5 ms·

Users brutually reject Microsoft's "Copilot for work" in Edge and Windows 11

89 points by robtherobber 11mo ago

powerclue 11mo ago
Microsoft's decision to push ai features into their OS got me to remove windows and install Linux this year. After gaming on windows pcs for 30 years, I'm now gaming on Linux and honestly, couldn't be happier.
- burky 11mo ago
  I installed CachyOS (KDE) about 2 years ago and I’m obsessed with it, it’s so satisfying to tinker with. I also game on it every day. Recently invested in a AMD GPU just because it has a better driver story in Linux. I can’t imagine going back to Windows. Edit: Shout out to SteamOS for getting Linux to where it is for gaming, incredible.
  - pixelpoet 11mo ago
    Agreed, also on CachyOS and loving the momentum Linux has lately! Let's finally all be free of Microsoft's bullshit "maybe later" tactics etc. Gaming on Strix Halo in Linux is an absolutely amazing experience, even though I have a 4090, just because of how silent and low power it is. Valve and the rest of the Linux infra guys really performed a miracle.
- demilicious 11mo ago
  I did the same on my gaming machine in early 2025 to get well ahead of the Win10 EOL. I installed Nobara and have been really happy with it.
- Tanoc 11mo ago
  Windows 10 was spooky enough that I held on to Windows 7 as my work operating system until 2020. The constant telemetry, settings that would switch themselves back on a reboot without any indication, forced updates with forced reboots that followed, and Cortana intermixing your file system with web results were all giant pier spanning red flags that told me Microsoft had turned fully hostile instead of just adversarial. The main thing to remember is that everything I just listed was there from the start in June of 2015. Then Microsoft stopped trying to be Wilson Fisk with Windows 11 and just came out as Kingpin.
- BandButcher 11mo ago
  Literally doing this now. I have a basic music player web app that can run decent on the cheapest android phones. It's buggy but has been pretty solid on my 3k$ pc (lmao). Yesterday it was so sluggish I had to disable every other app on Windows AND restart AND disable my network (bcus who knows wtf windows is doing in the background). It ran fine (normal) after that. Windows is so unbearable, my Mac and Linux (former ms) laptop from 6+ years ago operate better than this pc it's driving me up a wall. MS is literally stealing my pc specs, they don't know wtf they're doing
- baranul 11mo ago
  The combination of hardware requirements and AI pushing by Microsoft is succeeding in finally making "Year of the Linux Desktop" a reality. Continual attempts at forcing AI on users, that don't want it, is only going to help more rapidly decrease their desktop OS market share.
arresin 11mo ago
I’m amazed they’re still posting about it on social media.
- estimator7292 11mo ago
  They have to try and claw back some of the sunk cost somehow. Microsoft made a trillion dollar bad bet and have decided that it's your problem
stop50 11mo ago
I am so happy that my current employer is farther on its way to deploy Linux on the desktop than deploying windows 11.
browningstreet 11mo ago
My big company is all in on Copilot. So far it’s actually been a net plus. I like it and it makes my life easier. That said, when offered a PC or Mac I chose the Mac, because Recall. And all the Microsoft shenanigans on my home PC made me switch to Linux permanently. If Windows at home ran like Windows does on corporate PCs, people would like it better. They’re biffing that hard.
- Zetaphor 11mo ago
  > If Windows at home ran like Windows does on corporate PCs, people would like it better. How much of that experience is a result of your corporate IT removing all the bullshit with group policies that Microsoft has introduced
  - vips7L 11mo ago
    I’ve always found IT to add bullshit, break things, and just make life harder.
    - conception 11mo ago
      Just IT folks rubbing their hands together evilly, “Yes! yes!! This will make our users’ lives miserable! Mwhahahahahahah!”
      - Nextgrid 11mo ago
        It's just extreme levels of ass-covering. If you have 3 security solutions installed and get pwned, oh well, it's not your fault. If you had none and get pwned, you get the blame, even if the attack vector wouldn't have been protected by most security solutions.
      - vips7L 11mo ago
        I’ve just always experienced them as a road block. They’ve only ever wanted to make their jobs easier. They’ve never wanted to enable me and make my life easier.
      - 11mo ago
solumunus 11mo ago
Uninstalled Windows for Ubuntu a few months ago and never looked back. The constant coercion to get you to use their shitty products is unbearable. I want my operating system to get out of my way and let me work.
jdietrich 11mo ago
Users have "brutally rejected" pretty much everything that Microsoft have done since MS-DOS. Some cohort of users will get incredibly angry about any conceivable change to mature software. Add in the people who passionately hate anything AI-adjacent and you've got a recipe for a social media firestorm that probably doesn't accurately reflect the sentiment of the average user. Personally, I think that Copilot for Work is a good product that does useful things. I use it daily. It isn't particularly groundbreaking, but it's nicely integrated with the wider 365 ecosystem and it has saved me a bunch of time on tedious tasks. The usual LLM caveats apply, but I just don't get why someone would be so annoyed by an entirely optional feature.
- tapoxi 11mo ago
  Microsoft has a bad history of actually making things optional. Required Microsoft account, Edge automatically importing your browser history and syncing it to Microsoft, OneDrive automatically copying your files and sending it to Microsoft, the repeated attempts after every update to make Edge default again... They haven't given a fuck about the user experience for years and that's colliding with AI exhaustion. There's well over a dozen different things you need to turn off in various parts of Windows at this point to make it accept your decisions and stop throwing ads in your face, all tucked behind multiple layers of dark patterns.
- kgwxd 11mo ago
  But in the end, you could run what you needed, and move the garbage they threw in, out of the way. Now, I can't run Minecraft without logging into the MS Store. That was the last straw for me, and I built my entire career on Windows and .NET.
conartist6 11mo ago
Alienate the people who carry your water, end up in the dumpster with the rest of the trash. Why? Cause those are the people who know you better than you know yourself, and who know how to beat you at your own game
hulitu 11mo ago
> Users brutually reject Microsoft's "Copilot for work" in Edge and Windows 11 It is because the Windows UX has become a mess of dark patterns and bad design. (gray on gray, bad titlebars, no scrollbars, no borders, no "yes/no" dialogue, notifications, bugs). People are sick of it and every annoying change will be rejected.
ncr100 11mo ago
Sounds like an AI could be writing the Pro AI social media posts. I believe this is literally what was warned about by the super intelligence expert, When talking with Bernie Sanders at the Georgetown something something conference this November: that AI will be persuasive to humans, and basically it will talk the humans out of disabling the power for the AI machines.

89 points by robtherobber 11mo ago

Microsoft's decision to push ai features into their OS got me to remove windows and install Linux this year. After gaming on windows pcs for 30 years, I'm now gaming on Linux and honestly, couldn't be happier.

burky 11mo ago
I installed CachyOS (KDE) about 2 years ago and I’m obsessed with it, it’s so satisfying to tinker with. I also game on it every day. Recently invested in a AMD GPU just because it has a better driver story in Linux. I can’t imagine going back to Windows. Edit: Shout out to SteamOS for getting Linux to where it is for gaming, incredible.
- pixelpoet 11mo ago
  Agreed, also on CachyOS and loving the momentum Linux has lately! Let's finally all be free of Microsoft's bullshit "maybe later" tactics etc. Gaming on Strix Halo in Linux is an absolutely amazing experience, even though I have a 4090, just because of how silent and low power it is. Valve and the rest of the Linux infra guys really performed a miracle.
demilicious 11mo ago
I did the same on my gaming machine in early 2025 to get well ahead of the Win10 EOL. I installed Nobara and have been really happy with it.
Tanoc 11mo ago
Windows 10 was spooky enough that I held on to Windows 7 as my work operating system until 2020. The constant telemetry, settings that would switch themselves back on a reboot without any indication, forced updates with forced reboots that followed, and Cortana intermixing your file system with web results were all giant pier spanning red flags that told me Microsoft had turned fully hostile instead of just adversarial. The main thing to remember is that everything I just listed was there from the start in June of 2015. Then Microsoft stopped trying to be Wilson Fisk with Windows 11 and just came out as Kingpin.
BandButcher 11mo ago
Literally doing this now. I have a basic music player web app that can run decent on the cheapest android phones. It's buggy but has been pretty solid on my 3k$ pc (lmao). Yesterday it was so sluggish I had to disable every other app on Windows AND restart AND disable my network (bcus who knows wtf windows is doing in the background). It ran fine (normal) after that. Windows is so unbearable, my Mac and Linux (former ms) laptop from 6+ years ago operate better than this pc it's driving me up a wall. MS is literally stealing my pc specs, they don't know wtf they're doing
baranul 11mo ago
The combination of hardware requirements and AI pushing by Microsoft is succeeding in finally making "Year of the Linux Desktop" a reality. Continual attempts at forcing AI on users, that don't want it, is only going to help more rapidly decrease their desktop OS market share.

arresin 11mo ago

I’m amazed they’re still posting about it on social media.

estimator7292 11mo ago
They have to try and claw back some of the sunk cost somehow. Microsoft made a trillion dollar bad bet and have decided that it's your problem

stop50 11mo ago

I am so happy that my current employer is farther on its way to deploy Linux on the desktop than deploying windows 11.

browningstreet 11mo ago

My big company is all in on Copilot. So far it’s actually been a net plus. I like it and it makes my life easier. That said, when offered a PC or Mac I chose the Mac, because Recall. And all the Microsoft shenanigans on my home PC made me switch to Linux permanently. If Windows at home ran like Windows does on corporate PCs, people would like it better. They’re biffing that hard.

Zetaphor 11mo ago
> If Windows at home ran like Windows does on corporate PCs, people would like it better. How much of that experience is a result of your corporate IT removing all the bullshit with group policies that Microsoft has introduced
- vips7L 11mo ago
  I’ve always found IT to add bullshit, break things, and just make life harder.
  - conception 11mo ago
    Just IT folks rubbing their hands together evilly, “Yes! yes!! This will make our users’ lives miserable! Mwhahahahahahah!”
    - Nextgrid 11mo ago
      It's just extreme levels of ass-covering. If you have 3 security solutions installed and get pwned, oh well, it's not your fault. If you had none and get pwned, you get the blame, even if the attack vector wouldn't have been protected by most security solutions.
    - vips7L 11mo ago
      I’ve just always experienced them as a road block. They’ve only ever wanted to make their jobs easier. They’ve never wanted to enable me and make my life easier.
    - 11mo ago

solumunus 11mo ago

Uninstalled Windows for Ubuntu a few months ago and never looked back. The constant coercion to get you to use their shitty products is unbearable. I want my operating system to get out of my way and let me work.

jdietrich 11mo ago

Users have "brutally rejected" pretty much everything that Microsoft have done since MS-DOS. Some cohort of users will get incredibly angry about any conceivable change to mature software. Add in the people who passionately hate anything AI-adjacent and you've got a recipe for a social media firestorm that probably doesn't accurately reflect the sentiment of the average user. Personally, I think that Copilot for Work is a good product that does useful things. I use it daily. It isn't particularly groundbreaking, but it's nicely integrated with the wider 365 ecosystem and it has saved me a bunch of time on tedious tasks. The usual LLM caveats apply, but I just don't get why someone would be so annoyed by an entirely optional feature.

tapoxi 11mo ago
Microsoft has a bad history of actually making things optional. Required Microsoft account, Edge automatically importing your browser history and syncing it to Microsoft, OneDrive automatically copying your files and sending it to Microsoft, the repeated attempts after every update to make Edge default again... They haven't given a fuck about the user experience for years and that's colliding with AI exhaustion. There's well over a dozen different things you need to turn off in various parts of Windows at this point to make it accept your decisions and stop throwing ads in your face, all tucked behind multiple layers of dark patterns.
kgwxd 11mo ago
But in the end, you could run what you needed, and move the garbage they threw in, out of the way. Now, I can't run Minecraft without logging into the MS Store. That was the last straw for me, and I built my entire career on Windows and .NET.

conartist6 11mo ago

Alienate the people who carry your water, end up in the dumpster with the rest of the trash. Why? Cause those are the people who know you better than you know yourself, and who know how to beat you at your own game

hulitu 11mo ago

> Users brutually reject Microsoft's "Copilot for work" in Edge and Windows 11 It is because the Windows UX has become a mess of dark patterns and bad design. (gray on gray, bad titlebars, no scrollbars, no borders, no "yes/no" dialogue, notifications, bugs). People are sick of it and every annoying change will be rejected.

ncr100 11mo ago

Sounds like an AI could be writing the Pro AI social media posts. I believe this is literally what was warned about by the super intelligence expert, When talking with Bernie Sanders at the Georgetown something something conference this November: that AI will be persuasive to humans, and basically it will talk the humans out of disabling the power for the AI machines.