Sometimes I call the numbers on missing dog posters and just bark into the phone. I learn from the mistakes of those who take my advice.
It’s rather complicated. In the “in-between” times, firearms were considered a coward’s weapon, making the user a “sniper” and thus less honorable than those who used more traditional arms. This faded with time however, as most ideas do.
If the windows store was anything more than an afterthought in the minds of users I’m sure Microsoft would try. GabeN made moves with Steam on Linux for a reason after the Windows 8 fiasco.
At an old company I joined they had rolled them out to all employees. Six months before me getting onboard they had already given up, but we still had to support the ones out in the field. Fun fact about Surfaces, despite it being MS hardware running an MS operating system, the Windows 10 and 11 base system does not have drivers for the keyboard or mouse. You have to use a special image for the Surface devices. That meant maintaining two custom WIM images for deployment and keeping them in sync. We scrapped the remaining Surfaces and gave people the choice of Macs or ThinkPads instead. You can guess which was more popular among the office folk.
I used to have a black XBox sitting beneath the TV gathering dust. I think it is a One by the shape. As for the new ones I have no idea off the top of my head which is the best. I’ve seen some on sale in places, but the impulse buy isn’t there because I have no idea what I would be getting. I don’t own a PlayStation, but if I wanted one I know that 5 is the newest, and you can get the small slim one or the big Pro one.
Incredible how OEMs keep fumbling this. Just give me a Steam Deck with prosumer performance and decent battery. Accomplish that how you want. Slap SteamOS on it then let me buy it. No, I don’t want to figure out Armor Crate or MSI launcher or whatever. I just want to play games without having to babysit the thing.
I once had a fling with a vegan girl who referred to me as a “carnie”, intending it to be a jab at me. Having worked in a carnival for several years I found it hilarious she tried to make it an insult.