Too little, too late

There are bugs, and obvious (but also complete and persistent) omissions in MS software that have been there for decades. They don't care.

They only care now because we all stopped buying into the AI nonsense they shoved down our throat, and got tired with the CONSTANT Windows Update nonsense.

They could have done this at any time in the last 25+ years and they'd have MORE customers now and it would actually be a harder argument to convince people to move off it. But they didn't.

Just before Christmas, I bought myself a Framework laptop. My house is now entirely Linux again. I used to run Slackware as a primary desktop for a decade in the past, but have always had some Windows somewhere ever since.

Honestly... I moved back because I'd had enough.

And having done so, how's it gone?

Microsoft claimed that Windows 10 would be the last version of Windows ever... and they were right. It's my last version of Windows ever.

My computer operating system is just a nondescript part of the tool I use for HOURS every single day, again. It just makes things work, and gets out of my way. Updates are clean, simple, tested, and have so little impact that it's almost like I had false-memories of how a good OS could be in that regard. Absolute max is one (30 second) reboot on an important kernel update (like "copy fail" today) and straight back in. But 99% of updates just happen silently, take seconds, and even happen while you're using THAT SAME PROGRAM that's being updated.

Honestly, moving back to a sensible desktop OS again has shown me how much time I had acclimatised to spending on getting around MS's foibles. Everything from updates, to the start menu, to explorer weirdness, to all the cr*p associated with removing bits of programs that I don't want (desktop icons, taskbar always-running items, background services, etc.). It had become routine.

My computer is now boring. Absolutely boring. There's nothing left to tweak. Things just work.

And, yes, the last bastion of "I really need Windows for that" is dead. I go into my Steam account, I buy a Windows game (I don't even bother to check ProtonDB any more), it installs, it runs, I never think about it. That was the only reason I originally stayed on Windows back in the 98SE/XP eras, that's the only reason that the first line of Steam Machines failed all those years ago.

And that problem is now... solved. I even have Windows games that work perfectly on Linux which you absolutely CANNOT run on Windows any more. I know because I spent a long time trying over years.

Sorry but... I have no need of Windows any more. If you want me to deal with it professionally, then you need to pay me a salary. And most of that will revolve around "Microsoft says so, I have no choice" (as I've literally told my staff for things like Updates and the way Office looks/works/calls itself, AI features, etc.). MS put it in, they don't give me an option, you'll just have to live with it if you want to carry on using Windows.

But at home? It's gone. Dead. It's an ex-OS. Something I never quite managed before, even with a Slackware desktop and a Linux machine routing my home network, a bunch of Pi's running home automation, and all kinds of other stuff. I never got to the point where I had NO Windows at all. Until this year.

I can't say that I miss it at all.

Just to be clear, MS: You drove me away. It's literally your fault. The way you manage your OS is what drove me away. Not market pressure, or technical features, or a UI fad or, anything else. Just the way that you decided to shove your OS on me in ways that I never wanted.

All it would have taken would have been an option in a dialog, a choice to defer updates, a clear way to turn things off. But no. You would never give me that. So I pressed the big button that gave me my choice back. And, honestly, computing is boring and safe again.

Too little

Too late.

Microsoft left reliability behind long ago.

Death to AI in Windows.,

"Windows needs to be faster, more reliable, and contain a more targeted deployment of AI." Windows needs a single kill switch in the settings application that kills all AI, including AI in apps. When I say apps, I include apps like Chrome and Acrobat. These windows apps should be required to obey the kill switch.

Isn’t this the square root of Pi x ∞ time we’ve heard this bullshit?

Here’s the first step to fix it: fire Nadella.

Win back fans?

Since W10 and W11 came out I've only installed more fans! Things like constant 100% CPU load, ridiculous amounts of harddisk I/O (especially on start-up) and tons of Coprolite A/I slop have driven up the power consumption of PCs something awful.

Honestly, if MICROS~1 would like to impress me they should start by releasing a version of their products that are aimed at my productivity (and by that I mean actual productivity, not their marketing blurbs about how much more productive it make me while doing the opposite). An OS should enable me to do my work, not get in the way of it, and the latter is what all Windows versions since W7 have done for to me.

Which is why I've recently purged MS slop from the last PC in my house. I now live and work (productively!) in a Linux-only environment. Which is a lot quieter, seeing as it requires fewer fans to operate. Fortunately I'm no longer required these days to use and support applications that only run on Windows.

It's the antifeatures, stupid

How about removing the stuff which actively makes Windows a worse experience?

Long-delayed bugfixes are a baseline expectation, not a triumphal victory. These fixes could have landed sooner if the priority was solving problems, rather than creating new ones.

Microsoft really thought - like Apple - that all these AI lies would come true.

As ma developer I tend to have stuck with windows cos I needed to dog food by work using what my end-user use.

When Windows stopped doing the thing I used first in Windows 1.12 like dragging the the Recycle Bin to delete things I'm this close to switching to other desktop OS.

"like Apple - that all these AI lies would come true."

Apple out of all of the big tech companies are probably the least exposed to the AI bullshit. Note: LEAST, not free from.

I'm in a similar position. Work on the server side doesn't need Windows any more. On the client side it's mostly browser based. Problem is Outlook, OneDrive & HyperV. That's a chunk to migrate away from.