My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

Yeah, exactly. I find the shilling for MacOS a bit concerning, already from the article and also the comments.

A Mac feels more like yours than Windows? Just goes to shows how shitty Windows has become, not how MacOS is better.

I used to use macOS and macOS used to have a true root user that you can enable. Sometimes after 2016 I think root was neutered and you can no longer do whatever you want. I don't like using macOS anymore.

I'd even go as far as to say many of them today are just copying Jobs. He was a terrible person.

Yeah, he was a hypocrit and I despised the guy. Woz was the real hero of Apple. But Jobs did say that stuff, and he was correct in that moment. We see it over and over.

join tux

I installed Bazzite on a sibling's laptop. It's very good and super user friendly to install.

I was the same. I tried Ubuntu once and went back after a day or two because i didn't want to bother tinkering after work when i just want to relax. A few weeks ago I was finally so annoyed by Microsoft's bs that i tried bazzite which gets recommended a lot here and it is great. I didn't have to open the terminal even once so far, everything just works right out of the box.

So far I've tried Elden Ring (online as well with anti cheat), Age of Wonders 4, Talos Principle 2, Baldurs Gate 3 and a few others and they all just work and not in the Todd Howard way but actually. I also went through a bunch of the recent demo flood on steam and no issues.

I'm gonna miss Valorant but I mostly played that one once in a few months. And i can always just make a little 300GB windows partition that i only boot for invasive anti cheat games.

I just started dual booting to see what Linux could do nowadays. And yes, there's a few games I have trouble playing, but it's mostly games like Subnautica that gives me trouble. And in all honesty, that game barely works in Windows as it is.

I haven't had problems with anti-cheats at all. Like, Helldivers 2 runs as well on Linux as in Windows.

While anticheat is definitely a weak spot (though, it doesn't have to be...) - the Steam Deck and Proton demonstrate it's pretty mature for playing most games.

As the other commenter suggested, try bazzite. Setup as easy as configuring a new smartphone and ready to game right off the bat

I’ve never had an issue with settings stuff except for maybe a super old game like fallout 1, but I expect windows would have the same issue.

But you are right about anti-cheat stuff. Luckily I don’t care about online gaming.

Honestly, it wouldn't have been a bad place to be if they hadn't destroyed it from the inside. Windows on ARM is super stable. You can still build your own computer, or at least buy one with user-swappable parts. Linux has become much easier and wasn't too bad to use even a decade ago, but it was nice being able to have a non-Apple computer running programs and getting work done that was just there to do the business. I'm speaking as one that attempted to use the kool-aid for a few years after Apple stopped using user-swappable batteries, memory, disk, their hardware upcharges are pure asshole insanity. I'm fully capable of using Linux, compiling my kernel, modifying driver source to work around problems, but, I don't want to when I'm just trying to pay my bills. Streaming media services come and go with Linux support, hardware support is often lacking until the work is done to make the hardware work correctly. Windows, for all it's .... windowsness .... worked. Until the last 8 months when they decided to put a molotov cocktail under the hood and see what happens.

Apple is headed this way too, now that they don't have SJ to errantly blow up the current tech to try something new and random (although, had he survived his cancer, he'd have just gone Musky with age like a lot of that generation has, mmmm leaded gas!) Apple will hold on just a bit longer because iOS gave them one new platform reboot (ish) to live off of, while Microsoft is still kicking around technical debt until the end of time.

Oh, edit though, I've been migrating my machines to Linux one by one now. Not going to bother sticking around to see that Windows train wreck continue.

Your not too dumb to learn linux. I know it seems scary, and a lot of the autistic people that like it will try to convince you it's only for really smart people. But at the end of the day a lot of basic tasks are actually easier on linux. There are some that are harder gaming used to be very difficult for example. Although thanks to valve, and the steam deck for the most part if it's a steam game you can just click play and it's probably going to work.

But as an example of a more basic thing, let's say you want to install an application.

Windows: go to Google, type app name, make sure it's the real actual website officially for that app and not a sponsored result or some other fake website, find the download, pray it's not buried in a bunch of fake download buttons, double click the exe, be careful to make sure it's not installing any toolbars or other packaged bullshit, finally get your application.

Linux: there are some variations (apt dnf pacman) but all of them work the same, for arch it's "pacman -Syu <name of app>" id argue thats WAY easier. If it's not in the main repos chances are high it's in the AUR (arch user repository) so you just yay -Syu <name of app>. It's not harder (imo) just different.

I've actually had a number of pretty average computer user friends let me help them transition to Linux because of the crap Windows is doing lately. And after getting used to the differences they agree that Linux is not actually harder, it's just different, they grew up with windows, they are used to how things are done on windows, so it seemed difficult just because it wasn't the same. But once they got used to it they would actually agree that a lot of things are actually easier.

Now whether or not you want to put in that time to learn those differences, and change how you use your computer, is an entirely different question that you have to ask yourself. But you are not too stupid to learn Linux because realistically it's not any more difficult than Windows is

Come on, you are on lemmy. You are not quite dumb.

If you can use windows, then you can use Linux. The effort of switching is not really any different than the effort of switching to Mac.

Try a Linux variant that isn't arch.

You are not too dumb to learn Linux. If I learned how to use it then you can. Start with with something simple and easy to install such as Linux Mint or Ubuntu and you will inevitably learn more as you go on. If you can read, type, point, click and observe then you have all the skills required to install the aforementioned distros.

Most beginner friendly Linux distros have installers. You just need Rufus and a guide to making a bootable USB (its like 5 steps)

If you've never had to dig into a registry file or obscure hidden folder path in Windows, you aren't enough of a power user to ever have to in a Linux distro either.

this.

i mean it's annoying but how is it disgusting?
it just shows recently opened files/software mixed in with stuff you open frequently, it's not an ad section or anything.
but yeah i have disabled it on all my machines, because I'm not using it + disabling it adds two extra rows of pinned apps...

I was using Manjaro KDE and ended up switching to Pop OS because Manjaro would never work right with my GPU. Pop OS has worked very well out of the box though.

Some manufacturers allow you to get a refund for pre installed windows if you feel like sitting on the phone for hours. Something about a lawsuit involving Microsoft and anticompetitive contracts with the manufacturer not allowing the distribution of other operating systems.

I've seen a story about someone who got a refund for their dell laptop but it was slow, and the support staff was rude about it during the process. They stated things like the Microsoft software is free and why would you want to remove windows anyway, passing him from department to department. It's often $60-$80 depending on the version of windows etc.

Edit: I should clarify it might only be a US thing, I've heard people in France having some luck.

I love openshell, so many options !

Definitely switch search from tab to just the windows key however

And yet, if you do that to your girlfriend, people have issues. Double standard here, people! Double standard!

You don't need Windows for gaming.

Sure, some games only work on Windows but some only work on Switch or PS5 and you can still play video games without playing those in particular.

Vista sucked for sure, but Windows 7 was pretty great IMO. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the shit that's Windows 10 because Steam stopped supporting 7.

Win2k is peak windows

TempleOS it is.

I'm curious about this. Do either of you run a custom dns for blocking ads, like adguard or pihole?

Did you turn off a bunch of stuff when you first got the PC?

Do you have corporate policies being applied in your registry?

I'm sorry, there's microtransactions in minesweeper?

• 7 felt like it was mine

I remember that marketing campaign. Windows Vista had a shaky launch, because the hardware manufacturers hadn't polished the Vista-compatible drivers yet. 6 months later, they had caught up, but people still had a bad taste from it.

So when service pack 1 came out, Microsoft made a reskinned version of it and started an ad campaign with "customers" claiming "Windows 7 was my idea!" and the public ate it up.

I imagine, you guys might be measuring with two different scales. Early Windows versions were fine, but even back then, a switch to Linux would give you so much more customizability to actually make it yours.

This is a dumb anecdote, but I switched to Linux from Windows 8, and pretty much the first thing I did, was to figure out how to hide the window titlebars. Mostly because I realized, I could, but they also just took screen space away on my laptop.

XP wasn't yours when MS pushed an update without permission or announcement.

And a shortcut to open Microsoft® LinkedIn® at OS level, and what surprises me the most is that uses your default browser instead of always opening it in Edge.

Windows 2000 was the last Windows that I felt I could just slap on any old hardware.

As I recall, Gasse was offered something like $440 million for BeOS by Apple and he turned them down. Not sure it would have made any difference in anything by this point, but at least Objective-C wouldn't have been littered with classes with the "NS" prefix.