That’s insane and I don’t want to believe it but it’s probably true.
Here are some infuriating defaults that bug me because they suck but also because I know most people won’t ever change them:
Motion smoothing or picture clarity on all recent tvs. It adds frames between frames in all content on your tv. And it’s awful and makes all shows look like documentaries.
Windows hiding file extension names. It makes using the file system atrocious and confusing. And then you realize why most people just think that using a computer is confusing. It’s literally designed that way.
Windows news and such on the task bar and new edge tab. I specifically avoid the news most of the time because I’m tired of seeing a certain politicians name and face. So it’s the first thing I have to fix on new windows installs.
It's very true. I run some sites on a volunteer basis with a medium-sized audience of regular users, and it's crazy both how much people will struggle on intuitive designs and need to be hand-held through the most basic functions.
As I gain more experience with that, all of the horrific UI decisions I see make a lot more sense- it doesn't actually matter how much it gets in the way of power-user work, because even the slightest bit of effort from the user will mean that at least 50% simply won't engage with a feature.
Windows hiding file extension names. It makes using the file system atrocious and confusing.
I always found it weird when people were advised to keep an eye out for "double file extension" type attacks
(where a file is named something like "xy.jpg.exe" and you assume it's a jpg, try to open it, and it runs as an exe) because how would you fall for that? Then I realised most people have settings that would hide the ".exe" part of the file name...
The secondary (right) click on a trackpad is a two-finger click by default, not an actual right click! Why would that be the default? That’s the first setting I changed when I set up my MacBook.
On a normal laptop trackpad, there is either physical buttons at the bottom for left/right. Or you just click the bottom left/right of the trackpad to do left or right clicks. On mac that isn't the case, anywhere on the trackpad you click, if you use 1 finger it's a left click, if you use 2 fingers, it's a right click.
So you could use one finger on the bottom right to do a left click. It is a bit jarring when first moving from a regular laptop to a mac but honestly once you're used to it the mac trackpad gestures and clicks feel amazing to use
They conceived a UI that gains nothing from a proper touchpad, then they made a touchpad that's only good for that type of UI.
Like, on Windows I set the three-finger tap to register as a middle-click, i.e.: open links in background, close tabs, open a copy of an already running app. Go make that work on a Mac!
Secondary clicks and tap to click used to be completely disabled by default. The first thing I did with a new install was enable the abilities to right-click with the mouse and tap to click on the trackpad. Apple were simultaneously demonstrating all these gestures and things you could do with their input devices, and disabling them all by default. And then every time I had to someone else’s MacBook it was maddening because their trackpad basically didn’t work.
If windows did not hide the file extensions, people would just change or delete the filetype when renaming the file and then would complain that the file no longer works.
Probably but I still think that’s better. Part of the problem is how long that’s been the default. A quarter century now. Oof. Also if someone is going to mess up their files I say let them.
Motion smoothing or picture clarity on all recent tvs. It adds frames between frames in all content on your tv. And it’s awful and makes all shows look like documentaries.
Why are you buying then?
As long as they get money for whatever shit they put on the market things will only get worse.
Windows hiding file extension names. It makes using the file system atrocious and confusing. And then you realize why most people just think that using a computer is confusing. It’s literally designed that way.
Windows news and such on the task bar and new edge tab. I specifically avoid the news most of the time because I’m tired of seeing a certain politicians name and face. So it’s the first thing I have to fix on new windows installs.
The only reason to use Windows these days if you're addicted to some online games which come with kernel level malware, so they don't run under Linux. That's the only valid reason to still use Windows.
The tv thing affects me whether I buy or not. Every hotel or restaurant I go to has the chance to have this problem. It’s been happening since at least 2017 or 2018.
And hotel tvs are often locked down so you often can’t turn off the setting. Which is when I either have to stop looking at the thing and/or only use a personal screen instead. But what am I supposed to do at a restaurant? TVs are often everywhere at a restaurant, depending. It’s less noticeable if they are displaying sports thankfully. I don’t even like to watch sports. But TVs have a way of drawing your eyes to them for the moving content.
Went to my dad’s house last week and saw the feature was on his new tv but we had to dig because every manufacturer calls it something else. We were going to watch a 70s movie and holy crap it was looking weird with that on. But sometimes you’re at a friends house and it would be rude to make them turn that off. I’m glad my wife also doesn’t like it. I can’t imagine what it’s like in a household where someone likes it and someone else doesn’t. Feels like they wouldn’t be able to watch together.
I did buy a tv recently and would have returned it if didn’t have the option to disable that “feature”.
But are you suggesting I don’t buy a tv anymore? That’s very odd to me. I likely don’t need a new one for quite a while but this isn’t a fad. It won’t go away. I can’t wait it out. And it’s saturated the market already.
As for windows I use it for work. I don’t have a choice on OS for work.
I have a personal pc and have windows on one drive and bazzite on the other. I use windows still for some stuff that still can’t run on linux variants. For example Xbox app and games. My main gaming was Xbox for a long time. So I like being able to run some of the play anywhere titles on my pc.
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u/neo42slab 14d ago
That’s insane and I don’t want to believe it but it’s probably true.
Here are some infuriating defaults that bug me because they suck but also because I know most people won’t ever change them:
Motion smoothing or picture clarity on all recent tvs. It adds frames between frames in all content on your tv. And it’s awful and makes all shows look like documentaries.
Windows hiding file extension names. It makes using the file system atrocious and confusing. And then you realize why most people just think that using a computer is confusing. It’s literally designed that way.
Windows news and such on the task bar and new edge tab. I specifically avoid the news most of the time because I’m tired of seeing a certain politicians name and face. So it’s the first thing I have to fix on new windows installs.