After being an exclusively Windows user since WIndows 98 and big Windows Phone fan I have decided to move over to the Mac for my main machines.
After years of WIndows 10 updates who can seriously say that Windows is getting better? RIght now Windows is so inconsistent and my opinion unloved. I am so sick and tired of Microsoft having a go at something and then just abondong it. Let’s take the Creators update for Windows, that big push to make Windows great for creatives and add new UWP apps like 3D paint and adding built in 3D apps. SInce then nothing has been done with it, just left to rot away in the MS wasteland, same as the Surface Studio with its ancient Intel processor.
The lack of polish and care in Windows is appalling – how hard is it to update the icons from Windows 95, XP and Vista eras? Applying the fluent design language across all apps and parts of Windows would be a nice start. Why does MS allow the store to be filled with dodgy copy cat garbage, con merchants charging people for free open source apps? Let’s be honest Apple would never do such a thing.
I just look at what Apple is doing with the Mac, the new Apple silicon but also the direction MacOS is being taken in and I see a company that is at least trying to make a better product. How can Apple in one update refresh the entire UI consistently where as Microsoft slowly sprinkle new design elements over Windows across several updates?
I will still continue to rely heavily on MS services, but now I’m done with WIndows.
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#596814">In reply to Winner:</a></em></blockquote><p>Probably because while you could plonk someone down in-front of a beginner-recommended Linux distro like Ubuntu or Mint and they could adapt to opening files, using the web-browser and that sort of thing it's still not the most-friendly when it comes to configuring things (lots of dropping back to the Terminal), troubleshooting (again, Terminal) and cryptic error-messages.</p><p><br></p><p>For example, on Windows if you try to install an app from an .MSI while one is already going you'll see something like:</p><p><br></p><p>"Windows Installer: another program is currently being installed. Please wait for that installation to finish and then try installing this software again".</p><p><br></p><p>On Linux, try downloading something from the built-in Store app while the distro is installing distro-level updates and you'll get something like:</p><p><br></p><p>"Ubuntu Software Center: error, another user or process has a lock on "APT".</p><p><br></p><p>End-user: what the f**k is APT?</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#596893">In reply to wright_is:</a></em></blockquote><p><em>"Heck, we were inundated with calls, when Microsoft removed the Search bar from the Folder view in Outlook and placed it in the title bar!"</em></p><p><br></p><p>That's nothing compared to when Microsoft introduced the Ribbon interface for Word, Excel, PowerPoint and some areas of Outlook back in Office 2007 — lots of confused Office 2003 users then!</p>
dftf
<blockquote><em><a href="#596816">In reply to hrlngrv:</a></em></blockquote><p>You seem to think along the same lines as me, though I will add some feedback:</p><p><br></p><p>I do think it was silly for Microsoft to make a big-thing out of the "Creator" updates for Windows 10, and then for this to never really be mentioned again after-that. And the 3D apps may well be used by some, but it's hard to say Microsoft is creator-focuses when you compare now to the past when "Windows Movie Maker" was regularly updated, plus you had the "Windows Live" suites with their various apps.</p><p><br></p><p>"Because MSFT needs something in the Store …": I'd disagree turning it into a cesspit is the only way to boost-numbers — what they should do is allow the Win32 versions of apps into the Store by allowing the .MSI versions of installers to be added. So-many of the apps I use aren't in the Store, yet the majority offer both .EXE and .MSI installers. Allowing .MSI would solve this issue almost overnight! (And at-least they haven't — yet — gone the route they did in the dying-days of Windows Phone in putting web-app shortcuts into the Store and pretending they were natively-ported apps!)</p><p><br></p><p>"Why does Control Panel still exist?": well, I do think MS could be quicker here at porting stuff over — and it's puzzling why for things they have fully moved-over, such as the old "Taskbar and Start Menu Properties" dialog why they still have a shortcut for this in Control Panel, when all it does it launch the Settings app. And why bother having "Windows Mobility Center" when it's an app, and can be launched from the Start Menu. As for things they can't remove, due to legacy driver hook-ins, like Keyboard and Mouse, there is no-reason why they can't just make the launch-point for them a link inside the Settings app. So while I understand the history, it's still fair to say MS really could move quicker on this…</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>
dftf
<p>To address some points from the OP, and from other commentators:</p><p><br></p><p>"How hard is it to update the icons" — well, it does cost time and money, but is there really a point in updating all of the icons? Many icons are only there for backwards-compatibility: because an old app (or driver) may reference them. That old app is unlikely to be able to support anything past a 1-bit (black/white), 4-bit (16-colour) or 8-bit (256-colour) icon, depending when it was programmed, so it's pointless work that would see little-benefit. I'd say most of the icons in the main UI, that most users will actually see, do get updated.</p><p><br></p><p>"Applying the fluent design language across all apps" — sadly this would likely mean turning them all into UWP apps, and most of those are s-l-o-w to launch compared to the old Win32 apps, especially the "Photos" app.</p><p><br></p><p>"Why does MS allow the store to be filled with dodgy copy cat garbage": I agree this is bad, considering the whole point of the Store is to be safer (and was actively promoted as-such for "Windows RT" and "Windows 10 in S Mode"), though Android is still far-worse. Another main issue with the MS Store is many major apps still don't use it (e.g. Google Chrome and Firefox both aren't in there!) and when you search for such apps, you just end-up with loads of eBooks instead, using a very-similar icon. While Apple are better at curation, I'm pretty-sure not every iOS app out-there are all of the same-quality, either.</p><p><br></p><p>"Con-merchants charging people for free open-source apps": agree, though you'll also find this on the Play Store, and on Amazon you can even find things like LibreOffice and Paint.NET, along with open-source games like SuperTuxKart, being sold on physical-media! So, again, not specifically a MS issue, something they all need to do better.</p><p><br></p><p>(It's also worth-nothing that mac users have commented on here previously that the App Store on macOS also features many junk apps and also lacks many apps that you can download and install manually; so whereas the iOS store may be well-ran, it sounds like the macOS store is a similar-picture to the Microsoft Store on Windows. This will obviously change over-time with the iOS-ification of macOS on the Apple Silicon platform, of course, as iOS versions of apps will get preferential listings.)</p><p><br></p><p>"Windows is slow": most low-to-mid range Windows PCs (i.e. not tablets) still come with HDDs: so yeah, what do you expect? Seek-times are a major cause of the issue: open Task Manager on a device with a HDD during login (after a cold boot) and you'll see speeds as-low-as 3-5MB/sec during boot! I'd bet virtually all Apple devices ship with an SSD by-default (except on Pro/high-end where capacity matters more). Even on older, SATA-II based devices, whack-in a decent SSD (e.g. latest Samsung Evo; Crucial MX500; Seagate BarraCuda 120 range) and you'll get up-to 270MB/sec read-rates with virtually non-existent seek-times. As MS doesn't have full-control, it cannot mandate SSD use, sadly. (And given that it has only just, as of Version 2004, banned OEMs from pre-installing 32-bit versions of Windows 10, I'd suggest mandating SSDs is likely not due anytime soon)</p>