Top post of PCMR on Reddit today XD

On Reddit: "Windows is being enshitified. How can we cope with it?"
On Lemmy: "Windows is being enshitified. Good thing we've moved to Linux"
I think I see a pattern here.
- On Reddit: “Windows is being enshitified. How can we cope with it?” On Lemmy: “Windows is being enshitified. Good thing we’ve moved to Linux”
  I think I see a pattern here.
  Interesting. I guess it has to do with what you are used to and what feels comfortable.
  Linus Torvalds once made this remark :
  When you say 'I wrote a program that crashed Windows,' people just stare at you blankly and say 'Hey, I got those with the system, for free.'
  If I think back of the days that I was using Linux and I saw friends and family using Windows95 that had just launched (with a massive hype, and using a Rolling Stones song to promote it) the Blue Screen of Death was fairly normal for folks. And they lived with it, and they continued to live with it because they thought that they had no choice, and they were incredibly happy to not having to use DOS anymore. Later some of the folks I knew after having their Windows computer flocked with Windows viruses they bought a Mac, and as a matter of saying, lived happily ever after. Not everyone can afford Macs though.And not every "normie" is ready to use Linux.
  
  Mac did have a better OS than Win 95 -Win98 It was smoother and crashed less.
  The difference was that Windows still ran DOS programs, 5.25" floppy disks etc... They made the decision to maintain backwards compatibility.
  Mac decided to drop support regularly for what they considered "outdated software and technology." For example: when USB drives came out they canceled support for 3.5" floppies in their OS. Machines that had a 3.5" drive installed could no longer use it. Put a floppy drive in and nothing happened.
  Although Mac was a smoother more stable OS, windows had more functionality and greater compatability. Windows was a far superior product because of it. Even with the regular apearance of the blue screen of death.
  Linux at the time also suffered from being a terminal based OS. Too much like DOS for way too long. I used it for specific tasks where it excelled at.
  
  Nobody who enjoys freedom or has principles uses apple products, and nobody building a decent computer and knowing what they're talking about then installs iOs. Know what you're paying for lol, don't buy marked up fascist crap, and stop masturbating in public about it. It's disgusting to glorify them in that way, like eating a shit pie and telling everyone it's delicious.
- There might be a correlation between Linux and alternative Socials

I just dont get it, you pay for the OS, they monitor you like a hawk and sell that shit. Now they are like we need to make sure they get all these ads too, also we are going to ruin any app that you use, like search or notepad. We will milk this mother dry then claim users dont understand how much it costs to run the company.
- If you have a monopoly and need to maximize profits then the question becomes: Why not?! You could extract more money this way, and it's not like your users would go anywhere else at this point.
  That is why it's so important to fight and break up monopolies, and to limit what these companies can do. Because they have no reason not to squeeze every penny they can get out of you!
  
  Issue is, I don't think even the current competition is helping them to get better, if they became smaller for some reason they'd just go back to their active sabotage days.
  What I'd think would help to actually wither Microsoft's monopoly in addition of breaking it up is forcing them to open source Windows, thus taking their main leverage on the market. Windows would be a good (not great) OS if it wasn't for MS and its shareholders trying to monetize it as much as possible, and trying to make all computers like what the Junkman had in the Superhero Team vs. Genocidal Purple Guy Part 3.
  
  I wish our indolent government would do its job breaking this shit up.
  
  Sad that Windows basically have stronghold in OS market. It's a hurdle for linux to even hit 5%, and there is no alternatives for generic hardware..
- This is the norm of what shareholder-driven companies in a situation of monopoly will tend to do. They try to see how much they can abuse their position of dominance on the market to maximize their profits. Microsoft's primary goal isn't to make a good user experience, or even a good OS. Their main goal is to milk as much money as possible from its assets for its shareholders. They've been playing that game for decades, only backtracking when the consumer backlash is strong enough to threaten their sales or when the government threatens to break them up.
  On top of that, Microsoft has a long history of letting arrogant elements of top management take control of projects who will then force their "vision" down the throats of their customers who don't want any of it. They will only backtrack once the sales numbers become disastrous enough. Then usually the control returns to more competent people and a decent product tends to result from it. Think how Windows Vista lead to Windows 7. And how Windows 8 lead to Windows 10. Or even how the XBox One was originally designed and marketed as some sort of stupid way to watch NFL games on your TV with Kinect controls until they realized they were losing the console war and then started treating it like a gaming console again.
- Pay for the hardware
  Pay for the software
  Subscribe to your own machine
  Get your wallet out, serf. The landlords renting your computer to you need another yacht.
  
  we making it into techo-feudalism with that pattern 🗣️🗣️🗣️
- Notepad is horrible now, how tf do you mess that up??
  
  What happened to notepad?
  
  Notepad++ was gaining some traction so Microsoft figured they nip that in the bud with a half-hearted attempt?
  
  It can be reverted in settings. I just did this it was driving me mad. Why have the option for tabs without a close all option.
- I walked my 83 year old dad through a Linux Mint install on his laptop over the phone a few weeks ago when the Windows install shit the bed. All he needs is a browser, he's good now.
  Get out of here with that "software engineering degree" BS.
  
  Pay thousands for a Mac computer that may not have the features you want, and never be able to upgrade or repair it, or
  M1 Air costs USD $750 where I live.
  Get a software engineering degree so you can figure out how to install, use and regularly debug Linux. Because even techy people you know that might want to help you don't know anything about Linux.
  Hyperbole to sell an easily disprovable false narrative. For what?
  Calm down and eat your lunch, Helen.
- Cost to run the company? They will proudly milk as much money as they can to maximize profits. Having a bigger margin is a point of pride for them. Watch any shareholder meeting. They will publicly brag about it.
- Because you could replace the text of this mene with Nvidia drivers or any number of pain in the ass sub systems. Fuck even anti cheat for many games as well. Windows for the most part just works. Search works just fine and 98% of users couldn't give two fucks about notepad.
- "Monitor you like a hawk" is a pretty extreme exaggeration of the easily disabled telemetry data. Unless you were referring to Edge browser?
- I get the point you're trying to make but they made a free version of windows a while ago. The price for it is the ads.
  
  Well then is it free?
  
  There's a free version of windows? 😮 Did they just give up because everybody cracks it?
  Anti Commercial-AI license

The Linux infiltration of PC gaming communities has been one of the most successful covert operations in the history of espionage. So successful that the agents don't even need to hide their identities.
- They came for the gamers-….
- Sorry, joke just flew over my head

Wait a bit Ubuntu is next. They already added terminal ads, embedded affiliate links for amazon, and sold user data to amazon.
- The Amazon story is really old and Ubuntu did hear the critical voices and reverted the change. The terminal ads can be annoying on servers but you can turn them off.
  https://raymii.org/s/tutorials/Disable_dynamic_motd_and_motd_news_spam_on_Ubuntu_18.04.html
  If you want to throw dirt on Ubuntu, let's talk about Snaps and the messy Snap Store and how the current Ubuntu site looks like (not desktop user friendly really), and what they did to LXD
  
  but you can turn them off.
  Isn’t that line of thinking the same as this post is making fun of?
  
  If being able to turn off ads make them ok then i guess we can't complain about windows ads yet either.
  
  Not to mention all the bugs in a so called LTS. They really should delay a release if it isn't stable
  
  what they did to LXD
  I still don't understand what LXD does that LXC doesn't do. LXC is significantly more popular. All the major control panels (like Proxmox, SolusVM, Virtualizor, etc) support OpenVZ or LXC but not LXD.
- Just the free version suggesting the paid one. Not ad space sold to third parties.
  You've read it here, folks. Microsoft just needs to promote Xbox deals and such, then it's not an ad space sold to third parties. (Either that or you're holding Canonical to a different standard than Microsoft.)
  
  For now...
  
  And for most people, Ubuntu Pro is free in practice (since most folks are unlikely to have more than 5 machines that need the features Pro provides).
- Just don't use Ubuntu then.
- Now that I think about it, the decline of ubuntu began when they inserted amazon affiliate links in their ui a long time ago. The final straw for me is forcing snaps when attempting to install some apps via apt. I replaced all my ubuntu machines with debian without any issue.
- Using Ubuntu is a mistake to begin with.
- Wait that was real? I thought that was a joke someone made cuz I believe I saw an image of it on one of the meme communities.
- Latest Debian has all the ease and little of the worry.
  
  Oh i know, I'm running MX
- i thought we were just shitposting about this one
- Ah yes. MicroCanonicalSoft. Ubuntu used to be great. But they are working hard to ruin it.
  I am currently looking for an alternative that has a similar allround-ish support for hardware. Ubuntu supports my Macbook and my Acer Tablet out of the box while others do not competely do so. I could write a whole rant about the tablet with 64-bit processor but 32-bit eufi bios and intel processor that kinda obscures access to the audio and wifi devices unless you use a specific driver.
  I'd prefer something debian based but I can't stand flicking in video playback or scrolling through a webpage. Which is why I like Wayland at the moment, since it fixes those things.
  
  It was ok at best. I first tried Linux around the time opensuse was released, and even then the only reason it was more popular was due to coming out a bit earlier and sending live CDs. Then Suse fucked the Linux community alongside MS for like a decade, and now it's canonical's turn to help out.
  I could write a whole rant about the tablet with 64-bit processor but 32-bit eufi bios
  If you have <4gb RAM, just use a x86 version of the distro. AFAIK it essentially has no downsides, and possibly requires less resources.
  I'd prefer something debian based but I can't stand flicking in video playback or scrolling through a webpage. Which is why I like Wayland at the moment, since it fixes those things.
  So why not use Wayland on Debian?

linuxmemes
Windows meme
Checks out.
- Shitting on windows is the most Linux thing you can do
  
  And we don't even need to, because windows users already complain about windows all the time.
  
  Theo de Raadt of OpenBSD once said: "Linux people do what they do because they hate Microsoft. We do what we do because we love Unix."
  
  I could take it or leave it. I just feel bad for my family and friends when they have issues..

Tell me again how Linux is hard to use
- Fucking with display drivers to get your shit to boot is several magnitudes harder than ignoring an ad.
  
  Fucking with display drivers to get your shit to boot is several magnitudes harder than ignoring an ad.
  Found the Nvidia user.
  
  At this point I'm not sure if this is a meme or what...
  Last time I switched distro a few years ago I tried a dozen of them (dropped the ISOs on a Ventoy drive). None of them had trouble getting a usable desktop of correct resolution.
  Now sure, if you want an optimal, accelerated driver, on some of them you may have to figure out that distro's preferred way of doing it. But that's also true on Windows. And on Windows the vast majority of people don't bother beyond the install, because it makes no difference to them.
  Optimal drivers are essential only to a small subset of users like gamers and I expect a PC gamer to be able to figure out how to install a driver.
  But I repeat it's not even an issue on most modern distros. (I have an Nvidia card too.)
- It's SUPER hard to use. I had to download an .iso from my distro's website, make a bootable USB drive, plug that into my computer and boot into it, answer a few questions and wait a few minutes, A FEW MINUTES... can you believe that??
  And then It had the audacity to give me a super easy, working, private OS! Like what the fuck!
  How bloody dare you make my life difficult. I was expecting to be TRACKED and EXPLOITED and BOMBARDED with ads all day.
  Instead I get all this calm and happiness??
  FFS!
- https://superuser.com/questions/12943/how-do-i-replace-the-stupid-windows-xp-dog-assistance-search-with-the-classic-wi
  /s
- As a Linux main, I don't think it's hard, but it's also still not as good as Windows in some ways I find important. Fractional scaling for instance. I had a different resolutions multimonitor setup, and I definitely had more issues than on Windows. Also, now with two same reso monitors, I still have to switch to Windows to RDP into my work Win machine, because on Linux it's so blurry due to difference in scaling, it hurts my eyes. Of course, I'm most likely in minority of a minority, but it's still a thing.
- The biggest strength is also its biggest weakness. Linux just has so many different ways to configure it

- all you have to do to block ads on linux:
  
  there was that one time Ubuntu added ads to the search menu tho
- How did you build this list? This is likely to break other things. Azureedge isn't just for ads, and msftconnecttest is literally only used to detect if your internet connection is working.
  
  i guess he booted up the system and saw what was using the internet
  
  I got it from this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJr2DcffquI
- And people think Linux is complicated...
- Does this fuck up other stuff though? I used the old telemetry set before but it prevents you from signing in on Xbox account in games
  
  I've been using it for 6 months and it hasn't fucked anything up. I use my Xbox account pretty regularly
- what? shouldn't blocked domains be routed to 0.0.0.0 instead of loopback? This might cause the system generally to wait for a response instead of instantly realizing those domains don't exists
- Can't tell if joking...
- Nice. Thanks for sharing!

Man, securing the privacy of a Windows PC can really wear you down. Remember all those times I spent tweaking the Group Policy Settings? Turning off each and every one of them was a chore, but the real kicker was having to do it all over again after every update.
And don't even get me started on that spyware.exe in the task manager. It seemed like it was everywhere, hiding in plain sight and multiplying with each passing day. Finding and closing all those instances was a real headache.
But the icing on the cake was the constant need to check the privacy settings after every update. I couldn't afford to take my eyes off the ball, and the fear of something breaking or getting compromised was always present.
The whole experience left me feeling drained and frustrated. I mean, who needs that kind of stress in their life? That's why I made the switch to Linux – it was a welcome relief and a breath of fresh air.
- Are you me? This is exactly why I switched to Linux recently. Got tired of protecting myself from my ‘vendor’.
- Not really a solution but couldn't you have come up with a script to run after each update?

That's how I feel installing 5+ apps to modify Windows until it works like it did in Windows XP.

Meanwhile Linux users trying to ger wifi to work
- Yes, but like 10 years ago. That was probably the last time I ripped out chunks of hair and snapped off teeth trying to configure a half supported broadcom wireless card.
- I rarely have WiFi issues on Linux. At least not with internal WiFi cards. USB ones can sometimes be a problem, but not often.
- I just add this to my system config:
  
  ~~~nix networking.wireless = { enable = true; networks = import ./networks.nix; }; ~~~
  Then I define my networks in a gitignored file and I'm good to go.
- it's the never ending cycle, we struggle getting wifi to work and then laugh at windows users trying to get windows to work
  
  we struggle getting wifi to work
  No we don't
- Every kernel update on Ubuntu kills my wifi driver. So I automatically recompile and add my new driver....same driver each gaddam time. But it's not an ad 😂 lol.
  
  Get the maintainer to PR it to the linux-firmware team if its unique.

We need to make more memes like this. Now we are considered crazy using Linux. They need to be repaid for it 🥰

Ubuntu advertises their paid cloud hosting service every time you install server manually.

Run W10Privacy and use NextDNS. Oh, and create a local user account.
- And in Linux, you install the system, create an account.... and that's it
  
  Unless it's Ubuntu

The domain blacklist I was using was probably excessive then.
- Pi hole?
  
  At the time it was one of the other options that did the same thing

just roll back to WinXP.

Im just gonna stick with windows 10. I only use it for gaming so idc about security updates.
- I have it too, but I didn't duel boot with Linux Mint. I use the Mint more. I liked 10. But the graphics on Mint just looks better to me. Maybe because it doesn't hog resources like Windows.
  
  Who won the duel? The boot or Mint?

🏴‍☠️

WinXP and (perhaps to a lesser extent) Win7 were decent tho Edit : said by someone that daily drives linux for like at least the last 4 years, 2 of which with tiling WMs

It didn't affect me, due to using startallback. It replaces start menu, taskbar and explorer. So my start menu is Win7 and my task and explorer are Win10.
It used to have a 100 day all access free trial and was 5 bucks, but I haven't checked lately. I gotta keep a Windows machine around for art. My Gaomon tablet was able to use wacom drivers on Linux with some terminal tinkering, but it couldn't map the scroll wheel by design, which was a deal breaker.

Well hey, at least it "just works," right?

Alright but whenever they actually accomplish it, you have to give them some props.

I just use ameliorated windows 10, never been bothered by anything else.
- What's that?
  
  Its an open source tool for modifying existing windows installation preferably start with a fresh one. It does quite a lot with removing anything spyware related. Removing a bunch of features that really no one uses in order to mitigate the attack surface from vulnerabilities.
  Do watch out if you use UWP it will remove those too, including Edge.
  https://ameliorated.io/
  
  3rd party modifications to windows iso that basically amounts to trusting an internet stranger.

Should I feel sorry for Reddit Windows (That OS from Redd...mond, WA,USA) users ? Dunno.

DEA literally le XD
That's what your title sounds like OP.

A lot of the ‘ads’ can be turned off with a toggle or two, it’s wild that people are losing their minds over this. Microsoft is shitty for making the call, but it’s an avoidable thing which doesn’t warrant this level of reaction.
People with this level of energy should be complaining about the online search not being a user facing option to turn off easily in Windows Home edition!
- Linux community needs to assert dominance in one way or another, so let it be the way it is
- Litterally two sliders.
  Or use shutup10
- Yes and I love to do it again after every major update ..... not

Ads on windows? Where?
- Windows 11 introduced start menu ads recently in update KB5036980, thankfully they can disabled, but I'm not 100% sure it will stay that way
  relevant article from The Verge: https://www.theverge.com/2024/4/24/24138949/microsoft-windows-11-start-menu-ads-recommendations-setting-disable
  
  Right, ever since the release of Windows 11 I'm using Explorer Patcher to hide that annoying recommended section, and to restore the windows 10 explorer.
- More like where are they not
  
  I literally don't have any. I disabled the recommended section in the start menu and as far as I know they don't appear anywhere else.

still less hassle then using linux like dont get me wrong if all u wanna do is internet browsing or maybe do some office work sure its fine but for any else its a huge pain in the ass if its even possible.
- You're in the wrong neighborhood, pal.
- it's all about learning a new workflow. having to go to a website amd downloading exe and going trough an installation wizard from the most basic things like programming language compiler or a web browser seems so backwards for me now after using only linux for 3 years
  
  what are u even talking about getting used to linux wont suddenly make autodesk and a million other software vendors start making linux versions of their software, nor will it make game publishers make linux versions of their games much less stop them from being assholes about drm and anticheat.
- Yeah linux sucks unless you want to browse the internet, do office work, or play games.
  Anything else is basically impossible.
  
  did you forget programming? its a breeze with linux
  
  i wouldn't put play games on that list by any stretch.
- How exactly? When using Linux, I get similar problems to those I get in Windows but in contrast to Windows, I'm able to find a solution and solve them.
  
  in that there is no linux versions of tons of software i use and cant just decide to stop using and trying to get the windows versions working on linux is a pain in the ass and half the time it doesnt work.

Linux users trying to do anything
- *windows users trying to navigate in three different styled setting layouts
  
  At least they’re all in regular GUIs instead of 1 GUI, 1 command prompt, and random configuration files hidden somewhere.

Five Win 11 computers no ads, never had to do anything special except pretending I'm from Europe.
If Linux users consider that hard then they truly aren't that great with computers...
- "To make my computer do as I wish I simply need to lie about my country of residence. I am very technically adept."
  TBF I do find that confusing. I'm used to human-readable conf files that persist across updates. But I can see how non-technical users might think understanding a collection of tricks is knowledge of their OS.
  
  I'm just saying that people saying it's hard to dodge ads on W11 don't realize how easy it is to do it...

Well it's good to see that - unlike Lemmy - Reddit users have found a way to bash Windows without using pre-transition images of Elliot Page. So they've got that going for them, at least. (I'm assuming this post is also poking fun at Reddit, for being riddled with ads)
EDIT: Apologies, I shouldn't have made this comment. I'll leave it up, so the replies have some context.
- Literally not a fucking clue what you're talking about even after googling that name
  
  Some troglodyte was comparing OSes to Elliot Page's transition.
  
  Sorry. It's from me being too online. Must. Put. Phone. Down.
- Correct me if I'm wrong, but that was only one user who made that comparison, and they got downvoted hard for that.
  
  It was two, fwiw. They were also upvoted, and engaged with (which is what the trolls want, of course). I shouldn't have made that comment - it's a sign that I've been on my phone too much this morning. I'll amend it, and then go out for a walk or something.
- Well, yes, that transphobic post was very bad yesterday :( It was one person and the poster got a 30 days community ban on lemmy.world (check the modlog). The copy of the post was gone on lemmy.world but was still visible on lemmy.ml later, downvoted a lot.
- Classy edit
- Creds for leaving it up though.