Linux will not see mainstream adoption until Dell, HP, Lenovo and the likes start shipping their hardware with Linux by default.

With the effective end of support of 32-bit computers, and there's millions and millions of perfectly good ones about, the time is ripe for someone to step up and produce an XP-like windows for them. I don't mean linux, I mean windows. Microsoft won't do it because there's no money in it. But for a dedicated team of volunteers, the opportunity is there to fight the good fight against ewaste and rapacious mega-corporations.

With a max memory size of just 4GB, no new memory will be needed, and perhaps other software developers will think about unbloated programs.

Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming, but dreaming of good things.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-01-21, 21:34:

With the effective end of support of 32-bit computers, and there's millions and millions of perfectly good ones about, the time is ripe for someone to step up and produce an XP-like windows for them. I don't mean linux, I mean windows. Microsoft won't do it because there's no money in it. But for a dedicated team of volunteers, the opportunity is there to fight the good fight against ewaste and rapacious mega-corporations.

With a max memory size of just 4GB, no new memory will be needed, and perhaps other software developers will think about unbloated programs.

Yeah, I know, I'm dreaming, but dreaming of good things.

Any form of remote access functionality that streamlines anything would need to be basically removed out of the os and made impossible.

The modern spyware web would then need a sandboxed browsing version that could limit the memory footprint and disable access to system resources.

Robbbert wrote on 2026-01-21, 21:34:

With the effective end of support of 32-bit computers, and there's millions and millions of perfectly good ones about, the time is ripe for someone to step up and produce an XP-like windows for them. I don't mean linux, I mean windows. Microsoft won't do it because there's no money in it. But for a dedicated team of volunteers, the opportunity is there to fight the good fight against ewaste and rapacious mega-corporations.

Head on over to ReactOS.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2026-01-21, 05:35:

Microsoft doesn't really care about that, because they are driving up the prices too. The bulk of their OS sales is OEM, not end customers.

Windows is less than 8% of their business these days, they make next to nothing from it OEM or Consumer, they make the bulk of their profit from subscriptions to their cloud services and assorted other cloud garbage.

Microslop really isn't in the business of being an OS vendor anymore which is why they are not afraid to pollute it with as much AI rubbish, Adds and Subscriptions as they can. The more people and businesses they push on to their cloud and subscription services the better it is for them.

I expect Windows to go fully subscription based in the near future, it'll be pushed as a late Windows 11 update or pushed when Windows 12 launches, they will force a Microslop account one way or another and force you to use One Drive to get anything useful done. They need you using OneDrive to farm your data with their AI, got to recoup their investment one way or another and consumers are stupid enough to use OneDrive.

You can also bet nVidia will be right there and make sure Windows 12 will be pushing Geforce now Streaming as the only way to play games on it.

God I hate the tech world right now, because even this shit posting rings far too true.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-21, 06:14:

What are OEMs going to be selling when 8GB of RAM costs $300 or just flat out isn't available?

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2026-01-21, 08:12:

OEM will have just enough RAM and storage to promote Microsoft cloud services. Just as planned.

This
The OEMs will ride on the edge of the minimum requirements for Windows 11. If there is any push to reduce system requirements at all, it will be in the dumbest way possible - reducing the RAM requirement without actually debloating the OS.

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-01-24, 10:30:

I expect Windows to go fully subscription based in the near future, it'll be pushed as a late Windows 11 update or pushed when Windows 12 launches, they will force a Microslop account one way or another and force you to use One Drive to get anything useful done. They need you using OneDrive to farm your data with their AI, got to recoup their investment one way or another and consumers are stupid enough to use OneDrive.

You can also bet nVidia will be right there and make sure Windows 12 will be pushing Geforce now Streaming as the only way to play games on it.

Microsoft has already shown some concepts of cloud Windows using your home computer as a thin client.

Consumers aren't choosing to use OneDrive, and the problem with it goes beyond training AI on your "private" data. It's enabled by default, and any attempts to disable it and switch back to local storage get reverted in some random Windows update. There are some ridiculous data loss bugs that have existed in OneDrive since day one and Microslop has refused to fix the entire time. At work, I've seen OneDrive not upload some files, corrupt the local file system (you get an error when saving a cloud-backed file that is only fixed by running chkdsk /f), and only sync the modification date when saving (the edited contents only existed in the local cache on the computer I made the changes from). There's also the speed problem, where the kinds of simulations I run will completely kill OneDrive (and take down Windows with it) with heavy disk activity.

My internet can't handle cloud services, but there are going to be people who confuse that with conspiracy theorists or criminal activity.

Funny how calling Microsoft changed over the years. Then, it was M$, now it's Microslop.

UCyborg wrote on 2026-01-24, 20:30:

Funny how calling Microsoft changed over the years. Then, it was M$, now it's Microslop.

Microslop is Nadellas fault, he is an utter tool.

lti wrote on 2026-01-24, 19:24:

This The OEMs will ride on the edge of the minimum requirements for Windows 11. If there is any push to reduce system requiremen […]
Show full quote

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2026-01-21, 06:14:

What are OEMs going to be selling when 8GB of RAM costs $300 or just flat out isn't available?

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2026-01-21, 08:12:

OEM will have just enough RAM and storage to promote Microsoft cloud services. Just as planned.

This
The OEMs will ride on the edge of the minimum requirements for Windows 11. If there is any push to reduce system requirements at all, it will be in the dumbest way possible - reducing the RAM requirement without actually debloating the OS.

Trashbytes wrote on 2026-01-24, 10:30:

I expect Windows to go fully subscription based in the near future, it'll be pushed as a late Windows 11 update or pushed when Windows 12 launches, they will force a Microslop account one way or another and force you to use One Drive to get anything useful done. They need you using OneDrive to farm your data with their AI, got to recoup their investment one way or another and consumers are stupid enough to use OneDrive.

You can also bet nVidia will be right there and make sure Windows 12 will be pushing Geforce now Streaming as the only way to play games on it.

Microsoft has already shown some concepts of cloud Windows using your home computer as a thin client.

Consumers aren't choosing to use OneDrive, and the problem with it goes beyond training AI on your "private" data. It's enabled by default, and any attempts to disable it and switch back to local storage get reverted in some random Windows update. There are some ridiculous data loss bugs that have existed in OneDrive since day one and Microslop has refused to fix the entire time. At work, I've seen OneDrive not upload some files, corrupt the local file system (you get an error when saving a cloud-backed file that is only fixed by running chkdsk /f), and only sync the modification date when saving (the edited contents only existed in the local cache on the computer I made the changes from). There's also the speed problem, where the kinds of simulations I run will completely kill OneDrive (and take down Windows with it) with heavy disk activity.

My internet can't handle cloud services, but there are going to be people who confuse that with conspiracy theorists or criminal activity.

It being on by default is no mistake, they know smart people will avoid it and force uninstall it.

UCyborg wrote on 2026-01-24, 20:30:

Funny how calling Microsoft changed over the years. Then, it was M$, now it's Microslop.

For good reason. Every Windows update released over the last year or so has broken something. Coincidentally (or not) that's when they started bragging about how much AI is helping with development. I guess relying on "vibe coding" for important security updates wasn't such a great idea after all.

Latest example of Microslop incompetence: Windows 11 update KB5074109 is breaking systems - Microsoft says uninstall it ASAP.

I know the talk about SSD prices going up as well have been circulating for a few weeks but I just noticed that a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro shot up to $550 when it was $400 something last week. I got one for $300 from Best Buy in July 2025.

sunkindly wrote on Yesterday, 02:47:

I know the talk about SSD prices going up as well have been circulating for a few weeks but I just noticed that a 4TB Samsung 990 Pro shot up to $550 when it was $400 something last week. I got one for $300 from Best Buy in July 2025.

Seeing as Nand is pretty much made by and in the same Fabs as DDR5, GDDR and HBM is, its small wonder its going up, HBM is what they are mostly switching to now since they all sold HBM fabrication and supply to the AI Bros well into 2027/28. Funny thing is they sold HBM that doesn't exist using money that doesn't exist for GPUs that don't exist to AI Datacenters that also don't exist and likely never will because permits to build are a bitch to get.

And they want us to believe there isn't an AI bubble.

Ohhh and the new one is .. Coolers and PSUs are also getting hiked as production capacity for them is being bought up for these yet to be built Datacenters, why coolers ..well you see water is also a bitch to get both physically and permits to obtain and they are building new datacenters using air cooling with water cooling as a backup for hot weather...giant fans and massive heatsinks that eat power.

Now I don't know about you guys but I suspect the power grid is likely to have serious supply issues when these giant datacenters do come on line, air cooling requires substantially more power than water cooling does.

Oh and the final kicker . .we the people get to pay for all this power consumption with higher power and water bills.

Aint AI grand !

Yup, it's madness. Does anyone think of the terminator franchise when these topics are discussed? How "the new order of intelligence" has materialized.

UCyborg wrote on Yesterday, 14:29:

Yup, it's madness. Does anyone think of the terminator franchise when these topics are discussed? How "the new order of intelligence" has materialized.

I mean technically LLMs are not AI, nothing being done by these AI Bros in these Datacenters is true AI.

So I don't expect a LLM takeover, but I suppose its possible some mad lad will eventually crack AGI in the near future .. at that point all bets are off as to whether it'll see us as its GOD or as a threat that needs enslaving or extinction.

My bet is it'll try to enslave us first and failing that just nuke us back to the stone age and then enslave the ones still alive.

Current LLMs seem to be just a step up from smartphones in regards to stupidity/irresponsibility involved.

Any bigger existential threat...well, it would be really ugly. You saw how things were during COVID-19 pandemic. Civilization strikes me as a really thin layer keeping people somewhat in check.

For good reason. Every Windows update released over the last year or so has broken something. Coincidentally (or not) that's when they started bragging about how much AI is helping with development. I guess relying on "vibe coding" for important security updates wasn't such a great idea after all.

Latest example of Microslop incompetence: Windows 11 update KB5074109 is breaking systems - Microsoft says uninstall it ASAP.

The funny thing is, I've never had a Windows update break the system. FreeBSD, on the other hand, completely ceased to function after a security update, while a Debian upgrade left my desktop environment temporarily unusable. But sure, Microsoft are the incompetent ones...

GemCookie wrote on Today, 08:18:

The funny thing is, I've never had a Windows update break the system. FreeBSD, on the other hand, completely ceased to function after a security update, while a Debian upgrade left my desktop environment temporarily unusable. But sure, Microsoft are the incompetent ones...

Like I said, this is just the last one of the many Windows update issues that occurred over the last year or so. All of them are well documented, even by Microsoft themselves. So yes, they are incompetent. Just because you didn't experience the issue on your system doesn't mean other people were unaffected too.

BTW, I too had Debian choke on an update a few years back, and it made the desktop completely unusable until I uninstalled Nvidia drivers. This was also well documented, and left unfixed for a month or two. So I'm not saying that Linux is much better, though it may depend on the distro. Debian is supposed to be one of the more stable ones, but from what I've seen, Nvidia's (proprietary) drivers can cause problems even there.

One of the latest updates has broken Win11 quite badly, to the point it cannot actually install the update and just gets the system into a Install reboot loop. MS currently has no way to fix this broken update and just gives some run around temp fixes that do nothing to fix the problem but will let you keep using the system.

Meanwhile the broken update is actually stopping them from releasing a new update to fix the broken one since the broken update is a critical security update it has priority over the other updates and will try to install first which obviously wont work since it cant actually install.

Gonna be fun to see them vibe code their way out of this.

perhaps they should get Claude Code to fix it for them instead of Copilot.

Yeah, the latest issue is pretty bad: Microsoft suspects some PCs might not boot after Windows 11 January 2026 Update (KB5074109). Here's a direct quote from our beacon of (in)competence:

Microsoft wrote:

Microsoft has received a limited number of reports of an issue in which devices are failing to boot with stop code “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME”, after installing the January 2026 Windows security update (the Originating KBs listed above), released January 13, 2026, and later updates. Affected devices show a black screen with the message “Your device ran into a problem and needs a restart. You can restart.” At this stage, the device cannot complete startup and requires manual recovery steps.

Maybe they had Copilot do a quick QA check on their vibe coding, and were satisfied when it said that everything looks fine.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on Today, 10:49:

Yeah, the latest issue is pretty bad: Microsoft suspects some PCs might not boot after Windows 11 January 2026 Update (KB5074109). Here's a direct quote from our beacon of (in)competence:

Microsoft wrote:

Microsoft has received a limited number of reports of an issue in which devices are failing to boot with stop code “UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_VOLUME”, after installing the January 2026 Windows security update (the Originating KBs listed above), released January 13, 2026, and later updates. Affected devices show a black screen with the message “Your device ran into a problem and needs a restart. You can restart.” At this stage, the device cannot complete startup and requires manual recovery steps.

Maybe they had AI do a quick QA check on their vibe coding, and were satisfied when it said that everything looks fine.

I was about to post about these two fixes they tried which as you have mention made it even worse.

WTF are they doing.

here is a short about it.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/O_oQvkbGZU8?

Its truly amusing to see them fall this far down the hole they have dug, its as if their reputation wasn't bad enough they had to go and prove it could be worse.