Why Windows Suck

Why it sucks? The TL;DR is “It’s not Linux”.

I really want to like Windows. And God knows I have tried. A couple of times per year I have thought: “Hmm it looks nice on the surface, wonder why I hated it so much last time? Must have been some bugs that surely have been fixed by now. I’ll give it a shot”.

So I  do as I normally do with Linux, take some unused laptop that I have laying around and…. yeah right, I forgot, any Linux version can run fine on 10+ year old hardware with 2GB or RAM, no problems, but oh yeah, I guess Windows haven’t changed in that aspect so I stuff in 16GB and make sure I have an SSD on it, just in case. But surely, they must have…… right? right?!?!

Initial reaction

Anyhoe, installing went smooth and it recognized my old unused Microsoft account, where the Windows licence was attached. Nice surprise! I was prepared to run without activating WIndows it but hey, nice!

Installed Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio 2017 and XShell, although Windows at the command line still gives me creeps…  That chord that plays whenever a wrong key is pressed (and EVERY key is wrong)…. brrrrr…

So, ready to develop, where’s my HOME directory? Hmmm well OK I can’t find any links in “Quick Access” so I go to XShell and type “cd” which on Linux brings me to ‘ome.  No such luck here.

Reality hits

And…..  jeeeez, had forgotten about those…….  C:  D:  E:   and a slight rage starts to build up. They STILL haven’t gotten rid of those? Godawful to look at. When living in the softlink world of EXT4 and hardly ever thinking about the hardware stuff behind the curtains, I am now reminded about the bad old days of FAT and the likes. Horrid stuff.

Next, I have this weird prompt:

C:\Users\fshsw

“fshsw” Huh? What the heck is that. I never got a question what my username should be during installing, but apparently my username is “fshsw” ??? I am NOT having that! I want it to be “peter” and nothing else.

Now where do I change that? Bing my ass, another step backwards and change the default search search engine to Google. Might as well install Chrome at the same time so I get the saved shortcuts.

Downward spiral

Hmm a couple of hours has passed and nothing productive done yet.  But OK back to the case of the weird username. Apparently Microsoft in their divine state of mind have decided that the 5 (FIVE!) first characters of the email address should be your username.

Five! Heck, even DOS allowed 8 characters!

But hey, in Linux it would take me 1 minute and a logout/login to change this. Can’t be that tricky in Windows…….. can it?

OK so the mighty Google told me to create a temporary admin account (Hello KALLE), log in using that and go to the Registry Editor. REGISTRY EDITOR?!?!? Sweat starts to break out on my back. Horrid memories arrive of that incredible pile of horse manure being the Microsoft Database of Everything!

Memories….. and not good ones….

Open run menu, hmm watsitcallednow…. something with reg…?  Types “reg” and nothing happens.  Tries “regedt” with exactly the same result. Nothing. Then I remember “regedt32”, and yes the app shows up. So “reg” “and “regedt” was insufficient for Windows to find “regedt32”. I won’t even try “regedt64″…. Hoorray to the programmer responsible for the Search function. Must be the same team that created the Help function (more on THAT later!)

Now find HKLM/Microsoft/Windows NT  (Windows NT? I worked with that 20 years ago – fond memories…)

And then ProfileList, finding your user id amongst the goobledygook there and change the XXXX key to your preferred directory. And yeah, the instructions said that I should rename the c:\Users\fshsw to c:\Users\peter before doing this, but surely the detection of the new file system location must be done when logging in, not NOW?!

OK, knowing Microsoft, I had a bad feeling when logging out, and not without reason……

Oh for F….g gods sake!

Logged in, and the chords started playing… Desktop wasnt found…  and I got error messages talking both about “Desktop” and “Skrivbord” which is the swedish word for the same, didn’t matter, nothing was found. When Looking in the Quick Access, I could see that all shortcuts still referred to “C:\Users\fshsw\Desktop” etc. Some in Swedish (“”Dokument”) and some in English. Error error error and that godawful tune playing for every wrong move driving me mad, MAD!

Long story short, went back using KALLE and changed the profile back to “fshsw”. I dont have the energy to go thru this process again. Windows will never be Linux.

Now of course I know that many are using Windoze every day, and seem happy about it. I just have this nagging feeling that they don’t really KNOW that there is an alternative.

Whenever (and it happens more than it should) I watch a WIndows user point and click, and click, and click…. frustration builds up. Is the fact that you can control the cursor on the screen with the mouse the reason why people seem to enjoy this? It’s so, so….. ineffective!

About quality

Windows is no longer a powertool for power users, for lack of a better comparison its like comparing a Fiat Uno with a 16-wheeler. Sure, if you are just surfing the web who cares whats beneath the hood? And now when most applications are ported (at big cost!) to the web environment for use with mobile phones maybe the operating system isnt that important anymore?

Well for professionals I say YES IT IS!

Why do I have Makita tools at home and not Black & Decker? Quality of course! The number of colorful stickers and 2+1 attached bitsets doesnt matter. After a couple of years the B&D is broken and thrown out, while my Makita has many years to live.

Same thing with Linux. Its rock solid! The way it just works smells hard-work, grease and oil. It’s built out of robust thick 3-inch metal, and runs day in day out. Never a breakdown. Smooth. Well-oiled! Powerful!

Windows… well, it just smells. The “flavour of the day” GUI, the search that doesnt find (even the obvious stuff is hidden from it), the Help that never helps. A blind squirrel would be of more help in searching a Windows PC. The endless loop of searching the ‘net, downloading an install kit, executing it (make a prayer that it doesnt contain a virus), those endless godawful chimes and blings and error dialogs….. And that EVERYTHING is controlled by mouse clicks and confirmation dialogs.

In linux, you type “sudo apt install <tool-of-choice>” and go grab a coffee. Usually it’s done before you have left the chair.

There are so many things in Linux that are so much better than Windows that you wonder why Microsoft hasn’t stolen it yet.

The reason is that Windows under the hood is such a stinking pile of manure, that it is frankly impossible to fix.

Bring out the shotgun!

So my conclusion is that it’s time now. Time to say the goodbys, bring out the shotgun and put the sorry creature out of its misery!

And if you absolutely can’t live without the Start button, build a Windows-GUI and run it on top of Linux. Like they did with Linux Mint, which is my choice.

Peace!