Thank you for your purchase of high quality Microsoft products.

...and now a word from our sponsor... More Microsoft products you don't own, but probably should! You may as well buy them because we're going to harangue you until you do. Then we're going to convince you to go to a monthly subscription model to make us even more oodles of cash.

Microsoft. Because we care about increased profit margins... Oops, I mean we care about the contents of your bank account. No, sorry, got that wrong again. We care about you. Yeah, that's it.

I want to insert the old Youtube clip of the cable company rep telling us that "we don't give a fuck". I can't remember if it was sarcastic or not...

>>Thank you for your purchase

And that is the problem. They took to heart the legalese about "licenses" and now our PCs are not really ours.

Sometimes I wonder if the "Great Reset" tinfoil-hatters are onto something

Maybe it's the point where a few more Windows users decide enough is enough.

It's tempting. Especially as I've been waiting over 3 months for a new PC to arrive. Well, one that matches what I spec'd and isn't DOA. No dear vendor, a shingled drive isn't an acceptable substitute for the HDs I ordered.

But it was getting painful enough wrestling with Win10 telemetry. MS seems determined to frustrate PiHoling by using stuff like timeouts if it's spyware doesn't get a response from the mothership.

Oh for a Windows that would allow easy mode configurations and a bare bones OS. Still, if my new games/dirty box ever arrives, it should have 64GB memory, and might meet the minimum for Win12.

When windows 11 is clearly the next giant F up in a long series of humiliating walk backs going back to what, Windows Millennium Edition? Windows 3.0?

The only difference is they skipped an number, so the whole odd/even thing is flipped. Windows 11-8-vista-XP(home)-and ME vs Windows 98, 2000, XP Pro, 7, and 10. So since y2k they are stuck at 50% rate of humiliating failure.

They are consistent though right?

People will rightfully howl about this, and there will either be a walkback or yet another registry key to set to turn the bleeping ads off, because like the failed vista and 8 rollouts, there are very big accounts that will tell their M$ rep to shove it and skip the release cycle until/unless it is fixed.

What probably isn't going to happen is a mass of users jumping ship for another OS. Because people don't use windows to do their job. They use software. They will use the version of windows that interferes the least with them using that software to do their job, but most businesses are still locked into windows.

Stay calm and just keep complaining about the problems in 11. In the mean time stay on an LTS build and just wait them out. They need our money more than I need a new operating system, so they need to come to the table with something I want, not something I hate.

I'm definitely close to enough is enough.

From everything I've read and seen so far, I have no temptations to even try out Windows 11, let alone switch to it.

I have little choice for work, as it's a company provided and managed system, but for personal use...

I've been evaluating what do I actually run on my personal rig that is genuinely Windows only? It's not actually a lot these days, just a few games that don't have native Linux versions and don't run under Proton.

Most other things either have native Linux versions, work fine under Wine/Proton, or have some Linux equivalent that I could switch to.

I think I'll go dual boot for a while, I've done this in the past with Windows 7 and Linux, so I think I'll probably go down that route again, at least initially, and just keep the Win 10 env as-is for the few Windows only games I have, and have Linux as the primary OS.

...that led me to stop using Microsoft products wherever possible. I bought the operating system, Microsoft. I already paid you. Having someone else pay you so you can advertise their shit at me is called "double dipping" and it's bullshit of the highest order.

I don't mind google advertising at me. I don't pay for their services. I get that that's the deal. Windows, however, you expect me to pay for. ...and since I already have a perfectly good operating system that I don't have to pay for, you're on a bit of a hiding to nothing.

> I already have a perfectly good operating system that I don't have to pay for

No worries, I'm sure they still have a legal team somewhere in the bowels of the company working on that "problem".

I bought leased the operating system, Microsoft.

FTFY.

Enjoy the thumb-ups while you can, telling people they don't own the software is something frowned upon here. Either that or some just don't like me :D

They're putting adverts in Windows, and they had the audacity to call Linux a cancer.

They're actively sabotaging their own core revenue with this.

Enterprise and business customers won't stand for "features" which hamper employee productivity or open security risks and if they get discouraged enough Google is waiting right there to snap them up, and you bet Amazon will be considering ways to run Desktops in the Cloud for business with the appropriate "dumb terminal" approach

I'm sure if enterprise and business customers choose to pay enough extra they can have ad-free options.

This time round.

When they get their forced upgrades to W12 it'll cost more again.

many have said it and I'm one of those waiting for Linux to become an alternative gaming platform and can say goodbye to Microsoft, Wine is good but just not good enough for modern gaming support.

So,... they will be paying me to watch the ads then? Every time an ad pops up in the file explorer they will be transferring new and fresh funds into my account. I will be using that explorer, sure thing.

But, they can not have it both ways; pay for the OS and force ads onto the user. They gotta pay the viewer if they want to pilfer ads and the operating system cannot cost anything anymore.

> But, they can not have it both ways; pay for the OS and force ads onto the user.

Who says they will? The Windows Suckerz Insiders program is simply to test that the technology works. The "pay nothing" versus "pay a subscription" for Windows comes later.

Tacky

Don't you like having ads on top of your operating adware system? Clearly, the targeted ads are failing because you turned off all those tracking services that totally create a better user experience, so turn them on. Also, let big MS brother watch your every move to better serve you better ads.

I wonder how long until they add some sort of subliminal hypno suggestion with "You love ads, you love not owning any software, you love paying for services you don't use or need".

That crap already happend a decade ago, and it was nudges in peoples social media feeds. Apple and the streaming services trying to sell Millennials the idea that it was better to rent everything. We went from rip/mic/burn to 5-25$ month per service back to people owning stacks of vinyl. People can do the math, and long term, count on them looking to their own interests.

A few come to mind: fraud, criminal, creepy. The Rejects of Redmond are below slimey and heading to Fraudbook and Twatter terrioritory for depravity.

On a pedantic level, I am somewhat displeased with the use of the ! symbol.

Unless I am mistaken, the ISO definition of that symbol is:

Title/Meaning/Referent: General warning sign

Function/description: To signify a general warning

Hazard: Risk to people specified by the supplementary sign

Apart from the general hazards expected when using Microsoft software, I don't think that recommending new products is a reasonable use of a caution warning.

You usually see that symbol in user manuals telling idiots to "read the manual", "take reasonable precautions not to electrocute your genitals" or "please do not microwave your animals".