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Windows 12 Reportedly Set for Release This Year as a Fully Modular, Subscription-Based, AI-Focused OS; Editor Update: "should not have been published"

It's all very believable to me, except I doubt the retail version will come out in 2026. I'm not surprised Windows Central is trying to put out the fire.
 
Paasei said:
Dance Celebrate GIF by Windows
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For a small fee of $9.99 a month, you can rent Clippy, our new AI masterpiece. It can do lots of things like see if you're writing a résumé and suggest ways to format it.
 
Ellis said:
The worst part of all this is that we still don't have a viable alternative to Windows. We'll continue to moan about Win 11/12/13 but still end up sticking with it.

Linux still relying on shit like terminal is why it will never replace Windows.
It's not 1991. If I want that nostalgia hit, I'll install MS DOS.
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What year is this? Unless I'm doing deep editing of config files I haven't touched the terminal unless I want too in months. Like a lot of Linux nerds or hell, Windows/Mac power users, I've learned just how efficient a terminal is compared to doing things in the GUI. Your day to day task are just fine without touching a terminal.
 
Imagine for a moment wanting to buy a PC these days with hardware prices constantly rising.

Once you've assembled it, you find that the treasure you hold in your hands is almost exclusively managed by the only operating system that supports it: Microsoft Windows and its "wonderful" DirectX.

That feeling must be awful.
 
StereoVsn said:
This is why I use Mac for everything but games (in general). It's great for that and even game support has been improving between hardware (new M5 GPUs are pretty good), native game releases and Crossover.

Running say Mac Mini or MacBook Air and a Linux gaming PC is going to be a decent idea for a lot of folks.
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This is what I do (M3 Max MBP here). Thanks to CrossOver, good emulation support, and the beefy hardware chips Apple is putting in their Macs, a Mac computer is already miles better than Windows in practically every area. My main gaming preference is on PS5 Pro, and I only use a Windows computer for PC exclusives I'm interested in, so Microsoft sure isn't seeing any benefit from me (I'd buy through Steam only). In every other consumer product, they've been axed from my life.
 
Puscifer said:
What year is this? Unless I'm doing deep editing of config files I haven't touched the terminal unless I want too in months. Like a lot of Linux nerds or hell, Windows/Mac power users, I've learned just how efficient a terminal is compared to doing things in the GUI. Your day to day task are just fine without touching a terminal.
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The year that Linux still don't have a decent Nvidia/Radeon control panel and minimum stuff like that. 🤷‍♂️
 
pudel said:
Apple was always pretty "nice" for many people...just not for gaming. (and its a walled garden)
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Mac OS is a normal computer OS and you can do anything you want with it in terms of developing and installing any software on your computer

A lot of people think Mac OS and iOS are the same and they aren't

I still have to keep gaming PCs around for gaming but everything else I do with a computer is on my MacBook Air

If there was a way for me to get rid of Windows for gaming I would have done so already but for now using Windows just as a game launcher isn't bad or anything and I minimize my interactions with Microsoft otherwise
 
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"Fully modular" is pretty much the only good news here.

I swear that if it wasn't for the need to have Windows for working purposes I would have moved to linux at this point.
Especially given how reliable Proton is getting on Steam.
 
Time for other players to step up.

It's 2026 and Microsoft still have their sweaty palms on our balls. We need viable competition to Windows.....yesterday.
 
Bry0 said:
NPU requirement is interesting and I'd like to see details. There are almost ZERO desktop socketed processors with an NPU aside from the gorgon point amd chip. This could easily be shifted to gpu but to this day copilot+ functions require an npu even though we have graphics cards with HUNDREDS of tops.

This would be a HUGE mistake of forced obsolescence worse than the w11 tpm requirement.
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My Intel i9 285k has an NPU
 
RespawnX said:
Poorly researched AI Slop article that was upvoted by the mob on Reddit and somehow made it onto GAF.
Windows Central broke it down quite objectively.
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Did they really? The two major points of contention were the subscription, which WC didn't really have any evidence to disprove (particularly relevant when MS is all-in on moving everything to some sort of sub); and the AI angle, which they didn't even touch.
 
modular : sounds nice
copilot / ai focused : ew
subscription based : double ew
more hardware requirements : triple ew

at this rate I am going back to windows 10
 
rodrigolfp said:
Sure, a solution for 1 Linux issue is: switch to another Linux. And when I get another issue, maybe switch again to another...
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Not really? Nobora is an offshoot with it's own tweaks and changes to the OS and DE. Just use Fedora, install gamemode and the nvidia drivers yourself rather than what someone else decided for you. It's why I don't bother with Bazzite - I can't even tweak my network settings how I want.
 
rodrigolfp said:
Mine doesn't have this. I am on Nobara/Wayland. Google told me this is the only way.

github.com

GitHub - Tremeschin/nvibrant: 🟢 Nvidia Digital Vibrance on Wayland

🟢 Nvidia Digital Vibrance on Wayland. Contribute to Tremeschin/nvibrant development by creating an account on GitHub.
github.com github.com
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X11 is still more mature than Wayland but you can have both of them you can simply return to the login screen and select a X11 version of the desktop you are using, if you still want to use wayland most configuration is in the config panels of your dektop KDE Gnome, etc or your compositor

in the github you posted

NVIDIA GPUs have a nice feature called Digital Vibrance that increases the colors saturation of the display. The option is readily available on nvidia-settings in Linux, but is too coupled with libxnvctrl, making it softly "exclusive" to the X11 display server over wayland; but I paid for my pixels to glow :^)
 
Rocinante618 said:
This is actually good. I can remove stuff I don't need
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You seriously think that MS will allow you to remove the nag screens, pop ups, reminders, flashing icons, security warnings, etc... all telling you about the awesome features you don't have installed?

It's just one of those things that have proven to work despite the hate they get. Just like how Youtube blesses you with a setting to say "Show fewer" instead of switch off, or things like "Disable for now" so it can remind you again in a few weeks.
 
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falconhoof said:
You seriously think that MS will allow you to remove the nag screens, pop ups, reminders, flashing icons, security warnings, etc... all telling you about the awesome features you don't have installed?

It's just one of those things that have proven to work despite the hate they get. Just like how Youtube blesses you with a setting to say "Show fewer" instead of switch off, or things like "Disable for now" so it can remind you again in a few weeks.
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Right, I had OneDrive on my PC and it still asked me to backup all my files. Do you know how many files OneDrive has deleted of mine? I don't either, I won't know till I look for them.
 
Puscifer said:
Not really? Nobora is an offshoot with it's own tweaks and changes to the OS and DE. Just use Fedora, install gamemode and the nvidia drivers yourself rather than what someone else decided for you. It's why I don't bother with Bazzite - I can't even tweak my network settings how I want.
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Nobara has that same sRGB setting too, my mistake. But it does nothing like the digital vibrance setting.

polybius80 said:
X11 is still more mature than Wayland but you can have both of them you can simply return to the login screen and select a X11 version of the desktop you are using, if you still want to use wayland most configuration is in the config panels of your dektop KDE Gnome, etc or your compositor

in the github you posted

NVIDIA GPUs have a nice feature called Digital Vibrance that increases the colors saturation of the display. The option is readily available on nvidia-settings in Linux, but is too coupled with libxnvctrl, making it softly "exclusive" to the X11 display server over wayland; but I paid for my pixels to glow :^)
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Nobara wiki says x11 have big issues.
 
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Sethbacca said:
This part here is what usually annoys me. It seems less intuitive but i know that's just ~40 years of OS inertia on my part.
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MacOS and Linux have a very similar structure, but Linux for a user just has one extra stop for accessing your home/root folder. This is a great starter guide 🤓

This was my cheatsheet for the RHCSA lol


6jiaIzvH2zmBBrZq.jpg
 
Apps will be a thing of the past very soon, OS will be central AI managing all tasks. Both PC and phone. Anyone with half a brain saw this coming from miles away. The panic and denial is hilarious.
 
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Valonquar said:
It's obvious the article was fake, and sadly had the expected result.
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Fake? Or fake for now? ;)

The timing of it worked for me regardless. I have been contemplating weening myself away from Windows as my main OS for over a year now. That this is so believable is enough for me to see where my confidence in MS is right now.
 
Editor's note: This article is a translation of a German article by PC-Welt. It does not meet PCWorld's standards and should not have been published. The first version did not include any source links or attributions and was written in a way that suggested it was original reporting. It is not. We contacted PC-Welt and added sourcing after the initial publication. It still does not meet PCWorld's publication standards, but we're keeping the article live for the public record. We're examining internal processes for PC-Welt and PCWorld alike to ensure a situation like this never happens again. I'm sorry. – Brad Chacos, PCWorld executive editor
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www.windowscentral.com

No, an AI-focused "Windows 12" is not coming this year — here's the plan

A new report has caught the internet's attention, claiming that Windows 12 is coming this year and will be a modular, AI-powered OS. Here's why that's wrong.
www.windowscentral.com www.windowscentral.com
 
Microsoft is on a mission
Most anti consumer policies whatever their consumers don't want they just give that
Anything it touches turns to shit ,
This should be studied in schools how out of touch and fucked up their top brass is and how they destroyed Xbox and windows in a few years .
 
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