Comment by areoform | Hacker News Reader

Comment by areoform | Hacker News Reader

I'm a macos / linux user who bought a second-hand windows PC last year for CAD and games. Windows 11 is worse than you think it is.

It's worse than the data harvesting (which required two hours to turn off), irritating ads (for an OS you pay for) and generally schizophrenic UX (don't get me started on the Start menu).

The Windows team has gone far beyond typical bugs. They're introducing new classes of bugs; one day your computer's working fine and the next, your GPU's 3D performance (somehow) drops by a half — you know, the thing I bought the computer for? — https://www.guru3d.com/story/windows-11-kb5066835-update-tri...

The bug impacted CAD too, AFAICT btw, though I couldn't find a publication that tested this update on solidworks / shapr 3D etc.

They shipped a patch that started bricking SSDs, https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/ssds/latest-windo... / https://www.pcmag.com/news/pc-building-group-figures-out-why... / https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/reports-...

Another that kept crashing on certain motherboards and processors with integrated graphics, https://windowsforum.com/threads/windows-11-24h2-intel-z890-...

If I didn't have a Solidworks license and Solidworks wasn't Windows only, I'd have switched to Steam OS or another linux distro a long time ago. I'm currently being held hostage by Dassault (and – to a lesser degree — the Windows-Gaming Industrial Complex).

Forget Apple Maps bad, this is Windows 11 bad.

As someone who has been primarily Mac for most of my life, I started using a Windows machine fairly recently for work.

I'm tied down to the Windows eco-system (Teams, Outlook, etc).

I still haven't gotten use to the idea of every link in Microsoft apps opening in Edge regardless of your settings.

This might seem like a small thing, but the entire UX seems to be designed around benefiting Microsoft, not the user.

It is incredibly user hostile. And it's not even free. This is an ecosystem you pay for.

They're treating folks shelling out $200 for an OS as if they were cattle on the adtech train.

Here's hoping that Apple can correct-course from this path. Last time I daily-drove macOS (Sequoia) it was pushing adverts in my face with every native app I launched.

I spend 8 hours a day on Sequoia and I haven't seen any adverts in any native app?

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251488227

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250786208

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254431520

  Having talked to Apple Support, there is no way to disable the pop-up permanently due to Apple's Promotional Policy.

There are certainly ads for Apple services if you don't already use them (or in the case of Apple Music, sometimes even if you do use it because the app is pretty bad), and there are sponsored ads in the App Store now.

I wouldn't say it's in any way equivalent to Windows 11, but it does feel like Apple is following a similar path as Microsoft, just with a little more Apple design on top.

Huh? I use macOS all day every day and I’ve never seen an ad.

iOS and macOS will nag you regarding iCloud if you don't sign up/in. Apple advertised... something, I forget what it was, via an Apple Wallet notification this past year (?). Might have been for the F1 movie when it was in theaters.

With respect - bull.

With respect, every single search query in the App Store displays advertisements by-default, and you know that.

You know you’re moving the goalposts, don’t you? I’ll grant you that the App Store and Music show ads. But that’s not what you claimed originally, is it?

What specific apps are showing ads?

Well, if you buy a new device and don’t enroll in AppleCare, you have a little red notification in the settings. I have two notifications currently that I cannot get rid of until the 60 window expires. I would consider this an ad.

Who is actually shelling out $200 for Windows specifically?

It's perceptually free if you bought it with your PC. And it's actually free if you took advantage of the free upgrade offer.

I've picked up a few licenses off MacHeist for like $10

The cost is rolled into your PC when you buy it. Its not free.

Your $10 licenses are not legal. Sorry. Those are sketchy grey market keys. Though Microsoft likely won't go after you for it, so I'm not sure it matters.

You should have just saved the $10 and downloaded a cracked copy.

You’d rather have an unofficial ISO?

Why?

If they're authenticated when I install the OS, what makes them illegal?

Cracked copy = trusting some shady 3rd party

I'm not going to switch to piracy to avoid some gray market sketchiness, as long as the keys don't seem to be stolen.

Never had issues activating the Windows keys nor the Office keys I've bought from them. And I always get the installers straight from Microsoft.

> perceptually free

Bizarre phrase. If you think mandatory bundling is free stuff then your perception is not very good.

Either way it's a hell of a lot less than $200 in that situation.

>I'm tied down to the Windows eco-system (Teams, Outlook, etc)

All of them are available for the Mac.

The explanation is one sentence prior.

> I started using a Windows machine fairly recently for work.

It's by design completely self serving. It's no longer a product for the users the users are the product.

Unfortunately I think it can and it will get a LOT worse before the push back will make any difference.

After all most users are not tech savvy and will be stuck with whatever is installed when they buy the machine and for the corporate there aren't any real alternatives.

This is the fault of whoever is administrating your Windows machines, Teams and Outlook are perfectly capable of opening links in your configured default browser.

> every link in Microsoft apps opening in Edge regardless of your settings.

fwiw, there is a setting in Teams itself to have it use your default browser instead, on top of having to change it on a system level. This does not work when using the PWA though

Lol I have looked through the settings 57 times and only just now found that because of your note. Much appreciated.

I think if Dassault et. al. released a version of their software for Linux or Mac OS then the only excuse I have left to boot Windows would be gone completely. Hell even if it worked somewhat reliably as a viewer on Valve's Proton I'd be happy.

How did you get used to Solidworks, btw? Any advice? It's an awful experience.

Have you tried using OnShape? One of the reasons that I switched to OnShape recently is that I can run it on my MacBook. This makes switching between my mechanical design & app development workflows seamless. There are some things to get used to with the transition to a cloud system, but knowing what I know now I would make the same decision again.

At this point I'm using Windows almost exclusively for gaming (and it sounds like non Windows options have been getting better recently, so I may be able to step away from the Windows ecosystem entirely when that machine eventually dies).

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