Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

scottrlarson.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 514 posts

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#141

Post by koyote »

socalgal2 wrote: post #117

I'm sure I will regret this, something will change and I'll be "F.U. Win11!". But, I'm on Windows 11 Pro (upgraded from Windows 10 Pro) and I have barely noticed a difference. Maybe because it's Windows Pro, not Home? Maybe because I have 2 profiles. The one I used to install it which required a microsoft account, and a separate, local only account which is the one I use always. I can't remember the last time I had t…

Some things that any semi-power user will notice and get angry at:

* Needing internet and a microsoft account to install the OS

* Start menu now requiring two clicks to get to programs list

* Right-click requiring two clicks to get to the options you most likely want to use (e.g. 7z unzip or opening in a specific program)

* Task manager being slow and laggy

* Random ads asking you to install a game pop up in the notification area

* ...

And then there's little bugs everywhere that just grind away at you on a daily basis:

* A tab in explorer will sometimes randomly stop accepting clicks (keyboard select works). So I have to close the tab and re-open

* The keyboard layout setting gets corrupted and there's no proper way to reset it (nevermind the fact tha this setting is now burried twenty levels deep in the new settings app)

* The settings app search does not work

* ...

It is by far the worst Windows version (beating Vista and ME to that title) in my opinion. I use linux as my daily but am forced to use Windows at work and they have of course been forced to upgrade us to Windows 11...

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#142

Post by tombert »

amatecha wrote: post #135

Yeah, I just got a msg the other day from someone who's saying "Windows 11 won't work on my computer, what should I do?" .. I'm suggesting they try Linux. All they do is browse the web and play card games. Linux has way the hell more games than Windows comes with, and it doesn't bundle ads with its games either!

It's kind of primitive but AisleRiot is my favorite solitaire application. It's simple, it's lightweight, it's either included with or easy to install into any distro. I play FreeCell on there all the time.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#143

Post by d3Xt3r »

wackget wrote: post #136

This will only work if the customers have a considerable amount of experience with computers already. For the vast majority of people, Linux is going to present insurmountable challenges which will only lead to serious frustration. I say this as someone who uses Linux daily. It's simply not ready for mass exposure. The second a layman wants to do anything remotely custom with it, they are going to struggle.

I think the vast majority of people use a PC for only basic functionality, like browsing the web and editing documents/spreadsheets, and for these users, Linux works fine. My 70yr old mum is a classic example of this - she used all versions of Windows from 3.1 to 7, and she switched to Linux about a decade ago and has zero issues. If my mum can use Linux, so can the average Joe.

It's the power users, or users who've got specific proprietary software/hardware requirements that usually run into issues: gamers who play games with kernel-level anti-cheat, professionals who're dependent on Adobe/AutoCAD etc.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#144

Post by grogenaut »

1over137 wrote: post #42

Where I work, I'd love to move our remaining Windows boxes to linux, but there's often software that only works on Windows. How well does Wine work these days? Can they run CAD software for example?

Just run it in a windows vm for just that use, there's great ways to make this almost seamless in linux. works better than win/etc.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#145

Post by tcoff91 »

d3Xt3r wrote: post #75
pizlonator wrote: post #35

I've been living on an Unbuntu variant (Pop_OS) for over a year now and it's surprisingly good. Note that I had been a Mac-and-some-Windows user as far as desktops go for about 10 years prior to that, and had lots of Linux experience before that - so I'm experiencing a 10 year before-and-after. Things that intrigue me: - For photos, darktable is surprisingly good. I think this was my biggest single surprise, being a…

- For diagrams, draw.io is a decent alternative - Similarly for Photoshop users, Photopea might suit them better than GIMP. And there's also Photoshop Express/Online if they really want to stay in the Adobe ecosystem.

If you just want to draw a simple diagram, Excalidraw is amazing.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#146

Post by tcoff91 »

tombert wrote: post #115
d3Xt3r wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- For diagrams, draw.io is a decent alternative - Similarly for Photoshop users, Photopea might suit them better than GIMP. And there's also Photoshop Express/Online if they really want to stay in the Adobe ecosystem.

Draw.io is my go-to tool on any platform now. I did an entire bachelors and masters using it for all my diagrams. I like OmniGraffle but personally I didn't think it was worth it when draw.io was free anyway. Like I don't feel it was $150-$250 better than draw.io, especially since it's not cross platform.

Have you ever tried Excalidraw? It doesn’t have as many features but with the keyboard shortcuts you can whip up diagrams so fast. It’s just so nice to draw in.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#147

Post by [deleted] »

repiret wrote: post #41

I agree with all of the articles points except for the first one: TPM and Secure Boot do not reduce user choice or promote state or corporate surveillance. If you want to be able to prevent root kits you need secure boot, and if you want to store secrets that don't need a user password to unlock and can't be stolen by taking apart the computer, you need a TPM; or you need substantially similar alternatives. I would s…

[deleted]

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#148

Post by somenameforme »

heavyset_go wrote: post #28
trinsic2 wrote: post #2

I am a IT solutions provider for the public and small business. I think the changes to Windows 11 is gearing up to work with organizations to create a surveillance state. So I have to decided to promote Linux over Windows for computers I build for customers. If you have any suggestions on how I can make this promotion, better let me know.

If you're going to do this, set them up with something they can get commercial support for. IMO, if a user's needs can be met with a Chromebook, Linux + a browser + email + Zoom/or whatever would suit them well. I think you're going to have a hard sell if they rely on Office or other Windows-only software, and although well meaning, it might be doing them a disservice if they can't run the software they're accustomed…

What are the arguments for Office at the small business or individual level, as opposed to Libre Office? For most users, they'll be able to reacclimate in a matter of hours to near 100% competence. And they now are in an ecosystem that won't constantly try to squeeze you for rent.

I think this is even more true in the era of LLMs, because on the rare difference somebody might get hung up on - there's no longer real need for support. LLMs absolutely excel at questions like 'In MS Office I can do [x] to achieve [y]. How do I do that in Libre Office?'

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#149

Post by 3eb7988a1663 »

koyote wrote: post #141
socalgal2 wrote: post #117

I'm sure I will regret this, something will change and I'll be "F.U. Win11!". But, I'm on Windows 11 Pro (upgraded from Windows 10 Pro) and I have barely noticed a difference. Maybe because it's Windows Pro, not Home? Maybe because I have 2 profiles. The one I used to install it which required a microsoft account, and a separate, local only account which is the one I use always. I can't remember the last time I had t…

Some things that any semi-power user will notice and get angry at: * Needing internet and a microsoft account to install the OS * Start menu now requiring two clicks to get to programs list * Right-click requiring two clicks to get to the options you most likely want to use (e.g. 7z unzip or opening in a specific program) * Task manager being slow and laggy * Random ads asking you to install a game pop up in the noti…

  Right-click requiring two clicks to get to the options you most likely want to use (e.g. 7z unzip or opening in a specific program)
This one you can still change. It is some hidden registry tweak, but there is the capacity to always "show more options".

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#150

Post by scythe »

> Alternative for Microsoft Office: LibreOffice,

This would seem to require a little elaboration. LibreOffice Calc is supposed to be decent, but I practically never hear about it being used in the professional contexts where Excel typically appears. I'd be willing to bet that it will handle all of the spreadsheets currently used at our firm, but that's a convenient case where only a small number of spreadsheets matter and I know how they all work. For anyone managing a larger ecosystem the switching cost is daunting. Some links to case studies or analyses of when Calc can take over for Excel would probably be pretty helpful, since as far as I can tell Excel is the reason people stick to Microsoft, while Outlook, Teams and Word are mostly just tolerated.

Post reply on HN