[jakebasile]

I am forced to use Windows for gaming, and let me tell you what Microsoft has done to me lately.

- Forced updates are a travesty. I should be able to delay or ignore updates indefinitely as I own my computer.

- I'm not allowed to not run an antivirus program, despite having no need of one. I can only temporarily pause Windows Defender's real-time checks before they'll helpfully turn it back on for me. This results in a loss of gaming performance.

- Turning off their spying telemetry is essentially impossible and will helpfully turn itself back on.

- They hold some good games hostage and refuse to release them on Windows (Halo Master Chief Collection) since they don't take gaming seriously on PC.

- Every once in a while, they become dedicated to PC gaming again which simply means they will use their power to force something awful onto the community, like the Windows Xbox Game Bar, Games for Windows Live, etc. in their quest to make my gaming PC into an Xbox.

- UWP is trash and greatly restricts what the user can do with their game, such as mods or fan patches to fix bugs developers ignore.

- The Windows Store is horrible in and of itself and is full of even more low quality software. Instead of releasing their games on Steam, Origin, GOG, or even UPlay, they force them into this dumpster fire.

- They install Candy Crush and other drivel by default on a fresh copy of Windows, and sometimes it magically reappears.

Just because Microsoft has put on the "I'm changed!" act recently by releasing some FOSS and donating some money does not mean they have actually stopped being a negative influence.

[overeater]

Yes, thank you. People are quick to point out the Microsoft hasn't done anything detrimental to society, forget that their software is such a mess. We're too focused on judging companies based on whether employees get paternity leave, an offhand remark by a CEO, or recent scandals, that we're forgetting about the quality of software we're installing on our computers. When I saw a bunch of spammy games like March of Empires and Candy Crush installed with my Windows 10 Pro, I thought I got a bad copy -- instead it was truly just part of their operating system. They force their terrible antivirus (which keeps quarantining files I'm working on, when I'm working with low-level .exe patching) and forced updates and reboots. I wish there was a way to have Windows that's just an operating system.

[dingdingdang]

I'm with you on this one: Win10 is a travesty and is literally forcing me (and the organisation I work for) to switch to Linux distro. Cannot have Pro editions randomly install Candy Crush and reset privacy settings at Microsoft's leisure. No.

[alkonaut]

Completely agree. But windows and devdiv are two completely different beasts these days. In think the people at devdiv seem fantastic and the tools they have done recently are great (.NET core, VS code, GitVFS, ...).

Microsoft may not have changed completely but part of it has

[Kenji]

I couldn't agree more. What a pain. GitHub good bye, hello GitLab (I already am on Bitbucket).

Currently, Microsoft is blocking an open source mod of the Halo Online engine, called ElDewrito. It's an incredibly fun to play mod but now development has been halted because of legal action. I hate Microsoft for all the things you mentioned.

[parvenu74]

> Forces updates are a travesty.

You can disable this. Google on the use for modifying the hosts file to block your machine's access to Windows Update if you're not sure how to do this.

> They hold some games hostage and refuse to release them on Windows...

Wait -- I thought you were forced, as a gamer, to use Windows. I don't follow.

> UWP is trash...

This is true. UWP tries to be many things, like a single container for desktop, tablet, and (Windows) mobile apps. In the end it mostly fails.

> I'm not allowed to not run an antivirus program.

Uh, dude: I run Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines and none of them FORCE me to use antivirus. They nag about it for a while but those alerts and nags can be disabled.

[reificator]

> You can disable this. Google on the use for modifying the hosts file to block your machine's access to Windows Update if you're not sure how to do this.

That's not disabling Windows Update, that's hacking name resolution to prevent the connection itself. That's like saying you can disable Windows Update by not connecting to the internet.

And I'm not even confident that the host file solution will last forever, in future you might have to do it from the router level instead.

> Wait -- I thought you were forced, as a gamer, to use Windows. I don't follow.

If you play PC games you are effectively forced to use the Windows ecosystem. Several of my favorite games are available on macOS/Linux, but it's like watching movies. You might watch Blazing Saddles and Evil Dead 2 on a regular basis, but you're also going to want some variety in there as well.

What the GP is saying though is that Microsoft is holding game franchises as XBox exclusives to try to slow their marketshare bleed. They are taking franchises that were formerly present (if delayed) on Windows such as Halo and using them to sell XBoxes.