My Short List for Avoiding Windows

I had a Windows 7 system that I updated to Windows 10 using an “entitlement” license. Later I converted that system to a virtual machine (VM).

Before the conversion I connected the Windows system to an isolated VLAN to ensure the system never found or saw the house network. All human relationships are based on trust. I do not trust the people who design Windows.

The big concerns with Windows is malware, data mining and tracking, trickery into creating online accounts, advertisements on the desktop, hours to update a system, rebooting multiple times during updates, and wondering what will break after each update. Of course, in a business environment those problems would not be my worries but the IT staff.

Through my years of using Linux systems I have written hundreds of shell scripts to support the way I want to use my computers. While many people like PowerShell, I doubt I could create the same underlying support that I have done with my shell scripts.

I maintain the Windows 10 VM because I thought perhaps one day I might need that for employment. That has not happened. I have considered deleting the VM. I maintain the system as a reference for helping other people.

I am thankful I am able to avoid Windows as a meaningful production system. Why?

1. I dislike updating the system. Updates usually take at least a half an hour but might require several hours. Every update requires at least one reboot. The reboots are not a problem. The problem is the system is mostly unusable until the updates complete.
2. I have tried a few things but updates are a bandwidth hog. Even when I had Windows on a physical machine on a VLAN, the updates would notably throttle all other router throughput.
3. I miss popping open a terminal window to use common Linux shell commands.
4. I am not fond of the cluttered panel menu.
5. I am not fond of the tab-less File Explorer and Libraries or whatever they are called.
6. I miss not having the locate command to find files.
7. I dislike that progress dialogs provide little to no useful feedback about what is actually happening.
8. I dislike that circle of balls progress indicator.
9. The inability to remove unwanted tools such as Cortana or Edge.
10. Does anybody really like the registry?

I do not hate Windows and do not fault or ridicule people who use Windows. Only that Windows frustrates me and is not for me.

Posted: August 23, 2022 Category: Usability Tagged: Windows

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