In my opinion, Microsoft didn't sh.t the bed as much as you stated in your post with regards to their Server-lineup of software. But a Windows-backend is usually put in place for a Windows-based environment, which includes the front-end as well.

Windows 11 I consider frontend and that is where the "minions" do have to deal with the crap MS shuffles day in and out with their AI-coded slop, slop in general and their borderline assault of pushing everything to their subscription-based software services and AI offerings.

It has become appalling for a very large group of customers now. Even in the group that makes decisions regarding software roll-outs for companies as well as government on practically every level.

Sure, Microsoft is turning that proverbial ship lately, but if that is enough, I have my doubts.

Directory Opus is keeping me on Windows. As that is the god-king of file managers for me and have been using it extensively since the 1990's on the Commodore Amiga and for 20 years on PC as well. It allows me to create my own layout of tools and buttons, helping me to have the practically same interface to manage my Windows computer since Windows XP (and I have used every version of Windows in between).

I barely noticed or cared what version of Windows I was using, as it would barely affect how I used Directory Opus. But with Windows 10 Microsoft started their disrespecting of the software choices users make and push their own applications first. This became much nastier with Windows 11.

The maintainer of Directory Opus states that he won't make a native version of DO for Linux on their forum. Even in this bastardized workflow that MS is pushing onto me with Windows 11, I still like DO too much. But I ran for a year my daily driver laptop on Linux (Pop!_OS) and DO was the only software I missed (I tried it with gusto, but DO via Wine in Linux s.cks b.lls).

Practically all the software I use for work and play, has Linux-native versions, so that Linux desktop experience was not difficult and didn't alter my general workflows all that much. It was even enjoyable, just not great, because of no DO. Until VPN software at the company I work for was changed and I was forced to use Windows 11.

Since then my disdain for Microsoft product only grew. The older versions of Windows left a decent enough impression, because no telemetry or crap pushing while including user-control. Pop!_OS left a decent impression, because of the return to that "piece and quiet of yore" while including (even more) user control. To a forced return to Windows 11 with slop, push, single vendor AI while stripping more and more user control.

Back to my point: now that MS did do their bed sh.tt.ng, they have shown to many more (ordinary?) computer users that Linux and MacOS are viable alternatives for the work and play they do on their computers. As I don't think that I'm the only one who had a good experience with the Linux desktop experience. Sure, that (ordinary?) group moves slow and it takes momentum to change those minds.

MS managed to do so. And if it weren't for Directory Opus, I wouldn't miss Microsoft/Windows either.

https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/cita...
https://www.weforum.org/storie...
https://nss.org/making-sun-sha...
https://www.bbc.com/future/art...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

Neither do you?

With strategically locating a large enough shield in space you can block excessive solar rays. There is a similar suggestion made, not by me, but officially recognized organizations to help out life on Earth with significant issues resulting from the global warming.

So why not do something similar to keep a Mars terraforming project viable?

Ok, links:
NASA
World Economic Forum
National Space Society
BBC article
Wikipedia entry

The Sun's bombardment of rays on the Mars atmosphere got rid of that atmosphere. Mostly.

To my knowledge, there is still a little atmosphere left, so there should still be some magnetosphere as well, even if Mars' core isn't active.

So why not deploy a shield-like structure that looks and acts as Earth's stargate (incl. its iris). Strategic placement in space and opening/closing it would help out saving Mars' magnetosphere. And with less solar rays ravishing Mars' atmosphere It may have a chance of improving it much more quickly too. While I won't expect a thriving biosphere on Mars anymore, it would be a lot more hospitable to the specific requirements from human bodies. Most living on Mars would remain to be underground, regardless.

Until we are smart and/or resourceful enough to get a proper magnetosphere going on Mars that is.

Because as we became aware of the solar system and got somewhat of a grasp on how it works, we have now the duty to explore it. And the human species being able to expand to a different planet is the first step. Also, 1 species on multiple planets lessens the chance of that species to be wiped out by whatever extinction event that could take place here on Earth.

Earth, with a bio-diverse atmosphere that we know and need for survival and living, will only last us about a billion years. After that it will become uninhabitable for a few billion years until it gets swallowed up whole by our expanding (and dying) Sun as it turns into a dwarf star. The Sun is not expected to swallow up Mars or any of the outer planets, so come hell or high water, humankind will need to migrate to a different planet, no matter how pro or anti you are about this subject. It is simply survival.

And if humankind can do it once, then why not expand to several planets/moons more? Become the gods we we are, as we are made in God's image anyway.

You might even go as far as the Big bang event being the start of a new science project of a God, to see how likely he/she/it can be "replicated" inside that project and if possible, how fast that will take place.

That is the 'blah, blah...you...blah...\argument.

There are systems in your society and laws in your country that are not happy when the DST is not enforced. I believe that in the US, bank transactions are legally not allowed to take more than 200 milliseconds (from coast to coast or everything in between). You think that will go smoothly if every state is allowed to determine if DST is enforced or not?

Lots of automatic alarms in buildings are also affected. As well as police- and fire-departments. And who knows how much old-fashioned buildings have old-fashioned automation in them that need DST to function for that building's purpose? Air-raid alarms for warning people? That is often very old muck too.

Well, I live in a country that decided against DST in near the end of 2024, applied it immediately in 2025 and encountered many problems like that.

If you decide against DST do it as one nation or not at all. Then take the time to test public infrastructure first, see how that goes and fix the upcoming problem there and then. When all is good internally, only then seize with DST. Because you will encounter unexpected problems in the weirdest of places in services and infrastructure and you do yourself a favor if you test and fix first before officially banning DST.

Of course you ordered the gold version of that phone. Don't deny it, you are amongst friends here...
I'll bet you will celebrate the arrival of that phone with a nice juicy Trump steak, while wearing your Trump sneakers. As you still don't have it yet, I'll expect that you have a Trump bible to keep you entertained in the off-hours from Trump Academy. Granted, the only book being taught there is 'The Art of the Deal', so Trump's bible will be a welcome distraction and keep you grounded.

Didn't it feel good to get that off your chest?

Grok is buying Cursor for 60 billion USD. At least, that is their intent. Once that happens, Cursor will immediately be enshittified.

Time to start looking for an alternative... Zed perhaps?

Yes, voting with their wallets...but not in the way they think. Assuming that users like the stance of Anthropic and hate the stance from OpenAI. Then uninstalling ChatGPT was the dumb thing to do. OpenAI os in a dire financial situation as their operational costs are so high. Showing ads is only a band aid for an open chest wound, so to say. People underestimate the operational costs associated with the hardware their software runs on. And how that is not going down.

Yet users uninstall and remove operational costs for OpenAI, doing OpenAI a major favor, as these users install Anthropic's software instead. Adding costs for the increase in operational costs, while Anthropic lost income.

Unless these 'swappers' subscribe and pay at least 20 USD monthly to Anthropic, they did the exact opposite of what they thought they were doing.

What you say. Unfortunately I do need WhatsApp, because of family, 2FA for security and my bank insists on having their app on my phone.

That and Wordament, a word game on Android, to entertain me while on the toilet. I could not care less about Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or any other of the socials. I removed these from my current phone.

Other than that, I use my phone as you seem to do. Dreadful interface and too small of a screen to be remotely useful, in my opinion. Especially when I have 2 desktops and a laptop 2x Linux, 1x Windows) to do things with on screens that are not actively hiding information from me.

Technically, a smartphone is a wonderful device with all the different technical capabilities built into them. Software-wise, both Android and iOS are very poorly implemented, each in their own ways.

And managed by corporations that do not have your best interests at heart. Each trying to screw you (the customer) over in their own ways as well. Society today demands you have a phone, but I couldn't care less if all the "socials" would be banned from smartphones tomorrow for everyone.

Any idea how much resources/effort go into creating the next edition of ChatGPT ? You would be amazed how many "hello" prompts it would take to match that amount of energy/effort. The "Hello" prompt being one of the most useless, yet very demanding for it's size.

It was a while back, but wasn't it HBO who remastered Babylon 5? The episodes I did see from that effort were indeed an improvement over the originals (when watched on a modern screen).

You do realize that the MAGA red is very much like the red in the flag of the CCP. And by extension, the same red as the ties from president Trump?

How should one understand those things? Coincidence? Aspiration?

At least China is consistent. They are not your friend. And never want to be either. China remains friendly enough if you prove to be useful for their plans. With those three things in mind, it is a workable situation. Trumps mood and plans change according to the direction of the wind, if the ascended moon is in retrograde (or whatever else those astrology weirdo's think up), whatever the Project 2025 cohort tells him to do or if he managed to take candy from a baby. Too chaotic of a situation to be truly workable.

Neither situation is great...for no-one actually. Most prefer the workable one though.

I went through the installation and configuration wizard from Moltbot today. The text on the website may say that there is support for local LLMs, but there is no such option during installation or configuration. Only options for 'copy your API key from Claude/OpenAI/Brave/OpenRouter/etc here'.

So it is nice and all that their website makes those claims, but the software sure doesn't. Now I'm quite sure that it is possible to use a local LLM, but I expect it to be much more of a hassle than it is worth.

My experience with that software today, made the decision: I gladly look for anything else than Clawdbot or Moltbot or however else it will be renamed to in the future.

Don't think I'm the only one, but I make a serious effort to not store my data in the cloud. As I am of the opinion that my data is my problem and doesn't need to become someone else's problem on their computer(s). You can put as much lipstick and jewelry on that proverbial pig, but the cloud is nothing else than someone else's computer.

Heard of it today. Tried it. It really is focused on using not local LLMs, that is for sure. Last week I started playing around properly with LM Studio and its MCP support. My local LLMs can now search the internet, can track time, access the file-system, access git and gitlab, write n8n + playwright + Terraform scripts, RDP and some other things I find handy.

And that works with any of the local LLMs with tool support. There is still a knowledge gap between local and cloud LLMs, but the local ones become a lot more useful once these can access the internet.

Clawd/Molt sounds great as a concept. In practice today, it was a 'meh'-experience at best.