Giving up on 10

_Kaiser_

Just wondering really if anyone else has had enough of Windows 10, and what you've done

I've been using Windows since the DOS/3.11 days. I've been through every version since then with the peaks being 2000, XP and 7 in my view. I make my living off Windows and it's "quirks" I have a home domain that relies on Windows server and active directory to make my computing life more convenient (profile redirection and backup, media server, WSUS - because why not ) etc...

But I think I'm done with 10.. I installed it when it launched, have been through all the subsequent updates, joined the Insider program for a while - but I've about hit my limit for the never-ending amount of changes each new bi-annual update brings, the further dumbing down of the OS and removal/stripping of the Control Panel, the pointless "features" like the People hub, and the never-ending stream of "apps" (ie: crap games and advertising more than anything) that are pushed onto my computer without my approval, to say nothing of to the ongoing privacy and telemetry issues.

Now I read that it won't be long before they apparently enable what seems to effectively "Surface RT mode" by default where users will be encouraged to stick with Edge (rubbish), the Store, and basically within the MS garden, Apple style... and yes, it says you can switch it off and go back to the "full" mode, and yes, it's the Register which is heavily anti-MS anyway and filled with Linux fanboys who love every opportunity to push how good it is in Penguin land... but it just seems to be becoming more and more hassle to keep the OS in a usable state with every major update

So while I think about my long term options I've rolled back to 8.1 on my primary laptop - don't laugh! Once you install Start8 or Classic Shell and tweak the settings, it actually becomes effectively Windows 7 with a speed boost... and because MS is so focused on pushing everyone to 10, there's little fear of any of the above issues impacting your day-to-day (with the exception of the telemetry) as they've effectively abandoned every previous OS, plus it's good to 2023 which is 3 years longer than Win 7 so that should be more than enough time to learn and migrate to an alternative.

But where to go that will give me the same functionality (client/server with GPO, AD, profile redirection/backup etc) and control that I have now? Linux would seem to be the obvious choice, but there's so much fragmentation and then different variants off that again that it's hard to know where to even start.
There's ReactOS, which is a long-standing and interesting idea to basically build Windows NT/2000 from scratch... but it's nowhere near ready for the big-time and possibly never will be as with most of these community projects.

Anyway, I've rambled enough! As I said, I'm more interested in whether anyone else is facing the same questions and decisions and what you're going with?

Cheers

CatInABox

_Kaiser_ wrote: »

Now I read that it won't be long before they apparently enable what seems to effectively "Surface RT mode" by default where users will be encouraged to stick with Edge (rubbish), the Store, and basically within the MS garden, Apple style... and yes, it says you can switch it off and go back to the "full" mode, and yes, it's the Register which is heavily anti-MS anyway and filled with Linux fanboys who love every opportunity to push how good it is in Penguin land... but it just seems to be becoming more and more hassle to keep the OS in a usable state with every major update

No, it's been fine for me. If you think that windows 10 has some work to get the way you want it, wait until you try some of the Linux distros.

The S mode is optional. I see it as being absolutely brilliant for my parents, a way to set their computer up with reduce chance of them screwing it up.

iamtony

Windows XP was the last one I liked personally. after that it's all been rubbish. Mind you ten was an improvement but since ios and android and the mac OS showed us how to do it Windows is just so unnessisarily complicated. Imagine having to wait for your iPad to update every second or third time you wake it up. I dont even know what a Windows machine can do a mac can't anymore except play some games.
I've a late 2009 imac and it's faster than all the Windows machines I've owned even up to this day. If I dropped 2g on a windows does machine I bet it would be totally out of date in 5 years.

Pucking Fissed Off

Have a look at windows 10 LTSB (long term service branch)

It cuts out edge, the store and all updates bar security patches.

I'm using it for most clients and my own personal and production systems.