Retired Microsoft engineer Dave Plummer has waded into the argument over where Microsoft has gone wrong with Windows, suggesting that perhaps the OS needs a hardcore mode to offset some of its fluffier edges.
Plummer comes from what was arguably a golden era for the Windows operating system: the final days of Windows NT 3.5x and the advent of Windows NT 4. Although it has been decades since he was last involved in the Windows codebase, his code can likely still be found in the OS, in part, due to the blessing and curse of Windows's obsession with backward compatibility.
Plummer's complaints boil down to two main areas: a desire for a hardcore mode that optionally removes all the fluffiness added to the operating system for the benefit of non-technical users, and a combination of transparency and an end to the 'Microsoft knows best' attitude that has plagued recent releases.
The suggeation for a hardcore mode, makes sense. Enthusiasts and engineers tend to be the most vocal users of the operating system, and are forced to wade through swathes of irrelevant user-interface components and 'helpful' suggestions. Plummer's request is for "a first-class system-wide setting that flips the operating characteristics of the OS from safe and chatty to deterministic and terse."
No more nudging, no more "consider using Microsoft this or that", and no web search in local search unless asked for.
Then there is control, which should be centralized in a single location. Plummer calls for an end to the "scavenger hunting" of determining a setting's location, and, once a setting is identified, it needs to be clear what it is changing. This would avoid what the engineer called "spelunking" through the Windows Registry to work out what happened behind the scenes.
"The tool change should grow some teeth" said Plummer. "If you flag yourself as a power user, then the OS takes you at your word and stops second-guessing you constantly."
And then there's telemetry. The data slurping habits of Windows are infamous, but, as Plummer notes, there are legitimate reasons for telemetry – why did the operating system fall over? What was the user doing when it fell over? All reasonable stuff, and a reason why ditching telemetry as a whole isn't realistic.
"The fix," said Plummer, "is radical transparency and control."
"Every packet that the OS wants to send on your behalf gets recorded with a plain English 'why' … and a link to the documentation."
The engineer sugests that it should be possible to mute telemetry categories without fear of an update turning them back on in the background.
Speaking of which, updates are another pet peeve of Plummer, and regularly irritate Windows users as behaviors change or a formerly solid system becomes unstable after installation. "The fix isn't a magic bullet," he said, "It's a new social contract." In addition to an end to surprise reboots, it also means an automatic rollback after a health check.
While the veteran engineer doesn't mention Microsoft's latest wheeze of shoehorning AI capabilities into every part of the operating system, he does worry that Microsoft has stepped over a line from educating users about what the OS can do "to where the operating system feels like a sales channel for all their other properties."
"And that's corrosive in a way that telemetry will never be."
Plummer describes Windows' habit of suggesting Edge after a user explicitly selects another browser as "disrespect." He opines that "when the Start Menu shows sponsored apps, you put a price on my attention on my machine."
All that said, he also acknowledged where Windows gets it right, calling the kernel "mature and high performance," the storage stack "world-class," and the drive ecosystem ("warts and all") "an unmatched feat of cooperation." The Windows Subsystem for Linux and the new Terminal application also received an approving nod.
It is, however, the bits and pieces bolted onto the operating system that have irked Plummer the most.
"So, does Windows suck," he asks rhetorically. "Only when it forgets who it's working for…" ®
Source: The register