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this post was submitted on 21 Nov 2025
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When did Microsoft steal Apple's marketing material?
Maybe I've just been lucky, but for several years and on several different machines I've found Linux just works, while Windows is an endless treadmill of frustration and brokenness.
I'm the exact opposite, every Linux install has something fucked, but I've never experienced any of these major Windows issues.
Of course I never update immediately, an old habit. And I do experience plenty of issues with Windows like everyone else does, I've just been lucky with the major issues.
Went from mint to cachyOS and besides some things being different it just works.
More like they adopted Bethesda's marketing material after they acquired ZeniMax
Well compated to others it did kind of just work. Plug&play, USB, most simple peripherics didn't need a driver to be manually installed and configured.
Windows 98 I guess.
Windows 98 SE, maybe. We didn't gain much traction there until about Win2k or XP.
Windows 98 in its original flavor didn't even support USB mass storage devices out of the box without drivers. Hands up everyone who remembers having to carry around one of those tiny driver CDs that came in the box with every single Sandisk Cruzer for a couple of years? Yeah? How quickly we forget.
✋
Windows 98 SE doesn't have it out of the box either. While it came well after Windows XP had taken over, in 2005 Maximus Decim released his USB drivers, which cobbles together USB mass storage drivers from newer versions of Windows, with modifications to get them working on Windows 98 with just an installer.
Windows 98 SE doesn't have it out of the box either. While it came well after Windows XP had taken over, in 2005 Maximus Decim released his USB drivers, which cobbles together USB mass storage drivers from newer versions of Windows, with modifications to get them working on Windows 98 with just an installer.
https://forum.vcfed.org/index.php?threads/win-98se-usb-issues.1240710/ https://msfn.org/board/topic/43605-maximus-decim-native-usb-drivers/
By the way, if someone is looking to actually use it, I just want to warn that version 3.6 replaces the System Control Panel component with the one Windows ME, which has a different look and feel and misreports the OS version. Version 3.5 doesn't do that and has worked with every flash drive I've tried, so I'd recommend that version.
I guarantee I will never use this information. But thank you anyway.
test
My recollection is that USB on windows was kind of a dumpster fire until XP. Or maybe that was just printers in general.
Hell I remember when USB on PCs was basically a set of pins on the motherboard and you had to buy the actual port assembly separately and hope there was somewhere reasonable on your case to mount it. Was going absolutely nowhere on PC until the iMac came and did away with all other ports and no peripherals built in.
I remember my sister winning an iPod and gave it to me, because she didn't need it. I had to run to the computer store in town to purchase a USB deck for my motherboard. Fun times.
One thing (only good thing) about Vista was that it rationalised Printer (and Scanner) Drivers.
The UI was consistent between printer manufacturers and everything could be accessed through one interface.
Then the Printer manufacturers complained to MS because they couldn’t have infinite branding all over the interface and the feature was dumbed down in 7.
Meanwhile Apple used the same UI for all Printers (based on CUPS) and didn’t even let a company logo appear in the interface.
Not all the Apple CUPS drivers were available for Linux CUPS so unfortunately Linux (at the time) still had their device compatibility issues.
What didn't Microsoft steal?
my heart
Quality assurance?
Need I go on?