This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
I would upgrade to windows 11 if it wasn't full of ads, I had two computers accidentally upgrade after mis-clicking an upgrade prompt and the experience was bad enough I reloaded the whole computer.
Not only that, but it doesn't make sense to have a task bar on the bottom of an ultrawide display. I've been putting my taskbar on the left side for over a decade, and now you just can't do that for some reason....
The task bar is my main reason for staying on 10. Forced grouping with icons only and no option to change it is such a bizarre design decision.
Edit: Sounds like my last major gripe with W11 has been fixed! Dreading a forced switch to 11 much less now.
you can now set taskbar to ungrouped (unless full) now in win11, as of one of the recent monthly updates. still can't move the taskbar to the left side (my preference on wide screen displays), though.
I'm so confused by the ads thing. I don't think I've noticed any since upgrading to Win 11. Are they only on certain editions or something?
That’s what confuses me. There are absolutely ads, it’s just fake installed apps. But amount of ads are exactly the same as windows 10. They’re in all the same places, same types (mostly the start menu). Shit you could say 10 has more since that awful edge desktop widget doesn’t exist by default on 11 as far as I’m aware.
Do people just have such deeply debloated windows 10 installs that they’ve forgotten what windows 10 is actually like? Maybe it’s because it’s been 1.5 years without a major update that reinstalls all the garbage automatically?
My start menu is a glorious thing with zero ads. No programs are listen in those shite block tile things. Removed them all and shrank the start menu to be the same size and feel as ptevious windows versions. In fact, I never even use the start menu for anything anymore but typing CMD.
They killed it for me the day it started searching the web instead of the system. I just navigate to the install folders like I always have years and run programs with the actual exe.
https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-remove-most-annoying-ads-from-windows
check out how many settings you have to search and disable to turn off MOST of the ads in windows. It's completely ridiculous.
This popped up over the weekend on my work PC. It was an emergency and I absolutely needed to get to my desktop ASAP.
Nope. Full screen advertisement for Windows 11 demanding my immediate and undivided attention. Blocking all other functions, commands, and inputs. I must interact with this ad or else I cannot use my computer.
Fuck. That.
I am never installing Windows 11. I am never buying another Microsoft operating system. Specifically because of this sort of heavy-handed dark patterned bullshit. Not to mention the fact that Windows 10 is dog shit.
I paid full price for Windows 10 twice, from Microsoft's website. I believe in paying for good software but Windows 10 was anything but. After the whole forced Microsoft account thing I had very little patience and then Windows 11 dropped. I switched to Linux and never looked back.
I understand if anyone can't switch or disagree with my point of view, you don't have to leave a comment.
I feel this in my bones. Can't tell you the number of times I've been working on some late night or weekend work emergency when fucking Microsoft throws some random unnecessary bullshit in my path. Haven't run into the Win 11 mandatory commercial yet. But MS is notorious for wasting our time with push notifications, Teams drama, mandatory updates, and slow ass software that glitches at the worst possible times.
MS lost the way years ago. They forgot that software is supposed to work for us. They demand we work for their shitty software.
"Just use Linux" indeed. Will be doing that in my retirement.
Windows 11? Ads. New outlook program? Ads. Old outlook iOS app? Now injecting ads there too.
Ads are a cancer on the internet.
Nadella has ruined Microsoft.
Are you kidding? He's made some...questionable decisions over the last couple of years, but look at where Microsoft is at today compared to when Ballmer left. It's a much more successful, more exciting, and more open company than it was. Could you imagine Ballmer's Microsoft releasing WSL? Or greenlighting a major faithful remaster and re-release of all 4 of the big Age of Empires games, as well as developing an entire new one? Or buying and actually being a surprisingly good steward of GitHub?
He's far from perfect, and all the enshittification of the last 2 or 4 years should be roundly criticised. But overall, Nadella has been a net positive for the company both financially and in terms of the company's societal impact.
The same can not be said for Google's Pichai...
Yes, let’s look at it. Great for the shareholder, not for the customer.
Somehow other companies in these spaces have not had problems making this stuff work. It’s obvious all Nadella is interested in is cloud based products with subscriptions. And while that might be insanely profitable, it’s driving the consumer space to Google, Apple, and Linux. All the creativity and inventiveness has been removed from Microsoft. Xbox somehow survives in spite of his leadership.
As a software developer: MS has been 100X better to work with under Nadella. He may not know what to do with the operating system side of things, but the .NET/Azure/android/linux etc side has never been healthier.
Slows my pc down while downloading and prepping upgrade. Attempts upgrade. Not compatible. Undoes upgrade. Bitches to upgrade the next week...
These incessant, full-screen upgrade ads, with no way of canceling other than a small "Remind me later" tucked away in the corner, where the final straw from me switching to Linux.
When this screen recently came up, i had a mini stroke because it looked like it just updated itself... Iam really sold for linux mint, but my laptop is currently my desktop and i need functional Dockingstation use and an external gpu. Which doesn't do well on Linux :(
I guess I'm lucky I just get the "System requirements not met" instead of the Win11 update option.
Purposely not fixing that issue
Yeah same here. Don't have TPM, not buying a new CPU just to enable Microsoft's bullshit, so we are at an empasse.
There’s a reason everyone says “Just use Linux”
I jumped onboard last weekend. Built my new computer from parts because I couldn't find a system I liked that didn't come with a Windows license, and I refuse to pay for a shitty OS I won't use.
I installed Mint have been happily gaming for just over a week now. I even upgraded my kernel when I came home for lunch one day. That's not something you can say about Windows!
I'd recommend staying with your current distro if you're happy with it!
Windows 10 is the end of the line for me regardless of software compatibility.
That's it Microsoft...keep pushing more people to use Linux. 🐧
It's working. I'm in the (looooooong) process of moving over to Linux.
lol my reasonably good gaming pc doesn't even meet the minimum system requirements. I don't have anything with a cpu that's in the "list of approved CPUs" 😎. Guess I can't use Windows even if I wanted to. 🤷
So. If my PC cannot be upgraded because of your bullshit requirements, can you leave me alone please.
Also in win 11.. if I have an office subscription activated in the OS can you please not throw ads for office 365 then.
It's nonsense.
Jokes on them, I disabled by TPM chip and I'm now incompatible. Fuck W11
I had to update my BIOS a while ago and it set TPM back to disabled as default. Voila. No Windows 11 prompts because, as far as it can tell, I do not meet the requirements.
My $2000 PC built a year before its release with no TPM will beg to differ.
got a book on Linux from the library this week, and I've been speaking with a friend who runs Linux full time on his system. looking to make the switch within the next few weeks; absolutely done with windows, personally.
Say what you will about Apple but I don't have to put up with this insane shit at least on their computers. I really wonder how long they hold out on this stuff.
You have to deal with different shit thought. Source: been using both Windows and Mac for over 20 years now.
Drop requirements for TPM and secure boot then.
That shit is just Xbone Kinect all over again.
Windows is like the corner prostitute: pay some money, usually get what you want although not the best, occasionally get some horrible disease
Linux is like the sweet SO: has its quirks but you love them for it. let's you grow in your skills but that can be challenging at times. Surprises you in good and bad ways.
Edit: for grammar
I finally swapped to Linux and it's been easier than I expected. Don't know if I'll ever go back to only windows.
Every time I see people complain about this while I'm running PopOS https://media.npr.org/news/images/2008/dec/12/sip_200-8cd52659abd57bb28c4d7bd3797c582d77527643-s6-c30.jpg
My hardware couldn't run Windows 11 anyway. But if it could, I still would've installed Linux.
I'm done needing 10 different tweaking programs before Windows works the way I want it to. I don't want an OS that is working against my workflow.
