I think AI is cool, but I hate seeing it forced on everyone. I also hate programs trying to run on startup without me explicitly saying so (cough Discord Teams Spotify Steam Teams MuseHub Teams Slack cough)
Remember when MS brought Skype, and had it pre-installed and running at startup for every Windows PC, and you really had to fight to make it go away.
And then COVID hit, and everyone urgently needed video conferencing and had Skype pre-installed, and still no-one used it?
If the pandemic had happened 10 years earlier, I’m pretty sure Skype would have been the choice everyone reached for
How Microsoft managed to so thoroughly squander a market dominant position and generally positive public option to the extreme they have I’ll never understand
Even did a two-fer by destroying the progress Lync was making on the business side by rebranding it Skype for Business, while simultaneously losing interest in improving the platform, making it fall behind the curve badly and causing business to see it as more of a toy by branding it like a consumer product
Snapchat forces their AI assistant into the top of your friend/send list.
You have to pay to remove it.
I never use it, its always there though. I named it an obscenity to hopefully get their attention
It turns out most people want to socialize with their friends, not some corporate AI constantly trying to sell you stuff. It’s way closer to a stuffy car salesman than a friend.
It actually tries to upsell you???
Yep, I’ve seen screenshots of it. It actually inserts ads into the conversations, hence why Snapchat is trying to push it on you.
Edit: Here’s a source: https://techcrunch.com/2023/05/02/snap-announces-tests-of-sponsored-links-in-my-ai-new-ad-products-for-spotlight-and-stories/
I really feel the naming teams 3 times
Teams is so garbage that it’s actually like 5 programs all called Teams trying to launch on startup. I have no idea which one is the real Teams.
What a wonderfully mature and unbiased article to be finding on a technology community.
Being bothered by a company forcibly installing more ads for a trash anti feature to your computer isn’t “bias”.
Adding a small flavor of satire to commentary on ridiculous abuse of market dominance to establish a foothold in a new space isn’t immature, either.
What ads? It’s the actual feature, being provided as a free update.
Turn it off if you don’t want it.
What ads?
Have you actually used Windows?
I think there were some ads in the little side widget screen that took 2 seconds to disable so it’s now kind of usable. Anything else?
Not ANOTHER thing I need to disable when I do a clean install…
PC MASTER RACE
May as well add it to the .reg file you cart around on your thumb drive. I have one that already disables all the Windows “consumer features” and turns off all the lock screen nags, Cortana (this is no longer relevant, though), etc.
It’s in:
HKCU\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot
And also:
HKLM\Software\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsCopilot
In both locations, create a DWORD “TurnOffWindowsCopilot” and set it to 1. Reboot.
it’s gross and I hate it and stop it right now
I’m going to say it before anyone else does.
Linux.
As much as i agree, the vast majority of people will just continue using what they had before, and still complain about how nothing works
Oh, I agree. I did however manage to talk my mom into letting me put Mint on her PC and she hasn’t complained even once. Small victories.
Same here. I installed Fedora on my old dev laptop, that my mom uses now, and she’s been really happy with it. Says everything just makes sense, coming from windows
and the vast majority of Linux Devs will just continue building what they were building before, and still complain how windows users dont migrate to Linux (cough usability cough)
This is an unpopular opinion every time I bring it up. Usability and consistency sucks in Linux. There are just so many basic things that will frustrate users coming from Windows. I can’t even get my laptop (Framework 13) to sleep properly. Then there are is still a ton where you have to use the command line to get it done. A user shouldn’t have to go into the command line to get their fingerprint reader to work because the GUI doesn’t work properly.
The only thing that actually makes Linux practical for average users these days is that most everything is now web based by default so most users only interact with a couple programs for most of their day.
The Linux community really needs to get some UX experts in their projects and actually make an effort to improve usability rather than just doing it the way they like to do it.
And windows is full of simple things that are just as broken. And constantly makes changes (OP being another in a long list of examples) injecting obvious advertising masquerading as features.
Windows certainly isn’t perfect, but though familiarity and at minimum exposing a reasonable amount through the GUI, way more users can use Windows daily without issues.
The advertising and tracking, that’s the big problem, I don’t see a currently acceptable OS solution once Windows 10 is EOL.
Most of the issues you describe are because usually computers come with Windows preinstalled with all the drivers and configuration set up by the oem to “just work”, so replacing the OS inevitably means fiddling with it. People who e.g. try to install Windows on a SteamDeck will face similar difficulties.
If linux came preinstalled by default and vendor supported, regular people would use linux as well. Usability is actually pretty good these days, arguably higher than Windows since you don’t have to deal with this BS.
Yes, you can buy Dell laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled and supported, maybe Lenovos, not sure, but it’s not the default, available only on custom builds online and on business (expensive) laptops, so most regular people don’t bother.
The only reason I don’t switch to Linux is because of all the nerds on here telling everyone to switch to Linux.
But seriously, I use my laptop for work and I’ve used Windows for years and know how it works. I don’t want to switch to a completely new OS that I don’t have a clue how to use, especially when I need it for work. I also don’t know whether the software I use will work on it either.
If there’s an easy tutorial and a way of knowing whether everything I need will work, I might consider trying it.
It’s silly how people react to this, a feature that can be turned off with a simple setting toggle, by recommending that people should instead install a whole new operating system and tech stack. If opening the preferences menu and clicking a toggle is too complicated or too much of a hassle then installing Linux isn’t going to be better.
It’s not just one thing. It’s been a barrage of crap for years and years. That pile of manure gets awfully heavy as you make it taller.
As an example. they still haven’t fixed the Settings/Control Panel stuff. That has been in the works for what, over a decade now? A core feature just…allowed to rot.
It isn’t about flipping a switch, it about how many times I’ve had to flip that fucking switch because a company keeps changing how I have my PC setup because they want more money.
They’ve never had this feature before.
And as far as I’m aware Copilot is a free service.
haha lol yeah we do get a bit annoying here … For me it’s the opposite though, I use linux for work, and I’ve used it for so long I almost forgot what Windows looks like.
This. People buy hardware and use whatever comes with it.
This is why and how ChromeOS became used. Google didn’t just put it on a website, they got manufacturers to make products with it.
The Steam Deck is the best thing to happen to Linux since… Linux. It’s the first time average tech illiterate folks have gotten a taste of Linux on their own systems, and it’s driven the development of compatibility tools (Proton) to a hitherto-unheard-of degree.
It convinced me to switch to Linux.
Before SteamDeck comes. I am between KDE, Gnome and Xfce. But, after I bought a Steam Deck. I am now totally KDe Plasma users on my desktop and steam deck
KDE used to be the feature complete, heavy, memory intensive DE. But now we aren’t running Linux on abandoned laptops but on modern hardware. The average PC is so powerful that it’s completely irrelevant. All in on KDE/Plasma as well
I feel bad for anyone with no linux experience who bought a steam deck. There’s a good amount of weirdness with the UI sometimes, and modifying desktop mode controls can lead to it ignoring inputs until steam launches on occasion.
I know these issues stem from this being a brand new device with a brand new form factor, using whacky proprietary track pads and shit. But someone who’s only used windows might attribute them to linux and be left with a bad taste.
It’s good that the Ally exists so we can have a windows handheld to compare against.
I’ve been dabbling with Ubuntu for my home assistant and my Plex media server and every damn time I find myself asking ‘why isn’t there a GUI for that?!’
Damnit, I came in here to post:
And the wind… whispers… Linux
Succeeding you, Windows
These words are accepted!
Please keep saying that to my bosses until they listen.
I will if you want.
I’ll help also
We can get some penguin themed camping gear and clothes and post up in front of their bosses’ house and have loud conversations about Linux.
I’ll bring the snacks!
I figured it already was on 11 since they’ve added it to 10 also recently. You can at least turn it off pretty easily in 10 (though IDK if that’s just because I have Pro; didn’t need to use the GPM so I assume Home can disable it too).
Could you, like… Disable TPM in the BIOS and just go back to 10? The only reason it hasn’t auto-updated to 11 for me is because I never enabled TPM in my BIOS. And I don’t plan on doing so, either.
I’ve never done it but it appears that it is permissable. https://superuser.com/a/1745003
What a wonderfully mature and unbiased article to be finding on a technology community.
It already does on my laptop. They also keep setting my default browser back to Edge. I don’t use my laptop much anymore and keeping up with the BS of having to disable stuff I don’t want running has become tiresome to the point where I don’t even want to use it.
I know, I know, something something install Linux! Question I have there is my laptop is a gaming laptop so my question to all you Linux folks is. Can I continue to game using Linux. Will it work with my Nvidia Graphics card and Steam. If so I might consider it.
Yes you can game on Linux. Lookup your games on ProtonDB to see if they are all compatible. Most games run fine unless they have kernel level anticheat that stops them from running. On Steam, you just have to enable Proton and windows games will install normally.
Laptops are harder because they rely on more proprietary hardware and need more advanced power management.
Gaming is mostly respectable. The biggest exception is multiplayer games deliberately blocking Linux because it doesn’t allow them to install their rootkit anticheat.
I use nobara, which has some nvidia focused tweaks automatically handled for you, and has largely been pretty smooth. However, you should know that there’s a real possibility of needing to roll back, drop to the command line, or make some other tweak to resolve driver issues. It’s not a regular occurrence (and both AMD and Nvidia have also borked windows releases), but maintainers dealing with Nvjdia have been frustrated with some of their decisions in the past and still have to jump through hoops sometimes. Some distros more targeted at casual users do a decent job of abstracting it away though.
I looked into it and tried it myself just today. For the most part it’s fine but you’ll have to be prepared to do some tinkering here and there. Most of the games I wanted to play are listed on proton as works but with some issues.
I set up popOS yesterday and tried to install satisfactory today via steam but it wouldn’t let me and when I filtered my games lost for Linux it shrank down to a very small list. Iirc it was listed on proton as gold or even platinum so there must be a way to get satisfactory to run but I honestly couldn’t be asked today so I set up dual boot and went back to windows for now.
I think that’s the way to got for a newbie. Set up dual boot and whenever you have the time & patience to try to get something to work on Linux go for it but when you just want to relax and play some games (or multiplayer) boot up windows.
I think Linux for everyday use is just fine even though popOS could use some UX designers.
Filtering the list for linux will only show games with native versions. As far as I know, Satisfactory doesn’t have one so you will have to use proton. Go into the steam settings and enable proton for all games. Or if you don’t want to enable it for your whole library, go into the game settings in your steam library and activate it for each game.
This was me a few weeks ago and I decided to install PopOS.
They make laptops that ship with nvidia GPUs so naturally they would want their OS up to date and working with the drivers. I do tinker here and there but so far I think it’s a good set-and-forget OS.
Ppl tend to sugarcoat Linux to new users, so let me make a reality check: gaming is possible on Linux, but in a limited sense, and it might cost time and sanity.
Some games work natively, some need a workaround, some require you to craft your own solution, and some straight up won’t.
The percentages shift, where there’s slightly more games working natively or requiring a basic workaround, but the baseline is the same.
I dont have a windows machine, i game exclusively on linux and its got to the point where i just buy games on steam and assume they will work fine through proton. I honestly cant remember the last one that didnt. Shit i got the c&c collection on steam recently hopping to play generals with a friend, but while it works fine for me on linux its broken for him on windows.
Yeah, I’ve had such an easy time of it that I’m actually surprised when a game doesn’t work in Linux now too. Which is a reverse of how it used to be.
I switched from Windows to Linux in the last year.
There are sometimes odd things to configure, but it’s no more difficult than the windows XP era was.
It is much much easier than Linux used to be due to Steam, and I find I more often have problems with smaller indie games than big ones.
I’ve been playing Cyberpunk, Baldurs Gate 3, Stellaris, No Man’s Sky, Crusader Kings 3 no problem. Plus many others.
I tried to game on Linux for many years with wine, but it was Steam that actually made it feasible for me .
The issue with Nvidia cards is that some Linux distros don’t install their proprietary drivers by default and the open-source version is only jjst starting to catch up.
Most will ask if you want to install the OS with Nvidia’s drivers, or they’ll have an option somewhere in the settings for a one-click install.
And I notice that after today/yesterday’s update, my Win11 machine “helpfully” put a Copilot icon in my taskbar without asking me. Thanks?
I poleaxed it in the registry. Yes, I saw the toggle in taskbar settings. No, I don’t care. Disable that shit. Get it off my computer.
Perhaps I’m just brain dead, I’ve been accused of it often enough, but I can’t figure out what the stupid thing is good for.
I’m a knowledge worker in a large multinational and I’m using copilot daily if not hourly. I think it’ll help a lot of office workers simplify basic tasks
It helps sometimes with code, when I can’t find a solution on Google.
Lately I’ve been using it as a duckduckgo replacement.
…well chatgpt free version, that is. Seems like everyone has an “AI” now.
Depending on which CoPilot, quite a lot to be honest.
My company uses it at work integrated into Visual Studio Professional.
It saves countless hours, especially when you work on enterprise software and have set up good coding standards, best practices, and techniques; as it learns from your code and will offer suggestions based on how we do things.
Like most TypeScript components we build are going to require loading some data via a hook, and calling these hooks is pretty consistent. So now I basically write my comment // load the data and boom no boring writing the same thing.
We save that much time on mundane tasks that we can actually spend more time learning new things or innovating.
That’s before we even get into the tool my boss build that will allow us to create all the schema and hooks for a new model which would normally be 30-45 mins of mundane copy and paste and replace.
That depends; do you mean good for the user, or good for the company? 😉
I don’t know, isn’t it a huge money sink rn?
I don’t really like it, but it can defintly be used as a dumb assistant. E.g. if you want to write an email or a small script to analyze some data, you can tell it what you need, specify the details, take the results, correct them and then use the results. You still have to do much of the work, but if you do it correctly you’ll save time. BUT: It’ll safe all of that. Don’t do this with sensitive data and don’t do this for work without official permission of the employer.
This is my experience. It creates a starting point for emails and things but it’s not at all “intelligent”.
Spying on you. Influencing your results.
What a wonderfully mature and unbiased article to be finding on a technology community.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!!! Suck GPT Wintards!
Recently I changed to Linux (running fedora) and I haven’t looked back since. Fuck Windows
I assume Copilot is emanating an ear piercing sound as it escapes the confines of her laptop in that thumbnail art.
Who cares. Only dupes use Windows 11.
Dupes? Like as in duping an SoJ?
There’s an old reference… No duped as in a person who has been fooled. You would have had to have fallen for the idea that windows 11 was somehow a good idea.
Like with Win7 working just fine, why upgrade to 8? Why upgrade to 10? Nevermind 11… It was clear the direction they were pushing, more online, connected, more software as a service. As they continued that trend the only rational move was to not upgrade.
I’ve only been using Linux for a few days. Am I allowed to have a superiority complex yet?
Nah, Linux is too mainstream, its more like a soft drug.
If you want the REAL GOOD STUFF you need to daily drive 9Front.
I wanted to make a Plan9 joke, didn’t even realize that there were new iterations, cool.
It is not about mainstream or not, it is a about superiority.
After this news? Don’t feel the smug all atbonce or you will fucking die.
Good to know, I’ll be careful not to indulge too much! Though I did it proper with a Thinkpad as well so I may overdose anyway haha
Only if you use Arch btw.
I use Arch, btw
(But it’s Manjaro)
I use manjaro, but I used to use arch btw
I tried both, succeeded at both, but chose Manjaro btw
When I built my next computer I was just too short on time to build arch btw, that’s when it didn’t have an installer btw. Manjaro was the next best thing.
Absolutely, that is legal from the first second of use.
Hello and welcome to the Linux club! Remember to always mention Linux as your OS as much as you can and add “btw”.
I run Arch btw.
Done and done, thank you for the warm reception.
I run
archmint btw
