Microsoft

[nPeace]

What do you hate about Microsoft? Or do you love it?
What do you like about Microsoft?
Would you recommend sticking with Microsoft, Or leaving it?
What would you recommend as a good alternative, and Why?
What are the pros and cons of choosing a different OS to Microsoft Windows?

What I hate about Microsoft.

1. Updates - Microsoft gives you software and then tells you its a security risk, which must be patched regularly, otherwise your pc will be vulnerable to cyber attacks, and there is nothing your Antivirus software can do about it. These updates take up gigabytes of space on your hard drive. So it's really a huge installation.
2. Cache Files - Microsoft gives you software that caches and stores gigabytes of files for every installation made, and then tells you not to remove these files, otherwise Windows will become unstable. Your installation is even bigger than you thought.
3. Products - Microsoft development products are popular, and does the job you want. The problem is, they are large - requiring gigabytes of space. That would not be such a big deal if Microsoft did what everyone else (almost) does - create the software, update ifs feature, and make it backward compatible. Android Studio, for example, is updated regularly, and can be used for most of your projects. Microsoft on the other hand gives you Visual Studio 2010, then you must download 2012... 2013... 2015... 2017... 2019... 2022... and one must either uninstall previous versions, or use new ones alongside previous - until their end-of-life, taking up gigabytes of free space. I don't have to mention the Windows OS. Where are we now? Windows 2011? Or is it 2013? I lost track.
4. Third Party Software - Software made for Microsoft always need updating and aren't alway done automatically, so sometimes one has to buy other third party software to automatically update products. Otherwise, one has to spend time doing this manually... and if one is using lots of portable apps, well...

What I like about Microsoft.

1. More products available... that actually work... unlike on Wine for Linux.

That's about it.

 

[Vee]

does what I need it to do. for the average user like me it's enough

 

[exchemist]

What do you hate about Microsoft? Or do you love it?
What do you like about Microsoft?
Would you recommend sticking with Microsoft, Or leaving it?
What would you recommend as a good alternative, and Why?
What are the pros and cons of choosing a different OS to Microsoft Windows?

What I hate about Microsoft.

1. Updates - Microsoft gives you software and then tells you its a security risk, which must be patched regularly, otherwise your pc will be vulnerable to cyber attacks, and there is nothing your Antivirus software can do about it. These updates take up gigabytes of space on your hard drive. So it's really a huge installation.
2. Cache Files - Microsoft gives you software that caches and stores gigabytes of files for every installation made, and then tells you not to remove these files, otherwise Windows will become unstable. Your installation is even bigger than you thought.
3. Products - Microsoft development products are popular, and does the job you want. The problem is, they are large - requiring gigabytes of space. That would not be such a big deal if Microsoft did what everyone else (almost) does - create the software, update ifs feature, and make it backward compatible. Android Studio, for example, is updated regularly, and can be used for most of your projects. Microsoft on the other hand gives you Visual Studio 2010, then you must download 2012... 2013... 2015... 2017... 2019... 2022... and one must either uninstall previous versions, or use new ones alongside previous - until their end-of-life, taking up gigabytes of free space. I don't have to mention the Windows OS. Where are we now? Windows 2011? Or is it 2013? I lost track.
4. Third Party Software - Software made for Microsoft always need updating and aren't alway done automatically, so sometimes one has to buy other third party software to automatically update products. Otherwise, one has to spend time doing this manually... and if one is using lots of portable apps, well...

What I like about Microsoft.

1. More products available... that actually work... unlike on Wine for Linux.

That's about it.

I haven't used Microsoft for the last 10 years, since I retired. Once no longer protected by the corporate firewall of my employer, I decided Apple was the way to go.

 

[Rival]

Microsoft does what it says on the tin and I like it. For average users like me it's good. I find the layout mostly intuitive, albeit I had issues with 10 at first that way, and the look is pretty sleek and modern. It knows its audience.

 

[nPeace]

@Vee @Rival Yes, Microsoft does its job.
For an average user, there is no need to complain.
Especially since we never ever see a need to look under the hood, but for another user, especially the technical, and developer, there are things that get our attention... like when you realize you are losing a lot of hard disk space, and don't understand why.

To give a few examples.
You don't know that you are losing gigabyte of hard disk space when...

• you have many apps, that are not taking up that space, but instead, System Restore has created a number of restore points, which can be as large as 8 GBs or more... depending.
• you have installed apps, and even deleted them, but your Windows Installer directory gets larger 8 GBs or more... depending, and does not shrink, something you aren't aware of... Hopefully someone introduces PatchCleaner to you.
• you have installed apps, and uninstall or delete apps amd or files from your pc, but you don't realize that those files are still taking up space on your hard drive - not in the recycle bin, which you empy on occasion, but somewhere else on your hard drive. Again, taking up GBs of hard disk space... and you don't need these files. Be Gone! Like, already.

These are a few examples, but not the actual list.
Right now, I am refusing to uninstall Visual Studio 2010, and 2013, because I am not sure the projects I create in these will work in 2015-2022.
I have had compatibility issues before, and don't want to go through that, so I am forced to do without at least 23 GBs of hard disk space.

So basically, Microsoft has confiscated roughly 50+ GBs on my hard drive, which includes Windows updates (and they are not done), the WinSXS directory, etc.
WinSxS folder general takes up several gigabytes of disk space and eats up more space each time you perform the Windows Update. If WinSxS folder becomes extremely large, your computer may run slower.

You can’t directly delete WinSxS folder to free up disk space because some of the WinSxS files are important for Windows to run and update.

So, again, we get another tool to do some cleaning up.

I don't have a hard drive with a Terabyte of free space, and I am a developer and designer... a poor one ... who doesn't want to uninstall old tools that sometimes have feature new ones don't, and some tools come in handy at certain times, so it's then you realize... "Wait! I could use 20 GBs right now."

...and when a tech user hears the words "slow down your system" or "your computer may run slower", those are bad words.

Off I go to run Patch Cleaner, to see if I get anything out of the 9 GBs in the Installer directory.

 

[nPeace]

What? It's actually 19 GBs?

All I get is a measly 346 MBs

 

[Shadow Wolf]

If it wasn't for compatibility I'd never use it. I hate it and find it to be a stinking pile of crap next to Macs and especially Linux.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

Microsoft does what it says on the tin and I like it. For average users like me it's good. I find the layout mostly intuitive, albeit I had issues with 10 at first that way, and the look is pretty sleek and modern. It knows its audience.

Of course you find that weird OS intuitive you weirdo!

 

[Wu Wei]

love it or hate it... its everywhere.... and if you are in IT or use a computer for work.... you have to deal with it