• Lung@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I just got a new laptop and was genuinely gonna try windows 11 and wsl for my coding needs. But in first boot, it demands internet to do updates. Ok, I connect to coffee shop wifi. Nope, won’t do it because it can’t handle the click through screen to accept wifi ToS. Fine. I take it home, where my Internet is great but has a glitch where it drops out for a few seconds now and then. Turns out that windows will literally cancel updating and demand I reconnect and restart for the kind of drop that I barely notice day to day. So I gave up, plugged in my ArchLinux thumb drive, and mkfs.ext4 before rsyncing my entire old computer to it

  • HexesofVexes@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    It isn’t your computer, user license clearly states you’re renting the software. You always have been, it’s just now they can enforce that agreement more readily. Microsoft is making a lot of bad decisions at the moment, but the majority of consumers really don’t care - adverts and surveillance are what they grew up with.

    You can switch to Linux, but as much as I love it (it’s my daily driver for work and for travel gaming, oh and the community is absolutely amazing), it’s not 1-1. You will have to jump through hoops sometimes to get things to run (but damn me there are amazing people out there who can and do help). Then again, you own it because it is free, and it will run most things with the right tweaks.

    I can’t speak for MACs (too poor to use one, my devices tend to be upgradable or VERY long life), but I hear they’re a better experience in terms of less bloat/adverts. Again though, you are renting with Apple, and are largely trapped in their ecosystem, and they have a ‘reputation’ for lack of repairability…

    • DefederateLemmyMl@feddit.nl
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      1 day ago

      It isn’t your computer, user license clearly states you’re renting the software

      It IS your computer, it’s just not your software.

      • 11111one11111@lemmy.world
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        24 hours ago

        Whoa whoa whoa an operating system is not software depending who you ask lol. It’s the program that manages both your PC’s hardware and software resources. /s

    • Fedditor385@lemmy.world
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      It’s not that people ignore it, it’s just that they don’t really have an alternative. You can rent from Microsoft or Apple, or go the Linux way where you don’t have the proper UX an average user needs and is accustomed to with Windows or macOS.

    • lilja@lemmy.ml
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      1 day ago

      I’ve been a macOS user for over a decade and I am never going back to Windows. That being said, Apple does have iCloud (their version of OneDrive) which is tightly integrated into the OS and they’re not shy about asking you to pay for more storage. They also want you to log in with an Apple ID when you first start your computer and I don’t know how easy it is to use a local account.

      It’s not the same as Windows in terms of aggressive ads and upsells, but Apple aren’t innocent in wanting more of your money. If you want true freedom you have to pay with your time and energy and run Linux.

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.zip
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      1 day ago

      When I switched to Linux (year 2011), jumping through hoops reduced significantly, because:

      running games on builtin Intel cards etc, that is, kinda second-class citizen hardware, was anyways PITA ;

      it made my stuff run terribly faster ;

      those hoops are not too different in complexity from installing mods for games under Windows ;

      for trying to learn programming Linux is much less problematic (have ADHD, so didn’t learn much back then, but) ;

      the main issue of uninstalling McAffee went away for free ;

      I was at school, so didn’t have any problems with office suites’ incompatibilities and such ;

      and also Linux in 2011 was in general easier, don’t believe RedHat fanboys and such, it was very nice before PulseAudio, systemd and widespread adoption of GTK3, say, to change colors you just needed a 20-line .gtkrc-2.0 and .Xresources, and your WM’s config file, it’s 20 minutes from fresh install to feel normal ;

      the community was friendlier, somehow back then RTFM was considered acceptable, but people rarely used it, now everybody behaves as if RTFM was very bad, but also too many people use it, sometimes to avoid admitting that they are wrong and a certain thing is absent in TFM.

    • jsonjson@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 days ago

      I used to help maintain a Linux distro, and there is a level of polish Windows has that I feel cannot be reached by the FOSS ecosystem due the resources dumped into hiring dedicated teams at MS. Microsoft has tons of money. I’m sad about the direction of windows, but it generally works pretty well for how it’s designed (which is in some cases awful).

          • cheesepotatoes@lemmy.world
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            Sure. I could accept hearing “Windows is more polished than most Linux distro’s”. But to say blankly that Windows is polished is crazy talk. It’s jank as balls. Its got like 3 totally discrete and independent UI frameworks for the menus operating in parallel, and somehow none of them provide all the functionality you would need, have to mix and match them.

            That’s just a single example. I could rant for hours.

      • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 days ago

        A good amount of Linux distros don’t seem to want to get the basics down. Constant churn vs stable but way out of date is more how is describe the choice, while windows at it’s core is actually a pretty stable platform. I don’t have to, for example, get annoyed at Firefox middle mouse scroll not working because I forgot this distro still defaults to x11 even though it installs Wayland too blah blah blah.

      • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        I’m sad about the direction of windows, but it generally works pretty well for how it’s designed

        That is a bold claim. And absolutely wrong for many configurations.

      • c0ber@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        there was a time where that may have been the case, but microsoft has been chipping away at any polish they had for years. sure there’s still some rough edges in linux, but it’s only getting better where windows continues to get worse

    • midimalist@lemdro.id
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      2 days ago

      Yes, because I need Adobe to do my meh wage part-time job in developing country from my one and only working laptop and I don’t have the luxury of surplus money, time, and mental energy to do anything about it.

      But I get your point. If I have the means, I will fix my broken Thinkpad and definitely install Linux there the first chance I get. Either that or Adobe finally release Linux version, which will probably be released after Half-Life 3.

      I can’t wait to try Endeavor (so I can finally be an obnoxious person who say “I used Arch-based distro, btw”)

      • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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        Either that or Adobe finally release Linux version, which will probably be released after Half-Life 3.

        Yeah, I’ve seen what Adobe’s support looks like. I remember the Linux version of Flash Player. The guy in charge of it whined on the official Adobe blog on the subject that he had to support “minority browsers” which at the time was everything but Internet Explorer on Windows.

        • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          1 day ago

          Adobe products barely work correctly on Windows, I wouldn’t want to try to run them in an environment that was even less supported

          • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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            22 hours ago

            Honestly that would make me want to run them in wine more. Wine environments can be controlled a lot easier than a Windows install can be.

              • areyouevenreal@lemm.ee
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                21 hours ago

                What I am saying is that if Illustrator breaks on Windows, you might have to reinstall Windows. If it breaks on Linux, you just reinstall in a new wine prefix, or restore from a backup or snapshot. The rest of the system remains unaffected. Does that make sense?

                • sem@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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                  17 hours ago

                  Not really. If illustrator breaks on Windows at the most I’ll have to power cycle the PC. I’ve never heard of it taking Windows down with it.

                  To even get it functional on wine I’d have to invest untold hours of research and tomfoolery, and then any time it didn’t work I’d not know if it was adobe’s fault or wine’s.

                  I wouldn’t mind doing this kind of thing for a hobby, but not for production software unfortunately.

    • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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      2 days ago

      Most people believe they will start seeing problems where there were none before. They need to invest time into research about their use-cases, which is a cost even before switching.

      The typical user used Windows since before they became scared of change, so that’s what they’ll stick with.

      The pain of using Windows still can and will be higher without the majority of people switching to anything.

      • asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml
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        2 days ago

        The typical user used Windows since before they became scared of change, so that’s what they’ll stick with.

        In some ways this was me, then win 11 came around and I really didn’t like it, and it was pretty unstable for me, so I was stuck between two options for change, neither being what I would call “comfortable” (I had to, win 10 was blue screening literally every other day) which was when I saw the steam deck announcement, (also the LTT Linux Challenge) and I haven’t given win 11 a serious try sense

        • KomfortablesKissen@discuss.tchncs.de
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          2 days ago

          I don’t want to point fingers/cast shade or anything. Hell, I myself resist change where I can.

          It costs incredible amounts of energy and time to change, and that change might even be counter productive to some or most of the things you do.

          Gratulations on starting Linux, I hope it does everything you need it to do. Even if you should end up using it only for a short amount of time, I hope the experience enriches you.

    • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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      It’s not a failure to consider the alternatives that slows adoption, it is the very real material problems with those alternatives.

      It’s not fair that a multinational corporation gets to wield virtually limitless power to starve the alternatives of oxygen and create as much friction as possible in the process of switching, but it is a very real problem, and blaming the users won’t solve anything.

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          The comment I replied to didn’t source their claim that it’s the users’ fault, but I notice you didn’t ask them to source their claims.

          Perhaps you could explain why your skepticism is so selective before I answer your question.

          And perhaps you could be more specific about what claim you want “sourced”. That the switch to linux has a lot of friction? That it’s difficult? That Microsoft has deliberately cultivated that friction? That users aren’t simply failing to consider it? That blaming the users isn’t the solution?

          What exactly do you want me to source?

          • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.org
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            I didn’t notice or care about their comment, it was meaningless bs. Yours is something for which it’s feasible to provide evidence, it’s a novel claim, and I saw nothing to back it up other than hostility.

            That the switch to linux has a lot of friction? That it’s difficult?

            Everyone mostly agrees on this, not interesting. Also you didn’t even directly claim this in your post, so obviously I wasn’t asking about this. You’re just seemingly using this hostile badgering approach to stifle the conversation.

            That Microsoft has deliberately cultivated that friction?

            This is the interesting claim. After all Linux deliberately shoots its legs off every few years, why does Microsoft need to help?

            • Excrubulent@slrpnk.net
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              10 hours ago

              Honestly your original question was so vague and terse I almost didn’t reply, it just seemed so pointless. If you don’t want hostility, don’t come with an attitude like that. Do the work to make yourself understood the first time. And don’t just demand citations - you’re not my professor. Just ask questions like a normal fucking person. Ask for information.

              Given you’re asking for evidence of Microsoft’s sabotaging of open source projects including Linux, I’m going to have to assume you’re coming from a place of actual curiosity and not bad faith. It’s actually one of the most famous examples of anticompetitive behaviour in history. Start there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embrace,_extend,_and_extinguish

  • TheFeatureCreature@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Microsoft is constantly experimenting with how far they can push users into a corner and get away with it. There might be a day when Microsoft caves and releases a Windows that is more like what we wanted, but I imagine it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better. We have not yet seen the worst MS has to offer force upon us.

    • OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca
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      3 days ago

      Just look at how bad the car industry is now. Your car spies on EVERYTHING.

      Windows can still get a lot worse before we begin to see an improvement.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.org
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      3 days ago

      There might be a day when Microsoft caves and releases a Windows that is more like what we wanted, but I imagine it’s going to get a lot worse before it gets any better.

      I thought that was going to be with Windows 10’s forced updates and telemetry, but people just stopped caring. I’m pretty much assuming that’ll be the same for the current batch of nonsense. I can’t imagine how bad it would have to get for the general public to say “enough is enough”.

      • sunzu@kbin.run
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        3 days ago

        Every bullshit move just creates more Linux users.

        Best marketing Linux ever got lol

          • Sanctus@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            Pop_OS! and Mint feel very similar to this with their application centers. I feel as though this need could be considered met.

            Though I run arch and if you dont like the CLI you’re gonna hate it. It just depends on the distro you choose.

          • sunzu@kbin.run
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            3 days ago

            Work in progress, it will get there one day.

            But it is good enough for most PC gamers which is attracting a lot of development that makes Linux more friendly.

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              OOOOOHHHH!!! Is this able to be run on Raspberry pi 4??? 4GB model? I would LOVE to try this out for a weekend on one of my spare memory cards.

              • Refurbished Refurbisher@lemmy.sdf.org
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                3 days ago

                Not sure what you’re asking. Linux is able to run on a Pi 4 just fine. If you want to play games, you’ll need to emulate x86 using either Box64 or FEX, but there will be performance issues.

  • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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    At this point, I have lost count of the number of times that I’ve left my perfectly working Windows computer at the end of my work day, only to return to a completely broken computer that won’t boot the next morning.

    I find this to either be a lie or self inflicted. I manage a small fleet of a few hundred windows systems and all updates have been fine for years.

    In the windows admin user groups there are more than a few that are deploying updates within 24hrs of release to thousands of servers and workstations and have not reported issues.

    Lastly I think that tech bloggers say things like this to get clicks, so they can get ad revenue. Then they also tell you how to disable updates so they can get more clicks and ad revenue.

    It’s disingenuous and probably harmful to be telling people to disable updates that lead them to be exposed to vulnerabilities.

    • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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      That’s the difference between the Home and Pro versions though. The things that generally break on the Home versions are all the things not generally enabled on a domain controlled Pro version. Thisbis more about Microsoft just being bad at small updates versus these giant roundup packages they like to ship.

    • bizarroland@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      It’s kind of disingenuous of you to proudly say, “I don’t use the same version of Windows that this person likely does and I don’t have the same issues that this person does so they must be full of shit”.

      • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        There aren’t many versions of windows since 10 and 2016. They are all very similar now.

        • bizarroland@fedia.io
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          3 days ago

          There are vast differences between Windows home and Windows pro and Windows Enterprise editions as far as how easy it is to control and block off the annoyance ware that Microsoft builds into it.

          If you use deployment software to roll out your images after standardizing them and have a set image that you can deploy to a thousand computers as easily as one then it’s very simple to sign in with a local domain account and disable the windows things through a group policy and just start rocking and rolling whereas your average Windows home user is not going to even have access to GPO and we’ll have to tediously for each and every single computer every single time they reset it redo all of the things to disable all of Microsoft’s crap activation.

          They are not entirely different but definitely distinct versions of Windows and dismissing the home and non-enterprise users that their experience is inferior to your experience on the Enterprise side is what I’m saying is disingenuous

          • Brkdncr@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I’ve found the more you mess with defaults the more likely you’ll encounter problems.

            The article author was talking about their work PC anyways.

            Gpo/Intune just allows you make mistakes at scale.

            The author was talking about their work computer suddenly not booting up the next day. The windows version differences wouldn’t cause this.

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        It’s kind of a wide disparity for something that’s so locked down, though. It’s not as though one person is saying they get occasional issues and the other is they often have issues… it’s one person basically saying their own personal computer is nigh unusable and the other providing an example of a large number of examples of that being extremely unlikely…

        It’s far more likely this individual is fucking up their computer on a regular basis, or has a very high bar of usability that is broken any time there is even the slightest hiccup or inconvenience.

    • morrowind@lemmy.ml
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      3 days ago

      Seriously, anytime people make complaints like these about windows, it just tells me they are either

      1. Tweaking their system in ways far beyond what the OS is designed for (which is fine, but then don’t blame Microsoft when updates break your system)
      2. Doesn’t know how to use a computer
      3. Knows how to use a computer but is willfully ignorant so they can rant at MS and get clicks
      4. Incredibly unlucky and not representative of the general population
      • sunzu@kbin.run
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        3 days ago

        Tweaking their system in ways far beyond what the OS is designed for

        That’s the issue: the way microshit is taking windows is not acceptable for an increasing number of people.

        Why would I allow Satya the creep to control my PC that I paid money for.

        Also, why are they putting ads into it.

        Updates rolling back privacy settings, although this stopped now.

        Forced online accounts.

        At what point is it too much for you? I bet over next few years microshit will get to you too lol

        • micka190@lemmy.world
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          While I agree with most of what you’re saying, it’s also stupid to blame Microsoft for breaking your computer if you forcefully uninstall the Windows store, despite the fact that it’s needed for parts of certain updates.

          A lot of the “debloaters” have no fucking idea what they’re actually doing and are uninstalling/disabling critical parts of the OS so the task manager shows less RAM usage (because God forbid you actually use your damn RAM).

          • sunzu@kbin.run
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            Yeah they just need to accept their fate and join Linux.

            At some point, fucking with Windows is more time and you have to be always doing it.

            Linux you have set it up but after that it just works

      • schizo@forum.uncomfortable.business
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        #1 is by and far the cause I see when people ask me ‘why did thing break?!’

        There’s a lot of ‘Well, I edited the registry and then deleted these two files and installed this 3rd party software so that it looks like it did in Windows XP!’ floating in my circles, which almost entirely correlates to the people who are mad that their install is, yet again, broken/not working as expected/having weird problems.

        Of course, people are doing this because Microsoft can’t stop shitting up Windows in a way that annoys people, and thus leading them to do things that maybe aren’t the best idea.

        So, in summary: it’s a land of contrasts, but stop adding bullshit nobody wants Microsoft.

          • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            The year 2000 was peak human technology. It’s been downhill in every way since, until generative AI - which is f’in amazing. But let’s be real, the future belongs to the bots.

            • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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              3 days ago

              Can confirm. N64 existed before year 2000…but not WWF No Mercy, which came out in 2001. Lets call it 2002 was peak. Pretty sure GTA Vice City was out by then.

              • Hackworth@lemmy.world
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                Honestly, I’d get on-board with just about anytime 2000 to 2010. The enshittification of the internet and social-media-driven comment culture didn’t start in earnest until smart phones took off.

          • barsquid@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            That is what people want out of Windows, it dove off a cliff from there. I’d still be using Linux, but it’d be a harder choice if the alternative was XP instead of Data Harvesting Simulator 11 begging me to subscribe to me own hardware.

      • treadful@lemmy.zip
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        3 days ago

        The thing that usually kills windows is shitty drivers. So people with different hardware can have completely different experiences.

    • uranibaba@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It’s disingenuous and probably harmful to be telling people to disable updates that lead them to be exposed to vulnerabilities.

      That is probably why Microsoft forced updates on people in W10.

    • CosmoNova@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      I‘ve had several faulty Windows updates in recent years and my machine is pre-built. And going by the threads I sifted through in search of solutions I am far from the only one. It‘s perfectly fine to not have the newest update at all times so as long as you update once a month when you can afford a potential faulty update. Having an older than most recent version is far from your biggest concern regarding security. I would even say it‘s a non-issue compared to good old fishing mails.

    • atrielienz@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The interesting thing for me is that I own two different surface pro 7 tablets. I have one for work and one for home (now that work doesn’t require me to bring my own device anymore). The work surface has windows 10 pro on it. My home one doesn’t, The difference is very interesting. The IT team have disabled a lot of stuff on my work surface that I don’t even have access to on my home unit. I don’t often have bugs from updates breaking things at work. I do at home though which is enough for me to perhaps upgrade the windows key on my home unit someday. If I don’t install linux first which is a possibility.

    • ashok36@lemmy.world
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      I can kind of feel the author on this. I’m in charge of a lot of “special projects” at work that basically come down to, “figure out a way to replicate this extremely expensive technology or software using low cost or free alternatives”. It ends up being an unholy mix of programs and hardware that is held together with duct tape and super glue and any minor perturbation means something breaks.

      • Zorque@lemmy.world
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        Sounds like less of a Windows problem than an individual problem, though.

        Blaming Windows cause your Frankenstein machine breaks often is disingenuous.

    • twinnie@feddit.uk
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      I hate Windows for all the monetisation and privacy issues but I never really had problems with it killing my computer.

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              3 days ago

              Hard to figure out. Have to settle for similar but different apps. Video drivers not built in. Inconsistant bluetooth. Update all breaks everything. Hard to get support for your individual set-up when Linux is so fractured.

              Just to name a few.

              • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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                2 days ago

                Huh. I find windows way harder to figure out. I guess it depends on DE, but Windows is kinda just layers of cruft, with old confusing menus mixed with newer ones, installing apps in particular is a confusing mess.

                Updates breaking things I guess depends on distro. If you go with something like Arch you’re gonna have a bad time, but that’s on you for installing Arch. If you installed Debian or something, stuff will break faaaar less often than with Windows.

                Video drivers not being built in is an odd one, because… they aren’t in Windows, but are in Linux, assuming you use AMD or Intel. With Nvidia it’s usually a case of typing in “Nvidia” in your software centre, clicking install, then being done.

                Support can be hard or easy, that’s very true. Although most stuff I see in terms of windows support is “have you tried a system restore? Oh it didn’t work? Ok reinstall Windows then”, which isn’t very helpful at all.

              • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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                3 days ago

                Man. That’s some weak-sauce arguments against linux. In my experience, just a default Mint install with no stuffing around of any kind came with fully-functional video drivers and bluetooth. No update has ever broken anything; and the first thing that launches after a fresh install is a menu with bunch of different ways to get personal support for Mint.

                • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  When I installed Mint my entire video screen was tinted blue. Bluetooth sometimes worked, sometimes didn’t. People yelled at me for having a Dell PC in support forums, and when I followed the advice of someone trying to help, he suggested to update all, and when I did the fans stopped working.

                • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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                  2 days ago

                  I don’t like Ubuntu that much but one thing they really do right is a tool that made installing the few drivers not built into the kernel stupid easy. That’s the number one thing I see people mess up with Nvidia drivers. You always install Nvidia drivers through your distro app store/package manager never the website.

                  I understand the mistake but it’s painful to see someone manually install Nvidia drivers from their website just for it to shit the bed in a kernel update.

                  I’m sure the update manager was probably very important back in the day but I am glad updates come through the software manager now. Even though I don’t use it it’s very intuitive.

              • SeekPie@lemm.ee
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                3 days ago

                Hard to figure out

                Which part? The one where to install an app, instead of downloading a .exe you search for the app in the package manager?

                Have to settle for similar but different apps.

                That’s not exclusive to Linux though. Like for example moving to MacOS you wouldn’t really expect for all the apps to work either?

                Video drivers not built in.

                Video drivers aren’t built into Windows either? And on Linux, AMD’s drivers are (as I understand it), and for Nvidia, you’ll probably have Noveau installed.

                Inconsistent bluetooth.

                How? I’ve found BT to just work on Linux, while on Windows I had to track down the specific drivers.

                Update all breaks everything.

                Unless you installed Arch (or any rolling release distro) as your first distro, this probably won’t be an issue.

                Hard to get support for your individual set-up when Linux is so fractured.

                Then maybe install Mint, Ubuntu, Pop!_OS or anything more widespread that does have the support you want?

                • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  Ah, I see. So because YOU understand something, and know what you’re doing, and haven’t had anything fail on YOU, then it must be everybody ELSES fault, right? Meanwhile Linux has less than 5% of PC userbase, and that INCLUDES Chromebooks.

                  I don’t think it’s even fairly controversial to say that Windows over the last couple of versions have turned into an unmitigated privacy dumpster fire, and only looking to get worse, and MacOS is and always has been a walled garden which offers very little in the way of customization or individuality.

                  Yet despite all that, Linux only has about 4% marketshare, because nobody is able to use it. But hey, must be 95% of societys fault, and not the direct result of a confusing to use interface, right? And if YOUR bluetooth works fine, and doesn’t refuse to connect at random until you restart, that must be something I’m making up and doesn’t exist, right?

              • jinarched@lemm.ee
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                2 days ago

                Hard to figure out.

                It’s much easier nowadays. I find Windows much more hard to figure out now that I’ve made the switch. At the very least, everything in Linux takes very few steps to perform tasks and install programs compared to Windows.

                Have to settle for similar but different apps.

                The sooner you do it, the faster you’ll be free. Once you do, you can be confident that said program won’t undergo enshitification since it’s open source. That said some apps can’t be replaced like Photoshop if it’s for work. I like Gimp, but I understand it’s not for everyone.

                Video drivers not built in.

                It pretty much is now if you install an Nvidia specific distro. AMD is preferable of course.

                Inconsistant bluetooth.

                Totally fair.

                Update all breaks everything.

                Use a rolling release distro like Debian or Fedora and you should be fine.

                Linux is not perfect, but it’s better than Windows. Nobody will force you to use your computer in a way you don’t want to. It’s so awesome and it’s free. There is no way I’ll ever go back to Windows. Linux is the ideal OS for so many people (especially those who go the extra mile to modify Windows heavily) they just don’t know it yet.

        • Freefall@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          I LOVE Linux and I am still to lazy to use it on my gaming PC… normal folks don’t want anything to do with it. Effort is an allergen.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I had a Windows 10 update fuck up my laptop for about 15 hours until it somehow magically unfucked itself and started working again once.

        But thats about it

      • Jay@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        My biggest issue with Windows (at least on my desktop) is with my GPU driver for my Intel Arc A770 LE. Windows Update will not stop automatically “updating” my driver to a driver that was made about a year and a half ago. It’s too old that Intel Arc Control doesn’t even work with it. It doesn’t matter how I install the latest driver from Intel, I can DDU the old one, install the driver and wipe all custom configurations or just install it normally. Nothing works, upon the next reboot, it automatically says “there’s an update” and installs regardless if I want it or not. The driver installation also has a 50/50 chance of blue screening my whole system when installing, both the installation from Windows update, and from Intel. The Window driver “updates” for my driver have also just happened randomly with no notice, they’ve occurred during hour long Blender renders, crashing it and wasting hours of my time redoing work. (This is all on Windows 10). It is frustrating to deal with

        Meanwhile, my Linux install on the same computer just runs mesa and I’ve had no issues at all with my GPU. (Or any issues with drivers really, it all just works).

        Although it didn’t “kill” my computer. Whenever I still used Windows, it would spontaneously install this outdated driver which would either blue screen or crash whatever I was in the middle of doing such as working in Blender, playing a game, etc.

      • xavier666@lemm.ee
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        2 days ago

        The primary issues that I faced with Windows (Win10 nearly a decade ago) are

        • very slow updates
        • constant 100% disk usage after boot
        • high background process usage
        • [Rare] messing with my dual partition setup
        • The final error which caused me to format my PC -> After logging in, the desktop froze, no icons showing up, no task manager.

        If I had never used Linux, these wouldn’t even seem like problem; just normal Windows shenanigans. But after using Linux, I can never go back. I don’t know how much worse/better Win11 is now but can’t be bothered to try.

    • mox@lemmy.sdf.org
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      3 days ago

      I find this to either be a lie or self inflicted.

      “I’ve never experienced what you describe, so it must be either imagined or your own fault.”

      I’ve seen this nonsense over and over again in communities of all kinds, most often in tech forums (where there are always a few participants suffering from a big-fish-little-pond effect). It’s a very rude and foolish bit of human behavior.

      There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

      • kava@lemmy.world
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        2 days ago

        I think the guy you’re replying to is probably right, just because you can tell from the article the author is not really an expert or advanced user.

        But I upvoted you because honestly we do not get enough random Shakespeare on online comments lol

    • ElectricMachman@lemmy.sdf.org
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      There have been two distinct Windows updates in recent memory that have broken things.

      1. The one that stopped network printers from working, and you had to change a specific GPO setting which was not available in Intune at the time, meaning I had to do it manually on each computer.

      2. The one that removed all shortcuts to Office 365 apps from the desktop and start menu, necessitating a repair… manually on each affected machine.

      So it does happen on occasion. It’s not as bad as in the XP days, but it still can be a little sketchy at times

    • Ace! _SL/S@ani.social
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      2 days ago

      Doesn’t even need updates, in the 10 years I was on Windows it didn’t want to start after shutting it down again like 7 times

      I hated having to reinstall every year

    • omgarm@feddit.nl
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      I’ve been using windows 11 since general release and have had zero issues. Not with ads, not with updates, not with one drive. Well, unless you count clicking away pop-ups to use new features from time to time. Not once has a file been saved to onedrive.

    • Virkkunen@fedia.io
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      3 days ago

      My two cents, I could say the same as the author. My Windows work laptop most of the times cannot wake up from sleep (you know, opening the lid after it’s closed) so I have to force a restart. There’s a 50% or less chance that Bluetooth and WiFi won’t work at all (they won’t be displayed on Windows, like it’s not even a feature) after I turn the laptop on, so most of my pre-work morning is restarting the laptop until it’s working as intended. It’s the third laptop I got from them, they’re different models but they’re all HP, and they all had problems. The Macs and the same HP laptops running Linux have none of these issues.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      It’s like when people in abusive relationships suddenly realize that their partner doesn’t actually care about them, and everyone around them is like “Yeah, no shit. Fucking leave their ass.”

  • ForgottenFlux@lemmy.worldOP
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    3 days ago

    Summary:

    • The author expresses dissatisfaction with the commercial and impersonal feel of modern Windows operating systems.
    • Past versions of Windows were disconnected and resilient, providing a more personal user experience.
    • Advertising integration in Windows has made it feel cheaper and less user-friendly.
    • Updates, intrusive changes, settings modifications, and lack of control are common issues plaguing modern Windows systems.
    • The author compares the current Windows experience to the offline glory days of Windows, highlighting the shift in user experience.
    • Windows now includes advertising, which some users find intrusive and unwanted.
    • Updates on Windows often lead to issues, with users experiencing broken computers after updates.
    • Users complain about settings changing after updates, impacting their preferences and privacy settings.
    • The author switched to macOS due to technical issues with Windows updates, appreciating the user experience on macOS.
    • Linux is praised for respecting its users by providing the operating system for free without intrusive ads.
    • The author hopes for a future version of Windows that offers more user control and less interference from Microsoft’s software-as-a-service products.
    • tootoughtoremember@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      The author hopes for a future version of Windows that offers more user control and less interference from Microsoft’s software-as-a-service products.

      Currently there is zero incentive for Microsoft to do this, and only upside potential to keep doing what they’re doing.

      You’d need thousands of companies to abandon their dependency on Windows, Office, and the entire Microsoft ecosystem for them to change course now.

  • Freefall@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I have nothing critical on it, and I will make my 8.1 last as long as the disks and fans still spin!

    • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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      3 days ago

      I wonder how many years until all mainstream websites and web based apps like steam refuse to work because you’re os isn’t supported by the latest browser version.

        • nexussapphire@lemm.ee
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          2 days ago

          I mean they don’t need drm if updated requirements can’t be met by the host system. Steam stopped officially supporting windows 7 because of some core platform security libraries that is needed for newer versions of chrome just doesn’t exist on windows 7 and won’t because windows 7 is EOL.

  • corroded@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    I switched all of my Windows systems over to Windows 10 LTSC a few months ago, and it’s been a game-changer. I still get security updates, but no advertisements, bloat, or new “features.” I believe it’s supported until 2032.

    After that, I’ll probably switch my remaining systems over to Linux, but until then, it’s not half bad.

      • corroded@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        I haven’t tried W11 LTSC. Even if you cut out the bloat, I just can’t stand the interface. Hopefully 12 is better, but I’m not hopeful.

        • Plopp@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Hopefully 12 is better

          Hahaha. Oh man, I needed that laugh. Thanks. 🥲 This is a one way journey until all computers look and behave like smartphones. Hopefully I’ll have dementia by then so I won’t remember how amazing computers used to be.

          • asexualchangeling@lemmy.ml
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            2 days ago

            Hopefully I’ll have dementia by then so I won’t remember how amazing computers used to be.

            I swear this is the only explanation for people claiming Windows gets a good version every other version.

        • ByteMe@lemmy.world
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          3 days ago

          The interface is fine. The inconsistency of it is awful. Makes me wonder how the most popular os in the world, can that be bad and useless.

          • Freefall@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            “popular” as it “it came on every computer every Luddite got from Best Buy and contracted to every business”

            Honestly, it Linux was as easy as Windows and played every steam game without any effort, windows would drown a slow death.

          • neclimdul@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            People that lived through getting kicked off XP are like “w11 interface is fine. I’ve been through worse”

          • accideath@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            You got it the wrong way round. It’s awful because it is the most popular os. If you look back at Windows XP or 7, they were clean, consistent and a pleasure to use. Everybody had XP, then 7 and by then it was too late and everybody was used to it and Microsoft can do whatever they want now and people will just take it because they’ve always used Windows. No need to put in effort.

    • Jayb151@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      I ran ltsc for a few months… Then I found it didn’t have simple stuff like the camera app? I forget why, but there was one all I really needed that I didn’t have, so after fighting trying to install it, I just want back to Windows pro. I might give windows enterprise a try though.