Sometimes there are reasonable concerns, sometimes people just dont like to change, that's it.
If Windows has 1.4 bilion users, then 100 of them complaining on HN will make you think that a lot of people hate windows, but in reality... :D
Right now I seriously consider moving to Linux. Thing is, main issue before were either unfamiliar UI or bad performance. Windows 10/11 has fair share of these too with aggressive push for control panel replacements. But that's honestly minor obstacle. There are lots of pluses on functional front too like windows Terminal, winget, wsl.
Actual problem is Microsoft simply stopped understanding word "No". Always pushing some links that open Edge for no reason. Enabling click bait news I spend a while to get rid of. Randomly switching default save location to one drive. Full screen ads for O365 & One Drive every few updates.
I simply need OS to get out of my way and stay there.
I can’t leave it behind professionally, so I’ll be riding along for this train wreck, but I will have some peace at home at least.
Hint: Blackrock, Vanguard.
Unfortunately... it's not compatible with many things I need. I then sold my computer and switched to Mac as a happy medium and it works well enough but I miss many things from Kubuntu.
This time around the Linux desktop is even getting marketshare, which is insane. 6%?! Firefox has less marketshare, and people bring it up in antitrust suits.
I think the secret is that they don't care about these users. Western markets have been bifurcating into, on one side, captured luxury markets where everything is grossly overpriced, low-quality, surveilled, censored, resold, walled-off and milked for every penny from a stupid, wealthy satisfied-enough clientele, and on the other side, people who don't matter and can do whatever who cares.
Getting 80% margin out of 20% of the market is better than getting 10% margin out of 80% of the market.
Such a lazy argument.
Listen, the "users hate change" argument is weak for the current Windows drama. There has always been an N+2 as an option and so this is way worse...
There's an old, reliable pattern:
XP was good, Vista (N+1) sucked, so everyone jumped to 7 (N+2).
7 was good, 8 (N+1) had the bad UI, so everyone jumped to 10 (N+2).
People skip the bad one and wait for the fixed one. That's the de facto N+2 path.
The reason the Windows 10 -> 11 complaint is so loud is that Microsoft added a massive blocker in terms of hardware, shitty unfixable UI problems and they're shoving additional services down our throats (online accounts, AI, Teams).
It's not that 11 is just bad like Vista; it's that Microsoft made it physically impossible for a huge, happy Windows 10 user base to upgrade. Now those users are stuck waiting for N+2 and hoping it's fixed.
Some are being forced to either buy a whole new PC to get to 11, or pay Microsoft an ESU security tax to keep using their old one.
This isn't just whining about a UI change; it's a forced mass-migration with a financial penalty. That's why people are genuinely waiting for the next version, the true N+2 successor to 10. They're just following the cycle, but this time, the N+1 skip is non-optional.
In contrast Windows 7 was released 2 years after Vista, 10 was released 3 years after 8. In both cases the "good" versions (xp and 7) were still well within their supported lifecycle.
So you can't just skip 11 like you could do with Vista or 8. And that is really the crux of the issue.
The start menu is also going downhill - it is slower than ever before. why - because it is connected to some strange online functions that are almost impossible to be completely disabled. Even in my quite cleared windows install finding a program to launch takes around 5 seconds for something that should be instant.
Their appstore is a failure (thank god, we don't need another walled garden)
Their mobile tablet strategy failed gazzilion years ago and yet they still try to move the control panel to their modern settings menu while severely limiting it's functionality.
They try to push online accounts for no good reason.
There seems to be something in this corporation that just prevent the top people to understand that some things - they got them right 2-3 decades ago, so just don't fuck them up.
Windows still lags on interrupts - and we have such cute situations where task manager shows in details sub 10% CPU usage, but performance tab shows 90%. Why - usually the answer is some form of I/O hiccup.
I've working in spaces where I've run infrastructure ops including end user for huge orgs. Think >100k people, mostly in the US. What I am now, other than a pilot of a few thousand Copilot for O365, all of this crap is turned off. Nobody understands wtf this is, the terms are difficult to find, and both IT and end users struggle to figure out where one thing starts and the other ends.
We are growing non-windows platforms significantly. New task based workflows like call centers and shared devices are web on linux/chrome first these days - you have to justify Windows. Why? The arbitrary rate of change and re-engineering is way too high (ie. $$). Some populations can pick their own devices, and MacOS grows 25% year over year in those programs.