This is going to cement their status as the most dominant software company for a decade, or a crash so catastrophic entire economics semesters will be dedicated to its lessons.

laughs in fedora 43

It is a tough proposition without clarity on what happens to your data/log-in if your subscription expires. I'm sure this will be blessed as legal, but a line, subject to TOU shift, between subscription and ransomware is not one you should volunteer submission to.

looks at my Gentwo

I don't wanna sound like someone defending Microsoft, but that line was taken out of context. It was originally something like "last one you'll buy" meaning they're giving free upgrades now to future OSes.

...but then again, even under that meaning this is pretty shitty. Most people would rather buy something than have to rent it forever. Especially when the norm is already that they own it. Doubly so when that price is already hidden and baked into the price of the hardware the user is buying. Most folks probably aren't even aware they're "paying" for Windows in some form when they buy a laptop.

(Yes yes nobody owns Windows, they own a license to use it blah blah blah.)

It's sort of funny to me, that original Windows 10 "last OS" thing came from around the time Jetbrains tried to push a subscription model over a purchase model. They ended up going with subscription with a perpetual fall back license which seems to be the best of both. (Once you pay for 12 continuous months, whatever version you had at the start of the 12 months you get a perpetual license for. So if you stop paying the subscription after 15 months, whatever version existed 12 months ago you can use forever.) I can't really see Microsoft doing that though.

Thanks ms for making my future easy, see you never

All this sounds terrible. I don't even want to upgrade to Windows 11 for work on my other drive.

Still not upgrading to it anytime soon...

I have a feeling, that they'll try to pull a "Windows 95 uses Internet Explorer as a core component" with AI, making it impossible to disable.

Anyways, I might move to Manjaro on my desktop too.

It's a super rewarding experience, it's a breath of fresh air after windows forcing shit on you 24/7.
Nowadays for a somewhat advanced user it's a really easy switch, unless you are locked into specific software.

Agreed, but I'm pretty sure this will still result in a bit more Linux users, even if not all. Baby steps.

IMO, Arch (which CachyOS is based on) is decidedly not an entry-level distro. Might be the smaller evil if you're doing lots of gaming, though.

I'm not a fan of snap, either, but is it actually an issue for entry-level users?

For the distribution (distro), Ubuntu. There's a chance that you experienced this distro growing up at your school or local library.

For the desktop environment (DE), GNOME is most like Apple OSes, while Cinnamon and KDE Plasma are most like Windows 10.

Cinnamon tends to go better with the Mint distro though, and GNOME is the default DE for Ubuntu. I use KDE Plasma with Ubuntu (Kubuntu) personally and I've enjoyed it.

Puny mortals, observe the power of a real GOD

Switch to mint, install what they use for them and they won't see the difference, except for less confusing popups

Businesses will buy this.

Hell, they'll love it. Decision makers will jump on an "AI OS" faster than you can blink.

Some say businesses don't like extra costs, but that's not been my experience when it comes to Microsoft products and other software subscriptions.

...And that's what MS wants.

They couldn't care less about home users. They don't make them any money, not in the short term. MS wants business buyers sucked in, yesterday.

meaning they’re giving free upgrades now to future OSes.

Isn't this essentially a Freemium model? Free to play, pay for the upgrades and premium features like Windows Defender?

It's sort of the opposite (prior to Windows 12 supposedly being subscription based). They were claiming you'd pay once and get get all subsequent versions for free. The way they offered upgrades to 10 and 11 for free from previous versions.

I think I may have sold my normie brother in law on Mint.

I haven't finished upgrading half my computers at work to 11...

I'm very glad I'm sticking with Windows 10, it's the last good version of Windows.

Hey people are already leaving the OS for Linux, theres no need to advertise for Linux even more.

A 4GB usb drive will usually be enough, it just has to fit the size of the .iso you are downloading. You should use Ventoy instead of rufus/etcher, it's faster and much better when trying multiple distros. Do back your stuff. You usually do not need to disable secure boot.

This would be my summary of the process :

• List all the software you are currently using, and check if they are available on Linux. If they are not, try to find alternatives that are available, and get used to them before switching to Linux. If you don't find any, you need to dual boot.
• Download multiple live distro .iso, put them all in a Ventoy USB
• Make your bios boot on the usb drive
• Check out the distros you downloaded and find one that a) works b) you like the UI c) isn't Ubuntu (derivatives are ok)
• Consider your life choices for a few days. At this point MS should start feeding orphans bodies to their AI.
• Copy all your data out of your computer. Be careful. Your browser favorites, non-synchronized game saves, non-synchronized app state...
• Install the distro, usually from an installer in the live environment. Refer to your distro's manual/a tutorial if you need dual boot or don't understand the installer. If you do not dual boot, this will delete your windows installation and files. Dual booting is often desired just to keep access to your old system if needed.
• From inside the permanent installation, copy all your stuff back on the computer

It will use ""reasoning"" to write a python script that calculates 20x300 and it'll still get it wrong but it has now wasted an extra 10 cents of compute

Isn't that the trap? "We'll give you all the upgrades for free! Upgrade yourself deeper and deeper into the dark forest, farther from the light where you paid once for apps. Now those apps that works under Windows 10 years ago are no longer compatible and you'll need to pay $1 a month for MS Paint."

If the OS is free, and then the "modular" aspects are how they nickel-and-dime you into paying $100/mo for the things you used to pay $130 for once.

From the story:

Some features of Windows 11 might also be locked away behind a subscription model that are expected to be “advanced AI services”, but the core OS will be a one-time purchase only.

And if you already paid for Windows 10, then you don't pay. Easy-peasey. But, with new hardware requirements to run CoPilot, there's going to be very few machines that could run Windows 10 that would also run Windows 12. So that lie will fall apart anyway.

So if you want to make CoPilot less stupid at everything but spying on you, you pay. Want to use your GPU? Subscribe to "Gamer Bundle!" Want access to CMD? Subscribe to "Developer options!" Want to turn off ads? Subscribe to Ad-free tier! Want to change the desktop background? Subscribe to access a custom fucking JPG on your computer! Want to change the theme? Subscribe to a color scheme! Want to use a printer? Subscribe to "Print Plus!"

I think modularity is a great step for windows. The legacy support is killing a streamlining of the platform. If it was truly modular we could easily rip out AI and Edge... If they really go full send on AI in the OS I don't think that OS could ever be used for businesses. Thinking about an AI windows sitting in a wind park inside of a windmill gathering measuring data frightens me (already rather use Win7 but the security goes out of the window once you need an outside connection)

They've got plenty of revenue from Azure, Office 365, and other sources. I think what they fail to realize is that all of that is due to the dominance of Windows as a platform. As someone who has to use Azure, I don't think I would, if my company wasn't in the Windows ecosystem. Lots of companies that are locked into Windows still use AWS or Google Cloud instead, because Azure is pretty awful. I can't speak to how it compares to other platforms, but it feels fucking expensive too.

Same for Office, there is no shortage of free/better options for productivity that are merely lacking the close integration Office enjoys with Windows. Once you stop using windows, that benefit very quickly becomes a $140 dollar per user, per year, dead weight.

HAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHHHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Whatever live Linux distro you test, make sure to start with one that has a desktop environment called "Xfce", "Cinnamon", and/or "KDE".

Other desktop environments (the user interface) like "GNOME" are kind of Mac/Win8-like, which some Windows users dislike.

Warning: after using Linux for a while you're likely to not put up with crap anymore, causing you to jump to another Linux distro if your current distro does anything stupid. When Ubuntu started using GNOME3, I jumped to Xubuntu. When Xubuntu started with the Snap-nonsense, I jumped to Mint+Xfce.

business buyers

People will do it when there isn't an alternative: if the cost of hardware stays high forever, and that requires configuration and upkeep (solid source of stable power aka a house or building access) then people without those things will find it more convenient to log into and use their phone/tablet as a terminal for a desktop as a service...

what echo chamber of positive feedback are þey in?

Bazzite is great as well! Though I will admit I have had trouble installing it on old hardware. A few ddr3 systems with 2.5" ssds, mostly. It works wonderfully on anything from the past 5 to 10 years though.

And you wouldn't think there were that many ddr3 systems around anymore. But there are surprisingly quite a few. Intels 4790k is still pretty useful even today, and you can get 16 - 32gb of ram in these old systems. For those who just want to play decent games from 10 - 15 years ago, or lightweight indie titles like stardew valley or factorio, a cheap ddr3 build is perfectly fine. Especially given the prices of modern hardware. For those systems, CachyOS has always worked.

However. Mint installs on just about anything. I've even installed it on a Dell Optiplex 780 from 2011! It's so little fuss to install and use so I always recommend it to new users.

Lack of endpoint management software

Then fucking make one?? Software development is part of the IT, no?

🤮🤮🤮🤮

You still have to purchase a license for Windows 11 (yeah, I know the options) if you are building a new computer. Even with the "last OS you'll buy!" it was bullshit.

continuing to up the hardware requirements and pricing people out of the market to satisfy features nobody cares about. brilliant strategy.

Linux is right choice

Pass

Like I said, valve hasn't released the PC version of steam OS, yet. So that makes it kind of hard to criticize. Using it on my steam deck seems like it would be just fine as a simple Linux desktop. It all navigates and works. There's just nothing flashy about it. Dunno what all you do with your desktop. I just need mine to navigate around and run programs.

Yeah no.

Fuckin LinkedIn bro - you say something real or push against the status quo and you’re instant shadow banned.

Copy and paste some gpt slip about the stupidest shit anyone has ever said though… now you’re a genius.

These people are fucking dumb.

Cloud office or even VPS is a bit of a different proposition when you have a local computer that can save important data. Windows 12 would be sold as your only PC (Personal emphasized). Cloud needs a separate local device too.

MS is losing the school market, They're kicking the home market out. Once all these home users get used to alternative OS's what makes them thing businesses won't follow suit to save money?

Using AI it the workplace is widely accepted because it's a cheap way to have sub-par workers do work above their pay grade (to an extent). The workers give just what they need to the AI and it gives a return on investment (on paper). When the OS is tracking all that, it's seeing everything. All these companies that think they have secret sauce will be apprehensive. I'm already seeing waffling on meeting note takers.

I'm still trying to decide on distros. I had originally considered Mint, then I learned it's a fork of Debian. Got any pros/cons for either?

The problem is that I've been coding on Windows (and occasionally) Mac for the good part of 8 years and I've just become used to the bullshit here. I really hate the idea of having to get used to a completely new brand of bullshit. And I don't mean corporate bullshit but rather OS jank.

But yeah, thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll start figuring out some way to migrate all of my stuff. And the C++ legacy libraries and other more complex things.

Windows 11 isn't much better, and they're continually making it worse.

"Fully modular" as 'It can run on a toaster" or as "For access to the file manager, subscribe to premium"?

I don't know if anyone else saw this, but apparently Windows Insider reports that this is all speculation, and that MSoft had committed to rolling back AI features, and Windows 12 has been postponed until 11 is fixed.

Meanwhile, 26H2, set to release later this year is reported to have CoPilot integrated into file explorer. Not really sure who to believe, but with MSlop's behavior lately, I'm leaning toward being more disappointed than I initially expect.

I hope this is satire or there's something seriously wrong about your management tools...