GOD DAMN IT, MICROSOFT!

I’m going to come right out and say it: Microsoft should have charged for Windows 10. I’m not talking about today, because now, of course, you do have to pay for a legit license. But the free upgrade over the first 12 months? That shouldn’t have happened.

I stand by this for a number of reasons. First and foremost, we have to ask why Microsoft did it. Don’t color me ungrateful, but how did the big M make as much money from the free upgrades as it did from those who moved up 12 months later? Free advertising? Buy Office 365 today? CandyCrush? All we know is that it’s the biggest OS out there, thanks in part to that free initial courtesy upgrade.

Also, I’m worried that this idealistic shift to a free OS has changed Windows to something more akin to Apple’s locked-down MacOS than the legendary open platform that it was.

My biggest gripe, though, lies with the new “auto-reopen programs on shutdown” feature, something MacOS has had for a while. Shut down your machine, and on restart, every program, including Skype, Steam, and Chrome tabs, reopens. You now have to manually close these programs individually, before shutting down.

It’s a frustrating and unwelcome addition to the shutdown dance. According to Microsoft, the feature is baked into the OS, and is impossible to disable, which simply sounds insane.