• Snapz@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Feel like this may be missing needed context.

        For example, if I say, “man, I’m going to take a huge bite out of that thing!” it’s a different conversation if I’m looking at a big sandwich versus looking at a newborn baby.

        So… Anything else you might want to share about your specific statement or its focus?

  • DEADBEEF@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Microsoft has recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11. Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in June before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.

    Oh my God, they’re bringing back clippy.

  • worfamerryman@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    That’s a big nope for me.

    Internet goes out? I can still do some amount of work, now I need power and internet to both work to do any work at all.

    Not a fan of this and I will not embrace it.

  • vracker@reddthat.com
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    1 year ago

    Didn’t read the article.

    The idea of online only software irritates me. Of course multiplayer games have to work this way. When blizzard and Ubisoft started requiring an active connection for single player games that was just going too far.

    Can you imagine sitting at your computer, doing literally anything. The screen goes strait to blue with the windows shutting down screen saying, “Internet disrupted, please contact your provider for support”.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      They will have to continue to offer some kind of offline option it seems, for people with flaky internet connections.

      • towerful@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Never mind flaky internet, what about people that do events?

        Things like PowerPoint presentation machines, VJ systems, video servers (for massive multiscreen playback).
        You can’t go into a field for a festival and expect reliable internet.
        You can’t go into a theatre and expect reliable internet, especially when 3k+ people turn up.
        There are a few systems that run OSX, but Apple’s hardware doesn’t give you as much control as something like an Nvidia Quadro with sync cards. 99% of the big shows will be ran from Windows OS

  • Osayidan@social.vmdk.ca
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    1 year ago

    I guess that means more people switching to linux, assuming they eventually 100% phase out non-cloud. Not even because “cloud bad” - there will be some of that, but because of the sheer number of people who don’t pay for windows, not paying for it isn’t an option if they control it completely.

    • Lupec@lemmy.lpcha.im
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      1 year ago

      Yup, that’d also be the case for people like me who stick with Windows for gaming compatibility/convenience reasons and critical GPU features the Linux drivers just don’t implement (looking at you, DLDSR). That, or just anyone with a GPU, I suppose, assuming the hardware market would look remotely like it does nowadays by then.

      • Osayidan@social.vmdk.ca
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        1 year ago

        There’s definitely going to be a push for cloud gaming / cloud GPU + VDI, and with GPU pricing going the way nvidia is doing right now isn’t going to help prevent adoption of that.

    • FoxBJK@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Will this actually be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, or will everyone just continue to say “but I can only do this on a PC” and not even attempt to look at Linux or MacOS as an alternative.

      My moneys on the latter. People have been complaining about anti-consumer practices from Microsoft since Windows 7, but it always ends the same way. Microsoft has most of the world by the balls and they know they can squeeze tighter and tighter and not lose 99% of their customers.

      • manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech
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        1 year ago

        tbh, windows user since the 90s, tried *nix desktops since the early 00s every few years. Used to have a thing where I would force myself to use it for 6 months and it would fail again and again.

        In the last year, ive been using ubuntu (which i know isint the best desktop to use even) as a dev system on some of my work. Unlike in the past I am no longer finding an unreasonable delta between the user expectations in linux vs windows systems. I need to drop to a cli for both with ~ the same propensity once I do anything advanced. Not having a registry is a blessing I never thought I would be able to have in a rich visual system.

        Long time .NET / Azure dev - moving to linux. After all, what do you think remote windows will run under-the-covers?

        • Venutian Spring@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          That’s a pretty similar story to mine. Used Linux pretty exclusively over a decade ago, then switched back for my gaming PC. Now that I’m back on Linux though, I don’t see any reason to use windows on anything but my company PC, Linux is just better IMO now.

          • manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech
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            1 year ago

            pretty much, though my understanding is they ended up making thier own “wine” that leverages hyper-v. Seems like they are still banking on thier own hypervisor. Can’t say I blame them. no way MS hands thier ops to VMWare.

            EDIT: Honestly, I would expect NT4 based windows to be sunset within a decade in place of a linux kernel version that has a window manager developed in microsoft’s signature style. A large number of newer UWP apps will port relatively easily if already written on .NET core and microsoft has indicated they are starting to think more like apple when it comes to some levels of compatibility.

        • OneDimensionPrinter@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          As another dev here, I have barely used a PC/laptop outside of work in years. I got a gaming PC like 2 years back and don’t use it much. But every time I get the hankering for some personal dev project and have to mess with the registry I cry inside. I really need to just ditch it for Linux entirely. I’m so much more comfortable on Linux. You might just convince me to bite the bullet and remove it entirely since 90% of my gaming is on steamdeck anyway.

          • manitcor@lemmy.intai.tech
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            1 year ago

            Since WSL2 and terminal preview I have spent more time doing “nix things” than windows things anyway, I even do a lot of windows file management through ubuntu since the Linux tools are more expressive.

            Much of my day is web browser, cli and VSCode. The desktops are capable, at this point its more about getting used to a different set of keyboard shortcuts, my next build out will be a linux system for sure.

  • iax@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    Are we doing the nobody reads the article thing here too? This isn’t a replacement for Windows as an operating system, it’s a cloud based version of the OS being sold to consumers. They’re trying to compete with inexpensive Chromebooks, not take away your PC.

    • abir_vandergriff@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      As an occasional sys admin, they’ve had stuff like this for enterprise forever, it’s just self hosted. This is about as surprising as the sun coming up, they’ve been moving lots of their enterprise tech to consumer subscriptions.

    • SkyNTP
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      1 year ago

      No OS needs to be in the cloud. The moment this happens, it stops being a PC, and instead it’s just TV.

    • NightOwl@lemmy.one
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      1 year ago

      I did, but it sounds like what the headlines implied to me

      Microsoft has been increasingly moving Windows to the cloud on the commercial side with Windows 365, but the software giant also wants to do the same for consumers.

      The idea of moving Windows fully to the cloud for consumers is also presented alongside Microsoft’s need to invest in custom silicon partnerships.

      Yeah, it is fair to say it’s just an alternative option to a non cloud based OS, but some people are extrapolating based on Microsoft moves the past few years with the subscription model they’ve pushed for Office and OS coming with office versions that require you to sign in to an account to use.

      And versions of Windows that don’t come with pre-installed ad apps like Facebook or Candy Crush aren’t commercially available.

    • Duxon@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      With Chromebooks? ChromeOS is a pretty solid Linux distro if you’d ask me. It is built around cloud-sync and Google Drive, but otherwise perfectly fine to use offline. Even Steam is supported nowadays

      • CumBroth@discuss.tchncs.de
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        1 year ago

        The best thing I ever did with that one used Chromebook I bought was install Gallium OS on it. I ended up with a fully functioning laptop that was able to fulfill my mobile computing needs for $50. It’s a shame Gallium got discontinued. ChromeOS was very primitive and restrictive when I tried it 5 or 6 years ago, but you say they even support Steam now, so apparently they’ve made some improvements. Still wouldn’t want to use it over a Linux distro like Gallium that would let me have full control of the device, though.

        In case anyone reading this is interesting in alternatives to ChromeOS, more info can be found here: https://mrchromebox.tech/#alt_os

  • Storksforlegs@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    No thank you.

    Also I bet instead of a one-time license you can have the privilege of paying $9.99 a month forever or lose access to all your files. And possibly requiring an internet connection to use your desktop computer?

  • Stefen Auris@pawb.social
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    1 year ago

    Okay but what happens if you don’t have a good net connection like at the coffee shop or airports? I swear sometimes people are clueless and just assume you always have good internet when that’s not often the case!

  • NotBadAndYou@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Well of course they do. They want to turn an every-few-years OS purchase into a monthly subscription fee, like they did with O365. And eventually they’ll drop the ability to install apps except through their store (under the guise of providing “safety” from malicious apps), so that they can collect a commission on the third party software sales market as well.

    • floofloof@lemmy.caOP
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      1 year ago

      It’s depressing to see. Unfortunately I’m heavily invested in music software which is not available on Linux. If Microsoft actually does this it could get to the point where even a switch to Apple seems better. But Linux is the only satisfactory and viable solution for actually having control of your machine.

      • Evkob@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        WINE and similar tools have gotten really good in the past few years. Valve’s Proton compatibility layer is good too, despite being designed for gaming many people are using it to run software which WINE itself struggles with.

        It could very well be possible to run your music software with minimal tinkering.

  • redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com
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    1 year ago

    Microsoft has recently announced Windows Copilot, an AI-powered assistant for Windows 11. Windows Copilot sits at the side of Windows 11, and can summarize content you’re viewing in apps, rewrite it, or even explain it. Microsoft is currently testing this internally and promised to release it to testers in June before rolling it out more broadly to Windows 11 users.

    Assuming this will use OpenAI API like other Microsoft’s AI products, this is going to be expensive to operate. Subsidizing it indefinitely is surely not an option. How would Microsoft monetize it? By charging subscription like GitHub Copilot, or monetizing it somehow using users data they collected? I assume it would be the latter.

    • boonhet@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      There’s talk about Microsoft SoCs on their own products, much like Apple does the M1 SoCs.

      These Microsoft SoCs would be used in Surface devices and likely have dedicated AI hardware. Again, much like Apple.

      If we’re talking about specialized models, not one generic LLM for everything a la GPT4, they might not have to be THAT big and could run on reasonably powerful devices.

      • redcalcium@c.calciumlabs.com
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        1 year ago

        I really doubt that, at least for the next few years. “AI Assistant” usually means LLMs, and even M2 struggles to run them mostly due to large compute and RAM requirements. If Microsoft could somehow release a truly local AI assistant feature that can run on average windows users’ hardware, that would be shake the whole ML industry.

        • boonhet@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          True, but they could get the base requirements of a task using OpenAI and then use specialized models locally to do subtasks.

          Microsoft owns 49% of OpenAI, they don’t need to pay nearly as much per request as we do and the cost will likely decrease over time too.

  • Dee@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    I don’t really want to switch to Linux, Microsoft, please stop pushing me to. I will, but I’d rather not. Ffs.

      • Dee@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I tried it in the past, admittedly a long time ago, and it just wasn’t great for my workflows.

        I use Adobe products for the time being because the other available software doesn’t have the features I need quite yet. They’re getting closer year by year and I could see switching being way easier once they get more feature rich. But for right now I still need Windows for my creative programs.

          • Dee@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, that’s a more likely option for me. I’m not super keen on how locked down Apple keeps the OS but MS is getting just as bad with Windows Apps and all that nonsense. So my reason for not switching to Mac is basically price of hardware at this point.

            I would like to switch to Linux in the future though, not saying no, I just need my creative programs to work there and I’ll be golden. Because everything else I used worked mostly okay (some hiccups but that’ll happen when switching OS’s).

            • astromd@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              I don’t experience any meaningful issues either using macOS. Some parts are locked down but I don’t have any issues installing apps, running brew utilities, or using third party extensions.

            • adderaline@beehaw.org
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              there are ways of running macOS on non-Apple hardware, but it requires a fair bit of tech savvy, and you usually need to build your own machine. not sure how easy it is nowadays, but i ran a macOS desktop on a PC for years without many issues. its all linux for me now, though.

              • Dee@beehaw.org
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                1 year ago

                Oh you mean a good old fashioned hackintosh! I’m aware, but every update seemed to be a pain in the ass (experimented with that in the past too, I have about a decade of IT experience). I’d rather just get an official Mac. The hackintosh is a cool project but not something I’d want to make a daily driver. I know some people can make it work and I’m happy for them but I found it to be too fiddly.

                For anybody else interested though you can find more info at this link

              • deadcade@lemmy.deadca.de
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                1 year ago

                Not when “Intel based Macs” go out of support. There is no way to run the M1/2 MacOS version without having Apple hardware.

                • adderaline@beehaw.org
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                  yeah. the proprietary nonsense is what pushed me over to linux in the first place, and that was before they started with their super special ARM chips. RISC-V is still on the horizon, though! hopefully open source ISA will prevail in the decades to come.

    • Venutian Spring@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Give Linux Mint a try. It is very similar to Windows and will make the transition very smooth. Pretty much any windows programs that you want to run you can run in a shell like Wine.

      • Dee@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        I like Mint and I tried Ubuntu, Debian and even Arch way back in the day just for funsies. I’m not unfamiliar with Unix based systems, I just use creative programs and that is Linux’s biggest Achilles’ heel. The alternatives to Adobe software just don’t have the features I need yet. They’re getting there but at this time it would be a rough transition.

        • Venutian Spring@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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          1 year ago

          Not sure what Adobe products you’re using, or in what application, but I do photography as a hobby and do my editing on my linux machines. Rawtherapee and DarkTable are good alternatives to lightroom, with Gimp being a very good alternative to Photoshop. Gimp is getting better all the time, but Darktable already is a stronger editor than Lightroom.

          Haven’t tried any video editing alternatives (not my thing), but these programs have the added benefit of being free.

          • Dee@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            GIMP is still hot garbage imo, you can do a lot with it but it has a looong way to go before being comparable to Photoshop. It was only last year in 2022 they added CMYK support, that’s insane to me.

            I’m not saying it won’t get to the feature rich state I’m looking for, but it’s got a long way to go. I’m not going to be able to switch from Photoshop for a while. If I did, Affinity is a better program for that but even that is missing a lot of features in comparison. Only for now though, I’m looking forward to the future of these programs.

            • 🦊 OneRedFox 🦊@beehaw.org
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              1 year ago

              GIMP still doesn’t have non-destructive editing; I can’t imagine doing any serious image work with it. If FOSS wants a Photoshop alternative, then devs need to add more image manipulation stuff to Krita.

      • zurohki@lemmy.fmhy.ml
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        1 year ago

        Me too.

        I originally intended to do a pcie passthrough setup with a second video card and use a Windows VM for gaming, but then DXVK hit and it just wasn’t necessary. The Windows games I cared about worked under Linux so I never got around to it.