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

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

#201

Post by redshirtrob »

GiorgioG wrote: post #104
norman784 wrote: post #27

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 tried running Pop OS for the last 3 weeks on my desktop machine. It's got 90% of the polish I expect from a UI/IX - which I can live with. I sadly switched back to Windows yesterday because I couldn't solve the following problem: I use Remote Desktop to get into my work machine - I have a 4K monitor and I couldn't get the scaling to work the way I expected with Remmina or freerdp clients. I had hidpi scaling enable…

Disclaimer: I know nothing about Windows or RDP.

I was just on a developer group call the other day where another developer from another organization was having weird scaling issues RDPing into the vendor's sandbox. The solution was to adjust some buried registry setting on the remote machine, not fiddle with the local machine. Unfortunately I paid little attention to the details as I rarely RDP and when I do I can tolerate display issues.

I realize this is super vague, but it was so fresh in my brain I had to respond. Maybe someone who actually knows something can provide actual details.

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

#202

Post by pmoriarty »

nokya wrote: post #183
cpach wrote: post #10

Anyone feeling tempted to play the Devil’s advocate here? :)

I will. I am actually glad that the OS interacts with many different hosts. This allows me to set up fine-grained rules to prevent specific communication channels. The real information I am missing here is which ones should be left reachable to ensure proper maintenance of the OS. Having a small number of hosts and smaller number of queries would likely result in a worse situation: queries would be impossible to filt…

"I am sincerely convinced they have absolutely not the skills nor the vision to turn the data they collect into a process that could be personally harmful to me."

Never underestimate your enemy.

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

#203

Post by zambal »

Akepa wrote: post #127
kekebo wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can come down to one program that doesn't have a good alternative on another OS, my version of that are the DAWs / music production tools I know and love. Wine solves a lot of this (but not all) for Windows programs, the macOS equivalent Darling[0] seems to still has some way to go until GUI programs are reliably supported. [0] https://github.com/darlinghq/darling

Bitwig is the best Linux DAW in my experience, although it isn't FOSS. Running third party VSTs is also much more of a pain if even possible. I'm also stuck with Logic... for now at least.

It guess it depends a lot on personal preferences and expectations, but I'm very content with my Bitwig setup on Linux. There are obviously a lot less native third party VST plugins available on Linux, so if you already own lots of them and want to make a switch that could be a problem, but if you're just starting out, there's more than enough available:

https://www.kvraudio.com/plugins/linux/vst-plugins

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

#204

Post by gs17 »

scoutt wrote: post #79
norman784 wrote: post #27

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 work with Linux for compiling Android images (with VSCode on Windows through SSH), and I also customize the kernel (drivers and DT, mostly). I also do some Qt porting to Linux, but I used Windows my entire life (apart from DOS). And honestly, I won't boot my PC from Linux (at home or work) because I'm afraid it will break. I'll explain: I have some VMs with Ubuntu and, from time to time, I hit some problem that mad…

I switched to Linux specifically because Windows kept breaking. One update broke compatibility with the stock SSD in my laptop, but the symptom was random bluescreens with seemingly different errors each time. I installed Mint to see if I could get a better error about which bit of hardware was faulty, but it never had any issue in Linux. At least if a kernel update broke something similar, it'd be easy to boot from an older one. Windows sticks you with the version you have or a full reset.

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

#205

Post by pmoriarty »

neoberg wrote: post #145
ace_hunter wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am surprised people on hackernews are still regurgitating talking points from 20 years ago - Linux on Desktop is quite terrible ? When was the last time you used Linux .. I have been using Linux systems from the past 10-15 years and they have been my daily driver for almost everything - and I live on my computer. Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

> When was the last time you used Linux Yesterday and it was terrible. > Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues) Good luck viewing hdr content.

What was so terrible about it?

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

#206

Post by nicce »

norman784 wrote: post #27

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, so my second opinion is macOS, I can watch at least in a decent resolution and also their notebooks are the best ones out there (the air is amazing between price, performance and battery life) for my use case, that’s also work.

I would not choose operating system based on this. Instead, if you can afford, you could buy for example Apple TV as separate box which is not too expensive, has great quality for video and audio. But I guess there might be a chance that you want to watch on higher quality on other places than your home as well. For that, I have personally just used Windows sandbox.

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

#207

Post by BiteCode_dev »

grishka wrote: post #174
BiteCode_dev wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For now. Modern chips will make it harder and harder, until one day we will have almost no control over the machine we are running. For our own good, of course. Plus nobody will care appart from us. And not all of us. Not the us that are working on this techs at least.

As long as signature enforcement in BIOS can be disabled, everything is possible. And it will always be possible to disable it because otherwise someone would sue the hell out of Microsoft, OEM, or both, for not being able to run Linux or other competing OS on a PC they bought.

Given we have one win for a 1000 fails with big companies, and that they clearly don't pay much consequences for their bad actions but benefit a lot from it, I doubt it.

Espacially if this becomes state mendated for national security reasons. Indeed, have you seen anyone been sued for the PRISM program?

In fact, it's already happening: have you seen a lot of things modified in iOS lately? It's super hard, so few people even attempt now.

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

#208

Post by justsomeguy123 »

ace_hunter wrote: post #119
neilalexander wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's obvious. It's much less expensive to buy a Windows PC than a Mac. Linux on the desktop is still quite terrible in a number of ways (particularly if you are ever unfortunate enough to deal with drivers and kernel modules for your slightly uncommon hardware). Chromebooks still don't rate that highly and haven't really entered the public consciousness as a result. Not to mention that many people are using Windows…

I am surprised people on hackernews are still regurgitating talking points from 20 years ago - Linux on Desktop is quite terrible ? When was the last time you used Linux .. I have been using Linux systems from the past 10-15 years and they have been my daily driver for almost everything - and I live on my computer. Never have I faced any issue that can't easily be solved. (If at all there were issues)

So true. If anything, something broken on Windows puts you in a worse position.

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

#209

Post by DrBazza »

gwbas1c wrote: post #188
norman784 wrote: post #27

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…

> what holds you back to switch to Linux? I occasionally need to do some development work in a Debian VM. I can't even remember the name of the window manager it came with; but I just can't figure it out. The equivalent of the dock / taskbar just isn't useful. I had to jump through hoops and hoops just to get Visual Studio Code to work, in part because it took awhile to figure out how to have root access to my own VM…

Out of the box, KDE is very close to Windows - a start menu, a dock, and a task tray. I don't use Gnome, but I don't expect it's that dissimilar either.

No idea why VSCode doesn't work "out of the box" for you. Again, I can only assume you've picked some odd window manager, possibly a tiling one or something like that? Gnome and KDE "just work".

> Linux on the desktop isn't a tool, it's a hobby.

That's fine. My opinion, is the opposite to yours. My vanilla KDE install has been fine and I use my linux desktop as my day-to-day tool for writing production, revenue earning, code. I've been running KDE full time for over 4 years now with no problems (or rather fewer problems than I had with Windows and Apple, but YMMV).

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

#210

Post by dtx1 »

neoberg wrote: post #129
dtx1 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or just pay 5$ for a VPN instead of 20$ for netflix&co and pirate everything. Suddently the OS stops mattering. What was the point of netflix blocking HQ Streams for linux users? To prevent piracy? How ironic

There is always a way. But convenience is also important and time is valuable. So instead of just clicking on a title on Netflix, we should instal & maintain a server and search for content on torrents?

There are fully integrated solutions for kodi. Sure there's some setup but the alternative is paying a lot more for low res content on linux.
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