For some of us sadly proton and Linux still isn’t a viable option for daily gaming on PC. While that means you’re stuck on Windows it doesn’t mean your experience truly has to suck.

I went down the rabbit hole of Windows Debloating and to me the most viable option was Atlas OS. Not technically a new OS but rather an (overall) easy to use tool that will automatically remove and disable windows worst features. This is my honest opinion on it after using for 3 months !

Installation honestly was the worst part of the experience for me. I had additional issues due to technical problems with the motherboard. For most people it won’t be nearly as hard. The problem is many of the steps are decoupled from the Atlas provided software. In other words the process asks you to go to other websites to download other files. If you follow the steps perfectly you shouldn’t have issues. If you do and the errors are unrelated, things may get painful.

The key selling point of Atlas OS is increased performance for gaming. And to be honest this wasn’t a thing for me. My games ran as good and no better. CPU usages were exactly the same. What was better was the Windows experience. No more pop up ads. No more needing to delete 3rd party software I never installed. And best yet no Co-Pilot! It’s unclear to me if these are just disabled or entirely uninstalled. From what I can see most telemetry has been disabled. In short it’s the windows experience I’ve been expecting. Less hiccups and less crashing.

If you look you will find critics who say this takes away control to remove every thing you could want. But personally I can’t think of anything else I would want to remove. Is it still windows ? Well yeah. Is it entirely free of garbage, probably not but it’s sure a lot less noticeable.

For me and I imagine for many Atlas OS might be the “good enough” to keep dealing with Windows. And If you are curious I suggest taking a look. I do hope eventually we do get the full gaming Linux revolution. But for now. Atlas will do.

He had one to many strokes

I hear it’s the first browser in a long while to come with a new engine. Completely independent and no revenue model. To me that would work well for privacy but I see no mention of privacy as any benefit. In fact I don’t see a privacy policy anywhere !

Is a goal of the browser to be telemetry free ? Should I as a person who cares about privacy be showing any interest?

There is no truer adage to me than nothings is perfect. And when it comes to anything related to Discord it’s no different.

Discord itself to me has been an issue for years. Its use of data collection, the obsession of companies trying to buy it all were concerning. For me the latest age verification just further reinforces my beliefs. That being said the majority of users who ignored all this and kept going, really nothing would change. Most people I know use Discord lightly and aren’t in large chats that use hentai gifs. I still would tell anyone who would listen to get out of dodge. But if you never cared about data usage then you’re probably not going to start now.

For all the alternatives out there truth is, none are really anywhere near perfect. Matrix and most of its clients while encrypted don’t offer true jump in /jump out game chat. More a kin to Skype really. Foss Discord implementations like Spacebar are to all over the place and for me are not really functional. Stoat while probably my favorite is still really small and not holding up to the stress of the user influx. And of course it’s missing “discord features” and the new kid Fluxer while appealing is still to new and it’s monetization model a little to concerning. 300 bucks as a backer for unproven project ? And of course with the exception of Matrix none of the other projects currently offer encryption.

Truth is no option really is ideal. Truth is all the options have some pretty serious flaws. And truth is getting your large swaths of friends to move might be close to impossible.

So if you are looking to move please do some digging. Ask people who use the apps their opinions. Try to as a group of friends chose to make a move.

And the final truth is it’s a really good thing we finally have some options. No matter the flaws having competition brings innovation.

I hope this posts helps clear up some things for people who might be confused or concerned.

At points it looks promising. Then I see the AI features and get very hesitant to try it.

He said exactly 1 frank

Curious what everyone here uses for their weather app or website of choice ?