Nobody wants to admit this, but you didn’t own your Windows 8/7/Vista/XP PC either. Or any of the previous iterations, or any MacOS devices.
It was just less noticeable and invasive. Same idea, same process, but simply closer to ‘in early development’ than to ‘final build’.
Windows 11 isn’t the problem. The problem started long before at least half of us were even born. Until recently most ignored it, because it ‘wasn’t that bad’. Then it got really bad.
I’m not technically allowed to sell the Lenovo laptop I bought earlier this year unless I get permission from the US Govt. It says so right on the invoice
Jokes on them, I’m selling it anyway hah ha.
Does anyone else hear the sound of chinooks?
I think the attitude definite changed. If your computer crashed, it used to be like “pretty please send us a crash report? It will help us figure stuff out and we promise we’ll be good with your data 🥺”, and now it’s like “I will collect OUR data all the time. If you want to disable this feature, run this archaic registry command, and even then I’ll still ask repeatedly. Oh, and I’ll turn it back on a few months anyway. Fuck you”
At least back in the day you had to install the malware, either intentionally or accidentally. Now it’s built in and by the people you trusted.
i never knew that
soon coming to a server near you … and this kids, is why we self host …
“The cloud is just someone else’s computer”
Also related: https://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2026/01/22/microsoft-gave-fbi-keys-to-unlock-bitlocker-encrypted-data/
If you must stay on windows, use a real encryption software like Veracrypt to protect your disk. Its the successor to TrueCrypt and supports pre-boot auth and all kinds of real encryption methods that won’t be broken by a shit vendor being a dick
I will say there was a period around the turn of the century where everything got very “My This, My That, My Everything” branded. I think after e-Everything but before iEverything. It felt like living in a world designed by a three-year-old in the “My” phase.
Made tech support confusing.
“Okay, so open My Computer”
“Your computer?”
"No, your ‘My Computer’ "
Hah, I used to do tech support and this is spot on. Then again, that was happening no matter what. “Click the ‘X’ in the corner of the window” would have them pressing the X key on the keyboard or asking “what’s a window?”.
Well, “This Computer” doesn’t improve it much.
Ugh, I still hate when something uses the “My____” format.
It always makes me thing of “Fisher Price My First ______” like I’m being belittled.
Even “My First Sony”?
ESPECIALLY “My First Sony”!!!
Whatever happened to that My Pillow guy?
Did he not put enough saliva on the ring? Did the leopards get him after they deported all the immigrant workers in his factory?
lawsuits and being a general dipshit hit him hard. But I bet he’s still around, throwing money at some Super PAC.
Just announced a run for Governor of Minnesota on a platform of arresting people who protest against ice.
now he’s the This Pillow guy.
He did more crack than your entire bloodline has spent on existing.
I get the feeling you didn’t prove him wrong in his prove him wrong challenge.
Lol I did not. Your feelings are valid.
That said, I’m like 99% sure someone took his money for that after losing a court case
Microsoft started it in 1995 with “my computer” on windows 95. They replaced it with “computer” just 12 years later with Vista.
You’re not wrong but fuck you for pointing this out. Anyways have you heard about Linux?
I always have a minute to talk about our lord and savior
His name is Linux Christ, show some fucking respect
Ah yes My /
Just /
When it comes to filesystem structure and organisation I don’t feel like Linux should be bragging much. It’s a fucking mess.
Why that? /Bin and /opt and those? Compared to Windows with c: and d: I prefer to at least have only one root
You mean “Our Computer”, comrade.
No OP means “their computer”, as in the subscription renter is no longer the “owner” so prevented from doing things on it anymore.
They made a dad joke about communism and companies not considering what you buy really as your
But that’s not really communism. The “our X” jokes comes from the idea that under communism there is no private ownership. If there’s something we all want to use it’s free for all of us to use because it’s “ours”. Cloud computing is an excellent example. If cloud computing was “ours” everyone could have a computer because it’s a shared resource. It doesn’t prevent you from having your own computer if you want it, but if you do need a computer there’s always one ready for you for free.
Instead what we’re getting is techno feudalism where corporations own your computer and you’re just renting it from them.
Yeah i know, communism’s “private propiety” refer to production means
It’s not just means of production but also goods and services or really just about anything that’s currently done for profit. Under communism there’s no private education, no private Healthcare, no private infrastructure (no paying for internet access), no paying for food or clothes or a car. Your needs are met and you’re free to do what you want.
If it sounds to good to be true, it’s because it is. Communism is an utopia. It’s not something we can realistically achieve, but it’s a dream to strive towards. It’s a dream of a better future.
AWS is the new communism comrade.
That’s a contradiction. AWS will make you poor and homeless and is driven by capitalistic pigs!
This personal computer.
am I missing something?
Like, fuck Microsoft, but this is just adapting to a world where people regularly have multiple computers on a network. ESPECIALLY business computers, which are the bread and butter of Microsoft’s income.
Computers are people too
Gearing up for this product https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-365/link
Holy word salad, Batman.
“We needed a purpose-built device on the shop floor that could fit for our new, collaborative approach. Windows 365 Link devices were exactly the solution we envisioned to enable our workers to access their assets in the cloud.”
People fucking laughed at me when I said this was coming.
WAAAAYLP, here we are
If the mother country wasn’t going full on Nazi, as someone who wouldn’t install Windows on anything in my household, I would unironically have used that to test cross-platform-compatibility of my software. Although last time I was looking for renting a VM only for a week or two.
But fuck this, I will no longer care about Windows compatibility.
Please correct me if needed, but why? This is the epitome of anti-cross platform.
It’s as close to negative platform as you could possibly get.
I have honestly no idea what you mean by “anti-cross platform” or “negative platform”.
I mean that it’s a box that you can’t change anything on, it’s basically just a thin client that connects you to locked down windows on a server somewhere
If I can’t install cygwin, a C++ compiler and an editor of choice, then it is useless. But I was assuming (probably too naive) this would be possible.
To be fair you may be able to on the early iterations until it takes over the enterprise space, and the personal space, and when they’ve got it all, they lock it the fuck down.
This is obviously speculation, but I think it’s a pretty informed guess.
Looking at the reviews about assets being accessible…yes sir, that is what business based vpns are for.
Is this online only? That sounds like a very bad time.
Minimal OS thin client, everything will be online/cloud storage
Even at the time where it still stated “My Computer” it was already theirs. Because you could not access or modify a lot of system files.
No. You could. It was just more work and you could fubar things if you messed up. Playing around in the registry editor could get you places.
Only if you weren’t brave enough.
Or if you didn’t have Exroidal the Windows Wizard to hold your hand.
https://web.archive.org/web/20120722030922/http://www.vorck.com/windows/2ksp5.html
