Finally got my last PC switched off Windows. It feels good.
Ok, guys. I’m reading some of these replies which are saying the amount of outrage is out of proportion. I have to disagree with that. I don’t want an AI running on my PC that is monitoring and learning about my shit. I didn’t want that data saved even locally, let alone the monetization of that data. I don’t want to be paying for power of a device that is turning me into someone else’s paycheck.
Can you turn it off? I believe you can. But I also believe that doing it manually would be incredibly annoying since that does go with a lot of past practice. I also get it would reactivate itself after major updates, like how Edge keeps reinstalling.
Are there other solutions to my Microsoft issues, yes. Chris Titus Tech comes to mind.
But overall, the Windows ecosystem does not feel right to me anymore. Could other people still use it, yes. Am I going to stop them, not intentionally. But my Arch gaming PC runs games better than the same machine running Windows. I’ve always entertained the idea of a full switch, still have a Windows 11 dual boot and haven’t officially done it yet, but with this the moment feels right. At least for me, hopefully you can understand that.
I had dual boot with win10 for a while, but when they had that ‘bug’ that was wiping peoples linux partition I dropped Windows completely. As dar as I’m concerned Linux and other FOSS in general has reached a point where it meets the majority of my needs. Same goes for local storage vs needing anything through the cloud or streeaming.
Every hang up I had eventually got solved. Except with modding games, I sorely miss Vortex or Mod Organizer and there’s no alternatives I know of besides doing it all manually.
That wasn’t a showstopper for me though. VR, HDR, Video Games were. These three are solved well enough for my tastes this year to drop my dual boot.
Fortunately on the modding front, the community’s already been cooking:
The cool part is that 100% of the “AI features” they’re advertising are either not running locally or not AI at all
I think that if someone (even ai) is analyzing my documents, then they are bypassing my permissions and looking despite the fact that it is supposed to be private. Basically if ai is looking at my files, I don’t care if it isn’t running locally, it is bypassing my permissions to my automated stock trading algorithms. I know security isn’t exactly Windows strength anyways, but accessing my files without my consent or knowledge is a nail in the coffin for me. Granted, you can disable it, I might point you in the direction of winutil by Chris Titus, but I would bet money that a Windows update will re enable it without consent or permission.
I will continue to enjoy my incredibly straightforward and to the point Linux desktop that’s somehow gained a new AI-free feature by doing nothing.
Don’t you want a bunch of pop-ups nagging you to use their AI gimmicks, though?
Would you be able to point me toward a good thread about “beginner-friendly” distros that works well with games?
I honestly have no idea what to trust when it comes to this
I installed Mint a week ago and it has played all of the 13 games I tried without any effort from me, except one which ProtonDB told me to change the compatibility mode in the steam properties then it worked great.
I would say see the ProtonDB entries for some games you like to set your expectations.
Don’t go onto specialized distro. Just use the main ones like Mint (which is based on Ubuntu, which is based on Debian). I would say that Debian is the best one, but it needs to read some docs if you have a Nvidia Graphic card (but if not, it should be easy and super stable). Bazzite, Nobara, etc, are based on distro that are quickly changing (Fedora or Arch), which are really nice in their own way, but as a beginner, you need stability first!
Try this : https://www.linuxmint.com/edition.php?id=325 It is Linux Mint, but directly based on Debian instead of Ubuntu!
The logic behind the voice controls sounds pretty questionable, but it’s supposedly backed by data showing that users spend billions of minutes talking in Microsoft Team meetings, according to Mehdi — so they’re already used to talking on the computer, right?
Do they really reason like this? Oh my. That’s stupid. And here I was thinking Microsoft employs clever people.
Have Win 10 and was a Windows die hard since I was a kid.
Been running Linux on another drive as my default boot for a year and a half in anticipation of this horseshit and was only hesitant to delete Win because my Fanatec sim racing hardware wasn’t supported on Linux.
Welp, turns out hid-fanatecff is a thing. Installed the kernel driver and boom, working Fanatec peripherals. Even my Moza shifter is plug-and-play.
Bye bye Microsoft.
Four Horsemen of Apocalypse
- The country where a lot of tech countries are headquartered in, elects a wanna-be dictator
- Android restricts “sideloading” (aka: non-approved install)
- Windows has mandatory AI
- Mandatory ID Verification
How do I escape this shitty timeline?
Stop SERN, Prevent WW3, Find the Steins;Gate Seikaisen (Worldline)
El. Psy. Congroo.
What is this AI everywhere concept actually supposed to accomplish for the end user? Maybe I’m just behind on the vision but I can’t grasp the point. I have a feeling it’s not really about what the users want but I’d love to here a genuinely good use case.
It’s to make it easier for the end user to do what they want to. People are best at communicating by talking and writing, so having the ability to get things done using natural language is kinda the holy grail.
Being able to summarise/edit/create documents/images/videos, automate tasks, change settings, etc by a simple conversation is an end user dream.
How many misunderstandings happen because people are bad at both writing and talking?
The answer is, a great deal.
Your answer is nonsense.
There is no real use case for the user. There are only use cases for the company.
I’d say there would be a great benefit for a lot of e.g. disabled people who can’t use the traditional inputs. Not saying that as a pro-ai/pro-win argument. Just that there actually will be good use-cases.
That’s not a use case for users. That’s a use case for a very specific sub group who likely weren’t using the OS at all. Not saying it’s not good they would be able to if that works for them, which I doubt.
Its still not a reason to foist it onto all of us
Didn’t say that was a reason to gulp it down. Just that the use cases aren’t zero.
Knew a quadriplegic that gamed with her mouth on windows. A really well working, integrated “ai” would’ve dramatically improved her life and saved her hundreds of thousands for all the equipment and tech-guys. And yes, that’s a very limited use case, but would allow poorer disabled people to also use a computer better.
But that’s really all good reasons I can come up with. For all else noone needs the shit baked into the OS.
For all else noone needs the shit baked into the OS.
So you can’t think of a single reason why anyone that’s not disabled would want to use AI on a computer? No reason anyone would want to use ChatGPT? Generate an image? Re-write some text? Summarise some text or a video? None at all? Really?
I said baked into the OS. Noone needs that. Everyone who needs ai can open a browser. That was the whole topic here, not usefulness of ai in general 😊
I work in IT and far be it for me to tell you what OS to use on your own computer.
The only thing I want to die right now, is the AI bubble. Just pop already. Holy fuck what a worthless endeavor this has been.
+1000. one of my coworkers keeps thinking he’s saving time with AI-generated code but what he’s really doing is pushing the thinking downstream when we have to pick apart the absolute garbage that gets generated.
PR feedback gets turned into AI prompts and the cycle continues. It’s exhausting
IDGAF for my personal machine. If MS jams AI up my ass, and I can’t shut it off, then I’ll bail. All these stories are overblown, as is lemmy’s take on Windows.
For example; only ad I see is the occasional sentence on my lock screen, “You should try $whatever!” That blurb isn’t on my radar. But to hear lemmy tell it, I’m overrun with ads at every turn.
I’m told Windows is constantly fucking up and updates are crippling. This machine was originally Windows 10 and has been through 3 machines, same SSD, did nothing but swap it. No issues. At all.
Want to talk about issues? Lemmy is the most clusterfucked IT experience in my life ATM.
We’re so glad you shared.
