[deanhills]

I'm sure many will recall a year before Windows 10 was no longer freely available, except through special application, that Microsoft was trying to "force" Windows 7 users to upgrade to Windows 10 through automatic updates.  There were a number of Windows 7 users who were caught in this.  I was nearly caught, but since I'm by nature suspicious, thankfully got out of it in time.  I then immediately changed my updates from "automatic" to "let me choose".  And even then I caught Microsoft being sneaky, by recreating different updates with the same objective to force users to upgrade catching unsuspecting users who thought this update had been disabled.  I found that I had to research the updates that were manually loaded as of course Microsoft deliberately make the headings of the updates as vague as possible to hide its sins - some are genuine updates of course and very necessary to install - but when I took charge of the updates to figure out if I really needed them, I noticed there were quite a number of updates that were not applicable to Windows 7 nor of any use to me.  For example one of the updates forced installation of MS Defender - that is not for Windows 7.  

Any way, long story short, my brother in law - who isn't particularly fond of computers and who is on Windows 8.1 has automatic updates enabled. His desktop computer bit the dust, so he then had to move from Windows 7 with no updates, to Windows 8.1 with automatic updates on a spare laptop. A few days back he had an update that forced an installation of MS Edge Browser on his laptop without giving him a choice in the matter.   It happened during a LONG and frustrating wait, while a number of updates were being installed.  So there was this wait and not knowing what was happening that was stressful in its own right (like what's up with this laptop am I doing something wrong?) and then this new browser that appeared from nowhere directly after the updates had been completed and asking all kinds of questions - such as making it the primary browser.  Sneaky?  And stressful!

I then went to Google and was happy to learn that there are many many anti-automatic-update frustrated users who have written tutorials of work arounds.  Even a tutorial by Microsoft who must have wisened up to how frustrating it is to have updates happening while you are in a hurry to work on a project. It is completely counter-productive. What is particularly thrilling, and I'm not sure how true this is, but Microsoft allows newer versions of Windows 10 Home to postpone updates to a later date (I thought one could only do this with Windows 10 Professional?).  Looks like for 35 days.  But it won't allow you to increase this number of days, one has to install the updates first, before one can pause the updates again.

There are other lesser secure tutorials that has to do with modifications of the Windows registry to disable the updates.  But hopefully Microsoft is getting the message so that by the time I get to Windows 10 or 11, there will be a "let me choose" choice again.  Or is this wishful thinking?  

[razma]

i remember the annoying "ad" asking me to upgrade to windows 10, since im in the IT sector and have bad experiences with windows updating and upgrading i would never fall for such thing, i rarely let windows update my laptop running on windows 10 and my pc windows 7 and i cannot see any benefits of windows 10, i even used to disable auto-update for all my clients pcs because they usually do something stupid during the "updating" phase and everything crash. gotta love windows tho for all the memories and time

[fitkoh]

Open source is so much better.

No forced updates.
It's free - free to use, distribute, or modify for your own needs.
Supported by people that enjoy what they're doing, not by people who hate it but do it anyways because it's a job.

Beyond opinions and cost, there are some other technical differences. This article does a good job of pointing out some of the more important ones:
https://pediaa.com/what-is-the-differenc...ux-kernel/

I have an old friend who says, quite accurately, that "Windows is the junkyard of the world"

In my personal opinion windows isn't much more than a collection of spyware.

Now if i only I was comfortable rooting my phone I could cut google out too

[tbelldesignco]

I was never took keen on the Windows updates especially when it came to the cumulative updates that they rollout March/October. They always broke Windows machines I used and I had a real bear of a time trying to roll back to restore points, clear my update cache and trying to reinstall the update from there. My IT guys at work use system center and Microsoft updates that system like they do the regular OS and they complain about how clunky and inconsistent that is.

[deanhills]

Thank you for your feedback.

Open source is so much better.

I'm curious @fitkoh, what do you mean by open source?  Is it something like Linux with a GUI, or is there open source that provides something to the equivalent of Windows?  What are you using?

[fitkoh]

I use debian/ubunu with lxde (sometimes called lubuntu). The default window manager (gnome) is a bit too resource intensive for me. I don't like the application manager with it's fancy display and screen upon screen of apps to scroll - I prefer the neat little button with all the programs organized into easily identifiable categories: system tools, accessories, graphics and video, sound and audio, etc.

I think the lxde window manager is ideal for persons used to working on Windows; it reminds me a lot of windows xp, with the networking monitor, clipboard, and sound icons anchored to the menu bar - and other options you can add there.

Occasionally I'll take a wild hair and use openbox which is super fast but not as user friendly - sometimes you have to dig around to find the program you're looking for. The first time I used openbox I was lost for a good thirty minutes until I figured out that right clicking the desktop would bring up an application manager.

[fChk]

I have an old friend who says, quite accurately, that "Windows is the junkyard of the world"

Software quality isn't a thing M$$'s Windows is hailed for, for sure, but calling it a 'junkyard'!!.. That's a bit harsh!

The 3 decades (or so) of M$$'s success with its 'Windows' OS is probably due to the fact that the hardware was cheap due to the worldwide competition in manufacturing the IBM-compatible(/clones) PC. This allowed the M$-DOS + Windows 3.x to slowly make their way into the consumer market; but the flood-gate didn't burst till the marketing of Win95 in mid-1990s and WinXP in 2001.

In a sense, M$$'s Windows democratized the access to computing to a large portion of the worldwide population, and for that I will personally for ever be indebted to it. I still remember that the only way I had access to a computer was in our 'Informatics' department back in the 90s... a far cry from what the young generation is experiencing nowadays!

In my personal opinion windows isn't much more than a collection of spyware.

I would agree with this quote but only if we're talking about Windows 10. Win10 is designed to be a 24/7 US-backed global spyware... Hence why Windows 7 was my last M$$'s OS I've used productively. I did plan the Linux transition the day WinXP becomes obsolete (ie 2014.)

My problem with M$'s products was always the ideology behind it which compels them to code stuff while taking into account the dumbest human-beings on Earth, thing that the other 50% suffers from while using M$'s products... hence the general dumbing down trend due to M$ product usage...

[fitkoh]

In a sense, M$$'s Windows democratized the access to computing to a large portion of the worldwide population, and for that I will personally for ever be indebted to it. I still remember that the only way I had access to a computer was in our 'Informatics' department back in the 90s... a far cry from what the young generation is experiencing nowadays!

Ironic: I would have said the same thing about linux.

When I was in high school in the mid 90s I tried to take computer programming but I wasn't allowed to because we had no computer at home (they had a cost in the thousands back then, as you probably remember). While I'm certainly not as knowledgeable by some by a long shot, everything I've learned since has been self-taught.

Fast forward a couple years. I acquired my first pc: a frankenstein made mostly of hand-me-downs. It has an error-riddled installation of win95, which is always giving me bluescreens and crashes daily. The total cost for components of my first pc was 400$ - a great price tag for the time, and I saved over a year for it. To upgrade this pc with win98 would have added I think 300$ to the cost? For me, the price of windows was not something that opened a door to computing. It was something that would have prohibited me if not for the discovery of FOSS.

Fortunately, when windows was expensive and out  of reach, a friend came over with a copy of redhat spanning several floppies, and helped me set up a dual boot system, so I wouldn't have to suffer with the broken installation of win95. I haven't had a need for windows since and I don't see that changing any time soon.

[tbelldesignco]

Ironic: I would have said the same thing about linux.

When I was in high school in the mid 90s I tried to take computer programming but I wasn't allowed to because we had no computer at home (they had a cost in the thousands back then, as you probably remember). While I'm certainly not as knowledgeable by some by a long shot, everything I've learned since has been self-taught.

Fast forward a couple years. I acquired my first pc: a frankenstein made mostly of hand-me-downs. It has an error-riddled installation of win95, which is always giving me bluescreens and crashes daily. The total cost for components of my first pc was 400$ - a great price tag for the time, and I saved over a year for it. To upgrade this pc with win98 would have added I think 300$ to the cost? For me, the price of windows was not something that opened a door to computing. It was something that would have prohibited me if not for the discovery of FOSS.

Fortunately, when windows was expensive and out  of reach, a friend came over with a copy of redhat spanning several floppies, and helped me set up a dual boot system, so I wouldn't have to suffer with the broken installation of win95. I haven't had a need for windows since and I don't see that changing any time soon.

That was my case growing up too, I ended up getting a 25$ Dell Inspiron 6000 in like 2004/2005 at a garage sale and it had Windows XP which crashed and was horribly built on that machine, so my uncle moved me over to Ubuntu I think and he hacked together the ability for me to play Civilization and Rollercoaster Tycoon, so needless to say, I was a happy 10 year old. We did not have the luxury of money, so Linux was the best we could do and that got me into Mac shortly after when I learned I could "basically turn my laptop into a Mac."

[fChk]

Ironic: I would have said the same thing about linux.

When I was in high school in the mid 90s I tried to take computer programming but I wasn't allowed to because we had no computer at home (they had a cost in the thousands back then, as you probably remember). While I'm certainly not as knowledgeable by some by a long shot, everything I've learned since has been self-taught.

Fast forward a couple years. I acquired my first pc: a frankenstein made mostly of hand-me-downs. It has an error-riddled installation of win95, which is always giving me bluescreens and crashes daily. The total cost for components of my first pc was 400$ - a great price tag for the time, and I saved over a year for it. To upgrade this pc with win98 would have added I think 300$ to the cost? For me, the price of windows was not something that opened a door to computing. It was something that would have prohibited me if not for the discovery of FOSS.

Fortunately, when windows was expensive and out  of reach, a friend came over with a copy of redhat spanning several floppies, and helped me set up a dual boot system, so I wouldn't have to suffer with the broken installation of win95. I haven't had a need for windows since and I don't see that changing any time soon.

Interesting experience but you're in the minority as the 99% of the World population that discovered 'computing' in the 90s did it via M$$, unfortunately!!.. and they are still stuck with it in their majority, I would bet!

Linux (in the 90s) was the rising star in the Server market never in the desktop one, which I was referring to in that quote of mine.

My first Linux installation dates back to 2003 but I've always used it as a server never as a desktop... till fairly recently with the demise of WinXP.

Yes!.. It became possible to set up a decent desktop on top of a Linux system but that was never popular and needed a lot of marketing gimmicks from Ubuntu to create that missing niche in the late 2000s.

Being an early RedHat adopter, and being allergic to the Ubuntu approach (reminds me of M$$'s quite a lot!) I opted for the Fedora distribution as my production OS and never looked back to anything else on the market.

There is an interesting documentary that "traces the history of GNU, Linux, open source, and the free software movement" called Revolution OS, for the interested people: