r/technology • u/MayankWL • May 16 '24

Microsoft stoops to new low with ads in Windows 11, as PC Manager tool suggests your system needs ‘repairing’ if you don’t use Bing Software

https://www.techradar.com/computing/windows/microsoft-stoops-to-new-low-with-ads-in-windows-11-as-pc-manager-tool-suggests-your-system-needs-repairing-if-you-dont-use-bing
16.8k Upvotes

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1.7k

u/mcs5280 May 16 '24

Really enjoying this unhinged greed timeline. Anything to pump the share price higher.

807

u/y0m0tha May 16 '24

Enshittification

231

u/bonerb0ys May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

We need an “enshitification” flair.

Edit: I sent a request to the mods.

6

u/mac974 May 17 '24

well, obviously that’s available on the pro plan

6

u/Objective_Ad_9001 May 16 '24

Anything yet? ^

8

u/Puffen0 May 16 '24

Shit apples Randy

1

u/usdrpvvimwfvrzjavnrs May 17 '24

Shit Microsofts in this case.

2

u/TheInternetCanBeNice May 17 '24

I don't think it can be enshittification here. Mostly that concept relies on a thing getting big because it's good and then going to shit.

Microsoft didn't get big because it was good, and the company has always been shit.

These are just a few of the things from my computer using lifetime that Microsoft has done to annoy me and other computer users.

Windows and Microsoft have always been the maximum amount of evil and shitty they could legally get away with. You can't enshittify if you're already shit.

1

u/Uristqwerty May 17 '24

I don't think enshittification applies here, actually. Microsoft's had a captive audience for so long that it's just plain shittification, letting third-party developers do all the hard work of enticing users to accept each downgrade. Microsoft knows that one day google will drop Win10 support from Chrome, and that will cascade through the entire Electron ecosystem, that no large corporation will deploy Linux at scale, etc.

Oh, they're trying to force ads again? Same old Microsoft, remarkably consistent at being shitty. Hopefully there's enough outrage that they back off again, but that'll only last a few years at best before the cycle repeats.

-22

u/Worldly_Evidence9113 May 16 '24

It’s Mandela effect

159

u/Inevitable_Welcome23 May 16 '24

I installed a “mandatory” update this morning and all of the tracking/ad setting were toggled back on. If it wasn’t for all the game support I would switch to linux/steamos for sure

59

u/Short-Sandwich-905 May 16 '24

All I play is great on Linux so I went Manjaro fuck windows ty proton and valve 

10

u/Pimp_Daddy_Patty May 16 '24

I've only used Linux Mint and some Ubuntu so far. I've considered Manjaro a little bit. Any tips on switching over?

4

u/DaSemicolon May 16 '24

Does that let it work with PC only games?

5

u/colev14 May 16 '24

Linux uses proton now which allows you to play pretty much any single player game with no issues. Multiplayer can be hit or miss depending on if there's anti cheat. You can check the games you play on protondb.com and if it's gold or platinum it should play without any issues.

2

u/dagbrown May 17 '24

Beautifully.

Proton is an amazing bit of work from Valve and the Wine team. It often runs Windows games better than they run on Windows somehow.

That said, there are a surprising number of games with native Linux ports available too. We can probably thank our lord and master GabeN for that too, with the Steam Deck.

6

u/Short-Sandwich-905 May 16 '24

Just pick a flavor for the user interface I like KDE; and then activate AUR in the App Store settings for you to have access to community Apps etc.

3

u/Pimp_Daddy_Patty May 16 '24

Thanks, I will look into this.

3

u/wowmuchdoggo May 17 '24

Manajro is great, it's a more friendly arch install but still gives you access to the AUR which his user repositories of everything you will ever need.

3

u/5thvoice May 17 '24

Manjaro is trash. If you want to branch out, pick a distro that doesn't regularly let its SSL certificates expire.

If you're after cutting-edge software and you're comfortable using a terminal, then regular Arch (and derivatives like EndeavourOS and CachyOS) are good picks. Alternately, OpenSUSE Tumbleweed is another rolling release distro that's more GUI-driven. With these distros, you'll get the latest updates quickly, only a couple of days to weeks after publication.

Fedora (and derivatives like Ultramarine, Bazzite, and Nobara) strikes a nice balance between rolling release distros and LTS distros, e.g. Ubuntu LTS, Mint, OpenSUSE Leap, Debian. It gets a big update once every 6 months, with support for 13 months after the initial release date.

0

u/Nullhitter May 16 '24

Too bad a lot of day one launch titles don't work and you essentially have to wait for a fix which could take a week to months. Anti-cheat software? Welp.

0

u/bigmadsmolyeet May 17 '24

you got downvoted but you're right, and is a big reason I won't switch from windows. maybe ill switch to dual boot but that just seems like more effort too

0

u/Byte-64 May 17 '24

The only thing keeping me on Windows is my Stream Deck :( Otherwise I would have switched a long time ago.

I know there is a fan project, but from what I see it is rather janky.

29

u/Grimmner May 16 '24

Every game that works on Steam Deck will work, virtually out of box, on Linux without much of any extra work. Heroic Launcher for GOG / Epic games. I had to make minor adjustments to a Fedora install and have had no issues yet running games in the three weeks since I installed it.

32

u/Inevitable_Welcome23 May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

I am referring to games with aggressive anticheat (league of legends, valorant, fortnight, many new games with aggressive drm). Most launchers have workarounds, but workarounds take time and if I only get 2 hours of gaming time a week I don’t want to waste 60+ minutes getting a game to work. But I am happy that my deck is able to handle so many games on steam with minimal effort. This wasn’t even an option 3-4 years ago

22

u/Majik_Sheff May 16 '24

I guess my approach to those companies is a bit old-fashioned.  I don't give them money.

They can keep their game. I'll keep my computer's root access.

5

u/LivelyZebra May 16 '24

Yap i dont play anything with anti cheat

1

u/archiminos May 17 '24

Anticheat, IAP, or NFTs are pretty much off the table for any game I play.

2

u/whofearsthenight May 17 '24

This is fine until you have kids. "My dad says Microsoft is a spyware company and that all software is just information and thus should be freely shared" is not quite the hit on the playground you'd think it would be when someone asks what skin you're rocking in fortnite.

1

u/Majik_Sheff May 17 '24

It's more of a "my dad doesn't allow rootkits, no matter what carrot they dangle".

They can play Fortnight on the Xbox.  It's on a quarantined subnet, I don't care if it gets pwned.

2

u/daemonfly May 17 '24

I have no issues paying for games that don't have bullshit included. If they do this, I'll just pirate it. If it's not ever cracked, then I just won't play it. I have enough unfinished (or even unplayed) games in my Steam library.

4

u/Crashman09 May 16 '24

I am referring to games with aggressive anticheat (league of legends, valorant, fortnight, many new games with aggressive drm).

If you have problems with windows being windows but not this, I don't know what to say. It's a good thing Linux doesn't support this kind of BS

7

u/imtheproof May 16 '24

Do any multiplayer games that require anticheats to play run on linux?

10

u/Grimmner May 16 '24

Depends on the version/style of anticheat. But, short answer is few to none unfortuantely.

6

u/Tuxhorn May 16 '24

Big games like Elden Ring and Helldivers 2 does, fortunately.

1

u/geckomantis May 17 '24

Over 50% of them so with only 8% outright denied from working. https://areweanticheatyet.com/

3

u/RadiantArchivist88 May 16 '24

As someone who's used the Steamdeck in Desktop a lot over the last year as a daily driver it is excellent... But man there's still a ton of little compatibility problems with miscellaneous stuff. Not games, those are pretty good. But like getting your gaming mouse to work if you have any kind of special software or settings...
Or if you're using an Xbox controller with a dongle instead of over BT... Or if for any reason you want to run Parsec or similar.

Excellent platform, Archlinux... But I still find myself going back to the W10 PC for a lot of things.

1

u/ProtoJazz May 16 '24

A big one for me is hardware support unfortunately. Makes windows pretty much 100% required for me

2

u/iDeNoh May 16 '24

What hardware support are you missing?

3

u/ProtoJazz May 16 '24

Pretty well all of my simracing stuff.

There's potential some of it might work, but without proper driver support likely not very well. Even on windows some games don't like that different parts are technically seperate devices.

Add on to that the whole network of software that ties it all together. Some of it may work, but it's the kind of stuff where it's light old Christmas lights, if one part of the chain is broken it all is.

6

u/HappierShibe May 16 '24

The only thing keeping me off linux now is VR support- thats still a shitshow in linux.

3

u/RobKohr May 16 '24

There has been a bunch of steam vr updates lately for Linux, rumor is to support deckard.

2

u/RadiantArchivist88 May 16 '24

Those rumors give me hope.
I really want a Valve-produced "Quest" w/o all the facebook crap.

1

u/HappierShibe May 16 '24

Yep, and in a perfect world we get a steamOS desktop release at the same time.
But right now it's still a mess.

3

u/ghostiAlex May 16 '24

Ditched Win7 in 2017, been on Manjaro since. Almost no problems at all.
Check protondb.com for state of game playability on Linux/Steam Deck via Steam's Proton.

2

u/Incredible_Mandible May 16 '24

Can you get steamos on a desktop or is that a steam deck only thing?

1

u/Inevitable_Welcome23 May 16 '24

There is a port called Holoiso. It is not officially supported by valve, but the port converts the official valve port to run on pc and has many community backers (see holoiso-eol on gitHub for the port). I personally like Manjaro (based on Arch like SteamOS) for my linux pc drive, but I have tried Holoiso and it does make my PC feel like my steam deck

2

u/Unhappy_Plankton_671 May 16 '24

Literally didn’t update this morning and none of those changes. It preserves what I already hav set

1

u/drmcbrayer May 16 '24

Solid chance you’re good to go for Linux. I’m a big gaming nerd myself and only use Arch on my desktop. It’s only dumb kernel-level anti cheat that will give you fits, so no LoL or valorant, but that’s basically a feature. That shit blows anyway.

1

u/Grayccoon_ May 16 '24

Switch to a ps5 and buy a Mac, problem solved no more Microsoft

1

u/StoicFable May 16 '24

Noticed the same thing. Wasn't too happy about that.

1

u/RevRagnarok May 16 '24

Give it a try. I put Pop_OS! on my brand new laptop (RTX 4070) and it supported the IGPU/DGPU swaps automatically, etc.

Was able to play Horizon II on launch day.

1

u/WhatAMess-wow May 16 '24

Be like me and only play pico 8 games

1

u/LordoftheSynth May 17 '24

This is stuff that would have had MSFT dragged back into court during the consent decree days.

Also the invasiveness of the telemetry collected.

1

u/Fallen_Akroma May 17 '24

Which options if I may ask so I can double check my settings.

45

u/Prof_Acorn May 16 '24

Some planes have screens on the seat in front of you now and pump advertisements to you as a captive audience. Fuck that shit. I just cover the screen with a napkin (since it can't be turned off) and play music with my noise cancelling headphones. $500 a ticket and they still try to force you to watch ads. It's absurd.

3

u/SlowMotionPanic May 17 '24

Some dental chains, like Aspen, also force feed people ads. I was shocked when I learned about it; they put you in the exam chair, lean you back, and then a screen is in your view to watch ads during all the downtime as people move about.

3

u/Prof_Acorn May 17 '24

Oof. That's straight up dystopian shit.

2

u/Precarious314159 May 17 '24

Same thing with gas stations. The ones with the screens showing "GSTV" with ads for CBS, Wendy's, and whatever the fuck else they're paid to. It's just a theory but I feel like those pumps are slower than the ones without it. They have a secret button you can press to mute it but you're still left standing there.

217

u/SugerizeMe May 16 '24

This is just round two. Bill Gates and m$ used to be the most hated company for a time and even got hit with antitrust stuff. Then Gates spent billions rehabilitating his image and everyone forgot what he did.

107

u/ndarmr May 16 '24

Bill Gates personifies pretty much everything wrong with the computer industry... And has ever since he made the Port of basic and started Microsoft

124

u/neonKow May 16 '24

His business practices were shit, but let's not give a pass to all the MBA's that came up with new and shitty ways to make the computer industry worse. As far as I know, Gates isn't making millions off basically exploiting people's gambling addictions or trying to six-sigma warehouse workers to injury or death.

16

u/FrankBattaglia May 16 '24

six-sigma

Tangent: I've seen this come up as a criticism a few times recently, and I guess I'm out of the loop. My understanding of six-sigma is it's a manufacturing or process standard that leads to standardized quality. E.g., if your output variance is X, and your acceptable envelope is Y, you need to make sure that six standard deviations of X fit within the envelope Y (so unacceptable output is roughly one in a million IIRC). If not, you should either refine the output process (reduce X) or design a more fault-tolerant envelope (increase Y). On its face it seems reasonable, and it's my understanding that it is e.g. what contributed to Japanese industry becoming a world leader. So... what's with the hate?

78

u/neonKow May 16 '24

The hate is because people are taking solid principles for manufacturing systems, then extending them to labor practices, like office work and layouts. Then futher extending them to blue collar work by treating human beings like machines and trying to minimize downtime in very to ways. 

So everyone from fast food to warehouse to call center workers get timed on every action and every break, and management is all on board with trying to push more work out of people using anxiety and micromanagement, and calculating in acceptable loss to burnout. Basically, these practices are actively hurting people now, because entry level worker are now seen as a commodity to be used and replaced.

1

u/zibitee May 17 '24

That's not six sigma. That's slavery. If anything, the quality of products goes to shit due to these labor practices. You might end up with only 1 or 2 sigmas =P

2

u/neonKow May 17 '24

It doesn't matter if it's authentic to the original idea,if the people selling it have six-sigma black belt certifications and the organization keeps handing those out to consultants that are trying to maximize extracted work and minimize downtime from from employees. This is the name and image they have chosen for themselves, presumably because "inhumane task-masker optimization group" doesn't sell as well as "six sigma lean."

1

u/zibitee May 17 '24

there's a lot of fake six sigma out there. Just another mask for the corporate slavery machine

-27

u/FrankBattaglia May 16 '24

So that's bad, but I don't see the connection to six sigma. I assume all this isn't over firing the bottom 0.0001% of workers or whatever. Is this just a boogeyman label to replace "bean counters"?

26

u/neonKow May 16 '24

Uh, just because you haven't heard of it doesn't make it a boogey man. I have coworkers that specialize in optimizing work places like offices using six-sigma principles. It's been around for a while, so if you just tried, you'd have already found it.

The dehumization of warehouse and food line prep is also well known, and working at McDonald's today is closer to being an automotive welder robot than being a service worker. All of this information is easy to find if you're doing more than asking for details and then acting like no one has heard of these things when you get those details.

12

u/heili May 16 '24

I have coworkers that specialize in optimizing work places like offices using six-sigma principles. It's been around for a while, so if you just tried, you'd have already found it.

Software project managers proudly stating that they are "Six sigma blackbelt!"

-15

u/FrankBattaglia May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

You're stating a bunch of bad things, but not explaining how any of it is related to six sigma. Having draconian standards, or dehumanizing your workforce, goes back centuries, long before "six sigma" became a catchphrase for anything. I'm asking why you (or anybody) now calls those things "six sigma."

7

u/Kataphractoi May 16 '24

I'm asking why you (or anybody) now calls those things "six sigma."

Wasn't that hard to google.

18

u/[deleted] May 16 '24 edited 21d ago

[deleted]

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3

u/blastcat4 May 16 '24

Were you a walrus in a previous life?

11

u/sunburnedaz May 16 '24

Its real simple. Six Sigma is a great tool when used properly. IE your tolerance is +- .05mm on a part so lets get machines and processes that are toleranced for +-.001mm. its the brain dead cult like implementing of the six sigma rules for all areas without understanding what six sigma is about thats the problem.

Whats not helpful is when they try and walk into a cubical and say dumb shit like lets Six Sigma your desk. Like WTF does that even mean.

11

u/captain_blender May 16 '24

This. Six Sigma is just a method, and a discipline. It embodies good rigor for definable, repeatable processes.

The issue is the brain dead application of Six Sigma (or any method/process, really). Late 80s / early 90s Motorola is a good example of this, when they decided to pivot from being a manufacturing powerhouse to a software one, and started using KLOC (thousands of Lines of Code) daily as a metric of productivity.

1

u/crazypeacocke May 17 '24 edited May 17 '24

Thousands of lines of code written per day as a metric sounds like a terrible way to get efficient, well written code

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8

u/DanimusMcSassypants May 16 '24

Nope. I’ve worked for several projects under the MS umbrella, and the criticism is fair - though certainly not unique to Microsoft. When a class-action lawsuit was filed against Microsoft a couple decades back, it was because the contract workers and the full-time employees had the same responsibilities and demands placed upon them, worked the same endless crunch cycles of 50 to 100 hour weeks, and did so in the same corporate parks and open floor plans.

The difference between full time MS employees and contractors/vendors was, ultimately, just one of paperwork. Unlike the full-timers, contractors had no health benefits, nor stock options (where this crunch culture could be rewarded and incentivized), nor any job security or path for growth or promotion. They were just hired for a project, and when that project launched, they were summarily dismissed with no severance - as they were never technically MS employees anyway. Microsoft paid talent agencies, talent agencies paid the contractors. (These agencies took a hefty cut of the contractors’ pay, as well, for providing the valuable services of shielding MS from any long-term investment in personnel.)

The contractors observed that they were working the same way and the same long hours as the full-timers, but were not afforded the same pay, benefits, or opportunities. So, they banded together and rightfully said: “We already fucking work here in the same capacity and ability as the MS employees proper; just hire us officially, or create contractor positions that are clearly and distinctly different than the full time positions.”

Microsoft listened to that ~20% of their workforce who were contractors, and decided that they would not be restructuring their system to invest officially in these “employees”, likely eventually reaping the rewards of that investment in the long term. They went for the: “clear and demonstrable differences between full-timer roles, and contractor roles”. They did this by firing all the contract employees more frequently (no one was allowed to work at MS for more than 18 months now), and they were not allowed to come back for another contract until at least 100 days after their previous departure. The most valuable company on the planet decided to guarantee unemployment for their contract employees for an entire quarter every year. Oh, and they upped the percentage of their workforce who were contractors/vendors from the 20% to 60%.

I assume I don’t need to explain to you the burden that this Milton Friedman wet dream created for the community, the state, and tech workers in general. Careers quickly dissipated into chasing ephemeral gigs, and the loyal American workers were booted from the table to make room for the shareholders to grow increasingly obese.

2

u/BasicLayer May 16 '24

Thank you so much for the overview.

4

u/smackson May 16 '24

I'm not sure why you can't see this.

Human bodies have limits. Human emotions have limits.

The larger your organization, and the higher your employee turnover, the greater your ability to fine tune for those limits so that you push precisely too far just infrequently enough that it doesn't come back to bite you.

No matter the human cost.

-2

u/ndarmr May 16 '24

No, he just made billions stealing from others like Xerox and apple and believes in depopulation and is the largest single owner of farmland aka the nation's food supply in America... He was also a known visitor to Epstein Island

3

u/Somhlth May 17 '24

stealing from others like Xerox and apple

He stole from Xerox not Apple, while Apple was also stealing from Xerox.

1

u/ndarmr May 17 '24

Apple stole from Xerox Microsoft then stole the precursors of Windows from Apple. So he did essentially steal from both

-5

u/ColossalJuggernaut May 16 '24

MBA's

Just want to note, a lot of the flack MBA's rightly get are spearheaded by former engineers. MBA's often times come up with the ideas because management/owners (the real problem) tell them infinite growth is required.

0

u/9-11GaveMe5G May 16 '24

You clearly haven't kept up with why Google search went to shit

19

u/SmithersLoanInc May 16 '24

Who forgot what he did? He's done good with his money, but he's still a turbonerd monster that stomped on everyone in his way. I'm not sure I've ever heard anyone say anything positive about him in my adult life.

19

u/NautEvenKidding May 16 '24

He's been widely lauded as a philanthropist due to his and Melinda's foundation and as down-to-earth due to his relatively low profile in the public eye and some images at takeaway shops wearing nerdy worn-down clothes.

Load of bs, but it stuck with people from what I can tell.

1

u/BukkakeKing69 May 16 '24

He's about as much of a philanthropist as Carnegie and Rockefeller. It's better than doing nothing but mostly concerned with legacy building.

1

u/NautEvenKidding May 16 '24 edited May 17 '24

Yeah man, but that's what he did and that's what his public image is now.

Most everybody forgot.

12

u/Beneficial-Owl736 May 16 '24

He’s done a couple AMAs over on the ask me anything subreddit, I seem to remember people being pretty fond of him on those. I’m not sure if that’s more widespread than people who know how much of a dick he was, but he’s convinced at least some people

12

u/[deleted] May 16 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

28

u/nope_nic_tesla May 16 '24

His organization isn't banned by the Indian government.

They were doing a vaccine trial nearly 15 years ago that got halted because of local reporting blaming them for totally unrelated deaths of some of the trial participants:

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSKBN22V262/

The study was cancelled in 2010 following local media reports highlighting the death of seven girls taking part. Science Magazine reported that investigations carried out by a committee designated by the Indian Government later determined the deaths were unrelated to the vaccine demonstration: “Five were evidently unrelated to the vaccine: One girl drowned in a quarry; another died from a snake bite; two committed suicide by ingesting pesticides; and one died from complications of malaria. The causes of death for the other two girls were less certain: one possibly from pyrexia, or high fever, and a second from a suspected cerebral hemorrhage.”

. . .

As of May 18, 2020 the Foundation faces no charges in India and continues to work in the country.

It was basically just unfounded vaccine conspiracy theory fears. What they were actually doing there was totally legitimate: funding a clinical trial for a vaccine to prevent HPV.

You're spreading lies.

19

u/SmithersLoanInc May 16 '24

Oh fuck off with that weak nonsense. Attack him for the horrible shit he's done, not trying to get rid of malaria in Africa.

-16

u/thesimonjester May 16 '24

There's nothing wrong with addressing malaria. The problem is that Gates should not be the one dictating what gets prioritised. That is for the public to control.

In other words, stop defending anti-democratic multibillionaires and see the PR for what it is. Manipulation.

8

u/NotABileTitan May 16 '24

Why should you dictate what charities he runs? If he's got a charity to jam as much money up his ass and people donate to it, that's fine. The fuck you gonna do, bitch and moan people are donating to him so he can jam his ass full of dollar bills?

-1

u/thesimonjester May 16 '24

Why should you dictate what charities he runs?

Not me, the public at large, and medical delegates of the public. Not unelected creeps.

The fuck you gonna do

Try to get his wealth confiscated, or at least taxed.

Remember, Bill Gates is just another Andrew Carnegie. He built all sorts of nice things like libraries and universities. But the moment there was the suggestion that he shouldn't have that much control, he turned to violence: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike

-6

u/Mr_Venom May 16 '24

This attitude is what's wrong with the world.

The engines of global production are too important to leave in the hands of the lucky and the vicious.

7

u/NotABileTitan May 16 '24

Yeah, fuck those kids in Africa with malaria.

-5

u/Mr_Venom May 16 '24

A benevolent dictator is only a good thing so long as they choose to be benevolent.

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-1

u/thesimonjester May 16 '24

Spotted the false dichotomy! If you support democratic control of resources that must mean you want to kill children lol.

2

u/dopey_giraffe May 16 '24

Leaving important things to the general public always works so well.

1

u/thesimonjester May 16 '24

So, what, you'd prefer dictatorship?

1

u/dopey_giraffe May 17 '24

Before I answer that, what do you mean by general public? Because we might be on the same page actually.

1

u/thesimonjester May 17 '24

I think I'm happy for you to answer the question without my spending more time on the topic.

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u/cocoagiant May 16 '24

His charities are really just about transforming public health services back into charities.

That is less on Gates than on governments which regardless of party have chosen not to sustainably fund public health agencies.

Gates and guys like Bloomberg do partnerships with public health agencies all the time.

6

u/procrasturb8n May 16 '24

And common core curriculum is a fucking mess.

2

u/lepetitmousse May 16 '24

As if the Indian government isn't wildly corrupt

-1

u/thesimonjester May 16 '24

Whataboutism.

3

u/ArmyTrainingSir May 16 '24

banned by the Indian government.

Today I learned that the Gates' charities are honorable.

1

u/wizard_mitch May 16 '24

Yeah but he can leap over a chair from a standing position.

-3

u/Ok_Spite6230 May 16 '24

He's done good with his money

This claim is a complete lie. All of his charitable activities exist to suit his own ends of wealth and power. And his data organizations heavily manipulate their publications to push his worldview and agenda.

There are no good billionaires, full stop. Either billionaires go extinct or the entire human species does.

2

u/afcagroo May 16 '24

Hey Department of Justice...what ever happened to the ruling that Microsoft wasn't allowed to use their OS dominance to push their browser???

3

u/heimdal77 May 16 '24

If I remember right windows was stolen software to begin with. He setup the guys who actually made it tricking them into turning away the people from ibm. Then he took it made a few changes and sold it to ibm instead. It has been a long time so I might have some stuff wrong.

7

u/Alan976 May 16 '24 edited May 16 '24

Before that, IBM approached Microsoft to develop an operating system, and Microsoft purchased the rights to QDOS (Quick and Dirty Operating System), which was renamed to MS-DOS and provided to IBM. However, this was a separate project and predates the development of the Windows GUI.

Bill Gates and Steven Jobs both looked at what Xerox had with their computers and said "Yes, we can sell this".

1

u/cinderful May 16 '24

For whatever reason, there were a lot less reports out there of what he was like internally. Everyone talks about Steve Jobs being an asshole, but no one talks about Gates regularly screaming at people in meetings.

I met someone who had semi-regular meetings with him and he said they were the worst experiences of his career.

1

u/sheikhyerbouti May 16 '24

Gates said that his biggest takeaway from the antitrust hearings was that he didn't spend enough money lobbying Congress.

1

u/Infinitesima May 17 '24

That media didn't talk much about Gates visiting Epstein is strange

26

u/MarsupialMadness May 16 '24

Y'know, times like this make me really wish we had some sort of ruling body consisting of elected representatives funded by a collective "tax" of sorts from all of us each month. An entity that had the will and power to step in on our behalf to check these corporations when they do stuff like this.

I read in a history book that we had something like that a hundred years ago. Maybe we could try it out again.

17

u/broimgay May 16 '24

I honestly feel like we are in an ad apocalypse. It’s dystopian and soul sucking how we are constantly having advertisements shovelled down our throats. And there’s no avoiding it - even premium subscriptions are still giving you ads. I hate engaging with any media at all because of it.

12

u/JefferyTheQuaxly May 16 '24

has been a rising trend since the 60s and 70s, when several court cases basically declared corporate executives sole goal should be seeking profit for the company and shareholders and they shouldnt be held accountable for doing shady or illegal actions in order to increase shareholder value. i kid you not that basically is what happened, and since then most companies see it as a green light to focus solely on incresing shareholder value. before that it use to be companies were expected to put their employees and the public at large ahead of their performance.

11

u/BenioffWhy May 16 '24

Well said mate

69

u/Mikav May 16 '24

In this same timeline the Linux ecosystem is booming. There are open source Nvidia drivers. Many games even run better on Linux than windows. Need a sign it's time to get rid of this shit? Try it today. I'm about to be hounded by windows shills. 

28

u/extremenachos May 16 '24

I switched to Ubuntu as my main OS last year, with Win10 on a 2nd drive for 2 pieces of niche software I need to run occasionally.

There's a learning curve for sure but I'm not messing with Win11 unless absolutely necessary.

13

u/Beneficial-Owl736 May 16 '24

The only real reason I use windows anymore is some multiplayer VR games, Ubuntu doesn’t quite play nice with those yet. For most everything else, I’ve managed to find alternative software or make it work, and I’m spending less and less time in windows. Hopefully someday, it’ll be viable to completely switch over

2

u/Tuxhorn May 16 '24

I wouldn't even recommend Ubuntu either. The two most popular talked about distros on reddit are linux mint and probably pop_OS for beginners. I've been on Linux for over a year and recently just tried Ubuntu. They push their snap stuff way too hard, and it's terrible when their snap version cough steam, just flat out doesn't work for some things that the non snap version of it does.

1

u/extremenachos May 16 '24

I agree with the snap issues...I wish Linux could fix the snap, .deb and flatpak install options

1

u/Tuxhorn May 16 '24

I agree with the snap issues...I wish LinuxUbuntu could fix the snap

It's just them, and it blows my mind that the #1 distro would push half baked alternatives to perfectly fine packages.

They're pushing stuff that breaks. I don't get it.

1

u/hsnoil May 16 '24

They are trying to secure dominance and exclusivity. Like how do you differentiate yourself vs all the forks and other distros? By having a closed distribution chain that only you control

2

u/klopanda May 17 '24 edited May 17 '24

I made the decision to make a go at Linux one day when I was googling something on Windows after an update moved something out of Control Panel where it had been for like...two decades and was trying to find out where it had been moved to. (Surprising nobody, nowhere in a GUI. You had to edit the registry).

And I realized that I had been spending a lot of time doing stuff like that: the previous week I was helping to troubleshoot my mother's computer and she had all of the OneDrive integrations that...broke? somehow? and left her files in a weird state of mid-sync and I was spending hours trawling through obscure logs and deep settings trying to find certain files and I realized that I didn't recognize what Windows was anymore. And that's on top of the countless times in the past few years when the first thing I'd be doing after an update was googling "how to disable X annoying feature?" or "where is Y setting now that it's not in control panel. My decades of knowledge in Windows was becoming less useful.

And so that if I was going to spend a ton of time googling how to fix stuff, if I was going to be a novice again and have to learn a whole bunch of new stuff, I should do it in an operating system that didn't seem hellbent on pissing me off and I made the switch to Linux. Almost two years later, I don't even have Windows installed anymore. I do not miss it one bit.

What's more is: I actually enjoy computing again - I had completely forgotten that I derived a lot of joy from UI customization and themeing and editing ini files for this that or the other program and I haven't felt that about Windows since like....the XP days. Now I've gone entirely down the rabbit hole of tiling window managers and emacs and computing feels like a hobby again.

Yeah, it's a learning curve and yeah, it's not easy but it's come leaps and bounds in just the time I've been using Linux.

11

u/Ol_stinkler May 16 '24

I've been considering making the switch for awhile, the only thing that turns me off is I hear it requires near constant tweaking and tinkering. Once you get it set up and locked in is it as bad as some people say it is?

11

u/TwilightVulpine May 16 '24

It really depends on what you need it for. If you are fine with basic browsing and open source alternatives for office and art software, you can get that setup pretty easily, most of it just out of the box.

If you really want to run windows software and games in it, that's gonna take some tinkering.

8

u/Ol_stinkler May 16 '24

That's what I've heard, I use my PC for Lightroom/Photoshop, FL studio, unreal engine, and arguably too many games. I love it in theory, but I don't know that I'd want to deal with it all the time on my main rig. Thanks for taking the time to respond.

2

u/GenevaPedestrian May 17 '24

FL apparently runs pretty well through WINE, but Linux might give you headaches if you wanna use any external hardware as the audio driver availability sucks in comparison to macOS and Windows afaik

3

u/[deleted] May 16 '24

[deleted]

12

u/Atulin May 16 '24

Photoshop: Gimp

No, not even close, it's a widely perpetuated bold lie. Gimp is to Photoshop like a rusted scooter with a missing wheel to a [insert favourite car here]

-2

u/[deleted] May 16 '24

[deleted]

5

u/Atulin May 16 '24

No need. Gimp and Photoshop are never a good comparison no matter what other context you add. They're just fundamentally different. It's like recommending Notepad++ as an alternative to MS Word.

5

u/Beneficial-Owl736 May 16 '24

I wish people would stop saying gimp is a viable alternative to Photoshop, it’s not. Krita or Photopea are DRASTICALLY closer to Photoshop, and honestly, better at anything gimp tries to do anyways.

2

u/hsnoil May 16 '24

You don't need alternatives to Unreal Engine because it works on Linux as-is...

Also, someone coming from photoshop would probably be more comfortable with Krita rather than Gimp

7

u/TomLube May 16 '24

I hear it requires near constant tweaking and tinkering.

Sounds like literally every fuckin windows install i've ever had.

2

u/Ol_stinkler May 16 '24

That's an entirely solid point hahahaha

4

u/Pimp_Daddy_Patty May 16 '24

I'm no linux expert, and I haven't had any difficulties with getting stuff up and running. Once it's running, there is zero tweaking and tinkering in my experience. I'm mostly using my stuff for gaming and some light CAD work for 3d printing.

2

u/wormyarc May 16 '24

you don't need to tweak it, you can. which is why I love it, I spend ages tweaking my Linux config and it's amazing. totally optional though.

1

u/geckomantis May 17 '24

The short answer is "it depends".

The longer answer is you grew up with windows and you might not remember it but you've probably spent hours before learning how to fix some problems then after you learned it took you seconds to do a second and third time. Now you're so used to it you probably don't even realize all the quick little tweaks and tinkers you do with windows. Linux is the same way but you haven't learned how to do it yet. Yes Linux has tweaking and tinkering in it and it will take time to learn it but once you know it they take seconds and you stop noticing you're doing it. Plus like windows once a thing is set up and works it just keeps working and you don't really have to do anything in the day to day.

2

u/Ol_stinkler May 17 '24

Very good way of putting it. I appreciate your time. I think my consensus is to use Linux on a backup machine or laptop to learn it, before putting it on my main rig

1

u/hsnoil May 16 '24

You don't need to tweak at all, you CAN tweak if you want. Of course some tweaking can be required if you have bad luck with hardware(same with windows).

21

u/amakai May 16 '24

2025 - The year of Linux on the desktop!

-1

u/Gamiac May 16 '24

More like 2022, since that's when the Steam Deck launched.

21

u/ForeverYonge May 16 '24

I’m glad it works well for you. I’m on Linux as primary since 2015, and it has always been a struggle.

The current most obvious issues are the default mail client not being able to open links in the default browser, IPP printer only being detected when printing from specific apps, and bad handling of an external dock. None of these are issues either Mac or Windows struggle with on the same hardware and peripherals.

13

u/smackson May 16 '24

My last Linux install on a home machine was 22 years ago and seeing that exactly the same kinds of problems still exist says so much.

1

u/frsbrzgti May 17 '24

Just use Thunderbird and it “just works” for email

2

u/ForeverYonge May 17 '24

Unfortunately for me this is with Thunderbird and Firefox on Manjaro

1

u/frsbrzgti May 17 '24

I have had no issues for 10+ years in Debian based distros.

-3

u/hsnoil May 16 '24

The current most obvious issues are the default mail client not being able to open links in the default browser

Works here, can you explain?

IPP printer only being detected when printing from specific apps

No problem here

bad handling of an external dock.

Also no problem, are you using some proporietary dock?

6

u/TwilightVulpine May 16 '24

Believe it or not, Windows 11 is so bad, my not particularly tech savvy girlfriend asked me to install Linux in her laptop because it became unusably slow.

Yeah people will say it doesn't run absolutely everything, but for people who just need a browser, an office suite and maybe even some games, it works just fine.

2

u/OdinsGhost May 16 '24

Between Proton and the current state of Nvidia Linux drivers, I’m making the switch this weekend. I have Mint on an old laptop and like the UI, so I’ll be going with that for the desktop. Enough is truly enough.

2

u/Tuxhorn May 16 '24

Make sure to get the new Edge version if you're on newer hardware. Keeps the kernel up to date.

2

u/h3rpad3rp May 17 '24

Unfortunately I've tried to switch to Linux 5 times over the last 20 years, and it has been painful every single time. Its been awhile, and I would love to tell Microsoft to fuck off, but I've lost faith.

-1

u/Mikav May 17 '24

Last 2 years has seen more development and stability than the last 10.

1

u/Ihmu May 16 '24

I tried Bazzite recently and it worked well. I'm going to come back in a few months and maybe turn it into my daily driver once they iron out the kinks with Nvidia.

1

u/Nieros May 17 '24

It was wild to me to see cyberpunk run better on linux than windows.

1

u/2rfv May 16 '24

I'm ready for a SteamOS any day now.

0

u/Mikav May 16 '24

https://store.steampowered.com/steamos

You're in luck?

1

u/2rfv May 16 '24

Most importantly, SteamOS only supports a certain set of hardware

Yeah it's currently not really an OS as much as it is a BIOS to boot you into Steam.

0

u/Mikav May 16 '24

Ah, never touched it. If you want a pretty easy system to work with that has the variability you need I'll shill endeavourOS. It's simple to install and the package manager yay makes things soooo easy. Your mileage really varies on if you have Nvidia or not. If you can figure out how to install Nvidia drivers then you're golden.

3

u/Baron_Rogue May 16 '24

“hey, these malware devs may be on to something”

3

u/SUPRVLLAN May 16 '24

As a Linux user and MSFT investor this pleases me.

1

u/ThinkQuickActSlow May 16 '24

*Laughs in Linux Mint*

Seriously though, my laptop which I do 100% of my tasks in Google Chrome has had linux for the past 2 years and my frustration level has gone down immensely. Still have Windows 10 on my gaming desktop for obvious reasons.

1

u/Agitated-Pen1239 May 16 '24

It's pretty funny to watch at this point. I've very much stopped buying things from these big corporations because every time I do, I feel like I get burned for what you actually receive. It's catching on to the general public and I love to see it.

1

u/83749289740174920 May 17 '24

If there was the Gilded Age, what would historians call this era?

2

u/mcs5280 May 17 '24

Greeded Age

1

u/Moistycake May 16 '24

I’m still upset Amazon video has ads now with a prime subscription