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Because people keep getting into this argument with me:
Why I dislike Windows.
I've decided to curate a list of reasons I dislike Windows, as I generally don't want to re-list every single reason over and over again when I'm talking with someone.
Table of contents
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Usability
Things hidden in sub-menus for no reason
Ever used EarTrumpet?
If you do, you're (or were) probably just as frustrated with Windows's Audio Applet as I was.
To sum it up, here's what Windows's Audio Applet allows you to do:
- Change overall volume
- Change output of ALL apps (which sometimes doesn't work)
Meanwhile, here's what EarTrumpet, and for comparison KDE Plasma's Audio Applet on Linux allow you to do:
- Everything the stock applet allows
- Changing Volume per-app
- Changing output per-app
- Changing mic input and volume
- Seeing how loud overall volume or individual apps are playing sounds
By default to do this on Windows, you'd have to go to Settings > Audio first, thus opening an entirely different application
And that's just one example of unnecessary sub-menus
Customizability
Tool nightmare
Wanna have a dock/floating panel? External Tool.
Wanna have widgets? External Tool.
Wanna move icons to the middle of the TaskBar? External Tool.
There isn't really much you can do with Windows anymore other than installing tools the community made to try and fix Microsoft's mess of an operating system, which I am definitely congratulating them on, by the way.
Though the fact that you have to do this just to do (what I consider) basic customization is honestly suprising, because the most Windows offers for it to suit your workflow is Colors and Light/Dark mode¹.
1 - This is a bit over-exaggerated, but it gets accross my point
Workflow Adjustments
Want well-integrated multi-workspaces?
or an overview?
A proper, extensible search?
or maybe setup activities?
Yeah, you'll either have to download external tools again, or just screw it and live without it
Windows doesn't offer much Workflow-changing functionality at all, you either live with Windows's workflow, or you switch to another OS, for instance Linux or macOS
Privacy and Security
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Security
Windows's Security is deeply flawed.
Not only does it only take hitting "Yes" by default to authorize some action, but also is Windows the most targetted platform for Viruses on the desktop.
More details
Additionally, there's been exploits where you plug in a Razer mouse, wait for a driver dialog to open, type "CMD" into the driver dialog's address bar, and got full access to the System.
Privacy
Windows privacy sucks.
That's just how it is.
Due to how Microsoft is essentially turning Windows into a service instead of an Operating System, Windows has become less and less Privacy Friendly
It logs many things using Telemetry, and there is no good way to turn it off, as it requires even more external tools to properly turn it off, and it just re-enables on each update.
Not to mention
Most of the Telemetry is embedded into the Updater, which most people wouldn't want to remove.
Here is a video that SomeOrdinaryGamers recently made, in which he de-bloats Windows, I just want you to look at how many steps he has to take:
Stability
Windows sucks in Stability in many ways, whilst I won't elaborate on this too much as it would require it's own document pretty much, I am gonna link this, which is an XDA Article talking about how literally Advertisements bricked Windows.
Windows becoming a Service
Advertisements
Windows increasingly adds Advertisements into their Operating System, for instance, Windows 11 introduced TikTok and Instagram to the Menu, and made it annoying to use other browsers than Microsoft Edge by making it incredibly annoying to replace it.
Instead of a single "Browser" option, you now have about 50 options for links, HTML, and different related filetypes.
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They're also embedded into the OS itself
For instance, the "Widgets" that Microsoft added is basically an advertised news-feed, and Microsoft Teams now has it's own Keyboard Shortcut. And that is ON TOP of all the Edge-pushing they're doing, AND the TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and Candy Crush icons in the Start Menu.
Performance
Windows has been proven to run worse than other operating systems in the past, Google is even advertising it in their ChromeOS ads.
For instance, Linux can often run games better than Windows, especially when they need Cached Shaders, and macOS can be ran with a bit of fiddling on practically any hardware too. ChromeOS, Google's Gentoo-linux based Operating System, further shows us that most other operating systems run better, judging from their low-spec but high-performance advertisements.
Extra
This is an uncategorised list of things that I wanted to mention here, which didn't necessarily fit any other category
Common counter-arguments
"But Windows is more User-friendly!"
I disagree.
Time and time again, we see people reporting of more and more inconsistency within Windows, which just hurts user-friendliness overall
This is especially bad with Windows 10, Windows 11, and the Control Center/Settings issues in those versions.
Not to mention, every time a new update comes out, the average user doesn't update to it as they know it will be unstable for at least another year, and a lot of users will also immediately complain about useless additions (i.e Stickers on the desktop), or changes without reason (new Windows 11 context menus)
But some software isn't on Linux!!!
Whilst I usually see this as a fair argument, the way most people present and think about it certainly isn't fair.
The way people make it out to be, is that "Linux software support is nonexistent, nothing works, and software doesn't exist"
When in reality, all of the above is untrue.
Especially when it comes to games, we have great support through projects like Proton, or Wine in general, and additionally we have masses of software written to run on Linux natively (see Flathub for a good selection)
Now, the software which doesn't run on Linux yet is a fair point:
- Adobe's software suite doesn't yet run on Linux
- Not all games work under Proton yet (Anticheat is a big offender here)
- Some devices have bad, or no driver support. This affects mainly some WiFi and Bluetooth peripherals, as well as NVidia GPUs
What about modified versions of Windows?
Whilst some Windows modifications are quite well-made, they usually overlook one flaw, and hyperfocus on another issue, which is sub-optimal.
Questionable decisions
Windows licensing
Whilst I don't think selling windows, or demanding money for it in general is a bad thing, I think the way in which they do it is…questionable at least
not from a legal standpoint or anything, but rather by user-experience
not only do many devices come with Windows, but have activation not long after, but also can you install Windows without a license, which has no reason to really be a thing as the OS is still entirely usable without a license (in terms of the platform working)
And even then, why can I just run my own KMS activation server? wouldn't that be piracy in a way?
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Windows 11 Controversy
The "Always Online" requirement
With the introduction of Windows 11, the ability to create an offline user account easily has first been taken away from the Home release, and this change is also in some faster development rings on the Pro release.
This forces a user to connect to the internet before they can even use their PC, and then forces them to make a Microsoft account against their will.
(01.07.22 –- dd.mm.yy)
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Option A
on the WiFi Setup screen, press Shift + F10, type taskmgr into the command prompt, and kill Network Connection Flow
Option B
Type in a random username/email and password which is intentionally wrong until it says you've "been locked out"
Not only is this a potential privacy concern¹, but also does this make a PC, Laptop, 2in1 or Tablet device with Windows 11 installed entirely usable without a connection.
This is problematic, as we still live in a world where access to the internet is not really a standard right everyone has, but rather something everyone has to pay for.
Imagine people in India, or rural areas with either bad, or no Internet. How do those people use their PC?
¹ –- considering how much value Microsoft puts on Advertising nowadays (even in their OS) and how little value on an authentic and activated copy of Windows, assuming that they use this data, and their control over the OS for that isn't far-fetched
Bloat…bloat…and more bloat…
Windows 11 has at it's release been quite controversial, not only because of compatibility (I'll talk about that) but also due to all the useless features it added
Let me list all of the ones I can think of:
- Desktop Stickers
- Teams integration (only personal edition)
- New design (which lead to many feature removals, e.g Taskbar moving)
- Hardware usage restrictions
- MANY issues with Hardware (hello AMD)
- Almost the entire UI is now HTML+CSS using Edge's Webview2
The Hardware "requirements"
The official requirements to run Windows 11 have always been frowned upon, ever since the first build which had them. You might wonder why, and it's quite simple
A lot of computers are left out from running the OS even when they've been purchased within 4 years or so, as there is a not necessarily comprehensive Whitelist for what CPUs "can" run Windows 11 and which "can't"
On top of that, it forces you to have the following for (almost) no reason:
- Secure Boot
on x86 Platforms, Secure Boot is essentially useless as it's just one toggle to disable, in a menu which is otherwise unprotected 90% of the time - TPM 2.0
TPM is also frowned upon, as many OEM's implementation sucks, or doesn't exist in the first place - "Internet connection and Microsoft Account"
As stated here on their website - DirectX 12 Capable GPU
Is this even actually a requirement? I've seen people without it run 11…
Conclusion
I can't recommend using Windows anymore, and that's coming from someone which has used it for the better part of his life.
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- Some of the additions with Windows 11 have been better integrated than others, and have actual use.
For instance, the Control Center/Settings issue has been improved on quite a lot in Windows 11, and the Tablet improvements are also a nice addition - Another reason to continue using the OS is application support
Whilst nowadays this is mainly Adobe, MSOffice, and some Games, the point still stands
Yet, with every improvement they've made, 10 more flaws popped up
Remember how Windows 11 ran on AMD machines initially? yeah…
or the Arbitrary hardware requirements, which only recently got lifted?
Maybe you should finally consider some Linux distribution, or maybe macOS, that's better too!
Check out https://distrochooser.de/en to help find a Linux Distro to start with, or check out popular Hackintoshing communities online!
