With the new law about age verification on the OS-level, they will just be encouraged to make the MSAccount even more mandatory.
Yeah, they may just use that as an opportunity/excuse to push it harder but that would contradict what they have just said.
Could MS be actually listening?
I saw several discussions speculating that this *could* be a mix of the "Microslop hate campaign", but it also could have been influenced by the subsequent release of the "fairly cheap" Apple Macbook Neo. While Linux is scary for most people, for many switching to Mac seems like a more appealing and safer option. However, the cost of new hardware, especially Apple hardware, can be a barrier for many. An inexpensive Apple laptop may be indeed seen as a threat to Microslop.
Then, Microslop's insanely costly investments in AI apparently are not paying off.
However, the other possibility is that MS is just trying to placate people, pretending to pay attention, hoping our attention will get eventually diverted to something else.
We'll see.
I finally completed my last Windows 11 25H2 build last week and installed it on all my PCs. Everything works fine. So, now, it's time to sit on the fence and observe. I made a resolution not to build another one, not even tinker with anything OS related, Windows and Linux, for a full year, until January 2027. I need a break from this.
I uninstalled NTLite and VMWare and archived all my build files to avoid the temptation. Now, I'm gonna wait and see what develops, what Microslop really does, how they handle this mess and how Windows 11 26H2 turns up. At the same time, I'm watching the Linux space too: Linux 7 (the kernel) is coming this year with some big changes, Valve's Steam Machine and Steam Frame are coming too and NVIDIA is apparently hiring Linux devs to improve their Linux drivers.
Then there is the AI bubble question (and the resulting hardware pricing Armageddon). Will it burst and take the world economy with it? Will it gradually stabilize to some sane, manageable levels? Or, are we gonna suffer this nonsense until 2030 and beyond as some say? Will the PC DIY scene recover from the hardware pricing Armageddon"? I heard that many PC tech YouTubers' views dropped to below 30% since last year, due to fewer than 50%, or less, of people buying computers and computer parts.
Lots of questions.
It's really terrible time to be a PC enthusiast. Good luck to ya all!
We'll see.