3 ms·
Storage-wise, most of the "bloat" in modern Windows is pretty defensible. The extra space needed for a service pack / feature update is mostly to enable abortin
by 0xcde4c3db 7y ago
Storage-wise, most of the "bloat" in modern Windows is pretty defensible. The extra space needed for a service pack / feature update is mostly to enable aborting or rolling back the upgrade. A good chunk of a small storage device is reserved for hibernating the system (hiberfil.sys), which might not be great for desktops but is table stakes for battery-powered systems. A lot of seemingly redundant data is from WinSxS (Side-by-Side), which is Microsoft's answer to "DLL hell" and -- loosely speaking -- a precursor to things like Snappy, Flatpak, and AppImage. The same fundamental concerns will most likely cause the average Linux installation to be similarly "bloated" in another 10 years or so as more backward compatibility needs accumulate.