Man, Microsoft doubling down on the whole “Let’s force most of our customers to purchase entirely new computers to use the next release!” strategy after it went so well for Windows 11 is just hilarious. Especially with hardware costs skyrocketing due to AI BS.
CPU NPU requirements will mean longer support necessity for Windows 11.
If they go ahead with subscriptions, demand will certainly add additional demand for that. But I guess subscriptions would be to cover copilot cost. Given Microsoft’s interest in people upgrading to eventually reduce support surface, I have to assume it will be optional, for AI features. Following that reasoning, the NPU requirement may be optional too, only applicable to the AI features block.
But who knows, the whole thing is not driven by reasonable business decisions anyway.
Also, I had no idea there was a “gaming copilot”. Even after following links to the introduction news, I don’t get what it really does.
Imagine using windows in 2026
For all the people on here quick to mock others for being gullible enough to fall for AI-generated slop, this is embarrassing.
Linux.
Jesus Christ.
The Microslop train doesn’t stop. It doesn’t falter. It doesn’t slow.
Microslop gon give it to ya.
How can anyone upgrade to a new PC when there is no Ram or hard disks available? This is a crazy time to try to push that.
I think this highlights Microsoft’s inability to connect with its customers even more than the AI and shit.
They really just do not give a shit about the consumer, at all.
Its insane people put up with it on their own personal machines I get for work or whatever.
They replaced their customer sales people with AI. Then AI decides the best use of hardware is on more AI…
The infernal machine devours itself.
The truth is that you and I are not their customer. The business to business sales are their primary concern, and many companies would be fine forking over a little extra cash for the “AI operating system”.
The average home user is an afterthought.
Agreed. I think it has gotten worse over time. Operating systems for consumer PCs are a mature market and they don’t really have commercial rivals. It’s Mac, Windows, or Linux and most people never really consider Linux. So, they use Windows to push their other products and not so much as a product in itself.
I’ll be the one to say it: switch to Linux
I guess you’ll just need to convert to proprietary cloud services
Never correct your enemy while they are making an error. :D
If it is AI based I guarantee it will be subscription based. That could push me over the edge to some Linux variant.
It’s easier than you might think. Check out Debian with KDE Plasma frontend. It’s similar enough to Windows that it finally pushed me over to Linux.
Honestly, unless you’re a huge League of Legends fan, just do it.
Linux
I’ll take this as a sign to continue converting as many of my friends and family to whichever Linux distro fits them best.
I should get an AMD gpu at some point. Fuck MicroSlop.
Honest question. As someone who has used and loved MacOS for many years, what would be the best Linux distro for me?
For a new user, the most important things are usually a familiar feeling desktop environment, comprehensive default hardware support, and plenty of documentation in case you need it. The most important anti-things are needing to learn a bunch of new concepts right away, needing to use the command line, and experimental things that are known to break regularly.
Since you’re a Mac user, I would suggest KDE over Gnome for a desktop environment. Even though the default Gnome application bar looks very Mac-like and the default bar on KDE looks very windows-like, the rest of the KDE desktop feels much more Mac-like.
For the rest, you will want to use a common distro with a wide user base and a long history targeted at desktop users.
For those reasons, I would suggest either Kubuntu, or Fedora KDE.
Edit: When picking between those two, choose Kubuntu is you want to install the OS, and then not worry about major updates for several years. Pick Fedora if you want to have new features more often.
If you are ok with a more Windows-like desktop environment, Linux Mint is the go to option for an easy intro to Linux.
Stick with MacOS, Apple isn’t shitting the bed nearly as hard as MS(lop). If you really want to switch, Mint is nice as a starter, and Bazzite, while intended for gaming, is mich, much more solid than I expected and is totally usable as a daily driver.
Have you used the latest macOS 26? The UI is terrible and constant bugs and glitches with the new liquid glass look.
If you’re used to the UI and UX of Mac OS and not Windows then almost any distro will be rough. There’s Elementary OS that at surface level looks like Mac OS, but then you use the actual Linux programs and they’re just Linux programs.
I would sugest debian, it has the same “just works”-feel to it, and the gnome desktop environment shares some design philosophy with macos. The main downside is that it is often a couple of years behind on software updates. Is this is a dealbreaker, I recommend mint for all, fedora when you need redhat-only software and debian-sid if you feel adventurous.
All that said, if you have a good mac currently, it has the same UNIX-benefits as linux. Using “homebrew” as a package manager and “better touch tool” for the desktop tweaks solves most problems, this is what I do. You may of course want to run linux only software, if this is you then double check if you also need an x86-64 cpu (as opposed to arm) before reinstalling.
I think the most popular one is similar- Ubuntu
Sloperating System
Petition to call Microsoft employees Sloppy Joes
They haven’t even gotten everyone into 11 yet. They are tossing out another OS? Seems, dare I say, sloppy.
They’ve always done this. People are still using XP two decades post release, and a decade past it’s EOL.
@oh_ @commander it was the same with me, vista, 8… until now was version ok, version shit, version ok again… I suspect it will become version shit from now on… with games working on linux good luck getting the ones that are lefting going back
Well thats a stupid plan. Microsoft has lost their minds with Windows
For consumer grade yes, I look forward to seeing more people choose anything else (even Apple). For enterprise, lol, they have every Dell or HP house in the world by the balls. Atleast they ensured system admins have more job security (not lime that was in short supply anyway)
The funny thing about this is that the biggest customers can’t usually just switch. If a system is set, it is set for decades, generations or the entire company lifetime.
So microslop may start feeling part of the impact way further along the line, and wouldn’t be able to do shit about it
Kind of, same assholes trying to replace us with AI.
Not you entirely- they’d just like to replace your currently functioning mind with one that can only regurgitate factual inaccuracies while continuing your subscription.
Hopefully, SteamOS Desktop will be in the wild and shaked off any teething issues. I want to switch to an OS that is suitable for a power-casual. If it looks like a 2nd American Civil War or WW3 is on, I might switch early to Cachy.
If your a power-casual then why are you waiting for Steam OS? You realize that any distro with steam installed is basically Steam OS?
Because I want a 800lb gorilla to perpetually support my gaming distro, working Nvidia drivers, have enough freedom to use mods and whatnot, documentation suitable for people who aren’t terminal-brained, and so forth. Valve is the kind of company that can tick these boxes, simply through sheer inertia.
I tried Mint back in early 2025. It wasn’t quite right for my purposes, so I wanted to wait for something friendlier. Just because I can do stuff if I put in elbow grease, doesn’t mean that I want to be an expert at fiddling with penguins.
Outside of what’s essentially steam big picture mode, steamOS is just an immutable arch, there’s not much support from valve for desktop mode use, you still need to know how to linux, particularly containerized programs.
The GabeCube is going to be console-like first with linux desktop features a side-thought. Mess around with a steam deck sometime so you can know what to expect. I love mine but doing anything outside of the big picture mode does have a learning curve.
