> it is more likely that Windows will continue to decline in usability until it is on par with the top Linux DEs
For me, that threshold has been shattered.
I'm not even going to talk about ads and similar telemetry crap.
All in all, the Windows desktop is more sluggish and loves, LOVES, to get in my way. And I'm basing this impression on my desktop: 8 core xeon, 64 GB ram, fast pcie3 nvme drive, mid-range gpu (I can comfortably play most games with full settings in FHD). Maybe not the greatest out there, but a comfortable machine still.
It may be due to animations in part, but many, many things just lag. Try to launch some app by clicking the start menu. First, it takes a while to appear, then it waits for ages until it shows my app. I only have a few apps. I know it looks for something on the internet. I don't care. It's on Windows. I never asked it to do that. On win 10, I could jump through some hoops and disable that in between updates. I don't think that's possible anymore.
The freaking control center, or whatever it's called, which pops up when you click on the sound / network icons. One out of three times it will seemingly ignore my click, even though there's an animation. And then jump up three times when I click it multiple times. Same for opening the settings up from said menu. The gear turns, but nothing happens for several seconds.
Speaking of settings, every other update it figures it should reactivate the freaking "use alt-tab to change between edge tabs". No. I don't want that. Please. stop. changing. my. settings.
Then there's the light / dark circus. Sometimes the explorer ends up in some kind of grey color for some reason. It's neither the light nor dark ones.
The task manager has a hard time figuring that my screen is quite big (4k at 100%). So it just chops off the right hand side of the memory info in the performance tab. The graph does take the whole size, though. Also, quite often, when I try to maximize it, it will take the whole screen, and end up with the bottom part behind the taskbar. I don't use any interface tweaks, everything is at its default, with a fresh install of windows when 11-22h2 came out.
Then, you decide you've had enough and what to shut down. For some reason, the task manager doesn't feel like it and will block it. There's also often, but now always, an unnamed process that will delay the shutdown.
Then, there's the whole hardware support question. I've complained about this like a broken record, but my work laptop only got full GPU support a few weeks ago. For a laptop bought in December 2021. With an 11th gen Intel GPU. Same for another similar laptop, whose webcam had only worked intermittently. Both laptops are your usual HP Enterprise fare. Both worked 100% on Linux since day one.
I have an 18 core i9 overclocked to a stable 5GHz and 128GB of RAM.
Without fail, every single time I press the Windows key and start typing, the first few letters are dropped.
Without fail, every single time I launch a new Explorer window, the file path has a slow ass green progress bar, my drives (of which I only have 4, and only one is a spinner) are place-holder icons and the available storage icons aren’t there. After very literally 10 seconds or so, Explorer finally looks right.
Meanwhile, Everything search remains blissfully instant, Explorer alternatives such as OneCommander are blazing fast, and even tools like PowerToys search (the one that looks exactly like macOS’s Spotlight search) are fast as hell. I find that one surprising because I’d assume it’s just an alternative GUI for Windows search, but I guess not?
Anyways, the point is, Windows itself isn’t even necessarily the problem (though, yes, it is a mess that I grow less and less able to tolerate). Even Windows’ first party foundational apps are completely broken.
At this point I’ve all but washed my hands of Windows. I just can’t stand it anymore. Life for me from here on out is primarily Apple hardware, as many FOSS apps and services that I can find, and Linux VMs for development.
Im planning on switching my Windows PC over to a NixOS bare metal install, and will run Windows via KVM for the rare moments when I want or need Windows. But even for gaming, which I do far less of nowadays (pretty much Souls games and the odd game of Smash), my PS5 and Switch are more than good enough.
Windows is an absolute train wreck and I have every reason to believe it’s only ever going to get worse, not better. Which sucks because though I prefer the Unix paradigm, there’s still a lot to appreciate about Windows. I wish it weren’t being driven into the ground, but here we are.
For me, that threshold has been shattered.
I'm not even going to talk about ads and similar telemetry crap.
All in all, the Windows desktop is more sluggish and loves, LOVES, to get in my way. And I'm basing this impression on my desktop: 8 core xeon, 64 GB ram, fast pcie3 nvme drive, mid-range gpu (I can comfortably play most games with full settings in FHD). Maybe not the greatest out there, but a comfortable machine still.
It may be due to animations in part, but many, many things just lag. Try to launch some app by clicking the start menu. First, it takes a while to appear, then it waits for ages until it shows my app. I only have a few apps. I know it looks for something on the internet. I don't care. It's on Windows. I never asked it to do that. On win 10, I could jump through some hoops and disable that in between updates. I don't think that's possible anymore.
The freaking control center, or whatever it's called, which pops up when you click on the sound / network icons. One out of three times it will seemingly ignore my click, even though there's an animation. And then jump up three times when I click it multiple times. Same for opening the settings up from said menu. The gear turns, but nothing happens for several seconds.
Speaking of settings, every other update it figures it should reactivate the freaking "use alt-tab to change between edge tabs". No. I don't want that. Please. stop. changing. my. settings.
Then there's the light / dark circus. Sometimes the explorer ends up in some kind of grey color for some reason. It's neither the light nor dark ones.
The task manager has a hard time figuring that my screen is quite big (4k at 100%). So it just chops off the right hand side of the memory info in the performance tab. The graph does take the whole size, though. Also, quite often, when I try to maximize it, it will take the whole screen, and end up with the bottom part behind the taskbar. I don't use any interface tweaks, everything is at its default, with a fresh install of windows when 11-22h2 came out.
Then, you decide you've had enough and what to shut down. For some reason, the task manager doesn't feel like it and will block it. There's also often, but now always, an unnamed process that will delay the shutdown.
Then, there's the whole hardware support question. I've complained about this like a broken record, but my work laptop only got full GPU support a few weeks ago. For a laptop bought in December 2021. With an 11th gen Intel GPU. Same for another similar laptop, whose webcam had only worked intermittently. Both laptops are your usual HP Enterprise fare. Both worked 100% on Linux since day one.