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Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

helgeklein.com

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Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#81
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux still has horrible font rendering, which makes web browsing uncomfortable. It doesn't come close to Windows or Mac. Fonts often appear soapy, kerning is off etc.

Linux can have crappy font rendering. I can also have gorgeous font rendering. I would mess around with some live distros to see what you prefer. This is how my comment looks to me (on linux): https://i.imgur.com/wvruFyX.png

Hmm not sure if it’s the quality of the image or the font, but that might prove his point, that looks quite bad.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#82

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

Another option to consider is FreeBSD, which can be especially attractive for those of us who want to avoid systemd.

I'd argue using an OS and init system with significantly less support compared to Linux is more likely to have a lot more reasons to hold you back.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#83

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

Linux still has horrible font rendering, which makes web browsing uncomfortable. It doesn't come close to Windows or Mac. Fonts often appear soapy, kerning is off etc.

This may have been true in the past but I spend my day swivel-chairing between a current-gen MBP and a Debian derivative running Cinnamon. Both displays are the same and I don't find that the Mac is better. Maybe I'm less critical than others.

What's interesting is the MBP handles external displays horribly with the current version of OS X. Lid closure is a crap shoot on what the device decides to do.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#84
post #3

Is there any way to block connection to these sites with DNS or something?

It's not a general solution for an office. I tried this and people couldn't install Office because some of the same servers for telemetry are used for activation.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#85
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux can have crappy font rendering. I can also have gorgeous font rendering. I would mess around with some live distros to see what you prefer. This is how my comment looks to me (on linux): https://i.imgur.com/wvruFyX.png

Hmm not sure if it’s the quality of the image or the font, but that might prove his point, that looks quite bad.

How does it look for you?

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#86

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

Linux still has horrible font rendering, which makes web browsing uncomfortable. It doesn't come close to Windows or Mac. Fonts often appear soapy, kerning is off etc.

Is it really as bad as you make it out to be? I've got everything at home: old non-retina MacBook Airs running OS X, a M1/retina MacBook Air running OS X, Windows (well, wife's computer) and then Linux laptops and desktops.

Fonts on my main Linux "workstation" may not be as perfect as on the M1 Mac I use from the couch but it's because my 38" monitor ain't retina and it's a far cry from making "browsing uncomfortable".

Yes, many of the CSS stacks (even for the big sites which really should know better) are totally broken when it comes to Linux (they don't list enough fonts that various distro will have by default, they list fonts that many distro will not have by default and unsurprisingly end up defaulting to shitty fonts) and as soon as one site started using that one CSS stack, they all started the copy/pasta. But I wouldn't go as far as saying that browsing on Linux is "uncomfortable": many people do that on a daily basis and are perfectly happy.

Also not all websites have broken CSS font stacks for Linux. Some saw the light.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#87

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

I haven’t noticed or didn’t care that the content was in SD on Linux. I was pretty happy it worked. Use a Roku for streaming HD to the tv for the few things I watch there. There is a weird “wildvine” plugin thing that chrome and Firefox use for video drm for some services. I think that enables video. Linux seems to be the only OS that is respectful of the user. But desktop Linux has come really far. It my daily drive…

Yeah, I see this repeated a lot but I haven't really noticed a difference. Maybe I'm just not picky on the topic. But my understanding was it was never traditional SD, but 720p.

Regardless, I use firefox and Amazon, Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max all work reliably for me. I believe there was a period were a couple of them didn't work for a month or two on linux when they came out but I wasn't subscribed to them then and they've always worked for me.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> DigiCert’s OCSP service A weakness of the OCSP protocol is that it gets sent the certificate hash as an input. This means that to a significant degree, an OCSP provider can track what software you are using, what sites you visit, etc... For the code signing certificates, they could also determine which year (or two) it came from. DigiCert could sell that to marketing companies, and spy agencies / state-sponsored ha…

OCSP is done over plain HTTP (for obvious reasons), so the OCSP provider doesn’t have exclusive access to this data. There is not much value there for DigiCert and others when every ISP can potentially sell the same data. OCSP stapling helps maintain privacy, so eg. ESNI isn’t completely pointless when stapling is used.

What sort of logic is that. "This data isn't private because we just broadcast it to the entire internet on your behalf" doesn't strike me as a valid argument against considering privacy.

If it is I'm going to use this way more in all the compliance meetings I attend. Oh, you're worried about the secrecy of all this proprietary private information we're holding? Don't worry, I'll just wrap it in a torrent, broadcast it to the DHT, and _now_ it's no longer private, so the secrecy doesn't matter.

Re: Windows OS, Services and Apps: Network Connection Target Hosts (2021)

#90

I read a lot of comments here wanting to block the connections, but wouldn’t be easier/better to switch to an OS that doesn’t spy you? The answers possibly is no, because they might use X or Y that requires them to use Windows, so a better question is, what holds you back to switch to Linux? (macOS also talks to a lot of servers and collect telemetry as Windows, maybe in a different scale, so isn’t an alternative if…

> I personally prefer Linux, but what’s holding me are the streaming services (netflix, amazon, etc), I can only watch SD content if I’m on Linux, I hadn't noticed. Wife's 43" TV is connected to a linux box with firefox that is used for Amazon Prime, Netflix AND Disney+. I haven't noticed poor picture and assumed it ran at 1096x1080. I will certainly have to check this out.

For at least Netflix, there's no way to stream above 720p since Widevine only allows security level 2 on Linux.
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