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MajorHavoc , (edited )

I've held off on saying it until now (I haven't), but now I'm going to call it (again):

This is the year of the Linux Desktop.

(It feels like someone influential at Microsoft is trying to protect my reputation and force my prediction to come true.)

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

I finally switched my gaming rig two weeks ago. Been great so far, except VR and I'll admit, the Xbox Game Pass missing...I wish gog or someone would come up with something like it, because there have been a lot of games I started and didn't finish because they just haven't been my cup of tea...

Now if Autodesk would get their shit together as well, things could be happening at work as well.

kurodriel ,

I think subscription would go against gog and its DRM policy (how would they enforce a subscription period without DRM), specially because gog is like the last place where we can have something that resembles owning a game nowadays.

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

That's why I said "someone" and "something", because I'll be the first to admit I have absolutely no clue on how that would look like. Humble Bundle Choice is something I do like, but it's steam only...while that's cool in terms of proton, steam deck and so on, Steam is still a service that has to work, because without I can't use the products. With gog I can just save those files and use them whenever and wherever I need to...
Windows, Linux...doesn't matter much.

A_Random_Idiot ,
@A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world avatar

i had gamepass working via browser on my computer.

my controller, on the other hand, never worked in the browser, so it kinda made it pointless thatn gamepass worked

nexusband ,
@nexusband@lemmy.world avatar

Different Game Pass - talking about the one where you run the games locally...

Juice88 ,
@Juice88@lemmy.world avatar

I setup my ROG Ally to dual boot Linux about a week ago and have had plugged into a monitor and I have not had any issues using it in desktop mode. If not for Easy Anti-cheat I’d being a thing I wouldn’t have much reason to keep windows on my main pc.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

If not for Easy Anti-cheat

Linux, through Steam, has EAC.

Just search the Steam store (it's free).

A_Random_Idiot ,
@A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world avatar

Still depends on the specific game dev enabling the linux support option, which many seem to not want to do.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

Aware, but it's worked for the games that's required it so far for me. Worth a try.

orphiebaby ,

What does that mean. What does "the year of the Linux desktop" mean, really? And why is it different than last year?

MajorHavoc ,

It means that this year, Linux on desktop will make big strides (again)!

And why is it different than last year?

When I declared it last year, I was a year early, because this year will be bigger.

ABCDE ,

When will VR be a thing in Linux?

BreakDecks ,

The Quest is Android based, which is Linux based, so kinda if you're cool with two layers of megacorp between you and the kernel.

dubyakay ,

When Valve decides to.

n3m37h ,

Windows key + L

Try and put an as on my keyboard ya stupid fucks

capital ,

That’s lock, not sign out.

But a little autohotkey could probably take care of this for you.

psud ,

Alt+F4

Voytrekk ,
@Voytrekk@lemmy.world avatar

That's the lock screen combo, not sign out. To quickly sign out: win+x, u, i. i can be replaced with u for shutdown or r for restart.

catloaf ,

Win+R, logoff, enter.

That's what I do every time, because I'm often working on a remote system and don't want to mis-click and shut it down.

vext01 ,
@vext01@lemmy.sdf.org avatar

Careful what you wish for...

Typo and all...

n3m37h ,

Yeah auto "correct" is the bane of my existence.

Its been years since Ive seen ads on my PC, the first windows ad I see I'm installing Linux

letsgo ,

Win+D, Alt-F4.

TimeSquirrel ,
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

This is what happens when they know you won't leave.

"But muh games...and Linux is too difficult and weird"

I say to those: well then you've made your choice, didn't you? It's going to keep happening, like it's been since the 90s.

Prethoryn ,
@Prethoryn@lemmy.world avatar

Why is the target of your comment towards people that use Windows?

I am not sure why People on Lemmy feel like if they point something out to people who can't see the comment is going to get them to change their mind.

I have and use both Linux and Windows. I prefer both for different reasons.

TimeSquirrel ,
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

I know I'm talking into the void. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind. I'm too tired of trying to do that. Just trying to get people to realize they made the choices they have to live with.

Reptorian ,

What about people who needs NURBS tools and Affinity/Adobe class art softwares? Where do they go that corporations decided Windows and Mac are only to be supported? And believe me, plenty of them hates Windoze and I'm one of them.

LodeMike ,

Dual boot if you're up for it.

foo ,

Dual booting kinda sucks. It fragments your workflow and it is pretty disruptive compared to just being able to move to whatever you need to move to.

acockworkorange ,

Run windows on a VM.

foo ,

That's better but assuming they have a system that can run windows in a VM at native resolution it's still a broken workflow that won't attract people to Linux.

Look Linux is my daily driver, my entire lab is Linux. We use a combination of Debian, fedora, and rhel. I'm not opposed to using other distros. It's okay for working with my peers who are on windows but not the best. Easy enough to work around.

However if an important part of your workflow requires Windows, Adobe, Autodesk, the murky shit of office products, etc., then arguing for dual booting, using a VM , or a different computer isn't going to win people to Linux. It makes proponents seem silly

Moorshou ,
@Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

Why does it have to be one tool though?
More of a complaint to business in that they don't let you use other tools.

foo ,

Sure and that sucks but that's reality

Reddfugee42 ,

Yep,dual boot.

CosmicCleric ,
@CosmicCleric@lemmy.world avatar

Those will not run under/with emulation?

foo ,

Autodesk seems to be inconsistent with emulation. I can make fusion 360 run but not other tools.

Reptorian ,

My issue is more Rhino and Solidworks. If Blender actually can render NURBS and retesselate from NURBS to polygon, I can pretty much ditch Autodesk Maya as that's the only reason I use Autodesk Maya.

Reptorian ,

Solidworks/Rhino probably can work under VM, but I don't know.

oo1 ,

Develop own software or support indepndent sw development however you can.

If you really need something, think about your personal dependencies and try to build some resilience / backups , one way or another.
Whatever your craft, a pathway towards ownership and control of tools and maintenance should be a traditional part of mastering the craft.
So that you can eventually do things like extend the toolset, or adapt tools to niche circumstances and advance things along.

If you don't have that pathway, then you might end up trapped as an apprentice or journeyperson and will continue to be exploited by those who control the things you depend on.
If there's no freedom and no way to develop competition in the supply chain, then you probably would benefit from - collective organisations such as trades-guilds, or professional associations or trade-unions to counter the power imbalance, and represent your needs - but they can also get captured/bribed so those probably need a bit of effective democracy / transparency/accountability or something. I'm not going to suggest govt regulation, becasuse that's super easy to capture and national-election democracy is a weak control, but you might get some progressive govts like some European ones that'd think about doing something suppoting foss projects, maybe.

It might not be easy, but you have to look for and support those types of features for the good of your industry.
Corps will eat their industry for a quick $, it's the workers, tradespeople and masters of the craft and some small businesses who care about the long term. And maybe any enlightened customers if you're lucky enough to have them.

As an example, for physical 3d cad, personally I don't like freecad much it's complex and not very intuitive; but it lets me do all the maths I want in python, with my own made up data structures / object model. So i'll use and support freecad 100% over all the other more user friendly CAD that i've seen - it really is the freedom, and not being so dependant.

AlexanderESmith ,
@AlexanderESmith@kbin.social avatar

I may be spoiled in that I don't play AAA multiplayer games, but I do play AAA single player and indie single/multiplayer (usually the type where one of the players is also the server, e.g. Terraria).

Been running Linux on my systems for more than a decade, and - especially since Proton/SteamDeck enchantments made their way upstream - I haven't had any major ssues (except having to wait a while to play RDR2-PC in Ubuntu because of a weird game-specific graphics card driver issue, but even that was fixed in due course).

Fuck Windows, and fuck the assertion that it's the only way to run games.

captain_aggravated ,
@captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works avatar

Again it might be that I pretty much don't play competitive online games because if there's anything that ruins gaming it's random strangers, but I have had practically no problem playing games over the last ten years.

A_Random_Idiot ,
@A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world avatar

Proton really did marvelous shit.

Made it so easy that even an idiot (like me) could get games running on linux without much headache. Especially nowadays, even big game titles working almost flawlessly on release day.

_edge ,

Every generation has this moment, where they learn to hate Microsoft (or Micro$oft). Then, 4% install Linux, 6% buy a Mac with half the RAM for twice the price; and everyone else to keeps complaining.

TimeSquirrel ,
@TimeSquirrel@kbin.social avatar

With me it was when they killed off my favorite browser. I'm now using the reanimated bushy red corpse of it.

ManosTheHandsOfFate ,
@ManosTheHandsOfFate@lemmy.world avatar

Netscape?

brbposting ,

What was your favorite browser?

Blue_Morpho ,

MS has done shady things but Netscape's own top employees have written about how Netscape destroyed itself with the version 4 rewrite. Joel Spolsky has also written about how complete rewrites are always a mistake.

Their corporate side failed too. If you weren't fortune 500, Netscape wouldn't talk to you. I was spending $50k a year with Netscape and they wouldn't fix a bug unless I paid for an additional $75k a year support tier. ( The bug was Netscape 4 didn't support dialing with area codes! )

Meanwhile during the late 90's Microsoft devs put their personal emails in the readme.txts and would quickly patch any bugs or add features if you emailed them.

All the small isp's (which were over 50% of the market) gave up on Netscape because of this.

k_rol ,

This is the way

orphiebaby , (edited )

[Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    emergencyfood ,

    Desktop Linux requires buying a USB / DVD, inserting it into your machine, and hitting OK several times. If you can't do that, you also can't install Windows.

    orphiebaby , (edited )

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    emergencyfood ,

    Verification is optional, but recommended. This is true for all OSs. Don't do it if you can't.

    Note that I said to buy a USB or DVD with Linux. Burning your own is easy on Linux, but Windows puts up a lot of roadblocks. (One wonders why.)

    GRUB works fine, but again, you only have to deal with it if you want to dual-boot.

    Some sound cards used to not have first-party Linux drivers, so you'd have to find some third-party workaround. This is the only real problem among the ones you listed, but even this is pretty rare nowadays.

    orphiebaby ,

    That's all fair advice. It doesn't change that installation instructions should have been a lot more thorough.
    Once I get a third (or bigger primary) SSD, I'll dual-boot Mint. I still want to try it. Regardless of my issues with it, I do know Linux is getting better. And we can see how ready I am for it now (and that's partially up to the software).

    emergencyfood ,

    Fair. I guess asking users to verify the ISO is just to avoid lawsuits. Buying USBs is more beginner-friendly than burning your own, but it would be very difficult to maintain an up to date list of sellers. They definitely need to explain GRUB and dual-booting better, as well as make it easier to repair / avoid the Windows overwriting GRUB issue.

    Appoxo ,
    @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Burning an iso with stuff like rufus is so stupid easy it should be illegal.

    Temperche ,

    That was the status quo when I tried Linux ~5 years ago. Nowadays, Linux is much more plug and play (and I'm specifically referring to Pop OS).

    orphiebaby ,

    Cool, but didn't everyone tell me I should use Mint, for a bunch of reasons including "it's arguably the most beginner-friendly"?

    Temperche ,

    From what I read, Mint is better for lower-end PC specs, but otherwise, I'd strongly recommend PopOS.

    orphiebaby ,

    I see. I'll look into it, thanks.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    I feel like you're describing Windows here lol

    Appoxo ,
    @Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

    Windows does manage it quite well with the OOBE to be fully functional with regular hardware. Only special stuff like (d)GPUs and external stuff might require special drivers.
    Basic sound, networking, (multi-monitor) video and peripheral support works very good.

    TheGrandNagus , (edited )

    As does practically every Linux distro. I install it, it just works. Don't even need to hunt for GPU or printer drivers like I do for windows.

    Moorshou ,
    @Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

    Linux mint user here.

    Sound works even better then windows,
    Printers needed terminal work to install, but forums were very helpful.
    https://safereddit.com/r/linux/comments/rpgn28/my_grandma_called_and_thanked_me_for_installing/

    orphiebaby , (edited )

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    Moorshou ,
    @Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

    Thanks for trying linux!

    I don't use pop os or gnome personally and I'm not part of any cult or whatever.

    https://lemmy.zip/pictrs/image/dccb586e-7751-4a8a-bf9e-7427b3b1f6ea.webp
    I found a accessibility setting that changes stuff to be white but I don't think I got what you wanted 🥀

    I know kde plasma has a white general look, and can be themed much more than gnome in pop os seems to be.

    it also has 3 finger click in its setting under the touchpad option

    Also, try Fedora 39 kde spin https://fedoraproject.org/spins/kde/
    I mention this because fedora has the new linux tech in it so your laptop might behave better with this os.

    orphiebaby ,

    Oh, thank god. Plasma looks good for me. Easy to look at and professional. Assuming I understand how it works, which popular distros can use Plasma? Update: After some quick research, I think I want to use Kubuntu? Does that sound like a good idea?

    Moorshou ,
    @Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

    Sounds good to me, never used kubuntu myself though.

    orphiebaby ,

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    Moorshou ,
    @Moorshou@lemmy.zip avatar

    Usually I just go to the appstore on linux mint, kubuntu has a appstore called discover as for setting up a network drive, I have no idea so I asked meta.ai

    Open the File Manager (Dolphin)
Click on Network in the left sidebar
Click on Add Network Folder
Select the type of network share (e.g., SMB/CIFS, NFS, etc.)
Enter the network drive's address (e.g., smb://username@server_ip_address/share_name)
Authenticate with your username and password (if required)
Click Add to mount the network drive

    Honestly, tell me if asking AI helps you at all, because I got no idea if it's hallucinating how it should be done.

    ManniSturgis ,
    @ManniSturgis@lemmy.zip avatar

    My dad is 60 and uses Mint for years now. That enough "grandma" for you?

    Takios ,
    @Takios@discuss.tchncs.de avatar

    Ads have evolved into a cancer that is just growing and growing, making everything around them worse.

    SaltySalamander ,
    @SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

    Ads have always been a cancer.

    rottingleaf ,

    Not exactly. When the webmaster you knew put a banner in the corner of their site with ads from one and the same source, in one and the same place, not popping up and not bothering you, it really felt fine. I even felt the urge to click that and see where it leads.

    Remember also Opera free version with that ad banner.

    richieadler ,

    🤮

    TheGrandNagus , (edited )

    Yeah. I used to run a website back in the very early 2000s that a local bicycle seller/repair shop used to pay me to have a little static banner for. It was just an image, that's it. No tracking, no malware, no silly animations or covering content, etc. It was unobtrusive.

    Did I get a huge amount of money? No. But it paid for maintenance, and a bit to spare. It made me feel like the effort I was putting into the site wasn't wasted. It was relevant to the site content (cycling club in my town) and so was probably an effective advertisement.

    Ads aren't automatically evil, but the way they exist now definitely is. I wouldn't dream of browsing the web without Firefox+Ublock origin.

    The unbridled greed of companies has made me go out of the way to remove them all from my life. If they had been more restrained, I'd have happily accepted some ads as being the price I pay for using the web.

    rottingleaf ,

    The way they exist now is similar to taxi drivers in airports. You simply know that if something is being advertised this way, it's likely not what you need and probably a scam. So anything you don't find intentionally and not via ads becomes useless, so ads become useless.

    31337 ,

    I used adblockers back then too. Else some sites would cause infinite pop-up windows to open (I assume to get pay-per-click revenue). Even plain banners would significantly increase loading times on 56k connections.

    countessssmeltdown ,

    The best part is when spammers and ad generators realized how easy it is to use GPT to automate and increased the number of spam bots and ads.

    Matriks404 ,

    Jesus Fucking Christ. They really want people to switch to Linux, don't they?

    Microsoft should stop trying to become another Apple. This is not going to work.

    originalucifer ,
    @originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

    as soon as they require a microsoft account to use versions of windows, they are apple... minus the mobile, but plus a metric shittone of things apple doesnt.

    not that any of that is good, microsoft should die in a fire.. but theyve spent 20 years building an OS-as-a-service platform and its coming to fruition. they might be slow, but rest assured they will get their captured, vertically integrated audience.

    waz ,

    You don’t need an apple account to use a Mac.
    If you just want to enter a username and set a password, that’s all you need to do. If you want everything synced between another Mac or iPhone and so on, sign into iCloud. But you don’t HAVE to, just skip it.

    puchaczyk ,

    All that AI can't pay for itself, I guess.

    Zier ,
    @Zier@fedia.io avatar

    What I love the most about Windows is just how easy it is to find all the user settings I need to change.
    And I super appreciate how they configure things that work so perfect for me. It's like I never need to make decisions of my own, they can read my mind.
    /S

    originalucifer ,
    @originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

    theyre turning the deskop into a mobile platform which is inherently difficult to mod. this is so they can provide it as a service to any device.

    k_rol ,

    You got me on the first half

    LodeMike ,

    I always laugh when someone says Linux has fragmented settings. Windows has that buddy. the fucking MOUSE SENSITIVITY setting is in a windows 7 UI.

    MudMan , (edited )
    @MudMan@fedia.io avatar

    Wait, so this is not about the power menu, it's about the pop up when clicking on your account picture bubble if you're signed in to a MS account. They aren't adding a step to logging out of your local Windows user, just to logging out of your Microsoft account if you're using that as a login for Windows, OneDrive and Office365.

    The "Lock" button also has a new home—it now sits in the power menu alongside "Shut down," "Restart," and "Sleep" options.

    THAT is where the Lock button was? Not gonna lie, I've been Windows-L-ing so long I didn't even know they had moved that to the account bubble.

    I'll be honest, the article is a bit overdramatic. Yeah, they are surfacing your services there to upsell you on the ones you don't have, but it's actually not a useless piece of info (currently finding your subscriptions is an ordeal) and none of the functionality is gone. It is true that a lot of UX things around Win11 have gotten worse, though. I'm currently using additional software to replace the taskbar (which will do the Start menu, too, if you want) because the inability to move it to the sides is ridiculous on the OS you're most likely to pair with an ultrawide monitor.

    deweydecibel ,

    I'll be honest, the article is a bit overdramatic. Yeah, they are surfacing your services there to upsell you on the ones you don't have, but it's actually not a useless piece of info (currently finding your subscriptions is an ordeal) and none of the functionality is gone.

    Look up "boiling a frog"

    They count on this exact reaction.

    Every time they implement these little bullshit changes, people inevitably go "It's annoying but it's not that big a deal." And then they do more of it a few months later.

    The article isn't being hyperbolic because it's reacting to the overall trend that this is yet another step forward in. Because the writer and everyone here knows it will get worse and worse over time.

    Dark patterns are, by design, slow and incremental so as not to trigger too much pushback at once. People need to start being more aware of it and pushing back on it when they see it.

    And yes, that information is probably useful to some people, but that doesn't in any way justify hiding the options that used to be there.

    elvith ,

    Do you know the term "trust thermocline"?

    Basically it described a problem with the boiling the frog technique. There's a point for every user at which they're fed up with the bullshit, lose all trust in you(r company) and are hard to impossible to get back as a customer. Every customer leaving has a little unnoticeable effect on you, but with time there will be so many people that you lost that all your tactics to lock your users in will fail.

    huginn ,

    Look up "boiling a frog"

    You mean the myth?

    catloaf ,

    It's a metaphor.

    TheGrandNagus ,

    It's a widely-understood phrase/metaphor. Nobody is saying Microsoft literally boils millions of frogs.

    What is it with Redditors/Lemmings taking a turn of phrase, interpreting it extremely literally, and completely missing the point?

    huginn ,

    1. Autism, personally speaking.

    2. I knew it was a metaphor, but it's also a lie and does not actually happen.

    3. That's actually the result of "looking it up", which was the instruction.

    What is it with you that makes you so incapable of reasoning that someone might know what it means and also want to point out that it's bullshit?

    TheGrandNagus ,

    It doesn't matter that interpreted literally, it's not what happens to frogs. That's not the point of the phrase, and certainly not the point the other commenter was making.

    They were trying to talk about Microsoft's business practices, not about what happens if you were to literally start boiling a frog. Yes, we know they aren't fine with it, it's extremely well-known and completely irrelevant.

    oo1 ,

    That's what the win XP search dog was for.
    They'd send it out hunting for frogs so that they can boil them all.

    Bill Gates first programme was a reverse frogger game, he'd get to drive the cars and score get points for squishing frogs.
    I think it was called Grand Theft Amphibian or something. The dude just really hates frogs.

    MudMan ,
    @MudMan@fedia.io avatar

    Yeeeeah, but this isn't a dark pattern, though. That's what I'm saying.

    The article really wants it to be, but... well, it's not. The option to log out remains in the same place as the rest of your account info, and the account info they are surfacing is actually useful and relevant to how much money you're spending. They are making it easier to subscribe, for sure, but also to cancel, which used to be pretty hidden away.

    I get that this fits into a wider pattern for both MS and other major software companies, but if they inch towards the boiled frog at this pace we're probably fine.

    Now, if they ever try (again) to make MS accounts mandatory for Windows or to move Windows to a sub, we can have this conversation. As others said below, when you try to inch people towards dealbreakers you can find yourself losing ground very quickly. Especially if a new comparable alternative surfaces at the same time.

    Diplomjodler3 ,

    Another day, another piece of enshittification by MS, another reason to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Linus Torvalds, if you can spare a few minutes.

    invertedspear ,

    WTF happened to Microsoft? What a fall. Is this a leadership thing?

    richmondez ,

    Turns out you can make more money by reducing usability and user choice in an entrenched product because hardly anyone will baulk and jump ship to a different product.

    Diplomjodler3 ,

    They were always about screwing over consumers to make money. The only thing that changed is that they've become increasingly unsubtle about it.

    rottingleaf ,

    Their way to screw customers with W2K was very persuasive. Such a clean UI, everything looking so relaxed and, eh, not commercialized. That startup sound. Those wallpapers.

    Later I learned that that's also when they released those Unix services for Windows (may have swapped words), with which you really could have something practical with an X server and POSIX-compatible applications and so on.

    And compared to W9x it was very stable.

    theneverfox ,

    I feel like they go through cycles of "hey, we just remembered we have de-facto monopolistic power, what are we doing with that? Let's do stuff with that" And "everyone got mad at us for anticompetitive practices again... Let's lay low and play nice until governments stop threatening to break us up"

    Gullible ,

    In total, I expect this to cost about a minute or two of my life if they never remove the ads. This figure is fairly typical for daily windows users, of which ~400kk are on win11. Microsoft will steal ~1.5*400,000,000 minutes with these ads. Ads that nearly no one will even consider clicking. 600,000,000 minutes=10,000,000 hours=1140 years. Multiple lifetimes in aggregate, all to be thrown away for nothing. I’d like to send a very strongly worded knot tying tutorial to Satya Nadella and Brad Smith.

    hubobes ,

    Now figure out how much that is in lost revenue and write a headline like „Microsoft to lose economy one million gazzillion $“.

    Kelly ,

    lost revenue

    You can be sure this is retail only.

    Enterprise Windows won't have this feature and now appears to have added value for corporate customers.

    ChowJeeBai ,

    That why I pay my gold partner friend for a copy of enterprise he gives to his developers.

    psud ,

    Lots of people will spend a few hours then several tens of minutes monthly or so finding out how and then disabling the ads after each update

    fubo ,

    People pay for this?

    AlexanderESmith ,
    @AlexanderESmith@kbin.social avatar

    Usually they just over-pay for their computer because you can't really buy a system without Windows pre-installed (unless you build it).

    I have so many computers that came with Windows installations that I never even booted into.

    EngineerGaming ,
    @EngineerGaming@feddit.nl avatar

    "Can't really buy a computer without Windows pre-installed"? Weird, that's not my experience. The stores allow filtering by "no OS" and you can see quite a lot of options.

    SaltySalamander ,
    @SaltySalamander@fedia.io avatar

    Which retail store have you ever walked into that had a PC on display with no OS?

    tehbilly ,

    I don't know if the people walking into a brick-and-mortar for a prebuilt PC are making decisions beyond "what's available" and "what's in my budget".

    AlexanderESmith ,
    @AlexanderESmith@kbin.social avatar

    There are absolutely online stores that do that, but they're usually gamer-focused, so there's three issues;

    Note: I'm taking about laptops, because it's all I've bought for the last decade or more;

    • The non-gamer focused stores rarely (if ever) have the option (Lenovo, Dell, Microsoft, etc).
    • The gamer focused stores usually sell hardware that runs Linux like shit because the hardware needs extremely specific drivers (which isn't necessarily an issue for Linux, but if it doesn't exist yet, you're either building them yourself, or waiting for someone else to do so).
      • Note: Most Clevo systems - that are private-labeled by the likes if IBuyPower, OriginPC, etc - run Linux really well. Some of these sellers make custom hardware, or sell other private-label systems, so your milage may vary.
    • The gamer focused stores are usually patroned by people who are all in on Windows gaming, because they don't do much else with the system, so they don't experience the kinds of annoyances that power users would gripe about (which is why the above point doesn't compel those sellers to do anything different).
      • And before someone corrects me: Gamers are not inherently power users, they just have powerful systems. It used to be that powerful systems were only buildable and maintenable by power users, but that hasn't been true for years. If all you do is install and click "play", you aren't a power user.

    As for desktops, I really couldn't say. Haven't been paying attention for years. It's possible that you could buy a system without a hard drive, never mind an OS.

    sag ,
    @sag@lemm.ee avatar

    [Thread, post or comment was deleted by the author]

    •
    whatsgoingdom ,

    It's what Microsoft opted to call their office suite now. So Office365 is now officially Microsoft 365 in an effort to acknowledge that your office work has now completely left their focus and they are only concentrating on themselves

    originalucifer ,
    @originalucifer@moist.catsweat.com avatar

    its 'msoffice as a service'... and it sucks donkey balls. imagine tryin to manipulate a giant dataset in a web version of excel in a browser tab. annoying enough in the binary, impossible in 'office365-excel'

    towerful ,

    I mean, even desktop excel isn't great for that. Doubley so if you have to use dates/times and timezones

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