4 ms·

It has been about a decade since I used Windows (XP) as a daily driver, and I am shocked, and seriously disgusted, when I see my friends or co-workers using it.

It has been about a decade since I used Windows (XP) as a daily driver, and I am shocked, and seriously disgusted, when I see my friends or co-workers using it. Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap? There are literally no improvements from Windows 7 vs. Windows 10, that could convince me this level of built-in telemetry, and, God forbid, built-in advertising is worth an 'upgrade'. For God's sake, they are in the freaking start menu, and slow down several of my friends older computers who were force-upgraded. And before you tell me what I already know, that you can 'opt out' - we should not have to opt out of advertising on an operating system we pay for, especially one that did not have advertising before. As far as I'm concerned, for all the talk about Apple's 'walled garden,' folks are so addicted to Windows x86 and x64 apps, and so locked into that walled garden, they are now willing to accept being tracked, and to literally have a slower OS due to the baked in advertising. The failure, and massive financial deficit, that occurred from Windows RT should be more than enough evidence of this. Without its history of apps, Windows isn't Windows. Knowing that, Microsoft can pack whatever bullshit it wants, including, but not limited to, tracking and advertising, and we still buy. The only inherently worse-for-the-user OS out there is Android. I will no longer use Google services, even by request. I'm literally trying to ween myself off YouTube, reporting a post on HN yesterday that was merely a YouTube link to a guy talking about how his wife left him that had somehow snuck it's way onto the front page. I pray one year, we will have that 'year of Linux,' and Microsoft can go back to creating a quality product, instead of focusing on new ways to get information out of users. Edit: I also pray for, and would even contribute code to, a meaningful third party mobile OS solution. I'm worried Apple will realize they are the last company to respect user privacy to even a reasonable degree, and get greedy. However, there are so, so many issues with a new mobile OS, between devices, carriers, a bootloader compatible with said devices, licensing, and such, that at the moment, I am not seeing any of the projects in the works as feasible. To be honest - the world of commercial operating systems has never looked so grim.

gambiting 7y ago
>>Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap? Because for certain areas of programming, Visual Studio is still king and if you want to develop for Playstation/Xbox then Windows is the only choice. And of course playing video games in general requires Windows - it's less true than it was few years ago, but there's still plenty of games which give you very poor experience on anything but Windows.
- lostgame 7y ago
  You've contradicted yourself by displaying a pleasant alternative to Windows gaming - consoles. Even as a game developer, for home brew like the Sega Saturn, as well as various Unity projects, I use a Windows XP VM maybe once a month for some obscure utility. I never play games on PC's. I buy a console, it's good for ten or more years. I still play my Saturn and Dreamcast, whose emulation leaves much still to be desired. If I want to purchase a game, I don't have to worry about if my video card is compatible, or if I have enough RAM, or, even if my OS will run it! I just play it. You are part of a niche developer system, that, granted, you require Windows 10 for your very, very specific case. Similarly, I am required to use a 2017 MacBook Pro with a touch bar at work, as I am an iOS developer. I would never, on principle alone, purchase such a unit. I use a Mac at home, but I use a 2012 model I have chosen to stick with for a number of reasons. I'm running the newest MacOS because it's actually offered me reasons to upgrade. This has nothing to do with my personal preferences, or my point. I'm not talking about the use of Windows itself, when I say 'why would anyone pay for this crap' - I'm talking about the "upgrade". Windows 7 still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers. Windows XP still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers, though it has security issues that make Windows 7 a better general option. Windows 10 has added nothing, as far as I can see, beyond leaving behind some of the UI/UX disaster of Windows 8, the result being a slightly less usable Windows 7 (especially to the average Jane or Joe) - with baked in advertising and tracking that they know Jane or Joe, who got the OS pre-installed on the Asus they bought from Best Buy, is not going to disable. In fact, they're counting on that. When we pay for services, we expect no advertising, especially on services that did not contain it before. Cable television is an exception to this - what we pay for in that instance is more selection. But can you imagine if Apple Music just suddenly started shoving ads in their stream? They'd lose two million subscribers overnight. It baffles me that people have Stockholm Syndrome enough with Windows to stick with it through such obvious distaste for the users themselves. Since 98SE, we've got a pattern of every other Windows release simply being an unmitigated disaster - 98SE - good / ME - awful / XP - good / Vista - awful / 7 - great / 8 - awful / 10 - at least not as shit as 8 What this shows me, is that Microsoft seems to not learn from mistakes until an entire version number later. There have only been a handful of releases in MacOS/OS X's brilliant history since OSX came about in 2001 that have been shit. Since Tiger, we've praised virtually every release - and they are still adding meaningful and impactful features like dark mode. Now it's their laughable hardware options that is the issue.

gambiting 7y ago

>>Can I ask why anyone is paying for this pile of crap? Because for certain areas of programming, Visual Studio is still king and if you want to develop for Playstation/Xbox then Windows is the only choice. And of course playing video games in general requires Windows - it's less true than it was few years ago, but there's still plenty of games which give you very poor experience on anything but Windows.

lostgame 7y ago
You've contradicted yourself by displaying a pleasant alternative to Windows gaming - consoles. Even as a game developer, for home brew like the Sega Saturn, as well as various Unity projects, I use a Windows XP VM maybe once a month for some obscure utility. I never play games on PC's. I buy a console, it's good for ten or more years. I still play my Saturn and Dreamcast, whose emulation leaves much still to be desired. If I want to purchase a game, I don't have to worry about if my video card is compatible, or if I have enough RAM, or, even if my OS will run it! I just play it. You are part of a niche developer system, that, granted, you require Windows 10 for your very, very specific case. Similarly, I am required to use a 2017 MacBook Pro with a touch bar at work, as I am an iOS developer. I would never, on principle alone, purchase such a unit. I use a Mac at home, but I use a 2012 model I have chosen to stick with for a number of reasons. I'm running the newest MacOS because it's actually offered me reasons to upgrade. This has nothing to do with my personal preferences, or my point. I'm not talking about the use of Windows itself, when I say 'why would anyone pay for this crap' - I'm talking about the "upgrade". Windows 7 still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers. Windows XP still more than meets my needs and the needs of most consumers, though it has security issues that make Windows 7 a better general option. Windows 10 has added nothing, as far as I can see, beyond leaving behind some of the UI/UX disaster of Windows 8, the result being a slightly less usable Windows 7 (especially to the average Jane or Joe) - with baked in advertising and tracking that they know Jane or Joe, who got the OS pre-installed on the Asus they bought from Best Buy, is not going to disable. In fact, they're counting on that. When we pay for services, we expect no advertising, especially on services that did not contain it before. Cable television is an exception to this - what we pay for in that instance is more selection. But can you imagine if Apple Music just suddenly started shoving ads in their stream? They'd lose two million subscribers overnight. It baffles me that people have Stockholm Syndrome enough with Windows to stick with it through such obvious distaste for the users themselves. Since 98SE, we've got a pattern of every other Windows release simply being an unmitigated disaster - 98SE - good / ME - awful / XP - good / Vista - awful / 7 - great / 8 - awful / 10 - at least not as shit as 8 What this shows me, is that Microsoft seems to not learn from mistakes until an entire version number later. There have only been a handful of releases in MacOS/OS X's brilliant history since OSX came about in 2001 that have been shit. Since Tiger, we've praised virtually every release - and they are still adding meaningful and impactful features like dark mode. Now it's their laughable hardware options that is the issue.