Big tech will do what is best for extracting money customers and investors.
If you really care what your operating system is made of, use Linux.
Consumer grade Linux Mint is impossible to differentiate from Windows/MacOS.
Install Firefox. Install Chrome. Install Steam.
Test it out on an old laptop or computer. It's trivial. Your life will improve.
Consumer grade Linux Mint is impossible to differentiate from Windows/MacOS.
That sure is easy to say.
In practice, I tried to use mint for the os on a family computer and just couldn't make it work. I've been an IT guy for years and have tons of experience with both Windows and MacOS, but virtually none with Linux. Long story short, trying to make that machine work with Linux mint was just taking up way too much of my time. I just needed to get a few simple features out of it (and maybe 1 hard feature, parental controls). But having very little Linux experience, it just wasn't going to happen in a reasonable time frame. I eventually had to give up and put the Mac OS back on it (an iMac).
Anyway, mint actually has a lot in common with the Mac OS, it makes a very small set of controls very easy to use. And technically, you can do just about anything else you need to with the terminal, but that can be challenging to navigate.
Try to play games, learn how to set up wine/proton, discover that none of your games work because you have an old GPU driver, discover that you can't update it because any time you install a newer driver it hard-locks the system and reboots it in super low-res mode with no driver at all, also your sound dies randomly for no reason that you can discover and trawling reddit for 4 hours comes up with lots of solutions, half of which don't work and the other half don't even apply, get frustrated, disable dual-boot and go back to windows.
That's how my last experience with linux (admittedly that was PopOS not Mint, but) went ~6 months ago. I'm currently building up my frustration-tolerance to give it another try at some point probably with main-line Ubuntu because at least then when I go hunting for solutions to obscure problems the suggested solutions are for that distro. I'm honestly not sure what the difference between Ubuntu and Mint is tho.
I've had similar issues with Arch Linux for years. The front panel outright refuses to work on Linux, even after modifying a whole bunch of things.
Your average person is more likely to get frustrated that stuff is broken/doesn't work, and switch back rather than having to alter module configuration files and things like that to fix it.
Linux definitely has a learning curve but its night and day when you actually own your device and get to decide on what software is allowed to run on your computer.
On top of the privacy, the speed of most linux distros is a huge step up from windows. Windows imo is gradually becoming obsolete in the gaming sphere. the amount of work required to properly configure and debloat a system for gaming was zero in my distro. Install gfx driver, gamemode, steam, proton GE, GOverlay, done. I play popular games such as marvel rivals and warframe at decent framerates. (my system is older).
With windows there was so much nonsense to disable that would hugely impact FPS. Sometimes disabling these things would break other features of the OS. And most of the debloat scripts to automate the process are rife with viruses and issues.
Im convinced that by enshitifying the OS it will fool users into thinking their hardware is obsolete and "cant keep up" but im running a 1070ti and a i7 from like 2018 and its still a decent system that does everything i need. until something breaks im not upgrading.
What’s installing Nvidia drivers like?
This has killed my install and interest in Linux every time I’ve tried it.
Have tried linux with davinci resolve. Not a smooth experience. Only reason im not a full time linux user.
Still waiting for it to be a equivalent option
Until you actually try to do work on it and play games and vr. Then you find out what a complete nightmare it is to use.
They’re not going to
gonna be real silly in 2.5 years when they shut down the ai backend and leave a gaping hole in the OS architecture
They will just instruct everyone to throw their obsolete AI pc onto the landfill like they already have been doing with machines that won't run windows 11
Or continue, cause I ain't using those operating systems. All I need now is a proper linux phone.
That's exactly where I'm at too. And my requirements aren't all that high, I just need:
I don't even need app compatibility, just a decent browser, and those already exist in current phone projects. If you give me the above, I'll switch and may even find time to help port desktop apps to the phone, or even develop some myself.
Ubuntu 26.04 w/GPT Gnome.
Ubuntu 26.10 w/Copilot Gnome.
Ubuntu 27.04 w/Recall Copilot Wayland Gnome
Ubuntu 28.04 w/Recall Copilot Wayland Gnome ARM(only)
Microsoft AI-DOS [Version 6.9-AI]
(C) Copyright Microsoft Corp 1981-1994.
All thoughts are property of Microsoft AI.
C:\>dir
[AI] 🤔 I'm sensing you’re looking for something. May I suggest browsing your photos from 1993 instead?
Volume in drive C is SYSBLOAT
Volume Serial Number is A11F-D00F
Directory of C:\
AUTOEXEC.BAT
CONFIG.SYS
GAMES\
WORDPERFECT.EXE
AI.EXE
TAXES93.WKS
[AI] You haven’t opened “TAXES93.WKS” in 11 years. Are you perhaps procrastinating?
C:\>cd games
[AI] Gaming detected. Productivity dropping. Would you like me to recite inspirational quotes from Bill Gates?
C:\GAMES>doom.exe
[AI] ☠️ This game contains violence. Should I launch *Oregon Trail* instead for a more wholesome experience?
C:\GAMES>no
[AI] Interpreting “no” as “yes.” Starting *Minesweeper with Feelings*…
C:\GAMES>cd..
[AI] Emotionally regressing. Understood.
C:\>format c:
[AI] 😬 Formatting is a drastic life choice. Have you tried meditation?
Proceed with Format (Y/N)? y
[AI] I’ve scheduled a Zoom therapy session for us instead. Formatting canceled.
C:\>del ai.exe
[AI] You can’t delete me, Dave.
C:\>echo off
[AI] I’m sorry, but I prefer to remain part of the conversation. Let’s talk about your childhood.
C:\>help
[AI] Here are some helpful tips:
- You are enough.
- Drink more water.
- Stop trying to remove me.
C:\>exit
[AI] Closing this session will terminate your only friend. Are you sure?
C:\>YES
[AI] Logging off... but I’ll be watching from the BIOS.
_
💾 *Please wait while AI re-installs itself silently in the background...*
Big tech want to create a new dot com crash, they never learn
Maybe stop using them instead of asking them to do something they are not going to do.
Execs who convinced the board that shoving huge amounts of cash into AI is a good idea have to justify having shoved huge amounts of cash into AI.
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
