TL:DR Windows 10 works really well if you ignore the privacy issues
Tek Syndicate has a very loyal percentage of Linux users, supporters and advocates. We also have a few fans of Apple/Mac/OS X.
What we don't seem to have is a group of Windows fans. Sure, lots of us use windows (wether it be 7 8/8.1 or 10) but the general consensus and feeling seems to be that it's all done under protest. If only this game or that program would work flawlessly on Linux, we would all jump ship.
What I decided to do - as an experiment - was to wipe my entire computer, and where possible use only the default Windows 10 applications. Yep - you read that right - Edge, Groove Music, Calendar, Mail, Defender, Office 365 etc.
I'm fairly sure at this point youre thinking - Well, Vandal's lost it, cracked, split with reality or somesuch. But - I felt I had a reason to do this. Here is why.
Every time the subject of Windows comes up, its in a negative context. I cant have privacy, DX isn't open source, Cortana is spying on me, Windows is harvesting all my data without permission. I'm not going to dispute these issues. That's not what this experiment is about. What I DID decide to do was to try an impartially judge Windows 10 and its included software. So with that in mind, goodbye Firefox, Thunderbird, Musicbee, Libre Office and all other non Microsoft programs.
I'll admit that it was difficult to stop myself from judging the included programs against the competition and just looking at the in their own right.
So - how did this all turn out?
Edge - Importing data (Bookmarks, passwords etc) from anything except Internet explorer is not straight forward. I had to export everything from firefox to a HTML file, open that with Edge and manually add all the bookmarks, usernames and passwords. Aside from that - Edge is actually pretty good (stay with me - don't go into shock yet) Sure it has its issues, like the lack of an adblocker, or any decent plugins, but it works well. It's actually the ONLY browser that has had no issues with any webpages, for me at least.
Verdict - A full replacement for Firefox? No. BUT if it had an adblocker, then I would probably change that to Yes
Groove Music - Yes its less featured than Musicbee, yes I had to manually re-do all my playlists, Yes I cant view lyrics, or change themes etc, But as a music player it works fine, it will sync with my phone (Lumia 950) and it can be controlled with Cortana (more on that in a bit).
Verdict - Replacement for Musicbee? If you want custom layouts and themes - No. If you just want a player that plays music and can do playlists - Yes
Windows Mail - What can I say here? It sends and receives mail, can have any number of accounts linked to it, and the notifications are natively built into Windows Notifications.
Verdict - Replacement for Thunderbird? Yes. Absolutely.
Windows Calendar - I was using the Lightening calendar functionality of Thunderbird. Could this replace it? Again yes. It does everything well, the reminders and alerts are built into Windows Notifications, Works well with Cortana.
Verdict - Thunderbird replacement? Yes. Definitively Yes
Finally - Cortana.
I don't use any Mac stuff, so I cant compare Cortana to Siri. With that in mind, I decided not to compare Cortana againt Google either. I will just be looking at Cortana in (its? Her?) own right.
You can set Cortana to be always listening for "Ok Cortana" or to only activate when you click the microphone icon. If you choose always listen, you can also train her to respond ONLY to your voice. I tested this quite a bit with a few friends of mine and I have to say - I was impressed. This works really well.
In terms of interacting with Windows 10 itself, Cortana does do a good job. You can skip, rewind open or close music. You can add calendar appointments, set reminders and alarms. Have her open office programs, close them, or display recent documents.
Have her search Edge, tell you the weather, start skype calls, add contacts, send messages, read messages to you, dictate text documents. I think Microsoft have done a great job with Cortana, and she has come a long way since the early days of the Insider preview.
There are, however, a few issues with Cortana. She can be slow. For example - If I were to say "Ok Cortana, play next track" - if she were on always listen, its less than 50/50 if she will hear me at all, and when she does hear what you say, there is an up to 5 second delay before she processes your input to when she acts on it. 5 seconds isn't long, but in this day and age, its too much of a delay. Its actually faster to do it manually with either keyboard shortcuts, or with your mouse.
OK Cortana, doesn't always work. The more background noise, the lower the chance. Substantially worse than Google now (and I can only assume Siri would be better too, I don't have a way to compare)
And finally the elephant in the room. Do you have to surrender all privacy to just use the built in apps?
I would guess that almost all of you would say Yes.
I cant answer this one. Sure there are plenty of rumors and guesswork, but as Windows is closed source, guess is all we can do. I don't know how much privacy is gone, or how much and what type of data they are collecting. To be honest, I doubt there is much difference between Microsoft, Apple and Google.
I am going to continue to use only the built in Windows stuff for now, with all the data harvesting stuff ON, and after a month, see what that has actually meant for me. I highly doubt that I will stay with all Microsoft apps long term, but after having done this 'experiment' I have to say, once you look at the OS without the pre-conceived notion of "ErrMahGrerd!!!! they is taking all the things" Windows 10 and its apps do a great job of organizing all your stuff into one integrated workspace.
Feel free to comment in any way you see fit, but please remember this was intentionally done without aking the privacy factors into account!