Too little to late.. I already left and fell in love with Linux
this post was submitted on 02 Feb 2026
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Welcome! Isn't it a breath of fresh air to use an OS that isn't trying to turn your computer into an advertising and upselling platform? It has its issues, but it's a huge relief to escape the constant inundation from Microsoft.
(Obligatory: I use arch BTW)
Welcome to the club buddy! we've been waiting for you!
Same here. Got fed up after every damned update to subscribe to this, want to setup backup to cloud, setup office. Switched to Linux and now not a single subscription popup in sight. It’s been bliss. Spent the weekend with the misses sorting out 30 years of photos and getting to know exif editor 🫣
[edit] exif not exit editor.
Exactly
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Windows 11 felt like a downgrade before all the AI bs. Microsoft values me more as an advertising opportunity than a customer.
I had avoided it until late last year when I had to reinstall a friend's borked install after it had somehow managed to shred its registry hives.
Holy shit. That installer is an embarrassment. First it couldn't get past the first reboot until I found out that you can set it to use what looks like the Windows 7 installer for the first steps. Then I had to deal with a dog slow installer that needs half a dozen reboots for some unfathomable reason. Then an endless cavalcade of sales prompts, including one for an Office subscription where they try to hide the price from you. All to end in, well, Windows 11.
I simultaneously installed Fedora Kinoite on his old laptop. I don't think the Fedora installer is one of the better ones but it was so much easier and faster to set up the machine that it was almost comical.
Seeing both systems side by side really drives home just how clunky Windows is. And how Microsoft installers are barely better than they were 15 years ago, but now they have ads.
I read "reevaluating its AI strategy on Windows 11" as "finding a more subtle way to shove that botulistic sausage down their customers throats".
Yeah, exactly, they never said they are removing any AI. Just will be slapping some paint on it.
I think it's really easy for Lemmy users to assume that the general population has the same technological interest and literacy that they do.
The Windows 11 users they are talking about are from an /r/pcmasterrace thread.
The vast, vast majority of consumers don't give a shit. They don't care enough to even think about whether their computer is actually secure, they don't care that they don't own their OS, and they don't care that AI is being shoved in.
Their computer is a magic box to them, and they don't care to know more.
I do think the vast majority of users see things like copliot all over the OS, and then watch their PC run like shit, and assume it's the new fandagled thing ruining their experience regardless of whether they care about AI or not.
Especially if they update and the entire computer is then broken, like with the recent bug where it would break particular SSDs.
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I am not a tech wizard. As soon as my new minipc got home with Windows 11, I installed CachyOS on it. I found out later that it's based on one of the "difficult" Linux variants, but everything went super smoothly (I might have just been lucky. i don't know, don't take this as advice!).
Yes I had to follow a few instructions on creating an installation USB key. That was the hardest part. But my relationship with windows had become too abusive. I do want my computer to "just work" and let me do my stuff, but that's not what windows is doing any longer
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The Start menu has gotten worse with every update. It is getting ridiculous.
I can no longer click start > type in the program I need > hit enter.
Start menu, you had one job!
I moved it to the side when 16:9 screens became popular and vertical space was more limited.
Windows 11 removed this feature.
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I think the best way to turn people on to Linux is to give them a bootable live USB, so they can try it out. Otherwise, they have no basis for comparison.
Too many people just accept whatever Microsoft gives them, shrug and think, "Well, I guess this is just the way computers are."
The best way from my perspective is to show them.
At tech events and meetups, I'm showing them Linux.
When my friends come over, I show them my self hosted solutions on a Linux.
At work, where we use Macs, we talk about open-source, including Linux.
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Microsoft's promises to fix the OS and stop pushing AI
Never heard such a promise.
Windows 11 feels like Microsoft is actively punishing me for being foolish enough to keep using their products. Adding some janky AI bullshit machine to this garbage fire feels now they're just taking the piss.
No joke, one of the last straws for me was their stupid copilot popup on the active cell in Excel. Hated that garbage. Also their refusal to let me just use the file explorer to save my files. Maybe I'm an old fogey, but every new addition felt like a step backwards. I have now switched to Linux and am having a decent time (not for everyone tho and I totes understand if others don't want to make the switch).
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Remember: Companies don't learn lessons, they react to profits. They're 100% gonna boil the frog here.
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i don’t believe it and am no longer giving them the chance to allow me to see it.
Great news, you don't have to bother, just switch to Linux. I did, and I don't have to spend a single moment worrying about what Microsoft is doing to their garbage.
Microsoft hasn't made a decent OS since Windows 7, why would they start now?
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know who never pushed AI?
Linux.
know who has fixes or useful community support?
Linux.
know who doesn't scan your desktop every second to scrape your data?
Linux.
know who has the audacity to provide a free product and still doesn't sell your identity to the lowest bidders?
Linux.
holy shit, it's almost like Linux is the OS by the people for the people...
There's a threshold that you pass and once you do there's no going back because the trust is lost forever and customers will go the next chance they get.
It looks like this is finally the point we might have reached with windows.
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and this is why I use Linux. No forced AI nonsense being shoved down my neck.
Sorry, I can't hear you over all the Linux on my computers since last year. Did you say "promises to shit on the OS and super push AI?" Yeah, sounds about right for Microslop.
Do you believe them that they gonna stop AI? It's a billion investment that needs results for the shareholders!
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I'll believe it when I see it
Why? Why even wanna see it? Just walk away, go to Linux, and find that suddenly you own your computer again
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They'll stop pushing AI by integrating it throughout the system similar to how Internet Explorer is tied to everything. Except much more invasive.
Their goal is certainly not reducing AI, it's making it seamlessly incorporated in everything you do.
even being cynical towards microsoft at this point looks to me like sheepish adoration. If you have any hope that microsoft might start doing better you are naive.
In this update this month they prioritized the app store over local results. I tried to type powershell (work computer) on the start menu, and now it offers me the app store link BEFORE my installed powershell. Yeah I'm sure they're going to change course.
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Like 5 years too late for me, I ditched Winslop bit over 4 years ago, never looked back. Yes, it's not perfect, not everything works out of the box and I have to search for solutions every now and then but it's My Computer again.
Microslop could do absolutely anything to Windows and it wouldn't make me go back because it would be Microslop doing it.
Microsoft my sweet summer child, it's not just the ai. It's the Spyware wrapped in a Windows shell. Call me when I can install without needing an MS account.
No they aren't. They don't care.
I don't think windows is an OS anymore. It just the personification of the checkout questions they ask you at GameStop or BestBuy about the extended warranty or magazine subscription.
The damage has been done. But honestly, Windows 11 changed my life despite its shortcomings.
So thank you, Microslop, for making me embrace Linux.
Microsoft appears to be finally listening to users
They're not, never will.
Their stock tanking like 12% must have been a wake up call
Weell...
But here is the thing: There were already a million reasons to avoid Microsoft even before their lost weekend with this AI fever dream.
Remove the Microslop and those older reasons remain.
I also wonder how much of this was spurred by Linux even beginning to come to the mainstream mind and how simple most distros are to just install and run (Bazzite, CachyOS, Linux Mint).
You've always had Linux go around tech circles, forums, enthusiasts, etc. but big YouTube channels out of that circle are talking about it and hardware manufacturers are distributing it in place of Windows in the case of the Steam Deck, and it's just building more and more momentum.
I think it's easy to take for granted how (relatively) mainstream Linux is getting, but if you think today how many people talk about *BSD, that was Linux not even 10 years ago.
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