Remember when Microsoft said Windows 10 will be the last version of Windows?
Technically it was just a Microsoft Tech Evangelist that said that, in a non official capacity, and I’m pretty sure the sales people took him to the torture chamber after that.
From a technical point of view, there was nothing stopping Microsoft from making Windows 10 a rolling release, so I can see how some naive fools might have convinced themselves that their employer wouldn’t be shitty to their users for the first time ever.
It wasn’t just a tech evangelist. Our Microsoft sales people were telling us that feature updates would mean no more major os versions.
at some point we’ll be renting windows, not buying it. so there will be a “last windows you’ll ever buy”. if microsoft had their way, we’d be at that point now (they’ve run trials on subscription-based windows way back in the early win7 days). but us lowly users are probably ‘safe’ until whatever’s after 12.
I would agree if not for the fact they keep making it easier to get windows for free. I haven’t bought windows in over a decade, activation is easy af, the days of sketchy malware riddled keygens are long gone.
The truth is worse, imo. They don’t need individual consumers to pay for the OS, OEM licenses are where they make bank anyways. At the consumer level, you’re never gonna sell enough copies, even on a subscription model, to profit more than you would be from giving it away for free, getting everyone using it, and then simply selling their data until the end of time.
Not to mention Microsoft’s profits aren’t from the OS but what they get from the user once they have the OS. Once they have the Windows user they then have a market to sell other Microsoft products, not to mention all the stuff on the Windows store. (And of course advertising data)
They don’t need profits from the OS as the OS pays for itself in the long run.
Windows 12: Paintbrush now comes with ads to Microsoft’s subscription AI Paintbrush service. Also bucket fill is now a $0.49 DLC.
“What to make quick copies of certain areas of the image? Buy 100 packs of both ‘Copy’ and ‘Paste’ tokens now on sale in the Microsoft store! Each use of Copy or Paste function uses only 1 token. Make sure you stock up for ‘Back to School’!”
That’s going to be in the free upgrade to Windows 10 and 11. Back porting some critical features to old, but still supported releases, is an essential part of good customer support.
Don’t let your guard down. Maybe this time they’ll fully pull the TPM/UEFI trigger and make it impossible to install any other OS on new PCs… they have lots of leverage over manufacturers to tighten the screws on the BIOS and boot process.
The European Commission would appreciate the multi billion euro “donation” from Microsoft if they did something so obviously anti competitive.
I agree, but also when has a threat of a fine ever stopped a capitalist from doing what they want? They just call it the cost of doing business.
I don’t think they would hard shoot themselves in the foot like that thankfully/sadly? idk my opinions on it. They would start with company graded devices before doing a consumer lockdown, since they are less apt to get massive backlash from that, they have tried already and backtracked iirc with lenovo systems
I hope you’re right. But the only reason it hasn’t gone as far as it has it because everyone watches them and pushes back. I remember the ARM-based Windows laptops they tried pushing, which had fully-locked bootloaders (WinRT?) That’s their endgame…
The CEO of Lenovo even said that he would like to sell laptops like smartphones (one every 1-3 years). Also the only reason why Windows 11 has high requirements is so that manufacturers can sell new hardware (I’m running W11 on a 13 year old laptop (T510)).
I’m looking for a source on the Lenovo thing but modern SEO shit doesn’t make it easy…
Haha I have read about the ways to defeat the bogus Win11 CPU checks. A fake check to enforce the upgrade treadmill!
Okay I’m not very technical but I hate Microsoft with every fiber of my being and want desperately to break from them but can’t bring myself to switch my regular and gaming PCs to Linux. It just feels like too much work like I’d be starting over and most of all I just fear change. Is there a good YT series/channel or blog or something I can check out that might make things a little less intimidating?
Dude, with the exception of Gamepass, Linux gaming is really easy.
If you’re okay with Redhat/Fedora, using Nobara Linux (it’s a spin-off, unofficial, but by the guy who does a lot of the Proton [magic compatibility sauce] stuff, GloriousEggroll, who AFAIK is a dev at RedHat) literally installs everything you need.
Steam → Steam
GoG/Epic → Heroic Launcher
Amazon/Blizzard → Lutris
Gamepass → You have to use the cloud version with Edge browserClick, install, game.
There’s only a few Anticheat PITA titles still (I believe Valorant is one) that won’t work.
Notable to the list of titles that won’t work is Destiny 2.
Having said that, I’ve been using Linux as my daily driver for everything, including gaming, since June, and I haven’t run into many issues. It’s certainly worth the minor hassle entailed to get some titles to work, if only to get away from Windows 100%. You can always dual boot.
If you aren’t very technical, I would also consider Linux Mint. You won’t always have access to the latest and greatest, but it’s simple and very easy to learn if you’re coming from Windows.
As a recovering Destiny addict:
Wow what a feature.
Windows 12 dev employee: what if … what if… We break the taskbar into bits.
Wait wait wait… I think we can uh… maybe just maybe not add bloat… Turns around to see the employer… Gulp
Turns back to screen… Adding bloat is always the answer… Right boss?
I am waiting for an taskbar, entirely replaced by bing chat. You will never find anything with seconds of the delay, besides internet websites and is horrible to use with bad internet. Offline mode will also not be available anymore, because Microsoft needs funktion critical telemetry
Ever hear of Secure Time Seeding? It’s real, and fits this meme perfectly.
Win 12 is obligated to be good due to the “every other version of Windows” rule, which has been true forever.
Windows 11 was better than 10 aesthetically tho?
Reddit hivemind is back to downvote any opinion that they disagree with. Like the other commenter said, I prefer functionality in place of design.
Even though I found 11’s UI far more polished, the UX is a disaster with yet another refresh of elements that didn’t need any changes.Vista was better aesthetically than Windows xp, it was still dog shit.
Also, heavily disagree. Literally the only good thing windows 11 did imo was finally unifying some of the settings that were split between the settings app and the OG control panel.
Windows 11 has tabbed file explorer, a package manager, it’s quick, the interface looks nice and feels nice, and it’s been really stable for me. I don’t know where the complaints are at, it’s been great. All they need to do is regress all of the ads-in-your-OS stuff from 10. Bring back the start menu that doesn’t hang for 30 seconds looking something up online before showing you your installed programs.
(They’re not going to regress that)
(They’ll add more)
