I Think the Whole Microsoft Ecosystem is Broken

After using a new MacBook Pro almost exclusively for the last 7 months or so, a few days ago I picked up my HP Spectre X360 laptop and started using it again. It’s a great machine, but man, the Microsoft/Windows ecosystem is a train wreck. Being away and then coming back to it brought this to the forefront. The Spectre laptop has Windows Hello facial recognition that has stopped working for a third time since acquiring this laptop in 2021. It’s a software problem–as soon as I do a PC Reset and reinstall the HP software, it’ll work again. Whether it’s an HP problem or a Microsoft problem is sort of immaterial. All I care is that I spent $1800 on this machine and it doesn’t work and that sucks.

Also, as I type this, I’ve got 24 notifications in Windows for emails that have already been read and To Do tasks that have already been marked as complete.

And Microsoft desperately wants me to try the “New Outlook” which doesn’t even mark emails I’ve read as read when I use it.

Then there’s the battery life. And the ads. And, and, and.

MacOS has its faults to be sure. I don’t love it, but I choose it because it’s predictable and it looks, feels, and acts like it was written by adults. Windows and the Microsoft ecosystem (hardware partners, M365 services, etc.) are just completely enschittified. What a bummer.