I have windows on my desktop pc because it's easier to get executable mods (downgraders, engine fixes, etc) working on windows than linux. There's also the matter of 'kernel level anti-cheat' games not working.
But if I just judge windows vs linux, on even ground, W11 is painful. I've main'd linux on my laptop for ~ 25 years. There was a time when it was a jank experience that I put up with for better devex, but that ended in the late 00's. From that point forward, unless you were trying to get bleeding edge hardware to work, linux has been hands down better.
It's enough that I've considered giving up online play all together just to have a nicer computing experience.
I just run two drives - one with windows and one with Linux.
I treat the windows one as a console essentially, not even logged into my password manager or email or anything. It is only for games. Basically an Xbox, with all sorts of normal annoying UX, but it doesn’t matter for all of the ~2 minutes until I can launch a game
Y'all just need to game on Linux when and where possible, to the extent that it is possible.
Be the change the market needs to see to adjust development practices.
Valve is doing their part. I get playing on Windows when there are mods, but if you can play a new game vanilla at launch on Linux - do it. It shows demand.
I've considered this for consolidating core hardware, but dual-boot doesn't do trust boundaries well. The Windows kernel still has full block access to the other device, so if it gets admin-level malware, it has free rein to infect the other system. At one point several years ago I got partway through a plan involving having most disks be externally pluggable (and assuming that firmware-level malware persistence is unlikely, which I'm not as sure about these days) but gave up for unclear reasons. I think if I were to try that again (and if I had the hardware for it) I'd try some kind of NAS approach to separate storage credentials from the OS.
For me last year was the tipping point, with Windows 10 hitting EOL I refused to move to the buggy mess of 11. All the games I regularly play are now nearly flawless in proton and games that refuse to run on Linux just don't exist for me anymore. Admittedly I already didn't play the kinds of highly competitive online games that like to use KLAC, so might be a tougher sell if that's your jam. Most of my game time goes to FF14 and GW2.
Microsoft put AI, Tabs, a login portal, a 'search with bing' action and text formatting on notepad before a 'redo' button to pair with the 'undo' action.
That says everything about the current product priorities that you need to know.
From the article: "Additionally, AI features in Notepad settings has been renamed to Advanced features and it allows users to toggle off AI capabilities within the app."
I honestly don't mind this, as long as it's not being forced. And I believe this feature exists only within their npu PCs.
Inevitably 90% of these comments are Linux users telling the rest of us how much Linux has changed and how painless it now is and yet in the latest LTS of Ubuntu my 2nd monitor doesn’t wake from sleep and half the time my monitor orientations get reset on rebooting. That is to say nothing of the fact that games themselves don’t even run properly when mousing between monitors (factorio is a good example). Been dabbling with Linux for 25 years and it still feels like some CS student’s half-baked side hobby project. I’ll stick to obliterating what I can of Microsoft’s AIDS through group policy and just use MacOS the rest of the time, thanks (although MacOS has its own serious issues these days, too).
I honestly don't understand Microsoft's AI strategy. It seems to be built around automating the writing process. If you ask MS 365 Copilot (as opposed to the many other Copilots) what it can do, it's deeply disappointing:
"Can you edit the Word document so the format is in line with these requirements?"
"No, but I can help you draft an implementation consistent with the requirements."
"Can you add this section to the 35 individual copies of this document in this OneDrive folder?"
"No, but I can help you draft [something]."
This is NOT the AI revolution anyone was waiting for.
No surprise for large companies, one company even renamed itself but its approval ratings still stayed in the basement.
A fortune 500 company I worked for renamed internal projects many times when the original failed. But they continued dumping money into those black holes. One dollar eating project was renamed 3 times and was on its way for a 4th rename when I left. That project was started between 2005 and 2010. I was not involved with it, but everyone knew it would fail.
So M/S renaming copilot ? I expect a few more renames as time goes on :)
The copilot executable and the edge executable are actually the same! It looks at argv[0] to decide which to show you. You can move mscopilot.exe to msedge.exe, it still opens edge. And vice versa.
I have been using Windows on my laptop and been annoyed by how performance have really degraded.
RAM consumption on startup is 50% (of 16Gi).
I asked claude to help me remove bloat and was horrified by all the different background services and "enhanced" and "advanced" features that are always ON.
I don't think it's fair to say "no AI in any app", however. That should depend on the value delivered in the app.
But I do wish there was some honest restraint on all these weird OS services that no one wants/uses.
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026.
Interesting, I can't recall a single voice "Oh I'm so happy they changed their corporate strategy" but many of "I'll believe it when I see it".
> At this point, Microsoft is walking a tightrope. It cannot appease everyone since it also has its shareholders and investors to think about, but then there's also a rather large Windows 11 user base which really is fed up of AI experiences being shoved down its throats.
Are shareholders and investors stupid enough to think that AI hated by users is still desirable?
Deep copilot integration feels so intrusive. It pops up with your recent files. What if they were my bank accounts or api keys? Whoever thought that would be a good use experience should be fired.
Seems like what Apple does with Writing Assistant. At least in this case, it’s opt-in. You have to click. I don’t run Windows so I don’t know if this implementation is vastly superior or not.
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026
The only thing generated was boatloads of incredulity and some laughs.
I spun up an old laptop the other day and it has Windows 10 on it. I can't believe how snappy and fast that old laptop felt in comparison to what I've been experiencing on Windows 11.
Especially when you consider that the old laptop has inferior hardware to my newer one with twice the RAM.
Sorry if your a windows user, but you have no escape, only Linux. Until you get the time and courage to do the move, you will continually be abused by microslop.
These fuckers put a Copilot key on my laptop and didn't even both to make it emit a unique mappable event when pressed, it's a key combo in one key when you hit it.
If only there was a virtual machine I could run Windows in with full hardware passthrough, I think I wouldn't ever install Windows as main system anymore.
Didn't Microsoft say it will listen to the community, some
weeks ago? And now it looks as if Microsoft did not tell the
truth. To be fair: I think Microsoft actually has no alternative
option. They sold out to AI and all Win11 users will have to
support the hype train. I am so glad to have switched to Linux
a long time ago.
I like Copilot. Don't hate any OS, Windows, MacOS or Linux. Just don't see much thought put into the design, engineering and User Experience aspect of some of these OS iterations. As far as Copilot, I can't see a way to exist without it because it keeps me off my mobile phone :)
287 comments
But if I just judge windows vs linux, on even ground, W11 is painful. I've main'd linux on my laptop for ~ 25 years. There was a time when it was a jank experience that I put up with for better devex, but that ended in the late 00's. From that point forward, unless you were trying to get bleeding edge hardware to work, linux has been hands down better.
It's enough that I've considered giving up online play all together just to have a nicer computing experience.
I treat the windows one as a console essentially, not even logged into my password manager or email or anything. It is only for games. Basically an Xbox, with all sorts of normal annoying UX, but it doesn’t matter for all of the ~2 minutes until I can launch a game
Separate linux drive for everything else.
Be the change the market needs to see to adjust development practices.
Valve is doing their part. I get playing on Windows when there are mods, but if you can play a new game vanilla at launch on Linux - do it. It shows demand.
That says everything about the current product priorities that you need to know.
I honestly don't mind this, as long as it's not being forced. And I believe this feature exists only within their npu PCs.
"Can you edit the Word document so the format is in line with these requirements?"
"No, but I can help you draft an implementation consistent with the requirements."
"Can you add this section to the 35 individual copies of this document in this OneDrive folder?"
"No, but I can help you draft [something]."
This is NOT the AI revolution anyone was waiting for.
A fortune 500 company I worked for renamed internal projects many times when the original failed. But they continued dumping money into those black holes. One dollar eating project was renamed 3 times and was on its way for a 4th rename when I left. That project was started between 2005 and 2010. I was not involved with it, but everyone knew it would fail.
So M/S renaming copilot ? I expect a few more renames as time goes on :)
RAM consumption on startup is 50% (of 16Gi).
I asked claude to help me remove bloat and was horrified by all the different background services and "enhanced" and "advanced" features that are always ON.
I don't think it's fair to say "no AI in any app", however. That should depend on the value delivered in the app.
But I do wish there was some honest restraint on all these weird OS services that no one wants/uses.
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026.
Interesting, I can't recall a single voice "Oh I'm so happy they changed their corporate strategy" but many of "I'll believe it when I see it".
> At this point, Microsoft is walking a tightrope. It cannot appease everyone since it also has its shareholders and investors to think about, but then there's also a rather large Windows 11 user base which really is fed up of AI experiences being shoved down its throats.
Are shareholders and investors stupid enough to think that AI hated by users is still desirable?
The real question is this: While the floppy disk became the standard "Save" icon, what will eventually become the standard "AI functionality" icon?
Microsoft starts removing Copilot buttons from Windows 11 apps
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47722136
> At the start of the year, Microsoft generated a lot of goodwill among Windows 11 fans when it announced its big plan to fix the operating system in 2026
The only thing generated was boatloads of incredulity and some laughs.
I'm tired of being a victim.
Especially when you consider that the old laptop has inferior hardware to my newer one with twice the RAM.
I just hate using windows at this point.