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Comment by mftb | Hacker News Reader

Microsoft, if you're listening; Ads in Windows, is what pushed me to leave. I have no intention of ever returning. Ads in the tools that I use for my work are unacceptable.

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I'm pretty sure Microsoft is operating under the assumption that everyone who could quit Windows has done so already. Sadly most of the world lacks the technical knowledge (for Linux) or money (for Mac) to make a switch, and on the corporate side Windows is pretty much a mandate, so what can the end user even do?

Agree, for the average end-user switching is still difficult. I do think for some of the more technically oriented ones (some gamers, etc...) it may be possible.

Gaming on Linux has long been difficult. Not going to get a lot of support from gamers there. The "I want to play games on my linux box" crowd is a lot bigger than the "I want to use linux on my gaming box" crowd.

Indeed. Why install something that will only cause problems?

However, for those who are willing to accept the problems to try something different, it's surprisingly un-bad. Majority of Steam stuff does work, via their fork of Wine; if it's not officially compatible, you can enable it anyway.

I moved my parents from win xp to ubuntu years ago... If I told them it was a new windows version, they'd belive me. Browser works, mail works, youtube works,... and they don't care about the rest.

WSL was a clear push to get developers to use Windows by giving them the best of both worlds. Similarly virtual desktops and snap layouts supposedly got a whole lot better with Windows 11, and those are clearly power user features. So some teams at Microsoft clearly care.

As usual Microsoft doesn't show a clear direction, unless that direction is infighting.

There is also powertoys

I never expected Microsoft to put ads in their products, let alone such a productivity-oriented tool.

For me, MSFT was the last standing giant that was not going to do it. And yet...

I guess I was too naive :(

I pretty much grew up on Windows. I don't hate it or MS, but over time it was clear, their interests and mine were diverging.

Yes. It feels unprofessional.

> Ads in the tools that I use for my work are unacceptable.

why you working with the home edition then?

I'm not. I wasn't waiting around to see how far they will push it.

Why are you assuming that they're using the home edition?

That and Linux gaming

Indeed. Now, I'm trying to get the gamers that I know to switch.

Good luck if they happen to use VR at all. Even Valve isn't doing a great job there.

True, it's an uphill battle, particularly with any kind of specialized HW, but I'm all in now.

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