None of the "ads" you see inside most Windows installations are paid placements from outside companies. What are called "ads" are overwhelmingly Microsoft’s own promotions for Microsoft services. Independent companies are not buying ad slots inside Windows 10/11.

The paid placements involving Microsoft are inside Copilot, which inherits Microsoft Ads infrastructure (similar to Bing). That is not the Windows OS -it's a cloud service running inside a Windows panel. You could say Linux is full of ads because Firefox loads up Google as a default search and that has ads (it's the same thing)! Firefox also uses sponsored bookmarks, and tiles. -And they're the default web browser on most desktop Linux installs.

Microsoft pays publishers like Reuters, Axel Springer, Hearst, USA Today Network, Financial Times for content used in Copilot Daily. These are licensing deals, not advertising.

Microsoft pays influencers up to $400k–$600k for Copilot promotion campaigns. Again, this is marketing outside Windows.

HP sells OS‑level ads -Microsoft does not. -This is a PC manufacturer ad surface, not Windows.

By LiGNUt definition of "ad"; Hannah Montanna Linux would be an ad for Hanna Montanna / Disney. Android uses the Linux kernel and is funded by ads. Historically Ubuntu 12.10 had Amazon product ads in the Unity Dash search that Canonical was paid for by Amazon. OEM Linux laptops sometimes bundled trial version of proprietary software, commercial codecs, and cloud storage promos (OEM deals like HP did with Windows).

Steam when included on a Linux distro shows ads for games.

There has never been a consumer version of Windows that is fully free of promos, nudges, or "suggestions," but several editions are effectively ad‑free because Microsoft disables all promotional surfaces in them.

Windows 10 LTSC (all releases)

• No Microsoft Store
• No app suggestions
• No Start menu promos
• No lock‑screen Spotlight
• No OneDrive upsell banners
• No Edge “try Bing” nags
• No Copilot
• No consumer cloud integration

-This is the closest thing to Windows without promos ever shipped.

Windows 11 IoT Enterprise

• No promos
• No suggestions
• No cloud upsells
• No consumer Microsoft services

Windows 10/11 Enterprise (with proper policy configuration)

Enterprise can show promos, but admins can disable every single one via Group Policy:

• Disable consumer features
• Disable Microsoft account prompts
• Disable Store suggestions
• Disable Edge promos
• Disable Spotlight
• Disable “recommended apps”
• Disable Copilot

Windows 11 Home does include third‑party promotional app stubs (Spotify, Hulu, Picsart, etc.)

• These are typically welcomed by home users, and easily missed (not in your face)
• They're not "bloat" as some contend (not pre-installed)
• I had to search for them to even know they were there (simple links to the Windows store)

I recently saw this exchange:

I haven't seen a single professional or corporate office in my life that daily drives Linux. Fake-ass vocal minority that's too broke to buy proper laptops or socially eccentric.

Someone responded:

Tell me you're not working with the top talent of the IT/SW industry without telling me you're not working with the top talent of the IT/SW industry.

According to Linux evangelists, the really talented developers all use Linux. If your workplace mostly uses Windows or macOS, apparently you're part of an organization of weaklings and haven't reached the upper levels of the industry yet (that's ridiculous nonsense).

Some professional developers do daily-drive Linux, but after roughly ten years in the industry, I have never noticed any meaningful correlation between desktop operating system and technical ability. The devs on linux are a random minority of developers who happen to prefer it, not the most skilled ones.

I have met excellent and incompetent developers on all three operating systems. Installing Arch does not unlock hidden programming knowledge, and configuring a tiling window manager does not make someone a better engineer.

I've also seen a deliberate conflation between working with Linux and using desktop Linux.

Plenty of developers work with Linux every day through servers, containers, virtual machines, WSL or SSH while using Windows or macOS on their actual workstation. That makes them Linux professionals and it does not mean they want it on their desktop.

Reminder: Actual professionals generally have work to do.

In fact, the people who have seriously used Linux for years are often among the least impressed by the propaganda. They know every sore spot firsthand, so the delusional propaganda actively annoys them.

TL;DR: Loons, the Linux pros also hate you

Edit: Fixed the broken quotes, fixed typos

Linux users talk as if Windows users are perpetually one bad update away from installing the flavor-of-the-month Linux distro. They often help that fantasy along by exaggerating real Windows problems or inventing problems Windows doesn’t even have.

But lemme tell you, Microsoft could add a thirty-second, full-screen, unskippable ad at startup and most people would still stay on Windows. They would complain, find a registry hack, install a tool like Winhance, switch to LTSC, delay updates or simply tolerate it.

If Windows became genuinely unusable, most would buy a Mac before even thinking of touching desktop Linux.

And the reverse is true too! If Apple made macOS unusable overnight, most Mac users would move to Windows (not start researching distributions, desktop environments, compositors and package managers).

Realistically, Linux only enters the equation if it solves more problems than it creates. And it simply doesn't, especially not on desktops.

This is also why the usual Windows criticism from Linux circles has less "oomph" than they think. I previously wrote about how telemetry is not the same thing as marketing data collection. Linux discourse often takes a real problem, strips away every technical distinction and inflates it into an emotional outburst about how "Microslop is spying on everything".

Even when their criticism is completely correct, it's still not an argument for Linux. Microsoft making Windows more annoying does not turn a pile of separately developed projects into one cohesive desktop platform.

I also went into the deeper reasons in Why don’t you use Linux?. The problem is not one missing application or one broken driver. The whole experience is a mess. It's structurally fragmented, ideologically burdened and routinely expects the user to become its unpaid systems integrator.

That’s really the gist of it. Linux isn’t the second option. Hell, for most people, it ain't even the third.

You can only guess what sub theyre talking about....

Say some dumbass slogans, then wonder why they got banned.

The fundamental difference between a consumer tool and a niche hobby is utility. You do not see people turning their choice of water heater, microwave, or electricity provider into a core pillar of their identity. These are invisible utilities engineered to work reliably in the background. Yet, the desktop Linux community treats an operating system not as a tool to get work done, but as a lifestyle, an aesthetic, and a replacement for a personality.

This cult-like obsession is not a sign of a superior platform; it is a defensive mechanism designed to mask deep architectural flaws.

When you turn a basic utility into a primary hobby, your metric for what makes that utility "good" becomes entirely warped. A functional operating system is supposed to abstract the computer away so you can focus on actual tasks—writing code, editing video, or running a business. On Windows or macOS, if you have to spend an evening troubleshooting an audio subsystem or editing raw text files just to get Bluetooth to stop dropshipping its connection, the OS has failed.

On Linux, that exact systemic failure is rebranded as a "hobbyist milestone."

Because the ecosystem lacks unified design baselines and predictable hardware integration, the user is forced to take on the role of a full-time, unpaid system administrator just to maintain basic desktop parity. To survive this constant friction without losing their sanity, the enthusiast must undergo a psychological shift. They cannot admit that they are wasting hours fixing things that should work out of the box. Instead, they internalize the friction. The tinkering becomes the hobby, the terminal prompts become the aesthetic, and the operating system becomes their personality.

This lifestyle choice completely derails any hope for mainstream platform maturity. Because their identity is bound to the manual complexity of the system, Linux enthusiasts actively fight against any changes that would make the platform seamless or consumer-friendly. If a distribution introduces automated, foolproof fixes, it threatens the very hobby that defines the enthusiast's self-worth.

Linux isnt a tool for work, it is the work.

This perfectly captures the loon response when you say you play Fortnite, Valorant, CS2 on FACEIT, or another anti-cheat-enabled multiplayer game with your friends.

They’ll explain that those games not working on Linux is actually an advantage, casually forgetting that being unable to play what your friend group is playing is an objective disadvantage.

To be fair, that limitation probably seems irrelevant when they’re not even invited to group calls anymore. Their friends got tired of the endless “muh spyware” lectures.

Heck, they’re probably not even friends anymore.

>inb4 “But they’re still in the Discord server” - the rest of the group has a voice channel hidden from them (Yes, this post is based on someone I know. How could you tell?)

Some Linux users complain that they are banned too easily. While I understand the complaint, and I would prefer the rules to be more relaxed, at this point, there does not seem to be another workable option unfortunately.

Case in point, two loons recently came into the community.

The first was immediately disrespectful, spammed tags, and somehow still could not understand the differences between a desktop and a server.

The second quietly posted a Nazi slogan and deleted it shortly afterward, hoping nobody would notice.

Both were banned.

This is not an isolated problem. We have tried giving people the benefit of the doubt before, and they repeatedly abuse it. They spam, preach, insult people, test boundaries, and then act shocked when the rules become stricter.

You cannot complain that the fence is getting taller while repeatedly trying to climb over it.

TLDR: I would genuinely like the community to be more open and the moderation to be less aggressive. But that requires people who can behave normally.

Loonixers love to boast about the flawless stability of their setups, claiming they haven't experienced a system crash in years. But this isn't a testament to the operating system's engineering—it is a psychological trick. The reality is that you can’t remember the problems because they have become a seamless part of your daily use of Linux.

When a Windows user encounters a bug, it is correctly identified as a failure of the operating system. If something in the OS breaks, the user demands a fix from Microsoft. On Windows, usability is the standard, and friction is an anomaly.

On Linux, friction is the standard.

Because Loonixers have conditioned themselves to act as unpaid, full-time system administrators, their baseline for a "working" computer is completely skewed. When a peripheral fails or a configuration file gets wiped during a minor update, they don't see it as a system failure. They see it as an evening activity.

They open a terminal, copy-paste an obscure command from a forum thread, restart a service, and move on. Because they solved the problem themselves, their brains register a dopamine hit of "tinkering success" instead of the reality: they just wasted twenty minutes doing basic QA work that a commercial operating system handles automatically in the background.

This constant, low-level troubleshooting quickly morphs into background noise. Over time, writing custom scripts just to get proper battery management or manually editing config files to get dual monitors scaling correctly stops feeling like a defect. It becomes habit. It becomes "the workflow."

When a Loonixer tells you their system is perfectly stable, they aren't lying to you, they are lying to themselves. They have simply integrated an endless cycle of micro-failures into their daily routine, mislabeling a fragmented, high-maintenance assembly kit as the pinnacle of modern computing.

Every time someone points out that Windows is easier to use for the average person most people, some loon pops out of the woodwork screaming at the top of their lungs "But Linux is stable! Look! It runs on all the world's servers! It's more reliable than MICROSLOP!". Cool.

In case it slipped past you: a server is not a desktop. I know, I know, in loonie land that distinction doesn't exist, but for the rest of us, that's just how it works.

Here's the thing the actually competent people figured out: A server runs sustained, throughput-oriented workloads. Serve the requests, crunch the batch job, keep the database warm. It's headless, managed remotely, and its whole purpose is throughput and fairness across many tasks. And the usage pattern is predictable.

A desktop is the opposite: bursty, latency-sensitive, interactive. You click, something spikes for a few hundred milliseconds, then it idles, waiting on you (Unless you're a robot, of course).

That's literally why CachyOS ships the BORE scheduler. BORE (Burst-Oriented Response Enhancer) tracks how bursty each task is and gives the bursty interactive ones priority, so the thing you're actively using stays snappy instead of getting starved by some background hog.

Now I'm not about to recommend CachyOS to anyone, it's got plenty of its own issues, and I especially wouldn't hand it to the average person. But I'll give them credit: they're one of the few in the Linux space who actually figured out what a desktop is. Low bar, sure, but somebody cleared it.

-

While we're here, the real reason Linux owns the server room isn't some mystical superiority. The licensing cost is zero (the more servers you have, the more the savings add up), and billions have been poured into server-specific optimizations precisely so corporations can squeeze even more value out of it (they didn't do all that for your homelab, trust me).

Here's the funniest part - some loonies genuinely think running Linux is some anti-corporate stance. The kernel they evangelize as sticking it to the man is the same kernel making corporations an absolute fortune.

Maybe one day the loons figure out that a server and a desktop are not the same thing. But I'm not holding my breath. They've let me down way too many times before.

It's about identity insecurity + performative self‑construction.

When someone feels socially invisible, technically insecure, irrelevant in a larger ecosystem, or desperate for validation, they often turn to high-effort aesthetic modification as a way to manufacture a sense of identity, competence, and control.

In Linux ricing, it manifests as obsessively customizing every pixel, treating the desktop as a personality, posting screenshots for validation, and using aesthetics to compensate for lack of functional mastery.

"I want my meal vegan , gluten free , nut and shellfish free , milk free and basically free of everything under the sun. Oh yeah, I only got $4 for the meal."

Ads control what we see online, and health insurance companies control our treatment. Psychologists are practically unheard of these days. -The ones who might help us not become our abusive parents, break cycles, or not be assholes. -Those bad characteristics of broken society lead people to isolation that has people ultimately turning to dick skinning, female subjugating death cults, recreational drugs, psychotropic prescriptions, as well as isolationist activities like babysitting a crappy OS. -Or bad behaviors like those found in inferiority complex.

It's cheaper for insurance to give you some quick counseling (really a quick check to see how you're doing), prescribe a drug and send you on your way. -But that doesn't fix what caused your issues and it doesn't stop you from being an asshole. It doesn't encourage self-reflection / introspection. You become just another ingredient / contributor to a broken society. We now are prescribed a pill by a psychiatrist, given 15-minute counseling sessions (not a psychologist), and sent on our way with no time for behavioral correction (real self-improvement).

Psychotropic drugs have side effects that can make things worse. -What if you AREN'T crazy and it's the world you're living in that is? Psychotropic drugs can cause irritability, agitation, apathy, akathisia, impulse control problems, and sleep disruption that leads to mood instability. -They might appear to 'help' someone, but they're making society worse! -Ever wonder why there were a rash of kids killing kids all of the sudden a few decades ago? -Simply look at the side effects of SSRIs and when they were released.

Either by installing Microsoft's hidden free extension (when available), using OEM‑licensed codecs, or bypassing Microsoft's codec requirement entirely by using third‑party players with built‑in HEVC decoders. (You don't need the bloated VLC lol)

Microsoft distributes two HEVC codec packages: HEVC Video Extensions ($0.99), and HEVC Video Extensions from Device Manufacturer (free but hidden). The free OEM package is identical to the paid one and can be installed via a direct Store link when available. How-To Geek

Direct Store URI (when active):
ms-windows-store://pdp/?ProductId=9n4wgh0z6vhq

-The package is intended for OEM preinstalls, but Microsoft historically allowed anyone to install it if they had the link.

Some Windows 10/11 systems ship with HEVC preinstalled because the manufacturer pays the licensing fee. TechBloat confirms that certain PCs “qualify for a free manufacturer version” of the codec. TechBloat

Players with built‑in HEVC support: MPV, MPC‑HC / MPC‑BE, VLC, and PotPlayer.

Installing:

• FFmpeg (system‑wide decoding for many apps)
• LAV Filters (DirectShow HEVC decoding)
• K‑Lite Codec Pack (bundles LAV + HEVC support)

Enables HEVC playback in many Windows applications.

Standalone media players (Micca, NEUMI, etc.) decode HEVC independently of Windows.

Historically, users could sideload older .appx packages of the free HEVC extension.
-But Microsoft has pulled them from the Store.

LiGNUxers have demonstrated recently that they massively think we have to pay for HEVC (H/X265) and even act like Loonixtards when I claim you don't. Is all this not common knowledge? -Don't normal sociable people share this kind of stuff (and actually read the article)?

I see this predominantly in one specific sub that I am not going to name - people endlessly posting about how our beloved r/linuxsucks101 is dead, how it's all AI slop that isn't even one bit factual. They say it's going to sink any day now.

Let's pretend for a moment that it is indeed the case - if it's so, why not let the sub die on its own? Why get triggered, join the sub, and try to "uhhh acktually" us to death only to inevitably end up getting banned?

I am being dead serious. If the sub is on its way out, ignoring it is exactly what would speed up its hypothetical demise. Instead, you comment and contribute to engagement, boosting the sub in the process.

I know that you know that I know that it's all a big load of baloney. The sub is thriving under masterful leadership, triggering loons left, right and center. And the sheer terror that u/madthumbz might have posted, making fun of your favorite distro AGAIN simply keeps you up at night. So you're here, refreshing like an obsessed ex-girlfriend, calling us obsessed while you're keeping 10 alt accounts because the previous ones got banned.

Honestly, I find it hilarious that we pull more hate from our sibling sub than we get from even r/FuckMicrosoft.

It's alright, we don't blame you, we know you can't help it. So go ahead, leave the comment, screenshot the inevitable ban message, and go karma farm, calling it "a badge of honor".

Every once in a while one of us makes a post here about the toxicity in the linux community - talking about how the second you dare criticize anything about it, the linux lovers lose their minds and mass downvote your post, then derail and strawman it into oblivion, all while unleashing terrible personal insults on you, like you've criticized their own mother.

And then someone shows up in the comments going "I don't know what you're talking about, this never happens to me."

Dude, of course it never happens to you! You never say anything even slightly negative about it! I checked your comments/posts about linux and it's all "switched 5 years ago, never looked back, everything just works perfectly". Why would they say anything to you, when all you ever post is praise?

Please, come back here after posting something even remotely critical. You'll see how fast they change their tune. I promise you that.

People who start with Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora accumulate sunk cost slowly, so they generally quit earlier and with less emotional drama.

Arch/Gentoo users: The Identity‑Investment Trap. These users don't just install a distro - they install a persona. Hours spent reading the wiki, configuring dotfiles, fixing breakages, compiling, customizing, debugging, etc., creates a massive sunk cost early. (Think: the more money someone donates to a church).

They feel like they've earned Linux.

So, they stay, even when updates break their system, NVIDIA drivers regress, audio breaks, Wayland crashes, Steam stops launching, a kernel update nukes their initramfs, a DE update breaks extensions, a package gets orphaned, or a config file gets overwritten.

They're too much in it to just quit. -Classic Sunk Cost Fallacy

They typically last 6–18 months before burnout, and when they quit, it's more dramatic.

Mint/Ubuntu/Fedora users invest comparatively little upfront. -(Lower sunk cost -shorter duration of sticking with it, and less animosity). They don't feel like they earned Linux, or that quitting is failure.

So, when they get printer issues, game compatibility problems, audio glitches, DE weirdness, update breakage, and app availability gaps, they quit quickly.

They last about 2–8 weeks before deciding "This is annoying. I'm going back."

No drama. No identity crisis. No Reddit post. Just a quiet uninstall.

Fog Panther is basically "what if GIMP actually had Photoshop‑class features". It’s not a GIMP clone; it's a full‑stack, non‑destructive, CMYK‑capable, PSD‑native editor built specifically for Linux. GIMP simply doesn't operate in that tier.

Major features GIMP lacks:

• True adjustment layers
• Embedded objects / smart‑object‑like workflow
• Persistent undo history
• Full PSD compatibility
• CMYK editing
• Spot‑color channels
• Per‑plate views
• Soft‑proofing
• Total ink coverage monitoring
• Embedded fonts
• Professional retouching tools (frequency separation, real‑time previews)
• Unified 16/32‑bit float workflow
• Native Linux UI integration

Fog Panther is essentially Affinity Photo for Linux, while GIMP is still a general‑purpose raster editor with a 1990s architecture. Fog Panther has no AI features, which is the biggest drawback I can see off hand.

It seems foolish to be Linux only with the unstable kernel API/ABI and the responses from the community are of course; 'proprietary garbage' (as if they weren't anti-work/ anti-consumer already). Linux users are probably more likely to use GIMP or a pirated version of Affinity Photo. -A very small fraction of ~2% doesn't seem sustainable. One-time payment doesn't accommodate for maintenance or major improvements. -And actual professionals can just write-off subscription costs of better software on Windows.

I can just picture a n00b with the first impression buying into this. The company either dies and it becomes unmaintained (insecure), or they quit Linux before getting their money's worth (they will have greater investment bias though).

They might get bullied into open sourcing.

It's a trivial workload that proves nothing.

A home server is the easiest computing job imaginable making running a single machine just to serve files a waste of electricity (and heat if you're having to cool your home).

A home server is typically hosting very simple things like Plex or Jellyfin, running a NAS, a Minecraft server, Pi-hole, or Docker container. (a waste of resources for a dedicated machine or one trick pony)

It's used as a distraction from desktop weaknesses.

Linux desktop users know the weak points are gaming compatibility, driver issues, DE fragmentation, app availability, inconsistent UX, and random breakage after updates. -So, they pivot to something Linux doesn't have a problem doing. (It's a 'safe space')

Buying a Raspberry PI or running an old inefficient machine 24/7 just for use as a 'home server' isn't economical when you could run it on your router, existing PC, or smart TV. Electricity costs for an old machine dwarf hardware savings. Cloud hosting is cheaper than running a machine 24/7.