The Case for a Better Working Professional Operating System
Yesterday, I returned to my 2018 Windows 10 PROFESSIONAL OS based Intel Core i5 powered Dell Inspiron 5000 Gaming 5577 (why so many model designations & numbers, @dell?), a laptop not even a year old, yet.
The computer had just updated the other day, so I wasn’t expecting to return to my Photoshop project yesterday and find that Windows 10 PROFESSIONAL had downloaded a new update, and installed it, without my persmission, in only the last 7 hours where I went to bed and awoke the next day.
On top of that, I had just checked whether an update was pending or not the day before. No “Restart & Update” option then, or even the day of this hazardous update.
It seems that Microsoft neither understands what a PROFESSIONAL Operating System means, what it is or its importance to business. Nor does Microsoft even care.
Not only does the Windows 10 PROFESSIONAL software that I paid for through my purchase have a history of rebooting my computer and forgetting all of my OS settings in previous updates, Microsoft doesn’t seem to care that they are force quitting live applications that I am in the process of using.
When a PROFESSIONAL OS force closes live applications such as Adobe Photoshop, the application doesn’t save its configuration. This means that the next time I return to Photoshop, I have to reconfigure all my settings and preferences in the program.
To top this off, even the PROFESSIONAL version of Microsoft Windows 10 is showing me advertisements, particularly after each update, on reboot.
Furthermore, the operating system is so dumb that I have not only lost Windows settings, sometimes (more than once) I have been awaiting minutes at bootup in order to see my boot screen appear. Instead, I am faced with staring at a black external monitor. Microsoft brags about saving seconds at bootup, but forgets your active monitor settings so that you are wasting over a quarter of an hour of time for boot and then having to reset the settings?
As a web and graphics designer, it is inappropriate for me to be working on a desktop machine and then move all my updated files over to a laptop because there may be so many critical files that are vitally necessary to a project which could be scattered throughout my system. Even though we designers try to manage client files all within their folder, elements from other code, text snippets, photos, vector images and raster graphics likely did not all originate with that particular project. Having the entire working system is paramount to not only give a decent presentation, but also to be able to update it on the fly to appease the client. That essentially means that all my resources, not just the ones dedicated to the project, must be available to me all the time.
What’s more embarrassing is showing up to a client’s office early in the morning only to boot-up to a PC that was updated overnight.
Microsoft seems to think that all computers are internet connected all the time. But I live in a rural region and not all of my clients do have internet. And when the Windows 10 Professional system does not have internet access, it gets flaky. My elder apps actually run without a hitch, but newer applications are all very sketchy. Perhaps they are checking for authorized licensing codes to ensure the user hasn’t pirated the code? But none of these apps that offer limited or unpredictable capabilities actually say that they require an internet connection (aside from first-time license verification). Has the internet become so ingrained that programmers don’t know a way to program around it?
Microsoft is not the only bad guy, because of this increasing dependency on internet resources, many software is no longer available as a stand-alone program. Instead, we are seeing a migration to a software-as-a-service (aka ”saas”) product model, instead of an actual decent stand-alone software product. Software companies figure they can release software on schedule and shake-out the bugs later through updates. But requiring an always connected system cuts a great deal of rural America out of the picture. Unless you live in a very large town or along the interstate, you may not even have real viable internet access options.
Windows 10 Professional is just not ready for prime time. It likely will never be, ever. It is pure crap that does not live up to its designation, promise or hype. Windows 7 Ultra was reliable, at least. I cannot count on Windows 10 Professional for anything, to date. I have even installed debian linux on another laptop and am using it more and more. I only wish Adobe products were available for it, because that’s my work environment (Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Acrobat, etc...). Quite honestly, the Professional version of Windows 10 still feels like it is in alpha (a trial that isn’t even public until the first Beta release). It functions like an OS, yes, but there is absolutely NOTHING professional about it.
As a business owner I know I can’t rely on it. I am distracted by advertising. I can’t afford to have an operating system shut down a project in progress without advance warning, EVER. That is absolutely sinful. It isn’t just Photoshop that will lose its settings, cashe, last loaded projects and undo’s, the whole Adobe line of products do, and this is what I rely on.
I can jump over to the Mac, yes, but the last time I was using Apple products I bought a brand new PPC system and it was obscolete in a year. Apple is going to be putting all their new computers on their own processor architecture next year, so again, I would have no upgrade path.
I might say that I am extremely pleased with the debian linux operating system and how professional it acts, except there are no Adobe software options for that platform. It is an extremely professional operating system, but has no professional creativity applications with an easy to use GUI. Plus, the Adobe UX is second to none (especially with its extensive shortcut keys library).
Nevertheless, I do have some older PCs that I will experimenting with using alternate Windows platforms. I mean, the Windows 10 Professional is actually completely unprofessional, absolutely unreliable, and cannot be used as a productive business software platform without suffering, misery and lost time.
So, in the future I will be experimenting with alternatives to the Windows platform that will run Windows compatible software, and be reporting back on their usefulness in a business environment. The craziness of the Windows 10 PROFESSIONAL platform is just too hard to deal with. The OS is crap.











