If you don't actively "dislike" Windows, no need to post a defense; in fact, you can make a "reasons you like Windows" thread if you want.
But for the rest of us, this thread is a chance to list the specific reasons we dislike Windows. I can't tell you what to write, but I want to request that people, as a general rule, avoid bashing Microsoft unless it directly affects their perception of the OS and its usability.
So here goes... my reasons: (BTW, I was a Windows-only use for over a decade, starting with 3.11 and until XP)
1) Stability: I know, some people have run XP for 45 years and never experienced a single crash, freeze, or hiccup (I know, I'm exaggerating). Well, for me, it just doesn't happen that way. Every version of Windows since I started back in 3.11 has crashed, frozen, hiccuped, burped, farted, and all that stuff. Constant problems, driver conflicts, incompatibility issues, countless error messages, failure to shut down, etc.
2) Security: Just this week, when I logged into my XP partition to play Counter-Strike, I found that it had three viruses and a piece of spyware. I had to fight it for about an hour, rebooting and re-running my anti-whatever software. In Mac OS X, I never use any of that stuff and never get any problems, EVER.
3) ActiveX: I hate it. I think it's a bad idea. It doesn't make my system any more stable, and it's a trapdoor for trojan horses and other malware.
4) The registry: Gosh I hate that thing so much. Sure, it's gotten better than it used to be, but it's a little haven for programs to hide data, like shareware limits, trojan information, spyware stuff, etc. I hate knowing how bloated and loaded with crap it gets from people's poorly designed software (Microsoft included).
5) IE: Yes, it's the dreaded bane of the internet. It's gotten better, as all things hopefully have and should, but it's still numero uno for malware to get into your system. I don't like how it operates in general, and it is not as stable on any of my previous systems as Firefox has been.
6) Browser integration with the system: If IE were just a separate piece of garbage software, that's fine. But no, it's gotta be invariably linked with the OS itself. Ever tried to force close IE? Why does the darn browser have to be an integral part of the OS? Hello, anyone thinking some thoughts about virus and malware open doors?
7) Active Desktop: That was just always a horrible idea. Even Microsoft knew that, and whenever your system crashed, it would auto-reset the Active desktop to off and put a warning on your desktop that said something like, "This may have been part of the problem." Why is it even an option? It's another horrible idea.
8) DLLs: Oh my goodness, I'm STILL getting DLL error messages. After fighting the virus/malware that I had, I get three back-to-back DLL error messages every time I boot up XP. Does anything seem affected? Nope. But I get totally random error messages about these DLLs. DLL-hell.
9) Meaningless error messages: I just "love" how Windows tells you stuff about your system errors: "Runcode error 371947490120000030120000. Please repair appropriate files." I'm obviously exaggerating, but the error messages are often worthless.
10) Driver issues: Why in the name of all that is good does Windows have to take so long to recognize a simple USB hub? It's not a powered hub, it offers nothing but 4 USB ports. No switches, no software came with it, it's just a simple hub. Yet, Windows has to go through several screens of information to "install" it. It pops up tons of nag windows telling me about every slow and painful step of the process. OS X? It just instantly works. Heck, Windows still keeps claiming to find "new hardware" even though I haven't added or removed anything in months! What the heck? And worse yet, it often somehow "forgets" that it already installed my mouse, and installs it again. The funny thing is, it's a gosh darn Microsoft mouse!
11) Lack of international features: This may not affect most of you, but Windows has been horrible about international use. If you come to Japan, buy a laptop, and then try to switch it to English, it ain't gonna happen. Not a problem for me, I'm mostly bilingual, but my friends constantly come to me asking me how to switch Windows XP to English. It can't be done. In fact, if they want their English Windows copy to be able to display Japanese font, they need to do a separate installation with the disc of that data, and it's not a very straightforward process. In Mac OS X, I can switch back and forth between languages of my choice with less than 6 clicks of the mouse. Even more, bundled applications will also switch languages, such as Safari, iTunes, iChat, and iPhoto!
12) Japanese font: it looks HORRIBLE on Windows. The basic font that shows in IE and Firefox on Windows looks horribly rigid, and it is difficult to read at anything below 16 point font. Complex characters become blobs of black ink. In OS X, it looks beautiful and maintains relative accuracy even at some smaller font sizes. Plus, having the ability to type in both languages doesn't force another space-consuming bar onto my desktop in Mac OS X (it's just a little box in the menu bar). Japanese language, like most languages, also comes pre-installed on OS X.
13) Security warnings: Yes, not the biggest deal, but I hate the constant warnings. I hate Leopard's new warning about downloaded programs, too.
14) Perhaps the king of crap: WPA. Windows Product Activation is one of the biggest pains in the butt ever to come out of Microsoft (other than Windows). I can't stand how inane it is. Sure, if Windows worked just fine the first time, maybe I wouldn't have to reinstall it several times. But why do I need to call and get permission from Microsoft to use a product that I legally purchased? Why? Because Microsoft treats each and every customer like a gosh darn criminal. And let me say this: everyone I know who was determined to get an illegal copy of Windows XP did it. Yes, they did it, despite WPA. And everyone I know who planned to buy it, bought it. Of course those who legally bought it, they didn't appreciate the WPA. To be honest, I used a technique to get around the protection on my own legally purchased copy! Why? Cause I was tired of fighting it each time I reinstalled Windows.
15) Restarts. I despise how often Windows needs me to restart for the simplest thing. "Your new mouse has been installed. Restart for changes to take affect." Again, that is an exaggeration, but you get the point.
16) Wireless internet connections can't seem to connect very well unless everything is set up and running smooth before I boot Windows. If I connect my ADSL modem after Windows has loaded up, it just can't recognize it and connect properly.
17) The taskbar. I don't like it. Sure, it's smaller than the Dock, but if you have more than just a few apps open, it's hard to see what's what. Instead of a big icon that is easily recognizable, they have small tiny icons with the emphasis on the text label. Well, the text quickly gets truncated into almost nothing, so you have no clue what the heck it is.
18) The beeps. Windows loves to beep or make some derivative sound thereof for every little error. If there's a window that you must respond to, and you click outside of it, "GONG!!!" Sometimes, before it crashes, my computer makes a strange click noise for every single minute movement of the mouse cursor!
19) XP (and previous) search functionality. Searching your HDD was a chore, and it was a big ordeal. It was horribly slow and bulky, and it just wasn't fun in the least.
20) The look and feel. Windows XP, even with themes, just still had that junky old "gray box PC" feel to it. The ancient-looking boxes and lines with rigid, boring graphics. Dull colors with dull interfaces, especially after looking at OS X Aqua.
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OK, there's more, but I think 20 is a good stopping point. What do you dislike about Windows?
But for the rest of us, this thread is a chance to list the specific reasons we dislike Windows. I can't tell you what to write, but I want to request that people, as a general rule, avoid bashing Microsoft unless it directly affects their perception of the OS and its usability.
So here goes... my reasons: (BTW, I was a Windows-only use for over a decade, starting with 3.11 and until XP)
1) Stability: I know, some people have run XP for 45 years and never experienced a single crash, freeze, or hiccup (I know, I'm exaggerating). Well, for me, it just doesn't happen that way. Every version of Windows since I started back in 3.11 has crashed, frozen, hiccuped, burped, farted, and all that stuff. Constant problems, driver conflicts, incompatibility issues, countless error messages, failure to shut down, etc.
2) Security: Just this week, when I logged into my XP partition to play Counter-Strike, I found that it had three viruses and a piece of spyware. I had to fight it for about an hour, rebooting and re-running my anti-whatever software. In Mac OS X, I never use any of that stuff and never get any problems, EVER.
3) ActiveX: I hate it. I think it's a bad idea. It doesn't make my system any more stable, and it's a trapdoor for trojan horses and other malware.
4) The registry: Gosh I hate that thing so much. Sure, it's gotten better than it used to be, but it's a little haven for programs to hide data, like shareware limits, trojan information, spyware stuff, etc. I hate knowing how bloated and loaded with crap it gets from people's poorly designed software (Microsoft included).
5) IE: Yes, it's the dreaded bane of the internet. It's gotten better, as all things hopefully have and should, but it's still numero uno for malware to get into your system. I don't like how it operates in general, and it is not as stable on any of my previous systems as Firefox has been.
6) Browser integration with the system: If IE were just a separate piece of garbage software, that's fine. But no, it's gotta be invariably linked with the OS itself. Ever tried to force close IE? Why does the darn browser have to be an integral part of the OS? Hello, anyone thinking some thoughts about virus and malware open doors?
7) Active Desktop: That was just always a horrible idea. Even Microsoft knew that, and whenever your system crashed, it would auto-reset the Active desktop to off and put a warning on your desktop that said something like, "This may have been part of the problem." Why is it even an option? It's another horrible idea.
8) DLLs: Oh my goodness, I'm STILL getting DLL error messages. After fighting the virus/malware that I had, I get three back-to-back DLL error messages every time I boot up XP. Does anything seem affected? Nope. But I get totally random error messages about these DLLs. DLL-hell.
9) Meaningless error messages: I just "love" how Windows tells you stuff about your system errors: "Runcode error 371947490120000030120000. Please repair appropriate files." I'm obviously exaggerating, but the error messages are often worthless.
10) Driver issues: Why in the name of all that is good does Windows have to take so long to recognize a simple USB hub? It's not a powered hub, it offers nothing but 4 USB ports. No switches, no software came with it, it's just a simple hub. Yet, Windows has to go through several screens of information to "install" it. It pops up tons of nag windows telling me about every slow and painful step of the process. OS X? It just instantly works. Heck, Windows still keeps claiming to find "new hardware" even though I haven't added or removed anything in months! What the heck? And worse yet, it often somehow "forgets" that it already installed my mouse, and installs it again. The funny thing is, it's a gosh darn Microsoft mouse!
11) Lack of international features: This may not affect most of you, but Windows has been horrible about international use. If you come to Japan, buy a laptop, and then try to switch it to English, it ain't gonna happen. Not a problem for me, I'm mostly bilingual, but my friends constantly come to me asking me how to switch Windows XP to English. It can't be done. In fact, if they want their English Windows copy to be able to display Japanese font, they need to do a separate installation with the disc of that data, and it's not a very straightforward process. In Mac OS X, I can switch back and forth between languages of my choice with less than 6 clicks of the mouse. Even more, bundled applications will also switch languages, such as Safari, iTunes, iChat, and iPhoto!
12) Japanese font: it looks HORRIBLE on Windows. The basic font that shows in IE and Firefox on Windows looks horribly rigid, and it is difficult to read at anything below 16 point font. Complex characters become blobs of black ink. In OS X, it looks beautiful and maintains relative accuracy even at some smaller font sizes. Plus, having the ability to type in both languages doesn't force another space-consuming bar onto my desktop in Mac OS X (it's just a little box in the menu bar). Japanese language, like most languages, also comes pre-installed on OS X.
13) Security warnings: Yes, not the biggest deal, but I hate the constant warnings. I hate Leopard's new warning about downloaded programs, too.
14) Perhaps the king of crap: WPA. Windows Product Activation is one of the biggest pains in the butt ever to come out of Microsoft (other than Windows). I can't stand how inane it is. Sure, if Windows worked just fine the first time, maybe I wouldn't have to reinstall it several times. But why do I need to call and get permission from Microsoft to use a product that I legally purchased? Why? Because Microsoft treats each and every customer like a gosh darn criminal. And let me say this: everyone I know who was determined to get an illegal copy of Windows XP did it. Yes, they did it, despite WPA. And everyone I know who planned to buy it, bought it. Of course those who legally bought it, they didn't appreciate the WPA. To be honest, I used a technique to get around the protection on my own legally purchased copy! Why? Cause I was tired of fighting it each time I reinstalled Windows.
15) Restarts. I despise how often Windows needs me to restart for the simplest thing. "Your new mouse has been installed. Restart for changes to take affect." Again, that is an exaggeration, but you get the point.
16) Wireless internet connections can't seem to connect very well unless everything is set up and running smooth before I boot Windows. If I connect my ADSL modem after Windows has loaded up, it just can't recognize it and connect properly.
17) The taskbar. I don't like it. Sure, it's smaller than the Dock, but if you have more than just a few apps open, it's hard to see what's what. Instead of a big icon that is easily recognizable, they have small tiny icons with the emphasis on the text label. Well, the text quickly gets truncated into almost nothing, so you have no clue what the heck it is.
18) The beeps. Windows loves to beep or make some derivative sound thereof for every little error. If there's a window that you must respond to, and you click outside of it, "GONG!!!" Sometimes, before it crashes, my computer makes a strange click noise for every single minute movement of the mouse cursor!
19) XP (and previous) search functionality. Searching your HDD was a chore, and it was a big ordeal. It was horribly slow and bulky, and it just wasn't fun in the least.
20) The look and feel. Windows XP, even with themes, just still had that junky old "gray box PC" feel to it. The ancient-looking boxes and lines with rigid, boring graphics. Dull colors with dull interfaces, especially after looking at OS X Aqua.
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OK, there's more, but I think 20 is a good stopping point. What do you dislike about Windows?
