this post was submitted on 29 Mar 2025
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[–] [email protected] 146 points 4 days ago (6 children)

Are they trying to kill windows on purpose?

[–] [email protected] 116 points 4 days ago (10 children)

The sad thing is they know the large majority of users will comply. Most people put familiarity and convenience above their own privacy and general well-being.

[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (2 children)

Once valve drops better nvidia support into the kernel, and steamos starts coming pre-loaded on laptops and pre-built desktops it's over for their consumer division.

[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 days ago (3 children)

There's nothing special about SteamOS. Linux has been available as an option from several manufacturers for years.

What we need to see is a major studio pushing for Linux like valve has been doing.

Imagine if call of duty or fortnite had a Linux promotion to have a penguin hat. That would help

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 days ago (3 children)

There kind of is though. I'm not here to argue it's enough to unseat windows but it is markedly different

From a technical standpoint it's just another linux distro with some nice tweaks for gaming but from a human perspective it has brand recognition, familiarity, a known company behind it. Those things do really matter for adoption. No idea if that'd be anywhere near enough, I'm not inclined to make predictions, but it does have explicit advantages over consumers hearing they can get a laptop with Ubuntu or fedora on it

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

What we need to see is a major studio pushing for Linux like valve has been doing.

That's it. That's literally what makes it special. You, me, and half the fediverse probably aren't going to use steam os unless maybe we buy a steam deck.

The fact that there's a multi-billion dollar company throwing money at both it and proton is what makes steam os special. Its what's going to give Linux a unified brand name that every machine can put on their case badge.

Normal people and the companies that sell them computers need that unified brand name. Why on gods green earth, I don't fucking know, but I know that they do. Its how you get them to use shit.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

The fact that Facebook still exists is proof of this.

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[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 days ago

companies do things like this when they feel they have the power in the business/customer relationship and there's no regulations to stop them.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago (3 children)

I don't know what is going on at Microsoft. I'm starting to think that they are trying to pivot to a completely different business model. In addition to this Windows 11 crap and XBox seemingly being given up on, they appear to be losing their embedded market as well. In the past, if you saw any screen in an industrial setting, there's a good chance that there was the embedded Windows version behind that screen. Lately, all the new products are moving over to Linux.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

They are, and have said they are.

Subscriptions are the wave of the future.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 4 days ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

not ~~Lenny~~Linux!

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[–] [email protected] 131 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I've used the unpatchable Win11 account loophole, that exploits a functionality of your pc, where you wipe your boot drive, and install NixOS on it

[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 days ago

That's a neat trick!

[–] [email protected] 47 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (3 children)

It's not a big deal. They're removing the bypassnro.cmd script, which is just this:


@echo off

reg add HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\OOBE /v BypassNRO /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f

shutdown /r /t 0


You can still use shift-F10 at the same point, type those two lines (not the @ECHO OFF), and it will achieve the same result.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 days ago

Their intention is clear. I wonder for how long this workaround is going to stay.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 4 days ago

You're doing the lord's work

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[–] [email protected] 88 points 4 days ago (5 children)

Why the fuck is a Microsoft account so important to Windows that running it without one is considered a "loophole"?

[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 days ago

My guess is that's it's easier to neatly package your data up for when they go to sell it.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 days ago

Because we need your data silly 😊

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 days ago

They want to make money off of services, every service they offer requires a Microsoft account to purchase and use. Everyone that they force to make an account during setup is one step closer to paying for a Microsoft service.

There are obviously tradeoffs (less sales of these versions of windows and some users pushed away from Windows altogether among others), but the motivation is clear.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago

because microsoft is shifting focus from selling you a product, to selling you as a product

And they need a unique account to track every single click and thing you do on your PC, and the web, and everywhere else to facilitate doing that with greater control and ease.

Its literally what, and for the same reason, google has done for the past decade+

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Uh

Who's ready to talk Linux

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[–] [email protected] 39 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Man, Microsoft advertising for Linux Mint YET AGAIN?! They are so gracious.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago (4 children)

Why is everyone reccommending linux mint all of a sudden? What happened to ubuntu and fedora?

[–] [email protected] 25 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Ubuntu added telemetry and forced snaps

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (8 children)

And Ubuntu Pro popup ads. Linux Mint is, from a compatibility standpoint, Ubuntu without the crap.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago

Mint is ubuntu with the icky stuff removed and given an extra layer of polish. Still loving it here.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 4 days ago

I really hope the whole shift away from American products will convince more software and game developers to provide native support for Linux. I am approaching the fence.

[–] [email protected] 56 points 4 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 21 points 4 days ago (1 children)

I didn't know Gentoo was named after a penguin.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Now I want a Chinstrap and a Southern Rockhopper Linux.

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[–] [email protected] 58 points 4 days ago (3 children)

Describing the ability to make a local account as a loophole is letting a little too much real intention slip out.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 4 days ago (1 children)

This forced account shit is infuriating. I’d see students with computers that cannot get to government-provided education sites because they are forced to sign up with a Microsoft account to use their PC, which forced them to setup a child account because of their age and therefore be under a parent account, which means the child account can only use Edge and can only go to whitelisted websites, which blocks some government education sites unless the parent account allows it through which they can’t until the student goes home.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 4 days ago

I'm so glad I finally ditched that shit for good

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 days ago (1 children)

You can still skip it with MicroWin and also Rufus. I've tested it just recently.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Did you try that with the latest beta build?

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 days ago

Windows 11 is enshittfying a feature that let you skip making a Microsoft account

There, FTFY.

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago

Just one more reason not to use Windows, As if forcing data scrapers down our throat in the guise of AI wasn't enough.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Funny how corporations think taking away consumers freedom and privacy is a good idea.

Have fun losing customers.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 4 days ago (11 children)

Will people just stop using windows already. I get for work but if you just waiting on that one game then fuck off it's not worth it. I gave up some of my favorite games because it wasn't worth using Windows

[–] [email protected] 20 points 4 days ago

Proton is amazing though. I got Lego LotR working on my steam deck by installing some DirectX 9 dependency to fix a graphical glitch with the game. Runs like a dream.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 days ago (2 children)

I just deleted my old Mocrosoft account. Forgot I had it until recently.

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