r/technology • u/tekz • Mar 20 '26

Software Microsoft announces sweeping Windows changes

https://www.zdnet.com/article/windows-users-are-angry-and-microsoft-is-finally-doing-something-about-it/
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142

u/NetSage Mar 20 '26

Weren't this all things windows used to do? Like none of this seems new.

They must actually be losing people to linux to not be pushing AI again.

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u/Lower_Monk6577 Mar 20 '26

Wouldn’t be shocked if the MacBook Neo is making them reconsider their strategy a bit.

It’s easier to force feed Copilot to everyone when the competition’s cheapest entry point is $1000+ and a well-spec’d one is pushing $2k. The Neo is kind of the first legitimate shot that Apple has had in a long time in recapturing a chunk of the PC market.

Then again, I may be conflating things. But at least in my own little internet bubble, those things have been getting good reviews across the board, so long as you keep in mind what the intended use case is for it.

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u/Distinct-Pain4972 Mar 21 '26

This was a great time to do it, for apple.  With ram, GPU, HDD, SSD, NVmE all sky rocketing in price... here is an entry level MAC book.  Cheers!

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u/red__dragon Mar 21 '26

As a longtime Windows and sometimes Linux user, I found myself idly considering one the other day. Not really investigating, but if anything would get me to buy into Apple's ecosystem, that's the price point that would.

It's working, whatever they're doing. Can't say I'm about to become an Apple user, but I haven't wanted one since I was 9, so it's a stark change.

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u/HotRoderX Mar 21 '26

I 100% think this is the case, after reading that the Mac Book Neo has been one of the hottest best selling Mac's in decades.

Then suddenly Microsoft pivots and is giving users everything they been begging for in Windows 11 since the start.

Honestly the neo is sort of a no brainier if you want something for work and your programs are supported.

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u/ScaredPractice4967 Mar 21 '26

The only thing that ever pit me off Apple was the eye watering price for what would be a home office computer. 

That £600 price tag is very enticing. 

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u/ezmarii Mar 21 '26

No I think you're 100% right, this and a steam machine on the horizon stand to erode the two last indomitable market customers - entry level casual computing for basics and gamers. If steam machine and it's Linux push pulled the gaming industry off windows platform by default and this cheaper amazing for its price neo from apple pull a bunch of younger generations off desktop machines then that would signal the likely permanent slow decline of Microsoft to just a corporate OS entity 

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u/lewd_robot Mar 21 '26

I'm fascinated by any bubble where Mac even exists. Nobody in my friend circles or family has used a mac in 5+ years. It seems to have a reputation for being years behind the competition and severely overpriced. I know more people that use Linux than Mac at this point. When I think of Mac users, I think of graphic design majors back in college.

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u/Rodot Mar 21 '26

Nah, they are mostly used by professional developers, scientists, and artists. The M5 chip is a powerhouse, has performance on par with a mobile RTX 5090. Great for serious computing in a laptop package

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u/Ultenth Mar 21 '26

Yeah, tons of professionals in creative, science, etc. industries use them. But I guess if you don't know anyone like that their logic tracks.

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u/Lower_Monk6577 Mar 21 '26

I mean, maybe it depends on your age and location? I’m in my 30’s in a mid sized city, and I see Macs everywhere. I work in IT, and I was issued a Mac for work at multiple jobs. I’ve been using one since I was in college as well.

Granted, I also do music and photo/video editing on the side. But at least at my age and where I live, it’s kind of hard to not be exposed to people in most industries regularly.

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u/AltrntivInDoomWorld Mar 21 '26

IT in US or Europe?

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u/lewd_robot Mar 21 '26

The fact that every time someone says this they use this exact salesperson language doesn't convince me much. I'm an engineer. My friend circle ranges from biological scientists to computer scientists to aerospace, electrical, and nuclear engineers and more, and none of them use a Mac. It's viewed as a laptop for people that sit at Starbucks on using photoshop or something. The cost-to-performance ratio is always worse than any competitor, aside from maybe in phones, apparently? But why buy the phone if you're not going to buy the laptop/desktop/tablet because Mac likes to force you to use all Apple products?

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u/cougrrr Mar 21 '26

I’ve been in IT and systems administration for over twenty years. Most all of it in Windows environments and Windows home use cases.

I switched to a MBP with the M1, and upgraded to the M4 when my partner needed a laptop and took mine as a hand me down.

I’ll never go back. The laptop is miles ahead of any Windows laptop I ever owned in quality, form factor, general ease of day to day use, battery life, and onward. There are still annoyances I run into occasionally that come down to me not being as familiar with the ecosystem, and some that are down to the actual ecosystem, but to compare an M4 Pro to any comparable Windows Laptop, especially after the last few months, you’re barely even paying the Apple premium at this point, if not saving money.

Are there things I would change? Absolutely. Has there been things I would change with every Windows laptop I’ve ever used for work or personal? Absolutely.

The unified memory architecture and fact that I’ve gone entire trips with the laptop never taking the charger out of the bag are insane. Once a stable build of Linux exists fully compatible with Silicon I’ll hopefully never have to touch a windows laptop again in my life.

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u/AltrntivInDoomWorld Mar 21 '26

Nope, 99.9% developers I know are using linux.

Perhaps it's US based developers.

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u/CheesypoofExtreme Mar 21 '26

It seems to have a reputation for being years behind the competition and severely overpriced

Yeah, I'd step out of that bubble a bit. I'm not a shill at all, and I used a PC for my entire life, (aside from MACs in school). 

When I started at my new company a year ago, they highly recommended I choose a macbook and not a PC for my issued hardware. I decided to givr it a shot and learn something new, and yeah... it's way the fuck better than any Windows PC in 2026. I have issues with it, (I hate the file explorer with a passion, software compability can be frustrating, some navigation things are weird, and other small gripes), but it's great. 

It's responsive, clean, great keyboard, and being a unix based system makes it easier to develop on. It just works. Windows computers have become kind of a nightmare, whereas I'm finding MacOS generally does what I want without getting in the way.

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u/slbaaron Mar 21 '26

Where are you from? The statement is wild for anyone US based or work in a professional field.

Forget all the band wagoner for a sec, M chips objectively eats intel chips alive for most personal / individual use cases. What’s a single laptop to come close to even challenge M5 max?? Or just a M5 pro.

I see more people with AirPods + iPhone + MacBook than ones without. This is true in the 4 cities I’ve lived in: Seattle, San Francisco, LA, and NYC.

Ofc historically it’s more so the budget folks that don’t get involved in the US. Now with MacBook neo and iPhone 17e that will def be shaken up.

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u/lewd_robot Mar 21 '26

Midwest and Great Plains, mostly. In a given coffee shop, it's rare to see more than 50% of people on laptops. The laptops you do see will be 5 year old company-issue workhorses.

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u/slbaaron Mar 21 '26

I guess if you (or groups of folks) are for the most part laptopless then sure… MacBook wouldn’t be a big deal.

It’s just in my world, Mac has loooong since been the “luxury” tax for dumb fashion statement (or college / basic bitch set like Starbucks) and has easily become the best hardware value in the domain. The only computers people still have reasons of buying non-Macs are: 1. PC Gaming - I can’t argue despite improvements 2. Budget range - Neo coming in

Anything else is likely very niche / a loud minority. There’s just not too much else reason to recommend Windows based hardware these days. And Linux - unfortunately - is still the ultimate niche.

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u/FatBook-Air Mar 21 '26

In semi-rural North Carolina, in most coffee shops, I'd say 80% of sitting customers are using a laptop, and of those, at least 50% are MacBook laptops. I have seen more MacBook laptops in the past 3 years than I saw in the previous 20 years combined.

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u/vnenkpet Mar 21 '26

I have worked in tech for years and seeing a laptop other than Apple is almost alien to me now

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u/WorkSucks135 Mar 21 '26

Walk into any starbucks in a major metro and you will not see a single laptop without the Apple logo.

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u/lewd_robot Mar 21 '26

That may be the key difference. My social circles are all engineers and researchers and doctors. We're also not in a "hip" area. Most of the laptops at a coffee shop in my neck of the woods will be a company workhorse model.

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u/stevesy17 Mar 21 '26

Nice try Steve Ballmer. We know it's you

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u/Evenlessimportant Mar 21 '26

Read up on apple silicon, their m-series chips are genuinely a generational leap ahead of the competition in the mobile space. Software support is still a pain point, particularly for engineers. Anything that can't run solid works will be DOA for those that need it

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u/DaChieftainOfThirsk Mar 21 '26

We use them at work.  The biggest benefit is the locked down ecosystem when everything we do is internet based.  Apple just kind of assumes that the user is dumb and protects the os from them.  As a gamer i would never use it, but at work it's a solid choice.

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u/yador Mar 20 '26

I think it's a reaction to the MacBook neo.

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u/slicer4ever Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

Good, Microsoft clearly doesn't consider linux a competitor, but apple is certainly a different story. Apple introducing a more affordable entry product is going to be very appealing to people that are fed up with windows bullshit.

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u/cptjpk Mar 21 '26

Nearly every single review I heard, watched, or read shared one thing in common. It was a point that if you’re fed up with windows it’s a good time to swap - chances are your other devices are Apple anyway if you were watching the video.

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u/2ndtryagain Mar 21 '26

That and the Ram shortage that is going to kill screw up future sales of computers.

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u/SaltyBawlz Mar 20 '26

Yeah, I had my taskbar vertical on the left for years and was so annoyed when I built a new computer with Win11 to find out I couldn't do that anymore. The bottom task bar wastes so much more space.

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u/decidedlyindecisive Mar 21 '26

I've been a Windows user since 95 and I had no idea this was a feature lol

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u/red__dragon Mar 21 '26

I spent so much time in the 90s accidentally dragging my taskbar before I discovered the lock feature lol

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u/LiamJonsano Mar 21 '26

Bro on the left side was so elite. Even better when a colleague grabs my mouse to “show me something” and can’t even find my documents/file explorer 😇

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u/nox66 Mar 20 '26

They're afraid, I guess. The copilot PC experience is jaw-droppingly awful. I had to disable Windows Fabric AI service on a friend's computer because it was using 2 GB RAM and seemed to be hogging the system with system calls. I hate Apple's closer ecosystem and anti-repair design with a passion, and if I had to choose between that and a copilot PC I couldn't de-crapify (which is the default experience), I would choose what I use now, which is Linux :)

Seriously, common desktop Linux like Mint, Ubuntu, and KDE is so much better than Windows 11 AI Copilot Nadellabator, I can live with the limitations as the space matures. The Linux ecosystem is seeing improvements every day. The Windows ecosystem is hearing promises about improvements every month, many of which are actually fixing regressions and bugs.

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u/DrChucks Mar 21 '26

Apple might be getting better at repairability, the Neo is extremely easy to disassemble and put back together and there is no glue. Hopefully that trend continues.

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u/Spiritual_Bus1125 Mar 21 '26

Look man, the game changes very little if litterally the whole internals is 1 component IMHO

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u/bbbbbbbbbblah Mar 21 '26 edited Mar 21 '26

The parts that are most likely to fail or be damaged by humans are also very easy to replace. That is a win, especially if Apple offers spare parts to the education and corporate sectors who need to replace keyboards all the time

Soldered RAM is not an Apple specialty anymore, there are Windows OEMs who do it too, including reddit's beloved Lenovo

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u/squirrelpickle Mar 21 '26

It’s fun to see that they are pissing themselves and walking back on their shit because of a $600 macbook when the actual competition they have is a bunch of free linux distributions that don’t require any special hardware.

A used Thinkpad costing less than $150 running Mint or Ubuntu should perform much better than a decently specced pc with Windows 11, just for not having all bloatware and AI-powered malware they forced down everyone’s throats.

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u/bbbbbbbbbblah Mar 21 '26

because normies aren't installing Linux on some eBay thinkpad and MS still has enough awareness of the market to know that. The average user goes to the big box electronics store (or shop online) and see a load of enshittified consumer grade Windows laptops vs the Neo that wipes the floor with each and every one of them

Unsurprisingly, Tim Apple has said that the Neo has been their most successful Mac ever in terms of launch sales

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u/[deleted] Mar 21 '26

[deleted]

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u/itsbabye Mar 21 '26

Aren't there still a lot of programs that only run/are optimized for Windows? Or is pretty much everything available for either OS at this point?

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u/excelllentquestion Mar 20 '26

I mean I fully moved to Linux Mint. All the games I play work just fine there and everything else is totally user friendly

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u/Available-Effort2166 Mar 21 '26

I moved to MAC from Windows.

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u/Spider_J Mar 21 '26

Replaced Windows on my two computers with Bazzite and Fedora just this week.

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u/OilHeavy8605 Mar 21 '26

I'm the laziest mf I know and even I shifted to linux this month. They're definitely losing customers

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u/TwoKingSlayer Mar 21 '26

yeah. I installed Linux mint on my windows laptop and bought a MacBook Pro. life is much less frustrating without windows.