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German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

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Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#91

Post by winrid »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #63
Delmania wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. I like Linux as anyone else around here, but to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch.

>let me know when [...] I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. Consider yourself told, then. Linux works OOTB on pretty much all hardware, often better than Windows since it ships with all of the necessary drivers. >to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch The average user can handle KDE Plasma just fine.

Linux doesn't work on pretty much any new laptop with a hybrid graphics card without editing kernel options at boot and such... and even then the drivers are bad compared to Windows.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#92

Post by ahje »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #63
Delmania wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. I like Linux as anyone else around here, but to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch.

>let me know when [...] I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. Consider yourself told, then. Linux works OOTB on pretty much all hardware, often better than Windows since it ships with all of the necessary drivers. >to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch The average user can handle KDE Plasma just fine.

From a usability perspective, sure. Ther are, however, tons of internally developed tools and applications running on client PC's in various businesses. Not all of those tools and applications work with Wine or Linux equivalents.

Source: Just had to install Windows for the first time in 8 years because we got bought by a competitor who use such software internally.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#93

Post by mehrdadn »

AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #23
forrestthewoods wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This tool is great. Only problem is you have to regularly re-run it because Windows Update will revert changes.

Yep, which is why you disable Windows Update too. The people who work on Windows these days should probably all be fired. Out of a cannon. Into the sun.

> Yep, which is why you disable Windows Update too.

Sounds like you haven't tried this because this solution doesn't work.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#94

Post by mordechai9000 »

AndrewGaspar wrote: post #58
stult wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be an attempt to bypass DNS blacklists. I have Microsoft domains blacklisted on my pi-hole because I find their telemetry practices so difficult to constrain otherwise. Not sure if I caught any micrsoft domains, but there were definitely some that seemed intentionally semi-obfuscated, with msft or something like that instead of the full company name.

I'd actually lean towards it being the opposite - put the thing that people and organizations would be inclined to block on a separate domain so that the core business domain isn't blocked. EDIT: Seems like there are a lot *.microsoft.com URLs, too, so disregard this theory.

I have seen internal groups use domains like this simply because the process for using the primary domain is too onerous, or corporate divisions make it otherwise problematic.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#95

Post by mario0b1 »

iwiririwo wrote: post #70
jammygit wrote: post #6

I wish all governments did audits like this. Either the software would get less invasive, or we'd see Linux everywhere, wins all around. How bad is it that not even governments can use windows without the data vacuum being turned on? And they need to commission these investigations to even figure out what that means?

Well there's other issues with Linux on the desktop that doesn't let anybody except developers use it productively. You always have to weight your priorities, and getting stuff done is often number one priority.

The Problem (atleast in my opinion) is that there will "never" be any change in this if people are not willing to sacrifice just a little bit of usability. Why should companys write software for an OS that does not get used?

Sure, getting stuff done is a high priority, but has it to be number one? Can't we put ethics (or call it whatever you want) above it? We definitely need a lot more competition

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#96

Post by thecatspaw »

goldfeld wrote: post #81
millstone wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A domain like 'microsft.com' is used to trick users into thinking the communication is legitimate and to Microsoft. But why would the actual Microsoft need to engage in this?

To preserve their main domain from the filthiest blacklists? So they can move on to another shady domain for dirty tricks if this one goes under in reputation. Executive thinking..

but why wouldnt they use microsoft-telemetry.com instead?

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#97

Post by jlgaddis »

heybrendan wrote: post #57

(More) direct link to the publication: https://www.bsi.bund.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/DE/BSI/Cyber-Si... Page 31 of the report was of primary interest--hosts hard-coded in diagtrack.dll: geo.settings-win.data.microsoft.com.akadns.net db5-eap.settings-win.data.microsoft.com.akadns.net settings-win.data.microsoft.com db5.settings-win.data.microsoft.com.akadns.net asimov-win.settings.data.microsoft.com.akadns.net db5.vort…

If you put in a block for *.akadns.net you will very likely experience quite a bit of collateral damage. A lot of large, popular companies use Akamai.

Likewise, Ii you drop all traffic from and to those CIDR ranges, well, I hope you don't use any services or sites that are hosted on Azure.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#98

Post by mschuster91 »

Delmania wrote: post #31
jcoffland wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a tool to safely remove all Windows 10 telemetry. It's called Linux.

Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. I like Linux as anyone else around here, but to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch.

> Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue.

WINE is pretty decent these days. For what its worth it's even usable for gaming on Macs! (Okay, there only if you stick to older games, but there's no Fallout better than New Vegas anyway)

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#99

Post by mschuster91 »

kitsunesoba wrote: post #76
Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>let me know when [...] I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. Consider yourself told, then. Linux works OOTB on pretty much all hardware, often better than Windows since it ships with all of the necessary drivers. >to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch The average user can handle KDE Plasma just fine.

It’s definitely not full OOTB on any machine using Broadcom wifi/Bluetooth, and sometimes not even Ubuntu’s additional drivers tool is of no help — if you have no reasonable access to alternate network connections (hardwire, tethering, etc) you’re stuck ferrying around .deb files on thumb drives and such. There are other less than ideal aspects of taking up Linux as well, but that one is on the top of my head because…

> you’re stuck ferrying around .deb files on thumb drives and such.

This has been the case on any Windows install not from an OEM install medium, which I never used because they're always modified with bloatware! Good luck getting Internet to work without a smartphone acting as cheap wifi bridge.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#100

Post by salvar »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #63
Delmania wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great let me know when Linux can run the apps I need for work and I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. I like Linux as anyone else around here, but to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch.

>let me know when [...] I can reliably install it on any hardware and expect it to work without issue. Consider yourself told, then. Linux works OOTB on pretty much all hardware, often better than Windows since it ships with all of the necessary drivers. >to claim it can replace Win10 for the average user is a stretch The average user can handle KDE Plasma just fine.

So why isn't everyone using it then?
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