I'm already running a version of Office that was pre-copilot, (I ripped that copy from a computer running 365 before it was updated) I am waiting until my licence lapses and I'm reverted back to the classic tier in June, before attempting to update it again, otherwise I would just run Office 365 on my MacBook post Windows 10 EOL, problem solved.

Yes, they did add the ability to turn off copilot on the desktop apps, but I'm waiting until it's fully removed from my account.

Killing access to 365 on Windows 10 is like having a partner threatening to leave, and telling them directly, without emotion to just hurry up and go already.

There you go! it's good to see people are still interested in Windows 7 even after almost 16 years since it made its debut.

It would be nice if we could return to Windows 7 because it was a better operating system than Windows 10 and windows 11, windows 11 sucks.

I've bought from limited run games in the past as I am an avid big box game collector, the consensus within that community is that they are too reliant on FOMO, another issue I have with them is their boxes are just getting too big for the shelf, and now days, it's less about the physical game, and more about the tat that comes with it.

I am also not a big fan of some of their business practises, as they will try and dark pattern you into buying box or shipping insurance.

I've regressed back to the philosophy that games are meant to be played, what good is a plastic figurine if it doesn't even contain the game files?

I did buy a big box edition of Doom a few years ago (because the originals are very expensive), and it has a button on the side that plays the music when you turn it on and the box lights up which is kinda neat and a bit of a conversation starter, but other than that, it has mostly sat on my shelf.

I do like the kinda, Etsy style, artisan craft, farmers market that some indie developers go down, for example the 8-bit guys Planet X3 that came on real physical floppy discs for an IBM PC, that made the release feel contemporary, to the era of gaming that it was trying to portray.

I don't mind the idea of feelies but not to an excessive extent.

Streaming services were fun, but I've gone back to physical media.

I use\used a third-party service called just watch to distinguish where the content that I want to watch is located, because it moves around a bit and is actually quite annoying.

I have found it easier to go to an Op-stop\Thrift store and just pick up the DVD\Blu-ray version of said show for cheap, sometimes it's at a quarter of the cost of a monthly subscription to any streaming service.

And the show is just always there either on your shelf or uploaded to your media server, the annoying part is less companies are producing physical media now days.

Although I had an interesting experience recently when my partner wanted to sign up for Apple TV to watch severance, and I saw that the Blu-ray was available at the store (JB Hi-Fi) for almost the same price, and I went and got that instead, and the quality of Blu-rays is actually superior to that of what can be offered on streaming services.

Another experience was I bought the Breaking Bad box set because I wanted to watch that, and not sign up for another streaming service, but at the same time my partner signed up for the streaming service that offered that show, so out of laziness I watched Breaking Bad on one of the streaming services I can't actually tell you, might have been stan or it might have been binge (HBO Max in au), and I got through all of the seasons up until the final episode when my Internet shit the bed (because I live in Australia), so I stuck the Blu-ray in, and the quality was amazing and I regret not watching it from the Blu-ray from the start!

We've just been doing television content consumption wrong the whole time.

I loved word pad because of its simplicity, I actually just checked, and it is still installed on my Windows 11 workstation. - and you can save .docx files wow!

If I had intended to get any work done I would have just used LibreOffice, but I actually do keep an XP era machine running office 2003 in the cupboard as my doomsday device.

Windows would have definitely benefited from a small tables like application for very small home budgets and things, but I think most of excels power users have migrated across to using Python (among other tools), in my job, it is usually used as a line item list, but I avoid using it because it runs like absolute dog shit on the cloud, plenty of passionate power users though...

Aye.

We got the sensitivity labels introduced at work, and I get an email every time a document is found without one, for security of course! Not so Microsoft can train their AI on sensitive data.

If you wanna watch a windows network eat shit, rename a 500 gig VHD file to .Docx...

Having worked in tech support previously, my heart goes out to the layman who's copy of office that they paid for will randomly deactivate on them, but still continues to work under this new paradigm and they will just accept this as the new norm, not too long ago I remember apps that polluted the operating system with an excessive amount of ads to be considered malware, now it's the free tier..

And here I am like a sucker using the paid version when I could just be using it for free with an ad blocker...

Haha! Oh well, Slashdot doesn't have an edit button, so my typo stays. ;-)

What would be the name of the patch notes file found in the cars brake analyst module firmware? - "brakeing news..."

This is both absurd and hilarious, imagine being pulled over by law enforcement, and ask to comply with instructions, only to be interrupted by an ad and forced to endure the consequences of failing to comply with those instructions, or breaking in an emergency, after almost dying, or to unload some emotional dialogue on your spouse. - or stopping in a drive through only to be offered a better deal from a competitor.

I love how it's written as

, they're not even confident enough to call them ads anymore, just *interruptions*...

First, kudos to the engineer for taking the time to implement the patch!


Now onto my nonsensical rant:

I haven't looked at new computers in a while, at work I usually use whatever OEM or Microsoft keyboard I'm given, I was today years old when I looked at my keyboard and realised it had a Windows 10 logo on the start button, before that it was Windows XP, before that it was Windows 9x, it was usually a quick way to tell how old a keyboard was (if you ignore the beige and the PS2 connector).

I think keyboards should be abstract and not have any kind of distinct branding related to any operating system on them, at home I use a custom keyboard, or the text on the keycaps has faded, so it's not really something I ever thought about, I guess the copilot key replaces the menu key that I would only ever use if my mouse stopped working,

having worked in tech support in the past, I know how hard it is to even explain to a user over the phone how to press the Windows key, so I guess, good luck to the next generation of frontline tech workers who have to try to explain the Copilot symbol to someone who hasn't seen it before. - I wouldn't have even known it was there!

p.s the new keyboard symbol reminds me of being in a computer store circa 2006 and being told by friends that the computers with the Windows Vista key symbol on them are the ones to avoid lol.

There have been a few threads around various forums on the Internet, that I may or may not have participated in, that make me believe that the sample size I gathered was sufficient.

The copilot annoying cursor thing in Microsoft Word, could have been avoided if they simply thought about user agency and put in a ticky box in the settings that a user could uncheck if they didn't want that feature, but they didn't, and I had to work with a bunch of people to find a solution, that was both in meatspace and over the Internet, so perhaps a better way to rephrase it was, me and about 10 other people got annoyed at the copilot in Microsoft Word.

There is a feedback hub in Windows that you could fill out, and whenever I point someone towards it the answer is usually "why bother, they don't read it anyway?", thus my consensus.

Microsoft has generated an exorbitant amount of animosity from its users recently.

They're not listening to user feedback, and they don't care. They want you to use Windows 11 and they want you to use their AI feature bullshit, just like any other streaming service, Windows is now an app.

Their motto should be "all your data are belong to us".

I use Windows 11 at work, and it's fine, but it's not an out-of-the-box experience, It's been heavily tailored by our IT department to be less consumer and more enterprise IT, going between the two at home I barely noticed the difference, I just wish they would leave Windows 10 alone and stop retroactively adding bullshit AI features to it, that's pretty much the reason we didn't want to upgrade in the first place.

Ignoring all the TPM crap, which exists not to protect your data, but to protect your operating system from modification, modifications such as the removal of unwanted features, unwanted features like copilot AI and telemetry. I got some bullshit annoying copilot dingbat stalking my cursor around in Microsoft Word, and I got inundated by many of my family members and friends just wanting it to be turned off, I eventually figured out how to rollback my copy of Office 365, but just the stress of dealing with it, I'm so over it.

And I've never seen just normal users happy enough to go outside the norm of what Microsoft wants, to actually break rank, and have me tell them that this could stop working in a few months, they're happy to ride it out until then. - these are the kind of people who still actively pay for antivirus, and happily accept any update from daddy Microsoft.

No one that I know is using Windows 11 by choice.

October 2025 seems like a long time away, before I have to make the decision and fully commit to Linux or suck it up like a normie. I am optimistic though.

I like Windows for NT kernel and ease of development; I actually think it's a bit more stable and easier to work with (easier to unfuck) compared to Linux. I just wish its front end and user experience didn't absolutely suck, and they were doing really well for a while until they brought AI into the equation.

I didn't pay for Windows 10, and I'm not gonna start now lol.

As long as they don't brick the OS after end of life, but I suspect it will fail under its own accord because of its dependence on internet-based services.

I must admit if there was an option to pay not to get features I would consider it, it seems almost a better deal, the OS has always been vulnerable to attack, it was a good middle ground of user friendliness, large software catalogue and ease of use that made it attractive in the first place, now it's just full of AI bullshit and ads.

Yes, I have a computer running Linux, I'll use that.

It kinda feels like Microsoft has created a problem in really wanting users to use Windows 11, and a lot of them are very resistant to it and we all know the reason why, it's pretty much spyware at this point.

There is a continued loss of user agency when it comes to customization and freedom when using the OS, I do use Windows 11 at work but I'd hate to be a regular user who doesn't have admin rights, I've had to put a heap of customizations in it to make it usable in my opinion, and I know Microsoft would very much not like that to be a thing moving forward.

Rest in peace Windows 7 (and to a lesser extent Windows 10).

Was expecting the catch to be that the intern used A.I to help with building the A.I and that’s what caused the sabotage. - Having a similar experience myself where I work at the moment, interns keeps submitting trash A.I generated code, which is interrupting BAU operations, while the A team builds a new A.I...