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Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

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Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#271

Post by Rohansi »

danpalmer wrote: post #94
Rohansi wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Where? I don't see any other than the nagging to update settings after larger updates (couple times a year).

The installer has 3 free trials in it (photos sync, xbox, office 365), and then re-runs that part of the installer periodically. The start menu shows sponsored articles in it IIRC, although this was something I turned off as soon as I could. It also pushes apps like Candy Crush. The lock screen has ads literally "dotted" around, again pushing cloud services etc. I keep being prompted to turn on Copilot, and essential…

> The installer has 3 free trials in it (photos sync, xbox, office 365), and then re-runs that part of the installer periodically.

This is all I see and everything I disabled/uninstalled was done from the Windows settings UI (Windows 11 Pro).

> Even just looking through Settings it's not hard to find upsells.

I guess I see this too? Just a little box saying to get Microsoft 365 or install OneDrive on the home page of the settings UI. There's basically nothing of value there though so it's easily missed.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#272

Post by Rohansi »

skeeter2020 wrote: post #232
danpalmer wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The installer has 3 free trials in it (photos sync, xbox, office 365), and then re-runs that part of the installer periodically. The start menu shows sponsored articles in it IIRC, although this was something I turned off as soon as I could. It also pushes apps like Candy Crush. The lock screen has ads literally "dotted" around, again pushing cloud services etc. I keep being prompted to turn on Copilot, and essential…

and despite the fact you can install AND uninstall numerous web browsers, for some reason Edge is (supposedly) built into the OS and core functionality and it can't be removed - and is the default app for countless file types.

It actually is built in as WebView2. It's like that so apps can use web views without shipping their own browser (Electron) and then it is kept up to date with the system.

Internet Explorer (MSHTML) also still lives on in Windows 11 because older software depends on it to embed browsers in their UI. It'll probably stay there for a long time to preserve backwards compatibility.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#273

Post by pabs3 »

pbmonster wrote: post #157
coffeebeqn wrote: post #2

Linux is better in every conceivable way

I can conceive a couple of ways. GrapheneOS-style sand-boxing for every app is long overdue in Linux. I'd love to have it's granular permissions for every single service. I'd love to have the battery management, the unified settings UI, the effortless disk encryption UX and key management. Could you build it with SE Linux and a lot of glue? Yes, but nobody has. And doing it well, everywhere, would take a lot of hours…

Take a look at QubesOS.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#274

Post by _carbyau_ »

wkat4242 wrote: post #240
_carbyau_ wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't have to. Which is good! But in practical terms there is a lot of trusting of someone/their-code going on. Unless you are reading/understanding it all . I trust linux more than windows. But I've never read a line of it...

The thing is, there's always someone who does read it or inspect changes. It will surface soon enough if untoward things are happening.

And that is what is being trusted.

Not "the code is readable therefore trustable".

More "the code is readable, therefore I trust multiple someones, somewhere will read it or has read it and if they have a concern they will voice it".

Is it the greatest thing to trust? No, but like a lot of things in life, it's the best of the practical options.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#276

Post by Max_Limelihood »

pxc wrote: post #234
surajrmal wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I prefer to call it systems/Linux these days. The amount of gnu bits in a desktop Linux distro is ever shrinking.

> The amount of gnu bits in a desktop Linux distro is ever shrinking. What GNU software is actually being removed from any distro?

Ubuntu replaced their core userland utils with uutils, so the bulk of it. I’m guessing most other distros will follow suit.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#277

Post by Max_Limelihood »

yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #13
bryanlarsen wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Systemd is Gnu licensed.

That is not how anyone uses that term. For starters, Linux is also GPL licensed, so if it was like that then we wouldn't bother calling it GNU/Linux, we could just call it GNU. More to the point though, being GPL-licensed doesn't make something part of the GNU project.

GNU/GNU

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#278

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

Max_Limelihood wrote: post #277
yjftsjthsd-h wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is not how anyone uses that term. For starters, Linux is also GPL licensed, so if it was like that then we wouldn't bother calling it GNU/Linux, we could just call it GNU. More to the point though, being GPL-licensed doesn't make something part of the GNU project.

GNU/GNU

I've actually used GNU/GNU to refer to HURD:)

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#279

Post by jfoster »

tomrod wrote: post #193
jfoster wrote: post #177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The market for operating systems naturally falls into oligopolies. It's usually not financially feasible for third-party applications to support more than a few of them. Users tend to have strong preferences toward operating systems that have lots of applications built for them.

Standards fill this gap, allowing for interoperation. When was the last time you had to write custom logic for your browser to access 99% of the domains you access?

Yes, the web is fairly good these days. That's only adjacent to the topic under discussion though, isn't it?

In terms of downloadable apps & games, there hasn't historically been anything that solved the operating system level oligopoly issue.

Re: Google's new 'Aluminium OS' project brings Android to PC

#280

Post by pjmlp »

powerclue wrote: post #264
pjmlp wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nope, they are still on the same spot, Proton isn't Linux gaming, is making Windows ecosystem available on Linux, because Valve has failed to provide enough value for game studios to target SteamOS natively. Blender was a commercial product that became FOSS, with an existing customer base.

People using Linux as their desktop OS are using desktop Linux. What binaries they run on that OS doesn't change what OS they are running. You've developed a "No true Scotsman" definition for desktop Linux that seems far from the common understanding that "if you use Linux as your OS on your desktop, you are a desktop Linux user". If you feel your definition of purity tested "only Linux binaries or it doesn't count a…

It is called GNU/Linux for a reason.
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