The reasons that Windows is awful have nothing to do with code quality. Windows is awful because of intentional choices Microsoft made (e.g., bloatware that gets reinstalled with every update, mandatory Microsoft accounts, and mandatory telemetry).
I'm pretty sure there are a lot of those.
Past MS engineers have been commenting for a decade on how MS has grown too big, can't manage, and has become a monolith "too big to fail". By nature when engineers are small pieces of a giant machine, they don't do their best work. And those with the experience move on to better things.
>there is nothing really surprising in this leak. Microsoft does not steal open-source code. Their older code is flaky, their modern code excellent. Their programmers are skilled and enthusiastic. Problems are generally due to a trade-off of current quality against vast hardware, software and backward compatibility.
[0] https://web.archive.org/web/20040401115821/http://www.kuro5h...
I can think of annoyances but awful? Come on.
Specifically, clear anti-user choices that exceed by far being "annoying":
* Making it exceedingly difficult or impossible to use the OS without logging in with a Microsoft account.
* Forcing the user in various ways to surrender data to Microsoft. Some of them can be disabled if you really go out of your way, others can't.
* Prompting me again and again to switch to Edge and other MS defaults. I've had the same install for a few years now and NO, I don't want to change to "Microsoft recommended defaults", no matter how many times you ask me.
* Showing the same "OS setup" screen after some updates, requiring me to pay very close attention to what I'm clicking, lest I select something MS is trying to lead me to. The amount of attention required from the user on those screens corresponds quite well with anti-user behavior.
This is hilarious. I recently got a new laptop that has window$ 11. After setting it up with a Non Microsoft email (which required some good fight), I tries to install some random app from the Microsoft store, but got a "something went wrong please try again" on the first screen.
It's pathetic. I haven't used Windows since Win 7 , which I basically installed for gaming. Seeing the latest version of the OS makes me feel sorry for them. That's why Apple with all their assholery is eating their lunch (on the flip side my wife just got a MBP m1 and I was pleasantly surprised that it has hdmi port, magsafe, several USBc ports. Apple seems going in the right direction.)
The telemetry makes this clear. Reboots and updates even more so.
The UI lag and stealing of focus ("oh, you're typing a document... too bad, I want to launch a new Explorer window that will immediately steal focus") make it clear that the computer is in charge and will probably listen to your requests, but on the timeline it chooses.