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My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

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361–370 of 678 posts

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#361

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Photo editing is my last holdout. And a European-compatible banking software. Everything else works well on Linux. Gaming included. I've run Linux many years, in fact. But Capture One and Lightroom are not available over there, which is what draws me back to MacOS. Of course I could just use darktable. Have done that for several years. But at the end of the day, I just prefer Capture One, and that's enough reason for…

What banking software do you mean? For home use? Isn't browser based good enough?

Some european banks are still struggling with the whole internet concept and have win32 apps using emulated dial up for both home and business customers.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some things I found helpful using Windows at work (at home I use Fedora): Debloat / Software Management: https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/winutil Command line software management (Scoop): https://pilabor.com/blog/2021/12/automate-windows-app-setup-... Comparison (Scoop/Chocolatey/Win-Get): https://daftdev.blog/2024/04/01/chocolatey-vs-scoop-vs-winge... I would also recommend starship ( https://starship.rs/…

PS sucks so I've always installed git bash and used it instead since I first discovered it ~12y ago Starship seems quite promising, this is the first time I'm seeing it. But I'm a bit confused on how it works, can you go into a bit more details? Can I use starship+ps to get all Unix and git tools or should I stick with my existing workflow with windows git bash?

Have you tried MSYS2? It even uses pacman for package management!

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And half of software engineers (the other half have Linux laptops). I only use Windows as a game launcher (and I’m still on Windows 10), I don’t understand why anyone would need it anymore except games.

> "I only use Windows as a game launcher (and I’m still on Windows 10), I don’t understand why anyone would need it anymore except games." Thanks to Valve/Steam and Heroic (Epic Store client), and a few other handy tools including Valve's Proton (WINE fork) I haven't even needed Windows for games for ages now. I can live without the small handful of Linux-hostile Windows-only games that still won't run due to draconi…

Pitching in to say that there is some proton stuff to enable the draconian anticheats to work on linux if one is keen on running such a thing.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#364

About a year ago I dumped Windows from my personal PC for good. I ran a Linux desktop at work for a decade, but my Steam collection get me with at least a bit of a tether to Microsoft. But Valve finally made Linux gaming a reality. I hope more people can make the switch someday because I'm quite happy with the system (Pop!_OS is my distro of choice these days).

I am VERY happy running games on a nag-free windows 11 retail install.

- I download games from gog via linux and put them on an NTFS partition

- I boot windows 11 in a proxmox VM with passthrough gpu + usb controller for sound

- I mount NTFS partition in VM, install and run games

- my windows 11 install has no network device

- tbh there was a windows defender nag, but I managed to disable it.

I've been wondering if I can do something similar for steam, but haven't touched my steam login in 5+ years. I think you can use a proxy for steam.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#365
post #88

My friend recently got a new Windows PC. Out of the box, it spent maybe 15-20 minutes updating itself. "We're getting things ready", reboot, create a Microsoft account, 10 data sharing settings to turn off, "almost ready..." Iirc, a MacBook is ready to use without any updates.

I am exclusively a Linux user (mobile and desktop) but I gotta be fair: if updates upon installation are the main complaint... Pretty sure some vendors update phones in the store to avoid bothering the customer with it. Seems like a lot of effort to boot the full inventory's amount of phones every time there's a security patch only so people don't have to download a diff on first launch (edit: found it https://www.ma…

Which Linux phone and on what phone hardware?

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#366
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that we should just "get over" ads, I fucking paid cold hard cash for a Windows license after all. It's either ads with a free license, or no ads with a license bought and paid for. No fucking double dipping. That said, most if not all the nonsense can easily be disabled or removed so I agree with your overall position.

But Microsoft is subsidising cost of the immense infra and development cost by showing you ads in excahnge for a cheaper license.

I'm paying around $200 bucks for a Windows 11 Pro license, you bet your ass I am not expecting ads after paying two motherfucking Franklins.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#367
post #67
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For some consolation: Windows Autoupdates can be disabled and likewise driver installs in general via Group Policy, which is available if you use Pro or above.

Windows updates can be disabled on any edition with my "I wasn't asking" approach of moving C:/Windows/system32/wua*.dll somewhere else. You can put these dlls back when and if you want to install updates.

I find approaches like that ultimately end up borking Windows more often than not.

Disabling autoupdates via Group Policy is supported and won't bork anything.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#368
post #338

Stallman for all his faults at least got this fundamental message right.. these software ain't free. When I was logging into my work the other day, using MS Teams it suddenly dawned on me that my younger self is very disappointed. There I was in the process of logging into work VPN, the teams app is actually scanning my face couple of times... and god knows what else.

I don't know why people even need to write the disclaimer "for all his faults". Who doesn't have faults? At least his fault isn't being a greedy capitalist like most of our "thought leaders". Oddly nobody ever mentions those faults, though.

You raise an interesting question, so I'm resisting the urge to lazily guess.

Everyone could benefit from more grace. Him, myself, all of us.

We do all have faults. They aren't all the same, though. Measured responses are important.

I completely agree with RMS on a lot of things, how I interact with people (and his big area of contention) isn't one

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#369

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My start menu hasnt even worked for over a year on 2 seperate computers now.

What do you mean when you say it doesn't "work"? You click the windows icon and nothing comes up? It displays but nothing is clickable? On 2 different machines? Really? This seems like hyperbole. It sounds like there's a specific feature that doesn't work for you as it used to, but instead of describing the issue you've thrown up your hands and declared it to not work. If it truly does not open or respond to clicks I…

For me it truly does not open or respond to clicks, many times per day. Routinely the start menu opens on the wrong monitor, in a remote corner somewhere. And it does nothing when I click on it or press Enter. It's not a permanent condition, but a frequent one.

Re: My Windows Computer Just Doesn't Feel Like Mine Anymore

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you have a w7 install the calc exe still works on 10/11

I think they mean calculation from the start menu search (on a default installation, it will Bing the calculation and show the search result, which I find absurd since it requires an internet connection to solve x+y). The calculator program still works fine offline, but is often overkill when you just want to quickly solve something I'll note that Microsoft's PowerToys run solves this properly, just like MacOS's Spot…

But spotlight replaces alt+space so you can’t minimise or move a window from the command line :(
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