Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Fix Windows 10

fix10.isleaked.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 201 posts

Re: Fix Windows 10

#171

Post by orionblastar »

frik wrote: post #110
w0000t wrote: post #32

In my opinion, if those privacy issues bother you, the first step should be an overview of non-Microsoft operating systems.

Have a look at ReactOS, a free open source OS that is binary compatible to Windows (its what Linux is to Unix). http://www.reactos.org

I donated to the ReactOS Community Edition Kickstarter and I never got my password to their site to download it.

They need more developers and more money to get out of the alpha phase and into the beta phase.

In all honesty Linux + WINE runs more Windows apps than ReactOS currently does right now. Just get Play On Linux to help configure stuff: https://www.playonlinux.com/

If you don't want a Linux distro but want some alternative OS that is more finished that ReactOS try:

https://www.haiku-os.org/

HaikuOS is a BeOS rewrite, it is written to be API compatible with the old BeOS versions.

http://aros.sourceforge.net/

AROS is written to be API compatible with AmigaOS 3.X, got support from Amiga Inc and they even used parts of AROS source code for the latest AmigaOS. They even ported it to 68K Amigas with a new Kickstart ROM replacement.

Haiku and AROS won't run Windows programs, but you can run them in virtual machines and use the software that is available for them.

I am waiting for ReactOS Server where they bundle a SAMBA server, Web Server, Email Server, so it can be a free Windows Server clone and install on Virtual Machines so it has a lower memory footprint than Windows Server. But Microsoft has made Windows Server Core to run with less memory.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#172

Post by w0000t »

Eiriksmal wrote: post #169
w0000t wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apples, oranges... https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/FAQ#Why_would_I_want_to...

> "you believe an operating system should configure itself, run out of the box, and include a complete default set of software and desktop environment on the installation media." Can't get more orange than Arch, for the sake of that comparison!

Just a note. The quote Eiriksmal posted is from the section: Why would I NOT want to use Arch?

Re: Fix Windows 10

#173

Post by JustSomeNobody »

gcb0 wrote: post #147
segf4ult wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can now buy laptops preinstalled with Ubuntu directly from dell.

you can buy ONE laptop with Linux from dell. and even that one is advertised only to developers.

https://system76.com/laptops/?utm_source=google_search&utm_m...

http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/ubuntu/index.html

Re: Fix Windows 10

#174

Post by JustSomeNobody »

joesmo wrote: post #47
slg wrote: post #31

I can't help but feel like some of this is fear mongering. There are some good features in there that are being disabled for the sake of "privacy" like sharing of Windows updates with other computers to speed up downloads. And how do we expect things like Windows Defender or Microsoft's handwriting and voice recognition to improve if we refuse to share back any anonymized information with Microsoft?

"And how do we expect things like Windows Defender or Microsoft's handwriting and voice recognition to improve if we refuse to share back any anonymized information with Microsoft?" Exactly by not sharing any information with MS. If they didn't assume that people wanted to share their private information (they don't), they'd create software with proper architecture that doesn't need to connect to the could to do simp…

Little known fact: Those are not _simple_ things.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#175

Post by krisdol »

jasonlotito wrote: post #107
krisdol wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know what the first thing is so it must be something I disabled when setting up my Mac. The Ubuntu thing is opt-in, not opt-out in recent versions. Both are simple changes and not nearly the same scope as W10's abuses.

> Both are simple changes and not nearly the same scope as W10's abuses. Apple isn't limited to collected data just about those two things though. The fact is, Apple's OSs send, by default, a lot of data about you. It knows a lot about you, and by default, can do a lot of what people are afraid Microsoft can do. If Windows 10's privacy issues are an issue with you, Apple is not an alternative in the slightest.

As a linux user, as much as I'd like to believe you, everything I see about OS X is that its privacy policies and options are far more restricted and in what the OS can do, and it is made far easier to opt out. Like, a single checkbox easy. You actually cannot even disable telemetry on Windows 10 without an Enterprise license.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#176

Post by frik »

billyhoffman wrote: post #156
frik wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are right. Another annoyance: - non-optional forced auto updates (except on Enterprise "long term servicing branch" edition) Give the user the choice. Compare it to iOS, Android, OSX, Linux everywhere the user has the choice to stop the auto-update, often for important reasons no one thought before.

We used to say the same thing about application software. However Chrome's auto-update feature has been a tremendous benefit. I would argue this is a reasonable direction for consumer OSes to go

A browser is one thing, it's just an application. The OS is the lowest layer, if you can't control it, you can't trust it. And there is always the option to stop the update in Chrome. If you don't run the OS behind a hardware firewall that can scramble SSL, Win10 will send a lot of data unfiltered and non-optional to its vendor - unacceptable for an operating system (the lowest layer).

Re: Fix Windows 10

#177

Post by hfpn »

urda wrote: post #146
hfpn wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Cortona and Siri is that they process everything on remote servers while it could easily be done on a local machine. They do this to be able to save all that data (and take away your privacy). Apple saves Siri's audio for 2 years for example... not sure what Microsoft's policy is on this...

> The problem with Cortona and Siri is that they process everything on remote servers while it could easily be done on a local machine. Please enlighten the HN crowd and provide a reference for this claim.

sorry I was thinking mostly about voice recognition... which would already be a big plus if it was done locally.

Re: Fix Windows 10

#178

Post by hfpn »

overgryphon wrote: post #141
hfpn wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with Cortona and Siri is that they process everything on remote servers while it could easily be done on a local machine. They do this to be able to save all that data (and take away your privacy). Apple saves Siri's audio for 2 years for example... not sure what Microsoft's policy is on this...

Are there any existing products comparable in quality and speed to Cortana/Siri that do all of the processing locally?

if they would open source them, then maybe....

Re: Fix Windows 10

#179

Post by sliverstorm »

hfpn wrote: post #123
Someone1234 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My grandma also mostly plays games and checks her email/Facebook, but she also occasionally has to search the web and has used Siri on her iPad, I don't think Cortana would be that big of a stretch to get her into (e.g. I've seen her use Siri semi-regularly to check the local weather). To be frank, she would likely be better off with a Chromebook. But unfortunately she has a few games she plays which are Windows bina…

The problem with Cortona and Siri is that they process everything on remote servers while it could easily be done on a local machine. They do this to be able to save all that data (and take away your privacy). Apple saves Siri's audio for 2 years for example... not sure what Microsoft's policy is on this...

... could easily be done on a local machine.

I think you're going to need to provide some evidence to support that. It is not intuitively obvious in the slightest, especially given how frequently Cortana/Siri/GoogleNow trip up even with a data center backing them.

Seriously, if processing locally was so easy but they still wanted to steal all your data, they would crunch it locally & give results, and silently ship off the recording to an archive in parallel. Local processing is cheaper for them (bandwidth, compute) and faster for you.

Post reply on HN