Honestly
As compared to consoles? Windows is pretty free.
this post was submitted on 08 Jun 2025
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Other than the Windows tax, ads, bloatware, constant intrusive up-sell attempts…
Again
COMPARED TO CONSOLES? That's basically paradise.
Modern, unhacked and unmodded Consoles are:
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Completely locked down, not only do they not let you install applications not approved by the manufacturer, in reality you can ONLY buy them from the manufacturer and you pay a hefty tax for that "privilege".
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Feeding you ads and upsell attempts whenever you turn them on, as the UI has basically been redesigned to try to sell you more shit first and make getting to your actual games take a few extra steps
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Any undesired feature in a console's OS is something you just have to accept and move on. Powerusers killing Windows bloat with third party tools is a time-honoured tradition that goes back to Windows 3.11
I'm not saying Windows is good.
I'm saying that for someone coming from a PlayStation or a traditional XBoXSeXxxx (I love making jokes out of this name), this whitelabelled ROG Ally machine would feel like finally being able to breathe. Just for the fact that you can use more than one storefront and install applications from wherever you want.
Let me put it this way:
Linux is an anarchist commune. True freedom.
Windows is an American Style Capitalist Republic. Freedom*********** with a thousand asterisks more. BUT for someone coming from the North Korea that is playing on consoles (or using an iOS mobile device or...), it DOES feel like finally breathing free.
Also, compared to something like the Switch? I don't see MS remotely bricking these devices if you run "homebrew" on them.
That's a really good comparison
That's a typo, it's supposed to be an R in the middle there, not an F
penny arcade? Wow, are they even still around? I havent seen anyone talk about or reference them for..god.. 10 years?
It's still around, but it hasn't been funny for a long-ass time.
Penny Arcade Expo is one of the biggest gaming conventions in America (and Aus) so I'd say yeah. I think they still make the comic too.
Oh, Paul Marketing, you crazy fellow.
Shouldn't it be "Freedom From” ?
From what I saw, it's more or less just a new app that starts when windows boots up. Plus some improvements like "the controller now works in UAC prompts" - which tells me that they didn't really learn anything.
it's more or less just a new app
You know a reason why Linux with Steam runs just way better than win? Because they use game scope, therefore not needing to render and run all of the desktop.
So what does Microsoft do? They release a new app on top of the already bloated desktop.
Gamescope is a compositor. It has many useful gaming features, but it doesn’t have a major performance advantage over desktops like Gnome, KDE, or tilers.
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This got me thinking that Valve is the best competitor to Xbox. Instead of getting to release some walled garden, single store handheld they have to open it up to other stores because otherwise people would just buy a SteamDeck.
But everyone who cares about handheld gaming already has a steam deck and this is going to be more expensive so I don't see the point anyway.
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Players on either device will be able to tap into Gaming Copilot ...
...yeah
"Freedom of Windows" "Power of Xbox" Good stuff. We should make some more. "From a brand you can trust" "Pro gamers choose ... " "Powered by Copilot and Game pass"
"Relive past game moments with recall" "Totally not going to be dropped in 3 years"
Oh dear god it is apparently serious.
https://news.xbox.com/en-us/2025/06/08/xbox-handheld-rog-ally-x-games-showcase/
Any guesses for MSRP?
$1200 for the X variant?
$600?
Will MSFT bet the farm, take the upfront loss on the unit, and try to convince everyone this is both their next handheld and their next mainline living room console at the same time?
I'm so hoping Microsoft eats some of the cost of this and makes it a reasonable price. Think of the awesomeness of $600-700 handheld console that can be much more easily modded than the switch 2.
I would love for that to be the case as well... but it wouldn't make any sense for MSFT to do the first part, and I strongly suspect they do not have the finances to do the second part.
They used to lower the price of Xboxes/?Xbeexes? lower than actual profit margins because they could get more in game sales.
I think the finances are no longer there though to do that but I think it would inspire people to get the game pass more if they did.
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