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Cake day: November 16th, 2023

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  • Microsoft’s design philosophy in any of their products has gone from well organized menus to relying instead on a search bar. Copilot is a further addition to that design, with yet more pushes to never use a menu, but instead just tell it what you want and have it spit it back out. They want everything you make to go on OneDrive as well, so it can also be indexed this way. Teams works the same way. The big search bar at the top is unavoidable.

    Windows search is complete garbage, which you might think is a counterpoint, but instead it’s just that they only put work into having it serve results for cloud-indexed items or web results.







  • It’s fine to feel that way. It’s also fine to have that discussion with folks who may not know what the current state of is. But the bottom line is people don’t enjoy being told what they’re familiar with isn’t good or useful, because to them, it is. If it fulfills their day to day needs and wants, there’s very little argument to be had.

    Microsoft’s business practices are scummy, and Apple’s closed ecosystem leads them to punish their customers. But not everyone uses their computer for more than what they absolutely require. Many do not have home computers, and may only interact with them for work. I’m a geek, nerd, whatever. I like to tinker, I like to customize, and I like that I have the freedom to do so. But most people just want something they’re familiar with, something that works as they expect it to. They don’t want to learn to use something at home that isn’t the same as work or school. And honestly I think that’s fair. There’s more going on in their lives, and these days almost everything they need to do is on the internet anyways.



  • It is also worth considering that yes, MS and Google have definitely dominated the market through superior products, but the standards they’ve pushed for and established have also made it difficult for other players to enter. If we wanted to say that the federated nature of email is dead, I think that’s a fair argument still.

    Hosting your own email server is quite difficult. You have to jump through a lot of hoops to land in anyone’s mailbox without assistance. If you want to make a mailing list, you basically need to use a mailing service, lest you get blacklisted by major systems owned by MS and Google. Much of this is a byproduct of spam, by which I don’t blame Google and MS for doing their best to protect against, but at the same time they have more or less neutered some core aspects of what made email accessible.



  • This is…kind of stupid? There’s such a plethora of options in the Linux space for desktop environments, workflow customizations, configurability, etc. nothing is locked down by taking a Windows-style approach to a DE. Instead it follows a tried philosophy that’s only really been hampered by Microsoft’s decision to funnel users into an frustrating hole that removes the choice to disable or modify features you don’t like. KDE in particular has always been a Windows-style DE, and it’s currently one of the best options for modern features and extensive customizability. Hyprland is literally designed for linux enthusiasts. Gnome is the Mac analog, Xfce is your light-weight but functional, etc.

    You’re upset because people are looking for more options? That’s bizarre. I came from Windows, but I guarantee my setup is different than someone else who comes from Windows because that’s the flexibility that’s offered. No one coming from Windows wants it to be exactly like Windows, they just want to be able to use their computer in a way that allows them to work, to play games, to watch media, etc. It’s a computer. It’s your computer. It should be able to do what you want.