The actual reason Windows 11 failed

[i486girl]

What comes to mind when you think of a poor half-baked Microsoft product? You'd think Windows Me... except it was somewhat innovative in some aspects and is even more stable than 98 when you disable certain components (statemgr and pchealth). Or, Windows 8 (call me weird but I like the Start screen...). In reality, the worst operating system Microsoft made is Windows 11.

Let's start with their planned obsolescence tactics. They have recently removed Intel 8th, 9th and 10th gen CPUs from Windows 11 eligibility, more like they couldn't fix the flaws with DWM hogging up the resources on said CPUs. Many consumers just throw their laptop away when it doesn't receive updates anymore and just buy a new one, and Microsoft is well aware of that.

Now, here comes the user experience: Fluent design (in my opinion) is an insult to the years of research Microsoft sunk into making responsive and intuitive user interfaces, and the Start menu in Windows 11 has a horrible layout. And what's the point of combining taskbar applets into one? They're not even trying to distinguish themselves from macOS (except macOS did things right as unlike Windows 11)

This is more of a niche thing to talk about, but the File Explorer. Instead of documenting DirectUI APIs, Microsoft abandoned it in favor of XAML when Windows 10 was in development, and today we're seeing the effects of such decision. They built half-baked XAML islands on top of File Explorer's DirectUI-based interface and now File Explorer is a sluggish and buggy mess.

They could've spent more money on fixing the NT kernel's internals (many of them haven't changed since NT 4.0), or polishing up their UX instead of blowing their budget on AI and marketing ads.

It's safe to say Microsoft's last good employees have given up and Windows will only go downhill before things will ever improve.

[vinifera]

1. they can afford it
2. windows os is not their primary way of earning $$$

[NojusK]

Windows has been going downhill since Internet Explorer integration to Windows 98, and it also had ads, known as "the channel bar". XP had the fisher-price theme and pre-SP2 versions would nag about signing up for .NET passport service and other things<LINK>, but nothing compares to the awfullness of Windows 11. It shouldn't have existed in the first place! Who in the world thought moving the right-click on file menu options like rename as some stupid icon was a good idea, and why is the start menu re-designed again and now in the middle of the taskbar and not where it's supposed to have been since Windows 95? It's as if the people who designed it have never even used Windows and have no idea about it! They even removed features such as clock with seconds in the calendar 'app', something even Windows 10 has! I guess they needed extra resources for hoarding more data and telemetry for their stupid overhyped 'AI', even though it existed years ago, but now it's 'trendy', so everything needs to have it.

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Not sure why we are so harsh on Windows / Microsoft.

How is Facebook/Meta, Google, Amazon, Disney, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, AT&T any different?  --  that would be my telemetry versus privacy rights list.

My profits versus people list would be  --  Facebook, the NFL, Electronic Arts, University of Phoenix, Uber, Comcast, Oracle, Western Digital, Seagate, Apple, McDonald's, Coca-Cola.

[vinifera]

because it is (unfortunately still) most used/installed "home" system ?

Edited March 2 by vinifera

[D.Draker]

18 hours ago, i486girl said:

Let's start with their planned obsolescence tactics.

Honestly, I think it's over and over exaggerated. I still use a videocard which will soon be about your age (Ttitan X). And I remember there was a million of articles saying nVidia does something to the cards to plan the "obsolescence".

Yet it works. I think it even still gets new drivers! Not for Vista, but 10 or 11, alas.

[D.Draker]

11 hours ago, vinifera said:

because it is (unfortunately still) most used/installed "home" system ?

I have a home theatre, 7 speakers, huge, neighbours in the nearest houses tremble in fear when I watch a film. 

It runs off  its own OS. Not sure if 11 can be installed there, I don't want it anyways.

[Rod Steel]

Windows going down since abandoning original Longhorn, but windows 11 is "Nightmare on the wings of the night".

[i486girl]

13 hours ago, D.Draker said:

Honestly, I think it's over and over exaggerated. I still use a videocard which will soon be about your age (Ttitan X). And I remember there was a million of articles saying nVidia does something to the cards to plan the "obsolescence".

Yet it works. I think it even still gets new drivers! Not for Vista, but 10 or 11, alas.

With "planned obsolescence", I don't mean the hardware itself becoming obsolete by design, but rather how tech companies make us think it will become obsolete by excluding it from receiving software updates or compatibility with a newer version of their software, which gives the user an illusion that they must replace their PC with something newer.

[i486girl]

15 hours ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

Not sure why we are so harsh on Windows / Microsoft.

How is Facebook/Meta, Google, Amazon, Disney, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, AT&T any different?  --  that would be my telemetry versus privacy rights list.

My profits versus people list would be  --  Facebook, the NFL, Electronic Arts, University of Phoenix, Uber, Comcast, Oracle, Western Digital, Seagate, Apple, McDonald's, Coca-Cola.

Apple has been criticized for this multiple times, I feel like the only reason people are still using their products is because they're very reliable. What makes me hate Apple however, is how they manufacture reliable and stable hardware only for them to cut its lifecycle in half by dropping software support for them after 5-6 years (For all I know, the average Macbook Pro could last like 10 years).

(Also, if the EU banned Apple Intelligence for a while, why can't they ban Copilot too? My country even banned ChatGPT in early 2023)

[NotHereToPlayGames]

Apple's success has relatively little to do with the Macbook.  Apple owes its success to the iPhone.

So much so (mobile over desktop) that Microsoft's Win8.1 and Win11 are both basically Microsoft's attempt to catch up with Apple.

The whole ideology behind the "start bar" being centered is, to me at least, nothing but a PHONE'S way of doing things migrating to the DESKTOP.

Centering the "start bar" just makes a desktop "look like" a phone.  But maybe that's just me, lol.

[i486girl]

31 minutes ago, NotHereToPlayGames said:

Apple's success has relatively little to do with the Macbook.  Apple owes its success to the iPhone.

So much so (mobile over desktop) that Microsoft's Win8.1 and Win11 are both basically Microsoft's attempt to catch up with Apple.

The whole ideology behind the "start bar" being centered is, to me at least, nothing but a PHONE'S way of doing things migrating to the DESKTOP.

Centering the "start bar" just makes a desktop "look like" a phone.  But maybe that's just me, lol.

The iPhone has a lot of wasted potential, because it's more reliable than Android (unlike Android, iOS's is built in Objective-C instead of Java or Kotlin) yet its ecosystem is very closed. The hardware is surprisingly capable despite the small form factor, even if you own an iPhone SE.

[vinifera]

14 hours ago, Rod Steel said:

Windows going down since abandoning original Longhorn, but windows 11 is "Nightmare on the wings of the night".

not realy
what you see with 10 and especially 11 is legacy of Longhorn
they are doing same mistake all over

[D.Draker]

It all went downhill with the fisher price XP, I can't forget the terrible quality of everything in XP, it resampled all audio to the miserable 48Khz!

Oh, and take the OS sound for example, LOUD bangs of system notifications made for deaf people.

XP had acid icons and the UI made for BLIND people.

Windows 11 reminds me of the acid XP colours,

[D.Draker]

10 hours ago, D.Draker said:

It all went downhill with the fisher price XP

Then there was a short break for Vista, looks like the engineers finally heard the complaints about the terrible XP and took it into the account,

Yet they still somehow managed to insert the non-changeable white folders background ugliness into Vista.

Then the terrible, slow, buggy, spying and bloated Windows 7 came out, and the real horror began, so Win 11 is the successor of 7, not Longhorn, therefore, I agree with @Rod Steel!