I no longer need windows. A final tool made me from Microsoft

I was using Windows as long as I could remember. I was on the first computer I remembered literally on my knee. But I no longer need it. This is a strange thing to say as a writer for a site called Pcworld. But it has been a long time, a slow mixture of broad technical trends, a feeling of treason by multiple brands, and a little intention on my side.

To be clear, I am still Use Windows. It is what I use now to write this, on a fatty surface for fat games I have collected myself, with triple screens and all types of Googaws connected. But I don’t Need Next, for the first time in my adult life, I can see myself moving to a completely different operating system.

This is a big deal for me, and I think I am far from Waheed. Microsoft may want to write it.

Why don’t I need Windows

So this is what I mean when I say that I do not need Windows anymore: Every tool, program and piece of information on which I rely are now essentially separate from any device I use at the present time.

I am writing the words you read now in Google documents. When I finished, I will edit it in WordPress. Throughout my work day, I talk to my colleagues at work and I am in Slack, I am talking to my friends via Text, WhatsApp and some other platforms. I run my Google Keep menu, the latest work tasks in a Monday tool, and check the Gmail and Outlook, respectively. I watch the news and social trends in Bluesky and the old RSS reader.

I still use local files, of course. But they are all supported weekly via Backblaze and can be accessed wherever you go, with any devices I have to deliver. Most of the time I don’t even need. Regardless of installed games files, individual business/tax document, and a huge library of pictures, whether my own and my family, I barely think about storage on my computer.

Michael Crader/Mabek

Below is a screenshot of my main Windows screen.

If you have not monitored the common thread here: Each of these experiments is either a web tool or has a web facade. I use my favorite browser, Vivaldi, to reach almost all of them, usually in a gradual web app (PWA) or just a brief cover without a complete browser interface. It is one of my most important features for modern browsers, allowing me to separate these tools more easily and focus on them when I need this.

Each of them can be reached on the web, and on other platforms. I can all use it on a tablet or even my phone, and most often do not lose any function. In fact, although I work from the home, I get to a lot on my phone during the day, on the same platforms. At this stage, Windows is mainly just a way to access the web in a comfortable way, on expensive devices that I know. I think many users feel the same way, especially the younger people who grew up after size.

More reading: Best Chromebook books that we tested

Photoshop was the last comment

The last Domino to fall into this series was the editing of the photos. I was using Photoshop for more than 20 years. Since I learned this in the classroom in high school, it was very difficult to break myself from relying on it to create the photos of the article’s head or editing the audit photos. I do not want that – I got a segment on my shoulder for my support for almost a long time, especially after transferring its expensive creative program to preparing the most expensive creative cloud subscription. I stumbled from “you will bear anything and you will be happy.”

I liked to own Photoshop, and I was not happy because the option was taken away. Even a few weeks ago, I was still keeping an old copy of Creative Suite 6 of 2012 (last time it was shown as a real purchase) alive and kicking. I have tried alternatives several times, including the style that carries its taste, images of rapprochement, and Pixlr X. They are all good tools, but in a shame, I kept returning to the knowledge of Photoshop.

foundry

My memory, traditional and muscles, made it difficult to use any of these programs, although each of them covers the vast majority of photoshop basic functions. I spent years of my life using Photoshop, as a few of them are used for up to eight hours a day in a printing store. It is a difficult experience for me to extend whether I am not married to a program like this – imagine it is about to feel wearing prescription glasses for someone else. It is this kind of career discomfort.

I am somewhat certain of Adobe banks, and for this reason you can access photoshop and other programs with a great discount if you are a student or work in another school. To reformulate Aristotle, “Give me a high school teacher until 17 years old, and I see you founded a lifelong subscription customer.”

But after reinstalling the long windows, I decided to give up the troubles of getting my reliable version of CS6. Instead, I tried Photopea, online photo editor with a shameful and wonderful cloning for the Photoshop interface.

Attack

I have tried photpeea several times before, with this precise goal in mind. I could not get it on adhesion. To be honest, I cannot remember whether there is no performance in the tool, or simply that he was not like CS6 even after a decade. But whatever part of the equation-performance in a modern browser on a powerful desktop, performance by server side or options to be improved-clicked on.

Now I am using photo-app if you are wondering, but creators do not really care) instead of Photoshop for all my job purposes. I don’t even install the latter, although I still have my copy only in a state. I pay $ 5 per month for the free version of Photoa, which still arranges “just let me buy it” a little. But the fact that it is completely free with ads, not to mention this Much cheaper than Adobe subscription Even if you remove them, it is a conditioner for Skinflint.

pushy

After all, photope is a server -host web tool – it has at least a fundamental justification for charging the subscription. Nothing prevents Adobe from selling a self -standard version of Photoshop. Except for greed.

Photoshop is reproduction, not an ideal alternative. There are things that cannot be done, especially loading the custom fonts without many additional steps, which makes them inappropriate if I still do the graphics completely. To be completely honest, I am not good in that as I used to be with Photoshop. Some of the effects I were throwing with ease only not to look good. This may be equal parts of not knowing the deeper tools and the lack of a web program to the most powerful photographer’s options buried deeply. Maybe I will return to my old experience in time.

But I am no longer a graphic designer. I am a keyboard knight that needs a lot of crops for public relationships, and a few background works, cloning and colorful modifications of original images, this type of things. I can do all of this, without sacrificing speed or most capacity, and without local programs. I can do this on any device, from a laptop, tablet, or even my phone in a pinch (with the mouse and keyboard), and I can log in to all these things to reach them free of ads.

Samsung

Oh, even if you prefer to pay exorbitant Adobe prices, you may not need a local installation of the program. Photoshop contains an online version now, very similar to Photopea, which is included with the subscription.

All I need to do my job, and most of anything I want, completely divorced from Windows. Or if it is not absolute, then separate at least amicably. I realize that many people reached this place before I did that, and people are smaller than me, and more than me, both more technician and less. But it still seems like a personal teacher.

Games still live on Windows … now

I still use Windows 11, warts, and even while I was a moan of constantly scattered ads in the alleged excellent programs, not to mention the difficult UPSell for the “AI” tools that I do not want. This is the place where Microsoft hopes to get real money (reading: repeated) from me, and where I refuse to leave it. But Windows is still my personal and professional home, even when I live increasingly on my phone, just like anyone else.

Games are a large part of this. I own a key, PS5, a cute tablet and a few other wings of the games – during a modern holiday that even through it Arcadia sky Until the end of Android. But computer games are where I really drowned my teeth in the middle, and it is unlikely to change. Not only because I like to build desktop computers (again, check the name of the site higher!), But because Steam is an essential way to acquire and play games.

Lenovo/valve

Even this is not a sacred cow, I am unwilling to eat. Valve makes Steam its operating system, spreading into devices from Lenovo and ASUS partners, and I think it has a legitimate snapshot in Windows Conshroning as a computer home. To say anything about the trends that allow you to access your games anywhere, including GEFORCE with NVIDIA cloudy with NVIDIA (which plays my Steam games!) And Passing Game Pass in Microsoft. Both of them were used during the mobility, funnyly, if it is smoothly smooth than the luxury desktop at home, and you are fully aware of its systematic nature.

I played the computer version of FortniteWith the completion of the mouse and keyboard, using the Samsung DEX desktop, the USB-C, and GeFORCE now. Hey, at least one slice of the future does not absorb.

A new world of options

This newly discovered freedom is freed, if only in the sense of consumer. For the first time I can think seriously on a Mac or Chromebook, safely knowing that everything I need will be available with barely adjustment even routine. It is possible that IPAD Pro, although it is not my first option, is implemented. I can even see myself trying to get out of Linux on the desktop, although I admit that I may keep it on a double position in the beginning. Perhaps the use of Steamos or a derivative like Bazzzite, just to slide the needs of the deteriorating games.

I no longer need windows. There is a very good chance for you, too, or at least it is easier than ever to revolve around it. I think you should take it into account … especially if you are an executive of Microsoft company you want me to buy a new laptop.