On mobile, when everyone was releasing their new voice assistant technologies, Cortana outperformed them all. On desktop I agree that Cortana was a waste of space.

I’ve been a MS products fan since Windows Phone, Cortana, and OneNote stole my heart. I loved the great features that Windows 10 and Edge provided out-of-the box. Bing provided better results than Google for some time.

But Phone was never accepted by the market, and with it, Cortana faded away. OneNote hasn’t kept up with the market, and they somehow broke the cursor on mobile. Sticky Notes lost compatibility with Dark Mode. They started pushing ads to Windows start menu, and embedded ads in Edge Collections.

Microsoft makes great software, then fuck it all up. Oh well, back to Linux.

Yes. I think it’s especially important for attracting (or perhaps more accurately, maintaining) new users to the fediverse.

Jesus Christ.

🫡

You lost me with all the ads baked into the OS. You’re not gonna win me back with… checks notes Notepad.

I’ve dipped my toes in Linux a few times over the years, but after Windows started pushing ads to the start menu, the lock screen, and the Edge Collections pane, they pushed pushed me off the cliff.

Commodore 64 joystick.

The parking lot at work is filled huge pickup trucks, while the inside of the building is filled with tiny penises.

Dark mode and live widgets.

Edit to add: https://www.howtogeek.com/809114/5-ways-windows-phone-was-ahead-of-its-time/

Windows phone was the best phone OS I ever experienced. Features were years ahead of iOS and Android.