Long ago, I attempted to upgrade my laptop to W8.1. I was only able to recover from the resulting catastrophic crash and BSOD by ultimately reinstalling W8.0. Functionality has been okay, but usable and stable.
I immediately disabled any and all automatic updates from MS and went along my damaged way. Then I started getting messages along the lines of “Hey, you really should update to 8.1, because unicorns!” I always clicked the ‘ask me later’ button because there is never a ‘go fuck yourselves’ button for some reason.
This went on for about a year, and then yesterday arrived. A message pops up, saying in effect, “Okay, motherfucker, you’ve put up a good fight, but now we’re going to insert our plague-ridden software where the sun don’t shine. “Ask me later?” Those days are over, you poor dumb bastard. You’re going to take it, and you’re going to like it, and we’ll give you a maximum of four hours in case you want to visit your priest for an exorcism attempt.”
So I backed up everything to the external drive (once burned and all that), the computer shut down, and when I went to bed last night, it was still only at 82% complete. I had no hope for a successful outcome.
This morning, to my surprise, there was a screen asking about my wi-fi connection and a bit of trouble getting a connection, but otherwise things seem to be functioning. Still and all, it’s a pretty high-handed thing for MS to do. If I don’t want your buggy software, I should be able to tell you to fuck off, not just have to bend over.
I’ve been a PC user all my life, and if this trend continues, I will quit.
I need to be able to say no to products.
I don’t want to change over to a subscription service. I don’t want computer games that only work if you are online. I don’t want micropay. I don’t want to purchase any product or any service that requires regular payments.
Here’s the deal, I hand you the money, you hand me the software, and I retain full control over when and where that software runs, when it stops running, when or if it updates.
I will become a mac user, or I will figure out linux. I will cease buying literally all video games. I have rarely bought one over the past 10 years anyway. I will ensure that Microsoft receives exactly zero pennies from me for the rest of my life, and I will teach all of my friends how to switch over and be happy once I have done so.
Keep fucking with your customers, microsoft, and it will be the end for you.
Let he who is without sin, curse the first Apple. Apple is not without its problems, believe me. I dumped my PC last year and bought an iMac for desk use. It’s a beautiful machine, but Apple is arrogant and selfish about playing well with others’ software. This to the point to where I am extremely reluctant to completely cut MS out of my life. So I keep buying Windows-based laptops to make sure I can still access all my old Office documents. Then I go through all the agony of getting rid of all the crapware loaded up by the vendor, and the misery of transferring files and reacquiring peripheral applications. Fucking computers.
I’m seriously considering jumping to linux. Microsoft seems to think they own my computer, which infuriates me. Every new “advance” since Windows 7 seems to be as obnoxious, offensive, and intrusive as possible.
I’m in the same boat. I’m really fucking irritated that Windows 10 won’t let me install updates when I want to, and in fact, it even wakes my laptop up from sleep in the middle of night install updates and reboot it. Not fucking acceptable.
I’ve taken to marking my wi-fi connection as metered, which for now stops Windows from downloading updates over it. Unfortunately, it probably has other side effects I haven’t noticed yet.
I actually considered getting a mac, but I extrapolate from iOS’s way of irritating the fuck out of me with updates that it won’t be a lot better.
So where does that leave me? Linux? I’m reluctant, but I may end up going that way. I don’t see a lot of other options.
I bought a Windows 7 machine while I still could and they will pry its smoking corpse from my shaking hands.
Course that’s the kids computer. I use a MacBook. whistles happily Apple ain’t perfect, but it sure as shit ain’t Microsoft. It takes “no” for an answer and I am staying with them so long as they do so.
Just to be safe - fuck you Microsoft, and your little dog too.
I’m surprised at people suggesting Apple is better: their model more or less forces you to upgrade because not only do they nag you to death if you don’t do so, more and more things simply stop working till you do.
I tend to the view that MS noticed that people would put up with Apple’s shit, and so decided to adopt the same strategy.
I hope we all learn to stop pissing and moaning about computers someday but I doubt it. You don’t like Windows? Well Windows evolved to be like OSX with how it handles updates, its general intrusiveness, and obsession with keeping you in their environment. You don’t like either? Well every Linux based system comes with the cost of hours of searching on forums to correct this or that error message. What do you get for all that effort? You get unpolished shitty software.
So yeah Windows forces you to install updates. It’s updating to keep the system stable and keep your shitty computer maintenance habits from affecting the rest of us. It isn’t deleting your stolen Milli Vanilli mp3’s, it isn’t sending a list of your porn bookmarks to MS, it isn’t monitoring you and sending your data to the NSA, it isn’t saying you don’t deserve to be a control freak. It’s just minimizing the risk of living in a world like the 90s when all of your operating system stereotypes were developed you cranky old geezers.
Even this machine, which I use for the internet, isn’t connected more than half the time. We have two machines that are never connected to the internet. How the hell does that affect you?
The machines that does connect have a firewall and anti-virus software. We do deep scans weekly, more often if we have suspicions of a problem, and regular back ups. Is that “shitty” maintenance? How does it affect YOU?
Maybe we should have people unlock your front door and test your bathroom for disease, so it doesn’t affect the rest of us, and clean it if it isn’t as sanitary as an operating room. Maybe we should have people unlock your front door and inspect your kitchen, removing any food that isn’t superhealthy and forcing you to eat only nutritionally balanced glop so your “shitty” eating habits don’t affect the rest of us. Maybe we shouldn’t let you drive so your “shitty” habits don’t affect the rest of us. See where there is going?
You’re excusing a corporate intrusion into the lives of private individuals. You don’t have an issue with this? I think you should shut the fuck up so your opinions don’t affect the rest of us.
On the one hand I kind of understand why they want everyone to have the latest version of their software, so they don’t have to deal with the chaos of so many different places they have to fix the same bug.
On the other hand their new interfaces, relocating or disabling of features, and forced updates that can have frustrating incompatibilities, are a bastard and I hate them for it.
I don’t even mind that eventually you have to update, for me it’s that the duration of “eventually” is way too short, and the end state of “oh, we just did it for you, kk?” is unacceptable. I’ve got a desktop in my basement office that I specifically set up so that it idles at super low power. Most of my hardcore “hide-in-the-office-all-day” gaming is on weekends these days, but I leave it on during the week and wake it remotely as needed to stream games/music/video to my TV or laptop. It’s great because my laptop is a Mac, I’ve got a cheap Linux box hooked up to the TV and sound system, and I can play any PC Steam games or anything else in any room with no trouble at all.
… except now I have Win 10. So at least once a month, and generally two or three times, I sit down to do something and nothing works. Because instead of sitting there at low/no power usage ready to be awakened, with Steam and iTunes and Plex all ready to go, it’s sitting on that stupid frigging login screen that isn’t actually a login screen but just adds and extra click through, and it’s been idling at three or four times as much power for the last 15 hours because to make my preferred remote-wake solution work I have it set to never-suspend-on-your-own. The worst part is that it always gets me. You’d think I’d get used to checking it first, but nope, it’s been working for several years, I always assume it works. And then I get to uncuddle with wife / get out of bed / run down stairs / seethe at Win 10 the whole time. I can’t even imagine how much worse it would be if I had kids to get frustrated when their stuff doesn’t ‘just work’, as some of my friends do.
There’s a huge qualitative difference between Win 10 auto-restarts and iOS saying, “we’ll nag you every time you wake the computer up, and eventually stuff will stop working, but we won’t restart until you tell us we can.” So yeah, get out of my ass, Microsoft.
You really need to take a long hard look at your life. You only connect with 1 pc and for only half of every day? Are you centrifuging uranium for the Iranians or something?
Lol! Stop posting here and go contribute to some open source project nobody wants.
WTF? Buy an Xbox One already. What is wrong with you?
