Agreed. I feel like every OS has its flaws. My sense of Windows is that installations deteriorate.

My cursor currently doesn’t show in VSCode after an update. My ‘Downloads’ folder also disappeared recently and everything now downloads to my desktop.

I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues.

I don't remember last time I had to reinstall Windows unless upgrading in place is considered reinstalling. I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why. Windows has bugs some very annoying but so does every other OS I used. With Linux it's very likely you'll find an obscure forum post that explains how to work around it (unless it's nvidia related on a laptop) but with Windows you are stuck until Microsoft decides to fix it. Same applies to MacOS though.

> I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why.

I believe it comes down to popularity. The more popular something is, the more corner cases your OS has to deal with as people write software that apparently does weird unforeseen combinations to the underlying OS. I've had to reinstall linux several times because of bad AMD/nvidia driver installs. On windows, a windows update recently disabled my AMD video driver.

AMD and NVidia drivers have notoriously terrible histories when it comes to the linux kernel. But with Windows/Mac there's 10,000 times more crap like this. Particularly on windows.

Mac has locked a few more things down, so it should be more stable, but I still hear stories of people that do reinstalls on it occasionally.

> I don't remember last time I had to reinstall Windows unless upgrading in place is considered reinstalling. I keep hearing people reinstalling and I don't understand why.

Same. Had a work Windows 10 install that happily chugged along for years, on a very old machine with a spinning disk and no performance deterioration.

> I’ve learned to reinstall the OS from scratch every year or so on Windows and that resolves my issues

that's amazing, I haven't reinstalled my laptop OS since 2016, when I had to replace the SSD. it updated to the latest nixos without fail every time since.

Just buy a copy of Pro for $89 and nearly all these complaints go away.

Workarounds exist, but official support for disabling telemetry[1] and "consumer experiences"[2] requires Windows Enterprise or Education.

[1] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/...

[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/client-management/...

You couldn't be more wrong. Windows 11 is the reason I left Windows for Linux, after MANY years, and I was running the Pro version.

but I can't imagine being a Windows "fan"

S/he specifically writes "Although I’m not a big Wind7ows fan, it does what it needs to, and that’s a relief."

I refers to the writer, not the subject :-)

Weird comment. Who said anything about being a fan?

I wouldn’t say I’m a “fan” of windows. But I definitely hate my life when I’m forced to use Linux.

That subreddit is for windows "fans"

says who? it is just a windows 11 subreddit. Users are not the same as "fans".

Early windows versions were actually very well designed to not get in your way and be both minimalistic and usable. Things went south after win2k, any OS 'feature' added after that is considered bloat in my book.

I am not sure I'd agree with you on that - they were a lot smaller than Windows now, but it was never minimalistic in any sense. Even Windows 1 incorporated several programs (Write, Paint, that cards thing, etc) that, while convenient, wasn't exactly minimal. Every version added something extra (overlapping windows, Program Manager, a trashcan and a desktop-as-a-place) without removing anything (except tiling windows, which weren't fashionable back then, or practical at VGA resolutions). Windows now is a nightmare of layers that seem to go all the way down to NT 4. I wouldn't mind that, but the way the GUI inherits the theme from whatever generation it was first built on creates a jarring and confusing experience. I respect backwards compatibility, but I would suggest Microsoft looked at IBM's MVS and its descendants to learn how it's properly done.

win2k didn’t have bluetooth or dynamic disks. Both are useful and not bloat

I dunno, Windows XP was pretty great.

I think Windows is created with a lot of love. I know several past and present Windows engineers and they are passionate about the product.

But there’s a whole lot of MBAs forcing user-hostile “features” (eg. Ads and crapware) on top of it. Then there’s the backwards compatibility thing, which is a double-edged sword.

I mean, the Microsoft logo is a bunch of squares. That says it all.

Disclaimer: Linux on all my personal machines, Windows on work ones.

I feel the most attrition using MacOS for working. The UI is cumbersome with too many animations and things that get in the way; Finder is nowadays idiotic making accessing the file system a chore. Windows in a corporate setting is OK. It does not get in the way, at least.

Hi. I'm a Windows fan. I use Windows 11. I experience no "traffic and billboards" or "trudging" or "ads in my face".

I get it - it's "common knowledge" that Windows is full of "spyware" and "ads" and "popups" but I expected better from Hacker News posters. At least do your own research! Spinning up a Windows VM and letting it run for a week costs nothing. I'm sure HN users can handle that.

It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc.

Source: I've been using Windows as my primary desktop for well over 20 years until finally switching to Mac recently because I'm tired of constantly having to look for workarounds to disable all this crap.

> workarounds

Ironically, that used to be called "customizable."

I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login.

> "I can't imagine being a Windows "fan". It's like being a fan of traffic and billboards. Windows is something you trudge through just to get it to do what you want without shoving ads in your face."

> I actually daily drive Windows for work (mandatory). It's the source of my seething anger. Just a couple days ago I was greeted with a fullscreen "UPGRADE TO WINDOWS 11. EXPERIENCE COPILOT" ad on login.

> It's common knowledge because it's true. Ads in the Start Menu, incessant pestering to switch to Edge etc.

I'm putting the above quotes in this order in order to remind people that I'm simply explaining how it's possible to be a Windows fan. When Windows 11 preinstalled Edge, as luck would have it, I was happy with it and wasn't one of the... perhaps XX% of users who are adamant about using Chrome or Firefox. Nor am I adamant about using Windows 10 instead of upgrading, because my PC is capable of running Windows 11 and I don't find the arguments for sticking with Windows 10 personally important, just like I don't find the arguments for using Chrome or Firefox personally important.

This is my lived experience, please don't try to condescend to me and tell me I'm wrong for having different priorities in life (in the small chance that anyone was thinking of doing that).