Linux is making Windows intolerable to me

For a couple days now, I've been thinking about this quote from a post by Alex:

Gemini's obscurity and lack of utility means that there are no analytics, no metrics, no ways to go viral, to monetize people's attention, build a career or even a minimally-functional web platform. No sane business would build on top of Gemini, and that is exactly why it is capable of having the character that it does.

//alex.flounder.online/gemlog/2021-01-08-useless.gmi

This is, of course, a big part of the reason I embraced Gemini in the first place. As I wrote recently, I have an uneasy relationship with analytics and their malcontents:

//drmollytov.flounder.online/gemlog/2025-02-27.gmi

I smiled at "no sane business would build on top of Gemini," because my Gemini exposes my business brain for the bag-of-cats insanity that it is.

That didn't feel like enough for a gemlog post (though really, who's to say? the point is that there are no rules), but it was on my mind nonetheless.

Then, this morning, I got out my Windows machine.

To explain: Thanks to an accident of happenstance called "my spouse died several years ago but his devices still work," I have three computers in the house. One is the big desktop monolith I use for work, video editing, and SRS Gaming (it's the only one that will run Starfield). One is my lightweight Acer Aspire, which I bought for writing on the go. And one is the chongus Acer gaming laptop we bought for my spouse, so we could use Pyware on the field.

The desktop and the Aspire now run Ubuntu. The chongus, however, still runs Windows, because Pyware doesn't run on Linux. (Even if it did, the cost of a new Pyware license is...prohibitive.) It's also where I run software related to the things I need Pyware for, like Dorico and Audacity.

So I fired up the chongus this morning, because I needed to edit some audio.

FIRST OF ALL, logging into Windows sucks, visually. I open my Ubuntu laptop and I get a black screen with a box to type my password into. I open the Windows machine and I get a noisy full-color nature photo and a queue of boxes showing me weather reports, NBA scores, and a bunch of other stuff I try not to look at. I don't even get a password box! I have to hit a key for that!

Since I put Ubuntu on this laptop, loaded uBlock Origin, Ghostery, and Privacy Badger into my browsers, and started spending most of my time on Neocities, in my RSS reader, or in Geminispace, I don't even remember when I last saw an ad on this machine. Which makes all the visual clutter in my Windows machine even that more jarring.

I fired up Audacity and started this audio thing, which required a bit of recording.

Windows interrupted my recording with a chime noise and a popup ad.

TWICE.

...I bought this machine. I bought it to be a tool that I own that does what I need done. Microsoft and other software companies use it as a means to serve me their ads, on their terms, according to their schedule, no matter what I'm trying to accomplish.

Who is this machine for? Because apparently it's not me, and if it's not me, why am I paying for it??

My Windows machine is overdue for a meeting with a debloater, sure. But I shouldn't have to go to the extra step of debloating a machine. Or installing an entirely new operating system, which does not play nice with 100% of the extremely expensive professional software I need to do my (third) job.

I should be able to buy a machine and have it Just. Work.

//drmollytov.flounder.online/gemlog/2025-02-28.gmi

That, apparently, is an audacious and selfish ask.

Cool. I'll hang out in this audacious and selfish Geminispace, where we all audaciously and selfishly Just Do Things without getting interrupted by other people's ads.

I'm glad no sane business would build on Gemini. I hope no business ever tries.