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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

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Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#211
Those articles are funny because for me all previous Windows versions were unusable, but I've found Windows 10 just the best OS. I don't have Facebook preinstalled and even if it was, I couldn't care less about it. There are bazillions of DLLs and other stuff preinstalled, what's the deal with one HTML page that I don't even run. I value other things, real usability improvements (for example virtual desktops are much better than macOS ones) and technical advancements (Linux subsystem, hyper-v, PowerShell).

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#212
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm getting sick of this dichotomy. It's trivial to install both. Keep windows 10 on a partition big enough for your games/Netflix/etc., and use Debian/Archlinux/NixOS/whatever for everything else.

Trivial for someone who could use linux. 99.9% of computer users don't even know dual booting is possible. Also my laptop literally cannot have linux installed on it thanks to UEFI.

You have to disable both "fast startup" and "secure boot" in order to install linux.

(I installed Ubuntu 17.10 alongside Win10 few weeks ago on my UEFI laptop.)

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#213

For the last 15 years or so i've earned my money doing Linux stuff. Before then I was doing VB/.NET/SQL Server etc. January 2016 I worked at a secure facility that wanted an entire system doing malware analysis. The bare servers were running Linux, but some of the software used Windows so there were Windows VMs there. Usual KVM stuff. Bear in mind this is a closed system and the Windows VMs were ephemeral, i.e. had t…

I agree that Windows as we have known it is done.

Now it is simply a free service to learn more about us consumers to build the Bing product.

People don't realize that Bing is growing and becoming a serious contender in the market: https://www.bloomberg.com/gadfly/articles/2016-07-19/microso...

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So basically you want me to setup dual boot, teach, offer free support for the rest of their lives, for every person that I know? Because that's the only group who could do what we are talking about. Or maybe you want me to convince them they should pay someone else to do that because Stallman was right. I'm sure some people are lucky enough to have friends and family who would accept your values instantly, learn the…

Did you even read my comment?

I did and that reply is based on me not believing a few "coders" will make year of the Linux desktop ever happen. So if you need Linux: it won't be viable alone in the near future (I'm talking about Linux offering everything Windows users need, like commercial software and AAA games so they don't need anything else) for the non tech savvy person and dual boot is also not an option in most cases unless there's some technical person "sponsoring" the whole deal. Either paid or not.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

(Unfortunately) HP has been loading their machines with crapware for about a decade now. :(

Why is MS cramming down my throat some 3D Pain thing, Augmented Reality crap and other apps I don't care about? Edit: Oh and Camera app. On a desktop. Without even a webcam. What is the justification for that?

> Why is MS cramming down my throat some 3D Pain thing, Augmented Reality crap and other apps I don't care about?

How many OSs come without any graphics applications installed?

> Edit: Oh and Camera app. On a desktop. Without even a webcam. What is the justification for that?

Because a lot of hardware does have a webcam and thus benefits from having the app, while hardware without it sees nothing but a negligible HHD space impact.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. You reboot your computer, and press a key to pick which one you want.

That, in itself, can be kind of annoying (interrupt all your downloads or whatever you are doing), and it doesn't get at the other issues -- having to run updates for both, having two incompatible filesystems where it's annoying to fetch a document from one and use it on the other, doubling the amount of setup and configuration you have to do, and so on. Every time I've set up a dual-boot system I've ended up just ne…

> That, in itself, can be kind of annoying

Of course, but is it more annoying than using Windows all the time? OP leads me to belive a growing number of windows users might think otherwise. It's also worth noting that rebooting is an order of magnitude faster than it was 10 years ago.

> having to run updates for both

Updates are a pain in Windows, but they are not in any serious GNU/Linux distro I have ever used. This is one of the main reasons that users are frustrated with Windows in the first place.

> having two incompatible filesystems where it's annoying to fetch a document from one and use it on the other

This is a real problem when you are using Windows, but not when you are using Linux. The idea here is to only use Windows when you need it anyway. It's an inconvenience, sure, but is it more of an inconvenience than using Windows all the time? That's up to the user. Personally, the answer is no.

> doubling the amount of setup and configuration you have to do

Not so much, if you seriously use GNU/Linux for everything you don't need Windows for. Besides, configuration isn't a big issue unless you are like me, and want everything exactly your way; although, GNU/Linux is the only way I can get that.

> Every time I've set up a dual-boot system I've ended up just never using one of the options.

That's you, and that's fine. The best setup for you is almost definitely not the best setup for most other people. That is the entire reason to use and promote free software: liberty.

Windows has made dual-booting difficult on purpose, because proprietary software begets proprietary software and control. Thankfully, there has been plenty of work in the other direction for those of us who want to control our computers, as opposed to the inverse.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

An open source project for external customers (i.e. us) operated by a bunch of unpaid volunteers will never really be able to compete with an application with paid developers, invested users, and the supporting departments. I'm not saying that open source projects can't get better, that they can't be good, but they will never be as good. For a corollary: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/936629310785437696

>I'm not saying that open source projects can't get better, that they can't be good, but they will never be as good. Hah, this is rich. Many open source products are far better than their proprietary alternatives, especially developer oriented products (which is natural considering that developers tend to use open source and tend to improve their own tools).

I'll give you (some) software development tools. Still, things like Sublime Text, Visual Studio, and the entire Jet Brains lineup which give lie to the "especially" part of the developer orientated toolset.

But...

Gimp is far better than Photoshop and Illustrator?

Blender is far better than 3DS Max and Maya?

Libre Office is far better than Microsoft Office?

Darkroom is far better than Lightroom?

Honestly, I can't even think of an open source CAD one that can even compare favorably to SketchUp, let alone AutoCad.

If you have to, there are many tools available to do a job on Linux, with a backup of VMs and Wine. They are not, however, "far better".

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#218
post #134

I use Windows when I have to now. I used to use Visual Studio as it is really good. But since Windows 8 and more so Windows 10 they have started taking from me. I paid for Windows 10 Pro, but I am subjected to the task of repeatedly removing software, or adverts for software, that I explicitly said remove. This is repeated when major updates go through. Plus the extra data and processing to get a system that isn't us…

Your last sentence doesn't make any sense.

60% of the time, it makes sense every time

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#220

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But apart from AD the rest of Windows is primitive compared to the competition. Windows usage will decline - Azure will increase - it's all a case of how it works out for Microsoft in the end.

For instance? I actually think most of it is quite good now. I particularly like PowerShell.

So do I, but it's not bash. Used PS to manage WSUS which was a massive ballache. We had a 'sheep dip' situation, what with this being a secure environment, where we downloaded the WSUS updates from a separate network then moved it via USB to the secure one.

PS? Fine. WSUS? Awful. You had to start WSUS, change the categories (it already was trying to download updates on a network without internet), restart the service, mess around, etc.

With Linux i'd literally have one rsync command on each side of the sheep dip.

I did again like the autocomplete - but I prefer a million times more the immediacy of SSH.

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