Ask Paul: February 18 (Premium)

Happy Friday, and welcome to another mammoth installment of Ask Paul with a great set of reader questions.
Taskbar improvements to Windows 11
hrlngrv asks:

How much Windows 10 taskbar functionality do you believe the Windows 11 taskbar will recover in 22H2?

I keep checking on this because it just doesn’t seem possible, but in case this is still news to anyone, the Windows 11 taskbar is all-new code and isn’t an evolution of the Windows 10 taskbar. That explains why it has so many feature regressions. (But not why Microsoft shipped Windows 11 so quickly.) And so I think it’s reasonable to expect many improvements over time. We’ve already seen the first few, I guess, though only the ability to review the clock on multiple displays addresses a regression.

So what do I expect to see? More options on right-click, including Task Manager. The ability to resize the taskbar with at least two sizing options. The ability to place the taskbar on any side of the display. And direct interaction with preset icons like Search, Task view, Widgets, Chat, the Pen Menu, etc. so that you can disable them directly. Over time, I would imagine we’ll basically get back everything we had with Windows 10, though that may not happen in time for the first feature update.

For something completely different, whither your foray into Linux?

Nothing yet, sorry. But with Laurent writing news every day, I should have more time. For the short term, I want to finish up the Programming Windows series so I can move on to other things. Linux is at the top of the list.
Is FUBO FUBAR?
spacecamel asks:

Did you see that FUBO switched to quarterly billing and dropped their monthly?

No, but looking at the site, it appears they’ve only dropped their cheapest monthly plan but still offer three $65/month and up plans. And since that matches the base cost of YouTube TV, maybe this is just a reflection of the economic reality of these services, with have gotten much more expensive over time, erasing a key advantage over cable TV.

Do you think this is the end of being able to switch easily between the services?

No, not yet. I don’t think most consumers would accept a quarterly payment for a service that expensive. Even $65 per month is a tough level for most. The good news, such as it is, is that these services, whatever the cost and/or duration, are still frictionless in the sense that you can drop one and adopt another at any time. I guess if you were on a quarterly plan, that stretches the notion of “any time,” but three months is still better than one year, which is/was the standard for cable TV.

I’ve been thinking about this kind of thing with regards to my wireless carrier, Mint. Mint is an MVNO that charges less over time if you pay quarterly or annually, and so I’ve gone with a $300 annual plan for the past two years. My contract is up for renewal next month, but with us able to travel internationally again, I’m wondering if ...