I'd recommend running Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 LTSB to avoid the entire mess. I run WS 2016 for my dev machine and I haven't had any issues and I don't have to deal with the damned Windows Store.
Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
81–90 of 342 posts
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Linux has more gaming than it did 5-10 years ago, but if someone wants to play a game at top performance on PC, you typically need to choose Windows. You can make an argument about the size of the respective platform's game libraries, but not about their performance. Games on Linux often perform as well as or better than Windows. There's no clear trend that suggests the performance of games on Linux are worse than o…
More and more games are coming to Linux, for sure (I'm a huge fan of games on Linux!), but Linux still is missing the latest-and-greatest AAA titles... think the Call of Duty's, Battlefield's, Skyrim's, Fallout's, Wolfenstein's... and many many more.
I find that as I grow older I'm less and less interested in the design-by-commitee AAA crap. The really interesting stuff is mostly in the small fry scene, and those tend to be cross platform.
I do have a Windows install specifically for gaming, but I haven't booted it in ages.
Edit: my main entertainment IS games.
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#83When you choose Windows, the computer uses you. When you choose Linux, you use the computer. Stop complaining and start switching. It should be apparent by now that Microsoft isn't going to stop their bad behavior.
Or you can just say "FUCK it" get Enterprise LTSB, spend a few hours tweaking it and never have to worry about anything for 5 years.
Yes you're breaking the law but when did that stop anyone?
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#84When you choose Windows, the computer uses you. When you choose Linux, you use the computer. Stop complaining and start switching. It should be apparent by now that Microsoft isn't going to stop their bad behavior.
I'll switch when all my customers switch.
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#85Earlier quoted context omitted.
Except on two separate machines, a Windows update reinstalled them for me. MS did said it was a bug but it happened a few times after that for me.
I think I also may have had some ads back with a major update (e.g. Creators, Fall Creators), but I don't remember having them back ever with the normal updates. In any case, it really is just a breeze to remove UWP apps, and they leave no trace either, so I cannot rationalize how it can be this so annoying to anyone.
The ad issue is separate to me. They keep adding ads to more and more places in Windows 10, and each location has a different toggle to turn on / off.
I turned off all advertising options in Windows 10 when I first installed, only to be greeted by another ad months later which they had added with a newly downloaded update.
The toggles aren't even centralized, you have to hunt them down in different menus. I have a hard time believing this wasn't done on purpose.
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. To me it's another nail in the coffin of general purpose computing. We've accepted that mobile devices/OSs are not for general purpose computing and expect that they come with a "lifestyle" to hawk, now o…
Microsoft is not, contrary to popular opinion, stupid. MS knew nobody was going to pay $€200+ for an OS anymore. So they had to find another way to monetize Windows.
Is that why they will soon charge $49 for Windows Pro users to install Win32 apps (i.e. disable S mode)?
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/windows-10-s-becomin...
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#87I'd recommend running Windows Server 2016 or Windows 10 LTSB to avoid the entire mess. I run WS 2016 for my dev machine and I haven't had any issues and I don't have to deal with the damned Windows Store.
Any problems with Server / LTSB for gaming?
(honest question - that's the sole reason I have windows anything and I'd be thrilled to get rid of all the absolute nonsense they've been throwing at me)
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#88It's a tricky problem. I think tech people are fringe. For me, I would want to disable it all. But if people can turn it off then it doesn't let microsoft improve and adapt. In concept, I kind of like the idea the OS could anticipate the things I need. It's how we imagine futuristic computer systems. It's a bit different from the traditional OS where you are the master over everything.
I'm not sure many on HN are going to like this thing, but I would think MS gets to see the stats and has better view of how well they are doing. Percentage wise it might be working out pretty good, however, each percentage point they piss off ends up being a lot of people and if the fringe of tech people are in that 1% that can end up in a lot of angry blogs.
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#89Many (most?) people on Hacker News might be too young to remember the Halloween Documents. They were internal Microsoft documents describing their proposed strategy for dealing with competition from then-new Free Software alternatives:
http://www.catb.org/esr/halloween/
If you want to understand why Microsoft is acting the way they are, read those documents.
It's not that I think they are still executing the strategies and tactics spelled out therein. Quite the contrary; Microsoft realises they've lost the OS war to Linux (on one front) and OSX (on the other).
The point is how astonishingly user-hostile those memos are. They lay out a strategy for competing with Free Software that has almost nothing to do with their users' needs and wants. Instead, the obvious assumption is that their users will be sacrificed to their (Microsoft's) strategic goals.
That's not to say that individual Microsoft teams don't produce excellent, user-centric software (two I can think of in my own experience are Excel and Visual Studio).
But the executive leadership, and company culture as a whole, seems to care little about the people who actually use their products. This was clearly true back in the 90s, and is clearly true now. In the 90s it was 'embrace and extend', in the 2010s it's 'track and advertise'.
Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm really surprised it works at all, great job man
VFIO is the real deal - if you can find the right hardware. Unfortunately, there isn't a master list of VFIO compatible hardware (that I know of). You have to scour reddit or the Red Hat VFIO mailing lists hoping someone has posted the motherboard/processor you're interested in. Once you have hardware, there are lots of resources for pulling it off: https://www.kernel.org/doc/Documentation/vfio.txt https://www.redhat…
Lenovo, Dell or HP business (vPro) desktops will work. Dell T20/T30 is often on sale for under $500.