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Adinnieken on 20 April 2014
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freedquaker said:

Windows core is pretty streamlined and relatively efficient. But for whatever reason, the windows releases have been VERY BLOATED ever since the advent of Windows Vista, which does not only tax the system performance wise but also takes too much space.

I have several PC running Windows 7 and XP. The XP machine does everything the Windows 7 does at 1/3 of the space (except for the latest games and tech maybe). Likewise, yes, XB1 OS is more functional and flexible compared to the PS4's OS, but this has nothing to do with having 3 OSs. PS4 has only 1 freebsd based OS, and still does pretty much everything XB1 does, and in the areas it is limited, it is because Sony did not focus on those areas as they designed and envisioned the console first and foremost as a gaming machine, not because the freebsd core behind is incapable of it.

Again windows core and windows as a programming back-end is a seriously efficient and good os. But it is Post-Bill Gates Era bureaucracy and inadequate corporate culture that causes the bloated mess we know as "windows" today. Windows RT Tablets for example, more than swallow 10 GB of space including all necessary partitions, while and Android tablet or Ipad will be happy with 1 GB. They are all tablets at the end of the day, one OS is incredibly bloated. This is why there is no 16 GB windows tablet out there!

Likewise Windows Phone OS is also very snappy and way more efficient than Android in terms of execution but Nokia Lumia 520, for example, has only 4 GB of usable space? This is around 5.5-6 GB in Android devices or an Iphone. Why does Windows OS take 2-3 times the space? And why do the apps in any arm powered windows tablet or phone take so much time to load and start? It's all because windows (nt) was never designed for mobile, gaming or arm devices to begin with. Microsoft, instead of designing a sleek and efficient but separate OS for different platforms, is trying to slap the same OS for all machines, hiding the bloat and architectural inefficiencies under the rug, and using the raw hardware power to mask the issues

Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8 all create a hidden partition on the computer for restoration.  In addition, the OS does a better job of protecting itself (it does this with a file cache) as well as better cataloging with system restore points.  In addition, more of the OS is installed on the HDD than with Windows XP.  With Windows XP and prior, if you wanted to chance the features of the OS, you had to keep your disc on hand to install them.  With Windows Vista and later, uninstalled features are available without the disc for installation.  Essentially you activate those features with a flip of a switch. 

Microsoft also did something different that I don't entirely understand yet.  In Windows XP you only had local profiles.  In Windows Vista and later you have both roaming and local profiles cached on the system.  So where as application data used to be maintained in one spot, it's now maintained in two.  That's true whether you have the Home edition or the Professional edition.  Yet the only versions that can take advantage of a Domain log-in as I recall -- where a roaming profile might be used -- are the Ultimate and Enterprise versions.

Your statement regarding Microsoft and OSes would ring true if it weren't for the fact that the Xbox 360 OS was Windows NT based and ran in as little as 32MB of memory.  Windows Phone 8 was a transitional OS.  Much like Windows ME was the transition between Windows 9x-based OSes and Windows NT-based OSes, Windows Phone 8 was the transitional OS between Windows CE-based Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 compatible Windows Phone 8.1.  Windows Phone 8 had its own set of unique APIs.  While Windows Phone 8.1 does too, developers can create applications that work across Windows platforms.  They couldn't do that before Windows 8.1 Update 1 and Windows Phone 8.1.