I realize ranting about how Windows sucks now and Linux is great is hardly original, but this Windows 11 AI push has me thinking about it again, and I'm bored waiting for food to finish cooking. Sorry to those that are bored with these.
Compare what Windows 11 will be with this Recall AI implemented, and what Windows 7 was. It's not even remotely the same thing anymore, and I really liked Windows 7 a lot. Windows 8.1 was good, but only after you fixed it. Windows 10 basically behaved like spyware in my opinion, but at the very least the Enterprise LTSC version allowed you to install a relatively lean build, had no bloat, and the privacy settings were so much more lenient, and were what should have been in the regular consumer builds. I used that version because of the typical "but my games" excuse, which I would argue was true at the time, and I needed Mixcraft Pro with all the plugins for my music composition, which did not work on Linux at all.
Now things have changed. My entire PC game collection works on Linux now, some requiring a little bit of brain work to get working, and while not all those plugins work, Mixcraft Pro Studio does work on Linux, some of those plugins in question work, and I've found suitable substitutes that respect free and open source operating systems, so now there are no Windows computers in my house anymore. When I hear more and more about how Windows 11 behaves like spyware that the user has so little control over, it just sounds like such a horrible experience. Even the consumer builds of Windows 10 I call barely usable, but Windows 11, to me, is a complete abomination that you would have to do such a ridiculous amount of "fixing" to get something that I would personally call usable. But all that time spent fixing an operating system that is likely to reverse a lot of your customizations via Windows Updates upon reboot anyways, one could spend learning the basics on using a Linux distro.
I do not believe the "my games" reason for using Windows is valid anymore, and it's still the one I see the most. While Wine and Lutris alone make 99% of my collection working, Valve's Proton, and the customized Proton GE, make things dead easy if you are willing to use Steam, which I'm guessing most people are. I personally think it's a better use of time to try and learn Linux than it is to try and "fix" Windows after this bullshit goes public, not to mention all the other shit that requires fixing.
I have to act as tech support for some, and I realize at some point their Windows 10 computers will need to either be updated or moved to something else. I really do not want to subject technical novices I care about to something I would never be comfortable having on even my own machines, but we'll see what happens when that time comes.
This Recall AI shit is just horrible, and I cannot imagine using this OS ever again. Even if the LTSC Enterprise build manages to elude this garbage, this is the direction MS is going, so how long would that build be safe? I don't want to waste time finding out.
. Having normal people using the equivalent of root as there main account is a recipe for disaster. UAC may have been a good first step, but these admin accounts should have been fully neutered by now. Linux users know they shouldn't be running their normal user as root, and they same wisdom can be used with Windows by not using an admin account. I'm sure Microsoft is going to be jealous of Google and Apple who have operating systems with actually have sufficient security to pull something like Recall off.
