Switch to Linux!
From Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/Windows11/comments/1as1yjk/microsoft_in_their_infinite_wisdom_has_replaced/
just switched to Linux for the first time this week!
More to the penguin army! Welcome
I’ll happily help you if needed. Hmu.
This is the problem with Linux. People that know how to use a PC and are not tech illiterate still can’t use it very well. Just the fact that you offered means you know they are probably having some issues.
I’m extremely technically literate, build my own PCs and write my own software tools.
I don’t use Linux at home because I don’t want to fiddle. I want to sit down, open steam, and play a game.
I use Linux for many things, but my personal computer uses windows because it just works all the time.
I want to sit down, open steam, and play a game.
I’m sorry all of the Linux fan boys don’t like your comment. My main is Windows and my other PC is a Linux box.
Pointing out significant flaws that are holding the systems adoption rate back is never popular. Most of them are very techy and don’t have a clue what the average user needs. It’s a great way to get them all riled up.
I spent a few years as a process flow and bug finder for some programmers building a proprietary internal system. Then I trained non-tech savvy people on how to use the system. One of the most difficult jobs I have ever done. Bridging the gap between the two of them was brutal.
This place is a massive echo chamber. Votes don’t matter
This is the problem with Windows. People that know how to use a PC and are not tech illiterate still can’t use it very well. Just the fact that you offered means you know they are probably having some issues.
They’ve used Linux for a week, you can’t learn jack shit about any OS within a week.
That’s not a problem with windows it’s a feature. Even the barely tech literate people can use it to bumble their way through to get the job done, eventually.
They don’t use it well but they still use it. They also rarely break it anymore.
Those of us who worked with these people with win 98 and XP… Shudder. They ways they screwed up the system was truly remarkable at times.
I know how to use a PC and I am tech literate and I can use Linux just fine so I don’t get what your point is.
I have used Linux off and on for almost 20 years.
I install it, see if I can do everything I want.
Get lost in terminal hell.
Give up and uninstall it.
Until I can browse to a webpage, download a program and click on an icon and have it install and work, the OS is shit for the general user. It’s not that fucking difficult of a concept.
You’re right. It’s not that difficult of a concept and luckily Linux works just like that. I will admit that Linux wasn’t always user friendly but it’s made leaps and bounds in that department. A bit less than a year ago, I decided one day to wipe my SSD completely and install Linux and I’ve been using it ever since. I’m doing everything I was doing for. Obviously this is going to depend on your specific needs but for me it’s been just fine.
No it doesn’t.
My last attempt was six months ago. Still had a few key programs in a tarball. Dow
Then there’s always the random hardware incompatibility. This last attempt it decided to flip the screen upside down on my laptop screen. Fun times…
It’s come a long way, but for the average user, it’s not anywhere near polished enough.
What kind of software do you use? I have never needed to install a tarball. Flipping the screen upside down seems like a very easily fixable problem compared to some of the stuff windows throws at you
The issue you’re having is it sounds like you don’t understand package managers. On your phone you go through the Play store or Apple store, and they manage your apps and keep them updated. It’s the same for Linux. You download and install things through the package manager (using the terminal or through the Discover application, assuming your distro has that). On Windows you go to a website and download an application, and that application has to keep track of updating itself. It has to check online for updates every time it launches and then ask you to download and install it then. Package managers are much more convenient. It may take a minute to get used to, but it’s better once you do.
Yeah. People new to computers in general have an easier tome using Linux than Windows power users, because the latter expects the same experience as Windows when they are using an entirely different OS.
Then, when something Windows-esque doesn’t work (like downloading software from a website), they blame Linux instead of their method.
I mean, for most distros you should be about to install and use the OS without touching the terminal. Yeah, you may want to use it for some things (idk what you were trying to do) but it’s kind of the same thing in Windows with registry edits and such. It’s a tool and if you don’t know how to use it, you’re probably gonna get lost.
Also how is it easier to go to a webpage to download an installer instead of using a store? Even microsoft is trying to move in that direction.
I don’t want to say your experience is invalid because I definitely think Linux can improve in terms of user experience. But it’s not very helpful to just complain about stuff vaguely.
There a reason memes like this exist.
And those memes are hilarious
I’ve never claimed otherwise. I enjoy a good meme.
How much searching did you have to do? Be honest. Ever try to mount a network share permanently yet?
network share
Built-in to dolphin file manager 😜
I didn’t realize that was in every distro
It will be once I infiltrate all 9billion distros.
Gogogo
Literally every distro has dolphin in the repos
I was like wait they aren’t all already installed by default, then I realized you confirmed it.
It’s not automatically installed on gnome, because gnome sucks. But any KDE distro will have it, and any distro ever will have it in the repos
No searching at all. I got a new computer last month.
- Install open-ssh server on the old computer
- Copy the IP address of the old computer
- Paste it into Dolphin
- Copy paste everything
And how would a new user know to find this specific app in the repo? Have you ever actually searched “how to permanently mount a network dive in Linux”? I didn’t see a single one saying dolphin.
I don’t know how to mount a network drive in Windows. So what’s your point?
btw I just searched how to do it in KDE. First result is a Reddit thread explaining how to do it in Dolphin.
I did, and it was fairly straightforward according to the documentation I found. This was a couple of years ago but I’m pretty sure I needed to figure out how to use nano, then type some magic words into fstab along with the IP and password, and I haven’t had to mess with it ever since.
As someone on Manjaro for over a year, I did have a few searches, but they were rare and mostly related to obscure things I needed.
Not even close to the “search a fix every 10 minutes” experience I was promised.
One of us! One of us! One of us!
There are dozens of us, dozens!
Twitter sent me to Mastodon. Reddit sent me to Lemmy. Windows has sent me to Linux. These things are basically promoting the better versions of themselves by becoming shittier versions of themselves.
Same here. But I had always been on Linux since I was a kid because Ubuntu (Gnome 2 days) was very pretty compared to Windows XP to me.
Maybe here is a good place to ask. I have used Mint for months now on my non-gaming laptop. I like it. I was ready to move my gaming rig at months end. Then I read that it can have issues with multiple monitors at different refresh rates and also with Mouse acceleration. Is this true and is there a solution?
X11 does not support different refresh rates across monitors.
You need a Wayland capable DE for that. The big one is Gnome.Don’t use gnome especially with Wayland. Plasma > 5.27 has awesome Wayland integration. Try fedora tumbleweed
Monitors at different refresh rates is a downside of x11, which Mint uses for all its desktop environments. Fortunately, they’re working on moving to Wayland for the Cinnamon edition, which has better support for that. There’s an experimental version you can use now, and they plan to be done in 2026.
I’d test things first ofc, maybe with your laptop plugged into one of the monitors.
It’s a case by case scenario.
If it works for you, then it’s all good.
If it doesn’t, then you might see the need for having a Linux PC and a Windows PC for different use cases.
My gaming rig has been on arch and manjaro for the past 6 years. No regrets. Sometimes games can be a pita to get working right, but proton/steam/valve have done an amazing job and it’s better every day.
I have a 2.5k 34" uktawide and a 27" connected. No issues.
I would be annoyed but does anyone actually use the show desktop button?
Come on, fhqwgads.
Apparently so since you’re getting downvoted by all the Linux fan boys that show up to every Microsoft thread.
I’ve never personally used it and can’t think of a good use case for it either.
Ahh yes, it’s the linux fan boys who are upset about a feature being removed in Windows.
Yeah but it sounded kind of like a positive comment about Windows. That’s enough isn’t it.?
YES
I honestly can’t remember the last time I looked at mine. I just tap the windows key and type the first few letters of what I want to open.
This is the way
It’s too bad that the year of the linux desktop has been so long in the coming. Because now, it really is far superior to windows. Bluetooth, printers, and games even “just work” these days.
/shrug
Not all games just work. For sure though Proton is absolutely amazing. The only thing stopping me ditching Windows completely is my kid still plays Roblox which doesn’t work on Linux.
It’s funny because if Linux was where it is now, 10ish years ago, I probably would have stuck with it. All I cared about then was basic computering and gaming, both of which are well handled at this point.
Problem is now I’ve spent a decade honing my skills on specialized programs that don’t have good replacements, and realistically even if they did, compatibility and years of learning specific programs have locked me in to Windows.
You can just turn that off. You know that, right?
See you next update 🎉
Actually, those of us who hid it the first time it appeared didn’t see this change. It’s been disabled the whole time.
Windows has overtaken Linux in the “requires customization” department
I spent hours the other day uninstalling adware from my laptop after reinstalling windows on it. It’s ridiculous.
Honestly, stock KDE is pretty nice, i barely change a thing and feel right at home.
I add custom things for everything and then come to Breeze after a week because it’s the most consistent and usable.
I still don’t even see copilot on my win11 machine. I’m up to date as far as I know. Am I supposed to have it by now?
Maybe stop telling people what OS to use? Even if I would have ever considered switching to linux, its users are so god damn annoying that I would never do so now
I would never do so now
Oh no… We’ll never recover from this. In Russian we say: “назло маме отморожу уши”. In English that translates to “to spite my mom, I’ll freeze my ears off.” This expression is used to describe a situation where someone does something harmful or foolish to themselves in an attempt to rebel against or annoy someone else, despite the action being against their own best interests.
Of course Linux users are annoying, who isn’t sometimes? Promoting this self-own mindset isn’t good for you or other users. Is good for Microsoft however…
Maybe stop telling people what comment to post? Even if I would have ever considered posting something else, this reply is so god damn annoying that I’m going to post a linux comment now.
Yeah, if Linux wants to become an alternative OS for average folks, its users need to stop being so evangelical and obnoxious. I’m sure there are linux users who don’t blow goats, they’re just not on lemmy, or they’re keeping quiet.
As much as I want the user base to grow so companies feel obligated to support the platform, I don’t really personally want to support many people re-learning how to use their computers
It’s usually the loud minority you hear, as with anything.
I’m sorry but that makes no sense. However much you may think Linux users are annoying, marketing and word of mouth are what drive popular choices. If nobody ever brings up something, then average folks will never even know it exists.
And you people are doing a great job driving people away from Linux.
Stop. They just don’t get it.
That was literally how Apple became as big as it is. They created an ecosystem that encourages evangelism and outs people’s personal choices (green bubble vs blue bubble for example) while also making it intentionally difficult to mix and match outside of the ecosystem. Obviously it’s not a 1:1 comparison but it’s an example of a successful competitor to the market leader and how it keeps itself relevant.
Linux is a bunch of code. It doesn’t want anything.
Oh no I’m right here.
Me too brother.
Same, friends. I don’t care what operating system people use, as long as Valve keeps supporting Proton and making it possible for me to game and therefore stick with Linux.
doing something against better judgement out of stubbornness harms no one but yourself. be my guest…
Im still rocking my win 10 with the beta release of copilot
For 20 years, now, my only contact with WinBlows is the rare occasion i dual-boot into it to play a game. If I actually had to use it?
[shudders]
Honestly, people who are still on windows at this point deserve this shit. 99% of corporate IT users are completely unwilling to stand up to their company’s IT policies, no matter how disruptive those are to the workflow - and I am not even talking about operating system choice here.
Since 95% and more of my colleagues in all prior jobs refused to stand up for the most basic necessities (such as a proper email program, or webmail access while NOT on a corporate device), then I don’t give a fuck about them suffering from Windows while I happily left corporate IT for a service contract and work on my self-managed device.
I just use my windows PC for gaming, and it does the job without issues.
You can still re-enable it in the taskbar settings. Personally I like asking an AI to do stuff, so I like the Copilot icon in my taskbar, BUT NOT ON THE FREAKING BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER GODDAMMIT THAT’S FOR LIKE NOTIFICATIONS
AND NOW NOTIFICATIONS GO OVER COPILOT BUT NOT QUICK SETTINGS FOR SOME REASON AND IF YOU BRING UP QUICK SETTINGS IT SHIFTS TO THE LEFT AND HIDES NOTIFICATIONS??
at least I won’t accidentally hide my desktop while clicking copilot in a place where it shouldn’t have been
except oh no signing in to unlock copilot doesn’t even fucking worktime to grind on my giant arch migration checklist and hunt for a good foobar2000 alternative which i’ll likely never finish
I personally really like StartAllBack. I just want a clean classic Windows experience.
Not sure if it’ll help with OP’s rage issues (I skipped over the all-caps and punctuation-free stuff), but I’ve long been a fan of Open Shell. Makes the Windows experience extremely customizable.
For a Foobar2000 alternative have you seen Deadbeef . It doesn’t replace everything but has the same sort of modular interface.
I’ve actually asked about alternatives in the EndeavourOS forum and talked about it there:
I just found out about DeaDBeeF. Unfortunately, it’s not what I’ll be using.
It is quite a one-to-one match to foobar2000! It has the same modularity and customization. However, the plugin ecosystem is nowhere as big. There’s no Coverflow plugin.
And there was a lyrics plugin, forked after an earlier plugin stopped development. However, the developer quit after decreasing passion coincided with the DeadBeeF developer removing the already finished Russian translation in the wake of the Russian war for whatever reason. Needless to say, I am not comfortable with it both feature-wise and ethics-wise.Strawberry and all Clementine (or should I say, Amarok?)-likes don’t strike my fancies. They seem to be in pretty good hands, but I just don’t like the side-tab layout (plus the aforementioned problem with lyrics). Amarok seems to have switched their design, and since I plan on using KDE either way, if the usage is good enough and I can’t find anything better, I’ll either use Amarok or Sayonara, which also seems promising.
I’m personally more of a fan of Audacious
Also worth noting that foobar2000 works in WINE.
Audacious only has the playlist and library stuff, from what I can see.
Wining it is still going to stick out of place and the external window plugin thing I want is probably gonna be weird.
What’s wrong with foobar?
It has no version for Linux.
WHAT.
I swear foobar is what I used to use… I’m having the memory bad.
Well, you could maybe Wine it, but it’s still going to stick out of place and the external window plugin thing I want is probably gonna be weird. You may have also confused it with Guarapiranga.
For me, there are 2 on the top left and too right of the start menu pop up and they don’t even look the same. Whoever is in charge of UI/UX needs to be shot. Holy shit. Windows just feels like a taped together heap of shit. The competition is way better.
Holy shit. Windows just feels like a taped together heap of shit.
I thought that was pretty much an open secret since Windows ME. As a begrudging Windows user who loves Linux infinitely more, my impression has been that they’re just dialing that shit to 11 (hah) while they complete their transition to being the high-margin SAAS empire known as AzureCopilotGithubOfficeGamepassSoft. I kind of doubt that Windows revenue is even worth labeling on their pie charts anymore.
It felt less taped together (in the UI sense, anyway) before Windows 8, honestly. Mainly because they didn’t do semiannual or annual (or whatever the schedule is now) feature updates.
Windows 8 was… Windows 8.
Windows 10 never felt finished, especially whenever they shifted the UI design between updates. Some things would follow the new look, while others wouldn’t.
And now they’re repeating that with Windows 11.
Windows 7 was alright, except for nearly every aspect of its 64-bit infrastructure. But it was also basically a $100 patch for Vista that took 2.5 years to make so they could put that house fire in their rear view mirror while there were still people inside. Oh, and probably to fuck up government work for the better part of a decade.
Wow, Microsoft are always so innovative! I never thought that the Win11 taskbar could get any shittier, but somehow they managed it. It’s great to see those thousands of engineers being put to good use.
I guess they figured out where people clicked a lot and put the button there?
Looking forward to the Google search trends for “disable copilot”
Just don’t search that if you’ve also been searching for any flights recently.
Suddenly… WATCHLIST
🤣
What was there before? I don’t remember ever needing to click in that area. I did notice the new icon but as far as I knew it just moved the clock over.
Or where people didn’t click a lot.
Could go either way - I could see MS doing this because people use this a lot.
Only time I’ve ever used it was the first time I installed a version with it (7?).
Win-D is far faster, or a simple Alt-Tab, which I’ve used for what, 30 years now?
I have files download / export to desktop pretty often since I use it as a visual workspace (I can drag things around freely), and I got used to hitting that button. Since it’s in the corner, it was easy to throw the mouse down there, similar to the X in the top right
I could get used to the keyboard shortcut though, especially because that one is reversible
I always liked the idea of the desktop, it’s just never been useful for me (and I’ve tried, since Norton Desktop in 1992).
Mine just becomes a cluttered, illegible mess. Probably because I find icons messy and confusing. Lists make sense to me, icons and graphics just seem like wasted space.
I suppose if I could have folder views on my desktop that could work.
Right click on taskbar -> Taskbar settings. Toggle button to turn off Copilot is right there.
Hey HEY! Stop going so fast. This is why we all need to switch to Linux RIGHT HERE. We can’t all be expected to understand these complicated terms.
Okay… I’ve cleared my schedule today and I’m ready. So, how does one “right click”?
Windows Key+D
Press it again to restore all apps to foreground.
