The last REALLY good Windows was Windows 2000… and i am going to defend this hill until you take this yellowed out PS/2 keyboard out of my cold dead hands.
What sucks is - windows is the easiest to jump off. There are tons of viable alternatives.
There is nothing for mobile.
I mean. There ARE mobile os options. Just you need to have very specific phones, and they’re all old and outdated tech.
Yup, and getting fewer every day.
There are some projects (postmarketOS and half a dozen people forking it for other distros) trying to get kernel and drivers worked out, Linux is still sadly lacking at a bunch of the best tricks Android and IOS use to save power (most notably freezing applications), we’ll get there eventually.
The Halium stuff +Ubuntu ports works if all you’re worried about is privacy and as you said have a supported phone.
Postmarket can’t make it through the morning on a charge. Halium is Android kernel and drivers and also has power issues if you decide to run android apps. Neither one can do anything with NFC.
The Start menu has gotten worse with every update. It is getting ridiculous.
I can no longer click start > type in the program I need > hit enter.
Start menu, you had one job!I moved it to the side when 16:9 screens became popular and vertical space was more limited.
Windows 11 removed this feature.
That’s one of its jobs
I think it’s really easy for Lemmy users to assume that the general population has the same technological interest and literacy that they do.
The Windows 11 users they are talking about are from an /r/pcmasterrace thread.
The vast, vast majority of consumers don’t give a shit. They don’t care enough to even think about whether their computer is actually secure, they don’t care that they don’t own their OS, and they don’t care that AI is being shoved in.
Their computer is a magic box to them, and they don’t care to know more.
I am not a tech wizard. As soon as my new minipc got home with Windows 11, I installed CachyOS on it. I found out later that it’s based on one of the “difficult” Linux variants, but everything went super smoothly (I might have just been lucky. i don’t know, don’t take this as advice!).
Yes I had to follow a few instructions on creating an installation USB key. That was the hardest part. But my relationship with windows had become too abusive. I do want my computer to “just work” and let me do my stuff, but that’s not what windows is doing any longer
I do think the vast majority of users see things like copliot all over the OS, and then watch their PC run like shit, and assume it’s the new fandagled thing ruining their experience regardless of whether they care about AI or not.
Especially if they update and the entire computer is then broken, like with the recent bug where it would break particular SSDs.
That wasn’t a Microsoft issue. It was a bad driver from the company.
But the magical box has changed shape and change is scary.
Do you believe them that they gonna stop AI? It’s a billion investment that needs results for the shareholders!
Oh no, we thought results were for the next CEO to worry about!
*next CEO is an AI scapegoat
They’ll stop pushing AI by integrating it throughout the system similar to how Internet Explorer is tied to everything. Except much more invasive.
Their goal is certainly not reducing AI, it’s making it seamlessly incorporated in everything you do.
Too little to late… I already left and fell in love with Linux
Welcome! Isn’t it a breath of fresh air to use an OS that isn’t trying to turn your computer into an advertising and upselling platform? It has its issues, but it’s a huge relief to escape the constant inundation from Microsoft.
(Obligatory: I use arch BTW)
Welcome to the club buddy! we’ve been waiting for you!
Same here. Got fed up after every damned update to subscribe to this, want to setup backup to cloud, setup office. Switched to Linux and now not a single subscription popup in sight. It’s been bliss. Spent the weekend with the misses sorting out 30 years of photos and getting to know exif editor 🫣
[edit] exif not exit editor.
Same here, only 9 years ago. On the not so bright side, every few months I go in a distro hopping frenzy for a day or 2 but it’s fine, since any distro installed takes me at most 15 minutes.
My games work, most are better than on Windows. Microsop has noting to offer but ads and malicious bloatware.
Exactly
Windows 11 felt like a downgrade before all the AI bs. Microsoft values me more as an advertising opportunity than a customer.
I had avoided it until late last year when I had to reinstall a friend’s borked install after it had somehow managed to shred its registry hives.
Holy shit. That installer is an embarrassment. First it couldn’t get past the first reboot until I found out that you can set it to use what looks like the Windows 7 installer for the first steps. Then I had to deal with a dog slow installer that needs half a dozen reboots for some unfathomable reason. Then an endless cavalcade of sales prompts, including one for an Office subscription where they try to hide the price from you. All to end in, well, Windows 11.
I simultaneously installed Fedora Kinoite on his old laptop. I don’t think the Fedora installer is one of the better ones but it was so much easier and faster to set up the machine that it was almost comical.
Seeing both systems side by side really drives home just how clunky Windows is. And how Microsoft installers are barely better than they were 15 years ago, but now they have ads.
I read “reevaluating its AI strategy on Windows 11” as “finding a more subtle way to shove that botulistic sausage down their customers throats”.
botulistic sausage
Epic new band name
Or Roblox username!
It does sound kind of like those randomly generated Xbox live usernames from back in the day
Yeah, exactly, they never said they are removing any AI. Just will be slapping some paint on it.
Microsoft’s promises to fix the OS and stop pushing AI
Never heard such a promise.
I’ll believe it when I see it
Why? Why even wanna see it? Just walk away, go to Linux, and find that suddenly you own your computer again
there’s no chance my company stops using Windows any time soon
and until then, I need MS to stop doing their goddamn best to make it impossible for me to do my job
Unless you are locked in by hardware or some very specific software, you can make a very compelling case on how much your company can save on MS licenses every year.
Because the vast majority of users don’t care enough to change what they’re used to and learn something new. They just don’t care that they don’t own their computer.
Don’t underestimate human inertia.
Hell, if MS ever really starts pushing VDI, I guarantee there will be mass adoption.
AVD is an expensive dystopian virtual nightmare right now.
Windows 11 feels like Microsoft is actively punishing me for being foolish enough to keep using their products. Adding some janky AI bullshit machine to this garbage fire feels now they’re just taking the piss.
No joke, one of the last straws for me was their stupid copilot popup on the active cell in Excel. Hated that garbage. Also their refusal to let me just use the file explorer to save my files. Maybe I’m an old fogey, but every new addition felt like a step backwards. I have now switched to Linux and am having a decent time (not for everyone tho and I totes understand if others don’t want to make the switch).
deleted by creator
Weell…

i’ll never see it because i’m never using windows again
I stopped seeing all the copilot ai crap after I removed it from my windows 11 computer. Not sure what versions of windows people on here are running but I’m glad it’s not on my PC! It is unfortunate that windows needs to be debloated if you buy home version instead of enterprise (a mistake I made), if they keep making users need to tweak stuff they’ll be better off on linux soon! Windows was supposed to be the idiot proof for office drones but it appears those days are gone.
Not sure what versions of windows people on here are running
No version
Calm down there’s plenty of windows users in this thread lol. I’m sure Lemmy is one of the places that houses a disproportionately large amount of Linux users as most people on the fediverse are more technologically adept than the average joe!
Same!
I’m currently building my business to be platform agnostic.
For the most part I’m using open source for everything that can be.
Bow that I think of it, the only non-open source stuff I use are zoom, outlook (need it for shared inboxes), and my payment processor. I doubt I will move on from these platforms as their value is really good. Zoom is the only one I may transition away from from as costs grow.
Microsoft my sweet summer child, it’s not just the ai. It’s the Spyware wrapped in a Windows shell. Call me when I can install without needing an MS account.















