Won? They will do it again. The only winning move is not to play their game. Choose Free Software.
this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Genuine question: What do you recommend? I want to replace Windows 10 on a 8-year-old midrange laptop with something that works reasonably well in terms of performance with a connected 4K monitor.
I've already tried Ubuntu, but unfortunately the experience has been marred by bugs such as poor performance, visual glitches, windows jumping around when attempting to move them, and DPI settings not being able to be applied per screen.
Linux is definitely the route. A lot of people use Mint or Ubuntu. But they are usually running out of date drivers.
I'd recommend looking into distros based on Fedora Workstation. It stays up to date but not as much as Arch so that it's stable.
My recommendation is any of the Universal Blue images that fit your need. They are based off of the Fedora Atomic image with added quality of life features.
If you identify your laptop (including model number) someone who has the same hardware might be able to make a solid recommendation.
...for now.
I swear. Society at large will never learn from Microsoft's games.
"Are you really staying off windows for good?"
Yes | Remind Me Later
I won? Of course I did, I don't use Windows anymore, I've been using Linux for years now.
I bet they turn this into even more AI
Too little too late. I'm already over to Linux now. Shit's been going downhill even before this whole AI craze went off the rails. I hope Microsoft Windows crashes and burns
After pushback from users? Or after realising how much it's costing them on the server end?
I've won when everybody gets the principles of free software philosophy, along with other essential freedoms, free roaming, free speech, free assembly, free press, free energy, free healthcare, etc.
It's the freedom.
Free to use, study, share, change.
The Free Software Definition
The free software definition presents the criteria for whether a particular software program qualifies as free software. From time to time we revise this definition, to clarify it or to resolve questions about subtle issues. See the History section below for a list of changes that affect the definition of free software.
The four essential freedoms
A program is free software if the program's users have the four essential freedoms: [1]
- The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
- The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
- The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
- The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3). By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
A program is free software if it gives users adequately all of these freedoms. Otherwise, it is nonfree. While we can distinguish various nonfree distribution schemes in terms of how far they fall short of being free, we consider them all equally unethical.
In any given scenario, these freedoms must apply to whatever code we plan to make use of, or lead others to make use of. For instance, consider a program A which automatically launches a program B to handle some cases. If we plan to distribute A as it stands, that implies users will need B, so we need to judge whether both A and B are free. However, if we plan to modify A so that it doesn't use B, only A needs to be free; B is not pertinent to that plan.
"This is going very poorly, we will pretend to listen to our customers so it looks like we are course correcting, winning favor with investors and customers (big businesses, not home users)."
They may even switch CEOs if the situation worsens, but the practices remain.
Edit: wanted to reply.
The irony of having a copilot and right below this post
Why does your lemmy client have ads?
I use boost. It has an ad free version.
Though you're making me wonder if I should change given your surprise haha
I believe I used it on reddit, long ago but there were no ads. I was surprised since no other client I know of has them (and no lemmy server has ads).
I use voyager, it’s great.
Seriously! I cannot understate how strange that is.
I haven't won until Microslop is a company that is used in past tense.
Understand that they're not doing this because of user feedback; they're doing this because shareholders got cold feet about the whole thing after the backlash (so indirectly it's still down to user feedback, but not really)
Yeah, i'm never going back to that dumpster fire OS.
My first thought exactly
Stop using Windows any, it's a US company that's too large.
I mean by that logic, stop using Steam. It's (marginally) possible for a company to get big, and not do terrible things. Just keep an eye on them and don't become fully reliant on them.
According to people familiar with Microsoft’s plans
Might as well get your information from psychedelic mushrooms.
"Microsoft is walking back Windows 11’s AI overload — scaling down Copilot and rethinking Recall in a major shift" For Now.
Give them 6-8 months, they'll shove it back in quietly in a way you can't see it happening as easily.
Yeah they will recall their plan soon enough
Absolutely.
This just means "We pushed our crap too fast and people noticed, so we're letting things cool off slightly to quiet down the critics, and next time we'll boil the frog more slowly."
I think you've just neatly summarized, uh ...
... The world (such as we've incentivized it, anyway).
Sadly, yes.
What it comes down to is that any product or service with a profit incentive will inevitably betray you, no matter how good or how well-intentioned it started out.
Our only saviour is open source, self hosting, and federation.
Sadly, yes.
What it comes down to is that any product or service with a profit incentive will inevitably betray you, no matter how good or how well-intentioned it started out.
Our only saviour is open source, self hosting, and federation.
It's why ownership rather than rental is the model we should all individually be pursuing.
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