this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

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Sony believed that they had so much market share that they could make a console that was leaps and bounds more complicated to code for, which would lock devs in and prevent them from going elsewhere, and they’d just have to suck it up because of said market share. Sony was wrong, and they lost out big time that generation (although they did manage to win the Blu-ray vs hd-dvd format wars).

Microsoft seems to believe they have so much market share that they can force people to upgrade to a privacy invading, ai infested piece of crap, and that everyone needs to suck it up because market share.

I’ve already started hearing wind that people, in statistically significant numbers, are finding alternatives… so is this the same situation as the ps3?

Just a passing musing without much to back up the gut feelings.

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[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

Windows 11 itself isn't an issue

The problem is all the junk and AI crap they shovel into it. It also doesn't help that they keep trying to sell you things.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 3 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

lol no. As much as I would love for Microsoft to go die in a hole, nobody is moving away from Windows. Sensationalist headlines heralding the downfall of Microsoft due to Windows $CURRENT being the worst ever version of Windows have been around since the epoch of Windows itself. People are always moving in droves to Linux. People are always refusing to update to Windows $CURRENT. I've heard it. You've heard it. We've all heard it. And we'll all keep hearing it until the end of times. In the meantime, corporations still depend on that one piece of software they paid for 10 years ago that only runs on Windows, and people are still buying new machines that an OEM already put the latest version of Windows on.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago* (last edited 5 hours ago)

Yes and no

Windows market share is falling to other platforms. It won't go away overnight but the current trajectory of Microsoft isn't good.

Honesty a large portion of the market share is now days is Android. People are choosing mobile devices over desktops.

[–] frezik@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

I'm sorry, is this thread under the misconception that the X360 outsold the PS3? Because that's wrong.

https://www.vgchartz.com/charts/platform_totals/Hardware.php/

X360 did win in North America, but PS3 had a small lead globally. The PS3 was completely dominant in Japan, and had a sizable lead in Europe.

If it wasn't for the Red Ring of Death, the X360 probably would have won. In many ways, Microsoft's gaming division never recovered from that.

[–] zebidiah@lemmy.ca 1 points 11 hours ago

Ps3 barely squeaked out a win in the last year or two, the 360 was the leading console for most of that generation.

Looking back now, I have a modded 360, and any titles that came out for both systems, the Xbox usually was the better version. The modding process for Xbox was a huge pain in the ass though, while the ps3 is super easy to run a software exploit and unsigned code (aka ethically sources ISOs)

7th gen was such a great generation of consoles. they hold up because hd and they are still super fun because no micro transaction bullshit

[–] someacnt@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Microsoft just has so many users unwilling to change, that I do not foresee that happening. Just 10% of people switching to Linux would be absolute win for me.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

In some places like higher ed the market share is much bigger

[–] Wispy2891@lemmy.world 13 points 1 day ago

I think it's more comparable to say the same kind of mistake that Microsoft made with the Xbox One. Sold at a $100 premium over the playstation 4 because Microsoft assumed that everyone would love to get a bundled Kinect when actually nobody did.

Also when they announced the stupid DRM that they wanted to use on the Xbox One (console must be always online to work, games on disk to become single use gift cards that get redeemed to a Microsoft account and can't be used on a different console) Probably Sony won the console war with this single 20 second video even if Microsoft backtracked immediately: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kWSIFh8ICaA

With windows 11 Microsoft is doing similar mistakes:

  • With x86 processors, assuming that everyone has the money to buy a new computer even if their old one could work perfectly for what they need. Last week I went to visit an elementary school in my country and at the wall in the computer room they still had a poster comparing Netscape and Internet Explorer. They definitely don't have the funds to throw and buy again 30 computers. Time for Linux to shine?
  • With arm processors, making it an exclusive for the expensive snapdragon x. Result: those laptops cost even more than comparable x86 ones, while could be cheaper. Look at the recently launched Minisforum R1. A full desktop computer with 32gb RAM and an ARM CPU that is comparable to a core i5-10400F while costing only $500. But because Microsoft chose to support only the most expensive snapdragon processors, this brand new computers can exclusively run Linux. Time for Linux to shine?
[–] titanicx@lemmy.zip 9 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And honestly you're not hearing that people in broad swath of numbers are replacing Windows you're hearing in a very echo chamber like here or Reddit or possibly dig that people are replacing windows it's still a small number statistically and while it's slightly growing it's still not enough that's going to matter to Microsoft even in the least bit. The average person is not going to know what to do and the average person is not going to understand or even know that there's an alternative besides macintosh. Nor are they going to attempt to install an alternative version of an operating system. I mean hell I couldn't even convince my dad to buy a $200 laptop over the $900 gaming PC for the 40 minutes of work he does on computers a week. Some people just are going to do what they do out of habit and not even care.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 hours ago

That used to be true but it’s really picked up momentum. Non-techies at work were talking about switching because they hate windows 11 on the new computers and they don’t want it on theirs.

[–] SoyTDI@lemmy.world 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

And then Microsoft made the same mistake with Xbox One+Kinect.

[–] bobgobbler@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

But then quickly stopped making Kinect mandatory. Plus the Kinect was a wonderful piece of hardware.

Seriously they provided a kinect less bundle 6 months after launch

[–] SoyTDI@lemmy.world 5 points 1 day ago

Seriously they provided a kinect less bundle 6 months after launch

I wonder why 🙄.

I would add Xbox One+Kinect+Always online+the used games policy.

[–] SabinStargem@lemmy.today 5 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I think the biggest decider of how quickly the world transitions away from Microsoft or Apple, is dependent on how the USA looks within a decade. If fascism in the USA stays strong, it would have knock-on effects with foreign relations. Should the USA pull out of NATO and sides with Russia, that by extension implies that US software could be hostile to European powers. The excel spreadsheet with fiscal data for Polish military expenditures? It might be sent straight to a three-letter agency and shared with Russia. Internal French memos that oppose the US? Leaked. And so on.

That would cause a major shift towards FOSS from governments across the world.

[–] muusemuuse@sh.itjust.works 2 points 11 hours ago

The US has already been caught merging intentionally bad code into Linux. Remember what they did to sudo a few years back? Everyone who asks for root without giving a password and does so in a specific way just get root.

[–] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 4 points 14 hours ago

You're already seeing multiple European governments moving to FOSS office suites.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 day ago (3 children)

I work in IT. IMO, the civilian population moving to Linux is inevitable. As Linux finds itself and good ways to do things that don't require people to know bash, or customize options by manually editing config files, things will push that way.

IMO, it will happen, but not quite yet. We're seeing the initial push of the privacy conscious and those that want to avoid becoming a product. It's good, but we're not there yet. We're also seeing some pretty major players, most notably valve, pushing for consumer goods that are unashamedly Linux under the hood. This is, slowly but surely, pushing forward compatibility for apps running on Linux.

We probably won't see any line of business apps adopting a Linux build any time soon, and business in general actually wants the majority of what Microsoft is pushing for.... Along with government institutions (for their own needs), and more. I don't see business moving towards Linux anytime soon... Not beyond it's current role in server operations.

As stuff like steamOS get better and better, and find ways to solve problems in consumer friendly ways, that knowledge will feed back into existing Linux tools. We'll get to a point where Linux will be as plug and play as Windows, and that's when we actually have a good chance of migrating a lot of personal PCs to Linux.

The Battle for the workplace is still a long way out. Well after the Linux home PC is commonplace. People at the office will simply have more experience with Linux, and push for being able to use Linux at work and eventually that's going to start to happen... Probably not in our lifetimes.

To me, it's only a matter of time. Unless Linux undergoes a hostile takeover and unforeseen bullshit happens, it will happen.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 1 points 5 hours ago

It is a little weird to use the word civilian here

I don't see Linux catching on with most people.

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I'm pretty sure this is a repost of a comment I read in 2004.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 2 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Well, I didn't lift it from anywhere. So, I guess there's dozens of us?

[–] ripcord@lemmy.world 1 points 19 hours ago

I was half-joking how similar this is to things people have been saying for decades

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[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 31 points 1 day ago (5 children)

they did manage to win the Blu-ray vs hd-dvd format wars

They didn't win them: they bought them. Blu-ray won via payola more than popularity or technical superiority. HDDVD has way better error correction and thus longevity, but you can see why corpos wouldn't want that at the peak of the planned obsolescence / e-waste years.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 9 points 1 day ago

The PS3 including a BD drive certainly played a part though.

MS tried to push HD-DVD but required a separate device to use it on 360.

It feels like that was the generation of poor console decisions.

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[–] zod000@lemmy.dbzer0.com 18 points 1 day ago (1 children)

No way, unlike Windows 11, the PS3 was actually quite a good product.

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[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 12 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Maybe for home computing which isn't their priority. They've always had their bread buttered by corporate business

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[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 162 points 2 days ago (21 children)

Microsoft is bleeding power users and PC enthusiasts at an unprecedented rate. This is a great thing for Linux, but they are still absolutely locked into the corporate world and that's where the money is.

The reality is that Microsoft solved management of corporate policy and identity like 25 years ago and nothing else has come close. It has its problems, but Active Directory is an incredible piece of software. The combination of LDAP, with obfuscation of Kerberos to the point where you don't even need to know it exists, combined with policy deployment to endpoints is nothing short of a miracle.

Linux has tools for all those things, but none are easy to deploy or configure. If you have to manage thousands of desktops, Windows is still the clear choice

[–] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 76 points 2 days ago (3 children)

If you are a large corporation or government, you'd have the resources to do exactly that. I keep hearing about European governments moving to Linux. And why wouldn't you? Screw perpetual licensing.

[–] Godort@lemmy.ca 75 points 2 days ago (3 children)

What those EU governments are doing is out of interest for national security rather than hate for licensing. The US has changed drastically in the last decade and getting your sensitive data out of their infrastructure is a top priority.

The cost of change from Windows to Linux is pretty small for an individual. Most people have one or two machines and a handful of programs, none of which are critical to your continued existence.

In the corporate world, you need to be absolutely sure that everything will work flawlessly, which often means weeks or months of testing on top of all your regular IT duties, constant support tickets to obscure software vendors who may not have ever worked with Linux, and if some mission-critical piece of software breaks, then the company cannot operate until it is fixed...or you can continue to use Windows, even though it sucks more now.

I want Linux to have wider adoption in the desktop space, but it's a catch 22. People aren't going to move unless the software is guaranteed to work, and Linux-based software isn't going to be made unless people are using it. This is why Proton was such a big deal. It offered a real option for gaming to move to the platform and now it's viable and devs are starting to take linux into account.

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[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 17 points 1 day ago (4 children)

Every other version of windows flops or sucks. 98 SE, good. 2k/ME, No. XP, great. Vista,no. 7, great. 8, No.

10…probably the last good Windows unless M$oft unfucks itself and makes 12 good. But I doubt it.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 2 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

10…probably the last good Windows

Everybody and their mother complained about how bad and privacy invasive Windows 10 was. Hell, the most famous software to fix the privacy issues of Windows 11 is still called Shut Up 10. This backlash is nothing more than people resisting change.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 1 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

I think the biggest complaint was trying to shove cortana and the 11 upgrade in everyone’s faces constantly. Once you use whatever fix you choose to remove or silence them, Win10 is fine - as long as you avoid installing other M$ services, but those aren’t 10’s fault. And disabling the few annoyances 10 has are paltry compared to what M$ is trying to force users into accepting in 11.

[–] stevedice@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 hours ago

I think the biggest complaint was trying to shove cortana and the 11 upgrade in everyone’s faces constantly

Cortana was definitely one of the complaints but 11 didn't even exist at the time and Microsoft insisted it never would. Funnily enough, people were pissed about Microsoft shoving the upgrade to 10 in their faces. Other things people complained about were the privacy-invading "quality of life" features, forced updates, the new start menu and metro apps. They also swore on their mothers' graves to never update to 10. It was literally the same thing that's happening with 11. You can look up "Windows spyware" with a pre-2021 filter for a blast from the past.

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[–] Ghostalmedia@lemmy.world 99 points 2 days ago (29 children)

When recently onboarding for a new job I heard something I never thought I would hear in my life.

Everyone was given a Mac. Eng, design, finance, HR. Everyone. In my onboarding cohort, someone in finance asked if they could have a Windows PC, which has been the backbone of finance orgs for decades. IT said no. They just didn’t want to deal with Microsoft’s enterprise ecosystem.

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[–] PieMePlenty@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Nah, price killed PS3 and with Windows, OEM's eat the cost anyway. If its cheap, people will buy it. MS isn't making things harder for developers, they aren't increasing the price of windows, they offer support to orgs, they offer a whole suite of software for them too, they aren't going anywhere. They'll lose out some of the consumer market, but thats not where they get their money from anyway.

[–] AyD@lemmy.blahaj.zone 7 points 1 day ago (4 children)

That must of been a long shower thinking about this

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[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 61 points 2 days ago (3 children)

Every once in a while, Microsoft makes fundamental mistakes which they only survive because of their size. Think Microsoft Bob or Windows 8. Looks like Windows 11 is heading in the same direction.

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[–] IWW4@lemmy.zip 28 points 2 days ago (13 children)

It wouldn’t be the first time a Microsoft OS was a total disaster.

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[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 70 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Lets not forget too that Sony ever only started making video games at all because Nintendo thought they had such strong market share that they could bully Phillips AND Sony. Phillips ended up being a little bitch, and didn't do anything noteworthy. But Sony? Sony bent Nintendo over a barrel, and took their lunch money.

And then waited 10 years to make the same exact mistake.

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[–] db2@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago (4 children)

I don't think Sony intentionally screwed up PS2s to sell more PS3s though so it's not an equal comparison.

[–] BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

they screwed up not making ps3s have ps2 backwards compatability outside the first lot of them released. its what ultimately caused me to be an xbox fan because for christmas my dad was gonna get the family a ps3 but when he found out they were no longer backward compatable with ps2 games he got us an xbox 360 instead

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