We should keep in mind that thousands of people work at large corporations like Microsoft and many of them do not agree with company policy and positions, including people in senior roles.
Scott Hanselman is a VP at Microsoft who has given some of the best presentations on AI from a social, ethical, and technical demonstration standpoint that I have seen. I have been spreading his NDC London talk around to everyone I can: https://youtu.be/kYUicaho5k8
It is worth the watch.
Not even surprised
And that’s why, as Windows 10 is about to expire, I am switching to Linux
I’m gonna do the same in october. Though I’m really dreading it, even though I know it will be fine and already use Mint on two other computers.
I switched to Linux Mint (Cinamon) two weeks ago and I’m surprised how easy it was, and now wonder why I didn’t do it earlier. So far I have been super satisfied!
Linux Mint Cinnamon is awesome. I’m a developer for embedded linux systems and I run the current version of Mint on all my machines, even at work. Having a user friendly experience out of the box doesn’t make it not Linux/FOSS.
And if the ease of installation surprised you, just wait until you see what system updates are like compared with windows!
I updated two of my systems to Linux Mint 22.2 yesterday and the entire install process runs in the background in about 90 seconds without disrupting what you’re doing (I was in a meeting while I let it install). Then you reboot whenever convenient and that’s less than another minute.
Reads like an ad, but I support this motion
I think it’s more that I’m a person trying to give an honest recommendation to help a fellow human being, and it is the ADS that try to be like ME! :D
But you’re right. My strategic placement of exclamation points make it read like an infomercial script. Remember the meme about using occasional exclamation point in work emails to seem not insane!
I’m also on Mint, and love it.
-Actual client testimonial
I’m using Cinnamon and so’s my wife!
My son is too, he just doesn’t know it yet. ;)
The PC is in another room but the desk for it isn’t in place yet. And he knows it exists. He’s just in third grade and is not quite an Operating System Snob just yet.
Gotta indoctrinate them early
A fellow Linux mint guy! Also got into cinnamon!
I switched to Linux Mint saldy I need Windows for some things so I dual booted. Got sick of that, so now I have a VM with Tiny11.
Obligatory “windows updates can break Linux on dual boot” comment
Never tried it myself, but looks promising, you should try it on your dual boot. https://github.com/TibixDev/winboat
Can I run mameui64 with that?
No idea, but it runs the programs in a windows vm, the only way to find out is to just try it.
Outlook has spent the last 2 weeks freezing on me constantly, and Excel freezes with it. Absolutely painful, seriously thinking of jumping to Linux this year, with MSoft ending support for W10.
I mean, you can’t really blame this one on AI outlook has been crap for decades.
But it has been miles better than gmail for decades.
We’re talking about the client.
I am as well
If you had ever run an outlook server, you wouldn’t say that.
Join us! I switched to Mint about 8 months back and I have noticeably fewer regular issues than when I was on Windows.
My wife continued to use Windows for her work because many of her clients are locked into the MS ecosystem. A few weeks ago a Windows update decided to corrupt her SSD and now she has finally joined me in Linux land. Good job Microsoft!
🥂
I obviously don’t know her exact needs but so much can be achieved by web versions of Office and Outlook that I didn’t have issues working with MS-using clients.
As somebody who works as an accountant: The web version of Excel is shit and the desktop version is far superior.
Things like extensions, power query among other things just exist in the desktop app and not in the web app.
Fair, my own needs on spreadsheets were are formulas and enumerations, I can’t comment on more advanced uses.
Neither web versions nor LibreOffice can satisfy the needs of a true Excel power user. Also, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint and multi-account Outlook access are all problematic unless you are using the native clients. Now she runs Windows VMs for that stuff.
You had me until multi-account Outlook access. Why not just use different browser profiles?
That said, the Outlook application is necessary for lots of things, like saving email files (record keeping) and mail merges, but the number of accounts has never been a problem for me. I have 9 active email accounts spread across three/five different platforms (depending if you separate corporate vs. free), and I use web apps (by choice) for all of them, aside from popping Outlook open for the aforementioned mail merges and digital record keeping for email files.
But absolutely true for Excel. It frustrates me so much when I’m stuck on a computer with even slightly outdated versions of the Excel application. SORT, FILTER, TEXTSPLIT, and so many other functions are so much simpler than the many workarounds I used to kludge together.
But fuck Teams. The application is just as garbage as the web app. Those two fail/crash ten times more than all the other apps on my computer *combined". I’ve crashed three times in a single meeting. It must be vibe coded, bolted together, janky, spaghetti code.
You had me until multi-account Outlook access. Why not just use different browser profiles?
She has almost a dozen active clients at the moment. Browser tabs for Outlook doesn’t help her organize them.
That’s why I finally made the switch!
You aren’t allowed to stop there. It is mandatory to share the distro she is using, the desktop environment, and what she loves most about it so far.
Even though I’m a Pop user, I put her on Mint Cinnamon because the interface is very Windows like.
Such a wholesome story!
Thanks for sharing.
One thing junior devs at my company are taught early and often is that it’s OK to look at a potential solution that an AI could come up with, just like it’s OK to use stack overflow, but to never ever trust that solution without fully understanding it and usually simplifying it quite a bit.
Trust but verify.
Applies to so, so many scenarios these days.
“Replacing software engineers with AI is really gonna pay off… some day… we guess…”
This is a smart move by Microsoft, as a struggling small company they can use VC money to keep them afloat until they come out on top of the AI game once the technology reaches fruition, This wouldn’t work for some big monolithic company like linux.
and especially FreeBSD
It’s paying off for the shareholders RIGHT NOW. In the future it’s probably gonna bite them in the but, but who cares? Profits now > profits later.
My windows install started bluescreening a couple days ago and won’t boot, might be this exact issue lmao, anyways, I got linux and neither the energy nor time to deal with microsoft’s bullshit, I’m tempted to wipe that garbage off my disk for good
Oof. I only upgraded my last Windows 10 install to Linux Mint a week ago. It feels like I may have dodged a bullet, this time.
As you said, I just don’t have the time or energy for this particular bit of computing excitement.
Do it. Enjoy the new freedom.
It sucks that Windows has gotten so bad
It is driving the world into the loving arms of Linux, our Lord and Savior, so I think it’s marvelous that Windows has gotten so bad.
I’d like to agree. But I’m stuck with Windows at work. At the moment, our IT guys upgrade a couple of PCs a day from Win10 to Win11. The GUI sucks, and the complete network is getting slower and slower. I crave the good old DOS times, when the system used to be faster than me.
Except for people who are less tech savvy and don’t have a desire to tinker. Windows has been the standard for so long that many people don’t have knowledge outside of the Microsoft ecosystem. Linux is best for those who want to dig into computers.
@possiblylinux127 my kids (12 & 5) have 0 desire to use computers for much of anything. If its not an Andoid touch screen its shit. And if that doens’t do what htey want exactly the way they want and fast as all get out, they are going to wine and complain all day, refusing to even try to do anything (they won’t reboot no matter how many times we tell them). They’d probably be OK with iOS too but my wife was upset that her MP3s didn’t work on her gen 1 iPod (is that the one that had fire wire instead of the 30 PIN?) so she hates Apple forever now and would kill me if I brought one home.
I think that is completely fair
Tech changes over time and that is ok
Or super casual users. All my dad ever use is Thunderbird and Chrome. I’m too lazy to get him to use Firefox, but at least I’ve got him on Mint for I don’t know how many years now.
Desktop computers are the one and only one space where Linux doesn’t utterly dominate as the kernel of choice. Supercomputers, servers, embedded devices, basically all Linux. In the mobile space, Apple and Android are a duopoly, Microsoft repeatedly tried and failed to enter that market. Microsoft managed to secure a de facto monopoly on the desktop, kept Macintosh like a pet to ward off actual monopoly lawsuits, and has spent the last 20 years just making their product worse for the user in order to wring another pint of blood out of the same moldy old turnip.
Gotta get that infinite growth. Enshittification is just the last stage.
I’m a tech worker and know my way around Linux but I use productivity software / VR (with NVIDIA) at home and don’t want to deal with getting all of that stuff working again.
Win10 EOL is pushing me there and all of my problems would go away if more people switched but I just want to be a simple user in my downtime.
W10 LTSC IOT pushes that back to 2032, freeing you to switch at your leisure before then.
It’s gotten wayyyy better in that regard though. It’s more a matter of what people are used to and being resistant to change, than a lack of tech savvy-ness.
I think it has a target audience that doesn’t include everyone. It is primarily for those who want to be in control of there computing.
It is primarily for those who want to be in control of there computing.
Which becomes more and more weighty by the day, even for casual users. For example, Bitlocker being enabled by default is a data destroying time-bomb waiting to explode (and causes a lot of slowness).
In my case, I had to switch to Linux earlier this year due to strange issues with bluetooth audio cutting out when my monitors went to sleep (not my computer) and game stuttering/poor performance on Windows. Issues fixed immediately on Linux, without tinkering.
Regardless, there is an important distinction between enthusiast distributions and beginner distributions, the latter of which are 100% viable even for grandma and grandpa to use and maintain.
Linux gets many bonus points for security, which Windows 11 lacks wholly for regular users - there aren’t even proper guards against applications getting admin access. Microsoft refuses to patch known UAC bypasses, of which there are many that can be found publicly on GitHub.
Their excuse? UAC is not intended to be a security barrier. Many malicious applications have instructions to bypass Windows Defender that users may follow, and getting your binaries signed is fairly easy with e.g. leaked certs (which take time to be revoked due to Microsoft’s enterprise considerations and business model) - potentially avoiding Windows Defender completely and likely UAC as well (…and also fool a very careful eye).
A lot of beginner distros really do not at all require tinkering.
The problem is that the Windows monopoly isn’t worth having any more and Microsoft is flailing in trying to make it worth it.
Microsoft can’t force an app store like Apple and Google can for iOS and Android. No one is going to buy an OS subscription like they do for Office 365. And, I’m sure that Microsoft earns almost nothing on new installs because of how cheap hardware has gotten.
@HobbitFoot @possiblylinux127 year of the GNU/Linux desktop is near 😀
Eh. I feel like desktops are going to go the way of Steam Decks and Chromebooks for consumers. While Microsoft can’t force an app store, other companies/OS’s can.
For corporate users, I can see a corporate Windows/Office tech stack form, with corporations paying for support per user like current companies pay for Windows & Office 365.
Fuck windows. I got fed up of their constant monitoring. I am glad to be rid of it. They still have a lot of my data, sadly, but nothing spicy, and given their incompetence they will probably lose it all by the time any buyer wants it.
… always was.
Not really
It got a lot of people excited about computers back when the customer was the user
@possiblylinux127 @andyburke I don’t recall anyone ever being excited about microsoft.
Then you haven’t been around long enough. This was back when Microsoft was making Windows commercials
@possiblylinux127 I mean my second computer was a Tandy 1000 running MS-DOS 3.3. (First was a C64).
I’m so glad I get to enjoy Linux every single day.
I literally fixed a laptop for a family member, and thought I’d put Windows 11 on it because they may like the shiny new thing.
Articles like this are making me revert them to Windows 10 (IoT LTSC).The articles for windows 10 aren’t going to be great either once the security updates stop
Edit I can’t read you’re using the longer supported version
Windows 10 IoT LTSC has security updates until 2032.
Edit: I also just saw your edit.
And Microsoft Activation Script will license it permanently.
But at least you’ll only have to worry about external threats, not direct delivery via windows updates.
are you seriously questioning reinstalling a whole OS based on a shitpost?
I wiped windows from my system for Linux instead of updating to this crap
good job but this place is like a nerd kingdom, unlikely to find any microsoft defenders around here to argue with you
… so the community is full of smart people who prefer an open source OS.
And you are lamenting there isn’t anyone here to take a corporation’s side?
What, exactly, are you after on the fediverse?
The elements within the meme are real issues, so yes? I mentioned articles.
The elements within the meme are real issues
nope?
https://www.neowin.net/news/microsoft-no-windows-11-update-did-not-break-your-ssd/
It is clear that the problem is far from being resolved, and we will hear more updates on it. Meanwhile, if you have already installed the August 2025 update, it is recommended to take it easy with your drive and avoid heavy files. If you have not installed the update yet, you can pause Windows Update and wait for Microsoft to release more information on the issue.
This is a direct quote from the article you linked. I am not on windows, but it is difficult for me to intrrpret this as you seem to: that there are no issues.
So … what are you trying to get to herw?
AI bad true, but there’s no evidence this update did anything bad and ssd/hdd manufacturers and Microsoft have all come out after testing and said as much.
Negative placebo and gossip. Drives fail all the time, people (and media/youtubers for clickbait) see the headlines and blame the update.
People witch hunting Phison too.
Isn’t it funny how news bias bubbles work? The articles about the update causing SSD failures were everywhere on Lemmy. But after thousands of hours of testing from Microsoft, Phison, and various journalism outlets, the issue isn’t replicable. But I haven’t seen that reported on here at all because it doesn’t make Microsoft look bad.
Microsoft is plenty bad, we don’t need to massage data to make them seem even worse.
(To be fair I wasn’t on Lemmy much this weekend, it’s possible I just missed this.)
Lemmy loves Linux and rightly so, but it hates Windows even more.
Example, this is a no-subject memes community, and you’ll find plenty of anti-Windows stuff here. And the actual linuxmemes community sometimes feels like it could be renamed to hatewindowsmemes.
Not surprising, the same way /r/atheism was, for a while at least, more like /r/antichristianity. Part of the identity is opposition to “the enemy.”
Personally I think that part of the identity is unhelpful, and focus is better put on the identity being about what makes it the better choice. Like Dems losing in 2016 and 2024 because a good chunk of their messaging was “look how bad Trump is,” which only served to broadcast Trump even more.
(That’s not to say that complaints aren’t valid, it’s just a poor way to structure an identity.)
JayzTwoCents:
I love jay as a creator but he gets things wrong on occasion. Example: he recently made a video suggesting that everyone running nvidia on windows use software to force rebar on globally, which is KNOWN to break games or cause performance issues (which is why it isn’t enabled globally in the first place.) At the end of the day he is still a creator driven by the algorithm and metrics for his livelihood so you gotta take what he says with a grain of salt.
which journalism outlets though? if there are vested interests I don’t trust like that. Obviously microsoft and phison are going to deny responsibility. so did intel when their 13th and 14th gen CPUs were suiciding.
I heard too many stories about people’s hard drives failing after the update for the news to be false. As far as I know, the issue isn’t easily reproducible though.
Stories without data are what.
Data.
I didn’t think a lot of drives were actually permanently borked, were they?
I’ll pitch in my anecdote: I updated to Windows 11 3878, everything was fine. Downloaded Helldivers onto my gaming drive overnight, and woke up in the morning seeing that the SSD was not being detected (WD Black NVME, no heatsink). Pulled it out, put it in another PC, saw that it was being detected, so I rolled back the Windows update because that’s the only other thing that had changed. Drive works fine again.
SOMETHING definitely happened, but I think it’s waaaaaaay over-reported tbh.
I fully switched to Linux this year: it’s nice not having to worry about what Microsoft is up to.
I went into linux mint. I am certain, CERTAIN, that a windows 10 update probably caused a fundamental HD failure on my old computer. I have hard drives much older and more used than the one I had, yet that HD, which was the main HD I had started to fail. It gave enough life for me to back it up into a massive 14TB backup drive (I keep that one unplugged when not in use) so I didn’t lose any data.
But HD failures are rare for me. I am fucking glad I was able to save the data. I need to put that drive to some old fashion electronic recycling.
How were you certain? Drives fail all the time.
