Hot take, but IMO Windows has far more respect for the user than Linux does.
Everything is far more QA'd (and designed to be QA-able) and at least tries to minimise user frustration. There are exceptions to this, like "suggestions" in the Start menu, but outside of this it's designed in a user-first way.
(Desktop) Linux, on the other hand, seems to be more of an intellectual experiment designed to please the people who are writing it rather than a consumer-focused product. Performing basic tasks are unnecessarily complex, entire design paradigms are thrown out on a whim and compatibility issues continually arise because there's no single dominant standard.
Respect for the user…
While it forces a reboot
While it tries to trick you in to upgrading to 11
While it sends huge amounts of telemetry to Microsoft
When it forces you to sign up for an non-local account
When it use dark patterns to get you to use Edge and upgrade to Windows 10
When it forces updates on Home users
…
At a certain point though, I’d say forcing users to install critical security updates is the user-centered option.
So, in conclusion, no, an OS taking control off my hands forcefully is not user-centered, no matter how much in programming circles updates are seen as "crucial". Nothing is more crucial than the computer being predictable to its owner.
However, the forced reboots are trivial to disable in Group Policy.
This Windows computer doesn't force reboots (though it does nag me), it hasn't tried to trick me to upgrade to 11, it isn't sending telemetry to MS, it has never forced me to sign up for a non-local account.
I think it does force security updates on me, which I think is clearly pro-user, though arguably not respectful.
I also decided to use Edge to access my job's shitty Outlook stuff, and every ten minutes Edge tries to trick me into doing something, including but not restricted to making itself the default (you can pry my Firefox from my cold dead...). Until I decided to try Edge, it has not ever done anything to try to get me to use Edge.
That said, I'm not agreeing with GP that Windows "has more respect for the user than Linux does", that just seems confused to me. But I also think that I read a lot of criticism of Windows that seems laughable.
Recently though, I had to reinstall Windows to do something, and I could not find a way to create a local account at all. AFAIK they removed the option now, or made it much harder to find.
How? Literally even LTSC builds have some amounts of telemetry. Are you running some nonstandard build of Windows?
On Linux, I have to spend days to months figuring out how to port code to the latest snowflake distro flavor dependency. And that's something that takes an software skilled individual, imagine how disrespected your average user is in this process.
Honestly can't tell if you're joking, but I guess yes. Linux is the most stable OS I've ever used. There's a reason most mission critical and online services that require constant uptime run almost exclusively on Linux.
Windows used to have a nice GUI attached to a mostly unstable system. That was 20 years ago. Now Windows feels like a predatory product that's borderline unusable.
That argument only applies to servers. Places where you don't need to wrangle x11, the audio stack, gpu drivers for less common cards, conflicting gtk and qt versions for different apps you might use on a whim, hidpi support in old apps, theming issues... I've no idea how many of these are still a plague these days, but they certainly have been for long.
Servers are way more predictable linux configurations.
For desktop, win32 is as solid as it gets (too bad it's shipped within a desktop filled with increasingly many dark patterns).
I can't remember the last time I had a problem with linux as a desktop, everything just works. Of course, framework makes sure it does, just like every other manufacturer of laptops does with windows.
EDIT: multi-monitor support, bluetooth headset, printing, various audio devices, etc: this is all just plug and play in my experience, feels much smoother than on windows.
That’s not to say it’s not still Linux, there will be some tinkering. But compared to a decade ago there’s way less banging my head against the wall.
If you’re already competent in administration Linux you might find it’s time to revisit the desktop.
What year is this post from?
You’re talking about servers, while the comment you’re responding to is about desktop usage.
You need to be more specific about what desktop Linux flavours aren't holding up in your eyes because window managers like XFCE and Cinnamon are bulletproof as far as I'm concerned and I've never had issues with them. Especially XFCE.
> there's no single dominant standard.
This is a common criticism and I totally get you here. Not knowing what's going to work for you is annoying and truthfully, no one really wants to shop around for window managers and the only reason I know what's good in the first place is because I spent weeks in my youth test driving everything available, something I no longer have the energy for.
I feel like windows is deliberate about being user hostile. Just because they're very slick about being user hostile doesn't make it any different.
Linux feels like someone with my best interests at heart made a good attempt and half succeeded.
then I just downloaded a program that let me disable it, and I also disabled the firewall
but without the firewall service, I can't get updates (why is that service a pre-requisite for updates?), and I forgot how to re-enable it because I don't remember what program I used to disable it since it's some hack anyway
so now my Windows partition is not really usable, and I'm typing this on Linux where I can just change stuff without breaking everything
There is no such thing as a single Linux experience, each distribution targets different personas and goals.
If you want a curated Linux desktop experience, then try Elementary OS. It is very aligned to a Mac experience.
Yeah no. You often need to install extensions to get icons on the desktop etc., which break when you upgrade Gnome. Talk about user-hostile design.
