I pity the fool who pays full price for a Windows license. I of course immediately formatted and switched to Linux.

I’m aware. I have two ex-wives.

This is the most French comment I’ve seen in ages.

Doesn’t an in-progress eruption mean the highest alert level has already been reached? Like, what else is it going to do? Erupt harder?

So, back in the day, you paid for a Windows license. An exorbitant amount unless you had a .edu email. You paid once, and they left you the fuck alone. No data/telemetry collection; MS had gotten its pound of flesh and was quite content to wait until a new version came out so you could either pay another license fee or just buy a new computer.

Now, the OS is functionally free because you are the product.

I picked up a mini PC a couple of years ago with Win11 Pro, 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD for $99. Only a few versions prior, a full license cost more than this whole machine, and some inflation happened in the interim.

If you have a pihole, it becomes immediately apparent just how often Windows is attempting to phone home. This is what’s commonly referred to as “surveillance capitalism.”

I’m going to guess you also use Facebook if any of this is a surprise to you.

If they were actually date brokers, I shouldn’t be single.

Outside of election night, when pizza is de rigueur in a newsroom, pizza being ordered is also a reliable predictor of a huge news night … all hands on deck, and you aren’t going home for hours.

I skipped XP entirely on account of its cartoonish interface, jumping direct to Vista when programs started dropping Win2K support.

Abusers gonna abuse. I endured seven years of “you don’t do what I say, and I can make your life hell.” I can only imagine what she would have been capable of had I needed her for citizenship reasons.

But, seriously, Crystal Justice? That sounds nothing like a real name.

Know your audience. Just because you think something is a fit for this community does not make it so. And dismissive shit like this is not a fit for Beehaw.

You spammed, got called out for it, and now you’re saying the problem isn’t you, it’s everyone else. That’s the fascist playbook (or, at the very least, your ex’s explanation for why everyone sucks).

.ml has different rules. You don’t get to bring your litterbox here.

Yeah, that’s to be expected after launching a war against another country to hold your government together enough to avoid being subject to prosecution.

Tehran wasn’t going to be like “Yeah, let’s just take this in stride.”

What is with this end-times porn? I don’t like to kinkshame, but, like … making sure to escalate things that will affect tens of millions of people because you don’t want to end up in court – and I don’t say this lightly – is straight-up evil.

Is there truly an audience for “I don’t want any proof, just answer my question”?

As Elon said, let that sink in. Perhaps an unpopular position, but if that’s all users want and it makes them more money, of course that’s what Google will do.

I’m in no way suggesting this is a good direction, but it’s unsurprising.

If you think the forks are bad, wait until you see the spoons! (Tip your waitress; try the veal.)

When on Earth did that become major?

I mean, that could work as well. A comma in a hed replaces “and” – semicolons are very rare, though.

I’m giving that comma in the hed some serious side-eye. I get Al-Jazeera isn’t an English-native publication, but they usually do better than this. In this context, the comma is saying the two are unrelated. An “as” or “with” fixes the issue.

LOL … my grandparents with a condo on Alder in Edmonds just put up with trees growing. In the '80s. These NIMBY shits are a different bunch. My attention is also focused elsewhere currently.

Sure, but this is only going to expand the Overton window in one direction. People with facts tend not to be as inflammatory.

Do you really think I’m not a mod? I try to point newcomers toward the Beehaw ethos ahead of going to accusations.

I’d kindly remind you to look at the baseline expectation for this instance. You are not following it. Doubling down again here is not the right call.