Linux

Level1tech was reviewing the Ryzen 9950X/9900X and he noted how performance on Windows was wildly inconsistent depending on peculiar settings such as sidestepping security features and marking apps to run as administrator (aka also sidestepping windows security features) yet on Linux you can get better performance via Proton OOTB.

Linux has its quirks too but people kid themselves when they convince themselves that the dozens of weird tasks and apps and tweaks they make to Windows are "plug and play" compared to Linux, which in my experience has been way less tweaking.

The main tweaks I've done on linux usually include installing ROG-control-center (optional laptop faff) or cryotweaks on Steamdeck (which just sets some sensible options already enabled on most distros)

Windows sure is bad, though I haven't seen an actual blue-screen in years. That's some foul luck.

I tried connecting my bluetooth earbuds to my PC. Alright, the setup itself was fine. But then the problems started. My earbuds support opus codec for audio. Do you think I can change the bluetooth codec easily, just like on Linux? Nope. There is no way to do it without some third party programs. And don’t even get me started on Windows randomly changing my default audio output and trying to play sound through my controller.

Bro wait until you want to use them for a call. How do you tell it to switch to call mode when it won't by default. Ah yeah that's right, you can't. And if you do, good luck switching it back for music when you're done. I've had friends who got bluetooth headphones and tried to use them wireless on Windows and it's just a battle every single time

You know what just works ? Bazzite. It's as easy to use as a PlayStation.

My main issue with Windows isn’t its technology, but its attitude. The user is no longer the most important consideration. In that way it’s become adversarial.

This was sorta my fault, but I'm counting it. I have been flashing meshtastic devices recently and flashed two just fine from fedora (just had to DL ungoogled chromium because fuck chrome but librewolf can't access serial ports so..), tried to flash a third from my friend's windows PC and it just would not recognize it in the serial monitor, tried for like an hour being dumb, then I remembered drivers exist, downloaded one set of drivers, couldn't install lord knows why, downloaded a second set that finally worked on a reboot and got it flashed.

I understand that sometimes you still have to install drivers on Linux too, but can we stop pretending you don't have to on windows? What's more while I was in there and edge wasn't using my serial port my friend said to install a chrome based anyway to try, and I had to find the damn download pages instead of using a package manager, philistines.

I just reinstalled and configured Windows for a friend who's machine was hacked, so my frustration with Microsoft is very fresh. (She lost 8 thousand dollars of her savings she's still trying to get back.) After years of using Linux I feel like I'm being punished every time I help someone with their Windows machine.

/Rant

These things in particular drive me nuts:

• Sending everything users do and type (including passwords) back to Microsoft. It's called spyware when other companies do it. It should be called spyware when it's an OS called Microsoft Windows.
• Flooding 1/2 the screen with web search results when a search is done from the start menu. I'm looking for an installed program, not a potato recipe.
• Requiring a registry edit to turn that web search off and lots of other simple things that use to be configurable in settings.
• Placing ads throughout the operating system and making it difficult to turn those ads off.
• Forcing the use of the Edge browser no matter what users choose.
• Preventing the removal of unwanted programs without editing the registry.
• Forced updates at Microsoft's convenience.
• Absurdly long restart times after updating.
• Forced OS version upgrades.
• Reverting settings that have been changed by the user to settings that directly benefit Microsoft's sales and marketing goals.
• Forced restarts of the operating system causing data loss and the loss of millions of hours of work for millions of users.
• Removing more and more user settings with each new OS release.
• Burying commonly used menu items multiple menus deep.
• Preventing the removal of Start menu items. I will never use the Xbox Game Bar no matter how many time I'm forced to see it.

/

Well, Windows was never perfect. People just got used to its shenanigans. They tend to meddle with bullshit registry yet somehow basic commands on Linux is too complicated.

Yep, I have used Linux since 2017 after W10 just made everything slower for home use and work. I have been using W11 for work lately, and it sucks. The office16/root/vfs/ProgramFilesCommonX64(86)/office16/ai.exe and aimgr.exe keep hogging resources in task manager and bogging down the system when ever I try to get work done. Deleteing those files helps but they come back after updates, so for now I created two empty text files and changed the filename and extensions to match the deleted files, so far that has kept updates from reinstalling those ai files

I have an ongoing irritation with windows (use it for work, Linux at home): It steals focus from the window you're using if another window opens.

Drives me nuts. I'll be typing my password and pop! Oh look I just typed my password into something else that popped up because IT requires this program to run on login today.

KDE is much better about not stealing window focus like that.

In my experience, a stable beginner friendly distro such as mint, is 10x closer to "just working" but...

I do think that the windos DE tends to be more reliable than any linux DE I have tested. The only DE that compares is gnome, which I find very very stable (but I hate it)

I think that non-technical people are just used to a simple playbook of:

1. GUI is rarely the issue, so you never need to see the terminal.
2. If there is an issue, restart
3. If that didn't work, ask for help from your local techy

And for linux step 3 usually doesn't work because your local techy is probably someone who just knows how to google and paste into cmd.

I dunno, I dont think it's normal to get two blue screens on a fresh windows install.

Windows audio really is trash though, I'm totally with you there.

Windows bloat sucks. I wish Microsoft gave you the option to just install the components/features you're likely to use. That way you could have an agile, minimal custom installation like you do in Arch.

I forgot how terrible Windows actually is

Windows, while always shitty, has seriously gone downhill in the past 5 years. I'm looking to switch back to Linux myself, but I have an NVidia GPU that needs constant driver babying on OpenSUSE (my preferred distro). My current plan is to find someone who is willing to swap a RTX 4070 for a equivalent or slightly worse AMD card, and then switch back to OpenSUSE.