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Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

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Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#101

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

falcolas wrote: post #92
makecheck wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes “but” how do expect open alternatives to become better? Contribute to a project (with a very low bar for “contribute”, anything from “file a bug” to “fix the documentation” to “make artwork”). Yes, some big companies also push Linux forward but individuals who want good alternatives can do something to make those alternatives happen.

An open source project for external customers (i.e. us) operated by a bunch of unpaid volunteers will never really be able to compete with an application with paid developers, invested users, and the supporting departments. I'm not saying that open source projects can't get better, that they can't be good, but they will never be as good. For a corollary: https://twitter.com/patio11/status/936629310785437696

>I'm not saying that open source projects can't get better, that they can't be good, but they will never be as good.

Hah, this is rich. Many open source products are far better than their proprietary alternatives, especially developer oriented products (which is natural considering that developers tend to use open source and tend to improve their own tools).

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#103

Post by Sir_Cmpwn »

monochromatic wrote: post #51
wizbright wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if a game performs better on PC, whose to say it isn't optimized? Some of Vavle's own games have performed better via the Linux build compared to Windows or Mac. It's also super sketchy to not be able to see what's fully happening in one's system.

How do you feel about the closed BIOS and Management Engine that underlie everything?

Frustrated, and I rally against it too. My laptops run coreboot. But the difference between your closed BIOS and your closed OS is that most people actually can choose their OS, whereas fixing the BIOS problem is a much more difficult obstacle.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#104

Post by mykull »

giggles_giggles wrote: post #40
bsilvereagle wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> especially for professional users and gamers. Those whose applications are only available for Windows. I have gotten around this with a virtualized Windows installation for CAD applications. The Windows VM goes online for software activation only. With VFIO, a dedicated graphics card, and an nVME SSD I don't feel any performance degradation. The graphics card and nVME drive are passed directly to the VM. Some simpl…

What hypervisor are you using to do this?

I do the same thing for a "virtual gaming pc" on proxmox with qemu/kvm. it was a pain to get working right with my specific hardware and with proxmox as a base, but is pretty nice now that it works. Many people use Arch linux or redhat distros to do this also, but pretty much any major distro should be capable. AFAIK it works on VMware ESXi too.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#105

Post by thomastjeffery »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #28
m_fayer wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. To me it's another nail in the coffin of general purpose computing. We've accepted that mobile devices/OSs are not for general purpose computing and expect that they come with a "lifestyle" to hawk, now o…

Using their products, you can so easily taste how Microsoft is trying to become an "ecosystem", a "lifestyle brand", a "platform", and so on, and to use their OS as the relentless foot in the door for getting there. I think the irony of that statement is from Windows 3.1 and on Windows (25-ish years) was already THE defacto PC platform. I was a pretty big MS fanboy for a long time (and make my living with .NET and th…

Indented text in HN is monospace and respects newlines (no word wrapping). This makes it unreadable on mobile unless the lines are very short.

The generally preferred way to quote on HN is to begin the line with a > and wrap the quote with * if desired.

It's an issue that comes up too often that HN needs to fix, but here we are.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#106

Post by badsectoracula »

Sir_Cmpwn wrote: post #31
Sohcahtoa82 wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd switch to Linux in the blink of an eye if I didn't have to worry about my games working. WINE is great and all, but it's still not 100% compatible.

Do you also own a PS3, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox 360, Wii, and a Nintendo Switch? Do you miss the exclusives on them? You'll survive without the handful of games you have to leave behind.

FWIW there are some games on those systems i'd love to play (Last of Us being an example), but at least i know that they'll eventually be emulated so even if it takes 10, 15 or whatever years i'll play them at some point.

But the two major differences between what you are talking about and what others are talking about are that a) we have the hardware, it is totally a software issue and b) we are mainly talking for software we already have paid for, not software we may or may not buy in the future.

But hopefully as Linux becomes more popular with gaming (and Microsoft is distracted with UWP and the like), Wine will also see improvements that make gaming better. Already since Valve shown up and rattled things, Wine's gaming compatibility seems to have improved a lot compared to previous years.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#107

Post by 15charlimit »

nkrisc wrote: post #102

I've considered upgrading to Windows 10 from time to time but then I read something like this. Is there a way to completely/permanently neuter the Windows App store and functions like the one mentioned here?

I believe the LTSB Enterprise edition physically does not contain the "windows app store", cortana, and all the other garbage that gets in the way of a normally functioning computer.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#108

Post by Chardok »

nkrisc wrote: post #102

I've considered upgrading to Windows 10 from time to time but then I read something like this. Is there a way to completely/permanently neuter the Windows App store and functions like the one mentioned here?

Unfortunately any workaround we find has been "broken" with the subsequent Windows update, meaning Microsoft is actively working against any fixes for it.

I would love to be proven wrong, but the only way I know for sure is upgrading to the Enterprise or education editions.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#109

Post by falcolas »

TomMarius wrote: post #72
Sir_Substance wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>It's never that simple, especially for professional users and gamers. Those whose applications are only available for Windows. I'm both, and you're definitely wrong. 155 of my 343 steam games have direct native ports. I've just stopped playing stellaris and started playing KSP. I've been a linux gamer for the last three years and it's been a better experience, not worse. I dominate on ballistic overkill because the…

What about AutoCAD, Inventor, Photoshop, AfterEffects, Lightroom, ...?

Maya, Sketchbook, Fusion, Visual Studio, DirectX, Microsoft Office, Acrobat, ...

Here's one really simple example for you of why this Windows software matters to a very large community of professionals: most accounting work is both taught and done in Excel.

Re: Hey Microsoft, Stop Installing Apps on My PC Without Asking

#110

Post by yorby »

keithnz wrote: post #88

It's a tricky problem. I think tech people are fringe. For me, I would want to disable it all. But if people can turn it off then it doesn't let microsoft improve and adapt. In concept, I kind of like the idea the OS could anticipate the things I need. It's how we imagine futuristic computer systems. It's a bit different from the traditional OS where you are the master over everything. I'm not sure many on HN are goi…

you know they will want to get all your data before they "anticipate".... no thanks ... if only they would analyze locally (instead of mining cryptocurrencies /s).
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