Trusty old laptop finally cacked, so I'm setting up a replacement with a fresh Windows install for the firs t time this decade.

GOD DAMN, I can't believe how hard the Microsoft and Google plantations work to keep you locked in!!!

• Just the initial setup of Windows DEMANDS that you use a microsoft account; I had to use my phone to look up how to bypass this

• SO many apps that "phone home" to keep big tech prying eyes on you auto-install, which you then have to manually hunt down and uninstall

• FML, the act of just trying to watch videos on Youtube using the MS Edge browser, is positively maddening! The ads are SO FUCKING RETARDED and obnoxious. To someone not exposed to them constantly for years, it's very obvious how they've evolved to try to catch and maintain the attention of the latest generation of users who are jaded from the constant barrage. SO many times, I shout, "What the FUCK was THAT???"

• Trying to download alternate browsers meets with deliberate system blockading. Both Firefox and LibreWolf downloaded glacially slowly, with the latter download obviously throttled to show a time of DAYS before download completes.

• After a couple of failed tries, got the firefox installer to load. Attempting to run it, what should take minutes plods along slowly before eventually just stopping dead. I'm on like the sixth run attempt. After well over an hour, the progress bar is sitting at around 20%.

*Librewolf download failed numerous times, and had to get manually restarted repeatedly. I FINALLY got it to complete, only for the system to refuse to open it. It gives a message that "[File] is not commonly downloaded so make sure you trust it before opening." Only to not give any option to open it, just a fake "keep" option that does nothing. Probably have to run it from File Explorer, not the downloads tab of Edge.

• Trying to log in to websites like Yahoo Mail and Youtube, I find they all developed amnesia of the passwords I know damn well I used, necessitating "account recovery" procedures that freshly tie the account to my email and cell phone number.

They are pushing me SO SO HARD to say FUCK ALL THIS and finally make the leap to Linux!!

@Vermillion-Rx I just got done on a session with chatgpt doing research for my novel. It is incredible for targeted research questions, specifically the time period, demographics, industry etc.

Of course I'm doing "Trust but verify" on the information it feeds me. For example, my home region in the mid 1800's had big Scottish migration for the fishing industry at certain points of the year.

Alright chatgpt, tell me about these migrant workers, their living conditions, wages, dialect etc etc.

It provides me with the sources so I can verify for myself, and not have to sift through the search results on google.

Essentially I'm getting my research done so much faster than I otherwise would, which is fantastic because that will equate to more time writing (something I will explicitly not use the AI for).

Is it too cynical to judge a tool by the stupidest person that picks it up? I think so. If we did, the saw or the hammer would have been outlawed a very long time ago.