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Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Windows 11 to get people to ditch Google
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I've been using windows for nearly as long as it has existed and I used to always be happy with updates. Even windows vista, despite all its problem, still felt like an upgrade compared to xp.
Then windows 8 started changing things in a direction I was not happy with, but at the same time it also had improvements over win7. Windows 10 repeated that with plenty of bad things but still overshadowed by massive improvements in many areas.
At this point windows was at its peak in some areas, like stability (when was the last time you saw a BSOD without actual faulty hardware?) and usability. Multiple Desktops, WSL2, the new Terminal...so many great things added in win10 updates.
And then comes win11 and shits at everything. Removed a ton of core features that didn't need removing, broke a lot of compatibility with older stuff (something that Microsoft used to care deeply about) and adds... Nothing. It's been quite a while since win11 released and there's still nothing I can point at and say it does better than win10.
If you're going to do all sorts of stuff with my data you should at least try to make me happy with your product in exchange, not make me dread using it every time.
Which core functions did they remove and which did they break?
I can't say that I miss anything from Windows 10 or before that. I disliked the new settings they introduced at first but I think it has seen some improvments (or maybe I am better at navigating it?) but it has really grown on me.
Being backwards compatible can be important (I really appreciated it when I wanted to install a game for Windows 95 on Windows XP) but you have to cut support at some point in order to implement features otherwise not possible, or to just save time and money doing it. It is like trying to develop for the web and you still see people talking about support IE6 (or IE in general).
Win 10 and 11 are nowhere close to a fully transitioned unified settings menu, they somehow made dialouge box hell worse. its easier to list what doesnt.
Control Panel will propably remain for another 20 years, just like everything else in Windows, but I still like more. Combined with winget-cli, installing and uninstall is almost as good as on Linux.