Windows 11 is a 'Minefield of Micro-aggressions in the Shipping Lane of Progress' (theregister.com) 192
Windows 11 has become indistinguishable from malware because of the way Microsoft has inserted intrusive advertising, AI monitoring features, and constant distractions designed to drive user engagement and monetization to the operating system, argues veteran writer and developer Rupert Goodwins of The Register.
Goodwins contends that Microsoft has transformed Windows 11 into "an ADHD horror show, full of distractions, promotions and snares" where AI features "constantly video what you're doing and send it back to Mother." He applies the term malware to describe software that intervenes in work to advertise and monitors user data, concluding that "for Windows it isn't a class of third-party nasties, it's an edition name."
Goodwins contends that Microsoft has transformed Windows 11 into "an ADHD horror show, full of distractions, promotions and snares" where AI features "constantly video what you're doing and send it back to Mother." He applies the term malware to describe software that intervenes in work to advertise and monitors user data, concluding that "for Windows it isn't a class of third-party nasties, it's an edition name."
Enterprise (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
Home edition of OSX does not have that shit, as far as I can tell from the description given here.
Re:Enterprise (Score:5, Informative)
Home edition of OSX does not have that shit, as far as I can tell from the description given here.
Nope - not sure why you were downvoted labeled troll.
Fact is, Mac users won't put up with that abuse. Windows users will happily accept it, and like the turd you replied to, claim it is a feature they want, when they don't even know that if you buy a computer with any form of Windows, Microsoft gets a cut.
Re:Enterprise (Score:5, Interesting)
Since I fully transitioned from Windows for personal use, and moved to MacOS and Gnome, every time I have to work with Windows 11, I just find myself swamped in UI garbage. It's not even the intrusiveness, it's literally just how messy and confusing everything is. I suppose with some effort I could learn to navigate around more efficiently, but why the hell would I?
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What originally turned me off from Windows, and I don't know that it is still like this, is that a "child" window could only appear within its "parent" window, rather than anywhere on the screen. That never made any sense to me, I never liked it, got something else and never looked back.
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That's what the *purpose* of a child window is.
You can easily make more top level windows if that's what you want.
Sounds like you just had bizarre expectations.
Re: Enterprise (Score:2)
"What originally turned me off from Windows, and I don't know that it is still like this, is that a "child" window could only appear within its "parent" window, rather than anywhere on the screen."
That has never been a requirement for Windows programs. It's called MDI and some applications use it and some don't. Some applications open multiple MDI windows, usually one per document, while others don't use it at all.
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Nope - not sure why you were downvoted labeled troll.
People don't like being presented with facts that contradict their world view, especially if they indicate anything remotely positive about Apple products.
Fact: competing products have "home editions" that don't have the shit mentioned, apparently as "standard" in a non-enterprise product.
Fact: oh no! You horrible troll!
No wonder he is in a world of hurt.
Re: Enterprise (Score:3)
It's been said a million times over, that people since Windows 95 and maybe XP that no one actively picks Windows with jubilation and excitement.
They pick their apps needed for work. That means Excel for most people so Linux is off the table. Your Mac does support Excel but it doesn't support Steam games nor Oracle SmartView to upload stuff from your ex ex ex boss from 2012 CRM bloatware for work. Not everyone gets to use cool macs and Atlassian projects and AWS and work from home.
Most PCs run in 20th centu
Re:Enterprise (Score:4, Funny)
I don't know what any of that means.
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Not really sure what that means either.
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Not really sure what that means either.
You aren't the only one. I suspect your antagonist forgot their Haldol prescription this morning.
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Oh. Well, it doesn't take much to feel superior to me.
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What does that have to do with the post he replied to?
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Almost the same here, but in Wayland, so Sway instead of i3.
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No idea. For me, that price differential is irrelevant. Even if Windows laptops were given out for free, I'd still go buy a Mac laptop.
In any case, a few hundred dollars price difference on a device I'll use for many years (I used my last laptop for 12 years) is hardly a material factor in product selection.
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I didn't shop around, and I know Dell is not the cheapest possible option, but just for fun, I went to look.
Cheapest Dell laptop on their site $750
Cheapest Apple laptop on their site: $1000.
So, a price difference of a whopping $250.
How do the specs compare? No idea, but I'm sure that will be the next location of your goal post.
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Note: that's just straight up listed, not going through configurations or whatever else.
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Up front they are generally more expensive.
However the loss / reduction in productivity changes that equation. For me it use which ever OS you are more productive on.
If its Windows, use it
if its OSX, use it
if its Linux, use it.
I use OSX because it works in a way that is logical for me, so I am more productive.
If I save 1 hour a week, over a year at my charge out rate of $100, that's a neat $5000 each year, the laptop paid for its self in the 1st year and every
Re:Enterprise (Score:5, Interesting)
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The ability to monitor your computer use and train AIs with it is worth billions if not trillions. They're simply not going to let you opt out.
They will lose a handful of people to Linux but it's only going to be a handful. Microsoft has the 80/20 rule. 80% of their users only need 20% of the functionality but it's a different 20% for everybody so they have complete lock in.
If we enforced antitrust law this
Re: Enterprise (Score:2)
I run the IoT version. Even less of the crap.
Frequently not an option Re:Enterprise (Score:5, Insightful)
just install enterprise win11
For most home users and some small organizations, this is either outright not an option or way too expensive to do legally.
everything else in techworld has the same problem. [emphasis added]
There are more counter-examples than I can count in any reasonable period of time. That said, there are also far too many examples of "ads and intrusive shit" in the techworld. Sometimes I miss the 20th century.
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I've been using the same Pro key since Windows 8.
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just install enterprise win11
For most home users and some small organizations, this is either outright not an option or way too expensive to do legally.
everything else in techworld has the same problem. [emphasis added]
There are more counter-examples than I can count in any reasonable period of time. That said, there are also far too many examples of "ads and intrusive shit" in the techworld. Sometimes I miss the 20th century.
I use Windows, MacOS and Linux. The only OS that serves up that crap is Windows. Neither Mac nor Linux users would put up with it.
Re:Enterprise (Score:4, Interesting)
Notably, I also disable many "features" of Win11. This new Recall thing? I get what they're trying to do, but just no. No thank you. Others are just odd, but it's not that hard to disable them and I'm not even an expert user.
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Since when is Windows 11 free?
Isn't it something that you pay for when you buy a new computer with it installed? You pay for the hard drive and the keyboard and the other parts that make up the computer, so isn't Windows 11 part of that as well?
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You need to pay more.
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You can install Windows 11 for free. The only thing that's disabled is customization (as in desktop background and stuff like that).
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Since when is Windows 11 free?
Isn't it something that you pay for when you buy a new computer with it installed? You pay for the hard drive and the keyboard and the other parts that make up the computer, so isn't Windows 11 part of that as well?
Exactly, Microsoft gets their cut from every computer sold with their OS on it.
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Re: Enterprise (Score:2)
The problem is that the reenable them with updates and grandma isn't going to be able to turn it off again
Re:Enterprise (Score:4, Interesting)
OK thanks for this. I was incredibly confused by this article and summary; so he's talking about the Free version of Win11? Because this is not my experience either. Win11 is just fine for me on both my work and home computer, but then again I am using enterprise version.
Notably, I also disable many "features" of Win11. This new Recall thing? I get what they're trying to do, but just no. No thank you. Others are just odd, but it's not that hard to disable them and I'm not even an expert user.
I'm using Windows 11 Home and I can't corroborate TFS either. Yeah there are popups usually selling Office or pushing Edge, but they come up only with feature release updates. That's once or twice a year, far from an ADHD nightmare. The windows lock-screen has silly text on it but that disappears if you disable the stupid constant changing picture feature. As for "AI features" there's literally zero until you explicitly press the CoPilot icon. Also the new Recall thing? You not getting that. It's locked to specific hardware features. Right now it's on a small subset of devices with dedicated "AI accelerators" in them like their new Surface devices. But yeah very easy to disable that too.
I honestly wonder if the original writer has never used a computer before.
Did you see what she was wearing? (Score:2)
Your take is terrible and you should feel bad too.
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I understand the value proposition you are making, but just how exactly are the great unwashed masses supposed to:
just install enterprise win11?
You offering to pay the hefty licensing fee for everyone?
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I don't believe that is correct. You can install Windows 11 for free on any device, with some features disabled (customization and personalization - like desktop background). It's called an inactivated installation.
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please, just install enterprise win11. why do you expect the free home edition to not have ads and intrusive shit? everything else in techworld has the same problem. If you want control over your machines, you need to do a little research at least.
Are you a failed troll? You do know that Microsoft gets paid money for each computer sold with their product on it.
And you made me snort. You demand people do a little research at least, while not even knowing enough about the subject.
Sorry lame-o , you should like the person that excuses sexual assault because the woman was pretty. You can't fix that level of stupidity[pidity, I don't want to go off on you, but you deserve e every bit of it.
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As I understand it, computer vendors do pay a license fee to Microsoft but they get more money from the peddlers of bloatware to load up their products with crap. So, the bloatware more than pays for the Windows license. That's why vendors resist giving a "refund" for the Windows license, as it actually loses the computer vendor the bloatware money.
I've never had a problem just buying a laptop or PC and wiping the system so I can install Linux: I figure the money I would get from a Windows "refund" would no
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"Professional" edition of Windows 11 isn't much better. It's always trying to cram OneDrive, Edge, Microsoft 365, and CoPilot down my throat after it updates itself.
It doesn't really matter if you disable these notifications, either, because they seem to have a way of reenabling themselves after a feature release.
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is it free? (Score:3)
Windows 11 Home is $139.00
Maybe your hardware vendor bundled an unactivated copy with your PC. But Microsoft gets paid for the license, then wastes the end-user's precious time with embedded promotions and advertisements.
Add on top that 24H2 is going to be the only supported version, and will be forcing Microsoft Copilot features onto end-users that never asked for it. It turns out your OS isn't free, but your AI is free. If AI were worth a damn, people would be charging you for it.
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None of MacOS, Linux, or *BSD have that problem. Just Windows.
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The home edition of Win11 is not free. The "update" (pathetic as it is) from Win10 is free.
Teams was the canary in a coalmine (Score:3)
When I had to use Microsoft Teams at a couple of workplaces, I couldn't help but think "if this is where Microsoft is heading, then I need to de-Microsoft my life before Windows 11 becomes unavoidable."
Teams good experience Re:Teams (Score:4, Interesting)
When I had to use Microsoft Teams at a couple of workplaces, I couldn't help but think "if this is where Microsoft is heading, then I need to de-Microsoft my life before Windows 11 becomes unavoidable."
Yes, Teams is big, huge even, but the setup my corporate overlords is using is very useable, increases my productivity, and is ad-free.
I'm not doubting your bad experience, I'm just saying to the people who read your (and my) message, "your milage may vary."
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When I had to use Microsoft Teams at a couple of workplaces, I couldn't help but think "if this is where Microsoft is heading, then I need to de-Microsoft my life before Windows 11 becomes unavoidable."
Weird; Teams is the one Microsoft product (other than their mice and keyboards, which don't really count) that I actually like using. It's a little slow, and the text-search capability isn't very good, but for the most part it just gets out of my way, does its job, and helps me do mine. (I'm running it under MacOS, though, maybe that makes a difference)
I'm not "upgrading" to windows 11 (Score:3)
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Just curious, what kind of job is that?
Re: I'm not "upgrading" to windows 11 (Score:2)
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You lock that shit down and isolate it from the network like everything used to be before it became "smart." Problem is, everybody is mandating internet access to do anything with almost no good reason except that it's a great way to secure licenses or supposedly help with security updates... If I wasn't online, I'd not need security updates but if we didn't Agile develop buggy software that needs constant patching... Realistically, you have to lock down everything but a few domains and isolate the machi
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No, Freecad is not professional grade
Depends on what you mean by "professional grade". It does sound like it does not do what you want, but I'm not using it for a hobby, which means it is professional. Does what I need to and it's a plus point that it runs on Linux which, so I don't need two machines or need to dual boot just to use CAD, which would be annoying. And to be sure I've lost patience with Windows.
I do know other people in somewhat esoteric (professional) areas who like freecad for it's python sc
Re: I'm not "upgrading" to windows 11 (Score:2)
Re: I'm not "upgrading" to windows 11 (Score:3)
Re: I'm not "upgrading" to windows 11 (Score:2)
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I am locked in hard to windows and use tens of thousands of dollars worth of specialty software to do my job and for which I have no non-windows option. I will not be upgrading to windows 11, full stop.
You will be. As soon as the speciality software tells you to.
Nigerian 419 Psychology - eliminate bright ones (Score:2)
They've likely realized that suckers are much more profitable and that the worse they make the OS the higher percentage of suckers they get. Anyone remaining on Windows by now is either forced by corporate or educationally subnormal.
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No. They realized they had untapped resources for profit available to them and chose to exploit those because simply selling someone a license for the software is a one-time transaction. They can make more money licensing over time, and even more money as an ad company.
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They know they are frightening educated / intelligent people off. They already make an enterprise edition so they could just make it easy to switch off all the spyware and run as normal, possibly with a small charge. Instead they decided that if you aren't willing to be and pay to be enterprise and you aren't a sucker who lacks understanding of the value of privacy then they don't want you.
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Firstly, not everyone, because I've made it clear I understand that there are those that have good reasons like being forced by corporate. Secondly I am accepting comments like "I've got software I can't move" and I guess people know that Microsoft will eventually force them off Window 10, so that's an okay excuse. Getting a little bit of a raise never hurts though.
However, having said that, the people that end up using the spyware edition just because they like it deserve a certain level of contempt. Nobod
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To be fair, I'd probably count that as "forced by corporate". It's the corporation making your software, but it's a corporate decision. Still, if you are in that situation you should be desperately trying to get an alternative. If there's an application you are using there's probably enough other people that it would be worth getting together and funding an F/OSS alternative to escape onto.
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"I want/need to do X on the computer, the only way to do it is with Windows"
I've been in somewhat similar situations. But in my case it was "I want/need to do X on the computer." And then the Microsoft sales engineers would come in and speak (usually to our CIO); "Why do you want to do that? Perhaps we could sit down with that pesky engineer and go through his requirements document with a red pencil. Until it fits one of our products." Never mind that we were already doing "that" on SunOS, AIX, HP-UX and even a bit of Linux.
Lol (Score:2)
True. A bit snarky but true.
Windows is not a professional operating system (Score:5, Informative)
Should we discuss the insane latency issues? How about the advance of unwanted, unneeded, and unrequested software. I've never seen Microsoft push Office harder than it has in the last couple of years, to the point, they're breaking Office installs, and then turning around and blaming the user.
Should we discuss the online account nonsense, that causes real fallout? Since the user is now tied to an account, having them access a different account, which they need to do because of terrible licensing, causes a problem. What's the solution? Oh, just enrol in more software, with equally bad licensing and fees, to get around a problem they caused. Again, want to go to support? They'll blame you.
Let's discuss how every bleeping area is trying to sell you, upsell you, or advertise something. Why? Want to change your browser, nope, Microsoft wants you using Edge, and they're not subtle about it, they will force change the browser. Want to use OneDrive, they weren't asking because, they need files for AI, and they can't risk getting a "no", so they take them. Do you want to boot the computer, but did an update the night before (without asking), better hope none of the Secure Boot settings changed because, and this is spectacular, you might be missing a bootloader, or it suspended to a state it can't wake up from.
Windows is not usable in any professional setting where you need reliability, stability, security, or usability. It's adware, wrapped in shareware, that operates as malware, without ever getting you a usable operating system.
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"Yeah!"
as i type this from an "unusable" windows machine not using edge, doesn't bother me about edge, onedrive disabled, no ms account attached, running libreoffice and on a machine that has run windows without any boot or OS problems in over half a decade and not even enterprise, just plain jane win pro
it's not even that you're wrong but this type of hyperbolic punching down on windows users (and that is what this is, 'people who use windows are dumb and dont know any better') makes linux people seem elit
Re:Windows is not a professional operating system (Score:4, Informative)
I recently got a MiniPC with a 8C16T Zen3 processor (5825U) and pretty low-end graphics (8 cores, max 2 GHz) and it came with Windows 11 and the fucking mouse pointer lagged, and not just a little but a whole lot. Slapped Devuan onto it (aside from resizing the Windows partition just in case I decided to care about it, mostly by hitting enter in the installer, after choosing to use the contiguous free space) and everything works great. All hardware was identified, all firmware was loaded automatically, everything works flawlessly.
P.S. Making Windows work without an account is still pretty easy, although it's a "secret" how to do it. (You can just google it ofc, but it's not available as an option until after you do the thing.) TL;DR: Hit Shift-F10 and then type OOBE\BYPASSNRO and it will reboot and then you can bypass that. I see there's also reports that "start ms-cxh:localonly" will work, but I did not try that.
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Define "professional". People who make loads of money with windows very much get a system that doesn't do anything what you say (except for the security fuckups). If it is then those "professionals" need to fire their system administrators who are obviously not setting up windows correctly in a professional environment.
Now Windows Home edition, sure. But even there that "upsell" you speak of is nothing more than a single popup twice a year when a feature release comes out. In a world of constant advertiseme
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The problem with absolute statements is they are disproven by evidence. The world is run on Windows, professionally. It literally makes the world go around and contributes a shitton to the GDP of nations the world over.
The problem with statements is they are disproven by "literally".
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Everything I mentioned is a fact of running it, if I install Office 365 Business on Windows 11, why are their download buttons for Office 365 in the Start Menu still? You'd think those would go away, but they don't. However, the bigger issue, if you click them, they will down a different version of
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Self-inflicted pain? (Score:5, Interesting)
I have several computers in my office but the only one running windows is the one I use for video editing. Everything else runs Linux and has done for over 15 years.
The only reason my video editing rig still runs Windows is because it's just easier than battling a bunch of limitations tied to using Davinci Resolve under Linux. If BlackMagic Design could provide identical capabilities on Linux that Windows machine would be reformatted in the blink of an eye.
To be honest, I hate having to fire up the Windows machine because I'm constantly interrupted by all manner of ridiculous things I don't want or need and I'm constantly nagged to upgrade. If I step away for more than a few minutes I can sometimes come back to find that Windows has decided to download updates or do something else without being asked to do so. With Linux I am in *full* control of my computers -- with Windows, not so much.
Right now I'm considering altering my video editing workflow so that I can finally get rid of the evil that is Windows. Hopefully this will happen sooner rather than later.
Those who still use Windows for stuff like websurfing, word processing, spreadsheets and other day-to-day tasks are suffering a self-inflicted pain. Freedom and relief is just a download away. Do it!
Dig Dug with Premium Offers (Score:2)
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The value proposition of Windows is that you don't have to consider a value proposition. It's just the default. Most people don't care enough about their computing experience to change the default (not least of all because for most people their cellphone, not their desktop, is their primary device). You can make all the arguments in the world about why Linux is superior and fail to convince someone it is worth the time and effort to change. This is doubly so when talking to someone who has never installed t
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The problem is that Linux isn't 'superior.' Does it do some things better? Sure. Maybe a lot of things.
The vast majority of computer users simply *don't care.* Nor do they need to.
Windows works well enough, it does anything almost anybody wants 'a computer' to do, and you don't need to put too much thought into it.
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Steam is mostly just a store and launcher. They've made good progress on Proton and enabling Linux compatibility for Windows games, but if the game developer doesn't put any work in it's not always a good experience. They're not doing this to be an OS developer, but to just expand their market share.
Micro-aggression? (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh, come on, 20+ years ago, Windows was already indistinguishable from a virus.
Re:Micro-aggression? (Score:5, Funny)
Not true: viruses didn't crash nearly as much.
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This is mostly true, but they've also made it worse. Additionally, every time you think they can't possibly make it worse they find a way.
A bit overblown? (Score:3)
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Re:A bit overblown? (Score:4, Informative)
I have Pro and I got pop-up ads on my desktop about "Upgrade to premium edition Some-A-Word-I-Forget", that turned out to be a Microsoft video game. (That I have never played) Plus things that are borderline-ads in my start menu, and my task bar, and my lock screen. "Do you like this image? Click here to find out more!" I can remove most of it, but it's annoying and makes the whole desktop feel like exploitative trashware. Plus Microsoft is making it harder and harder to opt-out of OneDrive sending them all of my files. I've had it re-enable itself after an update, and on my last machine it was enabled after install despite me saying "no" to everything in the installer.
I assume they send back a fair amount of telemetry just like every other non-linux OS and most programs do.
I also assume that, I just resent it more than you do. I also don't believe that it's all just telemetry, but I have no way to know for sure.
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I get Microsoft games ads at work, I didn't think this is a good thing
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You can run Office Enterprise on Windows Pro. Read harder.
Suggest O&O Shut-Up (Score:3, Interesting)
I'm sure there are other more invasive or useful apps which do similar things, but I've had consistently good results.
https://www.oo-software.com/en/shutup10/ [oo-software.com]
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This looks useful. Thank you.
Eventually (Score:2)
Someone will do a study on productivity hits and business will move to Linux or demand removal of said features, home users went know the difference
The linked article is... (Score:2)
...just a rant, devoid of specific details
What exactly is the problem?
Cellphoneification (Score:3)
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