While Windows 10 is arguably successful from a market share perspective, it is still failing in one big way -- the user experience. Windows 8.x was an absolute disaster, and Microsoft's latest is certainly better than that, but it is still not an enjoyable experience. Quite frankly, the people clutching to Windows 7 aren't so crazy.
The most glaring issue is the privacy aspect, or lack thereof. Look, telemetry is a good thing for the development of the operating system, but users shouldn't be forced to participate. Hell, I don't even totally mind if it is opt out rather than opt in. But if a user wants to remove their computer entirely, that should be their right.
Even the third-party solutions that aim to turn this spying off aren't 100-percent successful. Unless you unplug from the internet entirely, you can't stop Windows from phoning home to Microsoft. This is a shame, as some consumers are being made to feel violated when using their own computer.[N.B.: Preach, Brother Brian! Any software that behaves exactly like malware, is malware. Microsoft should not get a pass on this.]
While the Windows Insiders program is optional, it has long outstayed its welcome. By having a large segment of Windows 10 users on pre-release versions, it is causing a fragmented user experience. You have many users in the wild with features that aren't found on the machines of others. Even the twice-annual stable releases are one too many.
Let's be honest, these Insiders are being used for free beta testing and kept in an infinite state of instability. At some point, Microsoft needs to retire the Windows Insiders program entirely or at the very least, restrict the numbers of members allowed to participate. It is starting to feel like Windows 10 is becoming a perpetual beta release, much like Google's offerings.[N.B.: It's actually worse than this; the "release" version that Home users receive is still chock full of bugs. It's not until the "Current Branch for Business" version is released, often months later, that this basically-beta process is truly over. Windows 10 is not free.]
Windows 10 is certainly not a lost cause -- the foundation is solid, and Microsoft has a lot of smart people working for it that can turn it around. Before the company tries to add new features (and misses deadlines) like Timeline and Cloud Clipboard, it should focus more on improving the existing user experience. Right now it is failing us and things are not getting better.
Come on, Microsoft -- make Windows great again.What can I say? I agree with basically all of this. It's always refreshing to see another tech writer who's willing to admit that (a) Windows 10 has real problems, not merely PR ones, and (b) people who are refusing to switch from 7 to 10 have valid, rational reasons for doing so. We're not just paranoid, and we're not being unreasonable; we're simply not willing to exchange a solid and well-tested user experience for the "privilege" of participating in an endless beta program, with Microsoft monitoring our every action whether we consent or not. The fact that they've scaled back their unnecessary data collection by half, while welcome, still leaves them collecting a tonne of our private data and metadata that they don't really need, and they haven't done nearly enough to win back consumers' trust and good will.
There's more to Brian Fagioli's article than the bits that I've excerpted, including his thoughts on Edge, Bing, Cortana, and Windows 10 S, and it's all good stuff, so go give the man some clicks.