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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)

submitted 5 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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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.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 months ago (2 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 9 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] -1 points 5 months ago (2 children)

I've heard this before.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

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

I understand the frustration and cynicism that comes from wanting something to happen and waiting a good stretch of your life for it to do so but I am sorry, this is not reflective of reality.

Don’t mistake your own fatigue for the behavior of people in general.

Support for software on Linux or Wine is now orders of magnitude more complete and functional than it was 5-10 years ago. There are fundamental changes going on, just because we operated in a paradigm that suffocated the possibility of Linux adoption in the past doesn’t mean that paradigm will continue indefinitely.

There is a difference between being permanently powerless and being powerless under a certain arrangement of forces and actors.

We are entering a period of the status quo being smashed for better or worse in almost every dimension of our lives, what was likely to happen in the past 20 years does not reliably predict what is likely to happen in the next 20 years.

There is actually a true opening for Linux here in a way there never has been.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

I'm trying to see a correlation.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 5 months ago (1 children)

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

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago) (1 children)

I mean… how big really is the category of software tasks that you can’t properly do on Linux in 2024? I feel like it is getting to the point where you do genuinely have to be specific about what Linux can’t do that is a dealbreaker for you rather than just falling back on “Linux can’t do what people need to do” as a general criticism of it.

Windows can’t do what people need it to do, and it fails to do so while sucking up your private data (which if you work at a business with confidential information IS a dealbreaker). At least when Linux fails it usually isn’t simultaneously violating the IT security structure of your organization….

The funny thing is businesses and government entities can’t even claim with a straight face that they can trust Microsoft to adhere to the meager insufficient data privacy laws that do exist when there is zero evidence Microsoft would behave that way based on the track record even if the financial penalties for failing to do so were actually real to the ruling class and not just theoretical thought experiments that involve a slap on the wrist or more like a light tickling with a feather on the nose.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 5 months ago

Oh i totally agree with you. I have a feeling that the only real obstacle on the way out from windows is proprietary software, especially adobe and some custom apps for specific hardware.