A very large segment of Windows users have NEVER payed for an OS update or upgrade, and they aren't about to start doing so now. Mark my words, they'll end up walking back on the planned (and entirely fake) obsolescence of Windows 10. All of these Windows machines that are no longer being updated will be targeted in a huge malware campaign at some point, and it will be a big deal. This is the type of thing that gets politicians talking and bringing up the "M" word again, and MS wants to avoid this at all cost. At some point, they'll walk this back.

Well put! This describes the situation perfectly IMO, and I think it's important to point these things out as it sounds as if Torvalds has already been thrust into the unfortunate situation of having to deal with state actors on these matters. It's bad enough having to stay vigilant against your ordinary, standard (peacetime?) bad actors, such as those related to the recent "XZ" incident. I expect that he has neither the time nor patience to deal with state-sponsored campaigns, so his response makes total sense to me.

Even worse is the required MS account creation for Windows 11 setup. I can't believe the FTC hasn't done something about this yet. IANAL, but this seems like very obvious illegal monopoly behavior to me.

This. I no longer have ANY Windows installs on my machines (except for one VM on my laptop for some dev work), and it's specifically due to the BS Microsoft online account requirement. I'm even in the process of converting my son's PC and laptop to Mint Linux (and the desktop is a newly built gaming PC with TPM2 support!). He's a college student/gamer, and even HE has had it with Windows! Windows 11 is an absolute train wreck. Things he mentions specifically:

1. MS online account requirement
2. Bloatware that cannot be removed
3. The worst update procedure ever created by man (on a side note, I recently set up a new laptop system that required SEVEN reboots in order to bring it up-to-date! This is clearly ridiculous IMO.)

It is painfully evident to him that he no longer has control over his own systems.

For me, this is Debian. It's all I run in the server-space, and my desktops are all based off of Debian.

> Use distributed forums instead of Reddit.

This seems to be where everyone is headed, namely Lemmy and federated space...

The commoners with no horse in this race won't work for free. Most of them don't even have the technical skill to do so, and the job will be even HARDER without the proper tools. It will be a total shit show spam fest IMO...

Hell, Microsoft even got the idea for Windows from getting a look at what Apple was working on at the time (Lisa/Mac)! Apple is the new Microsoft...

I agree. I run Ubuntu with Snaps disabled, Flatpak enabled, and I take a "PPA > Flatpack" approach.

I think this might be due to the fact that it's a vanilla version of Gnome, which is why I won't be using it. I will ALWAYS require a taskbar in order to have a quick view of running apps (which Ubuntu provides through their modified Gnome DE.

This guy is on some **serious** drugs! It might be fun to see him be the billionaire who loses the most amount of money in the least amount of time. Honestly, he **has** to be trying to tank this company at this point. **Few** are this stupid...

And it's just about the stupidest thing I've ever seen. By forcing TPM (in the name of security, no less!), they've pretty much guaranteed that no one (especially "extended family-types") will EVER upgrade. So, guess what happens when Windows 10 gets EOL'd? Absolutely nothing. These perfectly functional (a good number of them anyway) PCs just keep chugging along, connected to the net, with no security updates. Saying that the TPM requirement was done in the name of security is absolute horse$%&!

It's the equivalent of requiring password changes every three months (and sometimes even requiring dissimilar passwords to those used in the past). You're pretty much guaranteeing that half the dimwits that don't know what a password manager is will have the password written down somewhere!

Also, get the f$%& off my lawn! ;)

This. The difference is the PE exam. Engineers must take this exam in order to do real engineering work, and it is not required of Computer Science majors. It's what makes the "real" engineer liable in cases of structural failure or poor design. The computer science field is very different; in many cases, we build on many others' work and cannot vouch for the accuracy of said work. Trust me, as a computer scientist, you don't WANT to be a PE.

"Come To Me," "L' Enfant," "Adiemus" and "Ask the Mountains" are some of my personal favorites. He will be missed, but not forgotten.

At many universities (such as mine), large departments have dedicated IT personnel who spec and place ALL IT-related purchases. So, will our department be limited to a couple of Macs for ALL of our people?