[wholinator2]

Honestly at this point I've ceased to see even marginal improvements and now observe almost exclusively regressions. They keep taking away functionality, maybe the CPU is faster but my ability to accurately manage the device i own to my personal specifications is forever being reduced. I've encountered many settings that claim to have been "moved" since upgrading windows that just are no longer there. But the old control panel controls that would've given me enough information to proceed debugging are replaced with soft cornered, sterile, white boxes with single toggles, giving the absolute minimum of information possible, and refusing to provide any means of forcing it to elaborate further!

Every app i use consistently gets worse every update, especially social media. I had been saying it for years, but even my non tech friends now are beginning to agree with me which tells me it must be getting really bad.

It seems that every piece of software that can be updated synchronously to the entire population of users enjoys a brief period of success as it actually gets more usable, before inevitably being consumed by profit interests and falling deeper and deeper down the engagement and micro transaction rabbit hole.

[specproc]

This may be a good time to give Linux a go as a daily driver, if that's possible.

I made the switch a year or so ago, and it's been really refreshing having my laptop not treat me in the way you describe.

[JohnFen]

That effect is becoming increasingly common in the Linux world over time as well.

[pxmpxm]

I must be getting old or something, because that is my sentiment exactly. Every (forced for bullshit CVE reasons, zomg state actors are after my cat photo collection with $1mio 0days) upgrade introduces yet another user-adverse change aimed at either merchandising something I don't care about, selling my data or changing my existing configs to default back to one of the two formerly mentioned avenues.

Also it's mildly terrifying this dynamic is now pervading things outside of general computing - there are people on this very forum that cargo cult forced "security upgrade" mentality for things like tvs and appliances, without having the slightest idea about the real revenue motives that drive this. Here's a hint: whirpool doesn't give a f about your wifi washer the day after you bought it; any money/engineering time spent on OTA updates is done strictly to sell you a new washer.