But these days I really can't fathom using Windows for anything but video games, and well, work because I have to. It's such a terrible user experience for me, and I wonder where it all went wrong, because I used to genuinely like it.
I remember thinking about Windows a lot: how to get it to work better/faster, for example. I used Linux as my daily driver for 20 years.
Then I just got tired of having to Google obscure Linux issues, edit config files, and reboot all the time. I wanted something that just works.
I went from using three OSes (macOS, Linux, and Windows) every day to using Windows and now honestly never have to think about it. It's not a joy, it's just... nothing. Everything works flawlessly.
I did get one of those telemetry killer apps, but otherwise it's all just stock Win10 Pro.
So is this the normal state of Linux then? Every few years I'll take some time to try and "learn Linux" by installing a distro and try to use it as part of my regular workflow. It's always been a never ending train of very specific and obscure, time consuming issues. My personal motto for Linux is "It Just Doesn't Work" (at least for desktop). Even basic stuff like Wi-Fi and the login screen often doesn't work correctly and requires more tweaking. Using MacOS, it's different and you have to get used to things. But it's not an bottomless pit of time sunk into fixing configurations. Windows isn't perfect, but at least I don't feel like I'm wasting my time.
To be fair I don't think Linux is bad (obviously or it wouldn't be widely used), just that those who like it, either enjoy solving these issues or started with it during a time when they could spare the effort, and so they built up enough experience for it to no longer be a chore.
>I did get one of those telemetry killer apps
Which one do you use?
Yes. I would also say it's part of the fun for some people.
I used to be obsessive about optimizing my workflows using customizations that are only possible on FOSS nix systems, but eventually I got other hobbies. Now I just want my OS to disappear in the background and "just work".
> Which one do you use?*
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10 (recommended by other HN users, but would be interested to know if anyone has any concerns about it)
Which is why I like Linux. I just don’t have to worry about telemetry at all.
Edit: Here’s a comparison of Windows 10 privacy tools. I wish there was one with a “yes” in all three columns.
https://www.ghacks.net/2015/08/14/comparison-of-windows-10-p...
Honestly the telemetry is arguably better from a security perspective. We already trust Microsoft out of necessity, so what additional harm does the telemetry?
Personally, I think the "mean tweaking time" of an average Linux is very low now. I spend almost no time forced to tweak things, except maybe a bit after installation. In concrete terms, for me it's usually a few hours of work spread out over the first 3 weeks. It might be 3-20 hours tops, but some of that might be setting up cool new fancy fun things rather than necessary configuration. From then on I rarely have to touch configs for years.
That being said, I do read of some people having really painful bugs that take forever to fix. You can mitigate this by using mainstream distros on well supported hardware. Ubuntu and Fedora are your best bets for stability.
A decade or more ago, tweaking and maintaining felt like a constant Sisyphean struggle. Now I can throw Ubuntu on a laptop and 90% of the time it's fine after installation.
>Even basic stuff like Wi-Fi and the login screen often doesn't work correctly and requires more tweaking.
I haven't had wifi troubles on Linux in over a decade. Nor any login screen issues. Maybe things are better now, or maybe you've had bad luck with the hardware you're using. Ultimately it boils down to your individual setup. I know how frustrating these issues can be. Anyways, good luck!
I used to use Docker to meticulously duplicate my staging/prod environments on dev machines, but honestly don't bother anymore. My CI/CD environments would catch any of those issues, and I don't run into them much anymore. Having first-class support for Linux containers is great, though.
I got a Windows 10 Phone, and Edge is the only web browser that is available (Version 38.14393.2551.0 currently). According to my setting, Google should be the default search engine rather than Baidu which is an unremovable option for Chinese user.
However, from time to time (randomly I'd say), when I open Edge, the Baidu homepage pops up with a mystical tail "?tn=<a number>" in it's URL (while my setting is Google remind you).
Now, maybe you're thinking "Ha! this guy got a malwared Windows 10 Phone, kudos!". Well, guess what, thanks my slow Internet, I caught the redirector address hosted on go.microsoft.com right before it opens Baidu.
If you curl the address, which is https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115 to be specific, you will found:
$ curl -v --head https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=625115
......
* Server certificate:
* subject: C=US; ST=WA; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft Corporation; CN=go.microsoft.com
* start date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2019 GMT
* expire date: Sep 6 19:37:21 2021 GMT
* subjectAltName: host "go.microsoft.com" matched cert's "go.microsoft.com"
* issuer: C=US; ST=Washington; L=Redmond; O=Microsoft Corporation; OU=Microsoft IT; CN=Microsoft IT TLS CA 5
* SSL certificate verify ok.
> HEAD /fwlink/?LinkId=625115 HTTP/1.1
> Host: go.microsoft.com
> User-Agent: curl/7.58.0
> Accept: */*
>
< HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
HTTP/1.1 302 Moved Temporarily
< Content-Length: 0
Content-Length: 0
< Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg
Location: https://www.baidu.com/?tn=80035161_1_dg
......
Windows 10 is a horrible OS as far as I can tell. It tries to do things for me that I don't want to and I have to spend a few days to remove all the crap and bloat on a fresh setup then I have to figure out how to stop services that try to update and remove all my changes. I am using Windows 10 strictly for work otherwise I'd not touch it with a 10 foot pole. It's sad to see so many young people embrace Microsoft but I know their relationship won't last, I was one of them years and years ago.
Which is exactly how Chrome got so popular. Two wrongs and all.
I remember seeing memes about what Internet Explorer: Q:What is IE good for? A:To search and install Chrome.
Just because many of us purposely installed chrome, doesnt disprove that Google used many dark patterns to get people to click buttons or bundle it with other installs early on. Back then, Chrome used many of the same tactics as Yahoo and Ask toolbars, and even today the google.com home page warns you as if google doesnt work right in other browsers.
Windows has basically 2 reliable ways to launch programs. You can pin them somewhere, or you can launch Windows Explorer and navigate to the executable. Some other ways will work most of the time, but not always.
Now... I'd be happy if I find some KDE setting that makes search deterministic, because it's going on the same direction. Navigating the start menu still works all the time, but search is infuriatingly broken.
To your point though not being able to disable or replace Bing in this capacity isn’t something I’m okay with either. I also wish you could truly turn off telemetry without registry hacks and such
It’s pretty irritation when I search for a specific file that I know exists on my computer, but the search bar decides to search Bing for results instead.
The only way to disable it is to edit the registry (!), which I recommend doing because now results from my computer are delivered instantly instead of having to wait for Bing to load.
https://www.howtogeek.com/224159/how-to-disable-bing-in-the-...
People say Windows is more user friendly than Linux. I beg to differ.