So few people actually discuss Windows unless they’re really pissed off about it messing up their data or getting taken over by malware, again, that Microsoft actually has to have a budget to brigade Internet forums about the competition.
Many of the people who are stuck on Windows really wish they weren’t. My optometrist still uses Windows XP. I asked him why. He said he’d have to throw away a machine that costs more than an entire brand new car if he ever stops using Windows XP for that one application.
Outside of legacy applications, most people no longer have any real use for Windows and simply keep it out of ignorance or inertia. Most video games don’t even need it anymore.
John Carmack’s assessment that the future of gaming on the PC was the Windows API, running on Linux, in Wine, proved accurate. Wine is picking up the patches that Valve put in the “Proton” fork that’s integrated in Steam.
The average Windows user could do everything they do today with more reliability and less frustration on Linux.
You want to use your Web browser? Just sign in. It’s all still there. You want to take your Steam library? Run it in Proton and it’s basically all there. You want the boring office software? Well, LibreOffice is pretty good.
As legacy use cases for Windows break down, people abandon it. Linux has reaped a lot of new users one way or the other, and the Mac has too.
Microsoft’s Windows revenue is “cooling” fast. That’s the new name for “It’s so bad, don’t even ask.”. AMD and Intel are suffering along with them. You only need to type in “PC shipments” or “Intel” or “AMD” “earnings” and look at the carnage playing out.
I don’t actually like my computing to change much. Linux and GNOME give me a platform to run SeaMonkey, Firefox ESR, and Brave (depending on the mood I’m in). Sometimes I use some of the desktop applications or play games (native, Windows, retroarch emulator cores…).
I haven’t felt like I was “missing out” in a long time.
And what is this Clown Windows thing anyway?
Who is the market for some awful timeshare system involving Windows 11 where you can pay Microsoft an exorbitant amount to plant even more malware in it than they could hide if it has to run on a local computer? Where is the cost savings pitch that you can run by a Pointy Hair Boss on your PowerPoint?
I can run Windows 11 using GNOME Boxes. Granted I need to poke some registry keys at the command prompt before the installer to disable some Microsoft “alleged security” designed to stop it from running on older PCs that could otherwise handle it. Where does having Clown Windows benefit me? I only run it as an appliance that I converted from a Microsoft Browser Appliance for their VM.
Microsoft calls this DaaS or Desktop as a Service, of course backwards that’s just SaaD. And forwards, it sounds kind of like a guy rushing his way through saying “Dat Ass!”.
The entire thing reeks of some campaign to get “Windows” googlebombed some more with SPAM farms like ZDNet and “authors” like “Ed Bought”. (Roy calls him Ad Bot.)
I see “Clown Windows” as another way to make a hell of a lot of noise and burn through overbuilt and unsold capacity in Azure, like ChatGPT and Bing Chat do. Both have been lobotomized and aren’t amusing anymore.
They “fixed” everything that was remotely interesting or funny about them and censored them and programmed them to reply with canned propaganda. They’re still, fundamentally, a money loser that you’d only do to burn through unsold processing power.
Windows “Clown” is just Software Lock-In as a Disservice (SLIaaD?)
One of the favorite things of many Windows users to do now is deliberately brick the update system so Microsoft can’t make it nastier from that point. There’s no security updates at that point, but the malware situation on Windows is bad no matter what you do. This won’t even let you do that. The “Clown Windows” will just update itself and make sure you don’t do that.
It also makes you a “tenant”, which Microsoft actually uses in this context. Pay up chump, or get evicted. This would make that a “thing” in desktop computing so that regular users can make the same mistake people with Web servers in Azure do.
I still read ZDNet for the Dystopian Hell articles sometimes. Gotta admit I was fascinated at how military industrial complex shit goes to the cops and then cop shit ends up at McDonalds.
Did you know they want to install license plate readers at McDonalds so they can figure out with complete accuracy how often you go there?
It’s also easy to just turn around and buy your DMV records from the state, they can figure out who you work for and what your income likely is, and all the while you think you’re safe from the creepy McDonalds people because you’re paying cash and wearing a Hillary Clinton mask and don’t use an app. ðŸâ¢â
ZDNet promotes this as a feature. ZDNet told me that IBM, one of the perpetrators of the Holocaust, and current owner of Red Hat, is going to partner with McDonalds on the license plate scanners.
Fun times. ⬆