this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025

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309

Windows doesn't "just work" (lemm.ee)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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I've been using Linux exclusively for about 8 years. Recently I got frustrated with a bunch of issues that popped one after another. I had a spare SSD so I decided to check out Windows again. I've installed Windows 11 LTSC. It was a nightmare. After all the years on Linux, I forgot how terrible Windows actually is.

On the day I installed the system and a bunch of basic software, I had two bluescreens. I wasn't even doing anything at that time, just going through basic settings and software installation. Okay, it happens. So I installed Steam and tried to play a game I've been currently playing on Linux just to see the performance difference. And it was... worse, for some reason. The "autodetect" in game changed my settings from Ultra to High. On Linux, the game was running at the 75 fps cap all the time. Windows kept dropping them to around 67-ish a lot of times. But the weirdest part was actual power consumption and the way GPU worked. Both systems kept the GPU temperature at around 50C. But the fans were running at 100% speed at that temperature on Windows, while Linux kept them pretty quiet. I had to change the fan controls by myself on Windows just because it was so annoying. The power consumption difference was even harder to explain, as I was getting 190-210W under Linux and under Windows I got 220-250W. And mind you, under Linux I had not only higher graphical settings set up, but was also getting better performance.

I tried connecting my bluetooth earbuds to my PC. Alright, the setup itself was fine. But then the problems started. My earbuds support opus codec for audio. Do you think I can change the bluetooth codec easily, just like on Linux? Nope. There is no way to do it without some third party programs. And don't even get me started on Windows randomly changing my default audio output and trying to play sound through my controller.

Today I decided to make this rant-post after yet another game crashed on me twice under Windows. I bought Watch Dogs since it's currently really cheap on Steam. I click play. I get the loading screen. The game crashed. I try again. I play through the basic "tutorial". After going out of the building, game crashed again. I'm going to play again, this time under Linux.

I've had my share of frustrations under Linux, but that experience made me realise that Windows is not a perfect solution either. Spending a lot of time with Linux and it's bugs made me forget all the bad experience in the past with Windows, and I was craving to go back to the "just works" solution. But it's not "just works". Two days was all it took for me to realize that I'll actually stick with Linux, probably forever. The spare SSD went back to my drawer, maybe so I can try something new in the future. It's so good to be back after a short trip to the other side!

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[–] [email protected] 56 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (15 children)

I just reinstalled and configured Windows for a friend who's machine was hacked, so my frustration with Microsoft is very fresh. (She lost 8 thousand dollars of her savings she's still trying to get back.) After years of using Linux I feel like I'm being punished every time I help someone with their Windows machine.

/Rant

These things in particular drive me nuts:

Sending everything users do and type (including passwords) back to Microsoft. It's called spyware when other companies do it. It should be called spyware when it's an OS called Microsoft Windows.
Flooding 1/2 the screen with web search results when a search is done from the start menu. I'm looking for an installed program, not a potato recipe.
Requiring a registry edit to turn that web search off and lots of other simple things that use to be configurable in settings.
Placing ads throughout the operating system and making it difficult to turn those ads off.
Forcing the use of the Edge browser no matter what users choose.
Preventing the removal of unwanted programs without editing the registry.
Forced updates at Microsoft's convenience.
Absurdly long restart times after updating.
Forced OS version upgrades.
Reverting settings that have been changed by the user to settings that directly benefit Microsoft's sales and marketing goals.
Forced restarts of the operating system causing data loss and the loss of millions of hours of work for millions of users.
Removing more and more user settings with each new OS release.
Burying commonly used menu items multiple menus deep.
Preventing the removal of Start menu items. I will never use the Xbox Game Bar no matter how many time I'm forced to see it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

That sucks about your friend. I can relate.

Scammers hacked my elderly mother on her windows laptop. They tricked her with an ad saying there was a problem with her computer, and they had her install remote access software. She mentioned seeing the terminal so I assumed they installed (at least) a keylogger. Luckily, they either ran out of time, or their con took two days, but they said they were going to call my mom the next day and have her log in to the bank to make sure her computer was still working.

So, I wiped her computer and installed Linux Mint with auto updates set up. She only had one simple question about logging in to google chrome and that's been it for the last month. She has just been using it no problem.

Side note: The next day the scammers had the nerve to call my mom and ask her why her computer was turned off.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 18 hours ago (9 children)

Sending everything users do and type (including passwords) back to Microsoft. It's called spyware when other companies do it.

Do you have any proof that Microsoft keylogs you? That's quite a serious claim.

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[–] muhyb 93 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

Well, Windows was never perfect. People just got used to its shenanigans. They tend to meddle with bullshit registry yet somehow basic commands on Linux is too complicated.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

Poor comparison, honestly. Only like 5% of Windows users will only have a vague notion about what a registry is and a fraction of that would have messed with it under duress. By comparison, nearly all Linux users are expected to learn a handful of commands with strange abbreviations and arcane symbols to perform otherwise basic tasks. That's not some unsubstantial barrier to be dismissed.

[–] muhyb 3 points 14 hours ago

I know it's not an exact comparison but I think it's fair. Almost every Windows user (or the ones who fix others' computers) hit a situation where they had to modify registry (or run a .bat file they have no idea what it does -there were even official solutions like this-) to fix something, at least once in their lives. As a go-to tech-savvy person for a lot of people around me, I know I did this all the time. (I still remember that once someone asked me to remove 3D Objects folder because they couldn't and it was also a registry fix). On the other hand, while Linux is mature with its commandline, it also came to a point where a normal user don't need it, just like in Windows (it's a plus if they know at least how to paste commands if they need though). For example, my sister uses openSUSE and I taught her about YaST and she never had a single issue in the last 2 years, everything is done via GUI. She can install flatpaks if she needs too.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 22 hours ago

In windows' defense, the "complication" comes from the fact that there is no constant visual display of the filesystem structure in a terminal window like there is in the Windows registry.

That said, taking an hour to become comfortable with the terminal is not a difficult task. Understanding ~, and constantly using df -h and ls -al (for me anyway) will help a lot of people figure it out.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 20 hours ago (4 children)

I dunno, I dont think it's normal to get two blue screens on a fresh windows install.

Windows audio really is trash though, I'm totally with you there.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 23 hours ago* (last edited 23 hours ago) (10 children)

I have an ongoing irritation with windows (use it for work, Linux at home): It steals focus from the window you're using if another window opens.

Drives me nuts. I'll be typing my password and pop! Oh look I just typed my password into something else that popped up because IT requires this program to run on login today.

KDE is much better about not stealing window focus like that.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 13 hours ago

The sad thing is back in the Windows XP days Microsoft had the focus stealing thing pretty much solved. Well okay - I remember you had to install some of the PowerToys or make some registry edits to get at some of the settings. But once setup pretty much nothing could steal focus away from the current window, which was a welcome change from where we had been. That started to break again in Windows 7, and has gotten worse with every release since then.

Admittedly XFCE isn't perfect either, but it's much better behaved than modern Windows.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 19 hours ago

Mac os is pretty bad with that bullshit too

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 17 hours ago

Windows 11 LTSC

I'm using Window 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC; the biggest issue I've had was that I couldn't get my video card installed. I had to wait until there was an updated driver, a few weeks after I assembled my computer. Every time I tried to install the driver that was supposed to be the correct one, I got a BSOD.

Honestly, I like 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC better than I liked the 10 Pro version that I had. And--compared to the only Linux distro I've used, Tails--it's fairly straightforward. And yes, I know the Tails is kind of a pain in the ass, and it's not fair to judge all of Linux against that. But i'm old, and cranky, and just want Win 3.11 back.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I forgot how terrible Windows actually is

Windows, while always shitty, has seriously gone downhill in the past 5 years. I'm looking to switch back to Linux myself, but I have an NVidia GPU that needs constant driver babying on OpenSUSE (my preferred distro). My current plan is to find someone who is willing to swap a RTX 4070 for a equivalent or slightly worse AMD card, and then switch back to OpenSUSE.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

That's more of an OpenSUSE issue, as much as I hate to say it's not Nvidia. Fedora may work better for with the options available for non-free DKMS builds on kernel upgrades, but you'll always be battling the Nvidia side with newer kernels pack releases. The open builds don't work for display yet, so that's not an option anywhere.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Oh for sure. I just like OpenSUSE enough to switch GPUs for. I only really run older games aside from Baldur's Gate III and Cyberpunk, so I really don't need the latest and greatest.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 16 hours ago

What makes SUsE so good for you?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 14 hours ago

Ltsc is supposed to be better too. If you didn't like it then it only gets worse from there

[–] [email protected] 15 points 22 hours ago

i setup my old job with linux internally. never had issues. day i quit boss told me to install windows so he can find a replacement employee. sure.

3 years later. boss wants me back. they've had nothing but problems. but i'm not allowed to install linux again.

he says, "if windows didn't have so many problems you would be out of a job."

[–] [email protected] 15 points 22 hours ago (6 children)

It's interesting seeing the variety of experiences in this thread. I definitely had to fight Linux to get it setup and stable on my machine, but ever since then it's been rock solid in a way I've never experienced with a Windows install.

Windows has a mind of its own...and being at the mercy of their update cadence or w/e other nonsense Microsoft is pushing sucks.

Meanwhile on Linux, I've had two CPUs that have C-State/P-State issues (5900x, 1700x), some weirdness with my audio interface, and a GPP0 bug that interferes with sleep. All of them are fixed or managed on Bazzite now, and it took plenty of digging for docs/reddit threads but now it's rock solid.

On Windows, any time I've needed to deal with the Microsoft Store I run into issues that require registry fixes, uninstall/reinstalling various things, etc. Sea of Thieves and Forza Horizon 5 had issues launching as a result on Windows but not on Linux.

Ultimately, not being under the Microsoft gun is such a relief that the initial battle is completely put out of my mind. I've had some instances where I'll boot into Windows for games, or HDR/Atmos support more reliably for my living room setup, but they have gotten rarer and rarer over the past couple of months.

[–] LeFantome 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Does Sea of Thieves work on Linux? I thought it had kernel anti-cheat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

It works! Looks like some people have run into issues with EAC but it worked without finicking around for me.

https://www.protondb.com/app/1172620

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[–] nous 17 points 23 hours ago (6 children)

There is no perfect OS that just works for everyone. They are all software so they all have bugs. People how say an OS just works have never hit those bugs or have gotten used to fixing/working around or flat out ignoring them.

This is true of all OSs, including Windows, Linux and MacOS. They are all differently buggy messes.

Linux is the buggy mess that works best for me though.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 19 hours ago (2 children)

Nothing is bug free, but that doesn't mean everything is sort of the same just different flavor.

The last couple days I dealt with Windows, which is out of the ordinary for me. I had to build a little thing and chose PowerShell and that is quirky but ok at a glance. Now we are in 2025 and PowerShell is a modern thing, and kid you not you install a thing using Module-Install and then you uninstall it using Module-Uninstall and what happens? The thing is only gone partially and some broken remains stay. And then another curiosity comes up where after long rummaging it turns out that one user (Admin) simply cannot see another user's mounted share - has microsoft ever heard of the concept of "permission denied"?

That's not a differently flavored bag of bugs, that is like decades of computing and software engineering hadn't taken place

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I use Powershell a lot at work, and I really like it. Especially compared to bash which gives me headaches when reading.

But yeah install-module and uninstall-module can sometimes be quirky. The easiest solution is to remove the files for the directory.

it turns out that one user (Admin) simply cannot see another user's mounted share - has microsoft ever heard of the concept of "permission denied"?

I'm pretty sure the reason is that because the share is mounted using the users account and doesn't affect anything else. It kinda makes sense for me because that is just the way Windows works ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Two users can have different mapping so giving a permission denied doesn't make a lot of sense since it simply doesn't exist for the user.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 hours ago

Powershell, windows terminal and winget are all legitimately nice tools, powershell especially is just stupidly more powerful than it needs to be (and verb-noun syntax is great).

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Fedora Linux has been the most stable OS in my experience, having used Windows XP to 10 and switching to Linux before 11 came out. I can leave it on for literally weeks on end and the memory never randomly fills up, nor does it get more and more glitchy/crash prone as you leave it on, both of which I have experienced on Windows.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 17 hours ago

In my experience, Fedora tends to be what a lot of developers settle on after distro hopping. This is by no way universal and RedHat has issues. But at some point, the OS and desktop environment become background noise compared to your own code and IDE. Younger people probably have different preferences — and they should — but you get more experienced and you have your setup. If my laptop dies, I can get back to coding quicker with Fedora than any other distro and it’s almost always stable.

In the end, a computer is a tool and being skilled with an old tool can be better than being new to a more modern tool. I still use the same brand/type power drill that I used in high school/college when I worked construction in the summers. (Dewalt and I’d rather the old 18v but they switched to 20v. I have an adapter to charge either battery, though, so it’s fine.)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I disagree, as much as I wish it weren't so. Compared to Linux from the perspective of this gamer, it does just work. I wish I could main Linux but I can't handle any more critical boot issues or significant reductions in framerate. Not to mention that I cant easily auto-wol my lg tv "monitor" like I could from windows.

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 23 hours ago

I came to the same conclusion recently. Had a bunch of issues after i decided to try running windows 11 instead of 10 in a vm. One of them being that my usb dac refused to work, turns out after googling and finding a weird random chatgpt article that it was caused by a specific update. Had to roll the update back to solve it. Now i have to hope that they solve it before they decide to force the update on me anyways.

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