Microsoft (And Windows) Is F*cked
Three players, no room left at the table.
I already wrote about why I won’t touch Windows again.
Mostly because of macOS, and a bit Linux. But there’s a third option. And that is going to be big.
Android.
Google recently announced the Google Book. Android powered, AI first, built with Dell, Lenovo, Asus, Acer and HP, the usual Windows partners (and Chromebook partners).
The system inside is called Aluminium OS, based on Android 17, and it leaked in a 16-minute walkthrough before the official reveal.
On its own that would be a niche story. ChromeOS has been niche for years.
But layer it on top of what macOS and Linux already cover, and how Microsoft is screwing everything up with Windows 11, and the question becomes: What is Windows actually for in 2026 and beyond?
The entry tier
The cheap laptop tier belonged to Windows. Schools, students, low-budget office work. Some used Chromebooks, but that’s a very small percentage. The rest. Windows. Macs were always too pricey in that equation.
But now Google is going after that tier with Android on a laptop. Hard.
Real Android. Billions of users already know it. The app ecosystem exists. The Google Book runs Aluminium OS with a Windows 11 style taskbar, a desktop, real document folders, a task manager. It has a Link to iOS app to mirror iMessages.
And the AI is in from the start. Not bolted on. Not shitty like CoPilot. You shake your cursor and Gemini activates. You highlight something on screen and ask a question. You type “share photos from the Japan trip” and it pulls from Google Photos locally and drops them in your chat.
If that works as shown, it’s the first time someone made an AI feature on a laptop that I really works and helps.
Microsoft tried this with Copilot. Copilot is in Edge, in Notepad, in the taskbar, in Outlook, asking to summarize my Word docs and recall what I did yesterday. I didn’t ask. And much of it is not helpful at all.
Google is doing what Microsoft tried to do. But Gemini is just integrated better.
The power tier
If you need real work, performance, battery life, and long-lasting machines, you go macOS. That’s been true for years. I just wrote about my M1 Pro MacBook Pro still being great five years in.
Apple silicon. Battery life. A fanless laptop that compiles faster than a desktop did three years ago. Software that mostly respects the user.
You can argue about the Apple tax. You can argue about repairability. But for people who need their laptop to be a tool, the choice is made. And it’s similar for the Mac desktops like Mac Mini or Mac Studio. Even the iMac.
Microsoft has Surface. Surfaces are fine. But “fine” doesn’t cut it anymore. And they’re also expensive.
The tech-savvy tier
If you want control, if you want to tinker, if you don’t want any of the rest, Linux is right there.
Mint. Fedora. Arch. Zorin OS if you want something that looks like Windows but doesn’t behave like it.
The “Linux is hard” argument will be less and less of an issue for the more and more tech-savvy generations. Install times beat Windows. Updates don’t restart your machine mid-presentation. No ads in the start menu.
Used to be the nerd tier. It still is, kind of. But the nerds who used to dual boot now just install Linux and move on.
So what is Windows for
The cheap laptop user gets a Google Book with AI that works. I actually believe that GoogleBooks with Android baked in will be a huge thing. For kids, for schools, for the average, non-techy user that needs browsing and email, and many more.
The professional gets a Mac. Creatives, modern offices, companies that don’t want the IT hassle of Windows anymore.
The power user gets Linux. Full control. No cost.
That leaves Windows with two real groups. Enterprise IT departments locked into Active Directory. And gamers, who will start looking at a Steam Deck or a console sooner than later, anyway.
So the real last group: Habit.
People who learned Windows in 1998 and never had a reason to leave. That’s a real group. It’s also a shrinking one. Heavily shrinking.
I’m getting ahead
Aluminium OS is not out yet. The leaked demo ran slow in a virtual machine on a MacBook M4. Boot times were long.
The Google Book partners are Dell, HP, Lenovo. We know what they do to operating systems. Bloatware, trial versions, vendor apps you can’t remove. The Android phone market is full of it, too. The laptop market won’t be cleaner.
And professional software is the real wall. Photoshop and Lightroom on Android exist, but they’re cut down. Final Cut, Logic, DaVinci Resolve, the full Adobe suite, Excel with real macros.
None of that runs on Android (yet or well).
A Google Book in 2026 is for people who live in a browser and a few apps. Which is most people. Just not all people.
The Bottom Line
It’s really not about the GoogleBook in the end. The interesting fact is that every tier of the laptop (and even desktop) market now has or will have a good non-Microsoft answer.
Cheap and AI-first. Premium and powerful. Open and free.
Microsoft is the only one trying to be all three at once. But not getting one right. Windows 11 sucks because it doesn’t do anything well. And it has become an ad system. Ads in the start menu because apparently the trillion-dollar company needs the revenue. Copilot everywhere because they need an AI story. Ads for Xbox because… well, Xbox sucks.
I have used ChromeOS, macOS, and Linux. For work and play. I don’t use a Windows machine. Because the experience was just bad, and all the other 3 were (and are) better.
I think nobody under 30 has a reason to choose Windows anymore. And it’ll show. Soon.