I recently wiped Windows off my wife's machine after the last straw broke with Windows - it gave her a full screen prompt after a reboot that forced her back to Edge and copied all of her local documents to OneDrive.
She only plays a handful of games and browses the web, Bazzite was a no-brainer replacement.
Recently had to install some stuff on a Windows laptop, test it, then ship it out to a customer, and my god the culture shock coming from Mac (and previously Linux and before that Windows)! Randomly selected (and not particularly good at that) rotating wallpapers, random unrelated facts on the log in page. Had to nuke as many of them as possible, but they don't make it easy.
heaven forbid you leave the "stories" toggled on, it will just blast you in the face with the most garbage political stories ever written every single day. Edge is the worst offender, should be illegal and everyone involved with implementing and approving it should be in prison.
Was fixing something on my dad’s computer and the start menu was featuring some story like “10 children swept away by floodwaters to their deaths” in some faraway country. What a terrible vibe to start the day with. Sensational news has no place in an operating system.
I was setting up my kid’s laptop last year. Parental controls enabled, with the kid’s age entered. Start menu was showing stories about beheadings and murders.
Windows is rotten to the core.
The scariest part is just how many people stick with the default settings, and get this stuff pumped into their brains 24/7.
I hope some day we’ll take this as seriously as environmental protection. Which granted isn’t perfect either, but a lot more than we do about all the mental toxicity being spewed at scale by large tech firms.
A glacial collapse did indeed cause wild flash flooding in Tibet and Nepal and many people were killed including people from around the world and many locals, it reaches back home in USAID cuts eliminated a program to detect and warn about this very thing.
It's not particularly "sensational" news but a tragedy with many global connections.
Even after disabling the crap wallpapers and setting my own, by default windows heavily compresses wallpapers to the point where the artefacts are very noticeable on a 4K display, requiring a registry edit to fix.
I had these features off on Windows where possible. However I can’t imagine using Windows these days. The only time I switch to Windows is to play Marathon/Destiny these days. Other than that, I have no reason to use it. I imagine so many others would have a similar experience.
> Why this level of nickel and diming. This is atrocious UX, its ad over entire screen, For a moment I thought I installed some adware malware.
Our definition of 'malware' has really drifted, then. This is absolutely, positively, 100% malware. Just because it comes with your OS doesn't mean it's not.
Microsoft has zero pride in their operating system and no respect for their users.
Ads on install, ads in the start menu, ads in the toolbar, ads in wallpaper, ads in notifications, ads on the lockscreen, ads in widgets, ads in file explorer...
I’ve used this for many years on a random windows box, and it’s usually very nice. This is the first time I’ve seen this. And man, give me a fucking break. What’s the argument, Microsoft needs the money? Get a grip guys, it’s ok to do things for goodwill or because it’s cool. Not every last dollar is worth chasing. This is like watching Elon Musk rooting around in a summer festival port a potty for loose change.
Maybe surgeons and dentists should tattoo ads onto bigcorp execs faces unless they spot and correctly fill out the quintuple negated opt out hidden on page 97 of their medical care clickwrap agreements.
Edit: And of course now the playbook: if the backlash is strong enough the mea culpa, then 6 months later kill it out of spite.
It's been years since Microsoft has went from OS to advert ridden surveillance OS.
If you have been abused by Microsoft for years, recognize the abusive actions against you, know you have Linux alternatives, and you still choose abuse... Well, this is a YOU problem.
You can choose Linux. Works super well these days. But this is a YOU problem if you keep choosing MS Windows and their ongoing abuse and enshittification.
She only plays a handful of games and browses the web, Bazzite was a no-brainer replacement.
Windows is rotten to the core.
The scariest part is just how many people stick with the default settings, and get this stuff pumped into their brains 24/7.
I hope some day we’ll take this as seriously as environmental protection. Which granted isn’t perfect either, but a lot more than we do about all the mental toxicity being spewed at scale by large tech firms.
It's not particularly "sensational" news but a tragedy with many global connections.
I checked the download page[0] and next to the download button they say they will do this
>You will also receive in-app notifications with promotional offers from Microsoft
[0] https://www.bing.com/apps/wallpaper?pc=w011&brand=bing
I would not describe a full-screen wallpaper, that is, the entire functionality of the software, to be a "notification".
It’s a big initiative and you know Microsoft is always serious about those.
https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/what-is-...
Our definition of 'malware' has really drifted, then. This is absolutely, positively, 100% malware. Just because it comes with your OS doesn't mean it's not.
Ads on install, ads in the start menu, ads in the toolbar, ads in wallpaper, ads in notifications, ads on the lockscreen, ads in widgets, ads in file explorer...
Maybe surgeons and dentists should tattoo ads onto bigcorp execs faces unless they spot and correctly fill out the quintuple negated opt out hidden on page 97 of their medical care clickwrap agreements.
Edit: And of course now the playbook: if the backlash is strong enough the mea culpa, then 6 months later kill it out of spite.
It's been years since Microsoft has went from OS to advert ridden surveillance OS.
If you have been abused by Microsoft for years, recognize the abusive actions against you, know you have Linux alternatives, and you still choose abuse... Well, this is a YOU problem.
You can choose Linux. Works super well these days. But this is a YOU problem if you keep choosing MS Windows and their ongoing abuse and enshittification.