Kernel level anticheat for a few games is the only real speedbump I’m aware of, and it’s only on a couple of game franchises like CoD I think. I would love it a ton of people made the switch and it hurt those games’ companies revenue noticeably enough that they look for a way to moderate cheating without just lazily requiring Windows in order to play online.

Linux is finally convenient enough to realistically steal swaths of customers from Microsoft, and it’s at the same time that Windows 11 is pissing a ton of people off. We’re in for some strange times.

I wish this was true…

…but there’s still a few technical issues that keep things from running smooth.

Also, VR.

We’re not paying for the updates, though. I don’t recall paying Microsoft for anything in ages, and I have a legit copy of windows 10 installed.

To most people, now that windows is mostly stable, there’s no draw to upgrade when a new major version comes out. Why volunteer for new os growing pains when the last Gen works great? Even more so if you have to buy another license.

I have never, not once in my life, clicked on an internet or electronic ad. Even for things I’m ostensibly interested in. Jury’s out on just how much manically SEO optimized retail web sites on Google count as “ads,” I guess. But other than that: Zilch.

But someone somewhere must be clicking on them because billions of dollars are spent every year pushing the fucking things.

Go into app or play store and sort by most downloaded. They’re pretty exclusively a list of games and apps that you find advertised.

I’m my circle, people are seeming to become more willing to admit they got something from an ad. I feel like there used to be shame behind it

The most frequent lately has been women buying their clothes from Instagram ads. The argument they have made is that they see SO MANY ads, the one they choose to spend money on was because they wanted it and that apparently is a solid vetting process. But this is people in my sphere, I dunno if it’s a thing.

I used a Google TV stick and for sick of the bullshit ads and switched to a simple launcher. In reddit and lemmy threads, there are always highly up voted people who are happy to get “popular recommendations”.

The generality, I feel like, is people are busy living their lives, don’t want to research and learn about everything in their life, and just go with what they see.

I right click them and then in the drop down menu that appears I click “block element…”

I’ve never clicked an ad on purpose. I use DNS to block all the common click thru domains for ads.

This move by Microsoft will undoubtedly result in more Windows PCs infected by malware as people find tools to remove the ads and some of those tools will turn out to be malware.

I have on search results, but it was for something that I was already looking for. The ad had the same link to the web page as the result below. 🤷‍♂️

noone ever does – Microsoft, Google and Facebook must be faking their reports on how effective their advertisement platforms are in order to boost their sales. the sales of ads, not the advertised products

Not once. I did willingly click on a sponsor link from a YT video once tho, it was for a rice cooker. I ended up getting a different one, but still.

Risk toying in the registry to kill it, of course 🏴‍☠️

PC Master Race is fitting.

Cheap chinese All android phone

This actually touches on a major issue with digital content and software as a service compared to the old models, that people don’t seem to quite grasp.

It used to be you’d walk into a store, buy a thing, and leave. Businesses could only sell to you while you’re in the store. There was a clear delineation.

What we’ve seen over the last couple decades is the increasing invasion of the store into your home. These businesses don’t want you to ever leave the store. You are meant to be living in it, at all times. There can never be any true escape unless you disconnect from the internet and disengage with modern technology.

This isn’t an ad, it’s a suggested result from one of our partners

How sure?

For how long?

With Windows 10, you had much more control over the start menu. Windows 11 is further eroding control. That’s why they absolutely refuse to allow you to disable the Recommended section.

The ability to disable it is present in the OS, but it’s restricted to Enterprise versions. Disabling an unneeded and annoying UI element is a Premium feature now. And as everyone said when they made that clear a few months ago, “that’s where the ads will go”.

They’ll probably let you disable them, at least for now. But the fact you can’t disable the place for the ads is telling. We’ll see how they feel about letting you disable those ads in a few years.