• harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      7 months ago

      Exactly. It’s Microsoft ffs. They don’t care what consumers want. The only time they do anything truly beneficial is when the EU makes them.

      • starman@programming.dev
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        7 months ago

        The only time they do anything truly beneficial is when the EU makes them.

        Except when they make programming languages

        • abbadon420@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          I mean sure, c# is better than java, but c# also makes you dependant on MS and all their shenanigans. Java is free of such burdens. Oracle sure is a dependency, but you’re free pick another vendor or fork your own.

          • starman@programming.dev
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            7 months ago

            Of course they prioritise Windows and Azure, but still, .NET works on Linux well, and it’s licensed under MIT, so you’re allowed to fork too.

            But on the other hand I won’t waste my time defending Microsoft here, because they have people for doing it.

          • metaldream@sopuli.xyz
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            7 months ago

            They also created TypeScript which is a huge improvement over js imo. And with C# you can use Mono, so you really aren’t locked into MS automatically.

            Plus, they made VS Code free. I hate MS but they do make solid tools for developers.

    • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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      7 months ago

      Really trying not to be that “use Linux” person, but it’s easy to underestimate the impact this has on user perception. It was communicated to me by these actions that this isn’t my computer. It kept pissing me off, so I went with something that respects me.

      I think Microsoft is okay with that because their operating system isn’t a main profit center anymore. It’s cloud stuff.

      • deegeese@sopuli.xyz
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        7 months ago

        The Win10 machine I got in 2020 will be my last Windows computer now that gaming on Linux is basically solved.

        • themachine@lemm.ee
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          7 months ago

          Can you tell me how gaming on Linux is solved? It’s the only reason I use windows still.

          • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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            7 months ago

            In my case, many of my games are purchased through Steam, which automatically handles Linux compatibility for most games. The product page of the game lists the compatible operating systems as SteamOS, Linux, or SteamPlay. You can also set up proton directly for other games, which is a fork of Wine that has really good gaming support these days.

            I wouldn’t call it a completely solved problem. It’s always possible to find games that just won’t work, but most of them do. Even most DRM works. If the DB covers the games you care about then you’re golden.

      • SkyNTP@lemmy.ml
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        7 months ago

        I’m pretty sure Windows is a key part of their “cloud stuff” strategy. You are right that consumers are not the direct focus of Windows, since they are not the direct paying audience, and that shows in the direction Windows is going, but getting consumers to use Windows is a big part of creating corporate buy in for Microsoft cloud services. Corporate environments will shun Microsoft cloud services if employees can’t use Windows, or Windows features run afoul of corporate policies (like blanket LLM bans).

      • blind3rdeye@lemm.ee
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        7 months ago

        Over the years, Microsoft has been quietly taking away control from the users.

        There’s been a transition from normal settings that you can do whatever you want with, to “yes / remind me later” settings that Microsoft uses to badger you until you submit, to finally just no setting at all - just quiet compulsory data collection and surveillance; with various bits of mysterious software that you can’t uninstall or disable or halt - because you’re not the admin - Microsoft is.

        It wasn’t always this way.

        • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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          7 months ago

          It’s not even good for non technical users. Microsoft takes admin responsibility, but then they manage it poorly by applying updates that haven’t been properly tested and using your system as the guinea pig.

          I’ve seen this happen to family. Forced update comes in, breaks system.

    • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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      7 months ago

      Even the small things. When work upgraded to Win11 overnight and I logged into the Start being in the middle, I almost lost it. Yes, I could fix it, and a few other things, but I had a moment.

      • tempest@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        I understand it’s not for everyone but I jumped ship to Linux 10 years ago or so. The defining moment was me disabling Cortana only to have her reappear after an update.

        At least with Linux when I’m fighting the OS it doesn’t feel like the OS developers are fighting back.

        • Gestrid@lemmy.ca
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          7 months ago

          Ironically, Microsoft would later remove Cortana itself in an update.

        • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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          7 months ago

          Same motivation here, but it took me until last year to make the switch. Pushing Office on me combined with all the good things I’ve been hearing about gaming on Linux was enough to push me over. I installed in dual boot, but I have never wanted to nor had the need to boot into my Windows install in at least three months.

          • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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            7 months ago

            I did the same thing about the same time as you. I did boot into Windows at one point and it updated, and it absolutely fucked my system. It removed or disabled the boot loader and I think it fucked up the partition table too IIRC. I then removed everything Windows and installed another distro I wanted to try and it’s been smooth sailing since, with no reason to regret removing Windows.

            Edit: I was able to recover the partitions, but the Windows section of the bootloader I was never able to get working again after getting it to boot into my Linux install. That’s the moment I decided to just clear out that drive and switch distros.

            • henfredemars@infosec.pub
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              7 months ago

              This isn’t the first time I’ve heard a similar story. Windows is often not a good neighbor in multi boot configurations.

            • tal@lemmy.today
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              7 months ago

              with no reason to regret removing Windows.

              I’ve been using Linux on my desktop since the 1990s. I’m certainly not opposed to people using Linux on their desktop. But I can definitely think of things, even in 2024, that someone might want Windows for.

              • If you go and buy a piece of hardware from a vendor, even really obscure stuff, there will almost certainly be a Windows driver. These days, Linux support is pretty common, and stuff like USB device classes providing a standard interface for a lot of hardware deals with a lot of that. But if I were getting something weird like, oh, one of those projectors that displays 3D images on mist, I’d be more-cautious. VR headsets are probably one of the more-prominent recent examples. Yeah, you can get a VR headset for Linux, but not all of the VR headsets out there are Linux-compatible.

              • Maybe a more-prominent issue – while it’s rare for hardware to not work, it’s more-common for some functionality not to be available. tries to think of an example Okay, here’s one. I have a flightstick and throttle from CH from some years back. These are standard ol’ USB Human Interface Devices. Their axes and buttons are detected, and I can use them just fine. But they also have a little button on both their throttle and joystick that – besides acting as a button – cycles a series of one illuminated LED through three LEDs, green,yellow,red. I believe that it’s intended to switch between different “profiles” – so, like, say you’re just flying along, you have one set of controls, but then you enter into combat in some flight system, you can toggle to the “yellow” profile by tapping a button. Whatever software CH ships to handle that on Windows isn’t shipped for Linux. Okay, you could probably set something similar up for Linux if you’ve the time and technical chops, and maybe there’s a way to do it for Steam games using Steam Input. But there isn’t gonna be software provided to do it out-of-the-box on Linux, whereas there is on Windows.

              • There are still a few pieces of software that you can’t run. If you specifically need or really want to run something, that may be a problem. There are very few games on Steam that I can’t run, but one happens to be Command: Modern Operations, which suffers from both relying on 3d hardware – so not being VM-friendly – and not having anyone manage to get it working. There are other military simulation games, but no real direct alternatives. Now, I can live without that software package, though I sure would like to run it, but there may users that don’t have that kind of flexibility.

              • There’s also some software that you can make use of on a machine running Linux, but need to run in a Windows VM. That…works, but is also kind of annoying. A good example might be something like Solidworks, which doesn’t support Linux. There are engineers out there who are going to need to use Solidworks to do their work. I understand that you can run it in a VM – and there’s sufficient demand that apparently the company certifies VM environments with a dedicated GPU for pass-through use with the VM but that’s kind of annoying, if you’re someone whose work revolves around the package.

              • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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                7 months ago

                I agree there are plenty of reasons some people may still want Windows. I think we all know this, and it doesn’t need to be stated every time. However, there are also reasons to switch from Windows to Linux that are better. I just switched GPUS (AMD) today and literally just plugged it in and it’s ready to go. Package managers are also hugely more convenient than the Windows method of each application managing its own updates.

                Sure, if you need Windows then you need Windows. Most people don’t.

          • tempest@lemmy.ca
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            7 months ago

            Funny you say that ah

            For real though I use a down stream arch distro.

            Installing arch manually is a good learning experience but I’ve got other things to do.

          • tal@lemmy.today
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            7 months ago

            If MS would sell me a license to own my computer, I would buy it, but they don’t offer that. Instead it’s ads and spam and data collection. And I want nothing to do with that.

            I kind of feel like that about Google’s services (to a lesser extent). Like, Google produces some really outstanding services. YouTube is great, and I’d have no problem with paying for it. But I have no idea whether, if I buy YouTube Premium or whatever Google calls it, I can buy privacy or whether it’s just going to mean that they can link my data to my financial information and carry on data-mining.

      • saigot@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        They killed the vertical task bar with that update, which seems like such a pointless thing to disable.

      • jarfil@beehaw.org
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        7 months ago

        I don’t mind the taskbar in the middle, it’s like Apple’s dock. What I really hate, is the news popup on the left… and I don’t even mind the floating Start menu, I’ve been using MadAppLauncher for like a decade or more.

      • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        7 months ago

        Man. Work moved us to windows 11 and you couldn’t ungroup windows on the taskbar… We use RPG / as400 and throughout the day you’ll end up with 4-5 windows… having them all grouped is annoying when I have to hover over a popup to see which window I need.

        Googling revealed that win11 wasn’t shipped with that functionality and it was only patched into the operating system in late q3 of last year.

        So annoying and a huge productivity hit for me.

        • Rhaedas@fedia.io
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          7 months ago

          Guess no one at Microsoft realized people use computers differently and more options is always better than one. Or they intended to have the option and either forgot to include it or it was buggy. Either way it was #2 on my “how do you disable this” list, and I had to deal with it for a while. I get how grouping can be good for some things, but when you want to be able to bounce between various windows and some happen to use the same app, it was a pain.

          • 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            7 months ago

            That’s why on my kde desktop at home it has a check box that say “allow these windows to be grouped” and I can check / uncheck as needed.

            It works so much better. Imho

      • eveninghere@beehaw.org
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        7 months ago

        I hadn’t minded it if it were on the center. As you know, it was actually somewhere around the center, changing its position every time I added an icon or whatever in the taskbar. And they were proud enough to call it a UX revolution. WTAF…

      • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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        7 months ago

        I logged into the Start being in the middle

        I’m sorry, what!?

        At this rate, I’m definitely going to hold onto 10 until they *pry it away from me.

        (Yes, I use Linux as well but gaming isn’t perfect on it, etc…)

        • underisk@lemmy.ml
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          7 months ago

          if you feel comfortable mucking about in your BIOS, disabling TPM will pretty much guarantee they don’t spring 11 on you. they are really dead set on that requirement for some reason.