The EU just keeps winning on the big tech front, it seems. I'm honestly not sure how they keep doing it ; is the motivation to keep away influence from big tech ? Giving a bit of stick now so the carrot is more efficient later ?
De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
201–210 of 347 posts
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#202Pro Hint: due to licensing issues and EU regulations, "Windows Pro Education N" is pretty much the most bloatware free version, as it's also compliant with HIPAA. - No media codecs - No AI recording/transcription features due to missing media codecs - No cortana - No Teams upselling, no Office upselling, no Skype - No self installing games
I installed the N version once, and the lack of media codecs was infuriating. Most programs assume they are always present, so the error messages they give are cryptic and the average user won't guess the problem lies in their Windows having been N(eutered). What's worse, Microsoft website provides several guides that explain how to install the codecs, and they all contradict each other. I think https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/media-feature-pa... is the correct link, but I might be mistaken.
And of course Microsoft bundles a lot of additional programs like Groove Music and Skype with the codecs in a single pack.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#203Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The out of memory behavior is also very bad on Linux, where it will just lock your system. Don't modern distributions come with the OOM killer? On my Arch system I didn't have to do anything to have the one from systemd.
My anecdote is this: I had a Ubuntu 20.04 VM from university with 64 GB memory and my process needed 70 GB and it did lock my system. And the anecdote continues: I ran a 55 GB process on a 16 GB Mac and it finished without a problem and without me having to configure anything.
You’re comparing apples and oranges here.
Independently of the operating system , your 70g process might have an actual working set of 70 g, while the 55g might have had a working set of 1 gig.
Furthermore your Vm was running most likely in a shared environment, your swap partition running on shared not super fast io, etc - you may not even have had 64g of ram ( despite your Vm claiming the contrary ). Your Mac on the contrary, has what is says it has.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#204Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#205Earlier quoted context omitted.
Also, pressing (x) close button doesn’t close the app. It continues hanging somewhere inside of this $1500 machine’s 8GB of RAM. That alone makes me forget all of the Windows’s quirks and appreciate all the basic things my Windows machine offers.
Closing a window has never closed a Mac application. Like, since the first Macs. Applications can have multiple windows so it makes sense from a UX perspective to not terminate an application when a window closes, even if it is the last window. This behavior can easily be overridden by application developers but they choose not to go against expected behavior. Power users press Command + Q to quit an application. I'v…
It makes zero sense from a UX perspective to not terminate (most) processes when the last window closes. Exceptions do exist, but for example if I close all my word processor windows then the process does no good continuing to run. I think you make a fair point that Mac users are used to this behavior and so it should probably remain consistent. But if you were to redesign the OS from the ground up, it's horrible behavior that should in no way be the default.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#206Suppose you are buying a new laptop ... does anyone else feel sad that their operating system has effectively turned into some weird social media marketing tracking data harvesting hybrid of a thing? But in the name of progress and security, you can't stay on Windows 10. So for me it's this weird middle ground right now .. waiting for either Windows to U-turn, die out, or for more work apps to port to OS X.
Win11 Pro user here. It doesn't require too much effort to tame the beast. Until the shit is gone, sure it's not nice - and you still benefit from taking the installer offline mid-way so that you can choose your own username and such, which is a pita. But once sorted, it's a great and very responsive ui. And at least with Windows 11, as opposed to Win 10, I can tell the different windows apart, with a certain level o…
It doesn't matter how much effort it is, though. It's unacceptable that one has to do it at all. I paid for Windows 10, I should get an experience that prioritizes my needs (or at least the needs of users generally). Not one which prioritizes Microsoft corporate profits.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#207Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#208Idk about you, I like the bloatware. Makes me feel in a cozy setting, just like home.
No-one will like the new versions and Microsoft will say to EC: see? You dumb dumb.
Same with Meta's subscription for €9.99.
Same with cookie regulations which gave us cookie banners.
This malicious compliance, don't be mistaken.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#209> Microsoft's post notes that Windows uses the region picked during Windows install to offer the EEA-exclusive options. Only a PC reset can undo the options. Looks like I will be telling Windows that I live in the EEA next time I install.
It's an interesting approach. I might be remembering incorrectly, but last time Microsoft created a "stripped down" version of Windows it was pretty much impossible to actually buy.
Re: De-crufted Windows 11 coming to Europe soon
#210Maybe 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.
I don’t think any sane reading of the constitution makes lobbying protected. It is the current judicial interpretation, but that could certainly change in the future (more so than many other aspects of the constitution IMO).