And I like Windows Phone a lot. Perfect for people that just wanted a simple phone with decent support.
And it came with Windows 8.1. And I reminded how awful the UI was compared to 10. That mix between Tablet/Touch and Desktop, when Microsoft was in a very pigheaded way.
The true 'crippled' nature of Windows 10 isn't the UI. It's the intrusive always on Updates, Apps, ads on your desktop, popups on your lockscreen, etc that 'cripple' it.
I have a WIndows 10 PC and have never seen any of these things (ads, popups, etc)..
Windows Update is on, but why would I not want that? It's on all my other systems and devices.
Hyperbole serves no one...
Also updating your software is a bad thing, because this is 1994 and no one ever attacks Internet-facing computer systems.
Now I'm not a big fan of the Surface look and feel at all. It feels out of place on a desktop. But, I'd settle with it if they would just use it consistently, instead of forcing me to switch back and forth.
And, while migrating functionality from one to the other, stuff gets dropped. Just as one extremely annoying example that I discovered recently: there is no way to manage networks without digging into the registry. In Windows 7 you can bring up Network and Sharing Center and click on the network icon (the house or the bench) for your active network. This brings you to the Network Properties dialog from which you can merge or delete redundant networks. It's a small thing but it does start to get annoying when you're on "home-network 17", and especially if you're a mobile user this happens a lot. In Windows 7 this is really easy to resolve - the feature has been completely removed from Windows 10 (the icon isn't even there anymore). The only way to resolve it that I've found is to use regedit.
That's one small example, but the OS is littered with this stuff. It's just really poorly designed and frustrating to work with, and while I'm happy with the improvements to the OS under the hood, the surface stuff is just so awful that I'm seriously considering switching my laptop back to Windows 7.
I'm more puzzled at UX problems in OSX, where there isn't the excuse of having to support hundreds of vendors.
Windows Phone was much better about resource usage than Android, so the numbers you saw were pretty meaningless.
The lack of apps was a real issue though.
About apps: recently -- i.e. just during the past few weeks -- I've been seeing adaptations of top-tier designr board-games -- e.g. Terra Mystica and Galaxy Trucker -- showing up for Windows Phone, in addition to iOS/Android. Previously, adaptations like this were essentially unheard of.
I've been wondering what has changed to make this happen, if anyone has any ideas -- e.g. have Windows Phone tablets reached a critical mass that would make Windows Phone an increasingly attractive platform for these games?
We don't? Can you clarify what you're referring to?
I get that some people might disagree with this, but could they at least care to explain why instead of downvoting?