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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] 34 points 5 months ago (5 children)

Straw that broke the camel's back? Every vertebra in that camel's back has been smashed with a sledge hammer over the past 30 years.

Windows 95 was the last version I was excited about; Windows 98 SE was the last version of Windows I willingly purchased, and XP was the last one I willingly used. When they announced Win7, I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06, "Dapper Drake". Since then, Windows has only existed on my computers as pirated, virtual machines.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 5 months ago (1 children)

I think Windows 7 was good, and their last decent desktop OS before they started backporting Windows 10 garbage into it late in the lifecycle.

I'm in the same boat as you now. Earlier this year I'd had enough and there was no way I was going from my de-shittified Win10 Enterprise install to Win11. I'm on Tumbleweed for my main PC now.

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

My job is in the early stages of planning for updating everything to windows 11. I just got my testing VM with it the other day which is my first experience with it and I had an almost physical reaction to how bad the gui looks when I first logged in. I haven't even done anything with it and I already hate it.

On the other hand the Linux VM I set up at home to test my personal stuff out on has been going swimmingly.

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

When they announced Win7, I downloaded Ubuntu 6.06, “Dapper Drake”.

Windows Vista was so bad that it gets forgotten even in a retrospective about how Windows versions sucked. But yeah, Win7 didn't come out for another few years after that, to rescue the world from Vista.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

I have a unique memory of people saying that XP sucks ; after Vista nobody remembers that.

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

I hated Windows from the day I saw the 3.1 floppies had no write tab (that tiny piece that allowed you to write the disk). My first though was "we've payed for this and they forbid us to write on them? Fuck MS". It was the last original Windows in any PC at home. And I used DRDOS, so even worse (Windows 3.11 had a "bug" that made it crash if it ran on DRDOS).

[–] [email protected] 7 points 5 months ago (1 children)

Tape over the hole.

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

I know (and then too) but that's not the point. It's "you are not selling this to me".

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

You lasted until Windows 7? I'm guessing you didn't have to deal with Windows Vista's bs then. I changed ship thanks to Vista.

I also suffered Windows Me, but I was too young and at that time I didn't know there was an alternative.

I dual booted Vista/7 and Ubuntu/Mint for a while but after not using Windows in years ended removing it completely. Now I'm a happy ~~Antergos~~ Arch user ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

Wow, I actually forgot about Vista. I never actually had it installed on anything. XP was the last OS I had installed on hardware. Win 7 was the first I knew only from VM installations.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 months ago

and XP was the last one I willingly used.

Same.

When they announced Win7,

I, eh, still used it for some time, but then went to Linux.