This is a test of the internet kill switch system. Do not panic. This is only a test.

Yay! A trendy new free app to help me give all my personal data to someone else so I can start renting it back from them!

What home user is going to start paying and budgeting for their monthly Microsoft bill - to pay for their Microsoft Word and Excel? Seriously? We have been giddy happy Debian Linux users for years now and have not missed Microsoft at all, except for the Win7 VM we run to run Desktop Quickbooks - another great natively running application that the developer would like to permanently replace with an inferior subscription product. I'm going to get ahead of the game and switch to GnuCash for 2019 and be done with Quickbooks too before they abandon me altogether (by abandoning their desktop product).

Sure. I suppose Dell, Texas Instruments, Lockheed Martin, and Bell Helicopter Textron are all renters too. And all the idiots building the F-16s and F-35s. And only a failed backwards state would produce the most wind power in the nation, would have towns called Silicon Hills (Austin) and the Silicon Prairie (Dallas), have three Carnegie Tier One Research institutions, and have the world's largest concentration of research and healthcare institutions (Texas Medical Center), perform the most heart transplants in the world, be home to the largest airline in the United States, have the second highest GSP in the nation at nearly $2T, a 6.4% unemployment rate, the joint-highest number of Fortune 500 companies in it (along with California), be the number 1 state in ag revenue, leading the nation in the production of a list of products so long there isn't room on Slashdot to list them all, and the second highest population of millionaires in the nation.

I was born in California and have lived there for many years. If that's what your civilized future looks like, you can have it.

Right, Texas, home of NASA, is inhabited by a bunch of stupid dinosaurs.

This will contribute to the further Californication of Texas.

I grew up in the Seattle area - home of Microsoft - using DOS and Windows and loved it, especially Windows 2000. We switched to Debian Linux at home years ago and haven't missed Windows. We run Windows 7 in a VM to run Quickbooks only until they require Windows 10 at which point we will ditch Quickbooks too. We are also switching away from Windows at work. I just received our new Synology NAS in the mail - The SBS 2011 server is being replaced by this Linux-based NAS that has more functionality (the kind that people actually want) at a fraction of the cost. Worker bees will run Linux - new System76 machines perhaps. LibreOffice, the GIMP, Inkscape, etc. - Linux software meets all of our needs here. We'll run Quickbooks on Windows in a VM if we have too until we switch away from it too. We are experimenting with LibreCAD for our 2D CAD needs. If it works, the CAD dept. will run Linux. If not, they may have to run Macs to have AutoCAD. We're ditching Microsoft for good though because of this nonsense.

It's just another way the world was better in the 1980s.

We have been using Debian Linux at home for many years now and have not missed Windows. I run Windows 7 in a VM so I can run Quickbooks. That's all I need it for. I am getting more and more friends and family on Linux all the time, and it is working for them too. My uncle is an old Microsoft guy (former contractor) and now runs Linux Mint at home and at work and loves it. I got my teenage niece on Linux and she *never* calls me with problems. She called me once about how to hook up her printer. I told her to plug it in-she said "Oh, it says 'configuring printer'. Oh, hey! It's printing!" - and this was a random Canon inkjet printer. Just worked. I have my sister-in-law on Linux Mint now too.. She paid $45 for a perpetual license of Moneydance software and switched from abusive Quicken and she is off and running, downloading from her bank, etc. No issues. She's a professor in a community college in L.A. and runs Mint on her personal laptop. I got my cousin's wife on Linux Mint as well. She's been running it for a year now and I haven't had a *single* phone call for support. My mom's computer is next! I love instlalling Linux for people because *they don't call me for support ever*. :)

Chrome is spyware so it gets all of your web-browsing data, so there is an advantage to them. Edge probably is spyware like Chrome, I assume not having ever used it.

Someone needs to open a shelter for battered Windows users where they can begin to heal and realize that they don't have to stay in an abusive relationship.

This is just more planned obsolescence PR--another nudge to go buy new chips. I'm still not buying new chips.

We don't need that. If they do that, we'll start seriously evaluating other .dwg file format based alternatives like LibreCAD or something. Our furniture drawing needs are quite simple.

Cracking up lol here. I run Windows 7 as a guest under Debian at home so I can continue bookkeeping with Quickbooks for now. I also have a Windows XP machine with a bunch of awesome, incredibly useful, perpetually licensed software installed to it that I use daily and keep backed up with CloneZilla. At work, when Windows 7 goes EOL next April, we're switching from an SBS 2011 server to a Synology NAS (more functionality than SBS) and users will get Linux desktops, except for the CAD guys who will have to use Macs since they are stuck in that AutoCAD subscription racket.