So - as expected - I've eventually been forced to downgrade my job laptop to Windows 11. What a fucking ridiculous piece of bloatware. It's the worst OS since Vista (which in Latvian means chicken = some sort of poultry, like turkey, which is kalkon in Swedish, also meaning inferior, e.g. "kalkonoperativ" = chicken shit OS).

Don't worry, you can get used to everything, even a guy, if forced enough. 😁

I know how you feel. The Windows 98 is already on the market, so Windows 11 is definitely a step back.

/jk

But yeah, on a serious note - Windows 11 is going in the wrong direction. MS had that trend for a while, now.

Personally I think Windows 7 was the last decent version. Ever since then things have been going downhill.

@D-4got10-01

Totally agree. MS seem to think users actually want bloat.

@TerriToniAX Ads are a plague, as well.

It's terrible when you purchase software, which then keeps telling you about all those * cough * cool promos awaiting you.

/* Looking at you, CyberLink PowerDirector && VEGAS Pro 18.0. */

It is not as bad as I thought it would be, apart from a fucked audio system. Had to use scripting to fix this.

There are things I do like. You can control the destination of any audio source in a config when you right click on the volume icon. Really useful for when you want your audio to go to a different output. It will also remember this setting.

Also, you can install a vm and keep your sanity by putting linux on that. Or use the linux thing for windows. I also think Windows Pro can act like a type zero hypervisor, but I have not played with that. Which theoretically would allow you to run another os in parallel. Like linux.

@D-4got10-01 I have pro and have not seen any ads in Windows 11. Was kind of surprised by that.

@YourMom Hmm. Chances are I'm seeing the ads because either I have the Humble Bundle version, or the v18.0 so they want me to 'upgrade' to the newest one.

lol, wait till we get Win12 with mandatory MS Copilot in everything and active Recall

@qwwerty

*lol*

But I believe Win12 will be OK - to follow the pattern so far: every second (consumer-oriented) Windows good, every second bad.

3.1 boring but OK

95 flashy but utterly buggy

98 the first good Windows

98ME disastrously buggy

XP great!

Vista awful!

7 great!

8 terrible!

10 rather good - after hours of tweaking

11 A long list of issues with the UX and performance. I don't even know where to begin.

One thing that really pisses me off with Windorks 11, is that task bar previews can't be disabled. I used to disable (or at least delay) them using a registry key, ExtendedUIHoverTime. This worked in Windows 10, but does nothing in Windows 11. IMHO, an OS should just do its job and shut up. M$ design philosophy seems to be the opposite - loud, annoying and interfering with whatever the user tries to do.

Choose Windows 11 - if you want your productivity to drop near zero.

@TerriToniAX 98 was SE. ME was standalone. + missing 2000 and 8.1

agree on the horrrible UX of the Win11. the first Windows OS where i have to intentionaly wait before clicking through menus, because they're too slow. they've crippled even speed of alt+tab

@qwwerty

My memory fails me. It could have been 98 SE or just ME. Anyway, I got a new computer in AD 2000 that came pre-installed with this junk of an OS. It took me a couple of days to realise there was no way to patch it to stop it from crashing like every five minutes or so. The most disastrous OS ever.

P.S.

I left out Windows 2000 because it was mostly used at businesses. I don't remember any private consumer using it at home.

8.1, well it was sort of a patch to address at least the worst issues with 8.

@whimsical 3 weeks was it? ;P

@BordedDev

Not even that. Less than two weeks and I replaced it with Windows 98 - the regular one that actually worked.