Soon available: lots of nice used hardware to run Linux on cheaply.
I'm definitely considering switching to Linux. The only things holding me back are Office and some online games with anti-cheat.
Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
141–150 of 156 posts
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#142Earlier quoted context omitted.
The dichotomy is with their backwards compatibility. They could gut the windows apis and replace them with more secure models, but that might upset legacy corporate customers so instead they let ordinary people get hacked or lose their family photos and spend money on repairs.
Did Windows S Mode or Windows RT fail because of legacy corporate customers?
Who said they failed?
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#143Earlier quoted context omitted.
"Services open to the Internet" is more of a 2000s problem than a modern problem. Operating systems default to being a lot less trusting of local networks today, and nearly every place you'd connect to WiFi already has a router with a "drop all unsolicited packets" policy. MITM is the big risk here, and the best way to address it is by using secure protocols (HTTPS, SSH, etc.) everywhere. Mandatory code signing for w…
Are we philosophising? > "Services open to the Internet" is more of a 2000s problem than a modern problem. Then why does Windows need a firewall that's on by default, if it has no open services? > Mandatory code signing for web sites would go a long way to addressing some of the most common types of exploits we see today All the spam I'm filtering today has their DKIM and domain whatever and and and ... in order. I'm…
Yes, the software firewall is one of the defense mechanisms of modern versions of Windows. I don't know what point you're driving at. "Regular users" don't care about any of these power-user arguments. The question is, do Secure Boot and other end-to-end trust mechanisms allow the software and hardware vendors to better ensure that people who don't know what they're doing are protected? This is the model that has been adopted or is being adopted in nearly every other consumer-facing Internet-connected device already.
The question of what's good for people who do know what they're doing is an important one but it is a bit beside the point. These security measures have a purpose and it's not just to take control away from the end user. There are some other paths that could be taken, of course, but many of them seem to be starting from the point of willful naivete about the reality of computer security today.
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#144Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Users still have to do command line stuff Not really, unless they're doing something special. But if they're doing something special, they're not average users.
> unless they're doing something special In my experience with Linux desktop, this could be "have the touchpad work the same as it did on Windows", "plug in an extra monitor and have it behave somewhat normally", or "play this game". But yeah, I guess that as long as we only expect "average users" to only use a web browser to look at Youtube, it's fine.
Everytime I tried touchpad on windows laptops I disered it worked as well as in Linux.
I know things have improved a bit after 10, but I used to say that it is easy to see who is using windows because they always brought their mice with their laptops.
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#145I don’t understand why Microsoft is planning to die on the TPM 2.0 hill. If they actually go through with trying to charge customers $30 for extended support it will be a PR blunder and many won’t pay leaving systems vulnerable anyway. It’s not like they need more revenue.
> It’s not like they need more revenue. You do understand how publicly traded companies work, right? The numbers must go up at all cost. As for what their end game with TPM is we can only speculate - but they have been trying to push "trusted" computing for a long time now, with themselves in control of the master keys of course.
I think the end goal is to close everything like it is with android.
To introduce WEI, to remove possibility of running Linux, or open os. Everything needs to be signed so you could easily be controlled and tracked.
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#146Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can't run Ableton or Lightroom on Linux, and Macs are almost 3x the cost of a similar spec'ed windows laptop. The apps are quite specific to me, but I imagine there are similar killer apps for other windows users.
>3x the cost of a similar spec'ed windows laptop Man, I'm not so sure about that. The M-series Macbooks are just crazy good for speed and battery life. The basic bottom-tier Macbook is $1000 and will do for a vast majority of people. A $330 Windows laptop is going to be a phenomenal heap of junk. People were running Ableton on 16GB M1 Macbooks a couple of years ago.
A $400 Windows laptop from Costco with a $50 memory upgrade is a pretty decent machine. Source: I'm using one right now.
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did Windows S Mode or Windows RT fail because of legacy corporate customers?
Who said they failed?
Even if we ignore the fact that Windows RT is long cancelled, has anyone ever seen either in the wild on any machine?
Ultimately my point is I don't think the following is true. What you describe basically exists, and no one wanted it. For Windows RT I remember it basically being, "wait a minute, this thing can't run my normal apps".
> but that might upset legacy corporate customers so instead they let ordinary people get hacked or lose their family photos and spend money on repairs
I doubt Microsoft could manage to market an umbrella in a rain storm, so I imagine that's why S mode is basically stillborn. These days people use a lot fewer native apps (and now it is possible to package many of them into the Store), and S mode can be converted to full. I imagine if it started in S mode by default most people would never notice
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is the real reason. Put your data in the MS format roach motel, and it's a challenge to ever get it out with full fidelity. The mid-oughts battle over this in the international standardizations space is pretty fraught: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standardization_of_Office_Open... And even now, even though there is a "standard" and schemas for, MS's apps mostly ignore them, or use undocumented extensions (as fa…
"get it out with full fidelity" Primarily because there isn't a fully-functional equivalent.
It's almost like it was intentionally designed that way...
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#149Why single out microsoft? Apple has been doing this for decades. My macbook airs 2013 run Linux just fine.
Re: Microsoft's big lie: Your computer is fine, and you don't need to buy a new one
#150Earlier quoted context omitted.
[flagged]
What year did you get your snide remarks from? 1999?
No, about five years ago when I owned a “Linux laptop” XPS that gave me countless problems.
Buggy touchpad, buggy video acceleration, buggy hibernate, buggy CPU driver causing constant throttling or burning hot temperatures.