BDS Movement calls for boycott of Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, Call of Duty, Minecraft, Candy Crush, and all games made by Microsoft subsidiaries (Blizzard, Activision, Bethesda, etc)
Asked to clarify whether the boycott included the beleaguered Microsoft Teams, Mohamed added that the overall goal is to boycott all Microsoft products, but he acknowledged that few people use some of the company’s trashier products of their own free will. "We are calling on everyone to boycott Microsoft products whenever feasible and possible. So, yes, boycott Microsoft Teams, too,” he said. “Although, I am not sure if anyone is using that willingly.” Drop Site could not independently verify whether anybody has ever used Teams willingly, though experts said it was unlikely.
Lol
Microsoft Operating System, Office Suit, Browser, Search services and other tools (Microsoft Edge, Microsoft Bing, MSN, Teams, Skype etc.). Consider switching free and open software instead of another, possibly complicit company.
Thank you BDS for helping bring about the year of the Linux desktop
dont forget windows
my first time "trying" linux was like 20 years ago. i got laid off from a job when a company was liquidated and they let us buy our janky ass windows workstations for $10. i installed slackware on it, some desktop environment, and attempted to set up web hosting services (apache). i got stuck at some part and just sort of gave up.
a few years ago i tried again with an old busted ass laptop that was shitty even when it was new, but had grown to be about 12 years old. it was a "spare" machine i kept in a maker space to look shit up. of course, every year i would have to go through some heinous block of mandatory updates and serial reboots. every few years i would wipe it out entirely and reinstall the OS, firefox, and a few utilities. even when it was all ready to go, the thing crawled just trying to watch youtube, navigate the local network share, search the indexed file system, and browse. it's battery had long since shit itself, so i had to keep it plugged in. a device destined for the garbage, as i assumed it struggled due to hardware problems.
i decided to install mint on it, because why the fuck not. the process took no time at all, like probably 10% of the setup time of a windoze install. not to mention, the thing worked like it was new. the features for the linux desktop environments have come a very long way, to the point that they are superior for UI customization. also, all kinds of shit was automagically recognized native. it was suddenly fast as hell for youtubes, browsing, exploring the network shares, whatever. and it was stable!
that experience has led to a slow, steady compartmentalization of computing processes and resources away from the windows OS. from basic browsing/email, coding, word processing, text/voice/video chat, to geoprocessing/map making and visual design. i am currently in the process of moving all of my home media to a DAS RAID setup on a dedicated box that will run media services and a few other services i've been meaning to tinker with.
within 6 months, i expect to only have 2 systems with windows. my work issued computer and a sketchy frankenstein i use to play janky games and sandboxed windoze apps acquired from the high seas.
every time i make the effort to shift over something i do in windoze to linux and start actually getting into it, i think, "jeez, i should have done this years ago". things just work, features are FOSS, and it doesn't fight me or act possessed after some critical security update, nor does it constantly try to trick me into upgrading. it also doesn't randomly remove features and call it an upgrade.
honestly, the experience of using a free, unshittified OS to do things has reminded me of why i got into computers in the first place as a kid. not to mention, the times i am forced to do something in windoze for whatever reason only strengthens my resolve to get everything i want to do away from it.
https://www.luanti.org/ is a near perfect minecraft clone, better actually in some ways. Setting up a server for example is cake when you don't have to worry about DRM or authentication whatsoever. Every instance is a server with a click of a button. If the server is running mods your client will automatically download them proper mods to match.
The only thing it's missing is the huge library of mods minecraft has, but It's easier to make mods for Luanti than minecraft since it's open source.
It's more than just a mincraft clone, they're angling to be the open source minecraft + roblox all rolled into one. It's already better as a base game than either.
Do not trust the gamers. They will betray you.
That's fine for me but appealing to gamers' conscience seems impossible. Has there ever been a successful boycott in gaming?
Not any that weren't related to the game itself. Gamers couldnt even organise a boycott of preordering games from known shitty studios despite years of trying
Done
Canceling my game pass sub
Ahead of the curve on this one
Pirating Microsoft is fun activity and you should do it instead of being a paypiggy.
Also, ngl I can’t play “realistic” fps shooters any more, what specops nearly did, reality delivered in fucking droves
Even my Republican boss pirates Microsoft software
Good
Pirate 🏴☠️
There goes my Minecraft-based Lutris frontend.
Death to Mikkkro$$oft
I'm gonna be honest: I think this is a bad move and most people, even people who follow other parts of the boycot, will just ignore it.
Microsoft is simply too fucking big and too present in people's lives. No one is going to stop using their happiness generation devices when the world is in this state.
I don't use Microsoft stuff though so it doesn't really change anything for me
https://bdsmovement.net/Act-Now-Against-These-Companies-Profiting-From-Genocide
If you read this page on their website. The BDS movement says that they have different levels of targets. There is a "consumer boycott" category which says that you should not buy any products from those Brands. Then there is a "pressure target" category. It explains that a Pressure target is a company that you should "boycott when reasonable alternatives exist".
Inside of the Pressure Target category includes other very large companies: Google, Amazon, Disney. If I understand correctly, Microsoft will also be considered a pressure target, which means that avoiding a Microsoft product is not always possible. Example, many people use Microsoft as an operating system either at home or at work.
The BDS page for Microsoft, which was added to their website today, says "As a consumer, boycott Microsoft products whenever possible." It also gives you a lot of other pressure options, including "send a letter to Microsoft executives demanding that Microsoft end its complicity in Israel’s AI-powered genocide of Palestinians", "join or start a campaign to pressure your university to cut ties with Microsoft by divesting from the company", "pressure your local government to divest from Microsoft", "sign the workers’ petition at: noaa.cc/sign".
If you see Bill, tell him I'm pissed.
I use game pass all the time, but I still have access to alternatives so I can stop without giving up treats really
Can BDS get Nintendo added to that list?
Fuuuck
Imagine using Microshit products, like a fucking loser
(
I use this garbage, losedows 11Very bold step, wonder how well it'll work.
Trying to get gamers to boycott is gonna be a very uphill battle.
BDS is very good at doing targeted boycotts that are pretty easy to not buy. I see why they are trying to at least focus on the gaming section. It is something people can just not buy.
Quitting Overwatch is gonna be rough on me it's my goto for when I don't have something else to play.
I guess it's easy to just stop paying them for anything as a start because I was barely doing that to begin with.
Any positive feelings towards Team Fortress 2? Obviously not the same itch but at least adjacent
Just doesn't scratch the same itch for me really. Overwatch is ridiculously well polished and many character kits have so much depth. I played Marvel Rivals for a bit but the character kits just do not have the same level of polish or depth as Overwatch, I ended up going back once I reached Celestial rank and felt like I'd explored everything the game has to offer. A couple characters do have Overwatch level of depth (Loki and Strange stand out) but I'm primarily a support main, all supports are very shallow.
Also I'm drawn to female characters and TF2 is like, almost all male. I couldn't get into Deadlock for the same reason I didn't identify with literally any character personality or design so "maining" any of them just totally didn't appeal to me at all. I still end up learning to play all chars in a game because it makes you better overall but like... I need to like and get attached to playing as someone. Maybe it's a fighting game mentality but people definitely choose characters based on identity factors in fighting games and I carry it over into other stuff.
d4 bad
ez baby
They came for the g@mers.