[publicdebates]

How likely is a future where Microsoft

(a) gives us back 2000/XP/7/11 options for UI,

(b) gives us a desktop-first experience when we have keyboard/mouse plugged in,

(c) stops turning every OS feature into an ad, and makes it utilitarian again,

(d) and focuses 100% on making a stable OS and high quality dev/office apps?

It would be so nice if they just forked a commit from ~2005 and started from there.

(Maybe Copilot will mess up & erase commits so they have to? One can only dream.)

[bootsmann]

> (c) stops turning every OS feature into an ad, and makes it utilitarian again

Microsoft and OpenAI have the same problem in that they have a massive userbase that costs them money but doesn’t generate any revenue. The only known ways of sustaining such a structure is ads or becoming a marketplace and they failed at the second so I doubt your wish will ever come true.

[spikej]

I'd be super happy if they left Windows alone and did just this for years to come. Use the other products to make money, and just maintain this Win 2000/7/10 type OS without new features, and stop trying to hide everything behind fancy UI. I still revert back to old control panels to do the necessary tweaks.

[cogman10]

0%

I think the most likely thing that will happen is MS will have a hard split between the corporate and consumer OSes. Much like they tried to do with windows 2000 vs windows 9x.

And much like what happened with that split, I think you'll see consumers getting copies of corporate windows to get around/away from consumer windows.

[drillsteps5]

Give me back the proper search which last worked Windows 7-ish (or XP?). And traditional Office interface (not stupid "context-specific" tiles).

[accrual]

I still find myself doing "dir /s *myfile*" on modern Windows sometimes because it's less unpredictable than searching Explorer.

[drillsteps5]

I still install (and use) FAR every time I rebuild Windows :)

Edit: Reinstall, not rebuild obviously.

[Andrex]

> It would be so nice if they just forked a commit from ~2005 and started from there.

I would say 2009. Vista's troubled driver era was necessary, and Windows 7 was pretty awesome.

[AlienRobot]

>How likely is a future where Microsoft

>(a) gives us back 2000/XP/7/11 options for UI,

I actually laughed out loud when I read this, so I think extremely unlikely.

[publicdebates]

They're definitely going to do it at some point in the near future, mark my words.