Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

ghacks.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 239 posts

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#131

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

mehrdadn wrote: post #93
AnIdiotOnTheNet wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It does. I'm typing this on a Windows 10 system I leave on 24x7 and can't even remember the last time I ran an update. You have to use a third party tool like ShutUp10 or perform some undocumented config changes, but it can be done.

Of course, just like the telemetry, once you do update it'll get turned back on again and you have to do it all over again.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#132

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

thepp1983 wrote: post #129
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 doesn't work well OOTB. This is just incorrect. I've been using Linux/Unix for about 20 years now. There are still loads of things that just do not work and I really expect them to work. I am not talking about specialist hardware. I am talking about things like a USB headset I have (works fine on Windows and MacOSX without having to install any additional drivers). Doesn't work on Linux. I installed Slack using th…

>I installed Slack using the deb package (on ubuntu). Won't start, no idea why. Just segfaults. So I have to use the browser version of slack.

This is a problem with Slack, not with Linux.

>X will still hang with certain applications. Sometimes I close the Lid and the laptop never wakes up.I still get screen tearing when moving windows around. This stuff was fixed years ago on Windows.

Plasma, the desktop I recommended for end-users, has solved these problems. Years ago.

>My friend (who can use Windows 7 just fine), when on my Linux PC and I have it setup pretty much like Windows and he couldn't work out how to open the web-browser

I simply don't believe that you know someone who understands how to use Windows and yet couldn't open a web browser on KDE Plasma.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#133

Post by AnIdiotOnTheNet »

ragequitta wrote: post #64
Spooky23 wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure it is. Microsoft software deployment on client is a dumpster fire. Blindly installing Windows updates these days is very dangerous and should be avoided. Your best approach for avoiding malware is to use browsers like Firefox and Chrome. Critical task workflows should be in LTSB, iOS or ChromeOS. Microsoft’s guidance is to have around four deployment rings each for Windows and Office, and only immediately patch…

Very much disagree. If you pay attention at all to security you'll always hear stories of that one client who hasn't done security updates in 3 months (or 3 days) and gets taken out by the inevitable "exploit Wednesday" shenanigans. On top of that if you're in an enterprise environment when you update you've already had months of home users beta testing the stuff (if you've chosen the semi-annual channel), haven't yo…

> Very much disagree. If you pay attention at all to security you'll always hear stories of that one client who hasn't done security updates in 3 months (or 3 days) and gets taken out by the inevitable "exploit Wednesday" shenanigans.

And if you read past the headline you find out that they had numerous other problems with their security practices that were actually responsible for them being compromised, because if "keep it up to date" is the extent of your security policy then you don't have a security policy. There are always exploitable issues in an OS, sometimes updates even introduce them (remember heartbleed? or that time Debian broke key gen?).

> From my experience as someone who has had 0 problems since beta

From your experience as someone with no experience dealing with issues caused by Windows Update, got it.

> Choose any other OS. Any OS at all that is sufficiently complicated as to compete with Windows (maybe as a starting point anything a tiny bit more complicated than ChromeOS). Then name a problem that's happened with Windows 10. I'll show something similar if not worse happening on the other OS you've chosen.

This doesn't mean that Windows 10 isn't bad, it just means that everything is bad.

> The problem, IMO, isn't the OS. It's the freedom the OS allows and the billions of different configurations you'll find out there.

The problem is the OS. If you have designed your OS in such a way as to make updating it a pain in the ass that's prone to breaking things, and turning updates off also a pain in the ass, then the problem is the OS.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#134

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

johnduhart wrote: post #78
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.

> Consider yourself told, then. Oh, please enlighten me, Drew. > Linux works OOTB on pretty much all hardware, often better than Windows Are device manufacturers supporting Linux? > since it ships with all of the necessary drivers. No it doesn't, last time I checked to even get the recommended usb wifi module to work on Arch required downloading additional packages and compiling a kernel module. > The average user ca…

>Are device manufacturers supporting Linux?

Device manufacturers barely "support" Windows. If it works, then it doesn't need support, and it works.

>No it doesn't, last time I checked to even get the recommended usb wifi module to work on Arch

I don't want to hear an Arch user making any claims about the usability of Linux for the average person.

>Cool let me know how you handle explaining why they can't run some exe they downloaded

By explaining it. It's simple.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#135

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

salvar wrote: post #100
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.

So why isn't everyone using it then?

Do you really need this answered? Because their computer comes with Windows pre-installed.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#136

Post by userbinator »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #126
userbinator wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ip-tracker.org/locator/ip-lookup.php?ip=Microsft... It does seem MS owns that domain, but to be actively using it --- especially for telemetry --- raises red flags for me too. Using misspellings of names is something malware often does.

They also dropped a seemingly random-named tool/service ("sedlauncher" and I think "sedsvc") in "C:\Program Files\rempl" (not the Windows directory as one would expect) that looks pretty malware-y to the point where even a community moderator on the MS forums called it malware [2] but is legit [1], and Win 10 has dozens of new services running (and likely having new ones added with every unavoidable feature update).…

They also dropped a seemingly random-named tool/service ("sedlauncher" and I think "sedsvc") in "C:\Program Files\rempl"

...and they didn't even bother to check that there's an existing project of that name (which will only serve to scare those who come across it by searching --- the description begins "Platform for moderated remote access"...): https://github.com/rempl/rempl

It also randomly creates a new service matching the name of an old service + a random changing hexadecimal suffix

That is extremely disturbing. It's like MS is following in the lead of malware persistence techniques.

There's also this:

https://www.askvg.com/what-are-sedsvc-exe-sedlauncher-exe-fi...

"Hardens the servicing stack against admin tampering." Yes, they're fighting against you, the owner. As the exclamation goes, "fucking bastards!"

All this aggression is going to do is drive even more users who are forced into using Windows 10 to turn off updates completely. They were already wary, now they'll have lost their trust completely.

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#138

Post by ernst_klim »

thepp1983 wrote: post #103
mario0b1 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

None of the parties that are involved in Linux actually care one iota about the desktop. At best it is a side project. It is phones, servers and embedded, Only a very small percentage of what is a shrinking market uses it uses it on the desktop. It will never happen. The only company that has really invested into anything close to Desktop Linux is Google and it is Chrome books which are pretty much a walled garden. W…

>Why doesn't by usb headset work?

>The only thing I haven't had work is some cheapo chinese Serial PCI card from fleabay.

You are contradicting yourself here. Besides, linux hardware support is incredible nowadays, and most of the time if you have problems with linux, you would have them with windows as well (aka, oem drivers for crappy nonstandard custom hardware).

Nowadays most of the soundcards, gamepads, headsets would just work, at least their standard functionality.

Also, RedHat cares about desktop, and canonical cared a lot. Nowadays RedHat is involved in a proper hybrid graphics support, gnome desktop etc. In some areas linux is lagging behind, for example accessability is still not the best, though gnome people are very concerned about it (that was one of the major reason for using a full gnome shell for login).

Re: German federal office publishes Windows 10 telemetry analysis

#140

Post by njharman »

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.

No one is claiming that. They are claiming that if you want an OS that doesn’t spy on you, is secure, and open to inspection then learn to use Linux. Or, to move even further towards security, openBSD.
Post reply on HN