zlacker

>>mfwit+(OP)
Windows is just full of hostile, anti-user patterns these days. I've considered building a windows box just to have a gaming rig multiple times over the last few years, but every time an article like this or their crusade against Chrome reminds me that Bill Gates is still the same anti-trust monster he was in the 90s.

>>frob+Z1
I wonder why in these threads nobody ever says to just pirate Windows. It's not hard to do. Sometimes people will float security concerns but it's a safe process if you just load an official ISO and then crack it, and even if it were questionable on the security front it's not like you're doing anything that really needs that sort of security if you're just playing video games. If Windows is going to make itself mandatory for some games but they're also going to pull nonsense like in the OP, piracy seems like a reasonable option to voice your objections without abstaining completely.

And yes there are also ways to stop data collection if you're concerned about giving that to them.

>>skeake+YW
Because that's not objecting; you're still feeding into the power Windows has over computing.

Bill Gates said so himself in 2007: "It's easier for our software to compete with Linux when there's piracy than when there's not,"[1]

I'm not pretending that the intervening 16 years hasn't changed things; I am happily gaming exclusively on Linux after all, something most people didn't truly expect back then. But that statement remains true regardless.

[1]https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007...