Microsoft says hackers are exploiting critical zero-day bugs to target Windows and Office users.
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| Microsoft says hackers are exploiting critical zero-day bugs to target Windows and Office users. |
Microsoft reports that hackers are exploiting a critical zero-day vulnerability to target users of Windows and Office. Everyone is switching to Microsoft.
Power users are tired of a bug that refuses to go away. Ridiculous content is being booted from the terminal because you're not signed in to your Microsoft account.
It's crazy. But even for regular users, they don't understand why Microsoft keeps trying to get them to talk to Copilot and use Edge.
And now the story is that the one group of people who can actually affect some of the changes seems to be losing faith, and that's investors.
UC, by some metrics, Windows market share is at its lowest point in decades. And Steam OS, a growing Linux ecosystem,
And the simple fact that most people can get their work done on a phone or tablet is not going to wait for the competition to let Microsoft get its act together.
So, today we're going to talk about what happened during a very bad week, starting with Windows. Last week.
400 Billion Gone
Call of Duty was absolutely brutal. The stock price plummeted on doubts about their AI promises and their ability to actually deliver on those promises.
There’s a lot to talk about funding and AI, but that’s not really the focus of this video. What difference did it make, even though it wiped out nearly $400 billion in market cap?
So, that’s pretty cool. But internally, things aren’t looking much better for them. Call of Duty stumbled from being the fifth best-selling game in the US last year to being the first.
That alone seems to have seen a 5% drop in gaming revenue. That’s bad enough, but at least they didn’t make a huge splash in gaming this quarter. But of course, the real thing today is Windows.
That’s kind of the backbone of some of it. And Windows is barely making more revenue than Xbox. But that’s the thing that’s been driving every bad headline this year.
I mean, something else breaks every week. It's honestly a bit of a funny spectator sport up to this point. But here's the weird thing. Their Windows OEM and device revenue
Actually grew by 5%. But this business keeps migrating from Windows 10 before support ends, which makes you think, ah, well,
Is this revenue number going up because you're getting support for something that people are currently using and kind of forcing them to upgrade to the new
. The new one that's generating all the bad headlines. Yeah, that's absolutely something. So, of course, that's one reason Windows is going up. The other is that there's all this hardware panic going on.
There's probably some panic buying because all the prices are skyrocketing. That's probably good for Windows. But
We Need To Improve
Obviously, they can’t do this forever. Windows 11 is absolutely a problem. So, what are they actually going to do about it? I’ll start with a quote.
We need to improve Windows in ways that are meaningful to people. This year, you’ll see us focus on the pain points.
that we hear from users all the time. Improving system performance, reliability, and the overall Windows experience. These words came from Microsoft’s president of Windows and Devices.
When he was speaking to The Verge, specifically to Tom Warren. And it reflects what Tom Warren’s sources are telling him, which is that Microsoft is actually reacting to all the bad news.
He’s basically claiming that developers are solving the core problems with engineers assigned to solve as many problems as possible.
Basically, because Microsoft knows, they know there are problems, and they know the people who will feel those problems the most are the power users.
And of course, it goes beyond bugs. There’s also Co-Pilot in everything you touch, because you want it there or not. It has sources that suggest
That quote, “the company is now reevaluating its AI strategy in Windows 11 and plans to streamline or even remove some AI features
where they don’t make sense.” Long story short, they saw that everyone was angry. They probably realized that you don’t need Co-Pilot in Paint.
You probably don’t need it in Notepad. And I don’t bring them up for nothing. In fact, they’ve been named under scrutiny for their C-Pilot integration.
It’s like Microsoft at corporate just thought AI was cool. We’re going to put it everywhere without thinking about the customer experience.
And really, when you think about AI things going bad, not necessarily being very good at adoption within businesses, a lot of it seems like,
Business people are tying it down the chain. Now, obviously, none of this is to say that they're holding back their AI integration. Absolutely not.
I mean, Microsoft still needs to prove that its AI tech is internally viable. There are some really funny stories about people inside Microsoft.
who are basically going to use CloudCode because it was better than the co-pilot coding stuff, and it was really corny coming from the original co-pilots at the top, despite it being apparently successful.
Um, we want you to use it for more things. It's all been, um, yeah, very funny. And if your own internal devs also prefer to use cloud code to co-
Pilot things, I mean, that really tells you that now is not the time to reach mass consumer products.
They clearly know now that people are complaining about how hard AI is being pushed, and they want to get people back on their side.
There should hardly be any surprises after the year they’ve had. How could they not? And to be clear, it was a bad year. And if you’re not feeling good about Microsoft,
Then I think you might enjoy the next part of this video. As of 2026
Death By A Thousand Cuts
To start with, Microsoft had to release two separate emergency patches for Windows 11. And that was just to fix the bugs that the latest regular patch introduced.
First, oh, the machines wouldn’t shut down. That’s great. I mean, pulled the plug, but it’s crazy. Then, they were crashing because of a Dropbox and OneDrive storage issue.
And of course, it doesn’t stop there. There’s still no fix for the current crash issue that Windows has confirmed is caused by its latest patch.
This is a problem they’re only having because these users had to roll back the last security patch, and their operating system didn’t do it properly.
Which basically left everything messed up. So, you know, the patch fixes the things that broke, fixes even more things that broke.
And then rolls back even more and sometimes breaks different things. And all this after a year where not a single month has gone by without bugs and issues being reported.
And look, as PC gamers, the phrase, oh, it works on my machine is something we're all used to. Can be a little frustrating, no? So, yeah,
You've never had to deal with these issues. The security patches may not be relevant to you because you don't really have security concerns, but none of this has stopped Microsoft from getting red-handed on calls.
And none of this has seriously hurt businesses. And the thing to remember here is scale. Windows are really massive. So, a problem that affects maybe 5% of users,
is actually huge. You never see it. Most people who watch this channel probably never see it, but the people who do,
The sheer number of them, it's probably going to be in the millions again, it's that massive. And when the problems are this severe and when power users are the ones most affected by these problems, the impact is magnified.
I mean, you go on Twitter, and you see people losing work because Terminal basically killed itself because of some Microsoft account authentication issue.
That's absolutely crazy. And that means people are looking at other options. And with hardware prices going up, a lot of people are probably realizing.
that they don't need a Windows PC at all. I mean, every day, work apps and web apps. It can be used for just about anything.
God forbid Chrome OS either. But for everyone else, like maybe those of us who care about PC gaming, there's a move to Linux.
That's where things are really getting hot and interesting. And since it's the power users and tastemakers who are switching, well,
Just like you hear about bugs and issues, you're going to hear about them making the switch. Although if we look at the actual numbers, according to the Steam Hardware Survey,
We actually see that the percentage of people on Linux is still very small. But the pace is changing, and someone is waiting to catch up. Good news,
The Competition Isn't Waiting
I think Windows' current market share as a desktop OS is the worst it's been in decades. That makes me happy. But even at its lowest point,
It's about 67% of the market right now, and it's never dropped below 60%. That's absolutely huge. Still, the remaining 33% is the entire non-Air world.
And I want you to think about the default effect. For a lot of people, Windows is just a computer. I mean, they probably know.
that the Mac exists, but that's probably the extent of things. So, if you're the kind of person considering an OS switch, you're probably closer to being a power user.
than you think. So, congratulations. And that also means, yes, you're the kind of person who's more likely to move. That's why,
While we're probably not going to see a huge Windows switch literally fall, I think we're going to see a fair amount of power user movement.
And that’s why Linux devs are trying to make it easier than ever. Now, talking about Steam OS is the obvious thing to talk about.
I’m going to talk about that. But there’s another professional use case that I want to call out as well. But as far as Steam is concerned,
It’s the biggest elephant in the room here. This Linux fork is designed with ease and polish, which Valve is basically known for.
But that’s just the tip of the spear. You see, there’s something much more important behind it. It’s partnerships like the Open Gaming Collective, which is a group of Linux gaming projects.
who are all building common technical foundations so that, in their own words, one project’s win becomes everyone’s win. So the goal is simple. It’s to make Linux less scary,
more compatible, and ready for the wave of interest that Steam OS and Steam Machines are generating. We could soon be in a world where you can buy a new gaming PC
with Steam OS pre-installed. That's going to be big. I mean, even GOG is saying this quote, "Whenever they hire engineers for GOG Galaxy,
which is their launcher product, Linux is the next major frontier." And that's because gaming is basically a wedge here, right? It's a wedge problem.
We'll get into that first. A bunch of problems for gaming will be solved, and it'll make it easier for everyone. And as soon as enough of us are gaming,
Then broader software compatibility will follow. Not just for games but for the tools that ordinary people use every day.
Basically, support for Adobe products on Linux. Now, this isn't official. It's basically just engineers being all cracked up and awesome.
But think about it. For a lot of people who are video editors who don't want to go the Mac route, yes, you have to use Windows.
It's a complete waste. But we're actually getting closer to a real world where someone can easily switch to Linux and still make their professional software work.
And if we hit it hard enough, I think Windows market share could suffer. And that's a good thing in my opinion. I think Microsoft is massively terrible.
I think Windows has been massively terrible for a very long time. Even as someone who basically appreciates design as fundamentally competent,
You open different parts of Windows and see different design languages in different places. Sometimes you have to use the new control panel.
Sometimes you have to use the old control panel. It's a complete nightmare to the point where you think this is one of the biggest companies on earth.
One of the most resourceful companies on earth. How has their operating system, literally the product that built the company, been like this for so long?
And because of how much they've taken advantage of the default effect, we've all had to deal with it, and it's really just held personal computing back. So yeah, this is where I'll put my biases down easily. I want to tolerate Windows. I want more people to move away from it. I think the computing world would be better off that way. Here's
What This Forces Microsoft To Do
The state of the game as I see it. A better Linux and more pressure to make PCs worthwhile means better Windows. That means
That no matter what you need the computer for, you’re going to have a better time. That pressure and that competition are good. It’s invaluable because we’re seeing.
that Microsoft is actually being forced to change. And the pressure has worked before. For example, from the staff pushing Microsoft to end some military contracts,
like the Steam OS push forcing its hand on portable OS improvements. That being said, the AsusROG Ally software situation is still honestly.
That feels like analpha. So, I think they’ve basically rolled the dice on this one. Moving forward, we now have pressure from not just gaming.
We have pressure from everyone complaining about forced compliance with AI, which is forcing Microsoft to reconsider its full rollout.
The pressure is working. The bugs are getting attention. The AI push is being played back. That’s good. But here’s the thing. Here’s the thing.
That’s the biggest takeaway from this video. If Windows is a sign of decline, then Microsoft is the problem. Microsoft as a corporation, Microsoft as an engineering firm, and you can’t fix that problem with a press release.
They’re saying some of the right things. I don’t trust their ability to deliver. You shouldn’t either. And if we want desktop computing to be in a better place,
Then we need to get away from this goddamn company and find other alternatives. I think it’s as simple as that. And if you want a story that
is not simple, but my god is absolutely fascinating. The decline of Ashes of Creation is wild. Watch this video. You’ll learn all about it. And madness, sheer madness.
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