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Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

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Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is hubris incarnate, the seatbelt argument all over again.

Poor analogy, and typical of the deferred-update paranoia crowd, thinking the worst and feeling exposed because Microsoft says you are in "critical danger". A better analogy: You should keep your bicycle helmet on in the shower due to the slippery tiles and statistics of shower-related head injuries. Or this... Believe it or not, when you leave home without your umbrella, it may not rain. You know this, but you take…

The analogy was more than apt: a car crash is devastating, as is losing your identity, it's more likely than people tend to think, and the cost of protecting yourself against this devastating thing is relatively low.

If anything, the umbrella analogy wasn't great, because getting wet is a consequence of forgetting your umbrella, and that's far from as devastating as having your identity stolen. Further, you getting wet doesn't create a negative network effect like having your computer hacked does by adding your computer to a nefarious botnet.

This isn't Reddit, you can agree that the comparison was solid, but that the conclusion was still wrong. No need to go into Internet argument mode; we can have a discussion. For example, your helmet analogy in the bathtub is a decent one, except for the fact that it costs way more than running an update does to keep you safe.

Are you critically vulnerable all the time? No. Are you better equipped than Microsoft to judge which updates are important and which aren't? No. It's, as I said, the definition of hubris to think otherwise.

If you don't like how Windows does updates, don't use Windows -- lots of other great options.

Besides, the cost is absurdly low to keep yourself safe. If you're making the choice to run an un-updated Windows machine that's connected to the Internet, you are driving without a seatbelt, and not only are you literally risking your own livelihood, but you're also putting others at risk.

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#362
post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is exactly one of the main reasons why I switched to Linux, it doesn't do anything unless I let it or ask it to - with few exceptions. My anecdote: I was about to have an important meeting and needed to print off some sheets from my Windows-based netbook. The power was low ( FYI the Linux experience has been mostly great. There's been maybe a problem once a year, with some driver or package issue - but most of t…

I shifted to Linux full time this year from MacOS. The only thing I desperately need is a replacement for is MS Office. Any ideas? I'm a power user, which Google word is simply not good for.

If you have licensed Windows, install Virtualbox on Ubuntu and install Windows in that. Share a drive between them and you should be able to maintain Office documents that way.

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A real Sophie's choice: have your data stolen by hackers because you're vulnerable, or have your data deleted by the patches that secure your system!

Are they security patches, though? The difference between a critical safety update and the update that adds new things to Candy Crush is imperceptible to the casual user who just wants to get work done and will foster an unfair distrust of the important need for these updates. Additionally, the implementation is frustrating and buggy. If someone updated OpenSSL from an insecure version on my machine, I'd probably nev…

I hear you, but your claim that Windows Update is "frustrating and buggy" just doesn't mesh with my experience, so it's hard to relate to your concern. I don't think I've ever noticed Windows update running, except for the once-a-month or so times I've come back to my computer and it's been restarted. Hardly "buggy" or "frustrating".

Admittedly I don't think all Microsoft updates that get pushed out are security patches, but there are a lot of configuration options that give me control of how and when updates get applied. I find it hard to understand what the situation is that these controls aren't enough to work around any potential "critical" timeframe I might have.

Besides, for important stuff that must be up all the time, everyone knows by now that *nix is the way to go, right? This is not anywhere remotely new. Running Windows is implicitly trading off 100% availability for... whatever else Windows offers (gaming compatibility, for me).

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#364
post #100
post #19

The whole user experience of installing Windows 10 is abysmal. Wife got a new laptop and I watched her to the initial setup. Stupid things like an "enter your pin" dialog that automatically opens another dialog that closes if you hit enter. So you quickly type your pin and hit enter and just see the dialog flash. Or the confusing "remove" button for the fingerprint scanner setup that just removes all of your fingerpr…

> ... dialog that automatically opens another dialog that closes if you hit enter. I rarely get upset at computers these days, but this is one of the things that easily boils my blood. It happens with Windows and macOS machines at the most inopportune times. I'll be typing and hit enter, seeing a mysterious dialog appear and vanish in a flash as it stealthily hijacked my "Enter" stroke. "Great, who knows what I just…

Could even be a dark pattern. After you type the pin several times it's fairly trivial to time that dialog just right.

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They technically have defaults, but when the difference for most distributions (e.g. Debian) is just checking a different box in the installer, it seems like a silly thing to complain about.

I think there's an assumption that the default DE gets more attention from the distro; it's more polished, and "just works" (or at least, something approaching the concept on Linux). e.g. from what I remember, when installing xfce in debian, you get the ugly barebones defaults from upstream. Compare this to Xubuntu...

https://ubuntu-mate.org

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shifted to Linux full time this year from MacOS. The only thing I desperately need is a replacement for is MS Office. Any ideas? I'm a power user, which Google word is simply not good for.

I know everyone is suggesting Libreoffice (and it has honestly gotten a lot better recently) but I remember once when my laptop died and all I had was a shitty old Centrino someone lent me, I ended up using the Microsoft online powerpoint tool to make a presentation that was due. The web versions of MS Office tools are actually pretty well build and feel pretty close to their desktop counterparts.

Libre office is not even 10% MS Office. Don't know why people recommend it. It messes up my word formatting.

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#367
post #344

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know everyone is suggesting Libreoffice (and it has honestly gotten a lot better recently) but I remember once when my laptop died and all I had was a shitty old Centrino someone lent me, I ended up using the Microsoft online powerpoint tool to make a presentation that was due. The web versions of MS Office tools are actually pretty well build and feel pretty close to their desktop counterparts.

The web version of word lacks an equation editor (someone told me this is partly due to MS loosing the source code for the one in word.) If you have to write papers with a lot of math in them libreoffice's equation editor is way better anyway. It rarely crashes and uses it's own simple markup language instead of the finicky WYSIWYG editor in word.

The killer features missing for me

1. Word - track changes 2. PowerPoint - equation editor

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shifted to Linux full time this year from MacOS. The only thing I desperately need is a replacement for is MS Office. Any ideas? I'm a power user, which Google word is simply not good for.

If you have licensed Windows, install Virtualbox on Ubuntu and install Windows in that. Share a drive between them and you should be able to maintain Office documents that way.

Interesting. I have a Windows partitioned. Can I use that license for a virtual installation?

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shifted to Linux full time this year from MacOS. The only thing I desperately need is a replacement for is MS Office. Any ideas? I'm a power user, which Google word is simply not good for.

If you're not opposed to non-free software and like quality products, I highly recommend you check out Crossover[0]. It allows you to run Microsoft Office on your linux machine. [0]( https://www.codeweavers.com/products/ )

I am totally fine with non-free software. I'll check this out.

Re: Microsoft suspends Windows 10 update, citing data loss reports

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I shifted to Linux full time this year from MacOS. The only thing I desperately need is a replacement for is MS Office. Any ideas? I'm a power user, which Google word is simply not good for.

May I suggest LibreOffice? Either via your Linux distribution's package manager, or as a Flatpak from https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.libreoffice.LibreOffice It should be able to handle most use cases

Libre office is simply not good enough, tbh. The first thing I tried.
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