4 ms·

> Windows was very good for desktop but had stability problems. Nowadays Windows is just awful for the desktop user, Microsoft is literally conducting a war aga

> Windows was very good for desktop but had stability problems. Nowadays Windows is just awful for the desktop user, Microsoft is literally conducting a war against its own users. I don't get this. I've been using *nix since PDP11 and VAX/Ultrix and I have no problems with Win10 at all, stability or otherwise - I'd much rather use it as a desktop dev environment than Linux. When it comes time to deploy something, sure it makes sense to run on Linux.

WWLink 6y ago
>I'd much rather use it as a desktop dev environment than Linux Yikes! I use Windows on my desktop at home because I like to play games on my computer that tend to not run well in WINE. I cannot program in Windows. I just can't. Even with WSL and vscode, I can't. Maybe I just suck as a programmer, but windows has a way of getting under my skin when I'm trying to get shit done. I can use a Mac, but stuff like SIP forcing me to have a nonstandard disk layout (god forbid I want /usr/bin/python3 to be a thing because it is on every linux machine I use) pisses me the fuck off. I'm kinda tired of Apple making the computer into an iPad. Which is too bad, because it's been my programming platform of choice for a very long time.
znpy 6y ago
We technical people should really start to understand that we're not the average use. Not even close. I'd have no problem in mutilating Windows enough to make it usable, and keeping an eye for when it tries to do something nasty. But the average user won't, and will have a computing experience filled with unnecessary advertising, encumbered by background processing and bandwitdh usage (telemetry collection and other windows background stuff that are not end-user activities). It's just awful.
- thelazydogsback 6y ago
  I guess it depends on what you want to spend your time and emotional energy on. I use Win10 as it is "out of the box", and apply all automatic updates. If MS wants my telemetry or whatever, that's okay by me. If I'm in Firefox or running multiple VsCode/VStudio/IntelliJ/etc instances or running bash scripts or whatever, I can't see how it would offend so much - but I guess that's just me - but I'm not even trying to make Windows look like Linux or use it like it as one. As for the UI, all I really do is hit the Win key and type a few chars and hit enter and run what I want - no desktop icons, no theming, etc., and I Alt-Tab between full-screen apps or Ctl-Alt-Arrow between desktops -- that's about it. Maybe I'm just weird, but I don't find anything especially that gets in the way. Edit: Okay, I probably turned off indexing and the Cortana mic. access (was that enabled by default?), but that's about it. And I had to disable some Dell-specific bits from my son's laptop that limited network bandwidth for all non-video packets. WTF? I achieved a huge about of peace when I went from HD to SSD -- in addition to the speed, once I couldn't see the drive light or hear the disk being accessed when I wasn't doing anything, I found it wasn't really getting in the way.
  - thelazydogsback 6y ago
    If I had long-running servers at home or were using a runtime that didn't run on Windows very naturally, I supposed I'd feel differently - but that's not the case at the moment.
- thelazydogsback 6y ago
  Advertising? I've never seen an ad. Are you talking about some OEM Windows install with extra bits??
  - fsflover 6y ago
    https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13903519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13903519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106743 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106743
- fomine3 6y ago
  Average user less cares such bad things. They just use it like IE with Ask toolbar.

WWLink 6y ago

>I'd much rather use it as a desktop dev environment than Linux Yikes! I use Windows on my desktop at home because I like to play games on my computer that tend to not run well in WINE. I cannot program in Windows. I just can't. Even with WSL and vscode, I can't. Maybe I just suck as a programmer, but windows has a way of getting under my skin when I'm trying to get shit done. I can use a Mac, but stuff like SIP forcing me to have a nonstandard disk layout (god forbid I want /usr/bin/python3 to be a thing because it is on every linux machine I use) pisses me the fuck off. I'm kinda tired of Apple making the computer into an iPad. Which is too bad, because it's been my programming platform of choice for a very long time.

znpy 6y ago

We technical people should really start to understand that we're not the average use. Not even close. I'd have no problem in mutilating Windows enough to make it usable, and keeping an eye for when it tries to do something nasty. But the average user won't, and will have a computing experience filled with unnecessary advertising, encumbered by background processing and bandwitdh usage (telemetry collection and other windows background stuff that are not end-user activities). It's just awful.

thelazydogsback 6y ago
I guess it depends on what you want to spend your time and emotional energy on. I use Win10 as it is "out of the box", and apply all automatic updates. If MS wants my telemetry or whatever, that's okay by me. If I'm in Firefox or running multiple VsCode/VStudio/IntelliJ/etc instances or running bash scripts or whatever, I can't see how it would offend so much - but I guess that's just me - but I'm not even trying to make Windows look like Linux or use it like it as one. As for the UI, all I really do is hit the Win key and type a few chars and hit enter and run what I want - no desktop icons, no theming, etc., and I Alt-Tab between full-screen apps or Ctl-Alt-Arrow between desktops -- that's about it. Maybe I'm just weird, but I don't find anything especially that gets in the way. Edit: Okay, I probably turned off indexing and the Cortana mic. access (was that enabled by default?), but that's about it. And I had to disable some Dell-specific bits from my son's laptop that limited network bandwidth for all non-video packets. WTF? I achieved a huge about of peace when I went from HD to SSD -- in addition to the speed, once I couldn't see the drive light or hear the disk being accessed when I wasn't doing anything, I found it wasn't really getting in the way.
- thelazydogsback 6y ago
  If I had long-running servers at home or were using a runtime that didn't run on Windows very naturally, I supposed I'd feel differently - but that's not the case at the moment.
thelazydogsback 6y ago
Advertising? I've never seen an ad. Are you talking about some OEM Windows install with extra bits??
- fsflover 6y ago
  https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13903519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13903519 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106743 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22106743
fomine3 6y ago
Average user less cares such bad things. They just use it like IE with Ask toolbar.