I’ve been dual-booting Linux and Windows for a while, with Windows as the fall-back option in case I wanted to use Office for something. Now that they tried to trick me into paying a subscription for their AI slop machine, I’m finally, fully out. It was a pain to actually track down and back-up the stuff that was held for ransom in OneDrive, but now it is done.

  • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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    4 days ago

    Same, Microsoft is about to force my laptop to update and I am about to own zero devices that run Windows.

    There is no coming back either, which is what makes the schadenfeude of Microsoft (the dog) really actually catching the car this time so funny and satisfying.

    I think it is going to make heads spin how fast the idea that Windows has unassailable hegemony in the desktop space becomes an antiquated idea. There is an asteroid in the sky, and the time of dinosaurs is over.

    All the alarm bells should be going off at Microsoft hq and I know they probably feel like they are sitting pretty and feel nice and future proofed in their business plan, it is amazing and makes my heart sing.

    Sorry not sorry you law breaking, monopoly chasing, morally bankrupt losers. You might be richer than I ever will be, but lets be honest, that is because I have standards about what I am willing to do for money.

    • Reddfugee42@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      They dgaf about us. Their Enterprise clients are their cash cows. But we are rid of their fleas nonetheless

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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        2 days ago

        Yeah I know that is how they see it but the generational wave they have been coasting on was the fact that computer nerdy kids would learn the ins and outs of Windows software long before even entering the workplace.

        Microsoft has been taking advantage of the fact that kids like me would be so excited to learn computers that they would learn the basics of just poking around the desktop before they could read.

        Nowadays that is gone, there is no playful connection and the sea of change will butterfly-effect into the future and cause a million symptoms of an issue we all know Microsoft will never actually value or address.

        Microsoft has been functioning this entire time with a special unspoken in with nerdy kids who grow up to build important and valuable computer tools. Microsoft has steamrolled that, and on the scale of 10+ years I am not sure there will be anything Microsoft can actually do to mitigate the strategic defeat that is going to cause even if they are able to be honest and lucid about it at that late date.

        More and more computer nerdy kids are going to learn the shit out of Linux because it is where they game and it feels welcoming to them (i.e. it doesn’t feel like sneaking into a suffocatingly boring office full of identical cubicles that gives periodic blaring notifications on a gambling casino nobody your parents know can afford called the Stock Market).

        I can’t understate how much this will lead to Microsoft completely losing the plot because no one could ever suggest this as a danger in a Microsoft boardroom and be taken as seriously as they should.

        gets popcorn I for one am going to enjoy the show

  • shortrounddev@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I recently moved my digital life away from google and microsoft. I previously had the following subscriptions:

    • ExpressVPN
    • Onedrive
    • Bitwarden
    • Office 365

    And I had a gmail account, which I often used for SSO. I realized that, the total monthly cost of these subscriptions together was more expensive than a single Protonmail *family * subscription, so I cancelled them all, got the family subscription, and now my wife and her sister all have protonmail accounts as well as storage, a password manager, and VPN access. In the process of moving my logins to my protonmail account, so that I don’t have to keep my ancient Facebook account around for signing into things like spotify anymore. Coupled this with moving to the federated internet from reddit and instagram

    I also dropped office for libreoffice. MS Office provides dubious value over the free competition, especially with a SAAS model.

    • Corgana@startrek.website
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      4 days ago

      Bitwarden

      Do you mean Bitdefender (the antivirus)? Bitwarden is free.

      Before anyone well ackhuallys me yes, there is a very cheap $0.80/mo plan if you want an authenticator.

  • sleepmode@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Going to dump it when the wife’s done with school. I was only keeping it for that and one game. So sick of subscriptions and the product isn’t even good except for Excel.

  • user_naa@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    You should try OnlyOffice. It is very similar to MS Office and fully compatible with Microsoft formats. It has fully replaced MS Office for me for all office work. Also it can be easely integrated with your private NextCloud. You can install it from Flathub.

    Edit: it also lets you edit and convert pdfs like Adobe Acrobat Pro

        • Broken@lemmy.ml
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          3 days ago

          I have a hard time making the connection that DMS is making.

          OnlyOffice is a Russian company, so it naturally has “ties” to Russia.

          They have not condemned their government for invading Ukraine, which can be for many reasons. Maybe they approve of it as DMS concludes. But maybe they don’t want to get political at all (hell, look at what a single comment from Andy Yen has done to views of Proton). Maybe they don’t want their government making life difficult for them. There could be a multitude of reasons they didn’t say anything.

          The way the statement is written is condemning for lack of evidence. Which is fine as an opinion. But that’s all it is.

          Don’t get me wrong, I followed your link because I wanted to know and appreciate the heads up. If there’s shady stuff then I’ll avoid them. I have no ties to OnlyOffice for anything.

          But being honest with the info doesn’t support the DMS claim. I’m happy to be wrong if there’s other information out there, but their biased statement makes me distrust DMS more than OnlyOffice.

      • ian@feddit.uk
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        5 days ago

        Why not both? It’s simple to install both and decide for yourself. I use both for different tasks.

        • geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml
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          5 days ago

          People usually refer to LibreOffice, so it is interesting that this alternative I never heard of before is allegedly better (it looks better that is for sure)

          • freeman@feddit.org
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            5 days ago

            Isnt libreoffice for the .odt format? I read that .odt and docx arent compatible and I really dont want to convert my whole documents collection nor deal with broken/rearranged content when editing documents. I went with Onlyoffice but am only 80% satisfied with it

            • jaybone@lemmy.world
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              5 days ago

              LibreOffice supports .odt and .doc and .docx and a ton of other formats though.

              LibreOffice (and its predecessor OpenOffice) have been a solid FOSS and *nix alternative for like over two decades. So I’m a bit confused about what these other alternatives provide that LibreOffice lacks.

    • IDew@lemm.ee
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      5 days ago

      What stopped me initially from paying Adobe was the fact that they force you to use their Cloud app which served no purpose to me. A crack doesn’t come with Cloud or at least a disabled one… Now that I know you have to pay to cancel, I’m pretty happy that Adobe stuff is easy to crack.

      • lud@lemm.ee
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        5 days ago

        You have to pay if you want to stop a year’s commitment early. Iirc you have to pay half of what you promised you would pay them over the year. So if you changed your mind it’s cheaper to cancel than to continue paying for the months you have left.

        If you sign a contract agreeing to their terms (and receive a discount in exchange) you have to follow them. The same goes for any other contract where you have a year’s commitment like for an ISP. It’s all pretty standard.

        Is it annoying? Yeah obviously but they make it pretty damn clear when ordering that it’s a year’s commitment and that you receive a discount. Any reasonable individual should be able to figure out why you get a discount.

  • Zenlix@lemm.ee
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    5 days ago

    I feel like Windows tries with every change to push it’s users to Linux.

    • ByteJunk@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      They got me, installed Mint a couple of weeks ago

      I purged the Windows partition yesterday, fellt like pouring bleach on a stain…

    • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I feel like Windows tries with every change to push it’s users to Linux.

      Even their core applications move to being web based.

      • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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        5 days ago

        I get how people need to use micro-shit for work but I don’t get how a any freedom enjoyer is willing to use spyware on their own hardware

        Just make the adjustment, deny the parasite engagement and profit.

        Paying micro-shit anything is funding your oppressor. This is a class war, act like it folks

        • floofloof@lemmy.ca
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          5 days ago

          Linux as your main OS with a Windows VM for work is a pretty decent arrangement. Windows works without activation so you don’t have to pay MS anything.

  • bokherif@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Bro I use windows for mostly gaming and it forced me to update to 24h2 which broke most games.

    • JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      Could you clarify on this a bit? I’m genuinely curious what the update did to the games as many use windows for the same.

      • bokherif@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Some games just dont run at all basically, you get a black screen. I could roll it back with the recovery but it would suck bad if I could not. Disabled updates for now.

        • JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 days ago

          Do you know if this is all windows or specific versions/on specific hardware? That’s such a weird thing to have effecting potentially all windows versions. Very interesting though, thanks for clarifying.

          • bokherif@lemmy.world
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            2 days ago

            I had this issue on NFSU2 (yes I still play it) and after changing the widescreen fix it seems to be resolved at the moment. But sucks that Windows provides breaking changes with updates.

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    4 days ago

    What distro are you using, and how difficult was it for you to get started with it?

    I’m currently making a list of distros and looking at each’s pros and cons, including:

    • what did work out of the box?
    • what required more work to fix / workaround?
    • JackAttack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      I’ve heard PopOS/Linux Mint are great starters. I personally run ZorinOS which is based on Ubuntu. It’s beautiful, had built in customization, and has a free version (I paid for the pro version because I liked it so much and wanted to support it).

      You’ll find occasional headaches in all Linux distros just because it’s not windows so compatibility can require work arounds depending what you wanna run. But it’s worth it. Feels so much faster and in your control which is nice. Also if you screw up the distro you can just boot another distro from the flashdrive you used to install in the first place (keep the ISO handy just in case ;) ).

  • jaybone@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    I have to wonder if anyone at Microsoft is paying attention. It’s like New Coke in the 80s. They quickly realized they fucked up and rebranded the original as Classic Coke. I’m wondering if there will be a Windows Classic coming out soon with no AI, no subscription, no forced cloud dependency bullshit. lol probably not but whatever.

    Keeping with the soft drink analogy, I think Pepsi tried something similar in the 90s with Crystal Pepsi, which also failed miserably.

    If “lime must go up” always, then they need to come up with a better way than product enshitification.

    • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      New Coke was different in 2 important ways.

      1. It was actually a way to hide the flavor change in the switch to Corn Syrup instead of Sugar, and never intended to be permanent.

      2. Pepsi existed

      There’s no real commercial competition for Microsoft. Linux is great, but there’s nobody for a business to call when shit fucks up. And Apple’s walled garden and high prices make it terrible for enterprise.