Interesting Commentary On Microsoft Windows' Rise- And Fall

[cooljethro]

I used Microsoft Office 2000 all the way to Windows 10. Not sure if it would run under Wine 11.0 in Linux, though I have no need to even consider trying, given I have Libre Office with Linux Mint 22.3.

An excellent replacement that not only operates similarly to MS Office, but so far interacts seamlessly with Microsoft file formats.

I think one of the main reasons people update their MS Office package is because old EOL software can cause extra security vulnerabilities, supposedly, anyway.

 

[Judge]

I think one of the main reasons people update their MS Office package is because old EOL software can cause extra security vulnerabilities, supposedly, anyway.

Another reason to dump MS and migrate to Linux. When one may quickly appreciate Libre Office in both familiarity and within Linux enhanced security.

 

[Dagan]

If you have outlook, I do think you can use office products when logged in there. It's been a while. I'll have to see if it's still true.

 

[Judge]

Very interesting...and the math seems to back this up:

 

[Judge]

An interesting chronological, yet succinct account for the demise of Microsoft Windows 11 :

And perhaps most of that Microsoft wants to have total control over its future users. No matter what kind of mess their operating system becomes. A new and frankly unique form of oppression.

 

[Outdated]

Governments Around the World Are Switching to Linux

 

[Shamar]

An interesting chronological, yet succinct account for the demise of Microsoft Windows 11 :

And perhaps most of that Microsoft wants to have total control over its future users. No matter what kind of mess their operating system becomes. A new and frankly unique form of oppression.

I am staying with windows 10 until I get Ubuntu fully installed and working properly. I refuse to install Windows 11, partly because it won't install into my not very old computer, but mainly because I consider myself a customer, and I refuse to be a resource.

 

[Judge]

Analyzing where Microsoft wants to take the future of computing....disturbing by this uptake:

 

[Crabcore]

Analyzing where Microsoft wants to take the future of computing

I might sound like a broken record (I likely said this before so I apologize if so!), but I think it's becoming pretty obvious that we hit relative peak-computing years ago, and trying to capitalize and profit further from something that pretty much does whatever humans could ever need requires either extreme creativity or, in our current paradigm, that new 'e' (ending in 'ification') word we've all started using to describe it.

In either case, always having to push out a new 'product' can really interfere with productivity, like it is now.

Even in terms of gaming, we hit our peak such a long time ago that AAA games have sort of become a long-running joke among people who have been on the planet for long enough to know. The gains that we've even made in the past 15 years for any of it really feels more like a step backward than anything (more like a loss, really), because every new system / engine is built on another system (for 'ease of use') to the point that optimization becomes a thing of the past and everything requires more computing power, which would've never been that big of a deal if we didn't stray so far from the design of the hardware in the first place.

It's funny, too; there are even some (if not many) DOS games that are totally playable. People still play board games, too, so I don't know what the obsession with 'better graphics' (the previous driver of upgrades prior to AI) ever was. But maybe the shifting perspective is what made AI the necessary replacement for "everyone upgrade again, go!".

It might just be that all of the cool stuff out there has already happened. I'm starting to believe that's possible.

 

[Crabcore]

Governments Around the World Are Switching to Linux

I wonder if this will give at least some of the main distros a little bit of a 'boost' in the hardware compatibility department. I really think it only takes a subtle shift to get things to where the average person can get on board.

Of course, Linux is probably best for the fact that it's only designed for like 4% of users, so in an attempt to not sound like a gatekeeping turd, I really do wonder what kinds of BS we're going to have to deal with when it just becomes the mainstream. I love including others, but once everyone gets involved, it tends to turn into the same thing we're seeing right now - pressured upgrades, monthly payments, feature creep, bloat, etc.

Maybe some of those driver bugs are just a test, to see how dedicated we are to the cause - intentional or not

 

[Judge]

More information reflecting that some laptop manufacturers are going to begin offering most of their products with a Linux distribution rather than Microsoft Windows.

I first saw this story a few weeks ago about Lenovo, who allegedly was intending to market 60% of their laptops with Linux (Ubuntu LTS/Fedora) as the default OS, and that customers would have to actually formally request Windows if they wanted it.

In the last couple of days I have also read that Dell, HP and Asus may also be following Lenovo's lead, reflecting that not only businesses and consumers are rejecting Microsoft, but now retailers as well.

Mentioned it to @Outdated earlier and we were both somewhat unsure if this was a real story or not. But it just kept growing, and this latest presentation is much more specific than others I have read so far.

If retailers truly follow through with this, it may be a turning point for we computer users.

I also saw an interesting presentation on a Cosmic version of Fedora . Not surprising, it looked like a clone of Pop!OS24.01. Also saw an interesting video on the latest version of Ubuntu 26.04 LTS.

 

[Misery]

so I don't know what the obsession with 'better graphics' (the previous driver of upgrades prior to AI) ever was.

Dumb ape grabs shiny trinket, basically. Which sounds ridiculous, but that's basically what it always has been.

I mean, it's not like the games themselves got better (mainstream ones anyway), not really. I daresay they got worse. Microtransactions and like... fractal bugs (bugs within bugs within bugs) and publishers that only make games in 2 genres because spending 5 quintillion dollars on a single game is a tad risky.

Keeping people interested in that, to please shareholders (because once you've gone big budget, you're essentially not allowed to go back) meant more and more tricks for more and more shiny. So many people would buy a game not because of any actual footage, but because of a shiny trailer.

What really gets me though is that, even when it came to EXTREME GRAFIX, you never ACTUALLY needed the kind of power that manufacturers wanted to sell you. If I ONLY played games on this machine of mine, I'd be using like... what, 10% of what it can do? Even if I played the big AAA games only.

I mean, a mere console can handle the biggest games at this point.

The other thing that I notice though is that when it comes to consoles, they seem to be having more trouble pushing them. Like the Switch 2, people didnt leap on it like with previous consoles. Heck, I cant even tell the difference (needless to say, I didnt buy one)

It's been interesting to watch how people are reacting to other types of games recently. I remember when Vampire Survivors came out not too long ago, there was endless repetition of "I had no idea these games could be this fun". It wasnt the only one. Suddenly, power became less important for a lot of players.

Of course, the big thing that remained constant was Windows itself. Still need that for most things. So that's annoying.

 

[Crabcore]

The other thing that I notice though is that when it comes to consoles, they seem to be having more trouble pushing them. Like the Switch 2, people didnt leap on it like with previous consoles. Heck, I cant even tell the difference (needless to say, I didnt buy one)

What's crazy about the Switch (even though the specs aren't all that great on paper) is that it already sort of has a huge indie collection from what appears to be the 'golden age' of indie gamedev. In order to get me excited about the Switch 2, you'd almost have to reinvent an era where indie games entered the spotlight and stole my heart, so it's sort of hard to move onto 'the next big thing' after that, too. I still haven't beaten over half of them.

The Steam Deck might end up being even more timeless, provided it continues to play a large portion of the library. Until someone buys out Steam and makes us pay extra for download credits on things we already own .

I also remember reading somewhere that millennials still continue to be the majority when it comes to gaming, so it might just be that the excitement isn't really universal. Maybe I'm one of the few people who wants another really cool indie revolution where we don't just make 1,000 Stardew clones. I think we've gone into recursive development now, sort of like those recursive bugs you were mentioning!

 

[Shamar]

Dumb ape grabs shiny trinket, basically. Which sounds ridiculous, but that's basically what it always has been.

I mean, it's not like the games themselves got better (mainstream ones anyway), not really. I daresay they got worse. Microtransactions and like... fractal bugs (bugs within bugs within bugs) and publishers that only make games in 2 genres because spending 5 quintillion dollars on a single game is a tad risky.

Keeping people interested in that, to please shareholders (because once you've gone big budget, you're essentially not allowed to go back) meant more and more tricks for more and more shiny. So many people would buy a game not because of any actual footage, but because of a shiny trailer.

What really gets me though is that, even when it came to EXTREME GRAFIX, you never ACTUALLY needed the kind of power that manufacturers wanted to sell you. If I ONLY played games on this machine of mine, I'd be using like... what, 10% of what it can do? Even if I played the big AAA games only.

I mean, a mere console can handle the biggest games at this point.

The other thing that I notice though is that when it comes to consoles, they seem to be having more trouble pushing them. Like the Switch 2, people didnt leap on it like with previous consoles. Heck, I cant even tell the difference (needless to say, I didnt buy one)

It's been interesting to watch how people are reacting to other types of games recently. I remember when Vampire Survivors came out not too long ago, there was endless repetition of "I had no idea these games could be this fun". It wasnt the only one. Suddenly, power became less important for a lot of players.

Of course, the big thing that remained constant was Windows itself. Still need that for most things. So that's annoying.

Yes, as graphics improved, games got more and more realistic and gritty, and suddenly, they were no longer entertaining or FUN. Yet, so many gamers grew up with this they think this is the way it is supposed to be. Bring back games that are entertaining and fun.

About the only game I play any more is Minecraft. I think I may have more games for my old Commodore 64 than for modern PC.

 

[Outdated]

.... you'd almost have to reinvent an era where indie games entered the spotlight and stole my heart....

For a trip down Nostalgia Lane:

My Abandonware - Download Old Video Games

 

[Misery]

Yes, as graphics improved, games got more and more realistic and gritty, and suddenly, they were no longer entertaining or FUN. Yet, so many gamers grew up with this they think this is the way it is supposed to be. Bring back games that are entertaining and fun.

About the only game I play any more is Minecraft. I think I may have more games for my old Commodore 64 than for modern PC.

I think this is another idea that tends to draw a lot of people towards buying more and more upgrades, is the idea that those sorts of games are the only ones.

I dont like any of that gritty realism either. I mean, if I want something to look super realistic... I'll just go for a drive or something. Look, realism, all over the place, how pretty. But I never found that it added much to games other than a selling point or an excuse to get the next graphics card (that the game in question does not, actually, need at all). It also adds to the sunk cost fallacy, but that's a whole other topic.

The thing that I always wish I could get more people to do is to step outside of their comfort zones and such. But also, to put in the effort to browse. I think Minecraft in particular shows that a game doesnt have to be a typical AAA blockbuster with hyper-graphics to be awesome, but the real reason why many people find it as the exception is because, like AAA games, it comes screaming at you. You cant not notice that it's there. But for the vast majority of games, this is not true. AAA games make up only a tiny percentage of what's out there (and I mean in terms of modern games, not retro). Seriously, a TINY percentage. Darn near microscopic. But all of those other games require that someone go and actually browse around on their own. Like how we used to do, way back when. You had to go to the store and even if you knew that a particular big game (maybe Zelda, or Mario, or whatever) existed, you still had to roam the shelves. We tended to have bigger collections of games back then, because we were sorta forced to look at other ones. Sometimes you went to the store not having a clue what was out at all, because the internet wasnt there.

Generally as a rule, I really dont like most AAA games. I dont like the FPS genre whatsoever, and playing a game that follows the Ubisoft Formula (open world, stupid towers, 5 million icons on an unnecessarily large world map, more stupid towers) sounds like a form of overpriced torture to me. I like shmups, I like platformers, I like retro-inspired games, I like strategy games (turn-based, mostly), and so on. And anything roguelike-ish. A lot of genres that are supposedly dead, if you listen to anyone who only plays mainstream games. But no, all of these have been thriving for quite awhile. Game creation tools have gotten so usable that a game could be made by just ONE person and be amazing, you dont *need* a big team anymore. Even I have game-dev experience (as part of a team of... 10, I think). One full game, some number of expansions, I dont know why I cant remember the bloody number.

Minecraft is a GREAT example of the type of creativity and quality that can come out of something made by someone who is outside of the big publisher landscape (and I dont just mean modern Minecraft, it was just as great in its early versions too; I got started right before they invented chickens). But finding more like that means getting out of the comfort zone.

The nice part is, as a side effect, you find stuff that does not cost 5 bazillion dollars to buy. I personally consider $30 to be expensive, due to the price range I've gotten used to. If something costs $30 at base price, holy heck, it better be AMAZING. That's pretty rare though, with the stuff I play. Most tend to cost about 10 to 15. Though a Steam sale can take something that costs 30 and drop it down to like, I dunno, 5.

But yeah, I do think people get stuck in that comfortable loop, even if that loop then ends up with them spending silly amounts of money on all this bloated hardware and games that cost like $70 yet are so buggy they barely work right out of the gate.


Though I also do agree that retro games are good too. Recently I finally got the PS2 emulator to work correctly. Havent been able to play those in who knows how long. And I've got stuff like the whole NES/SNES library and who knows how much stuff in the MAME archive. Takes up so much space though.