When the Desktop Becomes a Product: Microsoft, Valve, and the Quiet Battle for User Freedom

By leen • 04 Dec 2025 · 07:00

The world isn’t a place that waits for anyone, but in operating systems, there’s always this feeling that some companies would rather work around a problem than solve it. In recent years, Windows has slowly drifted away from being a “tool” and has turned into a “business platform”! a place where every empty corner must either collect data, sell a service, or push the user in a specific direction.

In contrast, Linux and the open-source world helped by an unexpected player — Valve — are building a different kind of future: a future where the operating system doesn’t control or guide you; it simply lets you do your work.

When Windows stops fixing the engine and just holds the gas pedal

Microsoft officially admitted that File Explorer in Windows 11 is slow, and to address this, new builds have started preloading parts of it during boot. In other words, before the user even launches Explorer, chunks of it are already running in the background.

This makes launch times appear faster, but not through better architecture!! it just consumes more RAM.

The issue isn’t that 30 or 40 MB of RAM is a lot; the issue is what this decision represents: engineering decisions being replaced by managerial shortcuts.

Instead of slimming down the web-based UI, reducing cloud integrations, or simplifying Explorer’s internal structure, the fix becomes: “Load it into memory ahead of time so it looks faster.”

You can see the same pattern in Notepad.

A tool that was a minimal text editor for decades, and everyone used it for small tasks is now:

equipped with tables
packed with AI features
streaming LLM output
integrated with Copilot
and likely becoming part of Microsoft’s monetization strategy

Technically interesting? Sure. But it also means even the simplest tools must now feed into the new commercial roadmap. This is where the issue goes beyond “a new feature”:

An operating system meant to be a tool has turned into a product.

Linux on the desktop: still not the majority, but no longer on the sidelines

For years, “the year of the Linux desktop” was a joke, but recent numbers show a shift.

According to StatCounter, Linux reached around 4% global desktop share in 2024, and in some months in the US, it climbed to over 5%.

The number seems small, but the key is the steady, linear growth, something unseen for years.

Several factors drive this:

User fatigue from Windows’ forced decisions From mandatory accounts to constant cloud + AI integration, all of it erodes the user’s sense of ownership.
A far more mature Linux desktop experience Distros like Fedora, Arch, Pop!_OS, and Ubuntu are stable, reliable, and fully usable for daily work.
Linux’s serious entry into gaming And this is where Valve enters the picture.

Before 2018, gaming on Linux was a painful adventure. But with Valve introducing Proton, thousands of Windows-only games now run on Linux without needing separate ports.

This infrastructure transformed Linux from “an engineering workstation” into “a real option for everyday users.”

And that changes the heart of the desktop ecosystem: A user who was once forced to stay on Windows just to play games now has a real choice.

Valve and SteamOS: freedom as a strategy, not a slogan

Valve isn’t an idealistic organization; it’s a business. But the important part is this: Valve’s business model does not conflict with user freedom. If anything, empowering users increases Valve’s reach.

A few clear signs:

Steam Deck runs SteamOS, an Arch-based distribution where the user has full desktop access, free to install apps, remove them, or even replace the entire OS with another Linux distro. There are no tight software locks restricting the user.
To run Windows games on Linux, Valve didn’t build a proprietary layer; instead it invested directly in: Proton, Mesa, Vulkan, and dozens of other open-source projects.
Valve’s ecosystem doesn’t trap the user inside a specific OS. It leans on open standards, and even gives users the ability to replace SteamOS with Windows on the new Steam Machine hardware, if they want.

The result: gaming quality on Linux improves even outside of Steam Deck.

This approach is the exact opposite of Microsoft’s strategy:

In Windows, File Explorer is preloaded to appear faster.
Notepad turns into an AI-infused, monetized component.
The OS becomes more cloud-dependent every day.

But at Valve:

Hardware ships with a full Linux OS.
Users are free to modify it.
Windows games run without OS-level locks.
Open standards get stronger, not weaker.

These two paths reveal two fundamentally different mindsets:

Microsoft: the user must stay inside our ecosystem.
Valve: the ecosystem must adapt to the user’s world.

And the result is quiet but visible: Linux is growing not only because Linux is improving, but also because the alternatives are getting worse.

Conclusion

On the surface, Windows is still the emperor and Linux still the minority. But beneath the numbers, a slow and deep shift is happening.

One side: Windows, filling every empty corner with a new service, AI integration, or cloud dependency.
The other side: Valve, growing without restricting users, simply by offering an open, flexible platform.

This isn’t a battle of numbers. It’s a battle of control versus freedom.

And in the long run, users tend to choose the side that interferes less and lets them do their work more freely.