I still can not believe that when I right click on a file, the option to rename the file is no longer in the right click menu. The menu that appears contains a couple dozen different options, none of which are to rename the file. Somehow they decided that renaming is so unimportant of an operation that they shoved it into a sub menu, under "More Options", which, when selected, causes a whole new set of actions to appear, one of which is rename. So it's now a multi-step process to get to the option to rename a file.<p>How on EARTH did people sign off on that? It's such an unbelievable usability issue.
I keep saying it:<p>"Best of Breed" is Windows 7. It's been all downhill since there.<p>On the odd occasion that I must use Windows (and gets less and less each year) I use Windows 7 as a VirtualBox 'guest' on Linux.<p>If I didn't use HP software for multi-page scanning to PDF with my HP MFP, I wouldn't need Windows at all.
Back in the day it was possible to replace "explorer.exe" as the shell.<p>One had to write their own app, but it could take over start menu, explorer, and desktop. Is that still a thing? I made on (2003) it worked on Win2k and 98 IIRC.<p>Edit: the app has to have special entry points (not regular
WinMain) and regedit a bunch to make it work.<p>Edit2: found this <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/18ipo7f/why_doesnt_anyone_ever_build_custom_desktop/?rdt=44683" rel="nofollow">https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows10/comments/18ipo7f/why_does...</a><p>Which points to <a href="https://cairoshell.com/" rel="nofollow">https://cairoshell.com/</a><p>Awesome!
I'll probably upgrade my desktop with the next generation AMD CPUs, and I somewhat dread having to choose between Windows 10 (which will probably not be supported on this newer hardware), or Debian, because I sure as hell won't be using Windows 11.
“ You also generally do not have to download a bunch of drivers or spend six hours in the command line hand-assembling the goddamn operating system.”<p>Is it me or has the quality of writing coming from the verge gone downhill in recent years? I remember they used to be awesome - but this statement alone made me uninterested in anything else the author had to say as it’s just factually incorrect.<p>Other than power user distros (arch, gentoo, etc) Linux has been one click install and ready to go just like windows for a decade (Ubuntu, fedora, etc) and provides a very good OOBE nowadays.<p>Also, once you remove “my laptop came with windows preinstalled” - yes you do spend time messing with drivers, a uniquely windows problem. If you’re lucky windows update will grab them all, but that’s still requiring user interaction. God forbid windows update doesn’t have it and you have to go hunting on the OEM’s website for it.<p>I wholeheartedly agree with their sentiment that windows has become a nuisance and I’d call it approaching unusable the more money Microsoft tries to extract from it, but the author/editor really should do research first before they try to write an eye catching sentence.
> I am a frog who’s been out of the pot; I just jumped back in and got scalded<p>This is how I feel with everything these days. Default computer operating systems are the pits. A lot of it was paved with good intentions; enable better user workflows, increase visibility, provide better default apps, that sorta thing. But now everything is a service, on <i>every platform you use</i>!<p>Spending time on Linux, I get exposed to nothing. No live-tiles, no news notifications, nobody asking me to Try the New Safari. It's just... a computer. I feel the author's culture-shock every time I hear a Mac or Windows user try and rationalize their $99/year to-do list app to me. Is this really where computers are headed for us, and humanity at large?
Despite your aversion to the situation, it's functional. Individuals unfamiliar with Y Combinator are increasingly interacting with Microsoft offerings, which in turn boosts Microsoft's financial gains. Consequently, their sales are thriving—you may dislike this reality, yet their marketing proves more effective. tiktok generation folks, get used to it.
I recently "upgraded" to Windows 11, which began with going into Add/Remove Programs and removing everything I could, then going into settings and turning off all the Windows options I spotted. A method that, as far as I could remember, worked pretty well in Windows 10.<p>But I was stressed about some work stuff so I quickly moved on to pulling my project's repo and getting back to work. A week later, my project goes absolutely berserk with warnings and failures, which trace back to files / lines that shouldn't exist.<p>Turns out, I had dropped my repo into a directory managed by Windows OneDrive, and OneDrive had backed everything up and subsequently decided (for some reason I still haven't figured out) to start restoring and reverting deleted / changed files. My realization of this began with "What the fuck is a OneDrive?" tl;dr it's Microsoft trying to sneakily take over all your data / force you into its cloud services. I'd actually briefly spotted the name and turned it off, but it had taken that to mean "until tomorrow", of course.<p>Anyway, it's on me, right? I was distracted and lazy. Sometimes it takes a good old mugging to get back in the right defensive mindset.