> Switching default browsers is now more difficult.
> Taskbar is now shoved to the center. Why? No reason other than to be aesthetically differentiable from Windows 10.
Remember when things used to get better between versions? I do.
> Offline account a pro feature: to sell Microsoft accounts, office 365 and onedrive
> Switching default browsers more difficult: to sell Edge and Bing.
> Taskbar is now in the center: to get people to click on icons such as Teams, Microsoft Search, and the new launcher which includes links to Microsoft services like office 365.
All the changes above are not for the benefits of consumers or other business that rely on Windows OS, for example, app developers, partners etc. Microsoft would brand and market them for the benefits of consumers. But at their core, they are about serving Microsoft bottom line. To use the dominate of position of windows OS in the PC(desktop and laptop) market, to push other lines of business from Microsoft. Microsoft have to continue to grow their revenue to justify their market cap right? That is where Microsoft's core interest is and what fundamentally propel them to do. And it shows up in what consumers will end up with, and it's not surprising at all. All that marketing doesn't hide this fact.
And Microsoft will do things slowly, like boiling frogs, slowly so people don't realize. Remember when Windows 10 was launching people expressed concerns about linking Microsoft account to windows and Microsoft replied offline account will always be here? Now they removed it from non-pro edition and calling it "improving our ability to deliver new features to consumers" or "bring consumers more value". Microsoft's strategy is get people to use Microsoft account, so people use other Microsoft services like onedrive and office, and have stronger ties with Microsoft. Now if you want a offline account, you have to fork more money, and a lot of laptop OEMs ship with non-pro version of windows because it's cheaper license. This will deter a lot of people, so people cave in and go with Microsoft's strategy. But in long run, Microsoft will make more money from people with Microsoft accounts than they lost from the cheaper windows non-pro license. The business executives and strategists have all this calculated.
A common HN refrain is that defaults matter, so by default in order to be feature competitive you need an MS account.
For my personal computer I will use Linux and windows 7 in a VM for autocad and other windows only software, for work I use whatever they provide. If it lets my company pay $x per user per year for supported collaborative word and excel, common cloud storage, and shared calendars… that’s pretty turn key and a great deal compared to having an in house IT department that could do all of that, when tech is a tool for our business and not core or adjacent to the business
I hope the regulators are listening - it's the same crap as IE.
I think MS has shifted from that strategy into a new one, where we'll see improvements every fifth version or so. 20 years from now, we'll get "multiple displays works like a charm".
But making it the default setting is wrong IMO. I feel the new taskbar is clearly an attempt at copying MacOS's awful dock, replete with forced grouping and a small indicator below the icon to show which app is currently running.