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Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

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Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#591

Post by RealStickman_ »

warner25 wrote: post #337
dasv wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems there is enough pushback from Microsoft's enterprise clients because the W10 LTSC versions lack all the adware and most of the spyware that is pushed on the regular versions. Of course, they are not advertised anywhere and buying licenses through regular channels is impossible for a home user or a small company. I haven't compared resource usage between my previous W10 Pro VM and my current W10 LTSC VM but i…

Ironically, my employer just replaces all of Microsoft's crap with its own crap, pushed out to every client through GPOs and SCCM and other tools. So we get full screen banners, sometimes by launching PowerPoint and showing a slide, about things like cybersecurity awareness or [minority group] History Month. And it takes many minutes to boot up and login and get a functional desktop with all that, plus the scanning b…

Well, with your employer that's work time you get paid for. I don't know why anyone would subject themselves to this for free though.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#592

Post by lostgame »

bodge5000 wrote: post #497
Kye wrote: post #249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I need Serif (Affinity Suite), Ableton, Arturia, and Native Instruments to port everything to Linux or at least make it equally functional in Wine first. I could understand going to the trouble if I had anything remotely like the issues people say they have with Windows, but it's been an absolute breeze for me. Always has been. The few ad-ish things I see were trivial to remove. Staying on a local account was effortl…

I know its probably not what you're looking for, but Bitwig has a similar workflow to Ableton, and has first class Linux support. A few years ago I was in a similar situation, but decided in the end to not allow myself to be tethered to an operating system, and did away with all the software I couldn't use elsewhere.

If the commenter can't open their existing Ableton files in Bitwig, and/or use the existing VSTs they've likely spent years with and collected or designed presets for, it makes somehow converting to an entirely new DAW far too daunting and complex a process for any serious producer.

I myself use Logic Pro, and have files from Logic and GarageBand from over - (holy crap I'm getting old) - 17 years ago, that still open and play in Logic - (minus the occasional missing plug-in) - and I've used Logic for so long at this point that there is literally almost no barrier between my imagination in terms of composition, engineering and production and the actual software and hardware.

To switch to a solution such as Bitwig not only removes access to the 17+ years of files I've got (who knows how many years of files the original commenter has) - it makes it so I can no longer, e.g. just send a Logic or Ableton file to a fellow producer - which I often do, and is often done; for collaborations - it removes access to the incredible library of software instruments included with Logic that I've slowly became a veritable genius with over more than a decade...

Ultimately, unless you pretty much started with Bitwig, or Ardour, etc - I couldn't ever see a seasoned producer who has settled into their closed-source DAW of choice ever seriously considering this.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#593

Post by lostgame »

Kye wrote: post #249
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do what I did. Buy a xps 13 (dell has 'developer edition variants of these, so it fully supports linux). I actually bought the windows version because it was cheaper, instantly wiped it on boot and installed linux. I've upgraded to a 1tb ssd and might upgrade to a 2tb ssd given how cheap they are right now. Great experience though!

I need Serif (Affinity Suite), Ableton, Arturia, and Native Instruments to port everything to Linux or at least make it equally functional in Wine first. I could understand going to the trouble if I had anything remotely like the issues people say they have with Windows, but it's been an absolute breeze for me. Always has been. The few ad-ish things I see were trivial to remove. Staying on a local account was effortl…

While I have my complaints with the Apple ecosystem, I similarly have to agree that in my case as an audio producer - MacOS 'just works' - I rarely have to do updates, there's no intrusive advertising; I'm an Apple Music user and I love how it syncs between my Mac, Phone, and Watch so seamlessly...

Logic is a phenomenal piece of software with an incredible value for it's price and feature set, and I've still got an Ableton instance as well, the VSTs or AU's work perfectly in both.

I've honestly never had issues with my Mac/Logic setup so I've been using it for more than 15 years. I will probably continue using some variation of this setup for as long as I continue to produce music.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#594

Post by Kye »

lostgame wrote: post #592
bodge5000 wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know its probably not what you're looking for, but Bitwig has a similar workflow to Ableton, and has first class Linux support. A few years ago I was in a similar situation, but decided in the end to not allow myself to be tethered to an operating system, and did away with all the software I couldn't use elsewhere.

If the commenter can't open their existing Ableton files in Bitwig, and/or use the existing VSTs they've likely spent years with and collected or designed presets for, it makes somehow converting to an entirely new DAW far too daunting and complex a process for any serious producer. I myself use Logic Pro, and have files from Logic and GarageBand from over - (holy crap I'm getting old) - 17 years ago, that still open…

BitWig can at least open Live sets now: https://www.bitwig.com/support/technical_support/importing-a...

It's nice to know I have an escape hatch if I ever start having any of the negative experiences people report with Windows. I just...don't. I've used it since it came on a stack of floppies and it's just been a breeze. Even doing weird destabilizing stuff at worst left it in a state I could fix easily. Usually by just rebooting or unrolling a driver. Things are even better now with Reliability Monitor since it helpfully correlates errors with what caused it most of the time. And those once-useless troubleshooters are actually useful now.

edit: Out of curiosity, I checked. 978 Live sets since I started using it in 2018. It just barely edges out my Reaper set collection from before I moved to Live.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#595

Post by vetinari »

the_overseer wrote: post #583
account42 wrote: post #544

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I can drop windows and switch to linux, but I don't think everyone could. Honestly, most people could if they really wanted to. People come up with all kinds of reasons why they can't but ultimately it just boils down to not wanting to be inconvenienced. Your other examples are a lot harder to do something about but that doesn't mean you can't do anything. Do you really need a smartphone at all? Third party data ha…

Yes. I need a smartphone. What is it with so many antiprogress people on HN? Do you really need cooked food? Like reaaaaly need it? Yes ffs... Windows with ads is a much smaller inconvenience than completely changing my work style to fit with linux lack of support of a million useful things.

No, you don't really need a smartphone. You want one. Slightly different thing. Nuance, you know.

Sure, you can have it, nobody is going to tell you that you can't. But be honest to yourself; nobody ever died of hunger for not having one.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#596

Post by bodge5000 »

lostgame wrote: post #592
bodge5000 wrote: post #497

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know its probably not what you're looking for, but Bitwig has a similar workflow to Ableton, and has first class Linux support. A few years ago I was in a similar situation, but decided in the end to not allow myself to be tethered to an operating system, and did away with all the software I couldn't use elsewhere.

If the commenter can't open their existing Ableton files in Bitwig, and/or use the existing VSTs they've likely spent years with and collected or designed presets for, it makes somehow converting to an entirely new DAW far too daunting and complex a process for any serious producer. I myself use Logic Pro, and have files from Logic and GarageBand from over - (holy crap I'm getting old) - 17 years ago, that still open…

Believe me I know, I had to go through the exact same situation. However, I also considered what terrifying repercussions that'd have for how much control any single company can have over my life.

I understand why people don't want to, it took me a good few years between wanting to move onto Linux and actually doing so, but in the end I'm glad for it. If your priorities are different thats fair enough, but I'm never going back.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#597

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

whoopdedo wrote: post #166
JCWasmx86 wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies should really accept a "No" from their users. No I don't want to use a microsoft account just to use my computer. (Without jumping through hoops) Don't ask me again the moment I say "No". You can see the same with all those dialogs that only have "Yes, do $THING" and "Remind me later".

It's what the phrase "the customer is always right" originally meant. It means you can do all the market research, development, testing, polling, and seeding to sell a product. But the ultimate decider of whether the product is "good" is whether or not the people buy it. If your sales plan flops don't say "it's not the product's fault, I just need to do a better job marketing it." No, the product is wrong, the custom…

One thing is clear: MS doesn't really care about customer satisfaction at all. There is no single innovative thing in Windows 11 that would make me switch over. I use Windows 11 on company machines only; I don't understand why anyone would voluntarily put up with this crap.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#598

Post by imbnwa »

irrational wrote: post #119
JohnFen wrote: post #54

> As Microsoft puts it: “We are continuing the exploration of badging on the Start menu with several new treatments for users logging in with local user accounts to highlight the benefits of signing in with a Microsoft account (MSA).” What is Microsoft really thinking here? You have to go out of your way (and probably do a web search) in order to figure out how to install Win 11 without using a Microsoft Account. So…

Apple has a similar problem. On setup it wants me to set up siri, payment, etc. My options are to setup now or do it later. There needs to be a third option that I will never setup these things and never ask me again.

Are you using 'payment' where it asks you to sign-in w/ iCloud? Cause those aren't the same, and I've never seen a macOS install ask for payment information. I just re-installed on a M1 three days ago, nevermind a macOS user of the last 6 years.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#599

Post by hdjjhhvvhga »

kristopolous wrote: post #463
AppleBananaPie wrote: post #461

Earlier quoted context omitted.

probably a hot take but microsoft's product and pm culture is garbage leftover from the microsoft's anti customer era and is most entrenched in windows and other old orgs

They're still acting like a monopoly when that positioning is long gone.

Not in large orgs. They missed the Internet, but they did one smart thing: they put Novell out of business by offering a free alternative. Everybody got hooked up and now it's too late. Practically all large organizations that have desktop users are using AD.

Re: Microsoft plugging more ads into Windows 11 Start Menu

#600

Post by Dagger2 »

mixmastamyk wrote: post #159
sodapopcan wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

XP was the best OS and I miss it. You had to switch it to use the classic 95/97/2000 skin, of course :) I haven't used Windows since.

The shell yes. Lack of a decent terminal would sink it—besides the other reasons it is not suitable any longer... software support and security concerns. Reply edit: Guess you could putty into Linux, but not worth the hassle at that point.

bash in mintty is pretty decent.

mintty can do some things better than many terminals on Linux, even: https://mintty.github.io/mintty-gnuplot.png

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