Windows is faster, better and more usable on my 16" MBP than macOS Big Sur...

[Steve Adams]

To be fair I could say that Windows does not appear that different. I recall they tried to change (windows 8?) and it was a hot mess, think it was trying to be mobile-first or something.

Anyway, one thing I have found over the years and I am sure it applies to an OS. Don't change things unless you really must or can do it without moving elements people are used to.

I remember Microsoft tried to change the menus on Word/Excel and all hell broke loose so they changed it back, or added an option to switch.

They went for TOUCH first which was wrong. But to say windows 10 is exactly like xp is not at all accurate. MacOS has the same menu bar on top, the same dock on bottom and it's only in big sur did they change even the icons in the dock. It's never changed. Microsoft needs to put windows 8 as the tablet mode. it would be great then.

 

[grmlin]

Back when Microsoft announced Fluent as it's new design language I was excited, really. It looked so good in the screenshots etc. they showed. Now, 4 years later, we have some apps that implement it, and a whole lot of stuff that has been untouched for decades (?).
I get that reworking the ui/Windows is a huge project, but it's also Microsoft, not a 10 person indie team. That's why I gave up now.

BTW @Steve Adams. You can't complain that MacOS still has a menu bar at the top and a dock, when Windows does the same thing. It still has a taskbar and window settings menu bars for every window. That makes no sense? Everything is flat now and the UI looks different, but it's still the basic concept of Windows 95. I mean, people freaked out that the start menu went away, so here we are, with another one lol.

 

[Steve Adams]

Back when Microsoft announced Fluent as it's new design language I was excited, really. It looked so good in the screenshots etc. they showed. Now, 4 years later, we have some apps that implement it, and a whole lot of stuff that has been untouched for decades (?).
I get that reworking the ui/Windows is a huge project, but it's also Microsoft, not a 10 person indie team. That's why I gave up now.

BTW @Steve Adams. You can't complain that MacOS still has a menu bar at the top and a dock, when Windows does the same thing. It still has a taskbar and window settings menu bars for every window. That makes no sense? Everything is flat now and the UI looks different, but it's still the basic concept of Windows 95. I mean, people freaked out that the start menu went away, so here we are, with another one lol.

Yes, it still does have a taskbar, start menu and so on. but it's UI is completely different. MacOS has not change it's visual in any way until Big Sur with it's implementation of iOS icons. So YES, I can complain. The "start menu" is completely different than win95 in every way. The Dock on MacOS has been the same since it's inception. What about closing a program using only your mouse. I hit the X and it's Closed out of my system. Do I hit the red minimize button, or the Yellow minimize button on Mac? Either one keeps the program running in the background. There are many ways that MacOS is doing crap just to be different. I get it that's what their fans want. To be different...but exactly the same. Buck the "man" by using apple since it's "hip" and "cool"...yet, Apple's corporation is one of the most corrupt but no one sees it because it's ALL hidden. I find it really funny. I remember when my friend got his first mac. It was a Mac classic. I had my PC. Went to his house as he was crowing about this and that. I was like well can you play this game on it? no. Can you do this? no. Can you do that? no. Look, I can make it say whatever i type....AWESOME. No, it wasn't. He used to come to my house to play games on my PC all the time. Anyhoo. You comparing win 95 to 10's visuals is down right silly.

This,

Looks absolutely NOTHING, like this..

This.

Looks a hell of a lot like this.

Other than colors and a few icon shapes, the dock is exactly the same. the menu bar on the top is exactly the same, Hell, even the red and yellow minimize buttons and the green maximize button are the same. Even the font used.

 

[grmlin]

Well, you can complain as much as you want, of course. I just can't take you seriously anymore.

Windows' base concept is the same as 1995. Just as Big Sur is based on OS X. Only because there are tiles now in the start menu does not mean the start menu is different. It's in the same place, it shows a list of programs, they are grouped. Windows 8 was different, but also a colossal failure.
Compare the dock to the taskbar, which is also basically the same as 1995. Again, with more features and a different design, but that's what you just said about MacOS.

If anything you can complain about Microsoft not being able to port their whole friggin system to the new design. Windows 8 released 2012. Windows 10 is from 2015, and we still mess around with the same old explorer as always, device manager from hell, old system settings, task manager etc. pp. It's ridiculous. While MacOS has it's flaws, of course, at least it's design is somewhat consistent.


The only real progress I see in OS UIs is in stuff like Gnome.

 

[Steve Adams]

No problem. stop replying to me and we will be good.

 

[steelhauler34]

I’ve always thought windows ends up eventually sucking. It always clogs with malware and cache errors becoming sloooow. I drive for a very large freight company and the computers/tablets on our forklifts run windows. They are slow as . We used to have handheld computers that ran windows that were equally horrible. Our new ones are Android and 100x better. To each their own.

 

[maflynn]

I’ve always thought windows ends up eventually sucking. It always clogs with malware and cache errors becoming sloooow.

I've never seen a cache error and windows doesn't just clog up with malware after months/years of usage.

I've got work computers that have been running for years, without any performance issues ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[steelhauler34]

I've never seen a cache error and windows doesn't just clog up with malware after months/years of usage.

I've got work computers that have been running for years, without any performance issues ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Glad you have had better luck. Oh yeah I forgot to add that I bought my wife a dell laptop 4 years ago that is pretty much garbage now.

 

[maflynn]

dell laptop 4 years ago that is pretty much garbage

now.

Sure, but one experience does not equate to an industry wide trend. I can say the same thing for the people who bought a 2011 through 2019 MBPs, the GPUs were garbage causing wide spread failure and of course we all know the issues with the butterfly keyboard.

 

[Steve Adams]

Glad you have had better luck. Oh yeah I forgot to add that I bought my wife a dell laptop 4 years ago that is pretty much garbage now.

Tell her to stay off questionable sites. Malware just don't automatically "clog up" windows machines. It's getting there somehow. It does not just get there, it's directed there. I have this dell, and my wife's dell both purchased in 2017 and both run as fast as they did when they were new becacuse we are careful of what sites we visit. You can clog up macbooks the exact same way. they are not malware or virus proof as the marketing team/fanboy/girls like to crow about.

 

[DaveFromCampbelltown]

Yes, it still does have a taskbar, start menu and so on. but it's UI is completely different. MacOS has not change it's visual in any way until Big Sur with it's implementation of iOS icons. So YES, I can complain. The "start menu" is completely different than win95 in every way. The Dock on MacOS has been the same since it's inception. What about closing a program using only your mouse. I hit the X and it's Closed out of my system. Do I hit the red minimize button, or the Yellow minimize button on Mac? Either one keeps the program running in the background. There are many ways that MacOS is doing crap just to be different. I get it that's what their fans want. To be different...but exactly the same. Buck the "man" by using apple since it's "hip" and "cool"...yet, Apple's corporation is one of the most corrupt but no one sees it because it's ALL hidden. I find it really funny. I remember when my friend got his first mac. It was a Mac classic. I had my PC. Went to his house as he was crowing about this and that. I was like well can you play this game on it? no. Can you do this? no. Can you do that? no. Look, I can make it say whatever i type....AWESOME. No, it wasn't. He used to come to my house to play games on my PC all the time. Anyhoo. You comparing win 95 to 10's visuals is down right silly.

This,

Looks absolutely NOTHING, like this..

This.

Looks a hell of a lot like this.

Other than colors and a few icon shapes, the dock is exactly the same. the menu bar on the top is exactly the same, Hell, even the red and yellow minimize buttons and the green maximize button are the same. Even the font used.

Yes, and there is a reason for that. You can find what you want to run, no matter what version of Windows or macOS you are running.

Just imagine if every time Ford or GM brought out a new model that the dashboard, steering, handbrake and pedals were re-arranged. There needs to be consistency in design, with incremental improvements. That's what you are demonstrating with your Windows and macOS screenshots.

ps, I had forgotten that IE was on early versions of macOS.

BTW, Win95 does look similar to, but less developed than, Win 10.

 

[steelhauler34]

Tell her to stay off questionable sites. Malware just don't automatically "clog up" windows machines. It's getting there somehow. It does not just get there, it's directed there. I have this dell, and my wife's dell both purchased in 2017 and both run as fast as they did when they were new becacuse we are careful of what sites we visit. You can clog up macbooks the exact same way. they are not malware or virus proof as the marketing team/fanboy/girls like to crow about.

Yet I had a 2009 Mac that I got rid of last year because my clumsy self broke the screen. That computer had none of the same issues. My description has been my life experience with windows. Only good for a very finite time then work must be done to get it running again. Heck back in the early 2000’s I can’t tell you how many times I completely wiped, formatted and reloaded everything on my hard drive. The iMac was the best computer purchase I have made. I can’t talk my wife into spending the coin. She would rather restore her dell to a half arse running speed. I have no need for a computer anymore with today’s smart phones. I’m glad you guys like windows it’s fine. Different strokes for different folks. You do you I’ll do me.

 

[bousozoku]

OH MY. Thanks for reminding me, the 16" boots faster into windows 10, than macOS. macOS boot times are always so slow compared to Windows boot time and I am saying using the same machine.
Oh and macOS updates take forever, longer than Windows updates even.

That's odd. My mid-2012 MacBook Pro (3rd generation quad-core i7) on Catalina boots as fast as my 2018 Omen by HP (7th generation quad-core i7) with Windows 10.

 

[MBAir2010]

Windows 10 is running excellent on the Dell XPS and much easier to use than Mojave at times.
everything starts great, runs great and saving, moving files are very relaxing.
little things like screen saver and video are auto saved with a name, not a random 12234img.
what really opened up my ears is how music is easier and deeper.
the integration between the Dell XPS and Bose sound dock is quick and effortlessly.

do they still make itunes anymore?

 

[grmlin]

Windows 10 is running excellent on the Dell XPS and much easier to use than Mojave at times.
everything starts great, runs great and saving, moving files are very relaxing.
little things like screen saver and video are auto saved with a name, not a random 12234img.
what really opened up my ears is how music is easier and deeper.
the integration between the Dell XPS and Bose sound dock is quick and effortlessly.

do they still make itunes anymore?

I use iTunes for Apple Music and it's a terrible example of software history. It's really bad.

 

[MBAir2010]

I use iTunes for Apple Music and it's a terrible example of software history. It's really bad.

itunes is not bad,
some aspects are great,
the platform is just very embedded in that apple selfish garden
were one needs to log in,
enter password, (better be %100 correct)
type in code,
allow location,
put down the ipad,
press start-
now what album did i want to listen to?
then when things do work, and the music is playing-
itunes acts up, the spinning and bluetooth cuts songs way to much.

this annoying itunes music playback experience started acting up in OSX in 2004, Jaguar imac-
and continues in Mojave MBA

 

[grmlin]

itunes is not bad,
some aspects are great,
the platform is just very embedded in that apple selfish garden
were one needs to log in,
enter password, (better be %100 correct)
type in code,
allow location,
put down the ipad,
press start-
now what album did i want to listen to?
then when things do work, and the music is playing-
itunes acts up, the spinning and bluetooth cuts songs way to much.

iTunes on Windows is bad, like objectively bad. It's slow, it's clunky, it's terribly outdated. I was much better on MacOS.

I would use the web player of Apple Music but every time I open it in a browser my screen goes black lol. Some HDMI security nonsense I think, never could fix that. Also my media keys don't work with it.

 

[MysticCow]

My mini in the siggy down there runs Win 10 almost 100% of the time.

I rarely go back to macOS 10.13. There are exceptions to this rule on the mini (like using Keynote, which I adore, or to record in QuickTime because it's so friggin easy). Most of the time, though, it's Win 10 running. It's not clogged with crap. It runs smoothly. It is also supported in Win 10, unlike the macOS. And being supported is more important than staying on the macOS 100% of the time.

All that being said, those M1 minis and even the higher end Air or lower end M1 MBP are certainly tempting. They will likely be my next new system with the 2011 mini still running Win 10.

 

[mi7chy]

That's odd. My mid-2012 MacBook Pro (3rd generation quad-core i7) on Catalina boots as fast as my 2018 Omen by HP (7th generation quad-core i7) with Windows 10.

My MBA M1 boots about two times slower without fingerprint and trackpad gestures at login than a Windows laptop that costs less than half with working fingerprint and trackpad gestures at login. At least Big Sur 11.3.1 fixed the few second delay before you could type in your password.

 

[c0ppo]

Well, you can complain as much as you want, of course. I just can't take you seriously anymore.

I don't take him seriously for a long time now

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Windows 10 is great... when I try to install it on a bare bone new system, the installer tells me it might have to create additional partitions. Sure Windows, go ahead and do that. Only to tell me then that one partition out of the four it created is formatted in NTFS but needs to be FAT32. Ok, well, I didn't do that, Windows did. But let's klick on Ok to fix that to be kicked out of the installer and start all over again instead of just fixing the problem. Great job Windows!

Of course even if that is fixed, it still won't install. New error message saying it can't go to the next phase of installation without saying why. Of course it's quitting the installer then to start from scratch again. Great job Windows!

Digging deeper into this reveals several potential causes for this, no one knows which is responsible. Reminds me of the old Linux vs. Windows server administrations issues where Windows Server admins randomly clicked on everything until the problem was solved only to create two new problems while Linux admins analyzed the problem and fixed it without creating further havoc. At some point I should write a book about how MS certified partners couldn't solve problems and even MS techs didn't know what's the cause. Many years ago one of our engineers constantly encountered a blue screen and tried to solve the issue with MS, only to be told by MS he should write a detailed report including screenshots, but not use Word for it as sending Word documents to MS could pose a security risk for them. 😂
But I digress.

So fixing the issue with the most common cause seems to be there's too much connected to the system and one should start by removing devices... eh, like what? I have a mainboard, CPU, two RAM sticks, a GPU, two NVMe, a mouse and keyboard. What should I remove for an installation? Maybe I should try to install it without the CPU or RAM? 🙄
Great job Windows!

Further digging on several reddit threads, it seems like the Windows installer is totally confused by two brand new NVMes at the same time as those could potentially both serve as identical UEFI partition layouts. The recommendation is to physically remove one NVMe until the installation is complete, then putting it back in again. Great job Windows.

Last week, it took me a whole ten minutes to install Ubuntu on a Dell system. Truly great job Ubuntu!

Onto the NVMe removal...

 

[Steve Adams]

I have never had any of those issues.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

I've done a fair share of Windows installations in the past 30 years or so. With some I had no problems at all, others gave me issues which took a couple of hours to sort out. This is on a new level. Removing one NVMe didn't solve the problem. Windows just refuses to install with various errors. I'm not alone as it seems, as various threads on different forums show people having issues. It's a Gigabyte mainboard with z490 chipset, so nothing exotic there. Could be any type of combination of BIOS version and NVMe firmware, etc. So far I've tried Samsung and Crucial NVMe.

What's puzzling is that Ubuntu, Arch and even macOS / Hackintosh are working without any problem at all. Onto the firmware now...

 

[mi7chy]

I prefer Plex because of its usability, syncing and appearance. The beautiful rich metadata is wonderful. But yeah I tried Kodi its also great but I don't like how it looks seems its still stuck in 2010s looks wise.

The pretty UI is nice to have but you only look at it for a few secs when launching a movie versus proper playback for an hour or two duration of movie which is more important. Last time I tried Plex it needlessly transcoded my movies when hardware decoding is available so I switched to Emby which handles it better.

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Last time I tried Plex it needlessly transcoded my movies when hardware decoding is available so I switched to Emby which handles it better.

Well, that's up to you and the client side hardware you're using. If the hardware is not up to decode the original stream or bandwidth is not high enough, it will transcode. Or you might have the wrong settings activated. Bottom line is, if the hardware is up to it and you have the correct settings Plex can work without transcoding. I'm still not using it though. 😂