A PR disaster: Microsoft has lost trust with its users, and Windows Recall is the straw that broke the camel's back ( www.windowscentral.com )

It's a nightmare scenario for Microsoft. The headlining feature of its new Copilot+ PC initiative, which is supposed to drive millions of PC sales over the next couple of years, is under significant fire for being what many say is a major breach of privacy and security on Windows. That feature in question is Windows Recall, a new AI tool designed to remember everything you do on Windows. The feature that we never asked and never wanted it.

Microsoft, has done a lot to degrade the Windows user experience over the last few years. Everything from obtrusive advertisements to full-screen popups, ignoring app defaults, forcing a Microsoft Account, and more have eroded the trust relationship between Windows users and Microsoft.

It's no surprise that users are already assuming that Microsoft will eventually end up collecting that data and using it to shape advertisements for you. That really would be a huge invasion of privacy, and people fully expect Microsoft to do it, and it's those bad Windows practices that have led people to this conclusion.

58008 ,
@58008@lemmy.world avatar

I wish Linux weren't completely fucking impenetrable for casual users.

Gormadt ,
@Gormadt@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

It's gotten a lot better over the years

When I first tried it (back in 2010) it was pretty rough all around but after trying it again recently due to the whole TPM requirement for Windows 11 I've found it to be really straight forward

Linux Mint is really user friendly and is what I've even put on my grandma's pc

krashmo ,

Your grandma probably hates the fact that you did though. There's a small chance that's not the case but I'd be shocked if she hadn't complained about it many times to other people.

ParetoOptimalDev ,

People who don't understand what an OS is typically use linux mint fine because they just open chrome or Firefox.

zbb ,

Even the casual Zoom meeting is a breeze because of the Flatpak client.

Rolder ,

So you need a whole ass sandbox program just to run Zoom? Hm.

Rekorse ,

You keep making posts that made sense or were accurate 5-15 years ago, thats why you keep getting downvoted.

Pretend you know nothing about linux, and go and try something like Mint, and youll likely have an experience that mirrors the people downvoting you.

Rolder ,

You say that but at the same time there’s a linuxmemes post in my feed right now where people are joking about how broken drivers require an OS reinstall so you know

Rekorse ,

Well why dont you go into that thread and ask those people when the last time that happened was, or how often it happens.

You might just be taking a very old meme too seriously.

Rolder ,

Very old meme that was posted 5 hours ago as of the time of my original comment, hmm

Rekorse , (edited )

Memes get reposted, that one is pretty old.

Also there are distros that are more volatile, but all of the most popular ones are extremely dummy proof and intuitive. See Pop_OS!, EndeavourOS, or Mint for example.

andrew_bidlaw ,
@andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works avatar

It's just a little different nowadays. Like the other user said, they just don't know they have a choice or what to choose and follow whatever they know...

And what was one of the early bolsheviks' regime strongest points? They created schools and made people literate en masse, and did it with their own curriculum. People became less suspective to ex elites and religious propaganda, and became their target audience.

Adobe, Google, MS give discounts and special programs for education because this way people get used to their products. Many local organizations that touch these casual users don't have a real IT department and just flow with what's given, they don't make an informed choice like corporations. And that's probably the place where this switch may even start to begin. A class of students who started with e.g. KDE Plasma would be used to it more than they used to Windows, same with other software. They can already do their homework and play most games. What else do they need?

The sharp corner is to find money to fund select schools to show others it's not scary and makes it even cheaper for them in the long run, maybe some special troubleshooting team to teach them the ropes. I've heard from some users there and on reddit that their computer classes with a geeky teacher who installed Linux is how they've rolled in without a problem.

afraid_of_zombies ,

Just think they might go from owning 98% of the market to 97% of the market. I am sure this is a nightmare for them.

widw ,

You just wait and see. I'll bet it goes all the way down to 96 and then they'll really be sorry.

Crashumbc ,

Year of the Linux destktop!

mojofrododojo ,

MS's frequent missteps - win11, total recall, ai inescapable etc., - may just finally catch up with them. While they continue to devour game studios and shut them down for irrational reasons, who knows?

Stop being so negative and open your mind. Hell, MS did, you can use bash on the command line now. Times do change.

Tryptaminev ,

Gradual shifts can snowball into huge shifts. a few years ago Linux gaming only existed for the dedicated crowd, that somehow managed to make it work. Now for many it is no different from their Windows experience for most games, sometimes even better.

Think of it like bubbles pressing against each other. It matters not only how much pressure your own bubble has, but also how much pressure the other bubbles have in finding the equilibrium. The Windows bubble isn't only weakening itself, the Linux bubble is getting stronger and stronger

c0ber ,

i assume you mean that sarcastically but that is a nightmare for them and every bit of lost marketshare makes it easier to lose more

phoenixz ,

And yet again, install Linux. Leave Microsoft behind

CaptPretentious ,

You mean like Ubuntu , who put adds in as well.

Tywele ,
@Tywele@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Choose a different distro then.

CaptPretentious ,

That's not a valid argument.

So someone looking to buy a new machine has a few options. They have MacOS, Windows, Chromebook, or Linux. And there's a high probability that when they're at a shop be it online or in person looking for a Linux machine it's probably going to be Ubuntu.

You don't get to tell the user, "well you picked the wrong distro, lol" when all they wanted was something that runs the software and hardware they want. The vast majority of users want something that just works, not have to become some expert.

And also, it's rather dismissive, I show an example of Linux doing the same thing that Apple and Microsoft do... Ubuntu is still Linux.

mypasswordis1234 ,
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

Users have the right to choose the Linux distribution that best suits their needs. Different Linux distributions offer different features and user experiences. To downplay these differences and claim that all distributions are the same is ignorant. Anyone who wants to get the most out of Linux should be aware of the wealth of options available.

It's like buying shoes - if someone says they're too tight, you can say, “You picked the wrong size, lol.” Each pair of shoes is different in many ways.

So, if you can't understand that different Linux distributions provide different experiences, it's better for you to stick with Windows, which offers a uniform experience, and not argue about it.

CaptPretentious ,

To downplay these differences and claim that all distributions are the same is ignorant. Anyone who wants to get the most out of Linux should be aware of the wealth of options available.

That's the definition of not being user friendly. And it's not like shoes. Because trying on a pair of shoes takes minutes, at a store that generally has hundreds of shoes available. And shoes literally do one thing. Your average user does not have nor want to spend nights and weekends troubleshooting the distro they're 'trying out' to see if it works best, then to continue troubleshooting it down the road.

But I do like how you ignored a lot of what of what I said, because it didn't fit your response. Because unlike you apparently, I think of people besides myself. You also make wild assumptions about me. Should I show you my RHEL installation? CentOS? My Debian servers... I have dedicated hardware and VMs. And I also run Windows. Do I get to have an argument now... do I pass your weird gatekeeping threshold?

And that's still not addressing the circle jerk where far to many people put linux on some pedestal, worship it, and assume their better than everyone because "btw, I use arch". Like every distro isn't going to try to milk as much money out of it as they can if they think they can get away with it. Ubuntu is the most approachable distro (that I'm aware of) and often gets suggested, especially to new uses. Linux is not immune to the problems that plague MacOS or Windows.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

As expected, there is no evidence that this is "the straw that broke the camel's back". Don't waste your time reading this article.

MS has been doing this kind of shit for decades and their market share has never changed significantly.

Was it stupid? Yeah. Are people upset? Sure. Is anyone going to do anything about it? No, because the vast majority don't care or they would have stopped using it a long time ago.

Weslee ,

I'm using windows 11 and after hearing about recall and all the other shit they've done, I've finally decided to make the jump to Linux

So for atleast me, this was the final straw

fluckx ,

I had dabbled in gaming on Linux but never made the jump. After reading about recall I spent a week making my choice on OS of choice ( and then I switched a week after :') ).

I'm fully on Linux now. Even if they fully back down from windows recall I dont need an OS that's trying to sell me something based on whatever I do in it.

It was my final straw as well.

Edit: and it hasn't really been bad either. The shader compilation after every gfx driver update is a bit annoying. That's about it.

I'll probably run into something at one point. Like some anti cheat that doesn't work and is preventing me from playing the game.

Macaroni_ninja ,
@Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world avatar

Im in similar scenario. Which distro you decided on?

fluckx ,

I ended up with nobara ( KDE ). Though if i had to reinstall I might give bazzite a go.

No hate for nobara though. It's working fine gaming wise. Had a gfx issue once after an update, which was resolved by just running the nobara system updater.

I have some issues getting devpods to work. But that is completely unrelated to gaming :D

sgtgig ,

A couple people recommended Fedora spins but I'd recommend just sticking with the big distros (that have up-to-date graphics drivers readily available - so not Debian.) A lot of the gaming-focused distros are only saving you a few terminal commands and increase your risk of running into issues; they're good, but they may not be as 100% stable as you'll find in major long-running distros like Fedora or Mint.

I have settled on Fedora with KDE Plasma. Here's basically everything I copy pasted for gaming:

# install steam, discord, nvidia drivers
sudo dnf install https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/free/fedora/rpmfusion-free-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm https://mirrors.rpmfusion.org/nonfree/fedora/rpmfusion-nonfree-release-$(rpm -E %fedora).noarch.rpm -y
sudo dnf config-manager --enable fedora-cisco-openh264 -y
sudo dnf update -y
sudo dnf install steam discord akmod-nvidia xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda

# install bluetooth Xbox driver
sudo dnf install git dkms
cd /tmp
git clone https://github.com/atar-axis/xpadneo.git && cd xpadneo
sudo ./install.sh

I also had to enable Legacy X11 App Support through the settings gui so that Discord could receive push to talk presses without having focus.

Macaroni_ninja ,
@Macaroni_ninja@lemmy.world avatar

Sweet, thanks. I want to start something straightforward and so far Mint looks very promising.

Weslee ,

Which distro did you end up on? I've been looking into them and after using steamos on my deck, I think I will go with Bazzite kde

fluckx ,

I ended up with nobara. I might give bazzite a go at one point, but more out of interest. Nobara is treating me just fine!

Bulletdust ,

Edit: and it hasn't really been bad either. The shader compilation after every gfx driver update is a bit annoying. That's about it.

If it's shader compilation under Steam, turn it off in settings. With advancements in graphics drivers and Proton, it really isn't needed anymore.

I disabled it about 12 months ago and haven't noticed any difference in performance whatsoever.

fluckx ,

Huh. Interesting. I'll give that a try too then :)

where_am_i ,

Some, maybe 1-2% of Windows users keep yelling "I'ma switch to Linux". They then try it for a few days and give up.

You didn't matter in the first place, but also you will most likely not make a successful transition anyways.

Delonix ,

Crab

Adderbox76 ,

I get that. And, playing the devil's advocate here....what happens in a couple of years when the time comes to purchase a new Laptop/desktop that comes pre-installed with Windows? Will your current ire and consternation hold up until then, meaning you'll take the effort...long after this current "trust crisis" is over...to install Linux once again. Or, with this current scandal a faint memory from a few years back, will you just kind of shrug and say "Hey...it's there, I might as well just go with it."

I mean no offense, and I by know means want to presume your answer here. But I'd be willing to bet 90% of the people who, in a pique of ire, replace their current windows with a linux distro, won't bother to do the same when they purchase a new laptop down the road.

lightnsfw ,

Installing Linux is a pretty trivial process at this point. Not much additional work beyond what already comes with setting up a new laptop. Especially of you've already done it before.

jaybone ,

Unless it’s arch lol.

kava ,

But I'd be willing to bet 90% of the people who, in a pique of ire, replace their current windows with a linux distro, won't bother to do the same when they purchase a new laptop down the road.

Linux is superior to Windows. Not only do I get more done and faster, I enjoy the process much more. For example, you know AHK? That useful application on Windows where you can make macros?

Well, on base Fedora you have an AHK built right into the system without any modification and you can use shell scripts- aka a real language instead of the wonky AHK language.

That's one example. I can list them off rapid fire but I'd just write a wall of text unnecessarily.

My point is just that Linux is better. I don't use Linux because it's cool or interesting or I'm a hobbyist or anything like that. I use it because it's the better option for the things I do on my computer.

That may be different for you. If you are a graphic designer or a music producer that may be different. But I'm usually in a terminal and Unix is the superior terminal. Windows terminal is such a joke they literally had to port in the Linux terminal through WSL

IzzyScissor ,

the vast majority don’t care or they would have stopped using it a long time ago

It's a little disingenuous to claim people should've stopped using something that hasn't come to market yet. I was looking for other options when they started trying to force me to upgrade to Windows 11, but this absolutely is the last straw that I won't use Windows on my next computer.

octopus_ink ,

the vast majority don’t care or they would have stopped using it a long time ago

Try reading the sentence with this implied bit explicitly added. I'm pretty sure this is what was intended, and is why you are getting the response you are.

the vast majority don’t care (about Microsoft's continuous bullshit) or they would have stopped using it a long time ago

The bit I added is communicated by the context from the preceeding sentence in the original comment:

MS has been doing this kind of shit for decades and their market share has never changed significantly.

egeres ,
@egeres@lemmy.world avatar

I do think that the concept of recall is very interesting, I want to explore a FOSS version where you have complete ownership of your data in a secure manner

JasSmith ,

Yeah the concept is pretty damn cool. It's just horrifying to have a company own and control that data. I suspect this is like Xbox One launch disaster in 2013, in which Microsoft initially required all consoles to have an always-online connection. People rebelled, but today and certainly on our current trajectory, it now looks like Microsoft was just a little ahead of the curve. I think people will eventually become a lot more comfortable with companies owning their data because the benefits will be so enormous. I'm not happy about that future, but I think I understand it.

Hackworth ,

It seems to me that we've reached a crossroads. I've been very aware of the data mining, garden walls, data trading, privacy violations, security issues, ownership issues, etc. - for roughly 30 years. I regularly make the choice to be exploited for the benefits I extract, largely because the data they've gotten from me thus far I don't highly value. But the necessity to develop strategies to keep the devil's bargain beneficial has reached a fevered pitch. I want to train my own AI and public AIs. I want to explore the vast higher dimensional semantic spaces of generative models without API charges. APIs are vanishing as we speak, anyway, companies fearful of their data being extracted without compensation. Can't really sit on the Open/Closed fence anymore.

elias_griffin ,
@elias_griffin@lemmy.world avatar

OH, it was been a long time coming seeing this type of headline again, it's....glorius!

Microsoft is most years a #1 and sometimes a #2 Funder of: Rust, Python, and Linux. Are those destined for an E^3 "rug pull" too? Will it ever stop this kind of behavior, consistently conforming our behavior to itself with the money and industry position it leverages?

Don't forget in calculating that industry position that OpenAI is now able to contract to the DoD for offensive capability.

kilgore_trout ,
@kilgore_trout@feddit.it avatar

Linux is not dependent on money, they have no influence over it.

Warl0k3 , (edited )

While the influence is much smaller than with windows or apple, it's still there. Linux is hardened against capitalism, but if we start believing that it has no influence we set ourselves up for Debian Pro+ in the future. Just because it's good now doesn't mean it capitalism can't shit all over it faster than we believe possible...

NutWrench ,
@NutWrench@lemmy.world avatar

This. "Embrace. Extend. Extinguish." has been Microsoft's mantra for a long time, now. Folks need to recognize the signs that their favorite things are being targeted before they get ruined.

bluewing ,

Oh you sweet innocent. Major distros like Ubuntu and RedHat already are peddling open source AI for their enterprise customers.

Debian Pro+ is here and has been for a while...........

kilgore_trout ,
@kilgore_trout@feddit.it avatar

But Debian still stands, and is not going anywhere.

bluewing ,

So does Slack. But while they are 2 of the foundational distros, neither is the first go to choice of the average user. Neither distro caters to the mainstream user. If you are choosing either of those two distros, you are definitely old school and/or are looking for a solution to problem that is perhaps more of an edge case.

Cosmicomical ,

I don't want to be the guy that always says Linux, but...
...Linux

dumpsterlid ,

It is okay to be the person that always recommends Linux, especially if you are a kind person with the patience to explain things to people in approachable terms (and you don’t just scream at people SOMEBODY ALREADY ASKED THIS QUESTION USE SEARCH whenever a newbie walks in the door and asks the obvious questions a newbie would ask).

Now is the time, Linux is pulled up out front waiting to pick us up (with bags packed) and Microsoft is loudly shitting the bed upstairs, NOW is the time to walk straight out the front door, jump in the car with Linux and never look back. We owe it to Microsoft’s long relationship with consumers to leave Microsoft sitting confused on the porcelain throne wondering why they were abandoned and where all the toilet paper is (we are the toilet paper in this metaphor).

FilthyCheese ,

Most people aren't going to bother when the specific software they want to use aren't supported.

explodicle ,

Microsoft has been relying on that for >20 years now and it's starting to show signs of strain.

FilthyCheese ,

I've heard this before.

explodicle ,

So you don't think there's a straw breaking the camel's back?

FilthyCheese ,

I think people are happy to eat shit. They'll complain about it, sure. But they'll slurp it up like ice cream.

Otherwise, MTX heavy games wouldn't be rewarded so heavily.

Early on, you'll see some movement. Some people will transfer to Linux - most will go back. A bunch of outraged threads.

But it will die down. People will just accept it. They always do. They always will.

Cosmicomical ,

Well they said the same about AI and at some point it became true enough to be a problem

FilthyCheese ,

I'm trying to see a correlation.

Cosmicomical ,

True but there is less and less stuff that you cannot do properly on linux.

Cosmicomical ,

SOMEBODY ALREADY ASKED THIS QUESTION USE SEARCH

I don't understand this approach, if you don't want to answer, just don't answer. Why would you waste time writing that you won't answer?

Sawzall ,

I will not answer this. Just search.

Cosmicomical ,

I thought you were a search engine.

I_Miss_Daniel ,

Yeah but there's like 20 of them, and many are half-baked. How is a n00b to choose one?

CaptPretentious ,

This is status quo for every large corporation. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, EVERY SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM, Roku.... They all, ALL, push boundaries to see what they can get away with to not only sell you something, but also make you the thing they sell. Sometimes they're bold enough to make it public what they're doing, sometimes, it's a leak that happens when people find out how little the company actually cares about it's users (Apple, so many user data leaks).

Shelbyeileen ,
@Shelbyeileen@lemmy.world avatar

My bigger concern is that almost every company now has it in their contracts/terms of services, that all users are not allowed to participate in a lawsuit, be it class action, or court case against them Most of them even have a maximum sue limit too! There's a lot that have a rule that initial arbitration cannot have a lawyer, but that won't be enforced.

Aecosthedark ,

Is that a valid and enforceable clause though, even if i clicked "i agree"?

asdfasdfasdf ,

It should be illegal to include unenforceable clauses in any TOS or contract since it deceitfully implies it means something.

TheOakTree ,

I love it when Apple pushes advertising that touts their focus on privacy... when in reality, they're breaching user privacy in all the ways that every other company does.

dan ,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

A big reason Apple focuses on privacy and apps not being able to track the user is because they want to keep all that data for themselves. None of the restrictions they've introduced apply to first-party apps. It gives them ad targeting data that no other company can collect. They do have their own ad network (for things like ads in the App Store), and last I heard, they wanted to expand it.

AWittyUsername ,

Apple ensures its operating systems are clean, polished, and without bloat.

Except for all the uninstallable Apple bloat such as Apple Music, Apple TV, etc. And the numerous bugs and issues, such as still not being able to have the touch pad and mouse scroll wheel have different settings.

echodot ,

I remember when everyone was complaining about how terrible Safari is. The lead developer started having a go and ranting on Twitter, saying that raising bug reports is not constructive feedback.

That was a mess.

dan ,
@dan@upvote.au avatar

Safari is still a pain for frontend developers to deal with. At least IE6 was a static target and we were well aware of all the bugs. Some of the bugs and workarounds even had names, like the "peekaboo bug" and the Holly Hack".

Safari is a moving target that has so many bugs and issues that none of the other major browsers have.

ripcord ,
@ripcord@lemmy.world avatar

Yeah, the main takeaway here is "Apple Bad"

weststadtgesicht ,

The main takeaway of this article about Microsoft's horrible decisions is "Apple bad"? OS flame wars really haven't gotten less ridiculous in the past decades...

moon ,

No it's that Linux is good

billwashere ,

Apple is not blameless but they are a shit-ton better than Microsoft. I have to have M$ for a few work apps but I’m primarily MacOS for desktop and Linux for everything server-side. I avoid M$ as much as possible.

AWittyUsername ,

I agree. But everyone acts like Apple's shit doesn't stink.

ZILtoid1991 ,

Don't forget the fact they're locked onto luxury hardware, and you can't build your own flavor for it. Even worse is, notebook manufacturers copied them so much there's less variations among them. I was looking for some "subnotebook" as a potential portable PC, but I had like a few options (many of which would have included AliExpress junk), but there's an endless supply of same-looking 14-16" ones, that are thin ("real" portability according to techbros), lightweight, "desktop replacements", and run at a constant 95°C.

NutWrench ,
@NutWrench@lemmy.world avatar

I finally switched to Linux Mint a week ago. I've just had enough of Microsoft and I couldn't think of any more reasons why I shouldn't switch.

I've got Libre Office for all my productivity needs. All my Steam games work under Linux. My VPN works just fine. Firefox for web browsing. Thunderbird for email. And Wine to run those 1-2 Windows programs that I just can't do without.

mypasswordis1234 ,
@mypasswordis1234@lemmy.world avatar

You might try OnlyOffice 😄

bluewing ,

Hey, I replace LibreOffice on my Linux installs every time with OnlyOffice. I don't really need a full up office suite anymore. And I find OnlyOffice is a bit simpler and easier to use. But it's not for everybody.

Plus, it keeps me away from trusting Google Docs.......

joe_cool ,

vpn with network manager is amazing. All my client's vpn solutions just work. On windows I needed 5-6 different vpn clients that bluescreen each other on Linux I need zero proprietary software.

dmtalon ,

Ya, a PR nightmare for the next 15 minutes until the next unbelievable thing comes along and the ADD nature of people forgets windows is watching everything they do.

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

That's usually what I think too, but after watching how Twitter's gone to shit since the two big user departures, I think this could legitimately affect Microsoft's bottom line.

Voytrekk ,
@Voytrekk@lemmy.world avatar

That will rely on businesses moving away from Windows. That is where they make a ton of their money with Enterprise licenses and Office 365 subscriptions.

Infynis ,
@Infynis@midwest.social avatar

And businesses don't give a shit about their employees' privacy

Starkstruck ,

They do care about keeping their company secrets and proprietary info though. Recall could make corporate espionage a cake walk.

n0pe ,

If you look at sysadmin forums and groups it seems like most recommend disabling recall. Just about every enterprise will have confidentiality, security, or legislative requirements that recall is simply inconsistent with. It's understandably been a hot topic.

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

Yup. It'll depend on how they handle Recall at the institutional level.

It's a given that hospitals and law firms will have to turn it off, as they're required by law to honor privilege. We'll see what choices they make.

I find the nosedive in Twitter's stock price these last few years encouraging. It seems for many there is a red line.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Twitter is a great example of the exact opposite being true. Are people upset? Absolutely. Did they leave the platform? Nope. Maybe a small percentage.

FlashMobOfOne ,
@FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world avatar

Respectfully, it's not.

The user departures, and response to further enshittify, have driven their stock price into the ground.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

What user departures? The platform has barely dipped. Stock prices are meaningless.

bufalo1973 ,
@bufalo1973@lemmy.ml avatar

X is the one telling the number of X users. Do you really trust Melon to tell the truth?

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

You're assuming my source is Musk.

Confused_Emus ,

So far in this thread only one person has actually shared a source of any kind. Care to share with the class?

Powerpoint ,

Twitter definitely lost a ton of users and tons continue to leave. That's why advertisers have pulled out and their stock price has tanked. Twitter is a bad example

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

Twitter definitely lost a ton of users and tons continue to leave.

Define "tons"? As a percentage, it is miniscule, and it remains the place where politicians, companies and other entities make public announcements. It's also, for some reason, the only platform supported for customer support from various companies.

metaldream ,

lol, literally just making stuff up. Their number of active users dropped by 15-20% since Elmo took over: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2024/mar/26/twitter-usage-in-us-fallen-by-a-fifth-since-elon-musks-takeover

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

It’s X.

Stop deadnaming X.

Anyone still clinging to the remnants of its former existence, please close your account. Stop kidding yourself.

helenslunch ,
@helenslunch@feddit.nl avatar

I'll never NOT call it Twitter, and you can't make me.

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

You say that but deep down you know it’s Elon Musk’s X now. The dream is no more. You’re an X’er Harry!

AlligatorBlizzard ,

I'll stop deadnaming Twitter when Musk stops deadnaming his trans daughter.

And for the record, I've never used Twitter. It's always kinda sucked. Now it really sucks.

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

Musk is a complete shithead and that’s not gonna happen.

Calling it Twitter is only going to accommodate the people that refuse to get off that nazi network.

Cause you know Musk gets off on the hate of people still calling it Twitter, exactly because how he treats deadnaming.

blind3rdeye ,

What's X? Is that the older version of Wayland or something?

BroBot9000 ,
@BroBot9000@lemmy.world avatar

It’s a shittier version of Mastodon but for right wing lunatics and russian bots.

dmtalon ,

I believe the biggest thing that will hurt MS is moving to subscription. The vast majority of users aren't gonna wanna have a forever fee when they buy a laptop/PC

dinckelman ,

A lot of people would have huge bursts of negativity about this, but at the same time remain stubborn enough to not even consider evaluating alternatives. Microsoft and Apple spent decades making sure this would work

dmtalon ,

For now at least, I block as much telemetry at the network level (DNS level) using pihole.

Annoys my wife and kid at times. I try to explain why and what it means but convenience is king unfortunately.

dinckelman ,

My mom only really browses the web, writes emails, and edits and occasional document. I've given her my old XPS 9350, with Fedora installed on it, and she's been very happy with it. Keeps saying that everything just makes sense, and when she needs something, it's easy to find. She's far from tech savvy, but not completely clueless either

dmtalon ,

That's cool!

jaschen ,

Um.... I actually want this feature. Maybe if its FOSS and I own the data. But the idea is amazing.

piecat ,

It's like some of the Pokemon games where it tells you what you did. Seriously amazing, but yeah needs to be FOSS and secure.

palordrolap ,

Borrowing from something I saw elsewhere: Set up a task / cron job / whatever it is on your OS that takes a full screenshot every minute and then sends it to Microsoft's AI team.

Or save it to a drive or something, I'm not the boss here. And neither is Microsoft.

Hadriscus ,

Screencap and screencapture programs have existed forever, just use any, it's not a new idea

jaschen ,

I think you misunderstand what Recall actually does. It takes images of your screen and then you can query it. Images, text, graphs, etc.

"Hey, I was working on an automation for my home assistant and it stopped working. I had an automation that worked about 6 months ago. Can you pull that automation up and show me"

"My boss showed me a slide about a month ago talking about the TPS report, can you pull that up and show me that slide deck?"

The use case is endless.

Hadriscus ,

Oh my... Ok right I didn't realize the extent of it. It's a total nightmare

EnderMB ,

Outside of the "Microsoft bad" comments, this is a prime example of why big tech companies need to stop promoting AI leads to a position where they are able to have influence over initiatives outside of AI.

The worst thing to happen to basically every product/service in tech right now is AI. It's made Google unreliable in the eyes of normal people for the first time in decades, it's destroying trust in Amazon content across reviews and Kindle, it's adding features to Facebook that no one ever wanted, etc.

TheGrandNagus , (edited )

And the annoying thing is, this tech can be exceptionally useful when it's actually been implemented thoughtfully.

Effortlessly cleaning up audio recordings using AI tooling is incredible, for example. There are audio recordings that I've been able to make sound great that previously would've required me to make some calls and ask for a bunch of re-recordings and added days of delays to a project.

AI in image recognition to vastly speed up medical imaging diagnosis, or analysing lab work? Amazing. Asking unpaid medical students to laboriously pore over thousands of images sounds like a nightmare.

Better offline translation? Sign me the fuck up.

Image description for the visually impaired, like my sister? Genuinely life changing. A lot of content online isn't properly tagged, or has zero attention placed on accessibility.

The list goes on. Unfortunately, with big tech being as they are, their first thoughts turn to "which implementations of AI will aid us the most in scraping userdata and showing ads?"

octopus_ink ,

The list goes on. Unfortunately, with big tech being as they are, their first thoughts turn to “which implementations of AI will aid us the most in scraping userdata and showing ads?”

Don't forget making sure the peons can squeeze out more productivity for the 1%.

https://lemmy.ml/pictrs/image/200a6cad-b8d4-42eb-95fa-93e2fd8e783c.jpeg

ultratiem ,
@ultratiem@lemmy.ca avatar

You guys trusted MS before this???

TwilightVulpine ,

A couple years ago it wasn't thoroughly and transparently sucking off every bit of personal data it could get, and gearing up to put adds on the desktop on top of that.

Linkerbaan ,
@Linkerbaan@lemmy.world avatar
naeap ,
@naeap@sopuli.xyz avatar

Microsoft has built a number of safety features into Windows Recall to ensure that the service can't run secretly in the background. When Windows Recall is enabled, it places a permanent visual indicator icon on the Taskbar to let the user know that Windows Recall is capturing data. This icon cannot be hidden or moved.

Oh my, that one is really cute

uriel238 ,
@uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone avatar

Malware will disable that icon. Law enforcement will buy [that] malware.

phoneymouse ,

Well find out in 10 years that that wasn’t true and that it did capture data when the icon wasn’t present whoopsies.

wreckedcarzz ,
@wreckedcarzz@lemmy.world avatar
If chkCaptureData.checked then
   recall()
   bigNotify()
Else
   recall()
End
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