll backs than just the last straw if a company crosses the line. I think consumers have little power here. Our economic system fundamentally chooses to reward such behaviour. Until we change that, the power will always be with these kind of companies. Perhaps governments could levy punative fines in such situat…

"Our economic system fundamentally chooses to reward such behavior". This is true, but what people seem to fail to grasp is that rewarding such behavior == buying the product. If people simply didn't buy it, they wouldn't do it. It's really that simple. It may be hard to not buy, of course. The alternatives may be worse, there may be downsides to not buying, etc. But nothing else will really be effective.

Consumers can make choices only if it is clear what the options are. In many cases, Microsoft hides behind weasel or made up words. And it takes a security researcher to peel back the layers of their bullshit.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#612

Post by malfist » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

runjake wrote: post #561

One point that wasn't mentioned is that we've been through this cycle many times before with Microsoft, and we will again. It wasn't too long ago that Microsoft went "all in" on Windows for developers and power users. WSL was drastically improved, developer tools were revamped and open sourced. The press adored the "new" Microsoft. Many developers moved over to Windows because they "got the best of both worlds". And…

Every third version, as the saying goes.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#613

Post by jabroni_salad » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

Tempest1981 wrote: post #606

BitwiseFool wrote: post #584

While I have many grievances with Windows 11, I am particularly upset about the taskbar. Back in Windows 10, I used a double-height taskbar positioned at the bottom of the screen. I forget the name of the specific setting, but all windows would appear as their own item, and, the taskbar would ensure that all items retained the same width. The taskbar in Windows 11 is a downgrade in every conceivable way. I can look p…

Yes, it seems like UI designers only solve the basic use case: beginner user with 3 apps open on a 14" laptop, each full screen, or tiled side-by-side. I imagine them presenting their design on a static PowerPoint slide, and upper-management says "beautiful", and they move on to CoPilot features, never looking back.

The Teams... team... took several years to let us pop out chats to their own windows. The minimum size of the window was almost half my screen for a long time, which was annoying since it had a mobile app and my phone is way smaller.

Someone would send you a document and it took over the entire Teams window. You had to exit it in order to chat with the person about the document. The concept of having more than one 'thing' on screen at the time was completely missing. My only explanation was that the developers had never used a computer before.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#614

Post by bombcar » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

tombert wrote: post #595

major505 wrote: post #591

As I saw it, there are 4 things that lock people in the windows platform today. - Gaming: a problem being tackled by Valve mainly, and I getting better day by day; - Printing Services: a lot of manufacturers, specially of high end business printers only work on windows. - Photoshop: I think many of these will eventually just fully migrate to mac. - Excel: the rest of microsoft office is used because its in the packag…

Excel is the biggest blocker for my dad, and why I keep losing the argument to get my parents to move to Linux or Mac. Pretty much all their other stuff is stuff that either works fine on Linux or is just in the browser anyway, but the only thing that I don't really have a rebuttal to is when my dad points out that he uses the full-fat excel and a lot of the more modern features. I would so rather they move to Linux,…

What do they do with Excel for Windows that they can't do with Excel for Mac?

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#615

Post by senfiaj » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:28 PM UTC

ConceptJunkie wrote: post #544

I have to be honest. The idea that Microsoft is even admitting that their products are less than perfect is a step in the right direction. A step on a thousand-mile journey, perhaps, but it's a step.

One major thing is the mandatory MS account. And it's (or more precisely its laxing / removal) not listed in the improvement list. Optional online account is fine and I might even use it. But mandatory online account is a big NO. This is disrespectful and an invasion of my privacy and control over my computer. I bought a PC / laptop and I want to use it the way I want, without any permission from some fucking server.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#616

Post by dartharva » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

ptero wrote: post #11

Microsoft lost its way much earlier than 4 years ago. It abused users at the time of Netscape wars and forcing Internet Explorer down people's throats. But they hit an infinite gold mine with government adoption and for the last 30 years no amount of bad engineering was able to shake off government use. Windows 11 is bad? Yes, but did you try Microsoft Teams? The only way to force Microsoft into "users matter" engine…

What % of Microsoft's revenue comes from government contracts? I'd be very surprised if it's more than 2-3%

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#617

Post by guestbest » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

smukherjee19 wrote: post #534

Just a guess, with Macbook Neo releasing, M$ likely got scared of mass exodus to MacOS (the average PC user can now consider a Macbook and it likely wipes the floor with all Windows laptops out there) and decided to throw in a damage control piece.

Hilariously, the MacBook neo has the same taskbar issues since it was what Microsoft copied. No one is getting replaced so I’ll guess they’ll just add some customizations to make it more Mac-like to win users back.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#618

Post by adabyron » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:29 PM UTC

Has it always been a case of incentives with Microsoft?

Builders - let's build awesome stuff with great experience.

Execs - need to meet next earnings reports goals. Let's sneak a few features to help M$FT stock price at expense to our users.

Product suffers... Execs then allow builders to make the products better. Then execs step in again because they need some quick wins. Visual Studio and .NET really seemed to exemplify this a few years ago as Code was eating into Visual Studio's user base.

I for one hope ending quarterly earnings reduces patterns like this in companies.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#619

Post by major505 » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:32 PM UTC

bombcar wrote: post #614

tombert wrote: post #595

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Excel is the biggest blocker for my dad, and why I keep losing the argument to get my parents to move to Linux or Mac. Pretty much all their other stuff is stuff that either works fine on Linux or is just in the browser anyway, but the only thing that I don't really have a rebuttal to is when my dad points out that he uses the full-fat excel and a lot of the more modern features. I would so rather they move to Linux,…

What do they do with Excel for Windows that they can't do with Excel for Mac?

This is exactly what I do with my personal computing. I would prefer to be on linux, but a lot of people still sends me data in excel spreadsheets for processing, and lets be honest: apple hardware is fucking awesome.

The feeling of being able to work away from my desk and dont care about battery, is so goooooooood.

And I have to admit. Even if I dont like macos, my macbook with m1 and 16gb ram is probably the fastest laptop I ever own.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#620

Post by foldr » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 6:33 PM UTC

p_ing wrote: post #543

foldr wrote: post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t this backwards? Microsoft had way less competition on the desktop in the 90s than they do now.

On the desktop, I don't believe Microsoft has had significant competition for quite some time, likely back to Windows 95. In the server space, NT fought really hard against the UNIX giants of the time.

Windows’ share of the desktop market has dropped from about 95% in the late 90s to around 70% now.