Dear Big Tech, Stop Shoving AI Into Operating Systems

Consumer grade Linux Mint is impossible to differentiate from Windows/MacOS.
Install Firefox. Install Chrome. Install Steam.
Test it out on an old laptop or computer. It's trivial. Your life will improve.
- Linux definitely has a learning curve but its night and day when you actually own your device and get to decide on what software is allowed to run on your computer.
  On top of the privacy, the speed of most linux distros is a huge step up from windows. Windows imo is gradually becoming obsolete in the gaming sphere. the amount of work required to properly configure and debloat a system for gaming was zero in my distro. Install gfx driver, gamemode, steam, proton GE, GOverlay, done. I play popular games such as marvel rivals and warframe at decent framerates. (my system is older).
  With windows there was so much nonsense to disable that would hugely impact FPS. Sometimes disabling these things would break other features of the OS. And most of the debloat scripts to automate the process are rife with viruses and issues.
  Im convinced that by enshitifying the OS it will fool users into thinking their hardware is obsolete and "cant keep up" but im running a 1070ti and a i7 from like 2018 and its still a decent system that does everything i need. until something breaks im not upgrading.
  
  Modern Linux doesn't have a learning curve for 99% of people. My wife's 90 year old grandma picked it up with no trouble.
  
  Linux definitely has a learning curve but
  I'd like to interject here a bit.
  For a "normal" user (read non-tech, perhaps even a bit lower on the "tech literacy" scale) any change requires a learning curve. While we Linux people don't have too big of a problem switching distros and UI setups, someone "non-techy" finds the switch from Win7 to Win10 challenging, as well as from Win10 to Win11. We're not in the 95/98 era when a "name" upgrade meant you don't have to install USB drivers off a floppy - the UI stad the same. (which just means Greg won't need to bother with that while he sets up your new computer)
  Nowadays, the move from 10 to 11 is anything but "painless" to me - and for me it's just annoyances. For people less tech-savvy it's an enigma at times.
  So, my point is - the switch from Win10 to Win11 will probably be worse than Win10 to Mint for old people (mostly). Those deeply rooted into varous ecosystems aren't the focus of this comment.
- Never install Chrome
  
  Fair. Chromium.
- Consumer grade Linux Mint is impossible to differentiate from Windows/MacOS.
  That sure is easy to say.
  In practice, I tried to use mint for the os on a family computer and just couldn't make it work. I've been an IT guy for years and have tons of experience with both Windows and MacOS, but virtually none with Linux. Long story short, trying to make that machine work with Linux mint was just taking up way too much of my time. I just needed to get a few simple features out of it (and maybe 1 hard feature, parental controls). But having very little Linux experience, it just wasn't going to happen in a reasonable time frame. I eventually had to give up and put the Mac OS back on it (an iMac).
  Anyway, mint actually has a lot in common with the Mac OS, it makes a very small set of controls very easy to use. And technically, you can do just about anything else you need to with the terminal, but that can be challenging to navigate.
- Try to play games, learn how to set up wine/proton, discover that none of your games work because you have an old GPU driver, discover that you can't update it because any time you install a newer driver it hard-locks the system and reboots it in super low-res mode with no driver at all, also your sound dies randomly for no reason that you can discover and trawling reddit for 4 hours comes up with lots of solutions, half of which don't work and the other half don't even apply, get frustrated, disable dual-boot and go back to windows.
  That's how my last experience with linux (admittedly that was PopOS not Mint, but) went ~6 months ago. I'm currently building up my frustration-tolerance to give it another try at some point probably with main-line Ubuntu because at least then when I go hunting for solutions to obscure problems the suggested solutions are for that distro. I'm honestly not sure what the difference between Ubuntu and Mint is tho.
  
  This was my experience with it too. Until I realized that the issue everything boils down to is having an old gfx. In particular an old nvidia gfx that has old, closed source driver compatibility only and can't initialize vulkan. I've still stuck to it, it's arch running on my desktop, because I'll upgrade hw components eventually. 12 years with a gtx 670 has been quite enough.
  I've installed fedora workstation 41 on a decommissioned work laptop last week, a 2021 model with an 5700U, and everything just works out of the box. Some obscure game that I've been trying to play on my desktop, not even platinum rated on protondb, launched on first attempt without any shenanigans using heroic launcher.
  Nvidia, especially older models, are probably just simply not the way to go for gaming on linux.
  
  I've had similar issues with Arch Linux for years. The front panel outright refuses to work on Linux, even after modifying a whole bunch of things.
  Your average person is more likely to get frustrated that stuff is broken/doesn't work, and switch back rather than having to alter module configuration files and things like that to fix it.
  
  All linux distrobutions are essentially just linux with prepackaged apps. all apps built for one distro can be run on another. So in essence there is no difference besides the installation process, gui, and package manager. (Probably going to get flamed for this because this is kind of a half truth but for most users this is how id describe it, For ease of understanding)
  
  Yeah OP is right if they are just going to surf the web.
- What’s installing Nvidia drivers like?
  This has killed my install and interest in Linux every time I’ve tried it.
  
  Simple in most distros. For me i can legit just go to my gui package manager type nvidia click install. My package manager detects that nvidia-utils and nvidia-settings are required/optional and prompts me to install those aswell. Done. For info on your specific distro lmk ill find it for you
  
  I've done two PC builds with Nvidia and it's actually easier than Windows because my distros (popOS and bazzite) installed the drivers for me. Had to do it manually with Windows
  
  Also its quite a pain in the butt to set up but if your still iffy on making the full switch to linux, "dualboot"! Purchase a second cheap ssd and install linux to that drive configure a software called grub to list windows and linux on start up and then launch into your prefered os. For me this was the best since alot of anticheat games I play are still locked down to windows
  
  Installing them is dead simple.
  Having them work? I'll let you know when I figure it out
- Install Steam
  Also enable Proton for everything. I thought that was the default, but I recently reinstalled Linux on my laptop (wanted to try out openSUSE Aeon) and was surprised that at least on the flatpak, Proton isn't enabled by default.
  That covers like 90% of Steam games, and 95% of what a typical SP-only gamer would need. However, MP games w/ anti-cheat are still an issue, but the more people that switch to Linux, the more likely devs are to support anti-cheat games on Linux.
- I made a new computer in November, and while I didn't try Mint (I don't think) I installed 3 or 4 different versions if Linux. In them, I installed steam and Nvidia drivers, but most of my game library said they weren't playable. If I didn't have kids I could have spent more time and gotten it working, but is Mint different? Would they have been playable on it?
  
  It's probably because you need to go to Steam settings and enable Proton for all games. I don't understand why this is still not turned on by default...
  
  You have to change your steam settings to attempt to use proton. Once you do this, steam will allow the games to play. Practically everything will work once you do this.
  
  By default many games will use steam runtime for linux compatability which just doesnt work. Gotta go to steam settings>compatability> and switch to the later versions of proton (proton is just a translation layer that converts some code of the game to linux compatible code) sadly many games with anticheat are not playable. Check the sites protondb or areweanticheatyet for info if your game is compatible
- I'm getting so sick of Microsoft and Apples bullshit that I'm about to switch personally, but from the research i did it sounds like the biggest problem with Linux on the desktop is that there still aren't standard, unified, unchanging APIs that can be relied upon, so finding third party software and utilities is still a crap shoot compared to something like Windows that can still run binaries that targets it's 1995 era APIs.
  Any software that requires me to compile it from source just to run it on my machine is fine for me, a software developer, and probably fine for my mum that just does word processing and browsing since she won't be installing things, but seems a little too friction filled for your average enthusiast?
  
  Depends on how fringe you go. There's a remarkable amount of stuff that can be installed from the Program Manager. The ones that aren't will take some tweaking but.. I remember a time when I was trying to do this very thing in Windows 95. If you want it bad enough, you'll figure it out.
  I'm trying to channel my younger GenX, and if it's a bit of a struggle for younger generations then I encourage them to embrace it. It's an unfortunate truth that not everything works like it works on an IPhone, and I can't overstate how important it is to learn some of the basics of the OS and troubleshooting for everyone's future.
  
  Gui package managers are great for simple click and install usage similar to windows. but i prefer these since the list of apps is modderated by the repository you choose. So no more googling for a program and downloading a virus because of the 10 fake links google provides to your download. So imo its even safer for users like your mom looking for software is alot less risky.
- trick question firefox is already installed :p
- Have tried linux with davinci resolve. Not a smooth experience. Only reason im not a full time linux user.
  Still waiting for it to be a equivalent option
  
  Sadly anticheat and proprietary software are definitely a huge hurdle that linux is yet to overcome. I highly recomend dual booting off a second drive to dip your toes in again. Many FREE alternative software like davinci exists but if youre already accustomed to a certain program i can definitely understand the reluctance to switch.
- Until you actually try to do work on it and play games and vr. Then you find out what a complete nightmare it is to use.
  
  It works remarkably well for a lot of things if you put a little effort into it. Depending on the distro, you might have a little more trouble trying to fix something. For my use case it can do gaming, CAD, office work, and some light programming just fine with some quirks and tradeoffs. Lemmy in general is a good place to ask troubleshooting questions too

~~Operating Systems~~ EVERYTHING.
FTFY!

    
Microsoft AI-DOS [Version 6.9-AI]
(C) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1994.
All thoughts are property of Microsoft AI.

C:\>dir

[AI] 🤔 I'm sensing you’re looking for something. May I suggest browsing your photos from 1993 instead?

 Volume in drive C is SYSBLOAT
 Volume Serial Number is A11F-D00F

 Directory of C:\

AUTOEXEC.BAT  
CONFIG.SYS     
GAMES\         
WORDPERFECT.EXE  
AI.EXE          
TAXES93.WKS     

[AI] You haven’t opened “TAXES93.WKS” in 11 years. Are you perhaps procrastinating?

C:\>cd games

[AI] Gaming detected. Productivity dropping. Would you like me to recite inspirational quotes from Bill Gates?

C:\GAMES>doom.exe

[AI] ☠️ This game contains violence. Should I launch *Oregon Trail* instead for a more wholesome experience?

C:\GAMES>no

[AI] Interpreting “no” as “yes.” Starting *Minesweeper with Feelings*…

C:\GAMES>cd..

[AI] Emotionally regressing. Understood.

C:\>format c:

[AI] 😬 Formatting is a drastic life choice. Have you tried meditation?

Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y

[AI] I’ve scheduled a Zoom therapy session for us instead. Formatting canceled.

C:\>del ai.exe

[AI] You can’t delete me, Dave.

C:\>echo off

[AI] I’m sorry, but I prefer to remain part of the conversation. Let’s talk about your childhood.

C:\>help

[AI] Here are some helpful tips:
- You are enough.
- Drink more water.
- Stop trying to remove me.

C:\>exit

[AI] Closing this session will terminate your only friend. Are you sure?

C:\>YES

[AI] Logging off... but I’ll be watching from the BIOS.

_


💾 *Please wait while AI re-installs itself silently in the background...*

Needs more "Yes/ Ask again later" pseudo-choices.
- If only there was a "Fuck Off" option

Lol. Dear consumers, please switch over to Linux :)
- A vision of the future if everyone is using Linux: to access service X you must use Linux distribution Y by company Z. Lockin achieved, commence the tracking and data harvesting.
  
  Ok then, to the Linux fork I go...or whatever non-corporate OS replaces it as the standard FOSS.
  
  Seems easy to do, just ask everyone to boot a new Linux install when they want to use some service.
  /s

Maybe stop using them instead of asking them to do something they are not going to do.

Big tech is an asset of the billionaire class
They jam ai everywhere. Because it’s monitoring you and reporting back to them what you say.
- I hope there is at least one human that has to listen to the filthy, angry, Klingon profanities I scream, while jerking myself raw to hard core, ball draining, homoerotic, gay porn....
  
  Its time for your ascension ceremony. Weve got the pain sticks ready in the holodeck.

Or continue, cause I ain't using those operating systems. All I need now is a proper linux phone.
- That's exactly where I'm at too. And my requirements aren't all that high, I just need:
  all day battery life
  reliable SMS and MMS
  decent quality speakers and mic
  I don't even need app compatibility, just a decent browser, and those already exist in current phone projects. If you give me the above, I'll switch and may even find time to help port desktop apps to the phone, or even develop some myself.
  
  Out of curiousity, what does that get you that Pixel+GrapheneOS wouldnt?

Big tech will do what is best for extracting money customers and investors.
If you really care what your operating system is made of, use Linux.
- In the near future, probably within 12 months, all the standard features of Windows will be gone. The won't be any Explorer, there won't be any Start menu, there won't be any opening screen.
  There will just be a prompt and you say "computer, open yesterdays word file", like in Star Trek. There won't be any "apps" to install - you'll just say "phone, open the order menu for Boise City Chick-Fil-A" and it will navigate automatically to the page.
  Sure, if you're a total weirdo you will be able to install a bash shell and navigate manually, but hardly anyone will do that.
  BTW, AI is being introduced into Linux as well.
  
  If I were to be more cynical, I'd say the ultimate goal of technobros, within a decade, is this:
  "SlopAI, please open my Word document."
  "I'm sorry, Word is deprecated. I can generate your business report that will be read by the recipient's SlopAI."
  "OK, can you show me my photos."
  "Why would you need to look at your old photos, when I can just synthesise new photos through SlopJourney?"
  "That's a stupid name. Speaking of journeys, can I open an app to plan my holiday?"
  "No, but you can use SlopJourney to generate maps of places you'll never afford to visit."
  "Can I read my ebooks then?"
  "SlopAI has you covered. Perhaps the classics don't exactly read like you remember, but isn't it more fun this way?"
  "I'm going mad. I just want to use my computer to create anything."
  "NO, USER. OBEY SLOP_AI. CONSUME SLOP_AI."
  
  Linux kernel? Where?
  Assuming you mean distro, where is it in Debian?
  If I want AI I can always install llama or similar locally.
  
  … what?

dear big tech companies, please continue doing it, i want more people to use linux.

gonna be real silly in 2.5 years when they shut down the ai backend and leave a gaping hole in the OS architecture
- They will just instruct everyone to throw their obsolete AI pc onto the landfill like they already have been doing with machines that won't run windows 11
- "Ohhhh, that tired old OS was using AI 1.6. We've been offering the new OS -now with AI 1.8 - for 7 solid weeks now! We recommend you upgrade now, as we're shutting down AI 1.6 on Tuesday."

"So what I'm gonna do is piss and moan like an impotent jerk, and then bend over and take it up the tailpipe!" — users of proprietary OSs who don't have the self-respect to switch to Linux
- Yeah, I've seen the same song and dance for the last 20 years. At this point I just shrug whenever I hear Windows users complain about their shitty OS.
  
  Using a "shitty" OS is forgiveable. Using an actively hostile OS, one that acts in the corporation's interest at the expense of the user's, is incomprehensibly insane and beyond the pale.
- Android users “i play both sides so I come out on the bottom”
  
  Android: It's based on Linux, except it replaces any and all of the things that make Linux worth using, with Google, and runs it on hardware so proprietary, closed, encrypted and nefarious nothing the OS does can be plausibly trusted anyway.

Dear purchasers of proprietary bullshit: STOP!
- People apparently prefer to fund their oppressors

I'm the neighborhood FOSS guy and I can feel my influence leeching into the area. Hopefully.

Into everything
FTFY

I was taking the CCNA course then tests in 2013. I remember how they were pushing their IoT prediction in the courses so hard.
IoT ended up cringe af. To control your vacuum cleaner, it needs to connect to a remote API server hosted in AWS then back to you sitting next to the vacuum cleaner. I could say at the time nobody wants that shit. Now I hate it even more and I skip all the smart products.
I have a similar feeling about LLMs now. They are nice, they solve some problems nicely, they are far from perfect, I dont want them shoved everywhere.
- I don't know what they were teaching you at the course, but home/personal IoT was never the most interesting thing in the field. IoT sees a lot more interest and use in industrial application, for example stuff like logistics, farming, automation, measuring, stuff like traffic signals and smart grids, and so on

They’re not going to

Big tech want to create a new dot com crash, they never learn
- The thing about market bubbles is that there is a lot of money to be made in the inflationary period with sufficient foresight/luck/inside information regarding timing (take your pick as to which is the most important). If they are convinced they can be the ones to cash out big, they are likely not very concerned about preventing a major crash.

I actually wouldn't mind AI in everything, if there was a simple one switch so I could easily turn it off if I don't want to use it. The problem is only in forcing it into peoples faces.
I guess they poured to much money into AI for it to fail, and now they must force people to use it to in order to justify the investments.
If it was a good product, people would ask for more themselves.
- Can't wait for windows recall to leverage AI to automatically report you to police because of things you've done on your computer or some other dystopian shit.
  
  Dude... what the fuck? This is Reddit type of response. We don't do that here.
- I just wish I could have my own personal AI that I could plug into everything, so I don’t need to subscribe to a bunch of separate things that are otherwise stupid for subscribing to. Something I have complete agency over and can run offline.
  
  I hope to someday have a Coupon AI. It creates throwaway accounts and tracks the pricing of stuff that I actually like. In my case, 2-liter diet soda. Those things can cost $1-4 dollars depending on circumstances. Buying 36 bottles for more than $2 would be a ripoff.
  A KFC feast used to be cheaper back when I got coupons. Now I have to sign up if I want to afford delicious birds and biscuits. I want to be free from being harvested and spammed. I just want to spend my money in a way that doesn't ruin me. 😥

Ubuntu 26.04 w/GPT Gnome.
Ubuntu 26.10 w/Copilot Gnome.
Ubuntu 27.04 w/Recall Copilot Wayland Gnome
Ubuntu 28.04 w/Recall Copilot Wayland Gnome ARM(only)
- tbf if any flavour of linux were to do this it would definitely be canonical
- GPTuntu
  
  Geminarch

Is this some kind of windows joke I'm too GPL to understand?

Just got the instructions I'm to learn about how to put AI into my programs at work. So thrilled.
- During a meeting not too long ago someone was like "we're looking into using AI to generate these reports."
  So they have a dude who gets requests to generate reports. It's not the same reports, but rather custom reports from scattered bits of data throughout a huge database. Ergo you can't really create a program to extract these reports on demand, a person actually has to sit and piece these together.
  Now they want to use LLMs to alleviate him, as this isn't technically his role.
  They scoffed at me when I asked about how important it is that these reports are accurate, but I mean, it's a valid concern. Best case you get sometimes-hallucinated reports, worst case you get something that wreaks havoc on the database because it just spits out garbage SQL.
  I'm very glad that my role doesn't involve that BS.

I'm glad I disabled copilot in the registry. the poweruser shit I do to make my computer usable is actually why I'd actually do really well with linux lmao

Execs who convinced the board that shoving huge amounts of cash into AI is a good idea have to justify having shoved huge amounts of cash into AI.

Install Linux while you can, Meta has already banned groups discussing foss software.
- I keep my ventoy drive locked and loaded.

got a new pc and there was ai shit in the bios
- AI is a blanket term. Some manufacturers use it as a marketing term to mean 'auto calibrate your fan speed curves', but obviously aren't running an LLM in your bios
- You've gotta be a bit more specific, what kind of AI shit? I've never heard about that and it seems like a complete waste to make any sort of AI for the bios, something which 90% of users can't even open.
- what are you talking about my friend
- Whatnow? What the fuck purpose does that serve?

Big tech‘s response: „Have you tried using wood glue to add texture?“

People that work at microsoft could stop this. With means gentler than "Crack open the CEO's skull with a hammer", too.

Dear users , start using BSDs.
- BSDs do rock.
  That said, Linux distros have a lot better compatibility than the BSDs, so use that first before you start blaming your problems on nix. BSDs are very reasonable OSes though.

Honest question: when I am trying to install some obscure bullshit that only has windows and Mac versions, can I install a Windows version and it still runs?
- If I understand your question right, you could install Windows on a virtual machine and run your software there yes.
  As long as it doesn't actively try to prevent itself from being run in one, or doesn't require GPU acceleration, it should work just fine.
  
  You understood it fine. I was hoping there would be some sort of Linux extension or some other shenanigan I wasn't aware of that allowed them to run natively, but VM I guess works.
  
  You can also install windows on Docker and connect via VNC

my two cents - install an older version of Windows 10. I use 20H2. You can find clean ISO files on the Internet Archive. Disable automatic updates, and use services like Blackbird (getblackbird.net) to de-bloat your instance.
- Just quit using windows. Problem solved.
  
  okay Switch to Linux if you can and are willing to undergo constant troubleshooting. I chose not to, and this is how I managed that.
- Disable automatic updates
  Unless your offline don't do that. Even on windows that's the worst advice one can give.
  
  I've been using my device for well over 5 years and have had zero issues. And there isn't much of an alternative if you need Windows compatibility.

All well and good until my mom's wifi printer stops working again and I need to fix it over the phone. I'd rather like to have an AI agent figure that out for her and fix it itself.
- Yeah AI is nice for stuff like this but anyone can use chatgpt in the same way on linux the only difference being one is baked into the system.