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My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

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11–20 of 678 posts

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#11

Felt similarly. Embraced NixOS. Not looked back.

NixOS and Guix are in some areas about a decade ahead of Mac and Windows. It's incredible what you can do with those (I can't work on new projects without guix shell anymore). It almost has the same feeling that in the 90s, when distros had package managers and proprietary OSes did not.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#12

Windows is just plain humiliating and embarrassing to use at this point. MacOS is starting to creep that way with lots of pushing for signing up for additional services, as well. It’s a real shame, but it’s no wonder no one wants to deal with a PC anymore outside of the office where most of the trash is turned off by corporate IT.

[dead]

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#13
For the past few years I've had this thought in the back of my head . If I use a Samba server as a domain controller, how much cruft and hostility can I shave off a standard Windows 11 Pro installation with GPOs. I keep kicking around the idea of trying to do it as an exercise in absurdity.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#14
I can't even remove 'Recommended' from the start menu, not even on a Pro for Workstations.

Every time I search on the start menu there is a web search, impossible to turn off. How is that acceptable?

I install Edge Beta to test something, and the I uninstall it. All of the sudden my search provider in my normal Edge is reset.

And the nagging everywhere. No I don't want 'back-up' my files (OneDrive is not backup, it's sync). And I don't want to be reminded later. I don't want to be reminded ever. All this fuzzy language makes me feel like I'm dealing with a kindergarden teacher addressing his/her pupils.

It's not my computer any more.

Oh, I update a driver. And 2 days later Windows installs an older version. Since when is 6.6.1.40 better than 6.6.1.72? Why would you do that?

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#15

About a year ago I dumped Windows from my personal PC for good. I ran a Linux desktop at work for a decade, but my Steam collection get me with at least a bit of a tether to Microsoft. But Valve finally made Linux gaming a reality. I hope more people can make the switch someday because I'm quite happy with the system (Pop!_OS is my distro of choice these days).

I did this about three months ago in response to Windows insisting again that I must link my desktop user with my Live account. I'm blown away by how viable Linux gaming is now, entirely because of money dumped in by Valve. It's only looking better, too, the deck means people are motivated to at least make sure it boots in Wine, and if they support Vulkan the perf will likely work out well.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#16
It's sad to see Windows fall so far from the Win2k days but this trajectory has been obvious since Windows XP.

Fortunately or unfortunately, for most people for most things, the host OS hardly matters anymore. The operating system is now the browser. And this "doesn't feel like mine anymore" is 100x worse there because corporations have fogotten that they're voluntarily presenting data upon the request of an external client and what said client does with the data is none of their business. It's as if visiting a website and downloading the publicly available contents is a nation setting up an embassy of "foreign soil" on your hardware. Editing CSS (or whatever) is equivalent to vandalizing a physical storefront because the pixels on your monitor are theirs not yours despite it being your hardware. Even the very protocol of hypertext transport (HTTP/3) is now designed around being encryption verified JS application delivery for corporate person use cases with no allowances for HTML hypertext transport for human person use cases. So not even linux/mac/bsd/etc is free from the trend.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#18

Windows is just plain humiliating and embarrassing to use at this point. MacOS is starting to creep that way with lots of pushing for signing up for additional services, as well. It’s a real shame, but it’s no wonder no one wants to deal with a PC anymore outside of the office where most of the trash is turned off by corporate IT.

I don't think that's the right causal direction. People aren't using home PCs anymore because they use their phones, or their work laptop. At least that's my take.

Part of me wonders if all this advertisement and service hawking is related to a fear of massive market size reduction, overall.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#19

About a year ago I dumped Windows from my personal PC for good. I ran a Linux desktop at work for a decade, but my Steam collection get me with at least a bit of a tether to Microsoft. But Valve finally made Linux gaming a reality. I hope more people can make the switch someday because I'm quite happy with the system (Pop!_OS is my distro of choice these days).

That's what finally gave me the confidence to switch to Linux a year ago. I'm running Manjaro on my main system and Valve's efforts in improving WINE/creating Proton have been fantastic. The amount of games that "just work" has been nothing short of amazing.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#20

It's pretty sad, but with each iteration of Windows, it feels more and more impersonal and intrusive. There could be a mass migration to MacOS and Linux for many of us.

MacOS is going through the same thing. It’s not nearly as bad, but Apple keeps pushing their services and being more in your face about it.

I don’t mind them trying. But don’t keep asking, or ask again on every update, or badge settings because I haven’t my added to my wallet, or keep telling me how much better a family plan is when I’m single. It’s not better, it’s a waste of money.

I can’t imagine switching off macOS/iOS. I don’t want Linux or Windows. But I’m getting less happy every year.

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