(Diving into the Microsoft Ecosystem — Part 3)
OK. It’s been a while since I wrote “Diving into the Microsoft Ecosystem — Part 1), and I’ve been using Windows 10 daily on two different computers for freelance work (web development and writing) and personal use (family computer, games, web browsing, video), and I’ve got some conclusions. Windows 10, overall, is not a bad system. But I’ve got a lot of complaints about my delving into the Microsoft ecosystem.
OneDrive
Before OneDrive, I used DropBox as my cloud storage provider. Let me tell you: Comparing the two is like night and day. I am always worried about OneDrive. Did I leave my computer on long enough for it to sync? Did I leave it on long enough for it even to decide to start syncing? Why are there duplicates of this file now. What do I do? With Dropbox? It just always worked. And it worked fast. Google Drive is a similar experience — it’s slow to sync to its desktop client, and I’m not confident. Has Dropbox had issues in the past? Yes. Am I going to switch back to it, nevertheless? Yes, probably.
Development
I’ve still been unable to, with the limited amount of free time I have, set up a simple VirtualBox+Vagrant environment in Windows 10. The same setup works fine in W7, or even in 8.1 — but not in 10. I’ve tried hacks and fixes and updates and patches and nothing has worked. I have a family, a new baby on the way, and multiple side projects, as well as an almost hour long commute each way to my main job (in a car). I don’t have time to fight with my home/freelancing development environment. It just needs to work.
Cortana
Cortana. Cortana was one of my favorite parts of Windows 10, while in the “reading the box” stage. Boy, was I disappointed. Cortana does nothing that I find useful. Absolutely nothing. I use the bar as an application launcher, which I could get elsewhere. When I use the voice recognition feature, she randomly pops up at times when I’ve not said anything remotely close to “Hey Cortana”. She can search the Internet for me, but I don’t usually mind typing. All in all… she’s just somewhat useless. Her notifications about news or events that I’ve deemed relevant to me are haphazard and not complete, and I usually already know about the ones that are. I’d say that used in conjunction with Windows Phone, she might be more useful, with location based reminders, etc — but I can get that elsewhere.
Privacy
Privacy is always a concern. Privacy with operating systems has always been a concern, and it grows more so. Windows 10, though, is a privacy nightmare. Many settings that shouldn’t exist come toggled on by default. Sending information to Microsoft, to advertisers. There are ads in my Start Menu until turned off. These things are just… tactless.
Updates
Automatic updates, to me, are a good thing, within reason. However, the first time I didn’t get or notice a warning, and Windows 10 restarted my computer for updates while I was across the room, I was… upset. This is a thing that should just never happen. Period.
Conclusions
My conclusions? I’m looking into Linux again. I’ve also priced out what it’d cost me to reinvest in Apple and return to OS X across the board. For now, I’ll either go with Linux for my development work and Windows 10 for personal use, or I’ll go back to Windows 7 or 8 for it all.
I guess the “TL;DR” version of my experience is just… disappointed.
