Windows 11

Well, I managed to hang on to Windows 10 for a year at no charge. But, the inevitable will one day come. I don't want or need OneDrive. I don't want or need CoPilot. Lordy, do I do NOT want AI in my life. Not CoPilot, not Bixby not any of this garbage. Why is Microsoft taking this "oh, you just don't realize you need it yet" kind of tack? All many of us need is an OS that can surf the net, email, stream video, and maybe play some games. Heck, even Google has baked bugs into Chrome and called them "features" one does not want or need which you cannot deactivate. Like the "Resume browsing" feature. If I need a browsing history, Ctrl + H works just fine. Streamlined and simple, and useful. What became so wrong with that instead of fixing it until it's broken?

K.I.S.S.
Keep It Simple Stupid
I guess the concept escapes Microsoft, et al...

 

lol fair. I have skipped a release every time. 95 then 2000 then Xp then 7 then 10, almost like there is a pattern here.

 

im back on unbuntu linux i guess its up to date
mint is better maybe
buy an extra harddrive

 

Depending on what gaming Linux is doing better than Windows, that Linux is SteamOS, becoming a serious contender for games that don't require kernel level anticheat.
If you can exist without MS Office, the Linux community is trying hard to bring in from MS users, the most popular being Zorin OS (free/pay).
I know you want to KISS, but there are a few tools out there now that attempt to slim down Win11 - from ReviOS and amelabs.net, ChrisTitusTech Tool, FlyOOBE (Flyby11) and many more spring up everyday.

 

Alright Mr. Anti AI, your challenge henceforth is to not use Google Search ever again.

 

https://udm14.org/ or try these out
I use DuckDuckGo (no A.I.) from within my browser with occas. use of udm14, both tweaked past OOB settings.

 

Modern search engines are deeply integrated with artificial intelligence including DuckDuckGo, it just has more privacy.

 

Ok, checking your links I see AI aspect of search is off with Duck but can be turned on, I'll have to run some searches to compare results.

 

Begin with https://noai.duckduckgo.com/ and tune it to your liking.

 

It can be turned off by adding -AI to the end of a search. Also, there are other ways to disable Gemini, flags, extensions, and all the other trash which has the potential to create a "Wall-E" grade society. It has the potential to destroy what little meritocracy we do have. There's an old saying in my generation. "CAUTION: Start brain before engaging mouth."