Post
by athenian200 » 2025-08-27, 20:20
Yeah, here's my situation with Windows 11. I've had to pause updates on my laptop that has it, because I'm worried that if I let it apply KB5063878, it will ruin the laptop's built in SSD that unfortunately has a Phison controller and is DRAM-less. So I'm currently in an uncomfortable limbo state with it where I'm worried about missing updates and opening a window of vulnerability, but also afraid of updating because Microsoft isn't withdrawing or hotfixing the problematic update in a timely fashion and is seemingly reverting to the old "manual sysadmin" approach of saying it's on us to rollback the update or avoid triggering the error condition until they complete their investigation and do something about it.
As far as my desktop PCs, my Dad owns a company and had access to licenses for Windows Server 2022 (with desktop experience), and I somehow convinced him to let me use that. That one should get support until 2031, but I really, really, wouldn't recommend it for the average user. Overall though, it surprising how much more verbose Server 2022 is about various error conditions than standard Windows 10, along with how many of the rear-facing tools like PowerShell or the error console I'm used to being brought front and center rather than buried, and also how it seems to lack many of the things people here don't like, such as the store and Microsoft accounts. It feels a lot like an older version of Windows with a more modern GUI.
If I didn't know better, I'd think Microsoft only keeps the Home and Pro editions of Windows around at this point as a way of beta testing stuff for Server and Enterprise LTSC users... then again, I thought they used Vista for beta testing Windows 7 too, so this isn't the first time I thought Microsoft did something like that. I will say that I think Windows is now in as much flux today with Windows 11 as it was during the Vista era, and what we're looking at now is likely an incomplete version of a more AI-powered version of Windows.
In an odd way, it is starting to remind me of the old divide between 9x/ME for consumers, and NT for enterprises. Everyone "knew" NT was the good version of Windows, but had to deal with a worse experience on their home PC for a long time. Windows XP was the first attempt to change all that, but now it feels like that divide has somehow come back in a slightly different form... good versions of Windows on the enterprise level, with the consumer version being in constant beta and very unstable.
"The Athenians, however, represent the unity of these opposites; in them, mind or spirit has emerged from the Theban subjectivity without losing itself in the Spartan objectivity of ethical life. With the Athenians, the rights of the State and of the individual found as perfect a union as was possible at all at the level of the Greek spirit." -- Hegel's philosophy of Mind
I don't particularly feel like re-iterating it again. They range from UI maturity to something as simple as undiscoverability within the GNU toolset, to compatibility across the board (e.g. games), to lacklustre "Linux alternatives" to essential tools for office work, and more. Some of the same workflow-breaking things I encounter with Windows 11 as well, for example system-modal dialog boxes that should be application-modal; lack of drag&drop cross-application via the taskbar, etc. - For how much Microsoft says they are wanting to make things more of an ecosystem, they have a funny way of showing it by breaking cross-app interchange of data.
