This is a place to share greentexts and witness the confounding life of Anon. If you're new to the Greentext community, think of it as a sort of zoo with Anon as the main attraction.
Be warned:
If you find yourself getting angry (or god forbid, agreeing) with something Anon has said, you might be doing it wrong.
I didn't even let my latest laptop boot to Windows when I first turned it on, the Linux USB stick went in right away. But for those who use Windows for one reason or another, always perform a clean install; manufacturers love including all sorts of crap by default.
My laptop booted in to Windows once. I missed my first guess on the key to enter setup and USB storage didn't have a higher boot order than internal storage.
theres also these fantastic tools: https://privacy.sexy/ https://github.com/builtbybel/Bloatynosy/releases https://github.com/crazy-max/WindowsSpyBlocker https://github.com/Open-Shell/Open-Shell-Menu
Not FOSS: https://winaero.com/download-winaero-tweaker/
Someone's curated list: https://github.com/TemporalAgent7/awesome-windows-privacy
It's not entirely clear from the post, but allow me to provide some further context as I received this same pop-up myself.
I had purchased a legit Windows 10 Pro license with my own money for a custom built PC. Was always a trim installation because that's how I roll. Still got this out of nowhere when I booted back into my Windows partition the other day, was unclear what app or process pushed it. Some update either added a new app responsible for pushing these desktop level ads or enabled a pre-existing notification feature I had previously disabled. Just a typical Win10 toast notification a few moments after logging in. Dismissed it quickly and did not care to investigate, but that's about as bad as you can really get, IMHO. They've slowly been pushing the bounds, but here we are: ads straight to the desktop.
Multiple full screen intrusive ads for win 11, one during a fucking interview, pushed me to finally install Linux last weekend. No regrets, I'm loving it
Man, this is genuinely painful to watch unfold... Yeah, yeah, Linux, I know, already started migrating, but let your feelings speak for a second, sib!
Think back to how much joy and sheer functionality Windows used to encompass. Even Vista, I swear! It was a poorly optimised mess bloated to hell and back with overlapping features, but it was bursting with a genuine desire to innovate. I honestly don't remember ever having as bad a time with Vista as I do with 10, even when I used to run it on an overheating MSI.
Not to mention XP and 7, which were, I dare say, the best operating systems I've ever used, almost interchangeably if we go for XP SP3 with more unofficial tweaks. I'm not trying to diminish the improvements brought on by 8 and 10, they did have some much needed upgrades for vital features and functionalities, that's undeniable. But everything good came wrapped up (or, rather, jumbled up like 10 sets of wired earbuds you just found in a pocket of the coat you pulled out of the washing machine) with sooo much intrusive crap, that it defeats the purpose...
Gotta grieve that shit...
I'd been a Windows user for around 30 years and I'd probably qualify as a fanboy. I'm sure I hit all seven stages of grief to some extent over Windows' enshittification.
But switching to Linux has given me all the good feelings about my computer. So I'm good now.
Switching from Windows to Linux about 25 years or so ago was when I finally realized that computers actually behave in deterministic ways so no, Windows was never really a joy to use.
Today I booted my work laptop to be greeted with a fucken ad glazing AI and trying to tell me its the future. Its junk microsoft and you cannot convince me otherwise.
Work laptop = not your problem
I'm in the same situation. If I wanna dick around on the internet at work, I have my phone and personal laptop, which happens to be a Thinkpad T14 G1 (running LMDE 6) and blends right in.
Horrendously racist term aside, I feel for this dude. I've logged into Microsoft's support forums more than a few times specifically to call out and report the mindless idiots who keep marking their own unhelpful comments as "solutions."
Help me, which term is racist?
I think 'jeets' means Indian from the contexts of other greentexts I've seen. But I'm not sure why
it's short for Pajeet, which is a somewhat common Indian first name. I associate it with UK racism more than US racism for some reason.
That lines up. I'm in my fourth decade of life, always lived in the US, and this is the first time I've ever seen that word.
Though I don't make a habit out of socializing with racists, so I can't rule out that some people here might use it.
Windows is largely an Indian product, jeets is racist against Indians.
Honestly I've been eyeing Linux more and more, but it also scares me a little. What I'm mostly worried about is losing any functionality I've gotten used to.
I'm a big Linux advocate these days and my best advice is to set realistic expectations. If your intent is to recreate your Windows experience exactly, you'll always be left disappointed. There's simply nothing better than OneNote at what it does, but I migrated my note taking habits over to Obsidian and I'm perfectly happy there now. Turns out I didn't need 90% of OneNote's immense functionality.
At the end of the day though, Linux is FOSS: it's made by people, for people, to solve the computing problems people have. There are a variety of solutions out there. Reexamine your workflows and be open to fitting new solutions to them, there are just SO MANY choices out there for how to handle most problems.
Aside from that, there's always going to be a small learning curve. People tend to view that as simply a hassle that takes time to overcome and while that's not entirely wrong, it very much undercuts the real value of learning how to operate and maintain the OS that you most likely use every day, all day. It's extremely hard to accurately describe the value of investing that time and having an OS that isn't bloated with corporate nonsense and fighting you to dictate your workflows into their intended patterns so they can agitate you with ads and paid services at every step. There's a reason we all come out sounding like zealots and while I acknowledge it can feel a little cult-ish, who you gonna trust? Your online nerd community or a corporation who has shown time and time again that they do not value you as an individual user?
Your comment nailed it. I just switched a couple of weeks back and it really wasn't awful. There is a bit of a learning curve, mostly around setting up your system the way you want it, but there are so many good text and video tutorials available.
Now I have a system that just works, has improved my laptop's battery life by over 20% (the fan is no longer cranking the whole time it's on), and actually has greater functionality than when I was on Windows without all the shit I don't want.
Do it. I was where you are 2 months ago. Everything isn't perfect to where it was but I don't mind it and am not looking back.
My thinking was that one day, microsoft will pull the rug beneath my feet and i will lose a ton of data and features brutally. I did the switch 3 weeks ago to fedora and i have no regrets, i actually gained many features for free
I use Mint. I'm not a tech savvy person at all. It was so easy. I love it, being free from windows is a breath of fresh air. Never have ads down my throat, my OS doesn't use MY computer to spy on me. Break the chains of capitalism!
It's not as bad as people make out, but buying a brand new Windows machine is a pretty annoying experience.
now that is a well-boiled frog
Could well be European. EU Windows installs are significantly less bloaty than shit than US installs are.
I believe this is very true. I'm from Europe and nothing in the greentext made any sense to me. Never seen a Windows install with any of the mentioned "features".
This is why I run MAGA Linux with the Kristi Gnome desktop. Problem is my Java imports cost more.
Oh shit if you have a dog you need to shut down the computer right now no time to explain
"Pay hundreds of dollars for a new computer"?
Forget this guy's struggles with Windows, I want to know where they're buying sub-1K PCs in 2025. I'll debloat Windows 8 for that deal if I have to.
You haven't looked at all. There's zillions of them everywhere
"New" can also mean "new to me".
Let me open a random online computer shop here in Central Europe, and I am greeted with this:
Ranging from shit-tier 300€ office and youtube machine to 1k€ entry-level macbook. Sure, it's no thinkpad carbon pro ultra leet, but face it, most people don't buy that (or buy that used)
I literally just want Windows 7 again but with security updates, driver support, and back end technology upgrades.
For now I'm settling with Window's current state with some Linux use mixed in with the intent to nearly fully migrate for my next desktop build. I'll only use Windows for whatever games refuse to budge on anti-cheat, assuming by then I'm even still interested in playing pvp games at all considering how enshittified they are with engagement based matchmaking and FOMO battlepasses.
I can mind the popups and ads but its the surveillance that I don't like. Mc recall was the whole reason I deleted my os and got arch
ERROR! Please drink a verification can!
I got this same pop up ad on my work computer. Beyond stupid.