2mo ago

As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity

futurism.com As Microsoft Forces Users to Ditch Windows 10, It Announces That It’s Also Turning Windows 11 into an AI-Controlled Monstrosity

Microsoft wants you to ditch your old OS so you can try its new one stuffed with overbearing, if not invasive, AI features.

430 comments

I will continue to enjoy my incredibly straightforward and to the point Linux desktop that’s somehow gained a new AI-free feature by doing nothing.
- Don't you want a bunch of pop-ups nagging you to use their AI gimmicks, though?
  
  Damn it! I’m in.
- Would you be able to point me toward a good thread about "beginner-friendly" distros that works well with games?
  I honestly have no idea what to trust when it comes to this
  
  Bazzite is specifically for PC gaming and is a very friendly starter distro.
  
  Pop!_os worked fine for me out of the box. The UI is a little mac-like (dock on bottom, spotlight like search when you hit the super key) by default.
  Steam just works. Heroic launcher just works. It's simple.
  I've also used mint, but had slightly less luck with its install working out of the box. All issues fixed eventually but there was some head scratching.
  Linux nerds tend to have opinions and it's easy to lose sight of what it's like as a beginner.
  But ultimately it's pretty easy to switch distributions. They're all free.
  
  Linux Mint has been able to run games for me. Look up the steam proton virtual windows tool
  
  Don't go onto specialized distro. Just use the main ones like Mint (which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian). I would say that Debian is the best one, but it needs to read some docs if you have a Nvidia Graphic card (but if not, it should be easy and super stable). Bazzite, Nobara, etc, are based on distro that are quickly changing (Fedora or Arch), which are really nice in their own way, but as a beginner, you need stability first!
  Try this : https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=325 It is Linux Mint, but directly based on Debian instead of Ubuntu!
  
  I installed Mint a week ago and it has played all of the 13 games I tried without any effort from me, except one which ProtonDB told me to change the compatibility mode in the steam properties then it worked great.
  I would say see the ProtonDB entries for some games you like to set your expectations.
  
  Pop_OS! and Bazzite were the first two I tried when I made the switch. They were advertised as working right out of the box, which they did not for me.
  When I was trying Nobara, I learned I had to run something in the command line to get gamemode to work properly with Steam. Ever since then, Nobara has worked for my gaming needs.
  A few tweaks are needed here and there, but it's literally copy and paste from protondb.
  
  Like others said, bazzite and pop os, though I've never used either. I use mint and never had a problem.
  Though it should be pointed out that some MP games that use a kernel level anti cheat can't be played (battlefield 6 for instance).
  But I also wanted to mention, you can run Linux from a USB flash drive. So of you want to try out one of them without actually installing it, you easily can. If you don't like it you don't install. If you do, then you go for the full install. Easy non committal trial so to speak.
  
  If you have an Nvidia GPU, i can warmly recommend Nobara (a Fedora spinoff) to you. https://nobaraproject.org/download-nobara/
  
  I haven't done much gaming but Steam seems fine on my old laptop running Mint.
  
  I Will get down votes but none works well, most work fine given you spend enough time tinkering. Pirated games are a waste of time to get running and there will be some distros that already come with stuff set up to be " plug and play ", but it never is.
  
  That’s a bit like asking, “Can you point me toward a beginner friendly car that has air conditioning and a radio?” You’re going to get 100 different answers because there are a hundred different distros that do all the things. The differences between them are small and not really of interest to a new user.
  So I’ll give you a general rundown of the names you’ll probably see:
  Ubuntu: The classic recommended option and the most used worldwide. Though they’re corporate run and occasionally makes weird decisions that piss off the linux community, so you won’t see it mentioned as much as it was 10 years ago.
  Kubuntu: An Ubuntu flavor with a very customizable Windows-like desktop that should feel very comfortable for new users.
  Linux Mint: Essentially decorporatized Ubuntu with their own custom Windows-like desktop. It’s often the go-to recommendation to new users now, though I’ve personally never tried it.
  Pop!_OS: Basically Ubuntu with NVIDIA drivers enabled by default, so it positions itself as a gaming distro.
  Zorin: Another Ubuntu clone that tries to look as much like Windows as possible for new users.
  Fedora: A more frequently updated distro, which is appealing to those with newer hardware. A little less straightforward for new users but still not super challenging.
  Nobara: Pop!_OS except for Fedora.
  Bazzite: An immutable Fedora distro (meaning you can’t edit the underlying filesystem,) making it behave more like a consoles. Honestly, immutable distros are a niche in linux so you should probably avoid it as a new user, but you’ll see it listed as it has some diehard fans.
  Arch: A DIY distro for enthusiasts and tinkerers with very frequent updates, so good for newer hardware.
  But again, they’re all like 95% the same as each other. I’d just pick between Kubuntu or Mint, maybe Pop!_OS if you don’t feel like going into a menu and enabling NVIDIA drivers.
- Then you install Docker because may Linux apps come distributed only as Docker images and find out that Docker has its own AI built in called Gordon.
  Then Lemmy dogpiles me for, "What do you expect for running corporate software."
  
  Only Docker Desktop has the AI feature. You can install the Docker engine and CLI tools without it on Linux. Or Podman, a similar alternative.
  
  I use it and I have not encountered this. You’re referring to the desktop GUI maybe?

Have Win 10 and was a Windows die hard since I was a kid.
Been running Linux on another drive as my default boot for a year and a half in anticipation of this horseshit and was only hesitant to delete Win because my Fanatec sim racing hardware wasn't supported on Linux.
Welp, turns out hid-fanatecff is a thing. Installed the kernel driver and boom, working Fanatec peripherals. Even my Moza shifter is plug-and-play.
Bye bye Microsoft.
- Is there any use for a HP Reverb G2 on linux?
  
  Fully supported by Monado looks like.
  https://lvra.gitlab.io/docs/hardware/
  
  Idk how recent that Monado support is, but I couldn't get the reverb G2 to work on Linux at all a couple years ago.
- Yeah, peripherals lol. All my sim stuff is working brilliantly in Linux, however I still have some audio production stuff I need Windows for. Unfortunately, due to the need for minimal hardware latency and all that, Wine and VMs aren't an option. Also a lack of drivers for some midi devices sucks.
  
  Really? I run my home studio in Nobara Linux without any latency issues. I use Reaper as my DAW. Are you using yabridge?
  
  Wine can actually beat native in latency, since it's a pretty thin translation layer and windows is ... windows.
  I'd give it a shot just in case.

Ok, guys. I'm reading some of these replies which are saying the amount of outrage is out of proportion. I have to disagree with that. I don't want an AI running on my PC that is monitoring and learning about my shit. I didn't want that data saved even locally, let alone the monetization of that data. I don't want to be paying for power of a device that is turning me into someone else's paycheck.
Can you turn it off? I believe you can. But I also believe that doing it manually would be incredibly annoying since that does go with a lot of past practice. I also get it would reactivate itself after major updates, like how Edge keeps reinstalling.
Are there other solutions to my Microsoft issues, yes. Chris Titus Tech comes to mind.
But overall, the Windows ecosystem does not feel right to me anymore. Could other people still use it, yes. Am I going to stop them, not intentionally. But my Arch gaming PC runs games better than the same machine running Windows. I've always entertained the idea of a full switch, still have a Windows 11 dual boot and haven't officially done it yet, but with this the moment feels right. At least for me, hopefully you can understand that.
- I had dual boot with win10 for a while, but when they had that ‘bug’ that was wiping peoples linux partition I dropped Windows completely. As dar as I’m concerned Linux and other FOSS in general has reached a point where it meets the majority of my needs. Same goes for local storage vs needing anything through the cloud or streeaming.
  
  Every hang up I had eventually got solved. Except with modding games, I sorely miss Vortex or Mod Organizer and there's no alternatives I know of besides doing it all manually.
  That wasn't a showstopper for me though. VR, HDR, Video Games were. These three are solved well enough for my tastes this year to drop my dual boot.
- I think we have a bit of a degree of "Yep, that's Microsoft alright" mood as a whole because it's accepted that things are going to get worse for their users perpetually, so I personally stopped giving a shit because I already left before win10 EOL anyway. I'm guessing there's a similar mood among others who already saw the writing on the wall.
- Do yrself the favor and cut the cord.
- The cool part is that 100% of the “AI features” they’re advertising are either not running locally or not AI at all
  
  I think that if someone (even ai) is analyzing my documents, then they are bypassing my permissions and looking despite the fact that it is supposed to be private. Basically if ai is looking at my files, I don't care if it isn't running locally, it is bypassing my permissions to my automated stock trading algorithms. I know security isn't exactly Windows strength anyways, but accessing my files without my consent or knowledge is a nail in the coffin for me. Granted, you can disable it, I might point you in the direction of winutil by Chris Titus, but I would bet money that a Windows update will re enable it without consent or permission.
- If you don't need to do 3D work, you can still use a virtual machine with kvm, it is really fast! (then ditch Windows :) )
  
  If you mean CAD, I found that FreeCAD works nicely as a parametric 3D modeler with some nice macros and addons, with the perk of also running on Linux
  E: added info

I work in IT and far be it for me to tell you what OS to use on your own computer.
The only thing I want to die right now, is the AI bubble. Just pop already. Holy fuck what a worthless endeavor this has been.
- +1000. one of my coworkers keeps thinking he's saving time with AI-generated code but what he's really doing is pushing the thinking downstream when we have to pick apart the absolute garbage that gets generated.
  PR feedback gets turned into AI prompts and the cycle continues. It's exhausting
  
  Yeah, it's BS. I scrutinize PRs to let peers realize that it's often not worth the time when they have to redo basically everything the agent wrote in the first place. There's been some truly lazy PRs...

The logic behind the voice controls sounds pretty questionable, but it’s supposedly backed by data showing that users spend billions of minutes talking in Microsoft Team meetings, according to Mehdi — so they’re already used to talking on the computer, right?
Do they really reason like this? Oh my. That's stupid. And here I was thinking Microsoft employs clever people.
- I was thinking Microsoft employs clever people
  As a programmer, I've had numerous colleagues who have ended up as software engineers at MS. They were mostly either unbelievably lazy or extremely incompetent. The rest who were both ended up there as managers.
  
  Microsoft's technology specialist are top notch regarding their own product. The other 90% are sales(wo)men and their managers.
  
  Thanks, I know where to send my CV after I get laid off. Just kidding, I don’t think I could handle working on windows
- As with a lot of corporate thinking, someone is tasked to justify the idea after the fact. Its not that they are unclever but that they think backwards. Conclusion first, support later.
  
  Is that like deciding that Tylenol causes Autism, then trying to find evidence after making an announcement?
- And during those billions of minutes, most of them are cursing the existence of the spyware experience that is teams.

Finally got my last PC switched off Windows. It feels good.
- The malware has been dewormed.

Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
The country where a lot of tech countries are headquartered in, elects a wanna-be dictator
Android restricts "sideloading" (aka: non-approved install)
Windows has mandatory AI
Mandatory ID Verification
- How do I escape this shitty timeline?
  
  Stop SERN, Prevent WW3, Find the Steins;Gate Seikaisen (Worldline)
  El. Psy. Congroo.
  
  Just ask ChatGPT...

Don’t downgrade to Windows 11, update to Linux
- Did it last month. Just open your mind like a flower in the morning, and it will only hurt a little.

I’m dangerously close to moving my gaming pc to Linux. What’s the consensus for the best distro for gaming?
I’m comfortable enough with *nix, as my daily is MacOS and I have a home lab/server.
- I use Bazzite. I like it a lot.
  
  As an avid CachyOS user, yes, Bazzite is amazing and every new Linux user (who games) should use it.
  
  Can I use bazzite as my main distro for regular use and coding besides just gaming or it’s more focused on gaming alone and I should dual boot another distro for my non gaming needs?
- Bazzite for gaming no question, thing just works, I can use Linux fine, and very competent in windows also, but with gaming I just want a system I turn on and play, not faff with, I have been using Bazzite almost since it's beginnings, and am legitimately shocked at how turn key they have that distro for its use case.
  
  Do you have an AMD gpu? I'm running Nvidia GPU using windows 11 and I'm hesitant because I've heard people say that Nvidia poses problems.
- There is no "dedicated" one for gaming. Ubuntu Mint, Debian are solid ones. I run Mint MATE personally
  
  I would only hazard against Debian for gaming because of it's slower update cycle (yes yes you could use unstable or sid..), so performance improvements or fixes will take longer to get to you.
  Otherwise I completely second your comment; OOP, just pick anything mainstream like Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Bazzite, Pop!_OS, you'll be fine on any of those. Once you're comfortable with whatever you chose, then you'll be more informed on picking a distro more suitable for your liking.
- https://bazzite.gg/
- PopOS in my opinion. It (mostly) solves the issue of getting the drivers needed to run GPUs.
  
  i tried monjaro and garuda, seem to have had the best luck so far with pop_os out of the box. running an AMD ryzen 7 9800x3d and RTX 5070-- other distros apparently hated these things
- Bazzite is great!
- I’ll take a risk and say Fedora KDE Plasma flavor. Rolling release so highly current drivers, and it’s done a great job with my games.
  
  It’s what I run on my laptop and gaming mini-pc’s and everything runs great.
  
  Thats what I use. No real complaints.
  
  I second this. I use GNOME with extensions instead of KDE, but that's just personal preference.
  I used Pop_OS! for about a year before moving to Fedora. I got a new AMD video card and needed the latest kernel drivers. Fedora has the rolling release model that got me what I needed, and since it's one of the "big 3" upstream distros, I know it's reliable.
- Cachyos seems like the general recommendation. Haven't used it myself, but I've used its kernel so I guess that counts for something.
  
  I run CachyOS, it works great for me. It's not the easiest one, but I like the rolling release style and it's by far the fastest distro I've used (cold boots to gnome desktop in maybe 10 seconds).
  
  I have never heard of Cachyos until this comment.
  
  I love CachyOS but you need to be a certain kind of nerd who can handle updates breaking stuff. Or more importantly, willing to RTFM and prevent a lot of it.
  Basically I need to read these two sites before I update:
  https://archlinux.org/news/
  https://cachyos.org/blog/
  Rule of thumb is to not update constantly/daily. Nor should you update too seldomly. Weekly or monthly is the usual. If that sounds like a PITA then yeah, that's why it's not recommended.
- Yeah, Bazzite has the best word in town for a gaming distro.
- I use Fedora after trying Bazzite and Pop-OS. Pop had some quirks I wasn't a fan of and Bazzite was too locked down but I'll admit, it worked out of the box with no fuss at all.
  
  Bazzite might seem "locked down," but you can do pretty much anything you can do on any other distro, it's just sometimes a different process.
- The general consensus is that you shouldn't be selecting your distro based on gaming, all of the modern well maintained distros will be relatively the same performance. In my opinion you should select your distro first on how well maintained it is, then on stability, & then how well you know how to fix issues. Although I don't follow my own advice since I use arch but that is because I am far more accostumed to that ecosystem.
- Pop_os works well.
- I'm running OpenSuse Tumbleweed. Works great.
- I'm installing Nobara right now. Will check in.
- Bazzite if you're expecting it to work without any required reading
  I'll probably be going fedora aurora, it seems more solid but would require more setup
- I use Garuda for gaming, but most would likely recommend Bazzite.
- My issue is around video card. From what I’ve seen Linux drivers for the Arc B580 are minimal at best.
- I've tried them all. CachyOS is the best by a mile, IMHO. Been daily driving on my RTX 4080 rig (and my Lenovo laptop) for almost 2yrs. Haven't found a game I can't run.
- If you enjoy Nix, then so you know NixOS works just as well for gaming. Been using it for 2 years now.

Microsoft literally wanted me to convert my desktop to e-waste as it lacks the magical TPM chip that Win11 demands.
I said "fuck that" and pulled the Boot SSD, kept the existing non-boot drives for data, and put in a brand new SSD, encrypted it and installed Pop OS in one shot.
Not only was it easy, I lost literally zero critical functionality vs. what I had with Win 10. There is a Linux app equivalent for everything I had before. I had a few driver issues but most were auto-discovered including obscure ancient printers and scanners on my network.
- it lacks the magical TPM chip that Win11 demands.
  How old is it? TPM 2.0 has been standard equipment for nearly ten years now. It's disabled by default on some systems.
  Intel Core 8th gen and above, and Ryzen 2000 series and above, should all have TPM 2.0 built into the CPU (fTPM)
  
  Does it really matter? I've been using my i7 from 2016 and it's still going strong.
- Arguably sometimes drivers for older devices are more likely to have been ported to Linux at some point then conpletely new devices.
- It's not TPM. Older Intel CPU's have unpatchable hardware flaws.
  https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/03/5-years-of-intel-cpus-and-chipsets-have-a-concerning-flaw-thats-unfixable/

It's insane how much extra time, effort and sanity you can retain simply by switching to Linux. I initially switched a few years ago, then fully shortly after. Using my PCs has never been better and I had no issues with gaming. The only games that don't work are some of the live service ones I'll never be interested in.
One of the best decisions in my life, right up there with deleting all social media. Life keeps getting better, relatively speaking, but of course rich pedophiles just can't tolerate us having a good time.
- Switched everything to Bazzite as a start. Easiest switch after figuring out Windows sabotages boot drives.
  I may have pirated all my Windows but man it feels good to be off that ride. Spoofing corporate licenses for the authenticator was such a hassle.
  
  They do what to boot drives?

I moved to pop!_os on the 14th and I am not looking back
- good for you.
  remember, you're not alone and many people are making the switch. find a community you like and help each other.
- Welcome. It's a good OS for me.
- Looking forward to them building out on Pop OS and hoping they do these:
  Apps in Folders and Folders in Folders and Folders in Folders in Folders for App Launcher (For better app organization)
  Having different task bars for each workspace pinned and saved to save different workflows
  A simple quick way to add Icons to Executable Apps instead of manually finding each to add them. Maybe an app to make executables integrated right away and to simply put Icon on it by picking an icon
- My windows laptop has been disconnected from WiFi while I back stuff up so I can migrate it to Linux. Last windows device I own.
- Same (from macOS). Work and personal machines.

yay! hi mint!
- I am also newly minty fresh.
  Although up graded anyway because the games I play aren't an Linux.
  The only downside is gaming.
  I made a portable flashdrive for Linux for anything I want to keep privet and left windows for exclusively gaming.
  
  Depending on the games you play, thanks to Valve with Proton and Steam Deck, most games are actually already playable on Linux. The only exception is newer multi-player online games with kernel-level anticheat. I haven't done any gaming on Windows in years pretty much.
  
  Games work great in Linux!
  And that's not like "oh, about 3/4 of my favorite old games work without too much trouble." It's more like opening steam and "holy crap, half of my old favorites have native Linux versions and everything else just works using proton."
  Remember, the Steam Deck and the general shittiness of Microsoft has directed a lot of Valve's resources towards gaming on Linux.
  If you want to play some brand new AAA multiplayer thing with rootkit type anti cheat, then maybe you'd be stuck dual booting into windows.
  I'd argue that those games could be abandoned, because there is SO much choice out there that I am certain I already own copies of dozens of games that I will never play. But if it's a matter of playing what your friends are into, then yeah make the computer adapt to the human needs and not the other way around.
  
  Steam has a native Linux client and every game I bought on Windows runs just fine on Linux.
  All my older, non-steam games, like "Deus Ex" or "Giants: Citizen Kabuto" run great under Wine, using the default settings. Also, there are Linux versions of DOSBox, for older games.
  
  basically my current setup too. it took me just a couple of months on Win11 to straight up give up on Windows because it's just not very good
  
  Gaming is not the issue for me. All my games work fine. The problem is using some cheats that I did for some games like cyberpunk 2077. I cannot get PINCE or cheat engine to work on it.

Windows is becoming so trash that a bunch of my not-that-tech-savvy friends have been hitting me up asking about gaming on various Linux distros. (Just a few years ago it was all “Linux? Haha nerd”.) And the non gamers are switching to Mac at a remarkable rate.
And things have progressed so well that even for the non-technical crew, after installing Mint and showing them how to use ProtonPlus to install and select Proton-GE, they’re pretty much off to the races without much further hand holding.

Linux is the only viable solution to this mess. And no it is not as scary as it seema
- Does Lemmy have a "Stallman was right" community? Or is that just all of Lemmy.
  
  Most of it, yes.
  
  i was thinking the same thing
  
  Does Lemmy have a “Stallman was right” community?
  !stallmanwasright@lemmy.ml
  EDIT thanks Cricket
- See ya on Windows 7 with 0patch micropatches :D
- FreeBSD has been on a bit of a glowup arc too though, at least for general desktop use. No, but really, there needs to be a viable third option other than Windows and Linux in the desktop PC space.
  
  I'm so glad that they're clinging on! FreeBSD is great and they've made some serious moves these past years.
- It's not fear, it's laziness and just general fed-upness of dealing with computers and the overwhelming complexity of everything nowadays. There's nothing fun or thrilling about computers anymore, it's a black box to me now.

What is this AI everywhere concept actually supposed to accomplish for the end user? Maybe I'm just behind on the vision but I can't grasp the point. I have a feeling it's not really about what the users want but I'd love to here a genuinely good use case.
- They've invested lots of money in AI systems and found out that people do not want to use them, so if they make them unavoidable and force people to use it.
  Capitalism does that sometimes.
  
  Like google plus.
  For me the Apple environment really cemented for me that consumers actively enjoy removing their own autonomy structurally, which is a big part of why this stuff has become so normalized.
  Putting a rootkit on their cds should have buried sony. Antitrust should be a thing too. The mickey mouse protection act should have socially killed Disney, which only found success by exploiting works that no longer held copyright. Etc.
  Those with power have lost all accountability, and all tools, especially AI, will be used against us if we do not cooperatively figure out how to fix the increasing power imbalance.
  The more power someone has, the harder the gavel should fall on them when they fuck the entire planet in whichever way.
  At this point, any new consumer friendly behaviour comes only to establish territory before hoarding and exploiting when enabled to do so.
  Amazon using deceptive design to influence general user behaviours should lead to billions and billions in fines until changed. Etc.
  Build local movements to cooperate at larger scale and fight back. If the general public is ranting about planned obsolescence and general monopolistic behaviours, maybe something could be affected before people are forced into violent desperation. People are too busy being mad at each other for some intentionally divisive narrative or another, and the general public just can't give a fuck about affecting the people who actually dictate the shape of society.
  Also if you burn down all AI this is still true. But it's easier to yell at technology than they system using it to further remove your autonomy.
- it's like having 10 walmarts in one town. they are selling their investors infinite growth by showing a huge uptick in users through unavoidable systems being piled on. like how retail used to sell their investors on square footage going up every year by X amount. it gooses the stock and it doesn't matter than your losing money or destroying your business doing it, because the stocks going up RIGHT NOW is the only goal.

Crazy to me that windows is finally worse than MacOS
- We live in wild times
- Oh wow, you're right.

Windows is still a fixture in my life due to work, but I’ve ditched Windows at home for years and won’t ever go back.
- I'm lucky enough that Linux is one of the half official OS which are allowed and half supported at work.
  I'm even more lucky that IT isn't tech savy enough to be able to do to the Linux installations what they do to Windows and Mac where they preinstalled some rootkits and don't give you admin rights.
  Therefore I'm a Linux enjoyer without involvement of IT. I need to fix all my problems myself and do security and backups myself, but that's a price I'm more than willing to pay.
- Yeah, same. I use a combination of Linux and macOS at home but have a work laptop running Windows. It's dreadful and feels like it only exists to make my tasks harder. I never find myself saying "what a useful feature!" but I often say "Ugh, why are you like this?".

yeah, I updated one machine that was running Win10, it's now running LinuxMint
- My friend finally pulled the linux trigger after being a windows user and they love it! The excitement is amazing I love it.
- Just made the switch and it feels good
- Same here. I actually had windows 11 for a bit... but not any more. I went linux and never looked back.

Shock! No, but seriously. This is not a surprise.

Once I finish college I'm nuking my Windows partition. Won't even boot into it on any future laptop, will just nuke it fully. I'm just waiting now cause I don't wanna have to fight with teachers over online test software and shit, I like being able to do easy at home exams.
But I will relish the day I walk across the stage. It'll be gone that night.

I hate this world. Linux it is then.

I upgraded to Windows 11 last week after my laptop initially came with it 2 years ago, but was so bloated and slow I installed Windows 10 from USB.
With the EoL I reluctantly upgraded due to company policy, and it was running surprisingly smooth. Really thought they'd fixed it. Only that two days later when I booted the system, I had a blue screen - the first one I have seen since Windows XP.
Page fault in non-page area 0x50 - google suggests reboots, or if they don't bring any progress, boot into safe mode and update all drivers. Only that I couldn't boot into safe mode, the BSOD locked me out.
Second suggestion was faulty RAM. Did a memtest from boot stick, no fault.
Third suggestion was to run checkdisk and scm or whatever it was called (some system file integrity check). All good.
Fourth suggestion was to boot into recovery mode, roll back into the system image the Windows 11 installer created, and redo the upgrade. Only to find out that the system restore point had not been created, despite the info box during the installation that this was happening.
Last suggestion was to reinstall Windows 11 from the repair mode, and select the "keep files" option. The offline installer crashed at 25% repeatedly, the online installer moved to 92% and stopped there. Repeatedly, again (tried 3x, and it takes about 1h to get there).
After all that frustration I had enough of that shit and installed Windows 10 IoT LTSC with updates until 2032. When the time comes I'll either have a new job where I can use Xubuntu, or Microsoft installed on a chip in my brain. Let's see.
- Not to speak for Windows or against Xubuntu, but didn't Xubuntu just recently have some secrity exploit that was pushed as an update to devices?
  
  Nah their website got hijacked and instead of an ISO they spread malware. The system itself was never at risk, if you ran it.
- 10% chance of BS when I plug in my docking station. Has been working for years before the upgrade.
  VMware is straight up broken on some of our laptops. Hyper-V is noticeably slower, too. Why would I recommend Server 2025 to anyone?
  New job provides hardware and allows me to install Linux. Hell yeah.
- I've never had a windows 11 blue screen but then again this computer has always had windows 11 on it. It wasn't an upgrade.
  But there is virtually nothing in the OS and that is an improvement over 10. As far as I can sell all of them it's had a bunch of ads to it and make it simultaneously impossible to use anything other than OneDrive, but at the same time not having OneDrive be remotely reliable.
- If it's working fine in 10, it's very unlikely to be a hardware fault. Possible (but unlikely) a hardware configuration.
  The answer was almost certainly drivers. While I acknowledge that you were unsuccessful at changing them, that is still where your issues came from. You probably could've fixed it WinPE/WinRE, which is admittedly way more complicated than it should be.

Over in the Linux world we have a cute penguin who leaves you alone.

I am forced to use Windows on my work computer, but that is ONLY used for official work related functions. My personal PCs (I have several) all run various flavors of Linux. Monday through Friday I am reminded why I don't have Windows on my personal machines.
- I feel this. I recently switched jobs and have a work PC (Win11) and work phone (whatever Iphone model) and I feel so dumb using them and I'm really tech savvy
- I was finally at a job where I could use Linux at work. Things were great for about a year and then BOOM we get acquired and the new company forces MacBooks on everyone.
  I. Friggin. Hate. MacOS. The biggest pain point is the keyboard shortcuts, 15 years of Linux muscle memory...
  My point is I can very much relate to having to use unproductive shit for work and the daily reminder of why it's not on my personal devices

I am 99% Tumbleweed except my gaming PC which is still on Win11 (but I haven’t seen any bloat on it, no ads in winkey menu etc).
I am a huge flight simmer and, besides Xplane, MSFS has Microsoft in its name but the problem is more about the tons of tools around the simulator rather than the sim (aircraft, peripherals, maps&nav, ATC, job manager etc). MSFS do run on proton, but plenty of background tools don’t 😔
- I haven’t seen any bloat on it, no ads in winkey menu
  If you're in the EU, that's probably why. I think the bloat is only for non-EU users.
  
  I am so yes it’s probably why.
  The iso from massgrave was made with Rufus that can disable the unnecessary requirements and force creation of a local account instead of windows live 🖕
  Then activated and lightly debloated with powershell. That makes windows usable for what I need it to, just launching games.
  Everything else is done on a minisforum Linux or framework Linux (even sometimes gaming on it when I’m not at home).
- Yep, I've seen MS flight simulator fans basically create entire cockpits in their house with a crap tonne of screens for 180-degree vision and hook up all the 3rd party peripherals.
  There's just no way this will ever work seamlessly on Linux
  
  Yeah, but Xplane 12 does work natively and perfectly on Linux and MacOS. So there’s that.
  But I guess if you start adding several joysticks (minimum of 3 for an aircraft, joystick or yoke, rudder, throttle quadrant) with assorted softwares it becomes a bit of a headache and most probably it won’t be 3 joysticks from the same vendor.
  And today we have the Chinese winwings that makes full glareshield and mcdu at acceptable prices https://eu.winwingsim.com/view/goods-details.html?id=925 so that’s another software to configure.
  And all of that is only for one aircraft type (Airbus in my example) 😅

Can anyone give recommendations on what to do if you have to run Autodesk products (Revit. Autocad) for work? No, I can't swap them for open source alternatives such as FreeCAD as Im working with large international projects. Should I dual boot? Virtual machine inside Linux?
- Controversial take:
  If Autodesk products is how you make your money - Just use the OS your work provides you. Unless you're a freelancer, of which that's your work computer, and lock everything else down.
  Work computer is not my problem. Nor am I putting anything personal on there. Microsoft wants to mine my company's info, let those two deal with that shit.
- In order of priority:
  Check for a Linux-compatible alternative
  Try installing/running it via Bottles (a veeeery easy to use Wine frontend, hiding lots of wine complexity). Wine allows running most windows programs directly on Linux, with almost zero performance overhead.
  Try installing/running it via winboat (basically WSL in reverse - a well-integrated Windows VM or container running on Linux so you can run pesky Windows-only programs with it) (haven't used it myself yet)
  Use a regular full Windows VM on Linux (likely less well integrated and more resource intensive than #3, but maybe even more compatible). Set up a shared folder between host and VM for easy file transfers.
  Dual-boot Windows from another disk. Set up a shared folder/partition for file transfers.
- Dual boot is an option, but I would go with 2 machines, one with Windows with only the Autodesk products and the other with Linux and all the other software.
- Winboat, for when you absolutely have to use something Windows based on your Linux machine.
- If you must use windows but hate using it, have a vm inside linux dockur/windows: Windows inside a Docker container.. But it is not the smoothest windows experience (it really is for backup when you really need windows): it is not as fast as directly booted windows and apps that can't run in a vm won't run here. If this does not work for you, then dual boot or just use windows if necessary!
  The first option fits me well fyi :)
- I feel most replies have never used those products and are recommending options which just don't work well enough imo. I have a VM for Fusion 360, but it's really not fast enough for day to day use. Things like wine just don't work. You're gonna have to suck it up and either dual boot, or run a VM with GPU passthrough to get hardware acceleration in your VM.
  Maybe you can split your GPU for a VM but I haven't figured that out yet
  Edit: if you do dualboot, you can put all your stuff on a separate partition (documents, downloads etc) and share that between the systems so you always have access to your stuff

Long time windows user, games retained me but I found Proton so bye bye forever windows. Now convincing my wife to switch it's the real challenge haha
- Just do it while she's at work!
  
  Wow the new Windows 11 UI update looks wild... I like it.
  
  I swapped my mother's computer to Linux (Mint). She had no issues using it, because I put the desktop icons in the same place, and copied the browser profile.

Only if you have hardware that can handle it.
Don’t run Windows 11 on ARM.
- The malware has been dewormed.

Glad I ditched windows 11 for linux mint.

I hate windows 11 so much. Notifications are so much harder to read compared to 10 due to the right menu being nonexistant, instead we have this floating notification area that I never use. Everything takes ages to load, even on my beefy pc Settings still takes like 10 seconds to open. And it feels like the programmers died halfway though re-coding the context menus. Everything slightly more advanced can only be done through the old stuff so you end up with this awful mess where there's no design consistency, and it takes twice the clicks to get to something.

Not sure why we're surprised. And even then, it took a while for the "good" OSes to get good. Windows 7 is remembered fondly because it ended well, not because it started well.
Windows 95: OK Windows 98: Bad Windows 98 SE: OK Windows ME/2000: Bad Windows XP: OK Windows Vista: Bad Windows 7: OK Windows 8: Bad Windows 10: OK Windows 11: Bad
- Windows 98 wasn't bad. It was a big improvement in stability over 95. Windows ME/2000 were two completely separate products. Win 2000 was based on NT which always got better until maybe Vista. Vista itself wasn't bad. The problem was end users not liking security. Vista made it easier than sudo to temporarily elevate security and everyone still complained. So they backed off on 7 which was less secure because it didn't enforce security elevation as much.
  You also can't list 98SE and ignore Win 8.1. 8.1 was a bandaid fix for the start menu of 8 but was still a bad. Not to mention that there was also Win95 OSR1 and Win95 OSR2.
  There's no significant difference between 10 and 11 to claim one is good and the other is bad. All the spyware and advertising garbage in 11 was also in 10.
  
  We can all agree that ME was a complete clusterfuck, though. "What if your desktop was also a Webpage and what if it crashed about every hour?"
  
  *backed off on 7 ?
  I think you're also overlooking that the driver model changed for Vista, so tons of hardware listed as supporting Vista was just extremely unstable at release until hardware vendors figured out the new driver model
- This is selective memory. XP was terrible until SP2. Do you not remember every PC in the world getting the blaster worm.
- 2000 ran the best and was the most stable of all of them for me.

My experience with W11 on the work laptop.
Taskbar sucks, maybe because I'm colorblind but I can te what my selected program is and programs with notifications (Teams) look like the focused program. Apparently notification boxes there are pink now. Can't find any accessibility setting but fuck the colorblind I guess. It feels wrong to click the highlighted icon I for years have learned will mean that I minimize it...
And why all the dots? And why is the notification dot the largest, so I can even tell which window is actually focused?
Outlook doesn't open with focus, especially the window that is supposed to pop up and warn me of upcoming meetings. Really annoying.
Teams notifications just don't show if you are in a meeting and that is focused, they used to do that on W10.
Might be a Firefox bug, but there's a lot of new visual bugs. Github diff view is randomly strongly colored, and randomly changes to the old weaker background colors when scrolling/resizing the windows. And a surprising amount of scrollbars in grids that weren't there before.
I just wish W11 at least worked with the regular features of W10.
- Can't find any accessibility setting but fuck the colorblind I guess.
  On Windows 11 there are accessibility settings for colorblind people. Settings -> Accessibility -> Color Filters. There, you can enable the feature and choose the right filter for you. Going by your description, I'm not sure it'll help, but feel free to try it. Colorblind accessibility options have been progressing quite nicely the past few years, so at least there's something to be happy about.
  
  It's not helping unfortunately, it's just a blanket change in colors by some filter. The taskbar highlight is bad to begin with. Ideally the should use red/orange for warning highlights and used bright white. But a weak pink isn't going to be more visible even if it was turned redish. It'll still be weak.
  And it does change every other thing on screen, which won't be good for me since colors aren't an issue normally, and even worse if it affect screen sharing. Taskbar changes is just straight up bad UX that tries to look good.

This entire article is trusting the word of Microsoft's director of marketing

Cool. Pop_OS is working quite well over here.
It's never been a better time to convert to Linux. The best part is that if one distro turns to shit you can just move over to another.

These threads feel kinda redundant, all comments are just preaching to the choir.
Can anyone comment about anything besides "[...] switched to Linux [...]"?
- What else do you expect everyone to do? Please enlighten us if you have something more to offer than switching to Linux — which seemingly is the best option currently.
  
  I'm not saying that you shouldn't, I am saying that there's more to discuss than "switched to Linux /thread".
  For example let me just quote microsoft "The vision that we have is: let’s rewrite the entire operating system around AI, and build essentially what becomes truly the AI PC." and think about what that means for your workplace. Windows isn't going to vanish in a few years. The companies that have a lot of windows PCs will have to deal with increased hardware requirements in an already expensive market, have to wrangle user settings that the ai set on voice commands or fight against Microsoft to shut it all down.
  I feel like there's going to be a lot of wasted productivity in the coming years spend on fixing what ai broke.
  
  I'm not that guy but there's ESU or windows 10 IoT.
- Sure, I switched to Mac.
  
  Don't they also push their new AI on customers? I don't use MacOS so I'm a bit ootl on that.
- There are several common refrains on Lemmy that many people find cathartic. If you don’t care to tell us about your preferred Linux distro again, maybe another thread will pop up soon about how streaming services are enshittified and you can tell us about what you’re self-hosting again.
  
  I get wanting to tell people that you've switched from windows but these threads just feel too repetitive to be engaging, there's no interesting discussion when everyone is just repeating the same points every month.
  There's also no discussion about the article or if there is then I couldn't find it because of all the switched to Linux comments.
  Oh well, back to other threads...
  
  I use arch btw
- windows 10 LTSC from massgrave.dev site for afew years, but that will come to an end too. after that if you hate yourself there are the BSDs, or you can install hackintosh too. but the linuxes are the most mature alternative that won't just fuck you over
- Stay on 10 and force M$ to give further updates because of sheer popularity, just like they had to with XP
  
  Companies have already updated, new notebooks come with windows 11, it's sadly inevitable that most users will sooner or later be switched to windows 11.

They are shoving AI down our throats.
- Because it makes them a lot of potential money. This has been going on since business as old as radioshack logged phone numbers initially to the dismay of the consumer, and whatever the fuck probably bothered people about capitalist practices and privacy before that. I will never understand the hate boner for AI because I rarely if ever encounter it and if I do it's backend like the thousands of learned algorithms before it. I think AI might actually be revolutionary the way lemmy acts like it impacts their day to day lives.

If you absolutely need to use Windows11, use Tiny11. But for the great majority of users, Zorin/Ubuntu/Mint or Bazzite are best pick

I’m trying out Bazzite, and although it does take a little tweaking sometimes, I haven’t encountered a game I can’t run yet, including features like HDR and DLSS.
- Have you tried out Steam on there? I don't know if there are any workarounds to running Steam games that require Windows; otherwise I'd probably switch one of my last Windows machines over.
  
  Steam is absolutely the EASIEST way to run games on Linux.
  It abstracts Wine, Proton and all the other dependencies so you don't have to think about it much.
  You just install it, download and play exactly the same as you would on Windows.
  There is also Heroic launcher, which is a similarly streamlined experience for Gog. (And Epic and Prime Games, if you're into those)
  
  Steam is honestly your best shot for getting a game to run, they've worked pretty hard on their compatibility layer.
  
  I've been using Steam on Linux for a few years. Check out Proton DB for game compatibility.
  
  Yes Steam is the main tool Im using to run games, even non-Steam games.
  Bazzite also comes with Lutris which will set up some wine wrappers for you, which work fine, but Steam gives you things like Steam Input. I’ve never seen a controller mapper as good as Steam Input.
  I don’t know what the performance comparison between Valve’s Proton and current FOSS variants of Wine is.
  My current workflow is to use Lutris to manage games from GoG (no GoG Galaxy on Linux). I install them via Lutris, and then add them as non-Steam games to Steam, which lets me use Proton and Steam Input. The only game I’ve installed so far that I’m not running through Steam right now is Minecraft.
  The only loss is I can’t run Destiny 2 on Linux due to its invasive anti-cheat, but I was on the verge of quitting D2 anyway. Note that some games with invasive anti-cheat can still be run through proton, it depends on the specifics.
- But nearly no multiplayer will work (due to stupid anti-cheat) Which is a very large base of the gamers who can never switch, even if they'd want to.
  
  Almost all multiplayer games work even with anti-cheat. The once that do not use kernel level root kits for anti cheat. Vanguard is even worse then a normal root kit as it forces it self to be loaded with the OS.

Some real 5D chess plays from the big MS these days lmfao. I'll stick with Linux, thanks.

Windows team is desperate to remain relevant.
I suspect most Microsoft revenue these days comes from Azure and the cloud version of Office. Windows OS is pretty much irrelevant other than as a platform to distribute other products.
- I am predicting at some point Windows itself will become a business only product and cease to be marketed to consumers, and the home user platform will be some kind of live service bullshit probably served in a browser. Basically the Chromebook idea, but Microsoft.
  
  That's what they'd like, and that's what's actually available today, if you have serious enough brain damage it's available now.
  https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365
- Windows is about 10% of Microsoft revenue
- Once Adobe apps and new versions of Microsoft office start working reliably on Linux, 50% of corporate PCs are out of Windows’ market share.

TrmpleOS here I come!
- The deep cut! Praise god!
- Halleluja

Run Linux on my main PC.
Time to switch my old laptop over too, or maybe I could configure a new linux PC as my "laptop" if I could get a good touch screen interface (for relaxing on the couch)?
- I think Ubuntu Touch gets decent reviews

I've been on Debian for a couple years since Windows 10 came out. Not sure what this fuss has been about, but I'm glad I switched when I did.
- Not sure what this fuss has been about, but I'm glad I switched when I did.
  The fuss is about those who haven't switched yet. They're being forced to swallow a big, fat AI pill.

How bad would running Windows 10 past support be exactly? Seems like most vulnerabilities should have been patched by now.
- Extended security updates are available. This can be activated for free using Microsoft Activation Scripts.
  Microsoft tech support has been repeatedly caught using these scripts to resolve support tickets for license issues. (https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/microsoft-support-cracks-windows-for-customer-after-activation-fails/) Also, the open source MAS code is hosted on Microsoft-owned Github, so they are appearantly not very concerned with people taking advantage of this exploit.
  If you go this route, please also see the FAQ entry here. There is currently a glitch with commercial ESU keys (which this uses) and Windows Update will continue to claim that your device will no longer receive security updates. This is also effecting W10 LTSC systems. However, you can verify that the license key is active through Command Prompt and instructions are given in the FAQ.
- See an example here:
  Microsoft said both issues could allow attackers to execute code with elevated privileges, although there are currently no indications on how they are being exploited and how widespread these efforts may be. In the case of CVE-2025-24990, the company said it's planning to remove the driver entirely, rather than issue a patch for a legacy third-party component.
  The security defect has been described as "dangerous" by Alex Vovk, CEO and co-founder of Action1, as it's rooted within legacy code installed by default on all Windows systems, irrespective of whether the associated hardware is present or in use.
  New attack vectors are found constantly. Having no support can very likely result in a system that can be automatically breached in a few weeks to months.
  As long as you don't have a public IP on your device and are in a trusted network you should be fine. But if you use a public wifi or somehow expose a port to the internet you're increasingly vulnerable for each day after the last security update.
- There's always going to be vulnerabilities, that's why they're ending support. They don't want to spend time updating an OS they don't want people using.
  Windows 10 is probably fairly secure... today. In 2 years, someone might discover a new vulnerability, and you won't get the update. If there's a new way to do web security and the browsers need OS support to implement it, you'll be stuck on legacy security settings.
  
  It's not going to take 2 years...
  New vulnerabilities are found on a daily to weekly basis.
  To put this in perspective. In 2024 there were 1360 vulnerabilities reported, 587 confirmed with 33 deemed critical.
  I would hazard there are critical vulnerabilities that are right now being worked on, or are complete but unreleased. There was a concern of the exploit being patched. That concern is gone for millions of PC(s).
  
  Out of curiosity, does anyone know how many critical vulnerabilities are currently unpatched in Windows 7?
- Short term honestly likely fine for your avg person. After even six months tho I wouldn't trust using it for banking, government sites or anything more sensitive then looking at cat memes.
- If you want to keep running Win10, look into 0patch. They do in memory patching and are MUCH smaller, it's what a real OS manufacturer would put out.
- Its probably more lazy than anything. Security always depends on what you need to protect. If you want to keep using it, dont keep sensitive information on it. People will target vulnerabilities in Windows 10 as time goes on.
- I wouldn't be surprised if there's a conspiracy where Microsoft purposely left a massive hole in windows 10. And they are going to attack their own system in 2 months and be like "oh noez, welp guess you have to come to windows 11".
  
  They don't care about forcing you to 11 other than it saves them development costs. All the ads and spyware are also in 10.
  It's the same reason Linux distro's don't patch old kernels but force you to upgrade every 12 years.

We have three windows laptops in the house. All for use in schools which were always heavily pro-Microsoft here. I haven't paid much attention to Windows 11. The last time I used Windows other than setting it up or fixing it for someone else was probably XP. All three users of those laptops come home from school/work, put them on a charger then head to a linux machine to play games, edit video etc. They know they have linux support and they have grown up with Linux. Not one of them has asked to upgrade their laptops to Linux yet.
Perhaps Microsoft isn't annoying regular users as much as the tech press and tech users think they are. Remember people still use shit like Facebook not just willingly but in some cases enthusiastically. We are a diverse lot. Some people, probably the majority, will put up with the same shit every day and not think to change their environment. I don't know whether it is too difficult or they are scared of change or they don't realize it is possible or perhaps they simple aren't bothered by the same things. Possibly all of the above.
- some influencers will shift, some ppl will copy them and so on, people do like customizing, they just have to see others like them or those they like using it
  
  Most of the people who are going to leave for Linux right now were probably going to leave anyway once Linux provided what they needed (eg Proton support for most of their game library). Linux has always been a lot of fun for serious tinkerers. Curious types would already have at least tried linux in a vm or dual boot but were being held back my some app or game.
  My family has grown up with Linux desktops and gaming and is very comfortable using Linux for boring normie stuff but they aren't power users. They use what is installed and what is installed is Linux. But when they have Windows installed on their school computers they don't seem to care. It does all the same things, just differently. One of my kids had several keys not working on his laptop keyboard and just put up with it for ages without telling anyone. Makes no sense. They are my only window into the Microsoft world and what I see is complacency. I think most people have a huge capacity to put up with annoyances before they will take action and power users and enterprise can disable a lot of the shittier features.
  Microsoft can probably go a lot further extracting revenue from their users through dark patterns, additional paid services, marketing, sales of data etc. They are a for profit company in a time when it is not just normal but expected that companies will cannibalize their long term potential for short term profit taking. I suspect Windows 11 will get a lot worse but if you walk into a store to buy a new laptop its still going to be the only pre-installed option outside of Apple or Chromebooks for years to come.

I finally troubleshooted why my Linux usb boot drive wasn’t working. Planning on making the switch when I have time off work.
So long as I can get Steam and Jellyfin working, I’ll never switch back.
- Jellyfin works well on linux.
- Bazzite was the distro that got me to kill the Windows 10 install on my gaming machine. Steam Deck catalyzed the move, but Bazzite was the final piece. Steam comes pre-baked in Bazzite, as does your graphics drives, and some multi-store frontends (I forget which atm), and some other quality of life bits. And Jellyfin Media Player is on Flathub, so installs easily via Flatpak.

Called it

Microsoft is going to implode with the AI bubble
- I hope you're right but they've been overdue since USA vs Microsoft.
- MS is waaaay too big to fail.
  
  Yes. At this point they are pretty much trying to fail but failing at that.
  
  Xerox, AT&T, sometimes companies die

Me, using my MacBook:

(Don’t roast me for not using Linux, I’m all in and happy in the Apple ecosystem!)
- Heheheh.. I too have apple hardware.. running unsupported installs (am currently on Mojave as I require 32-bit support for old peripherals and software), so when Apple tells me to upgrade, it lasts until the System Update checks the hardware then promptly fucks off never to bother me again.
  I think am going to ignore Microsoft just like I do Apple and leave the gaming PC with Win10 Pro until I get a second drive for it to run Bazzite on.
  
  I mean as long as you're not being too stupid with your PC, and not like doing your taxes on the computer the risk is pretty low.
- I ain't roastin', but I am confused as all hell if you planned on gamin'.
  
  I do not. I don’t game on my laptop.

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