Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

I did have fair share of trouble with my own apple hardware. My mid-2010 mac mini required me to create a modified ISO with EFI booting disabled, and it took me a while to figure out how to get sound working on the HDMI output; my old macbook pro has kernel panics on startup that I never figured out, and my new macbook had trouble getting wifi set up; and I have yet to configure the trackpad to get it to work the way I want it to. There are a lot of other people that have struggled through issues, though, and so the bbs.archlinux.org forums and the wiki docs are helpful, but I had to do a fair amount of trial and error and figuring stuff out myself to get what I did running.

I'm currently using custom-built desktop systems (which run arch linux like a dream; most everything just worked out of the box) for most of my daily work, though, and my longer-term plan is to sell off my mac hardware and replace it with hardware that runs linux with less fuss.

Arch Linux is not exactly ideal for security and it requires too much technical knowledge to offer privacy for the masses.

The unfortunate reality is that non technical uses will never achieve the same level of privacy and security as technical ones.

I personally feel like I have no choice Windows is collecting way too much data for me to be conformable using and Apple is just a benevolent dictator for now it can change its mind at any point and you wouldn't be able to do anything about it so I see Linux as the only choice.

Not to mention that most development tools i use these days are way easier to use on Linux then on Windows.

If I need Photoshop or some software that only runs in Windows I can always run them in a VM.

Rational or not, it's somehow creepier when an OS is doing it, as opposed to most of the crunching being done on Google's servers.

If you have any feeling at all for how an OS operates, Windows 10 with default settings has the air of someone creepily muttering to themselves and fidgeting with something under the table (half the time some component is eating 20% of the CPU). Then the second you walk away they spring up and maniacally run into a closet and commence making mysterious banging noises (walk away and some component spins up to 100% CPU and stays there, fans commence howling). You walk back into the room and there they are - sitting, red, panting, comically failing at looking nonchalant. It's a unique combination of creepy and comical, all in all.

Whereas with Google docs, you really have to know what you're looking for to see manifestations of all the tracking, though of course that doesn't make it better.

> Can you cite a single widely used software that doesn't have a FOSS alternative which works on Linux.

Yes. Photoshop and Lightroom.

And before you all jump in and slather me with suggestions of Darktable, Shotwell, GIMP, ASP, RAWtherapee et al please know that NONE of these are a true substitute for Lightroom and Photoshop.

Individually you can put together a decent work flow with Linux programmes but it's slow. Particularly for wedding photography as there's just nothing that can offer the same level of speed AND quality that you get from Adobe's programmes. Running them on WINE is hit and miss and very slow for me, and the newest CC versions don't seem to be supported as far as I could see.

I ran Linux Mint for the last year and switched to Windows 10 a few days ago. I absolutely love Linux Mint and would switch back to it immediately (especially as Windows seem a lot more long-winded in terms of 'developer' stuff so far) if I didn't need Lightroom and Photoshop but I just couldn't get a fast enough workflow together.

I'm a massive Linux fan, and I'd literally jump back to it this evening if someone can show me in the comments below a workflow that can match what Lightroom/Photoshop offer. But the reality is there are certain types of requirement that Linux just can't provide yet and, tough as it is to swallow, that's the truth of it.

I'm actually more annoyed by gmail tracking than windows tracking.

It seems I can disable the windows tracking. Microsoft can spy on others, but if can opt out I don't care that much, it is just one more annoying default to change when I use a new machine like unchecking the "hide known extensions".

I run my own mail server. But gmail, yahoo and hotmail represent like 99% of my personal contacts. That means that these three companies have pretty much access to all of my personal emails, with personally identifiable information (my first name, last name, email address) and I have no way to opt out, other than convincing my contacts to stop using these services (good luck with that!). I didn't ask for that tracking. I do not agree with google having access to my emails, I did not agree to google's terms and conditions. I am not a gmail customer. But my private correspondence is still recorded by gmail.