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Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#241

Post by KirinDave »

agentultra wrote: post #237
KirinDave wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come move over to windows. I have. I'm not unhappy. 1. The Dev environment is basically superior to everyone else's now. 2. Microsoft is very open about the stats and rules they collect. Apple does many of the same things (don't believe me? Proxy your apple machine and use it for a day. Start typing in spotlight, too) and it's straightforward to disable them. 3. The hardware is nicer. Especially now that the rev0 bug…

> 1. The Dev environment is basically superior to everyone else's now. That seems to be subjective. I like the debugger in Visual Studio but I much prefer emacs and Makefiles. Even if emacs is often slow to highlight large C files. To each their own. > 2. Microsoft is very open about the stats and rules they collect. Apple does many of the same things (don't believe me? Proxy your apple machine and use it for a day.…

> That seems to be subjective. I like the debugger in Visual Studio but I much prefer emacs and Makefiles. Even if emacs is often slow to highlight large C files.

You can use makefiles. I use leiningen, without docker.

> Otherwise, meh. Apple has the better hardware design that fits my preferences.

Specifically referring to Surface. In general, Microsoft makes pretty good hardware. But uh, Apple's hardware isn't good in anything but a relative sense. Their build quality has been on the decline for a long time.

> I'm looking forward to seeing more of this. When I can hand off calls from my iPhone and get the same level of integration you get in the Apple ecosystem the deal will be sealed.

That's not something Apple will let happen, though. We both know that. Android though? Already works via Skype. I'm not sure I like that tech stack either but... it's not like google hangouts is exactly "good."

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#242

Post by mc808 »

crummy wrote: post #18
DanBC wrote: post #14

When your start menu (or whatever the hell it's called now) serves you ads you know you can give up on that OS and that the vendor does not care about the user.

Like Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is great. "Hmm, I wonder if Brasero is installed. b-r-a- Oh! I hadn't even considered wearing a bra before. I shall click through and buy one right now."

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#243

Post by KirinDave »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #229
KirinDave wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Come move over to windows. I have. I'm not unhappy. 1. The Dev environment is basically superior to everyone else's now. 2. Microsoft is very open about the stats and rules they collect. Apple does many of the same things (don't believe me? Proxy your apple machine and use it for a day. Start typing in spotlight, too) and it's straightforward to disable them. 3. The hardware is nicer. Especially now that the rev0 bug…

> 1. The Dev environment is basically superior to everyone else's now. I've done "Windows" development for about half of my 20-year career, and PHP/Rails for the other half. (It's all mixed together; I'm talking about overall effort.) My job, for the past 2 years, has been 100% Visual Basic .NET. (Personal projects continue in Rails.) I'm sick to death with it, and eagerly await a side gig in Rails and OS X, which sh…

> I spent half the day fighting updating packages with NuGet, from one machine to another, and a sudden incompatibility with Azure database exports with my local version. Sure, there are problems with every dev environment, but it just seems so much MORE of a hassle with Visual Studio on Windows, since, for all their money and effort and marketing and the fact that they own the whole stack, the pain ought to be much LESS than the alternatives.

Well I mean... I could tell you my java/maven nightmare stories as well. Dependency hell is not something anyone gets to escape, even if you're using newer hotness like NPM or Go. Oh god, Go's dependency management is a trap.

> It also doesn't help that my Fortune 150 IT department has my development machine so locked down that the Azure worker simulator literally cannot get the permissions it needs to run.

There is no escape for us, except to burn our way out.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#244

Post by ocdtrekkie »

caskance wrote: post #189
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I pointed out, I view his attitude to some degree as extremist. But if I am going to pay $200 for a piece of software, I do rightfully expect to be able to configure how it works, and it not to include privacy abuse traps. I understand that if you choose to use Google, you are paying for it with your privacy, which is why I avoid using it. But when I pay real money for a piece of software, it should not be violati…

You can "configure how the software works" to some extent even if you only get the free version. As a rule, more expensive licenses give you more features. If you don't think windows 10 pro is a good enough value, that's fine. But characterizing it as some kind of immoral violation of your rights makes me not take you seriously. I use VS Pro and wish it had the testing tools that Enterprise did. Not enough to pay tha…

I pay for Pro. Still can't set Telemetry 0. And no, consumers can't buy Enteprise.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#245

Post by Alphasite_ »

KirinDave wrote: post #241
agentultra wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. The Dev environment is basically superior to everyone else's now. That seems to be subjective. I like the debugger in Visual Studio but I much prefer emacs and Makefiles. Even if emacs is often slow to highlight large C files. To each their own. > 2. Microsoft is very open about the stats and rules they collect. Apple does many of the same things (don't believe me? Proxy your apple machine and use it for a day.…

> That seems to be subjective. I like the debugger in Visual Studio but I much prefer emacs and Makefiles. Even if emacs is often slow to highlight large C files. You can use makefiles. I use leiningen, without docker. > Otherwise, meh. Apple has the better hardware design that fits my preferences. Specifically referring to Surface. In general, Microsoft makes pretty good hardware. But uh, Apple's hardware isn't good…

Skype does not gracefully handover anymore. I used to be able to do it for a brief time but the feature just stopped working.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#246

Post by PhantomGremlin »

gradschool wrote: post #202
tomswartz07 wrote: post #6

Here's a 100% serious question: If you 'absolutely must' use Windows 10, would it be possible to firewall off every outbound port from this machine to prevent this sort of tracking? Or does it just use Port 80, piggybacking on the normal http traffic? Has anyone done a comprehensive analysis of exactly how this info is being sent?

The lazy way to firewall it without doing all that analysis would be to run it in Virtualbox with network access disabled. Do your networking on the host outside of the VM and exchange files between the host and the VM through a shared folder. If you need sharing between multiple windows machines, you can run Syncthing or similar on the hosts to synchronize the directories backing the shared folders across them. I ru…

Do your networking on the host outside of the VM and exchange files between the host and the VM through a shared folder.

This is what I do when I run Windows XP under VMware Fusion. Works like a charm for the few apps I need. I don't care if my XP is unpatched, it can't get to the Internet.

But I thought that Windows XP SP 2 (what I use) was the final version of Windows that didn't need to check in with Microsoft periodically (every few weeks?) or it would stop working. At least that's what Microsoft's original plans were; perhaps they relaxed that requirement?

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#247

Post by gelasio »

alexandrerond wrote: post #212
PuffinBlue wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. Pa…

>Yes. Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm always surprised how Photoshop is the first thing that comes up when naming software not available for Linux. Truth is, unless you're in the business, regular people don't need more than what Gimp offers. Never speak of CAD software etc... They make terrible examples as to why not use Linux. Additionally, as a Linux user I can't think of working with Windows because all the things t…

One reason I do most of my programming from Windows is because I find Linux programming tools to be either very bare-bones, UI/UX-wise or some kind of ill-fitting cross-platform Java thing. I'm talking about run of the mill stuff like a Git UI, Diff Viewer, Text editors, Icon editors and other specialty image and file editors...and also bigger apps that people usually name.

Maybe you prefer a terminal and maybe your terminal can do what my GUI tools can do or maybe they can't or vice-versa. There's going to be a lot of bias when you work and give your life to these things. To me, Linux is a really nice server or device that I use to run stuff but that's all it will ever be until it has a plethora of high quality GUI apps that I want to use.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#248

Post by gelasio »

blub wrote: post #178
Sanddancer wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I tried using a fully Open Source desktop from 1998 to 2007. I finally gave up, because things were "better" but still far worse than windows. It's only gotten worse since then. One of the biggest examples I can see right now is the support compiler chains give in terms of the development process. Visual Studio makes simple what open tools like emacs make near impossible. Remote debugging on windows is a matter of do…

Remote debugging is actually quite simple when using QtCreator, gdb and gdbserver. MISRA-C is not just "more rigurous" checking, it significantly restricts the way C is written. It is also a commercial standard that must be bought by implementers. IMO Windows is a primitive development platform out of the box, one needs to install many tools, a lot of them commercial to replicate what's available on Linux. I've done…

I can't find any diff viewer or git client that integrates directly into any file browser in Linux, like I get with the (FOSS) TortoiseGit and the ~$50 Beyond Compare diff tool i use which I've been using on many projects for years...

I can't even find a diff/patch tool on any platform as good as BC. It has all sorts of heuristics and plugins for different file types and a ton of really advanced features that are easily accessible from it's UI. And those are just 2 of my most basic tools that I use heavily (and I use the keyboard to do everything).

Moving onto text editors, I think the choices on Linux are basically like having to choose between learning Klingon or Vulcan. It's exhausting just thinking about it.

Re: Microsoft reveals details of Windows 10 usage tracking

#249

Post by PuffinBlue »

gelasio wrote: post #247
alexandrerond wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Yes. Photoshop and Lightroom. I'm always surprised how Photoshop is the first thing that comes up when naming software not available for Linux. Truth is, unless you're in the business, regular people don't need more than what Gimp offers. Never speak of CAD software etc... They make terrible examples as to why not use Linux. Additionally, as a Linux user I can't think of working with Windows because all the things t…

One reason I do most of my programming from Windows is because I find Linux programming tools to be either very bare-bones, UI/UX-wise or some kind of ill-fitting cross-platform Java thing. I'm talking about run of the mill stuff like a Git UI, Diff Viewer, Text editors, Icon editors and other specialty image and file editors...and also bigger apps that people usually name. Maybe you prefer a terminal and maybe your…

What apps do you use? I'm just switching over from Linux to Windows and I've been a bit 'lost' without the terminal. I'd love to hear what you're using whatever it is, doesn't matter if it's not specifically for what I'm doing, it would just be great to get a bit of knowledge of what's available for Windows.
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