this post was submitted on 29 Feb 2024
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Only boomers actually use the desktop folder ๐คฃ
What do you actually have on there? A series of folders that you use to organize shit ๐คฃ
Since Windows 3.1 I've used win + D maybe 5 times. Y'all just want excuses to yell at MS.
It's a shortcut to minimize all windows.
Yes. And nobody uses it but boomers. What are you actually doing with your desktop background. Nothing.
I use it. I'm 29 and in Tier II IT. The human experience is broader than your own, oh great Center of the Universe.
Not everyone has the same use case as you.
Chiming in to say that I also use Win + D from time to time. Factually not a boomer. I keep a ton of shit on my desktop because I'm lazy and disorganized.
I don't care what Microsoft does anymore, I already had enough dark patterns a few months ago and switched to daily driving Debian. You're mad at me because I saw a spade and called it a spade.
I think most users actually like copilot after using it. PMs can easily use it to ask it to pull in the default templates and import a json file from our finance system to do revenue stuff. Saves them hours. Developer just ask if to create a PowerPoint for their speaking of presentation and copilot grabs the default templates. You can even give it input about what your presenting and it'll generate outlines for you to start from.
All of that is far more useful than a side feature to show the desktop. Win + D. It's not the end of the world.
I don't doubt it's useful, I'm simply not interested in it being where it is. There's nothing about what you just described which should elevate Copilot's presence in the taskbar. If the issue was that the taskbar real estate needs more utility, then why not put an Edge shortcut there - surely that's more useful to the average person than either? But wait, that'd be redundant right? But Copilot isn't because...?
It's not really about the minutia of the button function and position, but rather about UI/UX in Windows generally. My use of Win+D or lack thereof is contextual, because it is often more convenient for me to use the hand that's already resting on my mouse, to go to the part of the screen where windows are managed, to manage windows. It probably wouldn't be a problem if alt+tab or their fancy switcher weren't dogshit. On Debian I just use touchpad gestures for pretty much everything and it's a non-issue.
Sure, I'm dunking on what's subjectively a nitpick in the Windows dunk zone. But no one is saying it's the end of the world, I'm saying it's less convenient in the context that Windows UX is already poor, and you're telling me I should just settle for keyboard shortcuts and be happy with it. 60 years of refining GUIs on desktop PCs, and that's what we're settling on?
It is a UX issue. If Windows kept every single feature in the same space for 20 years it would be a mess. Things get used, they get prioritized. MS didn't offer huge flexibility. They offer an opinionated take on home and office computing. You've moved on to Linux DE, and that's the correct choice for you. But MS knows what's being used, we know they are spying on you, and I'd be willing to bet it's mostly unused. I have no data, I do have experience in MSP services which I know counts for very little but I do watch and am questions and this stuff to our users and what annoys them ๐คทโโ๏ธ.
Call me crazy but I just find it hard to believe that a high portion of the user base is hurt by this and that large portion of these lemmy users aren't using hotkeys anyway. It's just my guess. I'm sure you'll disagree. And I'm not saying your specific workflow hasn't been affected.
I mean, we kind of have the same point but have just come to opposing conclusions. Take for instance that you can launch the task manager via the context menu on the taskbar in Win11 only. A great new feature which further reinforces the existing design language / mise en place. That is representative of Windows' opinion on window management. The Copilot button contradicts it. For what? If Copilot is useful and popular, is it that users are incapable of saving it to their taskbar via conventional means, or that this isn't satisfactory?
I'm by no means excluding myself from Microsoft's ecosystem or making decisions on the basis of ad tracking, just Windows enshittification, from almost a civil engineering perspective