Windows Sucks
July 19, 2024 | backi have found that Windows sucks. like, real bad.
i do IT support, both at work and freelance, and *never* have i seen macOS or ChromeOS just break on its' own like Windows does. with those OSes, it's (nearly) always failed hardware or user error - installing something they shouldn't, mucking up their Google account settings, etc...
just today i had two computers i had to deal with where Windows shat itself - one where the start menu broke after an update corrupted the OS (without telling the user!) and one where edge was completely busted and unusable... for some unknown reason. i'd love to tell that user to switch to Chrome or Firefox, but their new machine was in SMode...
SMode is a royal pain in the ass. cmd.exe is disabled, along with downloading any other executable from anywhere other than the MS store. it's only ever found on bottom of the barrel athlon and celeron devices, but unfortunately the price tag makes those much more in-reach of someone that's a little bit too impulsive. more often than not, we explain why it should be ignored, the customer instead ignores us, regrets their shit purchase, and it becomes our problem.
i saw an argument on Twitter the other day about how people blame Windows for issues, when the problem is "usually" caused by software the user has installed. the problem is, that's a shit argument! why can software that can render your computer useless be so prevalant and easy to install if not caused by a direct failure of the OS vendor? i'm not arguing in support of shitty iOS-style lockdowns on desktop PCs, but there's gotta be a middle ground here. hell, maybe a slightly more permissive SMode might even be almost okay? something like sandboxing non-MS Store apps so they have to ask for individual permission for any files outside of their own special directory (like modern Android!) would work just fine. over time something like that would solve a ton of these problems.
also, why is Windows recovery so shit? why is macOS-style internet recovery not something that can be baked into the UEFI? the idea that you might ever have the need to borrow another computer just because yours decided you don't get a working OS or recovery menu is fucking stupid. ChromeOS is like this too but doesn't break nearly as often (aside from it failing to resume from sleep, because despite all of its Googlefication it is still Linux) so it's not quite as bad (but still pretty ass, Google also has direct control over the UEFI so this is something they should just require from every manufacturer)