I just picked that part with the ublock eyedropper. All landscape videos for me please.

I also love how whenever I do a search on Google on my phone I get reminded to use the Google app, or to download chrome, or some other “use our platform please” nag message that only goes away for 24 hours when I tell it to fuck off.

I used ublockorigin to block the container for shorts and news. Much better, also set up a redirector that changes shorts URLs into the normal yt format, so that you don't pulled into that feed.

If you run Android you can block shorts (and ads, and sponsors, and everything else annoying from YouTube)

Check out revanced.app

You can disable shorts on desktop

https://youtu.be/Nfr0uIU2lDI

Yeah, it feels like you're just a monkey in a science experiment

You can install an extension that hides the shorts

Wdym? Windows and Office suite is used almost everywhere in professional environment. How's this a news to you?

Microsoft is surviving just fine on the profits from Azure and office 365 tbh, windows isn't that big a deal for them these days from a raw revenue point of view.

This is the final straw that made install Mint. I was so sick of the constant screens after every update continuously pestering me with shit I didn't want, like "YOU ASKED BEFORE AND SAID NO, ASK ME AGAIN AND ILL PUNCH YOU IN THE DICK"

So I metaphorically did.

I'm disabled (one usable hand, among other things). I need my mouse software to be able to map buttons to keys on my keyboard (and it must have individual profiles per application, and it must auto switch based on the active window) for me to be able to play shooters and similar.

I have tried many times in the past 20 years to switch, but I always had to come back. I installed bazzite to help a friend transition from w10, and to be able to talk them through any issues they might come across. I used this opportunity to again see how doable it would be, temporary dual booting.

In addition to the mouse, I don't use my mobos onboard audio, instead using two creative sound blaster cards - one for my surround sound (main output), and the other for voice chat or if I have to be quiet (late night gaming). The drivers for both cards fail - L/R channels work as expected, but RL/RR/FC/Sub are wrong. I tried for two days to fix it, overriding settings, trying different settings in the UI, different overrides, switch cards around to see if they work correctly when outputting to the other hardware... And searching online, this has been a problem for years, maybe a decade+ across many distros. Okay, so, it's not a 'fix' but what if we get new sound cards... Asus has some.... Aaaaand survey says they are shit in Linux too. What about looking for some Linux specific hardware? The only company I found had cards for $1k+, and geared more towards audio creation. Hell no, you'd have to be insane.

That's a hard stop, as I'm not about to give up my audio system because of botched drivers thst are seemingly never getting a fix. But similarly, I have a ThinkPad with a 5G modem in it. I tried a dozen distros before begrudgingly settling on Kubuntu, as it was the only system that would actually work (see the modem, interact with it, fcc unlock after terminal commands, and actually transfer data).

Linux has this bubble of users who are the typical norm - they need the basics, and nothing more. Which is fine, I'm happy for them, but damn does the experience suck shit if you aren't in that bubble. I remember the days when I'd have to wrap windows wifi drivers to get online, or sleep wouldn't work, or an update would brick the system (or grub, oh fuck me I'm having ptsd flashbacks), or even stuff like stereo in and out would be broken out of the box. And there often wasn't a guide to fix this shit, it was just 'have fun'. It has come a good way, but there is so much that still needs work.

And, as my friend found out, while all his games were native or compatable via proton or lutris, some needed to be built from source... Even though the fucking dev offers executables for windows, and could easily do the same for Debian-based systems, ready to go for those users... But no, here are some half-assed instructions that are out of date, glhf. Ugh...

There's a ton of other things, but those are recent - like, within the last 3-6 months recent, and are real world examples of why some have to stay chained to windows.

Now if anyone wants to patch the shitty drivers for my sound blasters, I could actually try to maintain and actually use the install. But until then, I've got to use what actually works.

Hate to be that guy, since I only use Linux on personal machines, but I use windows at my current job. Why? Because the stuff I develop only has a windows version. Whilst it'd be possible to cross compile, it's just more friction, and it's easier to just develop on the target platform.

And let's be real, lots of people don't have the luxury of a choice in their jobs to begin with. So that's why. (and also why the strong need to vent, seeing as this is forced onto them)

If you think your chosen OS doesn't have irritations of a similar magnitude either you're looking past them or they just don't irritate you.

My Linux laptop has a problem where, when unsuspended while docked, tends to lose the dock in such a way that the USB devices attached to it become unusable - even if they are then plugged in directly; the USB stack just gets completely broken until reboot. It's really annoying - but I put up with it, because there are other things about Linux I like. If I had switched from Windows to Linux because of a nag screen that I could just click to get rid of and this was what I got in return, I'd be back to Windows in a flash.

At this point I've been using Linux for multiple decades and would never go back. Not even if Windows became genuinely better. I mean, it has improved a lot since when I switched away, but I'm used to Linux now and it's comfortable.

And that's what people don't get: Windows, for most people, is comfortable. Comfortable and good enough. There are many reasons why it's not good enough for me, but most people don't share the mindset behind those reasons, so they don't apply to them.

So hopefully that explains "why stick with Microsoft".

Keep asking him for money, with the same possible answers.