One of the strangest phenomena that I’ve encountered when occasionally using Windows is that sometimes there’s a problem that’s so stupid you can’t smart your way out of it. As an example: when trying out Windows 11, I made a restore point after a fresh install so that if I fucked something up I could roll back to a clean install. I then fucked something up and thought “no worries, just roll it back.” I then discovered that Windows only keeps one restore point, and manages it automatically by itself, meaning that when I fucked up, it decided to take the state of the machine immediately after I broke it and overwrite the clean restore point with the broken one and at no point asked or informed me that that’s what it was doing.
Like how do you even begin to deal with an issue like that? The only solution I know of is to pre-assume that everything actually made by Microsoft will behave in an idiotic way sooner or later, and to replace as much of it as you can with third-party solutions as quickly as possible immediately after a fresh install, but anyone new to Windows/not a tech person has absolutely no way of knowing this.
I have to regularly jump between Mac, Linux, and Windows. On Mac and Linux it’s easy to make same keystroke shortcuts work, eveninside apps.
On Windows, total crapshoot. And now, if on a newer machine, if you hit the wrong button (Copilot) because of muscle memory, you get the damn AI jump in your face.
That’s called a job buddy. There’s no way I’d be using windows otherwise.
I don’t count a decades-old cumbersome wizard-style interface with countless steps to go through just to unpack a compressed file to be even remotely acceptable in 2026. Dolphin and Nautilus handle compressed files entirely transparently and much faster than Explorer does, and once you’re used to that, going back to ’90s style compressed file management almost feels insulting.
My dad has trouble differentiating between webapp and software. You think handling a archive as a directory is a smart idea there? Dialogue or right-click menu is fine, which 7-zip adds. Thing is a file, should be handled as a file (launches something).
Let’s say, it should be customizable.
And i think explorer does transparently open zip since a few years? Wasn’t that a big feature in 10 already? Or was that only a tweaker tools fault?
Opening a zip file with nautilus looks like this btw
The window you see behind the zip file one is how nautilus look like for normal foldersSo it handles zip files by itself, but opens them in a separate window with separate look? Why bundle them then?
So you can send multiple files as a single file I guess.
I think zip files working like folders is pretty ideal and we aren’t going far enough with it yet.
Technically it’s a pop-up. You cannot use the window behind when that’s open. If you try to carry the pop-up, it will also carry the main window.
Pretty sure this is a separate program? Mine just unpacks them.
edit: found it https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.gnome.FileRoller
Did gnome come pre-installed with the distro? I installed gnome on a fresh VM with debian (without any DE) so maybe the distro mantainer removef FileRoller or smth Or it could be a mandela effect and i installed it when i made the VM 2 months ago
Windows 11 also has a combined emoji/symbol picker now (Super + .)
Me: “Huh, that’s neat. I wonder if KDE has anything like that.”
Me: Tries pushing (Super + .)
KDE: instantly pops up an emoji selector 🖥️
Well, I guess I learned something from reading this, so it was somewhat worthwhile.
(Now I wonder which of them introduced that first… I’m betting on KDE.)
I had no idea this existed lmao
Not really, it was actually Apple that introduced an emoji picker in 2013. The Windows one works since 2017 and KDE has it since 2020.
$5000 isn’t enough money to go through that hell.
When people comment about having issues with Linux, this is what that should be compared with.
Or not, since linux distros ideally shouldn’t be bound to windows. (but realistically they are)
As a Windows user that was an interesting read. For some reason I thought Windows was catering to Americans whilst Linux was being the international all rounder.
How would an operating system even cater to a country? Is there a distinctly American way to access files
You yell at it for being a tar and not a zip
Completely unconcerned that other operating systems might be using the hard drive and just fucks them up without a thought.
(lack of/lacking) internatiolisation and localisation.
You do notice that a lot of software is made with Americans in mind and Linux/FOSS is no exception. But there’s worse like notion for example.
When you look at the way windows handles i18n, it’s fair to say it caters to the US market.
Bloat and running fans nonstop. Every other language pack needs to be added post install.
Super Sized.
In system requirements perhaps
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Qbittorrent just shows the window when you left click it. Scroll click does nothing and right click shows a menu. V5.23
Not for me, but maybe that’s a XFCE or settings thing.
Ah. It could be. I’m on Plasma.
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I’m not surprised that laptop had issues. It’s purpose built and likely has sub 1% usage across the windows install worldwide.
Not supporting a 3+ year old Intel wifi chipset out of the box is kind of wild though, that’s a super standard part.
Microsoft doesn’t do it the way Linux does it. Linux supports the Chip(set) and as long as different vendors “connect” them the standard way Linux just talks to these components directly in a standardized way. Microsoft wants drivers for that specific board/hardware revision. Even if it’s just a standard chip, every vendor needs to provide a driver.
I replaced an NVMe drive on a Windows 11 machine the other day. Cloned to new disk, booted up. After posting and entering the bootloaders, it said “BOOT DRIVE INACCESSIBLE”. The drive needed a driver to BOOT once Windows took over.
A Western Digital 850x black 2TB. This is not an uncommon drive, but I had to patch in the driver to the disk from a live CD.
I don’t see how people put up with this crap.
I buy a lot of Dell refurb laptops to use in cheap timing setups for rfid chip timing. Recently they had to start selling some without an OS because they literally are stuffing anything they can find into them and Windows refuses to install without drivers.
Keep in mind windows users don’t install their os from scratch. The OEM will include those in their deployment.
windows users don’t install their os from scratch
And, at this point, they’re being actively discouraged from doing so.
I wouldn’t be surprised if, in the future, Windows doesn’t even offer an installer of any kind … or at least feature-locks the ability to install it yourself to ‘professional’ editions that cost more.
No they aren’t.
You can get your original install media from the OEM.
Including a bunch of drivers and software adds more to an already large installation. I downloaded the latest iso the other day and it was over 6gb in size.
There honestly might be licensing implications that they are avoiding by not including software and drivers, something open source doesn’t need to worry about too much.
The last Linux install I performed had similar issues with the video card driver.
