Question Things Microsoft can learn from Linux (in 2021)

[senturion]

Disclaimer - I am primarily a Windows guy and all of my career has been 80% centered on the Microsoft world of software for small businesses, enterprises and the like. Over the past year I've been primarily using Manjaro Linux with Gnome3, Plasma5, XFCE and i3 as well on my personal laptop. I must say - I'm impressed. Linux in 2021 is far improved vs Linux in 2011 and prior. The list of improvements to the user experience in Plasma 5 and in Gnome 3 is quite numerous and in many aspects has leap-frogged past Microsoft's UX of Windows 10.

This isn't going to be a rant as much as a bulleted list of things that I strongly wish we had in Windows 10, right out of the gate. I know that many 3rd party vendors exist solely because of these missing features that should already exist in Windows - Classic Shell, Stardock, etc etc.

• Keyboard shortcuts - at least a help pane to list all the possibilities in the OS, but especially an option to customize current shortcuts in favor of your own. I know you can create shortcuts on a per-shortcut basis... but there is no easy way to view what shortcuts exist for all apps, etc.
• Modular start / application launcher. Gnome, KDE (and now Plasma), heck even XFCE and i3 are opened up to let the user decide how they want to use their OS. I can decide to go with a classic Gnome2 style application menu, a Windows 98 stylized start menu, change the skin on the background of the taskbar, etc. These kind of options aren't something that general users would want or desire, but the options should still exist for a user to select a classic start menu, Windows 10 style, etc. I like that I can opt for the fullscreen start menu, which is nice... but what about the classic style, what about other options that KDE or Gnome have had for years?
• Window behavior modifications - similar to how Plasma works. Custom rules can be made to enable transparency on all apps that match a specific title, function, etc. Example - I have all my apps in Plasma blur with transparency like how it is in MacOS. I then made exceptions to not blur the browser, remmina (rdp), and other apps that won't be useful to have transparent blur turned on for. This feature alone is like the swiss army knife of customization, allowing the user to truly mold the OS into how they want it, rather than Microsoft forcing the user to comply with their predetermined experience that you didn't know you should have. (ok that was a rant).

 

[Ronpar65]

Disclaimer - I am primarily a Windows guy and all of my career has been 80% centered on the Microsoft world of software for small businesses, enterprises and the like. Over the past year I've been primarily using Manjaro Linux with Gnome3, Plasma5, XFCE and i3 as well on my personal laptop. I must say - I'm impressed. Linux in 2021 is far improved vs Linux in 2011 and prior. The list of improvements to the user experience in Plasma 5 and in Gnome 3 is quite numerous and in many aspects has leap-frogged past Microsoft's UX of Windows 10.

This isn't going to be a rant as much as a bulleted list of things that I strongly wish we had in Windows 10, right out of the gate. I know that many 3rd party vendors exist solely because of these missing features that should already exist in Windows - Classic Shell, Stardock, etc etc.

• Keyboard shortcuts - at least a help pane to list all the possibilities in the OS, but especially an option to customize current shortcuts in favor of your own. I know you can create shortcuts on a per-shortcut basis... but there is no easy way to view what shortcuts exist for all apps, etc.
• Modular start / application launcher. Gnome, KDE (and now Plasma), heck even XFCE and i3 are opened up to let the user decide how they want to use their OS. I can decide to go with a classic Gnome2 style application menu, a Windows 98 stylized start menu, change the skin on the background of the taskbar, etc. These kind of options aren't something that general users would want or desire, but the options should still exist for a user to select a classic start menu, Windows 10 style, etc. I like that I can opt for the fullscreen start menu, which is nice... but what about the classic style, what about other options that KDE or Gnome have had for years?
• Window behavior modifications - similar to how Plasma works. Custom rules can be made to enable transparency on all apps that match a specific title, function, etc. Example - I have all my apps in Plasma blur with transparency like how it is in MacOS. I then made exceptions to not blur the browser, remmina (rdp), and other apps that won't be useful to have transparent blur turned on for. This feature alone is like the swiss army knife of customization, allowing the user to truly mold the OS into how they want it, rather than Microsoft forcing the user to comply with their predetermined experience that you didn't know you should have. (ok that was a rant).

I agree! Windows seems every time they come out with a new OS they make things worse, instead of better! I have been using Linux Cinnamon Mint for a few years now! I like it a whole lot better then Windows! But it is getting to the point of over kill as well, and online surfing is getting ruff on the ole memory. You can hear the Processor fan sound like it is trying to take flight, or better yet someone trying to blow the car engine. LOL! Everyone and their dogs, spying on us, FB, Google! to name a few, because the names are endless! And ones Processor.s pays the price, with 100% usage most of the time, from as I said, people spying on us! and in doing so, they steel our bandwidth! Bandwidth we pay dearly for each month. Can only imagine how fast, and how much better the world wide Web would be, and how much healthier, one's PC/Laptop/Phones, would be if it wasn't for all the spineless spying jellyfish out there, who thinks our life is so important they have to know us inside and out, LOL! Just shows they are a bunch of sorry individuals with no life of their own. Just saying! I'm through venting now! Sorry about that.

 

[Hans Gruber]

It's like a call and response with bots on this site.

 

[senturion]

Something else:

I recently had my Linux laptop configured to use Duo 2fa, use my Yubikey token as an alternative (and to skip prompts for sudo when plugged in), connected to SSH for incoming remote attempts, etc.

Additionally, the logon PAM modules were configured to unlock my Gnome wallet.

Also again, I was able to use KeePassXC as the default keychain in Manjaro (but works in any distribution). It would be cool if Windows gave us that choice as well for passwords to automagically get stored to the password safe of our choosing. IOS lets you do this (I use Kypass with Keepass instead of Apple Passwords for cross-platform support).

It comes back to giving us the choice to do what we want without any modifications to the OS via 3rd-party apps.