This is not just a dark chapter. If they also get this power, they can eliminate or disappear anyone at will. It's one of the last major things they need to gain full dictatorial powers.
In this particular case, I don't get what's in it for them. Of course they generally want more power and wealth, while ignoring everything else. But is this also really about that? If so, how? Also they are alienating even a big portion of their stupid base with stunts like this. It doesn't seem useful, any way I look at it. It doesn't seem lawful evil or neutral evil like they usually are. It seems chaotic evil.
My take on it: most people do have foresight or at least understand the issue, but they still don't act on it or ignore it as long as the status quo is still convenient enough. So it's purely a matter of pain and inconvenience. Once enough pain and inconvenience has accumulated, they're much more ready to make an actual switch. Thankfully, with Microsoft's services also becoming increasingly enshittified (forced AI chatbot integrations everywhere, even more cloud dependencies, ever more expensive subscriptions, ...) there's also Microsoft shooting itself in the foot a bit in order to accelerate this process. Vile actions from the current US regime are also accelerating the process of course.
Yes, even the term "sideloading" is already a discrimination. Let us "install" (not "sideload") software from sources we want or trust. A smartphone is a computer, and there are lots of reasons to NOT use the Google-approved app store. Fight scammers by educating people, not by crippling core features of an operating system or alienating existing users.
Some of the better RPGs allow you to play as an evil guy (equally fleshed out as the good guy playthrough), e.g. Baldur's Gate 3 (it even has a special evil background storyline called The Dark Urge) or (some of?) the Mass Effect titles.
Cult of the Lamb is also a great game where you play a cult leader. Although the game's design is strong on the entertaining/funny side, it's kind of dark also.
Stellaris is a grand strategy game where you can play anything, from a ruthless ruler trying to destroy the whole galaxy to a pacifist trader.
Yes. Open source software is never really (in theory, yes (jurisdiction of the project/developers), but not in practice) dependent on particular jurisdictions anywhere, because it's like open knowledge that can be instantly translated/compiled/packaged into a usable product. And this open knowledge can spread anywhere and also be modified by anyone anywhere at any time.
And this is important, as we're seeing with the US now drifting into a fascist dictatorship that stopped being reasonable or sane and just does what it wants. Open source is an important defense against the appearance of criminal regimes, because it guarantees independence and always possible continuation of the software.
So for example even if the devs/maintainers of open source projects would be legally forced to add age verification code, it's still open source and can be patched out rather easily (e.g. be replaced by code that just does "isAdult = true; return isAdult;" without any online spyware verification systems behind it, and the modifications can then be distributed by anyone, anywhere, anyhow and be applied by all users of that software.
This age verification stuff is only really broadly applicable within the context of proprietary software where users have zero control over what the software does and have to use it exactly like packaged (although there are probably workarounds even in that case). Worst case scenario is that they'll realize this and as a result not scrap the whole idea or make an exception for open source, but instead try to make open source software illegal simply because it can't be enforced there. But that would of course prompt such a major backlash world-wide that they won't achieve anything with that except make themselves look silly. But you never know what those politicians and lawyers are smoking next...
As usual: this can be interpteted as Malware.
That said, many apps are like this these days: full of trackers and way too many permissions. Most people never know or care.
Mildly interesting: one of.the trackers seems to be related to Huawei.
Be the change you want to see in the world.
Instead of (only) complaining about it, take action and donate a bit to your favorite FOSS projects. I do. Many more should do.
I get that one of the major draws to FOSS is that you can use it mostly for free. But developers still need support. In some form or another.
Agreed. Also, they did include their own mistakes in the video (first telling about problems but then later saying that it was their own fault). You could just not include that in the video since it's pointless info about Linux when you yourself did the mistake. I think all of this in combination is meant to subtly influence viewers for "Linux = expect problems". And since LTT is generally more on the entertainment side and less on the factual/trustworthy side, and still very well-known, it could also mean that they're being paid to spread a little bit of that FUD.
On the other hand, genuinely newbie Linux users can definitely reveal some bugs or problems which might not have occurred otherwise. It's like running a fuzzer that tests the ability of a program to deal with lots of random and nonsensical input. Because some of those Windows gamers sure have some questionable habits when interacting with their PC.
Also, it shows that genuine newbies maybe need more guidance from their distro to break certain Windows habits. For example, how to install drivers (you don't because they should be there already) and applications (you shouldn't download them from the manufacturer's websites as a 1st priority). Somehow, these Windows-user friendly distributions never really include hints like that, even though that's a completely different paradigm of using the OS.
I think still too many people missed the turning point when Microsoft suddenly stopped releasing products/software that were superior in basically all areas to their previous versions. I think that turning point was Windows 8 already, for many who consider Windows 8 a single-time mistake like ME or Vista it was Windows 10, for others it took until Windows 11 until they noticed the decline of Windows as a whole.
And it's not just MS, but a lot of consumer tech is growing anti-consumer and gets enshittified to the point of where you really have to think hard whether or not you even want the new stuff they're spewing out. My consumer habits have certainly changed to be much more rigorous than, say, 10-20 years ago. I read a lot more reviews these days and from many more different sources bevore I even think of buying something new.
"AI PCs" will increase your dependency on MS' online services (which is probably the main thing that MS wants), decrease your privacy even more (also what MS wants - that's a lot of data for sale), consume even more energy (on a planet with limited resources), sometimes increase your productivity (which is probably the most advantage you're ever getting out of it) and other times royally screw you over (due to faulty and insecure AI behavior). Furthermore, LLMs are non-deterministic, meaning that the output (or what they're doing) changes slightly every time you repeat even the same request. It's just not a great idea to use that for anything where you need to TRUST its output.
I don't think it will be a particularly good deal. And nothing MS or these other companies that are in the AI business say can ever be taken at face value or as truthful information. They've bullshitted their customers way too much already, way more than is usual for advertisements. If this was still the '90s or before 2010 or so - maybe they'd have a point. But this is 2026. Unless proven otherwise, we should assume bullshit by default.
I think we're currently in a post-factual hype-only era where they are trying to sell you things that won't ever exist in the way they describe them, but they'll claim it will always happen "in the near future". CEO brains probably extrapolate "Generative AI somewhat works now for some use cases so it will surely work well for all use cases within a couple of years", so they might believe the stories they tell all day themselves, but it might just as well never happen. And even if it DID happen, you'd still suffer many drawbacks like insane vendor dependencies/lock-ins, zero privacy whatsoever, sometimes faulty and randomly changing AI behavior, and probably impossible-to-fix security holes (prompt injection and so on - LLMs have no clear boundary between data and instructions and it's not that hard to get them to reveal secret data or do things they shouldn't be doing in the first place. If your AI agent interprets a malicious instruction as valid, and it can act on your behalf on your system, you have a major problem).
The gullible/naive ones. Right-wing extremists are generally quite good at promising simple (but wrong) "solutions" for complex problems that lower-educated people can easily follow and then feel like they're on the correct track. That's also why they produce so much easy-to-digest propaganda on the web.
But it's all lies, accusing others who have nothing to do with the real problems, not making anything better except for the elite, and causing unnecessary cultural wars within the population instead of necessary class wars.
The elite generally wins when parts of the population are in-fighting against other parts of the population. Right-wing extremists love that and regularly pour more oil into that fire due to their general dividing and hateful nature towards all kinds of cultural opponents and minorities, and the elites love watching us fight each other while enriching themselves further and eating popcorn, because they know that when we're busy in-fighting, we aren't fighting for more equality or to change things in any meaningful way.
Probably, but it's still much-needed actual retaliation against the regime. Doing nothing besides complaining helps even less. Wars aren't being won in an instant but as a result of many cumulative small victories.
I'll always call it Microslop from this point on. Although that term, while true, also detracts a bit from the other problem this causes: 100% surveillance by Microsoft and 0% ownership of your documents/data. Personal and business alike. But anyway, it's a term that Nadella doesn't like so please keep using it.
This is not just a dark chapter. If they also get this power, they can eliminate or disappear anyone at will. It's one of the last major things they need to gain full dictatorial powers.