- As much as I want to say it’s finally the year of the Ubuntu desktop, which has been foretold for decades, it’s definitely not true. I’ve had some problems that only a devotee can fix, and in fact my PC isn’t completely fixed yet (the $&*MF(@# second monitor won’t work). I mean sure I’ll fix it at some point, but can the ordinary person who finds Windows challenging enough fix them? Absolutely no way in ever the forever.
- If this isn’t the year of Desktop Linux then, what year would it be? It’s absolutely, imo, the year of the MacOS. For the first time in my life, I am suggesting to my wife that she buy a new 14″ Mac Air for her next laptop. Not that I think Apple’s great – it is too cloaked by Mac fanatic devotee opinion to be judged properly, but it’s because I hate Windows and what it has become. I think I’m not the only one that thinks this.
- Note that I used to love Windows, especially 10. The whole point of an Operating System is to get out of your way so that you can do your work and that is what 7 then 10 used to be. It was absolutely marvelous. I could install, set it up and get productive within the day. It used to be a no brainer.
- Used to be being the operative words. Win10 started ads, which was a tolerable nuisance. But 11, now with CoPilot, is an absolute nightmare both to work with an as a privacy concern. Whereas once you can use it without making an account, or create an account offline, MS has made it impossible and you are now required to make an MS account whether you want or need one.
- I was first made aware of Windows 11 ‘Recall’ feature mid last year, which takes snapshots of user activity every few seconds purportedly to train it’s AI to help you ‘do your job better’, notwithstanding the fact that taking pics of your desktop is an outrageous privacy nightmare. They later allowed disabling, but what value is that to a company that invested time and money to make these features in the first place? Clearly they want it on to record you, and they even set up AI Gaming CoPilot that records screenshots, voice and text during gameplay AFTER, in spite of resistance to CoPilot AI and the Recall feature.
- At this point you’ve got to use your head. It isn’t the fact they allow disabling it or issue a series of Press Releases saying how much they value your privacy etc., it’s about why would they make that in the first place. Wouldn’t a company with any semblance of human dignity, autonomy and personal security even think twice about creating such things?
- Most recently they’ve disabled enabling Windows over the phone, and insist it only be allowed online. I think that’s the final nail on the coffin which directly attacks pirated copies which take up imo the most number of users out there.
- Thing is, I can rant and rave but MS couldn’t care less about individual home or small business users. I know several large companies and government offices that will and have already authorized purchasing Win11 updates already well entrenched in their budget a year before. Their IT staff neither has an opinion or if they do have no voice in any decision making as far as Windows is concerned because there is no alternative. Do you think IT will endorse people to start using Ubuntu? Or even Libreoffice as an alternative to MS Office? That just means extra customer support for them and why in the world would they want that.
- If it sounds like I’m saying that most companies’ including public offices security is at risk because of Windows 11’s heinous privacy issues, you are right because that’s exactly what I’m saying. Most people just want to print their reports and go back to secretly surfing for gambling, showbiz, or nba sites during office hours. They have no idea nor would they care or know what to do if MS is siphoning their data to feed their useless AI.
That’s it for now. I wanted to talk about my issues with Ubuntu but it became a Windows rant instead. I won’t mince words – I miss Windows. I miss the speed and ease of use, they keyboard shortcuts – albeit I’ve learned a bunch of new ones with Ubuntu now, and I miss Photoshop most of all. Yes the Linux faithful will tell me I can make it run on ubuntu but I haven’t been able to as of yet. Like I said I’m confident i can make it work, sure, but the fact I have to spend an hour or two to do so sucks.