Whats so wrong with Windows at this point?
I've seen people hate on Windows 10 for some.... odd reasons, sure it does have bugs and a bad update system, but come on! Windows 3.1 was far worse! Remember, Windows is a "service" now, and they mostly care about the non-power user at this point, you can tweak it to your liking with advanced software, and I'm sure that all of those "haters" don't know about the fixes. So, DEAL WITH THE ISSUES.
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What is wrong with Windows 3.1? The biggest problem was the unfortunate discovery of VXDs as the secret to performance. Running 32-bit code in Ring 0 requires skill and attention which many programmers couldn't provide.
Windows as a Service should if anything result in updates being delayed until thoroughly debugged. MS gets the same money whether an update is deployed or not. Rushing an update through was something game companies do in order to meet quarterly sales requirements. The strange thing is that I have seen MS do a number of botched products in the past but immediately afterwards, the followup is a very solid version and it takes years before the management starts getting careless again. Windows 10 differs where a bad month would be followed by a worse month followed by some fixes before doing a data destroying update 3 months later.
I will not "deal with issues" if the issues involve buggy updates, improper (or lack of) quality control, and general mishandling of software by the developers. I also will not deal with it if I am forced to use 3-4 gb of MY bandwidth on a satellite connection just so I can have an update downloaded I did not request.
You can tweak it, until a forced update reverses or breaks your tweak.
You can "fix it" until an update breaks it again.
You can defer it, until the defer time runs out and it is forced onto your computer.
Windows 3.1 on a properly configured 386 with at least 3mb of ram is not "far worse." It actually was not a very bad environment, provided you knew what you were doing.
Thank you. Hope you enjoy my troll food.
Personally, Windows has become worse the very first day Windows 10 showed itself. You'd think they'd learn their mistakes by know, what with 10 having been around for almost five years now. Because of this, I've very little faith in them, even though this actually began with Windows 8. It's no wonder people are jumping ship to macOS, Linux or whatever other obscure OS there is out there.
That's all I'm saying, because there's probably no gain from entertaining a ban-evader.
If you look at OS marketshare, it's very clear that no one is jumping ship. Mac and Linux still fall way below Windows, not even breaking 10%. There are probably more people running XP than Linux or Mac.
As for Windows getting worse, it's really, really not. I mean, you may disagree with certain design decisions and believe me, I do too... but Windows is more secure and stable than it has ever been before. Though truthfully, stability has been solid since 2000 at least. It has always come down to proper hardware / software support. If you're trying to do something crazy and unsupported, you get instability. Stop trying to run a bleeding edge OS on hardware that's 20 years old and you'll be fine. Likewise, stop running 30 year old software on a bleeding edge OS and expecting everything to be dandy.
If your hardware properly supports 10 and the software you run also properly supports 10, you'll have no issues.
3.1, for those actually forced to use it, was a piece of shit. Simple design, sure. Fast? yup. It was small and simple, so of course it ran faster.
Stable? Fuck no.
Though to be fair, most of that was shitty software... which almost all of the software back then was shit. We've really come a long way in writing proper software that doesn't crash constantly from general protection faults and having one bad program take down the entire system.
The biggest problem with Windows 10 is not so much that the OS isn't stable, but that the quality of the updates are getting worse. It's usually the updates that have been hosing systems and deleting files. They're releasing beta versions. Things worked much better when you had a few years to keep using a stable OS, with some security patches here and there. Releasing an OS and forcing everyone to upgrade to it every 6 months is nonsense.
Then there's the whole privacy issue...
Knock on wood, but I've never had a Windows update delete my files.
Also, Windows LTSC master race.
Windows LTSC is nice enough, but most people can't get that.
I'd personally prefer a little more control over when I update (the forced updates is annoying), but Windows 10 is perfectly fine. I still think that Win 7 was the high mark as far as Windows goes.
To take control in windows 10 first must be installed offline and hardened the firewall, block all incoming and so, install chrome or firefox with ads blocker. then go online. bloat and telemetry cant be remove or tweaked permanetly like windows xp, vista or 7 so blokitall
To be honest, I resent being ordered in all caps to "DEAL WITH THE ISSUES". I started the two year process to switch from Windows to Linux in the mid-2000's. While this is not practical or possible for everyone, it worked out great for me.
From what other observers more familiar with how MS does things today have said, it looks like MS has made changes to their QA program for the worse- at least as far as many home users are concerned. Also the attitude from MS when I Beta tested XP - 7 was not the attitude with 8. Instead of listening, it became "take what we give you and like it".
I will not pay for Windows 10 just to be the a forced "Patch Beta Tester" to make life easier for MS's corporate customers. I also object to the terms of the agreement. Plus, I will update as I wish, not when I am forced to.
These are my computers, lawfully my property. I will determine what runs on them or not.
Open Source for the main OS is my choice, others are free to make their own.
Just deal with that.
2020 will be the year of Linux on the desktop!
Or, I'll keep using Windows 2000 until I can't anymore. It works well enough for me right now.
I've been skeptical of the "THIS is the year for Linux on the desktop" for a long time. For me it is not about what the market does. It is about what I do with the choices I have available.
And I cannot assume what is a good solution for me is good for everyone.
I recently found a download source available publicly. I can also confirm that it works.
http://dsmltools.org/windows-10-ltsc-enterprise-iso/
Just be aware that the download links are mixed up... the 32-bit link gives you the 64-bit file and vice versa.
I think Win10 is definitely a step forward in terms of stability but it is a step backwards in every other way.
OS itself is slower than Windows 8.1 in terms of both boot speed and general running. UI is using more CPU time and system memory. God help you if you are not using SSD, because for some reason 10 works much slower than 7 or 8.1 on HDD.
Also, there are a lot of stuff they enforce on you.
Here are some of them: Windows Defender, Update, default apps reset, hidden control panel, forced driver installation ...
Inconsistencies are annoying. Half of the settings are in the Settings and other half are at the control panel. New settings are so hard to use because there are less icons and more text for settings. I am afraid MS is going to remove Control Panel completely in the future leaving this thing.
MS can do anything it wants. Even if they make decisions that are bad for users, everyone will still be using Windows. It is simply the most refined experience and software availability and compatibility is the best in class. No Linux distro comes even close to usability of Windows.
Recently got a Helix 2 preloaded with 10. God awful to use in docked mode. I seriously tried for a few days just to get used to it 'again.'
Happily wiped and loaded 8.1. So much more fluid and simple.
Not even Linux Mint?
I think there are some distros that do come close. PopOS, mint, Ubuntu are all great choices for usability. But that being said, there are still some things that require a terminal to fix, which doesn't bother me personally, but for a regular consumer? Yeah that's a no-go.
And then there's just the lack of software that carries the brand name users want to see. Sure, LibreOffice might do everything they want... but it's not Microsoft Office. So they don't like it. Gimp? Ew. no... they want Photoshop.
ChromeOS I think does really well, in part because it can run Android apps and the users can get a little bit of something they're used to. It's also really simple to use.
I am using Linux Mint on several machines. It is very usable but there are still some quirks with software for Linux in general. I had some troubles with printer drivers that stopped working after update of cups, mySQL and mariaDB compatibility, Firefox choppiness and vsync problems, language support (quality of) and similar. I also had this one: playing mkv file with VLC crashed whole system (not just GUI, everything). Of course those are not related to OS itself and there are many things that Linux does much better than Windows.
I like managing and fixing stuff in linux distros but that's only me. 90% of people want just to sit down in front of their PC and expect it to work.