Why does Win 8/7 suck so much?

[NoelC]

I really can't take much credit.  Lots of 3rd party developers (like our own Big Muscle here on the forum) are helping.

 

Funny thing...  Someone a few months after Win 8 first released (at a time when I was still staunchly staying on Win 7) said something about how when they used a Win 7 system it felt a bit "old" after using Win 8 for a while.  At the time I was thinking "boy, they've really drunk the kool aid".  Now I sound like that person.  But I've had no MIcrosoft kool aid I assure you.

 

I've just done a full-days technical work.  I found and fixed (with the help of Visual Studio) some hard to repro bugs, implemented new code, kept up with my accounting, collaborated online, proofread some documents, did some research, listened to music, kept up with my customer support eMail, helped folks on forums...  Looking back, not once did I have to think about my system not working.  It just did what I needed and I focused on the work. 

 

I remember a time when that wasn't how Windows worked.

 

-Noel

[truexfan81]

i remember in the days of win 9x having to save every 3 words (not exaggerating) because one never knew when windows would suddenly bsod

[G8YMW]

 

i remember in the days of win 9x having to save every 3 words (not exaggerating) because one never knew when windows would suddenly bsod

I never had that problem with Win98se.

I know Microsoft said that you do not need a "config.sys" or "autoexec.bat" but I found that getting the DOS sorted, the windows looked after itself.

[Tripredacus]

I, also, do not remember having to fear of sudden BSODs... but I did develop a habit of saving constantly. So there must have been something else that generated that behaviour.

[Soukyuu]

I'm actually running a mostly vanilla (except for a custom theme) win 8.1.1 installation now, and I'm not missing neither glass nor the start menu anymore.

ModernUI aside, the new explorer allows me to work faster, and the network operations not requiring fetching the whole file to your local pc then sending it again is a godsend. Any windows pre-win8 was unable to do that.

 

On the other hand, I have my linux "server" that functions as a fully equipped PC for my parents as well as a seedbox. And the total space occupied by the OS and programs is 5gb. Windows alone occupies about 17gb on my ssd at the moment, so that's almost 400% of more space. What is it used for? I don't know. Even if they got rid of the win32 compatibility layer, they'd only save about 1.5Gb according to the contents of my wow64 folder.

 

And then there is RAM usage, and I mean usage, not caching (as displayed by the task manager). Back when my server was still running windows 8.1, my idle RAM usage was ~1.1GB, with a torrent client running and a second user idling without programs started. My current RAM usage under same scenario on linux is 760MB (and I'm using KDE, known for being "bloated"). Point is, Microsoft seems to rely too much on space being cheap instead of optimizing the OS. That started with NT6 afaik and continues to this day.

 

P.S.: windows runs a lot snappier if you get rid off those pesky antivirus programs. Only using trusted programs and visiting trusted sites is a prerequisite, of course. But that's (currently) another positive point for linux, and a negative one for windows.

Edited July 4, 2014 by Soukyuu

[Andromeda43]

Ha Ha, I love that!

 

All I hear are the differences between XP and 8.1. 

As an old Computer tech, of 34 years, what I see is not the differences, but the stark similarities.

 

Since Windows 98 I've been tweaking and tuning Windows OS's for maximum efficiency.  There were pretty substantial differences between 98 and XP, but not so much between XP-Pro-SP3 and 7, 8 or 8.1.

 

I have a whole Tool Kit, of tweaks that can greatly enhance performance, and the ones I've used on XP still work admirably on every OS up to and including 8.1.

 

I do have XP, Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8.1 all neatly installed on separate hard drives, and all OS's run beautifully on my now nine year old, home made desktop PC.  But out of all of them, I still prefer Windows XP-Pro-SP3.

 

USB 3.0?  It's simple with a little USB 3.0, PCI add-0n card.  I've also added an up-to-date video card and Sound Blaster sound card.

 

With 4 GB of ram installed, all the OS's I mentioned above, run GREAT on this PC. 

 

Each OS does have its Plusses, but then each one also has it's minuses.

 

Taking in to account, all the many variables, plusses and minuses, it was my own decision to reinstall Windows XP-Pro-SP3 a few months ago and keep that as my everyday OS of choice.  MS support?  Forgetabout it.  I turned off MS updates over two years ago, when the updates were corrupting PC's all over the place.

 

I've enjoyed the various insights and opinions voiced on this thread.  Enlightening!

 

Cheers Mates!

[NoelC]

Andromeda, you sound like me; tweaking windows since time began. 

 

I guess you don't do anything that needs big RAM and 64 bit address space?

 

Do you run your system 24/7, and if so how long does XP stay up and stable without needing a reboot?

 

I'm not trying to find faults, I'm just genuinely curious.  I applaud your choosing to be self-sufficient with XP.

 

-Noel