773
Vast Number of Windows Users Refusing to Upgrade After Microsoft's Embrace of AI Slop (futurism.com)
submitted 10 months ago by [M] to c/fuck_ai@lemmy.world
207 comments fedilink hide all child comments
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 24 points 10 months ago (36 children)

I'm not only refusing to downgrade to Windows 11, my home system got switched to Linux (with the support of my SO) despite me thinking Linux is probably the single least user-friendly system I've ever had the misfortune to use.

That's how bad Windows 11 looks to me.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • hideshow 36 child comments
    •
  • [+] 8 points 10 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (8 children)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 8 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (7 children)

    Yes. Linux is dirt simple. Which is why 2025 is the Year of the Linux Desktop. For about the 30th year running.

    Linux "just works" if you view the computer before you as a toy or a game or an end unto itself. If you view it as a tool that is supposed to let you do your real work while staying out of the way, it falls down flat on its face.

    For example, I have a nice Bluetooth speaker that worked flawlessly under Windows. Still works flawlessly with my phone. My SO, despite hours of reading things and trying things out while, toward the end letting out a never-ending stream of quiet profanity, could not get it to work reliably. He can get it working. And then it will just randomly cut out and he has to do it all over again (albeit not for hours anymore).

    This is not the only such problem. We can't get it to hibernate either. I have to leave my computer running all the time so I don't lose my place with my work. When I was running Windows it was "press the power button and walk away" after about three minutes of changing some settings when I first got it.

    This is a never-ending stream that a techno-nerd would probably have no problems dealing with on a daily basis, but I'm not that, and I don't want to be. (My SO is, but he has his own work; I don't want to treat him like my personal IT department. I'd rather just have my computer work without these little, never-ending irritations.)

    But … it's still better than Windows 11. It will be what I use until the HarmonyOS PCs stabilize and breaks free into the wider ecosystem, after which my next phone and computer both will be using HarmonyOS.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 7 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Yeah, this is a huge issue with Linux. It works out of the box, and usually in a much much better way than Windows. However, if you come across a small annoying issue, it can be either a breeze to fix with a simple command or a complete nightmare due to incompatibility issues.

    I'm a professional software developer and IT technician, and have been for many years. And I still couldn't get my grandma's fucking printer to work on Ubuntu after 3 hours of debugging.

    The good news is that the more people switch to Linux, use it, come across annoying issues and complain about them, the faster they get fixed and manufacturers develop their products with Linux in mind.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    Well, "out of the box" I hit that Bluetooth speaker problem so I didn't have it working flawlessly such. But that and the hibernation aside, a few of the problems I'm having are more "this is different; I have to learn". Fortunately things I do most of my work in are programs I already use: Zen for the browser, LibreOffice for office suite, etc. so I'm only getting little bits of culture shock here and there.

    I'm annoyed, however, that I have to plug my speakers into the computer by old-fashioned wires. They're fugly and in the way of other things since the plugs are in the front of the computer, right above the USB port I stick my thumb dries, etc. into.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 8 points 10 months ago

    Bluetooth is one of those things that is a crapshoot in linux. A big part of that is because the bluetooth protocol itself is a giant train wreck. It requires a stupid level of integration into the OS to do basic stuff (It should have just been effectively what Wifi Direct is). It also doesn't help that the linux audio stack is kinda fucked.

    Sleep/hibernate is also somewhat of a crapshoot because it's a very weird protocol.

    For some linux hardware these things work pretty well, but for others it can be a nightmare to make work properly.

    FTR, I'm currently using KDE plasma + pipewire and that works pretty well for me with my bluetooth devices. But I realize that's probably also somewhat due to me having good hardware for linux in the first place.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago

    This is a bit of a self reinforcing problem. It's not magic that makes hardware work on windows. It works better on windows because people put time into making it work on windows. They didn't do the same for Linux because there's fewer users there.

    I'm sure you can imagine the scene that's like

    Eng: "I don't know if it'll work on Linux. I want some more time to test it"

    Boss: "how many users we have on Linux?"

    Eng: "a few hundred"

    Boss: "yeah no, just ship it as is"

    But the good news is as more people use Linux, that conversation changes.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago (25 children)

    I'm curious, which distro and DE did you pick?

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 25 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (19 children)

    This question is proof enough that Linux isn’t exactly a user friendly system. You need to be aware of many things you otherwise wouldn’t need to care about in other operating systems.

    Personally I like this freedom, but many people prefer to get something that just works without worrying about differences between distros and DEs.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 19 child comments
    •
  • [+] 11 points 10 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (4 children)
    [deleted]
  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 12 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    If you ask 10 different Linux users which distro to install, you’ll get 10 different answers. I don’t think this freedom is a bad thing, but it can be quite overwhelming for the user.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago

    New linux users: check out this [new hyped distro they currently use]

    Long time linux users: just pick anything mainstream

    The boring reality is that if the project's been around for 10-20 years it will likely be around for another long while and have good community support.

    With small projects, the two guys behind are busy fixing bugs, patching packages or writing the docs.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (13 children)

    Does the existence of Windows server affect the usability of Windows pro?

    Ofc not. So why apply the same logic that one distro (eg arch, nix, gentoo) detracts from the usability of others (eg ubuntu, fedora)?

    Going by this logic, linux would never become user friendly as long as one advanced choice exist.

    So this is why I asked, I want to contexualize the situation.

    Saying that linux is not user friendly is a broad generalization. Some distros are and some will never be by design.

    The choice of distro is a real hurdle for new users, I agree.

    But this is a meta problem of the open ecosystem, not of any one software distribution's.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 13 child comments
    •
  • [–] 10 points 10 months ago (12 children)

    From personal experience, it can be overwhelming even for a seasoned Linux user.

    Knowing the difference of Debian, Fedora and Arch based distros. Should I go for Linux Mint, Bazzite or Endeavor? Should I go for a immutable system or not? What package manager is used? What’s a flatpak?

    One real example I encountered was that I was trying to install Pop OS on my new PC. Turns out after some trial and error that Pop OS uses an old Linux kernel that doesn’t support my new AMD graphics card. I ended up installing Endeavor instead, despite my not so good experience with using Arch before. Luckily Endeavor has been a great experience so far.

    With Windows there’s really only one choice for the typical home consumer.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 12 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    That's what an actual free market looks like. It's not just a choice between Windows and Mac. It does require a little more research, but there is no end of forums and comment chains laying out the difference at many different levels of depth. It also doesn't cost anything to be wrong a few times about which is best for you.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] -3 points 10 months ago (10 children)

    Windows Home, Windows Pro, Windows Pro for workstations, Windows Education, Windows Pro Education, Windows Enterprise, Windows Enterprise LTSC, Windows S mode, Windows IoT

    And there are some other variations for different regions and support levels.

    Do you know which one does what? Because I only vaguely do.

    Windows isn't a single thing either. It just comes preinstalled. Most people have never installed an OS, not windows nor linux.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 10 child comments
    •
  • [–] 7 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    All machines come with windows pre-installed, no one ever needs to worry about different flavours unless you work in IT and manage windows devices.

    I haven't had to worry about which windows to get since windows 98.

    Fyi, I'm on Linux mint now.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    All machines come with windows pre-installed

    I was curious, so I checked the laptop offers in our local shop aggregator (arukereso.hu)

        Operating system       Number

    Windows 10 Home        8
    Windows 11 Home        677
    Windows 10 Pro         23
    Windows 11 Pro         1661
    Windows 11 S           21
    Linux                  74
    macOS                  141
    Chrome OS              5
    FreeDOS                506
    Without OS             679

    2390 / 3795 = 62% windows

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •
  • [–] 3 points 10 months ago* (1 child)

    No one who doesn't know anything about installing windows is gonna buy a laptop without os or with freedos, so you can deduct those too.

    The real choice for probably 99% of consumers is between windows and mac.

    The point was that end users extremely rarely need to worry about what windows flavour they need. The laptop already comes pre-installed with the correct flavour OS for that laptop.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 1 child comment
    •
  • [–] 2 points 10 months ago

    I agree, if not by mistake the cheaper FreeDOS, buyers will select the windows preinstall I presume. I was checking if all machines come with windows. Clearly not.

    With what frequency they choose what offering, is a harder question to answer and would give a different distribution. MacOS would be higher, and without os and FreeDOS close to zero.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (3 children)

    Are you a home user? Choose the home edition. Easy.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 3 child comments
    •
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

    When I worked at an MSP I kept running into folks (both businesses and residential customers) using the cheapest PCs they could get and having to work around Home edition limitations. I'm blanking at this moment but there was one limitation that was consistently a righteous pain in the ass... I gotta look up the differences and see if one jogs my memory

    Edit: aha! it was the freaking Microsoft account. Its required on Home edition but optional on Pro. A super common issue folks would run into was from Microsoft removing the Windows Mail app and replacing it with Outlook, but the in-place upgrade/replacement would gum up their signed in emails and Outlook would be stuck thinking it's both signed in and not at the same time. Easiest solution is to simply sign out of all accounts at the device-level and sign back in, because Outlook just looks at and manages the accounts that are signed into at the device-level but you can't do that on Home edition, so I'd have to spend even more time rooting around until Outlook finally decided that the account that it was failing to sign into wasn't in fact fully signed in and pop an actual signin prompt

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 1 point 10 months ago

    Aren't all these versions just the same product with different features locked behind payment options? It's very different from Linux, where every layer has multiple alternatives written by different authors that can behave very differently.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • [–] 5 points 10 months ago (4 children)

    Mint. No idea what a DE is.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 4 child comments
    •
  • [–] 4 points 10 months ago (2 children)

    DE (desktop environment) is all the visual interfaces (settings app, taskbars, start menu, widgets etc) and default applications you get. If you aren't in the terminal, then it's the DE that you are using to control your PC.

  • permalink
  • fedilink
  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments
    •