[Rant] I swear to fucking god. Windows is harder to use than Linux. Have any of you ever USED Windows lately? Holy fuck.
I'm helping a family member build a pc. He wanted to use Windows because "Linux can't play games" despite me having a perfectly good gaming laptop running Linux that runs all my games, even graphically intensive ones.
2 days later, no game has been played yet. We can't even get steam to start. I even installed Arch on a sata ssd I donated just to verify the pc parts actually work (took less than an hour). It took 1 and a half days to even get the Windows 11 installer to get past like the 3rd screen.
Fucking fuck. Dealing with all this fucking bullshit is far worse than not being able to play a few trashy anticheat pay 2 win games. The anti Linux circlejerk is real.
I have gotten so used to not dealing with windows that on the rare occasion when I do go back I find that I have to check my anger and aggression while doing so.
I cant tell if people in this thread are trolls, ultra elite linux shills, or just people incapable of following simple instructions...
Like I get it, windows bad or w/e... But to act like it takes longer than an hour or two to install it, let alone 2 whole fucking days is just asinine.
Imagine having enough of a skill issue that it takes you 2 days to install Windows OS. The OS that idiot proofs itself by literally holding your hand on every option and walks you through itself to install.
Im not even joking, I re-install and have installed windows the past few years multiple times on personal devices for myself and my family and friends and even do it for professional devices and servers for my job. It is brain dead easy, enough that my tech illiterate grandparents managed to re-install it before I could make the drive to meet them and do it for them... I can't take this OP or anyone else seriously if they can manage to install a linux based OS but somehow have 2 days worth of trouble with Windows OS...
Windows has it's serious flaws, and I would never willingly go back to it at this point, but the installer is too hard? This sounds like a you-issue rather than a Windows one.
it feels like i'm still in /g/ with these types of posts
you went on a tirade about "windows bad, linux (aRcH btW!!!) best" without giving us any relevant information to help you with your "issue", other than the fact that you can game on your linux gaming laptop. you should've told that to your family member to at least try and convince them that gaming on linux is acceptable/good, maybe try to educate them about wine/proton and how performance may not be as good and some minor configurations may be needed, but that you could make it work. But nope.
also seriously, i mainly use linux myself, and i know this is a linux community, but we all know that windows "just works". it is also literally just a point and click on a gui even on the installer, it's that easy. reflash/rewrite the iso, or get another iso. that is my guess as to what you're fucking up
These "Windows bad" posts are the worst thing in the Linux community. I run Windows on my desktop because Games are just far easier and usually run better, and Windows works perfectly fine.
Yeah, it's a fricken nightmare... Windows is ok in a well managed corporate setup where all the crap is uninstalled
I bought a laptop recently which came with Windows. I was going to setup dual boot because I need Office365 for work... but in the end I just gave up, deleted windows and installed Ubuntu.
I hear lots of people used to using Windows saying "I tried Linux and couldn't get anything to work"... it's not that I don't believe them, but I really struggle to understand it. Windows is so much worse!
This is trolling or the actual issue is an PEBKAC issue.
Windows has fallen far from grace in my opinion, but it is not the incompetent smoldering trash fire you are describing. You guys are doing something wrong.
I'm upvoting this because it's hilarious, but on a serious note, installing windows is so easy my granny could do it.
The only thing, and I assume that's where you struggled, is sometimes the formatting of the hd doesn't want to work. In that case, a quick google will help you out, but also just format it quickly with diskpart and continue the installation.
I've used Linux exclusively at home for the last 10 years. We deploy Windows where I work. This is not normal. Despite my disdain for Microsoft, the setup process on Windows is straight forward and easy. It's one of the things Microsoft gets right.
This idea of OS superiority is pointless. Every major OS has things it does better than the others. We should look at those things to improve Linux in areas where it lags behind.
What were you doing? The windows 11 install is so simple compared to even the windows 7 one. Where you messing with things to bypass the Microsoft login or something?
It's not just P2W games that don't have anticheat support, id keep windows for warzone alone but there are a few more that don't work with proton because of anticheat software. Unfortunately mostly the games I play.
How the fuck are you having this much trouble? I mean there's some really easy distros out there like Nobara but if you can install Arch how the fuck have you failed to install windows? Just make a windows 10 bootable and follow the on screen instructions until you're in the desktop.
If you're on the happy path all is well. The smoothest shit ever. If you turn onto the unhappy path.. oh boy. Helpful logs? Useful community posts from SMEs? Meh no. Best I can do is a plate of irrelevant copy-pasta on a malware-ridden site, SEOd to the top.
I have Linux on my laptop but I have a Windows gaming PC and I'm honestly trying to figure out how could you not get steam to start? Never had an issue with that before..
@PeterPoopshit this has to be a shitpost this person is either extremely stupid or shitposting. windows install takes 15 mins worst case. no trh install is not great because you sit there for 10 minutes hitting no no no but its not hard
Which edition are you trying to install? Are you using an up-to-date ISO?
I've only ever used the business edition, and it's never given me any trouble.
Make sure all the legacy CSM crap is disabled in BIOS.
Boot off the flash drive and run the installer.
When you get prompted to sign in with a Microsoft account click "Domain join instead" (or something similar).
Create a normal account but leave the password field blank (to avoid having to enter security questions).
After you finish the setup and get into Windows, hit Ctrl+Alt+Delete and set a password.
(optional) Go into settings and either enter your legally obtained key to activate Windows (it should automagically recombobulate itself into a matching editon) or read through the aforementioned tools section for an alternative 🏴☠️
Dude windows works like a charm for me unless I start fucking with the drivers I really hope that fixes itself somehow because I do think windows is a pretty decent os and it sucks that it's having that big of an issue
It's about familiarity. I didn't know how to install drivers on Windows. I searched and didn't see anything in the settings about firmware updates. I was stumped.
My friend comes over and tells me I have to go to the manufacturer website to download drivers and it was like going back in time.
I know this is a Linux /c/ but maybe youre just not educated in windows is all. I use Mac windows and Linux and can play games on them all. I don't find any of them hard to use but again I make it a point to use them all so I don't ever have to be apart of the communitys that hate one or the other. I like them all it's fun.
I'm a Windows user at home because there are two games that aren't supported on Linux. However I run Linux on a second SSD as i hope to move away from Windows one day.
Windows just works. When I install Linux it all looks great until I start to use it and find small issues. Like my Yubikey doesn't work so I can't get into certain websites. Once I install another app I get that working and then spend an hour trying to get the Bitwarden desktop client to work. I result in a forum post before being told that security keys are not supported by the application and Linux. It's a Windows only feature currently.
Videos in Firefox lag. I've done nothing special with the OS, this is Firefox that is installed with the OS. I'm yet to fix this but also yet to investigate the issue.
Every time I use Linux I first have to fix things to get it working. I've never had this with Windows. I'm sure people will down vote me to hell, with this being a Linux community, but that's just my experience.
I get this feeling, but with iOS. Oh, I want to save a picture I found on the internet and message it. It's incredibly unintuitive to me and I feel like a grandma, even though on any other platform it would be easy.
Meanwhile, I invested a solid 30hrs over 2 weeks of troubleshooting, researching, and getting help from users in order to have 4k120 on Fedora, something that supposedly works for my configuration. And no worky.
I really really wanted 2023 to be the year I finally migrated, but basic functionality being inexplicably broken just isn't it.
I'd say that stuff like this happens less often on windows, but it's also worse when it does because you have fewer resources to fix problems when you do run into them
I'm normally a calm guy but anything involving windows makes me so frustrated. The thing doesn't even install without a wifi connection, and once you have been forced by Microsoft to provide your private, sensitive wifi details to their corporate shit cloud, you have like 20 dialog boxes to click where they want to fuck you over as much as possible.
Now after using Linux for so long, I can't even stand the way Microsoft or Google write to us in their services. The language is so incredibly lame.
It's not Windows, it's either a firmware or hardware issue. Windows installs very quickly actually, nowadays, but of course it's full of ad tracking etc.
Remove the graphics card and any other extras. Just start with the motherboard, power supply, RAM and hard drive. Try install it. It should work. If not, it may be a motherboard issue. You may have to boot into the bios and see if the firmware can be updated, check secure boot, UEFI etc.
Reset the bios to factory and try again.
Once windows is installed. Install the graphics card driver, then shut it down, install the card, move the HDMI over to the card and boot. It should work.
Avoiding expressions like "fucking god", "fucking fuck", "fucking bullshit", would help your argument.
While I agree with the premise, that Windows is indeed more untidy, clunky and counterintuitive than GNOME and KDE Plasma, still it is not harder to install.
People think window is easier because that's what they are used to. If all schools in a city were to suddenly drop windows and switch to linux you would see microsoft coming at them with donations and offering free deals. It already happened more than once.
I'm really surprised at how much people are ripping on Linux here at lemmy. It's completely justified, I agree that Linux still needs some polish in a few areas before it can REPLACE windows, but I would've figured lemmy to be a bit more... I dunno red pilled and biased towards Linux.
I daily Fedora for ALL my games pretty much, save for Metro Redux: Enhanced Edition and SteamVR titles. Games with anticheat that don't work on Linux? I don't play them anymore, if they don't wanna play ball that's fine.
Oh, totally. I've lost count of the times I've helped folks with their computers and most of their problems seem to be from using Windows: "I'm confused about antivirus," "I keep forgetting to check on updates for the program I use so much," "I'm unsure if I'm on the correct site to download an exe file from," "I keep getting ads in my taskbar," "I was going to find a different browser to use but my computer dissuaded me from doing so," and on and on, and I just think "If only you'd simply try Linux."
You're going to hear a lot of people saying how straight forward Windows is install; I'm avoiding W11 so have my W10 anecdote.
The only way I've ever been able to install W10 is to disconnect every single peripheral except m/kb and one single drive.
Anything else over the years, be it different mobos, HDD,SSD m.2 thingies it's always been the same; anything more than m/kb and one single disk W10 shits the bed.
Idk what to tell you buddy but you’re fucking up something super simple. I say this as a person who manages an IT department that maintains thousands of windows PCs for the end users to use.
If you’re struggling this hard to install windows and one application, it’s on you
I’m helping a family member build a pc. He wanted to use Windows
Building a PC technically doesn't include OS installation.
Build it, boot your OS of choice from a live USB to verify the hardware all works, then walk away.
I told my friends and family years ago that I will be happy to set them up with a working Linux installation and will support them as needed... but if they want to use Windows they are on their own.
I wiped windows and installed Linux back in 2004 and never looked back.
Now im only forced to use windows in work, constantly asking my work mates how to do this n that on it. I sure they think im sine sort computer illiterate numpty with no clue.
I'm gonna doubt this one. I've done several installs of various debian-based distros and a full reinstall of Windows 10 recently, and I feel confident in saying that, to have this much difficulty installing Windows, you would either have to be using a corrupt image or damn near tech illiterate.
You can tell them all the pros and cons about it, but in all 38 years of my life, I've only had one person enthusiastically wanted to try something new on their PC, a fellow class mate from back in highschool. People legitimately don't like new things when they think what they already use is perfectly fine.
I know your struggle. It's not uncommon to experience issues with the Windows installer if the install medium is not created using Microsoft's official Windows installation media creation tool (Use the middle option to download mediacreationtool.exe).
Coming from Linux, I tried writing the Windows .iso directly to a USB drive using dd, this absolutely would not work on any machine for me. Sometimes the install medium would boot, sometimes it wouldn't, but even if it did the installer wouldn't recognize any storage mediums or would fail part way through installing. Using the official media creation tool resolved all the issues I was having.
I do not know why the Windows .iso images do not work on any of my machines, but it sounds like you are experiencing the same issues that I was. Give the official media creation tool a try, hopefully that resolves the issue.
Right now we're in the "every other" release of Windows, the one that's shit. 7 was good, so 8 was shit. 10 was good, so now 11 is shit. I'm not surprised you're having problems.
Might try using 10 and see if that's any better. At a minimum it's not going to be nearly as picky about what it will or won't install on.
Wait... You built a computer. Installed an OS on it, one of the easiest OSes to install... And now are having an issue installing steam... And somehow it's the OS' fault?
This is either fake, trying to pirate windows, or your trying to avoid responsibility for not being able to assemble a simple computer. Wtf?
Windows and Apple both capitalize on most folks lack of minimal tech savviness plus being creatures of habit. So much so, Apple gave away laptops to numerous Silicon Valley highschool classes in the mid 2000's, just to entrench them into the system.
I've been using Linux for a few years now and I still randomly think about what took me this long to switch. It's how an OS should be made. It can simply be installed and used out the gate or it can be tinkered with to make an ideal setup. Not to mention the lack of invasive tracking. Windows is so bad it's more complete monitoring of the users than tracking.
Regardless, August 2023 to August 2024 will definitely be the year of the Linux desktop! /s
Installing Windows is easy, but once something goes wrong, troubleshooting becomes more challenging. You have an error code? Yeah, well, try these 100+ things that are the same things you gotta try with every other error code out there. None of those things worked? Well, reinstall windows that should fix it.
Granted, I have plenty of experience with linux at this point to where I won't stress when something fucks up but ive dealt with my fair share of windows issues as well. The majority of the time, I end up reinstalling windows...
Yeah, I've had issues with it too! I installed the latest Windows 10 on my mom's laptop after replacing the hard drive with an ssd, and it took me way longer than it should have to do something as simple as move files from the old hard drive to the new one! And a week later, she calls me with issues related to the auto backup OneDrive thing, and I had to troubleshoot that from 2.5 hours away. If she didn't need Photoshop and Lightroom, I would have installed some sort of Windows-similar Linux distro for her.
I also have had so many issues with Windows 11 for school that I just stopped using it on bare metal and just have a VM for the one program I need for my CS classes.
Yeah, Windows' bullshit is what drove me to Linux in the first place. I only have it on my gaming system, and only because Discord's stupid screensharing doesn't transmit audio on Linux, NVIDIA's drivers for Linux suck balls (going AMD next time now that their cards are good again) and there are a couple of games my friends play that have issues on Linux. I've never run into a game on my everyday laptop that Linux couldn't run, and the Steam Deck will take basically whatever you throw at it.
Windows is a barely-functional rat's nest of code spaghetti that falls apart at complete random. Sometimes your audio drivers will just stop working for no apparent reason. Sometimes your computer will just refuse to connect to the internet until you do a clean install. Windows Update apparently runs Prime95 in its spare time and so does the Antimalware Service Executable. I hate using it so much. I wish Windows would just curl up and die.
I'm sorry, but if Windows was that hard for you to install, you did something majorly wrong. I haven't installed 11 on anything, but 7 and 10 were both cakewalks that practically hold your hand all the way through. It's the last step when building a PC -- after the actual work is finished.
If you have little experience with Windows, you may just be suffering from its "easiness." It lets you do less in order to protect the less knowledgeable user. From personal experience in similar matters, I can attest to how frustrating that can be. You don't want Windows to do it for you, you just want to do it! So you try to find a way to do things your way, bash your head against a wall, get frustrated, and ultimately take much longer to do anything.
I've been using both daily, for 25+ years. Windows is not hard to use, but harder to configure now, having multiple paths/ways to configure the same thing like settings, old control panel, command line, regedit, group policy, is sometimes shitty. Everything else works fine in win10 or 11.
Windows 10 LTSC is the way to go if you absolutely have to use Windows, I'd love to use Linux on my gaming rig but Assetto Corsa + my simracing hardware doesn't play nice at all.
I will have to disagree but am a sysadmin by trade, so I work with Limux, Mac and Wimdows. I do run Linux and Steam on an HP Omen but was running Win 11 on it before with zero issues. I switched to Linix because all my other machines are Limux and its a bit of a hassle running compatability mode on Wimdows in order to read games saved on Linux. My son and I built his gaming rig and the hardest part for me is ordering the parts from different vendors. I think its all anout expectations. If you start hating Windows, you really wont find anything good with it and just see its faults.
I use windows as little as possible. I have steam, discord, and Firefox open on it and otherwise try to use my Linux and macOS devices for actual productivity
As someone who helped friends/family build PC gaming rigs multiple times last year (2023) I understand what you're coming from W11 installer is pure dogshit.
Tbh tho, my dad always hated new Windows versions because he didn't want to learn a new UI/UX, which I fine, but the windows experience isnt that hard to learn, even if it is different. Same thing with Linux, if you use GNOME/KDE/i3/hyprland/sway/<insert any DE/WM here> for the first time it won't be easy to find all of the settings either.
But the W11 installer in particular sucks ass. There is so many restrictions that try to prevent you from even installing it. The one rescue for me was downloading the Rufus USB ISO tool and letting it download the W11 installer itself and apply patches which removed all the ridiculous restrictions.
I mean, you can even rub that shit in Virtual box if you want. My GF is literally running it on "unsupported hardware" according to Microsoft but windows updates and everything post-install is completely functional.
Only reason Mictorsoft Philips wants the restrictions is to have a tighter grip on the ecosystem and limit end consumers from installing it themselves and pushing that part to other companies or retailers which they can buy finished products (laptops etc) from instead of licenses.
I recently just reinstalled windows on my gaming pc and arch on my laptop, and I completely agree with you. especially the fact that now windows 11 force you to sign in. I know it can be skipped, and average users probably wont care, but FUCK YOU MICROSOFT!
archinstall is such a breeze, and in general for linux, I can control precisely what to install and configure it to be exactly how I like it, as opposed to windows I had to find some sketchy debloater scripts to remove all the craps, disable the telemetries, and hoping it doesn't break anything.
And if I break anything, linux always have detailed documentations, where as windows...its always some indian guy on youtube teaching you how to run windows troubleshooter and hand you more sketchy scripts
I can't say I've ever experienced the same though, windows install is a breeze and very fast, and on W10/11 these days everything just basically works perfectly out of the box for gaming.
Pretty much all OS installs have the capability to go really wrong. Once a Mac user was making fun of me for needing to deal with weirdness installing Linux on an old Windows laptop. He stopped when I asked if I should install OSX instead. 😁
I have almost always used Windows. I have had almost zero issues with Windows functionality. Install is easy, most shit installs automatically. You have to truly fuck up to not be able to make it work. That said, it surely has it's quirks and is a data leech. Not being able to get Windows to run is a user error, not a window error.
When you get it working it's just so cumbersome to use. I do most of my work on servers and doing anything with a Windows server is a pain in the ass. Want to restart something? Open an RDP session, wait for it to load, open the Services, wait for it to load, filter through thousands of services to find the one you want, fucking right-click on it and pick restart.
Compare this to Linux where you get a snappy SSH shell and restart it with one command.
And then there's the goddamn Windows Event Viewer. Can't have log files being, ya know, files right? No, gotta put them in this application on the server, that you have to view in the GUI, and show it alongside all the other logs so you have to filter by service. Most of the time I just export them to text files just because it's easier to process them on a sane OS.
my first was 98 and last was xp. Since then i'm on linux. When i encounter 10 or 11 on machines that i need to tweak, it "blue screens" my mind how opaque it became. It is so unnecessarily cluttered i can't find my way to a simple "system" window unless i use the habitual shortcuts 🤷
Not sure why you are having issues with Windows, but Wine on Linux goes from strength to strength in its ability to play Windows games. I have a Windows 11 laptop that I barely use, I am generally speaking unimpressed by Windows, but can play games on it with no issues.
Can not tell if this is satire or not because while Windows has its fair share of issues, I've yet to encounter something that I couldn't fix. Every time I've installed windows it just worked. People keep whining about windows being just absolute dogshit and then there's me who has never understood that shit because windows just keeps working like it should. And I install windows frequently enough to know/notice if anything is wrong. Like how can't you get steam to start? You must be doing sth wrong... Idk man i just can't relate like at all... Wish I could help instead.
(okay i lied where i said "I've yet to encounter something that I couldn't fix". There's this annoying little shit bug that recently cropped up where my 2 desktop icons in the top left get moved when i move a file to for example the middle of my desktop. One of 3 things happens: it puts it where i wanted it to in the middle OR it puts it IN THE TOP LEFT CORNER which moves my icons down one OR it puts it BETWEEN the two icons i have there. AND best of all IT DOESN'T EVEN STAY THERE it like is there for just a second and then it flicks to wherever i wanted it in the first place, leaving my icons MOVED from where they originally were GOD I HATE THIS SO MUCH oh and I also hate how windows handles file transfers of any kind.)
honestly i don't know what you did to mess up a windows install like that, but i agree overall that linux is easier. However there are quirks that can arise for a new user that will eat time or seem daunting.
Windows has improved a lot. I was committed to using Linux before windows 95 and that era was a complete shit show. They couldn't even connect to the internet, play cds or other media without third party software and Windows crashed if you looked at it the wrong way. People thought it was the hottest shit ever. Even after the move to the NT kernel it was a shitshow of instability and massive security flaws for years. I think I could daily drive modern windows if there was no alternative. They have come a long way with stability and a lot of FOSS software is ported.
Windows still benefits a lot from network effects which makes it desirable for some people for the same reason they use Xcrement and Meta. It doesn't bother me what OS other people use anymore than what they do in their bedrooms or churches. Let's not act vegan over an operating system.
Last time I used Windows on my own was back in the XP days. I saw some of the early Vista and it was even worse. I can't imagine what the recent versions are like.
That is relative to one's personal opinions/tastes (If you REALLY want to be a "competitive sweaty tryhard" then the above is true) but as for me...? I'm 100% fine in "retrogaming" in my orange pi zero 3 and call it a "legit linux gaming experience".
As the old say goes... "If I wanted to see graphics... I'd go outside." :^)
I absolutely hate it. I have to use windows for my job and I'm used to moving and resizing windows with the. "super" key and i press it by instinct on windows the ad tiles viewer rears it's ugly head. I feel like beating it with a stick.
Using windows 11 is your first mistake, its ab uneven number windows, everyone knows the uneven number ones are bad. Or was it the even number ones? I dunno, windows 10 is better than 11 either way.
Even just installing windows is pretty bad. They include jack shit for default wifi drivers and won't let you complete the installation without an internet connection (and a stupid Microsoft account to complete their data mining 1984 tracking system) unless you use secret command line bullshit.
Easy of use and general look and feel have always been less than ideal on windows. The real advantage of windows over Linux is hardware support. And don't say it all just works, because it does not.
Hehe, installed both nobara and windows on my brothers pc.
Nobara installed without issues, immediately usable with wifi.
Windows didn't recognize drives at first, had to reflash the iso, i assume that was an iso issue not necessarily windows but you never know.
Then, 0 internet, no wifi drivers :)
Hotspot with phone and cable in order to make the pc have basic functionality, the true windows experience.
I am probably the only person on the planet who never had an issue with either W10 or W11 and their installation. The only Windows that truly sucked in my life were W95, WME and 8. I occasionally dual boot OpenSUSE with xfce for some dev stuff, but Windows has always been my daily driver and I'm so used to it I have bloody tears in my eyes when I look at your KDEs and Gnomes, which are in my opinion absolutely horrible environments. These days I more often than not use WSL2 from under Windows even, might as well just use Linux cli tools if their GUI stuff sucks so bad.
I think windows 11 wouldn't be nearly as bad if it didn't force an online account on you. Yes, I know there are sometimes ways around it, but they are not for the average user to pull off. Especially the OEM laptops that ship win11 s-mode, where if it's not the right patch, you gotta do bios edits, registry edits.
When I tried the early free upgrade from Window 10 to 11, half my games wouldn't work, and I couldn't fix the UI to what was comfortable. Also all the control panels had another layer of simplified facade before it would let me see the Windows XP control panel window.
Also the games that worked had a significant framerate drop.
I swtched back after a day of frustration and every once in a while my Windows 10 nags me to try upgrading again because Win11 is much better.
I need to stop being a coward and make my switch to Linux.
I'll need to find an equivalent to Autohotkey though. I'm left handed and depend on keyboard profiles to play games.
Never used W11. W10 works about 100x better than Linux and doesn't require me to memorize commands to punch into the CLI for mundane tasks or have 11 different types of program install processes.
I daily Linux for privacy reasons but you're delusional if you think Linux is easier to use.
Yes. My previous job used Linux (and OpenVPN), but I started a new job recently, which involves Windows 10 (and three separate VPN apps) on my workstation, and it's driving me insane! I can't even find half the settings in looking for, the start menu is a mess (until I found OpenShell which introduces an XP like start menu!), and the eternal requests to restart the damn thing. It drives me nuts.