Comment by xfour
21 hours ago
What is windows actually good at? I bought a computer with it pre installed a copy a few years back and it seemed like just an upsell into Microsoft’s ecosystem and random other ads.
Everything was slow, barely responsive you could just feel the code bloat. After a few hours I just gave up and installed a Linux distro.
Are people really putting up with this en masse as consumers?
>What is windows actually good at?
It's gotta be Active Dir, right? That's what keeps the businesses around + using Windows OS, which keeps users at home using Windows because it's familiar. It becomes the 'foot in the door' (or trojan horse, YMMV) for the O365 suite, for Exchange...
Plus, because it seems like almost everyone is using AD, you know you can send files in formats they can open and receive via the Office Suite. I've never once hesistated sending a .docx or a .xlsx .... I fully expect any vendor we work with to have the ability to open Microsoft's formats. Sure, Numbers and Sheets built it in, but I assume that's as a business requirement from their partners who needed the ability to open files in their own respective suites.
They've now just about replicated all of the on-prem essentials to the cloud as well, with Intune and Entra replacing most of AD, but just as 'sticky' as ever
the average user? probably. but in a corporate environment or a power user's personal setup? probably not anywhere near as painful, and holding on to slightly older OSes because the quality and kinks were figured out a long time ago. On Windows 11, right clicking and bringing up the context menu is painfully slow. On Windows 7/10, it's pretty quick and simplified. It has no 'change for change sake' as part of it.
Recently started working at an org that is a very heavy Google only shop that ditched Microsoft. There are some things you just get used to. Moving away from Outlook and trying to utilize Gmail in a corporate environment is a pain that I have a hard time articulating. It just isn't the same and the ability to have mail in it's own window that I can easily open messages in, is miles better.
The average consumer? Probably living in a world of pain for all we know.
Windows is useful for running third-party software that, for whatever reason, requires Windows. There is a surprising amount of obnoxiously low quality but nonetheless useful things in this category.
>What is windows actually good at?
The only reason for me still running Windows is for games.
But even that is changing rapidly nowadays.
I'm still on Win10, even though it's EOL. I should upgrade, and if I do, I'll upgrade to some Linux distro, not Win11.
Microslop extended 10 for another year since so many people are still using it.
Lots of good distros out there, many that are gaming forward as well, though.
> What is windows actually good at?
Domain control and group policies, unfortunately. Crucial for enterprises.
It's just momentum at this point. It had a massive advantage with games and office software but those are mostly gone at this point.
Stable environment for new hardware where everything works out of the box.
Also weird old hardware.
> What is windows actually good at?
running the Office suite, unironically