I have been using Windows since 1993 and I really don’t like it. It’s not very simple to explain what is really wrong with Windows. I am sure that many people like it, others hate it and many just are used to it. For me technology has one goal: To make our lives better. I strongly believe in ecosystems that offer a complete feature set that allows people to use various devices in a way that everything works together, connected and not disconnected. When I look at Windows (the version doesn’t really matter), I see a big disconnect. I see no real ecosystem in place.
There is no tight integration of hardware and software and that is one of my major pain points when discussing and evaluating Windows. For people that do not care about having a deep integration across any computing device, then Windows is ok. For everybody else, Apple is the much better choice.
Some typical examples where this integration is lacking in the Windows world are:
- You want to edit a video? No standard app in the OS is available. You have to download and use a 3rd party, which most of the times sucks (unless it is Adobe Premiere of course, but that costs quite a lot of money). In the Apple work you have iMovie literally everywhere.
- You want to stream your videos to your TV from your Windows PC? Of course you can do that, but you would have to use some kind of 3rd party casting hardware and software combination, which of course is totally disconnected from everything else you are using.
- You want to have you picture library synced, your albums synced across all your devices? Just use OneDrive for a week and try to do that and you will understand that it is just bad and not deeply integrated into the OS.
- You want to start writing a document on your tablet and then continue on your desktop computer? Not possible. You would have to save the document (or use auto save in OneDrive), open the document on your second computer and then continue editing.
- You want to use your smart watch to listen to your favorite playlist you created on any other device you own? Not possible
The list goes on and on. Windows is good if you use it disconnected from your life. If you see your devices as separate and do not understand the benefits of integration. If you want to use O365 and the Office apps then Windows is good. The problems of Windows though are deep and cannot be solved by a new version.
The major issue I see is that the hardware is just not up to par with what Apple is making. I have used a lot of Surface computers and I am tired of their issues, which are just unacceptable. Drivers issues, power management issues, lag issues…Windows is not smooth, it has never been. I understand that many people use them for specific scenarios and that businesses will not stop buying Windows PCs or developing for Windows, but in my personal life I do not see a place for Windows. Gaming is something that many people love doing on Windows. I just use my PlayStation 5 for all of my gaming. I don’t need a PC for that and I certainly wouldn’t get one just for gaming. (But that’s just me)
Windows 11 from a feature perspective doesn’t really bring a lot of changes. Yes, a somewhat new interface and some great Windows snapping options (which I would love to see on the Mac too), but apart from that the ecosystem stays the same. Having the ability to run Android apps on Windows doesn’t change anything. Just remember how bad most Android tablet apps are and imagine them running on a Windows desktop or laptop…No point in doing that and Microsoft should have known better.
The teams integration in the OS is interesting, but Teams must improve a lot if people are going to start using it in their personal lives. Teams is an enterprise application and is difficult to see it as a personal conferencing and chatting software.
So, I am not excited at all but I was never the target group of Microsoft.
