artnoiMay 12, 2021
I have been a macOS user for most of my life, and since 2018 a GNU/Linux and BSD user. I have never used Windows, because I have never felt like it was a good system. Here I will explain why I feel so.
Windows requires some telemetry for it to work, and you can’t completely turn that off. That, plus some backdoors and anti-security, make me not want to store any sensitive files or do something important on it.
The entire OS is also a product that also meant to sell more Microsoft products. Windows ships with garbage ads out of the box.
This is in contrast to GNU/Linux systems, where an OS is created as an operating system, created from love from its authors.
Sure, Windows ecosystem is full of professional software like Adobe and MS Office suite. But at the same time, there are also a huge myriad of bullshit software vendors selling needless software solutions that won’t be reasonable on any other platforms.
For example, because of how Windows software installation works, there are a gazillion of “uninstallation” apps just for this seemingly easy task of uninstalling software.
If you use Windows, I’m sure you understand this.
Although Microsoft has recently tried to embrace open-source with amazing software (like VSCode or Windows Terminal), the fact that operating system code is secret and not open for inspection has led Windows to be the most vulnerable operating systems. Now add Microsoft’s eternal love for telemetry to the matter, and you’ll see why Windows is so unappealing to me.
No password is required for admin accounts when installing new software. Just click the yes button on “Are you sure?” dialog, and boom, it’s done. This makes it very easy for users to unintentionally install malicious software.
Microsoft is also a fishy company when it comes to security (think _NSAKEY, so I usually don’t trust Windows for anything, and won’t boot to it unless I actually have to (e.g. using MS Team on my laptop).
Windows may feel like it’s very configurable compared to macOS, but all that customization is just the shell. Deep down, you can’t configure much in Windows.
Want non-MS root filesystem or install new filesystems? Nope nope. The list goes on, and it’s definitely not just about filesystem.
If you don’t use the Pro version, you can’t even choose when to get system updates. And this is why I have to use Windows 10 Pro, so that I can schedule the OS updates.
Windows performs much worse than Linux, and it’s not just because the OS is bloated, it’s just that Windows itself is slow. From I/O to CPU performance, Windows can’t compete with Linux at all.
Windows maybe known for great hardware support, I used to think the same, but when I installed Windows on my P330 workstation, I noticed that the Windows installer don’t have the device driver required to see one of my SATA disks.
On the other hand, Arch Linux sees all the disks right away.
The only support Windows is great for is maybe something for gamer like the proprietary graphics card features and some consumer features.
But there’s something I like about Windows hardware support - I can do my computer BIOS updates right away from the OS, but now Fedora is getting close, thanks to the IBM partnership with Lenovo and Microsoft.
So that’s my two cents on Microsoft Windows.