If you have been reading the news about Windows 11 then I will enlighten you -- they view the Windows 11 consumer business as a cost center that must be mitigated.

As such, all manner of monetization has been approved and it will continued to be approved without regard for user experience.

This article obviates that this is not an LG problem, it is a Microsoft problem.

Also, don't fool yourself if you think this won't come to the Linux world.

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Grombobulous 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Just look at Microsoft’s revenue breakdown that they publish. Windows revenue is alarmingly small.

I don’t think it’s a loss leader but Microsoft gets almost nothing from OEM Windows licenses and basically nobody buys it retail.

This is not coming to the Linux world. The moment this sort of thing happens, distros get forked.

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mrob 4 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

>This is not coming to the Linux world. The moment this sort of thing happens, distros get forked.

I installed Debian 13 recently. The first time I opened Firefox ESR (installed by default), I got something that looked like adverts on the home page (banner blindness means I have no memory of what they actually were, only of the feeling of disgust). The Home section of the Settings page had options for "Sponsored shortcuts" and "Sponsored stories" enabled by default. Changing a default setting is a lot easier than forking software, yet it was not done.

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geon 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Aren’t ms completely dependent on consumer windows for mindshare?

I doubt anyone would bother getting into programming with ms tech unless they just happened to run it on their desktop.

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ufmace 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I don't think they are anymore. The vast majority of ordinary person computer/internet use has already moved to smartphones, tablets, smart TVs and other such devices. It seems nowadays many people don't even know the basics about how to use a desktop operating system.

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Aerroon an hour ago | parent | next [-]

I find this hard to believe considering how bad the UIs are on phones and TVs. Even google.com does not offer feature parity between their desktop and mobile websites.

My phone still didn't come with a functional paint or notepad apps. Google docs is a horrible experience on phones (but at least it works now - a few years ago it was straight up unusable).

And you're telling me that this is the only computing platform for a lot of people? How is everything still so unusable about it then?

My experience tells me that everything mobile is basically an afterthought outside of a few dozen websites and I guess phone games.

	▲	picofarad 38 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		My phone still doesn't have a calculator app. The thought of trying to add one that isnt wolfram alpha is anxiety-producing.

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smelendez 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Right. Laptops are basically work (or school) tools now for a lot of people. They might have one tucked away that they pull out now and then when they need it, similar to a power drill or a sewing machine. It’s not a daily use device.

I think it helped Microsoft historically that people used their operating systems at home, although even then a lot of people would have learned Windows at work or school first.

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2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

[deleted]

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eastbound 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

MS owns Typescript and NPM and Azure and LinkedIn. I know you meant programming on Windows, but even if Windows disappears, many of us will owe our job to Microsoft.

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VorpalWay 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Dont forget they own github too. The vast majority of open source software is on there these days.

Yes there are other options: gitlab.com, some project specific gitlab instances (freedesktop for example), forejo / codeberg, and the Linux kernel is off doing it's own thing with mailing lists instead. I even come across code on SourceForge every now and then still. But all of these are super niche.

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solarkraft 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

They own Typescript? I wasn’t aware that they control the organization, but that ought to be easy enough to fork. NPM is a bigger one, but also not too huge. Azure is only used by people who already have Microsoft/Windows buy-in.

	▲	chuckadams an hour ago \| parent [-]
		They created TypeScript, and maintain it now. It's not exactly a business for them, no one is buying "TypeScript Enterprise" subscriptions. It's all under the Apache License 2.0 and certainly big enough that if they started pulling anything untoward, it would see a fork. Sometimes Microsoft produces an unalloyed good, they're not a monolith.

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SinkingRock 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

And VS Code, and Github...

	▲	tosti 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Soooo... Not anything we couldn't miss.

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necovek 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

As long as you have a computer that can run unsigned software, or software signed by yourself, this won't come to Linux as non-optional features: you can always recompile your kernel removing things you do not want like this.

	▲	tosti 2 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		And before anyone goes "but I can't patch that!", all it takes is one clever guy to write the patch. This is also why the bazaar model of Linux distributions is beneficial. You get more choice.
	▲	numpad0 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Ubuntu snap

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kstrauser an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-]

It hasn’t come for the much larger Mac world yet.

I think literally the only driver I’ve installed for any accessory of any kind is the config utility for a Stream Deck. I certainly never install mouse (thank you Steermouse!) or printer drivers, let alone a monitor driver of all things.

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treyd 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

> don't fool yourself if you think this won't come to the Linux world.

I'm curious what you mean by this. I'm not necessarily rejecting the point, but I also don't see how this could happen without substantial shifts in the industry first.

	▲	evilduck an hour ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, curious here too. Torvalds would need to pass first I think, and I just don't see other major players like RedHat, Google, Canonical, or Valve introducing this themselves or agreeing to do it in aggregate. And as end users we could still fork and patch it out. Some shitty company might try but I don't think it would stand.