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De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

arstechnica.com

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Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#181

Post by realusername »

BlarfMcFlarf wrote: post #171
magnio wrote: post #53

Maybe I'm overthinking this, but how on earth did the EU pass a regulation[0] with such far-reaching implications? First Apple opening up to third-party app stores and RCS, now Microsoft giving users a bit more leeway. How come none of the big tech lobby against it in the EU? If it survives the waves of appeals, the DMA will probably change the entire technology landscape in the near future. Not that I'm complaining…

Because while corruption* is still rampant in the EU, it’s not at least directly protected by the constitution like in the USA, so occasionally some legislation that benefits normal folks over megacorporations manages to sneak through. *also known as lobbying with so much money you can buy millions of times as much “free” speech as everyone else.

And additionally, the large tech corporations are not from to EU and they contribute very little to the EU relative to their size with their tax reduction schemes as well.

The tech companies don't have much bargaining power in the EU because of that.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#182

Post by iforgotpassword »

pipes wrote: post #159
TheCapeGreek wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been on linux for the better part of the last 6 years. Legitimately the only times I can recall _not_ being able to do something on Linux were a handful of use cases: - Multiplayer games: Steam Proton largely solves compatibility for a lot of games now, but the included DRM and anti-cheat for some multiplayer games made them unplayable. - Certain specialist tools like Photoshop, some CAD software, etc. Open sour…

I tried multiple times to use Linux as primary desktop. I gave up. Windows hardware support for consumer devices is just better. And games, especially old games. Linux is amazing , but for a everyday machine. I've given up on Linux, I don't have time to configure it. Also every desktop ui Ive used on it isn't quite as polished as windows.

Hardware is hit or miss. Had very good experience with ThinkPads.

I don't get the old games part. This is something where Linux absolutely shines, a lot of old Win9x games run perfectly fine on Wine, but fail on modern Windows for weird reasons. The biggest hurdle is usually DRM and Anti-Cheat, but I guess I'm lucky here because I don't play any competitive multiplayer games but more casual stuff. Also I don't use Nvidia. ;)

I just switched completely about a decade ago. Don't even remember what the final straw was. I guess what "helped" was that at the time I was very busy with life and really only had the most basic demands for my computing needs outside of work, so any shortcomings in areas like gaming didn't matter. Basically needed a browser and a text editor. When things got better two or three years down the line, well, it has already been a while since I used Windows, so any shortcomings were just part of life I guess, but also I just figured more and more stuff out over the years. I guess, and that comes down to personal preference, another thing that greatly helped was that I'm just not focused on convenience and somewhat of a minimalist, so I use i3 as the window manager and no further desktop environment. I don't use any file manager but just the terminal. No gvfs, every USB drive gets mounted and unmounted via terminal. I do use NetworkManager but only via nmcli. I guess having grown up on DOS left some impact. It just means less moving parts, so no stupid surprises after an update like "my KDE/gnome file manager suddenly doesn't show any thumb drive I plug in anymore".

I don't pretend Linux is ready for the average Joe. More and more people seem to think so, but I wouldn't even give it to my mom even though her only use case really is browsing the web and writing a letter about twice a year.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#183

Post by diffeomorphism »

lovepronmostly wrote: post #14
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulators didn't enforce cookie banners. Cookie banners are a form of malicious compliance. When you complain about them, you are doing the lobbying work of ad companies for free. The correct solution is to just not spy on people, and the problem is that the EU didn't go far enough and just ban the behavior altogether.

What is the limit here? If I own a store and you walk into my store am I required to forget that you came into my store? Monday: Bill: "Hey Jane (store owner), do you have any X45 hammers?" Jane: "Sorry Bill, I'm out but might have some tomorrow" Tuesday: Bill "Did hammer come in I mentioned yesterday?" Jane: "What hammer? Sorry I'm not allowed to remember anything about people in my shop because that would be spying…

> what is the limit here.

Common sense and consent. Laws are not theorems or malicious genies.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#184

Post by soraminazuki »

glimshe wrote: post #45
just_boost_it wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I got a mac for the first time this year. Honestly, it feels like taking a shower after getting home from the beach on a sunny day when you've been wearing sunscreen. Everything just works with no extra garbage, no constant intrusive updates, no hassle. The only issue I had was the lack of alt-tab, and that was solved by an app called alt-tab.

I take this refreshing shower at night, when I close my Mac work computer and go use my Windows personal computer. Everything is easy to accomplish, my personal use software just works and I don't have to struggle with extra clicks and movements for everything. It's incredible how different people are - and that's a good thing.

People are free to have their own opinions. But some things aren't matters of options, but hard cold facts.

Windows, especially after Windows 10, has been actively hostile and repeatedly ignores the clear will of its users.

At boot time, it regularly takes the computer hostage in an attempt to coerce me to mass-enable its many spywares. After disabling then one by one, I can login to my desktop only to find that it has changed my default browser again. So I have to change that back, which is kind of futile because various parts of the OS now ignores the default browser settings anyway. After that, I have to dismiss the relentless ads and remove the crapware that keeps getting installed at every turn and corner.

This is a very, very far cry from "everything is easy to accomplish, my personal use software just works and I don't have to struggle with extra clicks and movements for everything." Both things can't be true at the same time. I have to click, click, click, go through all sorts of hoops, and finally give up and throw my computer out the window in frustration to try to achieve what I want in Windows. And what for? Out of pure corporate greed.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#185

Post by eviks »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8
zacksiri wrote: post #7

This is one of the marks of good product managers. Cut the cruft from the product. It's refreshing that in this case regulators are cutting things from the product rather than enforcing things to be added like cookie banners.

Regulators didn't enforce cookie banners. Cookie banners are a form of malicious compliance. When you complain about them, you are doing the lobbying work of ad companies for free. The correct solution is to just not spy on people, and the problem is that the EU didn't go far enough and just ban the behavior altogether.

Regulators are the ones accepting the malicious compliance as compliance! So they did enforce cookie banners. When you ignore that fact, you are doing the pro-gov propaganda for free.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#186

Post by cowl »

dmichulke wrote: post #149
cowl wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

the problem is that many many companies have standardised on windows as desktop. you as an Employee do not really have a choice. At first you still try to use windows at work and linux at home but the little differences in muscle memory become too much so sooner or later you cave and use windows at home too.

> sooner or later you cave and use windows at home too No way in hell. If my employer wants to reduce my productivity (by enforcing Windows), so be it, he'll have to deal with the consequences. But using Windows is from a data-privacy and security standpoint (ironically, the same reason I'm supposed to use Windows at work) an absolute no-go. Just look at how the new outlook handles your email credentials. Absolutely.…

> But using Windows is from a data-privacy and security standpoint (ironically, the same reason I'm supposed to use Windows at work) an absolute no-go.

I agree but the real reason they use Windows is not security, but security theater. 99% of the companies only care about the checklists in their auditing and compliance forms not for the real security. The market of said checklists and compliance forms is cornered by Windows Consultancy groups. The only real OS actor here was RedHat and this is the main reason why they became successful imo.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#187

Post by gloosx »

I remember the first time I used a Windows system last year after tens of years on Linux/OSX, and it was really a somewhat strange experience: the moment I connected the ethernet cable I was instantly looking at random flashy news articles from another part of the world. Not in the browser, not in some kind of "News" app, but right in my taskbar! The most amazing part is that I did not even have to click on it – the system carefully opened it for me to delight me with some low-quality not-even-local news. I was not astonished then to see it resisting the Chrome browser download - something I had seen and laughed at many years before. What also caught my eye so much is the amount of branding around – there are Spotify, TikTok, Amazon Prime, Instagram, and Facebook Messenger icons right in your menu bar before you ever need them or attempt to download and discover these apps for yourself. I mean that is too much. It feels like you don't really own this system but use it in some kind of public library.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#189

Post by dartharva »

aorth wrote: post #106

Fantastic! How do we get access to this "European" version of Windows 11? Asking for Europeans who don't live in Europe, and for non-Europeans everywhere who want less Bing, Edge, and upselling in their OS.

You can still have a debloated Windows 11 setup without the bloat by just selecting "English (World)" in the localisation option during installation. Add to that the "no@thankyou.com" trick while signing in to Microsoft account and you'll have an option of a fresh, clean locally-administered install.

Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon

#190

Post by mrweasel »

zamadatix wrote: post #60
ocdtrekkie wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regulators didn't enforce cookie banners. Cookie banners are a form of malicious compliance. When you complain about them, you are doing the lobbying work of ad companies for free. The correct solution is to just not spy on people, and the problem is that the EU didn't go far enough and just ban the behavior altogether.

The rules are really surprisingly encouraging about notification of cookies to the point it's quite easy to legitimately need to notify and gain consent about something non-spying related requires consent. E.g. if you have a UI customization cookie which sets the results density preference and you want to store that more than a session (i.e. it should still save for a month later) then the official EU analysis of thi…

> E.g. if you have a UI customization cookie which sets the results density preference and you want to store that more than a session

I'm not entirely sure that this is true. You can implement a "shopping cart" on your site, with a session cookie without needing to have a "cookie notification", so depending on circumstance I'd argue that settings might be allowed as well. Or you can just display the cookie information along with the settings it self, it doesn't actually need to be a popup.

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