Considering "upgrading" to Win10

Do yourself a favor and read recent posts on this forum. You'll see that Windows10 brings nothing good on the table, it's a trainwreck of an OS. Full of spyware and it takes even more control away from the user than the old WIndowses. It's only use is gaming and even that only if you want to experience the latest DirectX versions of games (which is nothing to write home about in reality).

I have dumped Windows as a daily driver many many years ago and I don't look back.
 
Do yourself a favor and read recent posts on this forum. You'll see that Windows10 brings nothing good on the table, it's a trainwreck of an OS. Full of spyware and it takes even more control away from the user than the old WIndowses. It's only use is gaming and even that only if you want to experience the latest DirectX versions of games (which is nothing to write home about in reality).

I have dumped Windows as a daily driver many many years ago and I don't look back.

I see. :jimlad:
I'm tempted to build another PC just to browse internet, and have my main rig offline :cautious:
 
I still rock W7 for my main rigs. W10 brings me nothing I want and lots of things I dont want. I do have a couple of W10 rigs I use for mining/test purposes but W10 annoys the hell out of me every time I use it.

My suggestion, run W10 in a VM for a while and see how you like it (or on a spare machine). Its annoyances may not bother you. Spying/telemetry is still there but there are some remediations you can implement.
 
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While I don't see what the hell most haters hate so much about Win10 (yeah yeah, spying and double control panels..), I acknowledge LTSB versions are what is worth using and they are a hell of a good OS! Including Server versions of course.
I bever looked back to Win7. Not to mention support for newer hardware (a very major concern), no matter why its support was hampered for older versions. Until I upgraded I didn't see the motivation to update OS because it costs me weeks installing from scratch. Now I'm happy, almost 2 years later when I ditched Win7 from all machines "nearby".
The drawbacks aside, there are too many benefits, most are behind the scenes.
 
I still rock W7 for my main rigs. W10 brings me nothing I want and lots of things I dont want. I do have a couple of W10 rigs I use for mining/test purposes but W10 annoys the hell out of me every time I use it.

My suggestion, run W10 in a VM for a while and see how you like it (or on a spare machine). Its annoyances may not bother you. Spying/telemetry is still there but there are some remediations you can implement.

I will give Win10 a try in VM.
Nice sig though :ROFLMAO:

A linux based computer is perfect for general internet use. Highly recommend it.

If my test drive of Win10 doesn't cut it, then linux it is.

While I don't see what the hell most haters hate so much about Win10 (yeah yeah, spying and double control panels..), I acknowledge LTSB versions are what is worth using and they are a hell of a good OS! Including Server versions of course.
I bever looked back to Win7. Not to mention support for newer hardware (a very major concern), no matter why its support was hampered for older versions. Until I upgraded I didn't see the motivation to update OS because it costs me weeks installing from scratch. Now I'm happy, almost 2 years later when I ditched Win7 from all machines "nearby".
The drawbacks aside, there are too many benefits, most are behind the scenes.

I'm not fan of spying. We get spied alot with our internet browsing history and cell phones. Sorry, I don't need my OS spying on me.
Geez, Orwell's "1984" was supposed to be a warning, not a freaking manual!!!!!!:yuck:
 
Not advocating the spying, not at all. But Windows has always been closed software. What makes you so confident Windows 7 or XP had no 'spying'? WIndows Update uses encrypted traffic, what makes you so confident it doesn't transfer anything "alongside"?
It's just.. too much of a hype about all that. Look into Win7 Task Scheduler and you'll see bunch of customer experience sh** as well.
I don't see any difference in TCP connections in my routers ever since I migrated away from Win7 (and disabled everything not needed in Win10/2016 (had been doing the same on Win7 and Server 2008)).
You cannot be sure whether Lilnux is doing anything similar BECAUSE you cannot inspect all of its code yourself (tens of millions of C lines). 'Someone' on the internet would say "it's safe" but you can trust them as much as you do any other software author out there. Think a little.
 
Not advocating the spying, not at all. But Windows has always been closed software. What makes you so confident Windows 7 or XP had no 'spying'? WIndows Update uses encrypted traffic, what makes you so confident it doesn't transfer anything "alongside"?
It's just.. too much of a hype about all that. Look into Win7 Task Scheduler and you'll see bunch of customer experience sh** as well.
I don't see any difference in TCP connections in my routers ever since I migrated away from Win7 (and disabled everything not needed in Win10/2016 (had been doing the same on Win7 and Server 2008)).
You cannot be sure whether Linux is doing anything similar BECAUSE you cannot inspect all of its code yourself (tens of millions of C lines). 'Someone' on the internet would say "it's safe" but you can trust them as much as you do any other software author out there. Think a little.

I'm never said Win7 was not spying on us. It's indeed very possible that EVERY OS is spying on us. :cautious:
Although there is a bigger chance that Microsoft is doing it more openly and without giving a F with Win10. :coffee:

Heck, even nVidia drivers have a lot of "customer experience" services going on.
I think I could check all the code in the "Damn Small Linux" distro :geek: :LOL:
 
So, Just use whatever OS suits your needs and helps you do your work. :)
I have multitude of Windows apps I have and use since the beginning of Universe and I cannot switch OS just like that, and I'm happy with the newer versions. Of course there are few "things" on the flip side of things but they are negligible, overall I like them much better than Win7. I virtualized my previous physical Win7 installation in case I need something and I load it from time to time to feel what it was like in Win7. :)
 
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No idea how powerful your rig is... but

Manjaro Linux. Will cover all your basic use needs, while being 1000x more secure, faster, and in general be easier to customize and use. And on the powerful rig thing... if your gaming doesn't require every last bit of performance for 4k gaming or VR. Steam now easily installs almost any windows DX title and runs more then fine. Valve even recently added the ability to install windows software from non steam sources and run them via proton. Check out the Linux section... I built my daughter a $300 US machine last month, handles 1080p gaming just fine, haven't run into a windows game it doesn't run fine at 1080 so far. Granted haven't installed the most demanding games... but if her machine had a good video card those wouldn't be an issue either. Gaming on Linux at this point really depends what your doing. If your a 1080 windows gamer that skips most of the very latest games till their included in a steam sale. Your golden.
 
So, I've been out of the OS loop for quite some time. I still use Win7 for CAD programs, internet browsing and some gaming.

So, apart from the new DirectX, is there some advantage to move to Win10?
Has the Win10 spying issue been resolved? Or you still send Microsoft ALL the data they want, even if telemetry is turned off?

https://www.forbes.com/sites/gordon...unstoppable-windows-10-tracking/#5b6e868d3a23

thanx

Clone you Windows 7 install to another hard drive, verify that it works, upgrade your existing install to Windows 10, profit. :) No one here is going to be able to tell you if you like it or not except you so simply, try it and see what you think.

If you are going to try Linux, just use bootable USB 3 thumb drives and try them out. Screw around but make sure your existing install is cloned to another drive, just in case.
 
Windows 10 brings lots of improvements, especially if you go with Pro. It is faster and more stable than Windows 7 (not that Win7 was unstable by any means), and the start menu, once customized to your liking, is worlds better than the Windows 7 start menu.

DirectX 12 is a huge bonus if you are on older or lower-end hardware and playing games that properly use it (ie, NOT Battlefield V).

You can turn down telemetry on install, but not turn off. There are plenty of guides available if you want to completely turn it off or block it. You'll spend more time customizing a Linux install to be usable than you will removing metro apps and blocking telemetry in Windows 10.

Hyper-V is awesome (if you have Pro, and cpu's that do virtualization)
Updates can be easily deferred (Pro) so if you're worried about them borking your machine, so you can be sure you wait until any bugs have been worked out. Really, the bugs in updates effect only a small percentage of machines, even the infamous 1809 problems didn't touch very many percentage wise systems.

If you are running very old hardware, or esoteric hardware, you probably will have problems due to lack of drivers. Otherwise, you should be fine on that front.

Take ManofGod's advice if you can, and clone your existing installation, then try it out for a bit.
 
i gave windows10 a year of testing.
then it removed software it deemd was incomaptbiel with its update without warning.
that was the last straw for me and iwent back to windows 7.... and darn it feelt good to be back on a dekstop os

Windows 10 currently also have a lot of performance issues with its memmory handling and certain games like bf5 ( but also others) that give a weird stutter.
the isa fix for it but cosntaly emptying your standby memory. but why have to deal with the issue to begin with
 
I felt the public release of Windows 7 was more stable than the shipping version of Windows 10; my primary desktop has the Insider Edition and I won't compare that against Windows 7 but the laptop that my wife and I bought last year has Windows 10 Pro and it doesn't feel as stable to me as Windows 7 did throughout its life on my previous workstation.

Everyone has their own tolerance for instability and what seems stable to one person can be considered unstable to another. To me, it was simply not worth the time to try to stay on Windows 7 and though I am familiar with Linux I'm not ready to use it as my daily driver.
 
The real question should be what are you going to do with Windows 7 support ends?

Stick with it anyways?
Switch to Linux?
Bite the bullet and upgrade to W10?
Buy more time and use Windows 8.1?
Buy/Build a Mac/Hackintosh?

I want to say im moving to Linux but it falls flat on its face for some very basic things that I expect from a desktop OS.
 
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IF you truly have stuff to hide from anyone then maybe give 10 a pass....otherwise it works just fine for me. I still cant figure out what info MS gets from my pc that i give a shit about.....all seeing google gets 10 times the info from my phone or browser. If your a criminal or into certain types of porn probably should stay with a custom Linux setup and or stay away from computers.:)
 
I like when someone says they are out of the OS loop for a while, then rants about Windows 10's "spying". Good grief. Use whatever OS fits your needs the most and stop worrying about things that aren't worth worrying about. You're posting this on the internet. You're already dealing with FAR more worrisome concepts that what your OS is doing. There's nothing wrong with Windows 10, as it works very well. There's nothing wrong with switching to Linux, assuming you can find applications to do everything you need to do. My computers are all split up between Windows 10, Windows Server, and two Linux systems. All have their advantages and disadvantages. "Spying" isn't on that list.
 
There's nothing wrong with Windows 10, as it works very well. There's nothing wrong with switching to Linux, assuming you can find applications to do everything you need to do. My computers are all split up between Windows 10, Windows Server, and two Linux systems. All have their advantages and disadvantages. "Spying" isn't on that list.

Spying is actually pretty low on my list. The biggest things on my list are -

  • Forced upgrades that are for the most part untested.
  • Forced reboots after the forced updates install.
  • No ability to stay in a certain version. Windows 10 gets new major versions that change, remove, and add functionality. Windows 8.1 and before stayed pretty static with major version releases.
  • Forced bloatware. You can remove it, but as soon as one of those major updates install they all get reinstalled with even more.
  • Cortana integration is forced.
  • Fragmentation. Why is there a settings menu? Why not put it all in the Control Panel? Some settings are in Settings, some are in Control Panel.
  • Why are mobile apps available on my desktop in the windows store?
  • Breaking of features. The new sound controls are a dumpster fire. There was no compelling reason to change it other than some team of chipmunk interns in Microsoft wanted to leave a mark before they got canned in the bi annual employee purge.
  • Office 365 comes with the OS and is a huge pain in the butt to switch when you actually want to install the real Office 365. Even Microsofts office 365 removal tool doesn't work correctly. This leaves my employees with redundant things like "Outlook 2016" and "Outlook" in the same start menu. Uninstall it and it will just come back next major update anyways.
  • There is Minecraft and Candy Crush icons in the start menu on the stock ENTERPRISE version of Windows 10.
I could go on but you get the idea.
 
  • Forced upgrades that are for the most part untested.
Just wanted to say... MS actually has a good rolling release setup in theory. With their fast -> slow -> release preview testing rings.

The issue is their OS is closed source >.< All the testing in the world doesn't save them because the testers 99% of the time have ZERO idea what the true nature of the bug they are reporting is. So MS ends up I have no doubt with thousands of Cryptic sounding bug reports from the fast and slow rings..... that someone at MS has to translate before even trying to figure out what the cause of the report is, never mind what the fix might be. More reports just makes more work for MS bug translation employees. :)

Linux rolling releases like say Manjaro don't suffer all the show stopping... woops the stable branch just deleted all my Vacation pics. Because the Arch testing branch (fast) is filled with users that can see the code and what its doing... and report not just bugs but the actual causes, and in many cases even the actual fix. Then its passed to the manjaro branch (slow) where even more crap is caught.

Anyway just wanted to say... MS has in theory a good setup to go rolling. They just have to deal with a flood of Crap bug reports due to their OS being closed source... and also their own obfuscation within their own systems. Even if a Linux user doesn't know the exact cause or how to fix a bug they are reporting... chances are they can easily get a bunch of detailed logs that help the folks that know those systems track things down much quicker.
 
What AltTabbins said is true, while some things are a bit exaggerated by most. Linux has its flaws (even in GUI), just look at new ubuntu crap and Unity etc.
I think Windows is a victim of its own widespreadiness. Any OS that gets such traction and share would have become "Windows". Look at Android - I hate it but I have no choice, most apps I value and need and want, are there so I use Android. It becomes crappier with every version. So...

But all this grief is missing in LTSB versions of Windows 10 or Server 2016/2019 and they are what is worth. No crap etc. , only the two control panels is there but this is something I don't factor in because I open any control panel once in year or so. I have Win10 Pro for games and didn't suffer problems so far nor I care about the crap in start menu.
 
I hope the next version of Windows will round out the square icons on Win10. Does anyone know if Linux Mint will work with an old AMD 5400+ dual core with 2GB of RAM?
I have a perfectly good Win7 Pro machine with an i5-4570 and GTX 1050 Ti (is a 5.9 Windows Experience good?). Anyway, I'm shocked I have to find a solution before January 2020 when support ends for Win7.
 
Umm, new Ubuntu ships with Gnome son. Unity is dead
Well, the speed with which they change things in Linux caused this "confusion", "son". (Unity doesn't seem dead because I could install and test it few weeks ago). That's why Linux has no chance to make a breakthrough on the desktop soon. And that's why every single and small change in Windows causes the world to rant for months.
Furthermore, the very experiment with Unity shows the trend what they "think" would be more accepted by the masses?!
You'd better pray Linux doesn't gain more traction if you like it now.
 
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Well if you tested Ubuntu with Unity recently, it wasn't new. If by speed you mean in a years time, I suppose you may have a point. Now, back to the thread topic.
 
Well, the speed with which they change things in Linux caused this "confusion", "son". (Unity doesn't seem dead because I could install and test it few weeks ago). That's why Linux has no chance to make a breakthrough on the desktop soon. And that's why every single and small change in Windows causes the world to rant for months.
Furthermore, the very experiment with Unity shows the trend what they "think" would be more accepted by the masses?!
You'd better pray Linux doesn't gain more traction if you like it now.

Unity hasn't been the default DE in Ubuntu for 3 or 4 major releases at least. Sure you can force in stall unity or install some old copy of ubuntu. But I mean I can install an old XP disk... that doesn't make it the current shipping version of windows does it ?

Having more then one DE to choose from... doesn't = fragmentation. Unity Gnome KDE LXqt XFCE Cin Mate.... it doesn't matter run what you like. If you start up chromium or spotify or vlc or thunderbird or libre on any of them its the same software. Where is the fragmentation ? Giving people choice of how they want to interact with their system. Yes the horror.
 
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Fragmentation scares most people. Indeed the availability of MANY DEs is fragmentation. You work on your Mate and sit on another computer with KDE or XXX. Guess what.
But for me the most important factor is the software. Software that you use to work. I'm confident for most activities there are better softwares for Windows, and it being much more widespread causes companies to develop for it first (and mostly only). For Linux OSes there might be 10x more softwares for anything, yet 9x are absolute crap, and 1/10 just usable to some extent. Running via Wine is a PITA and many softwares just plain don't work correctly.
Anyone is free to decide for themselves.
 
The question for you should be what would you be doing with W10 that you can't do now. For me the answer is the W10 Nexflix app gives me Dolby5.1 surround sound. Second, there's an app that I can use to control and monitor my home HVAC system. That's enough for me. What's enough for you?
 
Amazon Fire Cube gives me Dolby 5.1 in Netflix, Not sure what Win 10 has in this department that can't be done for less someplace else?
 
Spying is not the problem persay, it's what they do with the data. Even if they are honest, and do no personally identify you with your machine, the use of the data is not specified. Research Bill Benny and the tech he developed. Once you understand how his ideas were implemented, usage data becomes a source of manipulation of society, behavioural predication produced by AI is my main concern for telemetry collection. They really don't care what websites you visit, or files you download, other than your pattern of usage. Again, research William Benny and Thinthread.

Unfortunately, all technology is a Pandora's box, and mega-corporations will implement or deploy anything to control their market segments.
 
Fragmentation scares most people. Indeed the availability of MANY DEs is fragmentation. You work on your Mate and sit on another computer with KDE or XXX. Guess what.
But for me the most important factor is the software. Software that you use to work. I'm confident for most activities there are better softwares for Windows, and it being much more widespread causes companies to develop for it first (and mostly only). For Linux OSes there might be 10x more softwares for anything, yet 9x are absolute crap, and 1/10 just usable to some extent. Running via Wine is a PITA and many softwares just plain don't work correctly.
Anyone is free to decide for themselves.

I hate to break it to you... for most average windows users most of the software they use is "Linux" software. lol

VLC.... ya Linux
SMplayer... Linux
Thunderbird... Linux
FireFox... Linux
Chromium / Chrome... Linux
Open office... Linux
Libre office... Linux
Bittorrent... (we can all admit it its used plenty) but ya anyway Linux. Ok sure crap like utorrent is 100% windows junk. The good clients windows users use like Deluge... Linux
Audacity... Linux
Filezilla.... Linux
Handbreak... Linux
Pidgin... Linux
Blender... Linux
Gimp... Linux
Inkscape... Linux
Calibre... Linux
Musescore... Linux
Darktable, and Rawtherepe... Linux
Spotify... I'm going to say Linux seeing as its developed using electron on Linux. To quote from their own site "Spotify for Linux is a labor of love from our engineers that wanted to listen to Spotify on their Linux development machines."
Discord - Android Studio - Netxcloud - Plex - Notepad++ the list goes on and on and on.

Games, Microsoft office... and a ever shrinking number of commercial software like the adobe stuffs. (which isn't even much of an issue anymore as almost all of them are now selling cloud only software or moving that way) Require unofficial APIs to get going... and yes wine is the main unofficial open source win API around. If you really need a local copy of office or adobe stuff ya wine isn't idea but it mostly all runs these days. Games well Valves Wine fork proton is running almost every windows game ever at this point... the number of non running games is getting pretty small. The number of big name titles running at close to parity also grows everyday. Windows games with vulkan native pipes are in fact running faster via proton.

I'm not sure what year you think it is... but the open source movement has won. We win. Average users are using more open source software then commercial... and almost 100% of those projects are developed on and for Linux. That we cross compile our projects for Windows, Android, MacOs, iOS is because we are writing software not political statements. I don't care on what OS you may decide to run software I contributed to. Of course to suggest its going to run poorly on the OS it was developed on is just wrong.
 
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ChadD, most of what you mention is just multi-platform software, and btw FileZilla Server is Windows-only ;) . Most of them are native Windows binaries though.
Yes, most people will prefer free or open source software, I do the same for things I can go with them. I use FF, TB, Filezilla (client only, the server is mediocre quality), and That's it from your list.
Libre office is mediocre and just Ok for basic needs, VLC is buggy as hell (I use Pot), Audacity is mediocre (again Ok for very basic things), Pidgin - tried this multiple times - total crap, Gimp - Ok and this is the "best" for Linux (only latest versions, previous versions were crap) and again cannot compete with what's available on Windows, Inkscape - the same, Calibre - what % of people use such things.., Blender Ok, Handbreak (if you mean Handbrake) - an Ok software, runs on Windows, and there are many alternatives on Windows etc.
What about Discord and Notepad++? I don't use discord (who uses it, only gamers), and Notepad++ is for Windows and I use it forever..
Filezilla (client) again - it's crap and very buggy too although I use it because I use FTP rarely and won't spend money on better clients for now. And using WinSCP even more.
I can put in another larger list here but that's not the topic I believe.
What is shrinkning and whatnot is not something you can say so lightly. And "yeah", you said it right - "mostly runs" is the key behind my point. If I want things to mostly run Ok with plethora of UI inconsistencies and bugs and never ending need to consult forums to know how to do something in the next distro, I would use Linux. While Linux is 10x times less widespread for desktop with all the consequences of that, I won't use it. I have no other reasons to not use it other than already said above. BUT they are key and very major.
I never used Windows Phone and use Android phones, for the same reasons, so I don't love or hate this or that OS implicitly. But I don't use my phone for anything creative.
And... time is money.
 
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I hate to break it to you... for most average windows users most of the software they use is "Linux" software. lol
Chrome's wikipedia article says it was for Windows first.
VLC's site doesn't say what it was for first, and the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are all the same.
FileZilla's server is only for Windows

The rest of the stuff I don't use and most of it I've only vaguely seen in passing. I doubt many "average users" are running Blender or Handbrake etc.

I'm totally ready for the "No true scotsman" so lemme have it at your earliest convenience.
 
I like when someone says they are out of the OS loop for a while, then rants about Windows 10's "spying". Good grief. Use whatever OS fits your needs the most and stop worrying about things that aren't worth worrying about. You're posting this on the internet. You're already dealing with FAR more worrisome concepts that what your OS is doing. There's nothing wrong with Windows 10, as it works very well. There's nothing wrong with switching to Linux, assuming you can find applications to do everything you need to do. My computers are all split up between Windows 10, Windows Server, and two Linux systems. All have their advantages and disadvantages. "Spying" isn't on that list.

I like when someone says they are not worried about OS spying. Reminds me of the boiling frog fable, your rights are slowly being taken away, but when people notice it will be too late, oh well :oops:
 
Chrome's wikipedia article says it was for Windows first.
VLC's site doesn't say what it was for first, and the Windows, Mac, and Linux versions are all the same.
FileZilla's server is only for Windows

The rest of the stuff I don't use and most of it I've only vaguely seen in passing. I doubt many "average users" are running Blender or Handbrake etc.

I'm totally ready for the "No true scotsman" so lemme have it at your earliest convenience.

Chrome was created by google on their own internal Linux OS... and the point is it runs on Windows or Linux and looks the exact same. Log into you google account on Chrome or Chromium even (which is 1000x easier to install on every major Linux distro) and you even have the same plugins download themselves.

VLCs first incarnation was a video streaming server for a french campus that ran Linux... so ya its Linux software. It was later rewritten using cross platform APIs and released under GNU. And again my point is its just software... like most major software projects they have chosen APIs and tools that allow for easy cross platform compilation. Users will notice ZERO difference between windows linux or mac compiles of VLC... cause its the same code.

Filezilla is cross platform. Its been around for 17 years.. is GNU software and is coded in C++ and wxWidgets which allows it to be compiled all the major operating systems with zero code changes. Both client and server are cross compiled for mac linux and windows. It is possible it started aswindows code 17 years back when it was a school project... but it has been GNU licence and cross compiled for at least 15 years or so. (and server also runs fine on LInux... there are just better ways to do the same thing on Linux so most distros don't add it to their official repos)

Your probably correct on handbreak and blender. Power users have heard of both in genearl. Handbreak is in fact a very popular tool used by almost anyone dealing with lots of video. Stuff like Calibre is possibly the best ebook manger on any OS (its on all of them).

In any event you miss the point a bit. My point is simple.. almost all software is coded using cross platform APIs these days cause very few major APIs are not. For many GNU projects the Windows compile version is the most widely used... so sure people can be forgiven for thinking its "windows" software. But I know for a fact (cause I do contribute to a few projects) that most of the work is not done on windows.... and at the end of the day running the software on windows or mac or linux its the same software. When it comes to Linux sure average users would notice the UI differences but they won't notice much difference in most of the softwar they use.
 
If most of widespread everyday basic programs like browsers (FIrefox), etc. are multiplatform, I think macOs is the driving force as it also has much more traction than Linux on the desktop. If once you decide on multiplatform then you make it for Linux too, easily. Multiplatform made thousands of programs run slowly on Windows and other OSes. Java, Electron, other html/css based frameworks... are all Sh*t. Where there is a native version for any OS, it runs Ok.
Also, mass-programs like browsers or basic image manipulation like gimp or basic audio like Audacity cannot be otherwise than free. They have their benefits and use.

Chrome - of course they wouldn't do it and use MS' product like Windows. But guess, it's share on Windows is much bigger. Users don't care where a product is born 'first'. Me too. I use Firefox and wouldn't use MS browser ever again.

VLC and other players... there are much more windows-only players out there and you only mention VLC. why.... because it fits your arguments of course :) .

Filezilla - Server is Windows-only. Why?! Yes, client is multiplatform now.

I can give examples for Windows for many activities and you probably wouldn't know or heard of them. So what.

"almost all software is coded using cross platform APIs...." - what...., maybe almost all basic mass-software. There are many many other softwares that you probably could fool most people into believing it's the only software on the planet... but it's not. And most software that it's worth using for professional needs is mostly Windows, or even mostly linux, depending on many factors. If there is no edition for Windows, there are alternatives for Windows, although paid. Businesses use professional paid software and they require support which is even more important. With open source software your support are forums, other users. Not sure why businesses still prefer the former while they could go with the free software?! Time is money, business needs the work done. This is not your everyday multiplatform browser or mail client. Thunderbird has its flaws and while I hate Outlook, it is (at least was) widely used in enterprises, Exchange etc.

Even if some more-mass-used software is written using high-level multiplatform APIs, your point is known but what does it prove after all..
I can use Linux with firefox and thunderbird minutes after I install any distro.... this doesn't tell anything. Everyone is free to choose if an OS suits them and what they use it for. The average home user doesn't understand 1/00 of what you know about linux or how to fine tune it. Because most fine tuning happens under command prompt (console) and there they can be lost in minutes and the big forums-scavenging starts :) .
 
If most of widespread everyday basic programs like browsers (FIrefox), etc. are multiplatform, I think macOs is the driving force as it also has much more traction than Linux on the desktop. If once you decide on multiplatform then you make it for Linux too, easily. Multiplatform made thousands of programs run slowly on Windows and other OSes. Java, Electron, other html/css based frameworks... are all Sh*t. Where there is a native version for any OS, it runs Ok.
Also, mass-programs like browsers or basic image manipulation like gimp or basic audio like Audacity cannot be otherwise than free. They have their benefits and use.

Chrome - of course they wouldn't do it and use MS' product like Windows. But guess, it's share on Windows is much bigger. Users don't care where a product is born 'first'. Me too. I use Firefox and wouldn't use MS browser ever again.

VLC and other players... there are much more windows-only players out there and you only mention VLC. why.... because it fits your arguments of course :) .

Filezilla - Server is Windows-only. Why?! Yes, client is multiplatform now.

I can give examples for Windows for many activities and you probably wouldn't know or heard of them. So what.

"almost all software is coded using cross platform APIs...." - what...., maybe almost all basic mass-software. There are many many other softwares that you probably could fool most people into believing it's the only software on the planet... but it's not. And most software that it's worth using for professional needs is mostly Windows, or even mostly linux, depending on many factors. If there is no edition for Windows, there are alternatives for Windows, although paid. Businesses use professional paid software and they require support which is even more important. With open source software your support are forums, other users. Not sure why businesses still prefer the former while they could go with the free software?! Time is money, business needs the work done. This is not your everyday multiplatform browser or mail client. Thunderbird has its flaws and while I hate Outlook, it is (at least was) widely used in enterprises, Exchange etc.

Even if some more-mass-used software is written using high-level multiplatform APIs, your point is known but what does it prove after all..
I can use Linux with firefox and thunderbird minutes after I install any distro.... this doesn't tell anything. Everyone is free to choose if an OS suits them and what they use it for. The average home user doesn't understand 1/00 of what you know about linux or how to fine tune it. Because most fine tuning happens under command prompt (console) and there they can be lost in minutes and the big forums-scavenging starts :) .

Cross platform makes things run slower ? ok Clearly you have no idea what your talking. C is C C++ is C++.... not sure why normal users think there is something special about windows. All cross platform means is instead of using MS APIs to create boxes and dialogs or Apples API to drive 3D acceleration ect... the programmers choose APIs that compile on either. Yes I'm sure every unreal game is slower because the publisher if they choose can compile for Mac or Linux. I get it you don't know how software is built its ok. My friend most software is developed on Linux... even a great number of software that ships commercially for windows only. Ages ago developers got sick of MS screwing them over all the time and started moving toward cross platform. MS was known to do stupid things like release a new windows API with brand new calls and new effects, UI looks ect..... and release software for it that they had been working on for in some cases a year or more. Its one method they used to crush competition. (they actually lost suits and paid 10s of millions in judgements over it) They pulled that dirty trick with every new release of MS office for years.... they would release a new version at basically the same time as their latest library updates. Office would have all the cool new stuff for months or years early cause they wouldn't give their competition access to API updates till they released. To make matters worse netscape and opera both sued and won cause as they where able to prove MS was intentionally using slower code paths in their libraries when their software was detected. Since then yes almost every major commercial software that publishes windows software doesn't in fact use any of the MS libraries. Even Adobe has moved away from Win Libraries.... they use QT (yes the same QT used by KDE).

Filezila has been multi plaform for 15 years... and as I have explained in a previous post. Server does run under Linux no problems.... it isn't included in most distros repositories cause Linux has much better solutions. I only mentioned Filezilla because I know through experience that a large number of small buisness types that maintain their own web presence with companies like Go Daddy and the like tend to use filezilla.... no comment on its quality, just a fact. I would say half the small companies I consult for use filezilla to upload stuff to their web host.

I use VLC cause its the most popular video program. SMplayer Mplayer Kodi MPV ect ect ect Linux has no shortage of great video players and most of them are compiled for windows as well... so they get windows use. But lets cut the BS 95% of windows users are running VLC or they use windows media player cause they don't know any better. Either way.... playing videos is not complicated in Linux. Most distros come with VLC installed by default... which makes Linux video playback already 10x better then stock windows.

As far as fine tuning Linux via command prompt ? When is the last time you actually used Linux ? There is no more a need to use the command prompt to do anything then there is in MacOS or Windows. As far as tweaking windows... what do you think regedit is intuitive ? That MSconfig or services.msc are user friendly tweak tools ? Average users are lost no matter what OS we are talking about if you ask them to "tweak" things. You are lost in Linux clearly... and that bothers you. My suggestion is install a modern Distro for yourself and come at it as a humble student. Becoming a Linux "power user" is actually much easier then gaining the same knowledge of windows. The issue really is people that consider themselves windows "power users" can't handle starting at zero.... and really can't handle being told what they know is wrong. IMO yes Linux is easier to deal with... even for new and computer illiterate types. Configs are kept in text files... and in a few easy to find locations (/etc for host wide.. the hidden ~/.config for user specific program configs and /.local/share)

For windows converts the main hurdles are the basics... permissions, case sensitivity mattering, and understanding that C: D: E: are not how real computers designate drives. After a few weeks most people that come at it as a humble student have a pretty good handle on things.
 
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