I'm frequently told that Linux is hard and you need to be a tech guru to use it, yet every week I see 1-2 articles of issues in windows you need to do some bullshit to fix, and in my own use of it I've ran into issues (especially after doing an update) that I just don't run into on Linux or MacOS.
this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2025
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Windows is easy, bro, you just need to run this shady PowerShell script to get rid of ads, run this random EXE from github.ru to disable telemetry, install ClassicShell to make the UI actually usable, install a million utilities for basic features (each from a separate site, of course ; the centralized Windows Store is full of malwarei), then pray sfc /scannow fixes your system after every update.
BTW, don't bother searching for a solution to your problems other than "retry, reboot, reinstall" ; even certified MS professionals don't know how anything works.
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I manually corrected mine with Mint, 10/10, do recommend.
That manual correction: installing Linux.
I REALLY want to see normies "manually correct" their machines after bragging with Windows supremacy for so long
normies
bragging with Windows supremacy
I don't think that's as common as you think it is. Most Windows users see Windows as part of the computer, a tool to get the job done. As a DIY'er (basically a tool normie) I don't brag about the supremacy of my Kobalt tools, I just drill the damn hole
As far as I know a lot of Windows users are unhappy with Windows itself but can't/won't make the switch for various reasons. I don't mean them, they are usually very nice.
I mean those people who judge you for not using Windows because "Linux is crap because of drivers and updates" (as if those were uncomplicated/unproblematic on Windows) and then blame every tiny inconvenience on Linux. One dude I used to play games with topped it when they blamed my Linux distro for him experiencing lags claiming Linux was "messing with the game server" (before that they used to say "switch back to Windows" every time I encountered lags or similar).
Most users could work with Linux without problems. They are using their browser, maybe a mail client and maybe some office suite to write stuff. If you mention this on the internet, there will always be someone who shows up and complains that his personal workflow with some obscure software that powers the nuclear reactor that he is running as hobby in his home won't work with Linux.
It's kind of the same with discussions about commuting/bicycles/cars. If you're discussing that maybe more people could commute by bike, the same people will show up and complain that this would not be possible for them because they live on a remote mountain top in the scorching desert far away from civilization and it's raining every day where they live.
MS Office's lie of WYSIWYG and the idiotic requirements to follow absurdly complicated formatting guidelines and them not rendering the same from system to system or even correctly is the most brutal offender. If we used simplistic markdown without page-breaking in the GUI, there could've been no point to buy Office, but we don't, and itso hsppens I had encountered many times where some arbitrary cosmetic request like 'you can't have less than X lines per page' caused people toy with formatting or rewriting their documents... only for it showing differently on the other side >:ç Thus leading to even worse things like PDF.
It being the most used piece of office software renders the voluntary switch close to impossible.
Let's be honest: That totally is a monopolistic tactic of Microsoft and regulators would do great to force this open. Force them to release a Linux Office. Force them to really make their file format transparent so that everybody can write working parsers
I agree. They need to be either pressured or abandoned.
I feel like they would need to rewrite it completely in that case, partially because no one knows how their legacy code works and partially because it's completely broken.
Google with it's billions and a promise of more free data did great with how office formats work. They set some little limits of what user can do compared to MS Word so ending up with a broken table or whatever is harder, and they aslo strong-armed their way into adoption with their obvious mechanics of real-time collaboration.
I'm not sure about MS users coming to Linux, but their marketshare was already bled by Google. And if in some scenario Google releases their own internal XML format for these, I guess it'd work too.
If you can only do X and Y is marginally similar how easy do you think it is to switch to Y?
I have customers that are unable to handle cables I described in great detail. They are afraid. Trying to push them to do anything is hard af.
Some of them just don't want to take responsibility if they do something wrong under your instructions.
It's more of a prison for me. I just had to buy a new Win11 machine cause the software I depend on is cutting Win10 operation this year. Sucks
Normies don't tend to perform OS installs from slipstreamed update media.
What a hot mess Windows has become. It's over, Microsoft. Give it up. Your precious hacks on top of hacks on top of half-ass fixes on top of even more hacks of half-ass fixes has finally become unfixable.
It's time to move on.
Are you suggesting the build a new OS from the ground up? It'd certainly be interesting
"Consent required for free use" I doubt this is legal in the EU.
I just copy pasted the article into the post so people can read it without having to consent
It sadly is, or at least the data protection agencies don't act against it. They only declared it illegal under the digital services act for big gatekeepers like facebook.
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Microsoftatemyface
I made the switch too! I bought a MacBook! After 40 years of MS OSes, Outlook-online and Windows 11 made me quit. And so far so good!
That's just what I like to see from an OS developer. "We fucked it up, but dunno how to fix it..."
IMO, to keep Windows competitive with Linux they need a complete rewrite from absolute scratch. It's realistically the only way that's going to keep Microsoft on top in the long term. And they'll never do it because of how expensive it'll be.
the only way that’s going to keep Microsoft on top in the long term.
You underestimate the complacency of the masses.
I rather think you do.
There will come a point where working around Windows quirks takes up more time than it does to simply seek and learn something else. This is organically how most people seek to find alternatives to software and begin to jump ship.
This is why PHP, as a programming language was replaced. Despite its popularity it became increasingly inconvenient to use. As such, they created other languages to replace it. They took the time to create an entirely new development language to sidestep the inconvenience of using PHP...
The same will eventually happen to Windows. Unquestionably.
There's a massive difference between the average Windows user and the average PHP developer. It's a false equivalence.
The regular computer user who just needs their apps to run won't likely make the effort to enter an entirely new ecosystem as long as those apps run. Even with the most user-friendly distros, the barrier of entry is still high. And when their apps break? They'll reinstall Windows or pay someone else to fix it.
I love shitting on Microsoft as much as the next penguin, but they're not idiots. Even if some of their decisions are questionable, Windows is still a major part of their business, and they won't just let it degrade to a point where Linux converts are a significant threat to their profit.
(I did not downvote you, by the way, that was someone else)
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This. 😄
They rewrote the taskbar and Start menu for Windows 11, and left out stuff like being able to move the taskbar or even have separate taskbar items for each instance of an application. Rewriting the whole OS would be a disaster.
It's the only possible solution. The issue with Windows version to version is they merge shit into the base without worrying about how it affects the codebase as a whole. That's why we have 2-3 different ways to access different menus.
You should never rewrite a large program:
https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2000/04/06/things-you-should-never-do-part-i/
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I think they're more likely to just ditch consumer OS' entirely. Its not their moneymaker anymore, that'd be cloud service subscriptions (O365 and Azure) and enterprise licensing. Hell, they'd probably have huge success with VDIs if they could market it right (until an internet outage hits the wrong person)
Welp, guess I won't be able to fix my Windows install
And yet again: install Linux. I've been a happy lojix desktop user forever 2 decades now. Linux was ready for normal users 10 years ago, it was more than ready 5 years ago, and it is definitely beyond ready today
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