the_grump_1987

I didn't choose Linux. Linux chose me.

But in all seriousness, back in 2015, I got a PC that came with Windows 8. It had the horrible, completely unusable Metro UI. But my main gripe with that OS was how it forced me to use Microsoft’s solutions over everything else. Quite often, the PDF files I opened would launch in the Metro PDF reader instead of the one I had chosen. Usually, this kind of things happened after a Windows Update, which 'accidentally' reset my default application choices - including the PDF reader - and, as a final spat in my face, added an Internet Explorer shortcut to my desktop.

I started to feel as if I had no control over my PC anymore; it was Microsoft deciding what software I should use. Then and there I decided it was time to give Linux a chance. I had already noticed how Valve was pushing the gaming industry toward Linux, and I thought, those guys can’t be completely wrong.

Google may have already disrupted Microsoft's dominance somewhat. At least here in Finland a lot of businesses prefer to use Google Workspace rather than Office365 - everybody also seem to think that Google's solution is far superior usability and performance wise compared to the Office and the sluggish mess that is Microsoft Teams. It also doesn't hurt that Google is also offering free tier Workspace; few of the hobby groups I'm part of have chosen Workspace for file storage, remote meetings etc., without any discussion on what solution to use. It seems as if Google Workspace is now the default solution the same way MS Office was in the early 2000's. But these are just my observations and are also limited to Finland (and a little bit to Estonia) so the situation and attitudes might be really different elsewhere.

Obviously Google's Workspace being "free" means you, the user, are the product. But I also think that Google's Workspace has probably demonstrated to the masses that there are alternatives to MS Office, and that MS Word is not the only text editing software in existence and that you don't need Excel to work with spreadsheets. Maybe in 5 to 10 years LibreOffice, Euro Office and similar solutions have gained much more ground as people seem to be more aware of FOSS solutions and their benefits in general, especially in Europe where companies and public offices are pulling out from the US tech anyway.

Yeah, GTA V did use Euphoria as well, and you can still see traces of it here and there like you said (interacting certain way with an NPC). I remember Star Wars The Force Unleashed also using Euphoria and it felt as if it was just straight up bolted into the game's engine, as it could cause absolute mayhem on screen. The mayhem came at a cost: my Xbox 360 couldn’t keep up with dozens of objects colliding, and the FPS would drop to single digits in some instances. The sequel (The Force Unleashed II) was technically more stable, but its physics were dialed down to a degree where multiple objects interacting with each other were disabled for the sake of stability. I think that generation of consoles just couldn’t handle Euphoria all that well when there were no restrictions applied. By the time GTA V came out, Rockstar likely knew how to optimize their games better overall so it wasn’t just a matter of disabling Euphoria’s extreme settings or anything like that.

I loved the physics system in GTA IV as it felt so revolutionary back then. If I remember correctly, GTA V didn’t have as elaborate a physics system, likely because the developers wanted the game to run better on the Xbox 360 and PS3 (those machines struggled quite a bit with GTA IV). I guess the easiest way to improve the FPS on those machines was probably to tone down the physics...

It still wouldn't surprise me to see some sort of subscription model being added to Windows 12. Like "disable ads in the UI if you subscribe" or hiding basic apps/features/settings behind a paywall ("watching Netflix on Windows is a Premium feature. Subscribe now!").