There are several things that Windows does well, if it weren’t for the spyware and all the junk that comes by default and that is hard to remove, it would be an excellent OS.
I personally dislike the UX on Windows. It feels very hodgepodge to me. The spyware and junk is the big issue though. This is why I don’t really like getting invested in any proprietary solutions. No matter how good a piece of software is initially, sooner or later the company will take it in a direction you don’t like because in order to stay profitable they have to chase the mainstream users. As soon as you fall out of that group, the product starts diverging from your needs.
On the other hand, this problem is less of an issue in open source. If the developers take a project in a new direction then it can always be forked as long there are enough people interested in preserving the existing functionality. One of my favorite examples of this is GNOME where it ended up being forked in to Mate and Cinnamon after the big UX direction switch.
I agree with this, although Windows has many technical advantages. I’m not so much against soft proprietary, but I am against big tech monopolies such as Microsoft, which dominates practically the entire software market.
On the other hand, I always hear that Windows is the easiest OS to handle, easier than Linux, which is only true at first glance.
Windows allows a huge number of configurations with more than 200 configurable points, but intentionally very hidden and poorly documented, inaccessible to normal users without great computer knowledge, but that allow to turn it into a fast and private OS, eliminating all this garbage.
MS tolerates it, because its main income is from its software, generally quite high prices and less from Windows as such, at least not until now. The thing will probably change with Windows 11 in the near future, where the company intends to limit access to third-party software, it is more by appropriating the entire system, avoiding or hindering the installation of another Operating System, rather than under the Windows layer.
This is why I think that Windows 10 is going to be the last Windows for somewhat more thoughtful users. In stores here you can see more and more that they sell PCs without OS (with FreeDOS), leaving it to the user’s choice.
Proprietary software should be treated as being fungible. It can be useful, but I don’t want to end up being locked into into having to use it. That means that I don’t want to use it for any situations where it would be difficult to replace or where I wouldn’t be able to easily extract my data from it.
It depends, surely you know for example IrfanView, a freeware proprietary sot for decades, without an alternative to match (it’s an app for Windows, but it works without problems on Linux with Wine).
For years I have also been using the SSuite, on and offline suite, a product of 2 brothers as a hobby, made with their own money, they earn their money with an electrical installation workshop.
The apps are a delight, it even includes its own search engine, Groot, with its own engine, all this private, without ads, without registration and anonymous, put as freeware.
As I said, I find proprietary software can be useful. I use proprietary apps myself, but I always want to make sure I have a migration path from these apps. If the vendor goes out of business, or changes their business model in a hostile way such as putting adds in the app, etc. I want to be able to stop using it.
There is always the possibility of having to migrate to alternatives, either because the manufacturer goes bankrupt, changes the business model or belongs to one of the thousands of obsolete, neglected or abandoned FOSS. My goodness, the number of times that I have changed the software and the OS in the quarter of a century that I use computers, no one is spared from this.
Regarding IrfanView, which I took as an example before, it is still in good health, although I have finally replaced it with a FOSS app that is the closest to this viewer, although only partially, Nomacs - Image Lounge, which has the same functions, except for the ability to play multimedia files and some secondary functions, but for this I already have VLC. But as I say, in near future I have to regress to IrfanView, because the Nomacs project seems abandones and the official web has expired.
You can still download it in Sourceforge and Github
Yes, there are a lot of imageviewer out there, but none of these are feature rich as IrfanView. Through all the years is still without a real alternative, not even Nomacs, whic is the closest and half death.
There are several things that Windows does well, if it weren’t for the spyware and all the junk that comes by default and that is hard to remove, it would be an excellent OS.
I personally dislike the UX on Windows. It feels very hodgepodge to me. The spyware and junk is the big issue though. This is why I don’t really like getting invested in any proprietary solutions. No matter how good a piece of software is initially, sooner or later the company will take it in a direction you don’t like because in order to stay profitable they have to chase the mainstream users. As soon as you fall out of that group, the product starts diverging from your needs.
On the other hand, this problem is less of an issue in open source. If the developers take a project in a new direction then it can always be forked as long there are enough people interested in preserving the existing functionality. One of my favorite examples of this is GNOME where it ended up being forked in to Mate and Cinnamon after the big UX direction switch.
I agree with this, although Windows has many technical advantages. I’m not so much against soft proprietary, but I am against big tech monopolies such as Microsoft, which dominates practically the entire software market. On the other hand, I always hear that Windows is the easiest OS to handle, easier than Linux, which is only true at first glance. Windows allows a huge number of configurations with more than 200 configurable points, but intentionally very hidden and poorly documented, inaccessible to normal users without great computer knowledge, but that allow to turn it into a fast and private OS, eliminating all this garbage. MS tolerates it, because its main income is from its software, generally quite high prices and less from Windows as such, at least not until now. The thing will probably change with Windows 11 in the near future, where the company intends to limit access to third-party software, it is more by appropriating the entire system, avoiding or hindering the installation of another Operating System, rather than under the Windows layer. This is why I think that Windows 10 is going to be the last Windows for somewhat more thoughtful users. In stores here you can see more and more that they sell PCs without OS (with FreeDOS), leaving it to the user’s choice.
Proprietary software should be treated as being fungible. It can be useful, but I don’t want to end up being locked into into having to use it. That means that I don’t want to use it for any situations where it would be difficult to replace or where I wouldn’t be able to easily extract my data from it.
It depends, surely you know for example IrfanView, a freeware proprietary sot for decades, without an alternative to match (it’s an app for Windows, but it works without problems on Linux with Wine). For years I have also been using the SSuite, on and offline suite, a product of 2 brothers as a hobby, made with their own money, they earn their money with an electrical installation workshop. The apps are a delight, it even includes its own search engine, Groot, with its own engine, all this private, without ads, without registration and anonymous, put as freeware.
As I said, I find proprietary software can be useful. I use proprietary apps myself, but I always want to make sure I have a migration path from these apps. If the vendor goes out of business, or changes their business model in a hostile way such as putting adds in the app, etc. I want to be able to stop using it.
There is always the possibility of having to migrate to alternatives, either because the manufacturer goes bankrupt, changes the business model or belongs to one of the thousands of obsolete, neglected or abandoned FOSS. My goodness, the number of times that I have changed the software and the OS in the quarter of a century that I use computers, no one is spared from this. Regarding IrfanView, which I took as an example before, it is still in good health, although I have finally replaced it with a FOSS app that is the closest to this viewer, although only partially, Nomacs - Image Lounge, which has the same functions, except for the ability to play multimedia files and some secondary functions, but for this I already have VLC. But as I say, in near future I have to regress to IrfanView, because the Nomacs project seems abandones and the official web has expired.
You can still download it in Sourceforge and Github
https://sourceforge.net/projects/nomacs/
https://github.com/nomacs/nomacs
Incidentally, I’ve been using DigiKam for photo management. It’s pretty nice.
Yes, there are a lot of imageviewer out there, but none of these are feature rich as IrfanView. Through all the years is still without a real alternative, not even Nomacs, whic is the closest and half death.