Linux: No ads, it’s free and easier than ever to install.
Microsoft is testing full-screen Microsoft 365 ads in Windows 11 for expired subscriptions
Submitted 20 hours ago by ardi60@reddthat.com to technology@lemmy.world
Comments
comador@lemmy.world 20 hours ago
cerebralhawks@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 hours ago
Install??
Mac guy, and I remember trying Linux inside Windows and installing it while using it. For someone with 30 years of experience with Windows, Linux was a fucking joke — as in the mockery it made of everything I knew about Windows. It felt like magic. It’s not very deep though — people need to realize Linux is still very much a project. macOS is a complete product, but it’s not free and it’s tied to proprietary hardware. Still, these days I see the choice between macOS and Linux. Windows doesn’t even make the ballot for me.
FlexibleToast@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
The hardest person to convert is a “power user”. I guess you should let Red Hat and SUSE know their main product is a project. Oh and Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc…
mesamunefire@piefed.social 18 hours ago
Your literally commenting using a Linux server right now. A vast majority of the fediverse is hosted on Linux systems.
rarsamx@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
Tell me you haven’t used a Linux desktop recently without telling me.
“I remember”. Using that phrase tells me it wasn’t recently enough. And “using it inside windows” tells me you tried to fit a round peg into a square hole or that you don’t know what you are talking about.
You may be a MAC fan and that’s OK if that works for you, but I haven’t needed to use anything else but Linux since 2004 (initially there were always pickups, though) and I’ve been runing it without issues since probably 2010.
don@lemmy.ca 18 hours ago
Linux was a fucking joke
What
It’s not very deep
the
It’s still very much a project
fuck, over?
HertzDentalBar@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 hours ago
“EVs don’t work in cold climates, I know because I tried an electric mower 20 years ago that didn’t work in the cold so I’ve ignored all development in the last 20 years”
Same fucking logic buddy.
kirk781@discuss.tchncs.de 18 hours ago
Of course, it made a mockery of everything you know of Windows because it’s not like Windows. Neither is it meant to be used like one nor is it heading in that direction (not to mention that Windows is one monotonous thing, like if you know your hands across one install of Windows, you know it all. The same is not true about Linux. A Void Linux user might still not be as adept at a Gentoo install).
You are contradicting yourself. First you call it magic and then you call it not very deep. If it’s the latter, why do so many production servers run on Linux?
Some Linux distros like Debian have a fantastic reputation for stability. Sure, bugs still exist. I personally struggle with a distro agnostic bug that breaks workflows often on my current setup. But things have come a long way. And it’s better than Windows non customizable privacy invading approach any day.
The twin advantages Windows has is wrt games (though that is slowly being covered) and more importantly, specialized software. I know folks IRL who have to use Windows just because their work requires it.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
RHEL, SUSE (SLES), Ubuntu, Alma, Rocky, CENTOS Stream, I could go on for hours with enterprise distros that blow Windows out of the water without flinching. And if we go to specific use-case distros, that’s a list for anyone to go over for days, while Windows is aiming to be THE OS, and failing miserably at this. This has been the case for at least a decade now.
Mac? I can see how some people could be geared towards it, not because it’s any better than the worst Linux distro, but because it’s made for lazy people that have no idea how anything works.
“In my 30 years of experience”, with what? With windows trying to run some other OS inside it like an app? Don’t 30 years of experience allow you to understand the amount of resources overhead that requires and how it’s just a VM or LXC, not bare metal that you’re running? And even then, it still worked.
All the stuff in your comment screams 'I want to scream that I know about something I know nothing about". Go back to your mom’s basement to doomscroll 4chan.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
RHEL, SUSE (SLES), Ubuntu, Alma, Rocky, CENTOS Stream, I could go on for hours with enterprise distros that blow Windows out of the water without flinching. And if we go to specific use-case distros, that’s a list for anyone to go over for days, while Windows is aiming to be THE OS, and failing miserably at this. This has been the case for at least a decade now.
Mac? I can see how some people could be geared towards it, not because it’s any better than the worst Linux distro, but because it’s made for lazy people that have no idea how anything works.
“In my 30 years of experience”, with what? With windows trying to run some other OS inside it like an app? Don’t 30 years of experience allow you to understand the amount of resources overhead that requires and how it’s just a VM or LXC, not bare metal that you’re running? And even then, it still worked.
All the stuff in your comment screams 'I want to scream that I know about something I know nothing about". Go back to your mom’s basement to doomscroll 4chan.
omniman@anarchist.nexus 19 hours ago
Is bootloader locked on mac or apple products?
Sam_Bass@lemmy.world 6 hours ago
They are seriously making the case for Linux with everything they do
zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 hours ago
Windows 10 had already done a great job of that, but Windows 11 has really amped it up. I only have a single Windows machine in the house at this point for specific corporate stuff I need for work.
knobbysideup@sh.itjust.works 8 hours ago
Advertising has no place in an operating system. Full stop.
kadup@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Advertising has no place period.
One of the single greatest tragedies of modern life is that we accepted ads invading our personal and public spaces. Going outside for a walk and having to see a large outdoor, literally an advert on the sky, should be a crime against humanity.
ozymandias117@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
I moved somewhere where signs over a certain height (maybe 8 feet?) are illegal.
It’s glorious
chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world 8 hours ago
Especially one you have to PAY for
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 6 hours ago
Just an fyi - Windows 11 is free for all that most users need. You don’t need to activate Windows to use it unless you want to use a few of the more advanced features. It never locks you out or anything, you just can’t change your desktop wallpaper.
reddig33@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Also Microsoft: “Why aren’t people upgrading to Windows 11?”
BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
From Fedora 42? Sounds like a downgrade.
bigchungus@piefed.blahaj.zone 14 hours ago
They really need to name the next version "Windows 76". That should have the people throwing money at them.
jjlinux@lemmy.zip 7 hours ago
This is so funny. My wife purchased a Yealink headset for work, and her laptop runs W11. When we got the headset I tried it on my Fedora 42 laptop and had a meeting for about 30 minutes, only because I wanted to see if it would run on Linux. Of course, nor only did it work, it was plug & play, and was spectacular in sound quality and mic noise cancelation.
So I set it up on her W laptop, and here comes the “download this”, “install drivers” and “install apps” bullshit that I had all but forgotten about since I made the leap to Linux over 8 years ago. All this only to have it regularly disconnect mid-meetings (spoiler, she ended up using the integrated speakers and mic the rest of the week).
Windows is made to spy, intrude and annoy users. Even the devices ‘made for Windows’ work way better and easier on Linux, and with way less friction.
My kids are now 12 and 10 and have always used Linux exclusively. Only now they are being exposed to Windows at school, and they both hate it so much that they get home and have chosen to do some distro hopping over the weekends 🤣🤣
Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
“Nobody wants to Windows anymore!”
xxce2AAb@feddit.dk 20 hours ago
Once you people have finally had enough, Linux and/or Libre Office will be right there. Waiting.
henfredemars@infosec.pub 19 hours ago
I did this over a year ago. Man, I love that my computing is boring again. No distractions. The machine does what I tell it to do. It’s lovely! Boring is lovely.
NotSteve_@piefed.ca 7 hours ago
There are some tools that can make Linux feel more like at home too for those who want to transition slowly
Engywuck@lemmy.zip 16 hours ago
With due respect, no. Office suites on Linux aren’t on par with MS Office yet (and the latter sucks a lot, but not for the lack of features).
mesamunefire@piefed.social 7 hours ago
Most of the younger generation uses online office or google docs from what I see.
Its the old fogies that use offline office tools.
Goodlucksil@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 hours ago
If you want O365, you could try OnlyOffice or OpenDesk (not sure if I spelled it correctly)
kadup@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Of course they are. Coincidentally, newer devices being bought in 2025 are increasingly shipping with fully locked UEFI that prevents you from installing anything but Windows.
muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 4 hours ago
I thought that was illegal.
azur@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Do you happen to know any specific hardware that does so? I haven’t heard of that and I’m genuinely curious.
rarsamx@lemmy.ca 9 hours ago
“Microsoft testing new ways to lose customers”.
It’s well known that piracy was what made Word (.DOC) and Excel (.XLS) the de facto standard.
If the kids at home can’t use windows, they’ll find something different. And when enough of them find if, when they become decision makers they’ll stay away from Windows.
Imagine how different the landscape would be had MS cracked down on Piracy for their flagship programs.
Soup@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
iMacs in schools weren’t for nothing, and neither are the weirdly good deals on Apple products for students and teachers. At a time when people are learning about these programs and using the machines pretty aggressively the good product company comes along and gives them affordable-ish equipment with a nice stable OS.
Tim Cook Apple being kinda underwhelming and being way more expensive than Steve Jobs Apple is not helping their image but they still have decent deals and are able to ride said image for a very long time thanks largely to Jobs understanding what you’re talking about.
Back to Microsoft, they don’t seem to understand that the general consensus on them has mostly always been that Windows is cheap and not amazing but certain programs run on only it. Now they want to make it cost a tonne of money/have ads? Jobs’ Apple products where expensive but they were high quality. Microsoft just can’t pull the same shit with their dogshit legacy-coded 30 year old hack-job OS and consistently mediocre-to-bad products. And they have to do it while competing with Linux amongst the very people who were doing most of the loud fan-boying for their shit for so long!
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 6 hours ago
If the kids at home can’t use windows
Wait why can’t they use windows?
m33@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
muffedtrims@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Laughs in Linux
m33@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
I hope it last, web enshitification may bring us back to the 2000s where that one site requires internet explorer, this one won’t allow DRM content on non windows platforms…
It’s just around the corner.
bhamlin@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Malware for Linux exists, and has for a long time. It’s just not as omnipresent as windows malware, even adjusting for market share.
Also, often has different goals to windows malware
m33@lemmy.zip 6 hours ago
Yes they were mostly xmr miners, or reverse shell (pretty much like all those windows RAT)
ook@discuss.tchncs.de 17 hours ago
Lmao. Genius, hope whoever suggested this got a raise. Can imagine the meeting where it has been decided. "Hey, have we thought about fullscreen ads for something we want to push on people?” "Genius idea, Maxwell! Go home to your wife and kids and tell them a big fat bonus is coming to their smart father!”
TachyonTele@piefed.social 6 hours ago
"In fact, go to my home and fuck my wife. Full screen ad? Brilliant!"
FreedomAdvocate@lemmy.net.au 6 hours ago
Complete clickbait article headline: the title should have been “for subscriptions where the payment method for the renewal failed”, not just for “expired subscriptions”. It’s to notify people who didn’t mean for their subscription to lapse that their payment method was refused.
Doesn’t make as “good” of a story then though, does it?
Agent641@lemmy.world 11 hours ago
Will they run in WINE?
palordrolap@fedia.io 10 hours ago
Tricky. Microsoft currently use two different executable formats and only one of them is compatible with WINE. That still doesn't mean that a compatible one will work properly though.
On the other hand, people who make ads want their ads to be literally everywhere, so they might make it Windows 3.11 compatible with all library functions baked in just to be safe. WINE would almost certainly run that.
Mwa@thelemmy.club 9 hours ago
dont think so
Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world 9 hours ago
I’m in a constant battle to keep it removed off our office machines. You can’t remove it completely since its cached and installed with every user login. In order to get rid of it we would have to pay for the enterprise version. Just another rip off from macroshit.
Valmond@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
I have a windows game box, it nags me to backup my photos when I visualise 1 (one) image.
What a shit OS it has become lol.
loaf@sh.itjust.works 20 hours ago
Thank goodness I have zero use for any of their products.
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 18 hours ago
Do it! At this point Linux can do anything windows can do, I want them to fuck it up as much as possible, Fuck Microsoft !
stoy@lemmy.zip 15 hours ago
At this point Linux can do anything windows can do
IT guy here, this is just not true at all.
So far I have never seen anything on Linux being able to replace functions like GPOs.
johannes@lemmy.jhjacobs.nl 11 hours ago
Actually, i’m learning to Go to do just that. GPO’s are basicly just configuration management. And there’s Ansible, Chef, Puppet. These all work on Linux.
floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 hours ago
FreeIPA + any mechanism to deploy configuration files
domi@lemmy.secnd.me 14 hours ago
stupidcasey@lemmy.world 15 hours ago
Irrelevant, all the ads will be disabled in iot / enterprise anyway and they can afford to Make their own software or at least higher Simone to the only reason they don’t have full page ads btw give them just enough to keep them wanting more.
cronenthal@discuss.tchncs.de 15 hours ago
Since I made the switch these kinds of news are hilarious! Yes, make Win 11 into hell! Your customers are your shareholders, users are too be exploited! How long can it last? Who cares, only the next quarter counts!
minorkeys@lemmy.world 19 hours ago
They have this in Windows 10…to advertise Windows 11.
salacious_coaster@infosec.pub 18 hours ago
(laughs in Debian)
atomicpoet@piefed.social 18 hours ago
So glad I just switched to Linux.
ModernRisk@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 hours ago
And that’s why, sir, Massgrave exists.
Binturong@lemmy.ca 3 hours ago
I swear, Microsoft YEARNS to fail. Dunno who is running the show over there but they’re doing a great job of being terrible for their brand.