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Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

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Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#461

Post by SilverElfin »

Macha wrote: post #7

It’s quite common for companies to work their way up to the line of the most user hostile version of their product that users will tolerate. Especially with software where they can just go flip a switch and turn off whatever feature did cross the line but keep everything they gained by inching up to the line, which seems to inevitably result in things like the condition of windows 11. I think the only way this gets b…

> It’s quite common for companies to work their way up to the line of the most user hostile version of their product that users will tolerate.

Yes, when there isn’t real competition. And that’s in part due to a long history of anti competitive practices but also simply because Microsoft is too big and should be broken up.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#462

Post by smt88 »

pier25 wrote: post #459

Microsoft should be scared about the Macbook Neo. They're going to lose a good chunk of the market because of it.

No they're not. They're going to continue making enormous amounts of money from corporate IT lock-in, Azure, and AI.

Windows' biggest competitor is iOS, and many people have stopped using Windows entirely and just rely on their phones. Microsoft has had record profits since that started happening.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#463

Post by garganzol »

neves wrote: post #299

For me the worst is Microsoft Start news. I've already turned it off multiple times and it always come back. To add insult to injury, it always displays terrible gossip, sports or far right news. If any developer that works in MS news service is reading this message, please know that I hate you.

No worries, this is just how manipulative relationships work: they always aim for unidirectional communication.

You're obliged to consume the most important news from the most important entity on the planet Earth (Microsoft/Facebook/X/...), eat piles of informational crap that get dumped onto you, waste you emotional energy on processing the whole thing, participate in drama and show your admiration. Why? Because you're very convenient when in this state, you're mendable and coercible for whatever action the entity wants you to do without saying it directly.

But when it's time to listen to you and your concerns - surprise-surprise, nobody's home. It's one way only, see you next time, maybe.

P.S. Forcefully installing an attention-pollutve app like News in the Start Menu is nothing less than a way to control you. And for an insatiable ego, the sense of control is everything. This is why it keeps coming back, again and again, as if it's a lucky reoccurring coincidence. A Windows Update repairs the system? Yes, plus it repairs the system of control. Security patches are very convenient vehicle for that - once you eat it, you'll be served special dishes you never asked for.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#464

Post by baal80spam »

alberto-m wrote: post #14
mdrzn wrote: post #5

Why are there so many "slop" animations in this article? They don't actually provide anything useful over the already explained text, and the "click to restart" is incredibly distracting.

Reading the article without Firefox's reader mode is a pain. Maybe it's a secret plan of Mozilla to promote their browser.

Don't all browsers have it nowadays? I feel like it's been in my Brave forever.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#466

Post by 1bpp »

delecti wrote: post #432
vovavili wrote: post #423

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kind of my experience dabbling into Linux as well. You're effectively turning your laptop into a fancy tablet, which is okay only if you're not doing some professional work in specific niches that are mostly seamless with macOS/Windows. Niche hardware usually is out of the question.

Programming works fine on linux, better even than Windows unless you're developing for Windows. Most gaming (other than some online games with uncooperative anti-cheat) is as easy as on Windows, where games are also likely to need a bit of tinkering. Web browsing is obviously fine, and that's most of what most people do (and so most people would be fine with "effectively a fancy tablet"). 3d modeling is fine. The fos…

Recently someone did the incredible work of getting Photoshop to run perfectly in Wine, but it looks like the original reddit post detailing it got removed for legal reasons (which is nonsense, it doesn't make piracy any easier). Adobe seems to actively work against any efforts to run their software on Linux.

https://www.reddit.com/r/linux_gaming/comments/1qdgd73/i_mad...

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#467

Post by njovin »

jeppester wrote: post #51
Macha wrote: post #7

It’s quite common for companies to work their way up to the line of the most user hostile version of their product that users will tolerate. Especially with software where they can just go flip a switch and turn off whatever feature did cross the line but keep everything they gained by inching up to the line, which seems to inevitably result in things like the condition of windows 11. I think the only way this gets b…

The only way this get better is if the user gets to choose between an OS with ads, lock-in, telemetry etc. and then one with none of that. As it is now, buying a laptop in a store is a "pick your poison" situation.

I hate to sound like an apologist but it seems unfair to me to lump MS and Apple into the same bucket here.

Yes, Apple has a 'walled garden' to an extent, but I've never once worried about MacOS serving me an ad from a third party, and their privacy controls are top notch and seem to get better as advertisers attack methods get more sophisticated.

I can count on one hand the number of times I've had to jump through a few hoops to get an unsigned app installed, and each time it's been relatively painless.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#468

Post by willis936 »

GolfPopper wrote: post #458
Macha wrote: post #7

It’s quite common for companies to work their way up to the line of the most user hostile version of their product that users will tolerate. Especially with software where they can just go flip a switch and turn off whatever feature did cross the line but keep everything they gained by inching up to the line, which seems to inevitably result in things like the condition of windows 11. I think the only way this gets b…

Speaking only for myself, this sort of behavior is a great way to break the Trust Thermocline [1]. The point where I am so frustrated, so fed up, so expectant that said company will abuse me again, that I refuse to do business with them at all, under any circumstances, no matter if it is inconvenient to avoid them or not. 1. https://x.com/garius/status/1588115310124539904

Exactly. This behavior is blindly driving to "line go up" without realizing they just dug their own grave. 2025 was a series of existential missteps for Microsoft. This is a historic moment. These suits would rather die than try to build trust.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#469

Post by kstrauser »

olav wrote: post #154
GuB-42 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We could say that Microsoft never lost its way in that regard, it has always been predatory. Where it lost its way however is Microsoft actually cared about Windows, it was their flagship product after all. It was terrible in some aspects, but also excellent in some others. I particular, they took compatibility very seriously, which is far from an easy task in the wild PC ecosystem. They were also quite good in the U…

> The traditional Office suite is still good I don't think so. The web version is mostly incompatible with the Windows or Mac desktop versions. Have you compared the UI of Word/Powerpoint/Excel with alternatives like Apple Pages/Keynote/Numbers or Google Docs/Sheets? For me, the MS products are a complete mess with arbitrary collections of unrelated buttons, abysmal font rendering and insane defaults.

The font rendering is a dealbreaker for me. I have to use Word periodically for exchanging files with customers where we have zero say in the mechanism. That is, when they say "here's our version of the contract for review before we give you $$$", and it's in Word that doesn't open cleanly in something better like Pages or Google Docs (yeah, I said it and I meant it), then Word it is.

I can't stand using it a moment longer than I have to, and never, ever use it for anything other than this kind of legacy doc compatibility situation. The font rendering is so, so bad that I just can't look at it. If MS ever cared to fix it then I bet that could move their Mac adoption by at least a few percent, which would work out to a nice chunk of change at their scale. But alas, no. We get stuck with something that looks like they took a photo of an LCD calculator screen and downscaled it.

Re: Microsoft's "fix" for Windows 11

#470

Post by chocochunks »

Ragnarork wrote: post #223
alexb_ wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most people want a computer that works with their software. No, "learn the FOSS version" is not a solution. Especially because nearly everyone has some niche thing they like, some 5% that isn't covered by the FOSS solutions, that only a niche Windows program can actually do correctly. And that doesn't even get into gaming.

> nearly everyone has some niche thing they like, some 5% that isn't covered by the FOSS I'm interested in where that estimate + number are coming from. And I'd like to point out that I don't nearly see as many people pushing back against say MacOS for "not being Windows", despite the fact that the same issue would be there. I wonder why Linux gets special treatment in that regards, when modern distros make usage ver…

Linux unfortunately needs to be a Windows that's better than Windows to a lot of people unfortunately. It must support all their hardware and software perfectly and can never have any issues, only then will it be an accepted alternative. Probably because it's free and they want it to work on their existing setup.

Mac users paid money for their choice, so ironically they are more forgiven for the inability to run some Office VBA macros, work with that random MST dual display dongle or whatever. They rationalize their expensive purchase as a good decision and that it's good enough and possible to solve issues encountered like spending 5 times as much on Thunderbolt dock to do what the $30 MST dongle did or learn some entirely new $10 app to do what they did on Windows with something else.

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