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Nothing’s stopping you from nuking your Windows install and installing some Linux distro though, at least on a normal PC. Surface products tend to be more locked to Windows though. I haven’t ran Windows as a main OS in years and don’t plan on going back, and Windows has gotten so user-hostile lately that I don’t even trust it enough to dual-boot it anymore, LTSC included.

(so far LTSC has dodged most of MS’ worst atrocities but it’s only a matter of time before that version starts getting compromised in some way too, so I don’t trust Windows outside of a VM, period, anymore, at least if I virtualize it, whatever stunts it may pull are isolated to that VM and won’t affect the host generally)

Blender at least has gotten to the point where an indie flick made with it actually won some Oscars and other big awards, so that pretty much put it on the map as a viable Maya or 3DSMax alternative, so there’s that.

No it’s not, multiplayer games with anticheat that hard-locks you into Windows and productivity software with DRM that hard-locks you into Windows is still a thing, if that were to stop being a thing, then Windows’ dominance on the desktop might finally be threatened, but until then, sadly, no.

That applies for PeerTube, Matrix, Pixelfed, and Mastodon as well.

I’d argue Lemmy and other decentralized platforms are the last bastion for free speech instead of Reddit though.

Like, since Lemmy, Pixelfed, Mastodon, PeerTube, and Matrix are decentralized, that naturally shields them from censorship somewhat compared to centralized platforms where you’re ultimately at the mercy of whoever runs that platform.

I’m not and never was banned from there, however I left on my own accord after this happened, as if all their other enshittification didn’t reinforce that decision.

And my Reddit account is now gone, I nuked it.

The current American regime is a good reason for them to not only move to whatever the data storage equivalent of a tax haven is, but also move fully to Tor/I2P to cover their tracks against any enemy powers, assuming Trump and Musk don’t figure out how to deanonymize Tor and I2P.

One more reason to use Lemmy.

Framework’s doing a pretty good job standing out for laptops anyways, with their user-repairability focus.

Alright then MS, (this is hypothetical as I haven’t ran Windows as my main OS in years and don’t plan on going back) since you want me to trade in my hardware, how 'bout I trade in your OS instead? :p

X is one to talk given how bad they are about censorship themselves.

Super-slim distros like Tiny Core or Puppy will be a rocket on a P4.

In the US at least, the courts are seemingly bought out.

Good thing LibreWolf and other forks exist.