Even Microsoft (probably) isn’t that stupid or desperate yet. What seems much more likely to me is that they will keep introducing AI features and more invasive ads gradually and making them opt-in or removable with the intention of making them mandatory later on.

I 100% believe that Microsoft fully understands that a lot of people aren’t happy with most of these changes, but profit must grow and they are elbow-deep in their AI gamble so they must keep pushing just slowly enough to avoid most users and businesses feeling like looking for alternatives is worth the effort. They are treading a fine line and are sometimes pushing too hard, but that in itself can be a solid negotiation tactic to manipulate people into accepting bad deals and my guess is that it’s fully intentional.

I’m not the one you’re asking, but I’m in a similar situation. I’ve attemped to get this working and the problem is that their Windows client must be downloaded and installed through the Microsoft Store and it’s packaged in a way you can’t run in standalone after extracting it. Some apps published through the MS Store do work fine this way, but I could not get it working for the Apple Music client.

Apple Music does have a web player, but it is also limited to lossy streaming like alternative clients like Cider is.

So… Mostly good results actually. I tested the default profiles from the manufacturer and they seem ok. They are not as good as my custom ones on Windows for a couple of different reasons, but they are good enough to make me no longer see it as a major issue. Thanks again for the suggestion!

I also doublechecked the ArchWiki and according to that, ICC profiles are supposed to be cross-platform compatible and that profiling on Windows or MacOS and transferring the files over is a solution. But I’ve also read the opposite somewhere and my own profiles from Windows do not look great on Linux for whatever reason. So it seems that my own profiles from Windows are somehow not compatible, but ICC profiles fundamentally can be and that the manufacturer’s profiles are in this case.

Personally I wouldn’t mind having to profile/calibrate on Windows every now and then because I expect to keep it around on a separate drive for a long time yet for those use cases Linux don’t meet my requirements, but sadly I did not get good results that way. Maybe I’ll try different profiling software later and see if it’s a problem with the Calibrite software.

For anyone having the same issues as me and finds this thread later: I would recommend dual-booting and profiling on Windows and testing those first. If they work well for you, great, else you can compromise a little and use the manufacturer’s profiles if they are available and decently made. Hopefully it’s not too long until we get a good native solution, but for now there doesn’t seem to be any.

I would love some more details as well about why they found it so difficult. I tried it myself just now without really knowing how to, and it was pretty easy. You either find the option by searching, or go to Settings -> Accounts -> Other Users -> Add account.

They do try getting you to add a Microsoft account first and you have to choose “I don’t have this person’s sign-in information” and “Add a user without a Microsoft account” which is the only other option than Cancel at that point to continue, then you set the username and password and you’re done. To be clear, it would be better if they immediately gave you a clear option between local user and Microsoft account, but I would hardly call it selling your soul and whatnot.

But Microsoft for sure deserve most of the complaints they’re getting and it’s only getting worse.

I didn’t think of the “premade” profiles actually, thanks for the suggestion. Using the manufacturers own profiles typically aren’t ideal as each display can be a little different even if they are the exact same model and they change a bit over time, but maybe that’s the best I can get for now.

I expect them to have been created on Windows like I did with my own and as such will have the same problem because Linux and Windows color management are fundamentally quite different, but it is certainly worth a try. I will test that a bit later. It could never match custom profiles, but it could possibly be good enough.

Thanks for the recommendation. Qobuz has lots if things I would appreciate, but the last time I tried it it was missing a lot of the music I regularly listen to. It has only been a few months since then, but I will give it another try to see if it has changed.

True, which is why I don’t think Deezer is a perfect choice for me either, but at the surface level 41.4% US-owned is better than closer to 100% which all the other services are that meets my requirements. Personally I found that number on the Deezer Wikipedia page, but it is marked with “citation needed”, so it could be completely wrong. And that probably is the case if it’s true that Access bought exclusive control.

“The US that you hate” doesn’t exist. I disagree with a lot of decisions and policies and want better for the American people and the rest of the world that is both directly and indirectly affected, but there’s no hate. But you do make an important point that I hadn’t thought deeply enough about and I agree with you. I believe it’s better to support something that’s simply based in the US rather than the specific policies I disagree with even if it’s more money.

Qobuz would be my choice as it would avoid this dilemma, but their catalogue wasn’t good enough for me the last time I tried it. I’ll have to try again to see if it has gotten better since then. But I have changed my mind and will cancel my Deezer subscription regardless and try to find an alternative. Or maybe I’ll just drop streaming services completely for now as most of my active listening is done with my own local collection anyways and I could always set up a Jellyfin instance if needed.

I’m quickly running out of options… Apple Music was honestly really decent, then the US did their thing so I looked for non-US options. One of my requirements is lossless quality, so Spotify is out (regardless of their own ethical issues). Tidal is also out as it has been a US-owned service for a long time. The remaining options are Deezer and Qobuz. Qobuz seems good in terms of ownership and whatnot, but their catalogue is missing things I listen to quite often, or at least it did when I last checked it out a few months ago. I think I’m staying with Deezer for now. It’s not ideal as Access Industries own 41.4% of Deezer whose owner this post is all about, but it’s the least bad of all the options I’ve found. They also don’t have every song I’m interested in, but they’re pretty close.

I think both Bazzite and CachyOS are solid recommendations, but only Bazzite is immutable out of those two.