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Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

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431–440 of 517 posts

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#431
post #351

I installed Windows 10 (not even 11!) recently on a random laptop and was appalled by the amount of BS in the initial setup process. Forced me to make a Microsoft online account seemingly with remote access to my PC, tried to sign me up for several different free trials, then tried multiple times to push me to Edge instead of Chrome. The UI has new crap like the Bing search on the taskbar and in the center of the des…

The irony here is that the line used to be "Linux is only free if your time has no value", but with all the junk you need to remove from Windows to make it usable, we could say "Windows is only $140 if your time has no value". (MacOS is no saint either, I vivdly remember the frustration of having to run random system commands taken off the internet to try in vain to get "smart sleep" to work. If I'm going to have to…

I have an old 2010 Mac Mini that I wanted to sell on, figured I would install it back to the base OS (was a Linux box for a very long time) and then see what I could get on Ebay.

The horrors or trying to get that thing reset without an Apple account! I gave up after a few hours and it is just sitting as back up in case I blow away an install and need a machine to get a disc image from.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#432
post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Mojang The real danger. (almost unironically though) I can switch OS, Office is almost obsolete with google + free stuff, their browser/software is terrible and never used, Github(yikes, well, git works..), LinkedIn(and nothing of value was lost). So we really are at the whim of M$ when it comes to Github and Minecraft. Scary. But hey, I used to be obsessed with Nintendo games, and now people have Zelda clones so I…

Could you name some Zelda clones?

Not a clone, but Zelda Classic is a custom game engine with about a thousand fan games created in it.

https://hoten.cc/blog/porting-zelda-classic-to-the-web/

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#433
post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a laptop in from a user the other day, that shocked the hell out of me, that floating search bar thing. MS is downright creepy the way they slip things in.

With remote work it always fascinates me to see how many people leave the weather (& news) bar displayed next to the tray on the taskbar, this is something that came with a Windows 10 update. People really don't change defaults... I was wondering if I could make a fake one, just add an appropriate icon and change its label to say something like 6000°C Nuclear Holocaust

"People really don't change defaults..."

Because they are scared of breaking things.

Also, most people actually do change defaults: style and theme.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#434

This is just bananas to me that a browser would perform "super resolution" at all, much less by default . Couldn't this wreak havoc on doing things like viewing medical images, inserting false detail that isn't there? As well as on text in images, e.g. inventing a cleanly readable but hallucinated license plate number on a car, or financial figure, where the original is blurry? Not only does this seem like a terribly…

This reminds me of that one talk at a german hacker conference (CCC) about xerox printers inserting false numbers into scans

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#435
post #416
post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I saw that pop up on one of my parent's computers. The hardware is old enough that it didn't want to install Windows 11, but Microsoft still managed to push that shit. Within an hour I wiped the drive of Windows.

You have multiple parents or they have multiple computers? What did you replace Windows with?

"What did you replace Windows with?"

Haiku probably ... s/

The only real alternative option with most hardware is linux. And when the use case is browsing the internet and you are there to help them unstuck a broken update, things should be fine.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#436
post #5

That's nothing. This is on by default: "Allow Microsoft to save your browsing activity including history, usage, favorites, web content, and other browsing data to personalize Microsoft Edge and Microsoft services like ads, search, shopping and news."

I think Microsoft is trying to wear us down with stupid shit.

Absolutely, it is the reason I am not too positive about the future of computing. Back in the early 2000's it was considered a major privacy issue when Windows XP used to identify what kind of machine you were using for a Security update. It took less than 20 years for that to turn into the dumpster fire we have today.

It is a case of our economic system is pitched in such a way as to drive these large companies to this path. In optimizing for shareholder profit, eventually they will go the path of least ethical solution provided they can get away with it. Those that do not do that will be left behind . An absolute shame really.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I use Microsoft products for business (though I'm trying to phase them out). I don't care that much about their competitive practices (from a business perspective) and there's even the upside of a pretty uniform productivity software/ file format ecosystem that makes communication easier. Committing corporate espionage, which is what their software does now, on the other hand, makes me not want to use them at all. I…

You also cultured them into not respecting you: Since you didn’t expect respect or decency before, their management culture doesn’t value that, and accordingly doesn’t treat you with it now. After all, if you tolerated poor treatment before, why wouldn’t you now?

Where did he tolerated poor treatment before?

Microsoft was always bad to competition, but not really to customers. (backward compatibility till eternity)

That changed a lot. Tracking and ads build into the OS? No thank you.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#438

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think Microsoft is trying to wear us down with stupid shit.

It is exhausting. But Linux isn't a completely viable alternative. I still want to play games and do other things.

The games situation is pretty good nowadays, it is amazing just how well Proton can work. But if that one title you want is completely broken, I couldn't sell you Linux at all.

I have found it isn't usually the games that are the issue but the utilities. They are almost always alternatives but a lot of the time, you don't want the alternative - you want that specific program. Wine compatibility can be good but it can also be very strange. Notepad++ for instance, it works... but hits my systems CPU harder than GTA V. Go figure!

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#439

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also, Microsoft nowadays is very much in the business of mass surveillance. This "feature" prepares the ground for a future with client-side scanning and upload filters running all your "local" data and "private" communications through [PhotoDNA]( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PhotoDNA ) and other spyware.

* GETS UP FROM CHAIR * Alright back to DOS it is...

I wouldn't actually mind going back to DOS, like FreeDOS. Or even Windows 2000, with some updates for SSE, AVX, and other instructions. Operating systems have been getting in the way of the software that runs on top of them for over twenty years now and it's annoyingly become the norm.

Re: Edge sends images you view online to Microsoft

#440

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ballmer was as bad as Gates (and seemed completely unhinged at times to boot), Nadella only looks good next to Ballmer but has done plenty of stuff that should have never ever happened. All of them were present at MS when they pulled their 'millions of lines of code' bullshit in an attempt to kill Linux and harm FOSS.

As a long-time Linux user, the Nadella era looks far better. Back in the earlier eras, MS was my clear and present enemy: they did a lot of stuff to me, personally, to make my life hard because I didn't want to use their software, and tried to force me to be their customer with various tactics. These days, that's all gone. I don't feel any pressure to use Windows, and I don't see MS doing various legal shenanigans to…

That's a good point. Almost everything you need to do works on Linux now.
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