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With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

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Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#231

Post by mark_l_watson »

mitm2mitm wrote: post #111
mark_l_watson wrote: post #98

I think that Microsoft could fix this fairly easily: make an easy opt out for Cortana and telemetry, offer more control over security options. I totally sympathize with Microsoft for wanting everyone to be on Windows 10, with continuous updates (security and otherwise). Better for them and long term probably better for users. I don't use OS X anymore but when I did, I liked always being at the latest update. Except f…

I wouldn't mind paying twice the price of Windows 10 Pro if I could select what I want installed and the OS respected that. No telemetry, no Cortana, no Windows Stores apps if I need to have a MS account. No missclick-based features (you click yes and suddenly your local account is now an online account). Since I'm stuck with this crap forever (Adobe, Office, games, etc) at least let me pay you not spy on me and inst…

I bought a really cheap Windows machine a year ago, curious about Windows 10 (I have Linux on it now). I bought it directly from Microsoft's store, and as a 'signature edition', it had no 3rd party crapware installed.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#232

Post by dredmorbius »

graycat wrote: post #90

Gb abbreviates gigabit or gigabyte? What does GB abbreviate? ===================== In update: PLEASE stop down voting me for my simple, nice, courteous reminder to the person who wrote the post I replied to. I was NOT, NOT, NOT, NOT ignorant of the meanings of Gb versus GB and was NOT, NOT, NOT, NOT asking for a tutorial on the difference. I am not an ignorant newby on HN knowing too little to be posting here. Just w…

From HN guidelines:

Please resist commenting about being downvoted. It never does any good, and it makes boring reading.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Even if they are unmerited.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#233

Post by maglavaitss »

jakebasile wrote: post #230
maglavaitss wrote: post #146

I guess people shouldn't be speaking while debating if is the year of the Linux desktop or not. The choices in life are usually (and i emphasize usually) simple, and this case is no exception. You either discard your privacy and maybe your security and go Windows, or you discard your usability (for some) and go Linux. Or go Mac, FreeBSD, hell, even BeOS or Hurd or whatever floats your boat. But seeing people still bi…

Gaming is my passion, my hobby, and by far my largest expense save mandatory things such as my mortgage. I don't understand why this means that I cannot say that Windows 10 is upsetting to me unless I give up a huge part of my identity. It is an unfortunate situation from which there is little recourse for people like me.

I'm not saying people shouldn't play games, hell, I'm a gamer myself. But we have to compromise in life, and when I fire up my Windows VM, I understand all the implications that come out of it: I might get malware, I might get my personal information sent to various sites, my OS might be upgraded to NewWinOs or downgraded to OldCrappyOs automatically and so on.

And this is freaking unfortunate for everybody involved, except the big companies like Microsoft, Google, FB, Apple, etc.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#234

Post by nightski »

bisby wrote: post #222
GFischer wrote: post #216

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My freaking cat installed Windows 10 on my laptop - he pressed enter on one of those dialogs with his paw and Windows started updating. I was more or less resigned to do so anyways, so he didn't do anything I wasn't going to do eventually, he just hastened it. I wonder if EULA's accepted by a cat have any validity though :) PD: I googled that and Slashdot has a story on a hardware to have cats accept EULAs :) https:/…

That seems to imply that you pick up your cat and have him press the button so you can say "it wasnt me!"... whereas in your case, you did not coerce the cat to press the button for you, so was it truly your instrument, or random occurence.

I feel like you would be responsible for any key presses on your laptop, regardless if made by the cat or not. Maybe someone can give an expert opinion.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#236

Post by dredmorbius »

hendersoon wrote: post #197
blakeyrat wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What good would that do? Everybody thinks they're a pro. They'd just turn it on the instant they heard of it.

This really is not true. The vast majority of people have zero illusions about their own basic computing skills.

They don't need illusions about their basic computing skills. They need a drive-by installer, malware, or "tips'n'tricks" guide that gets them to do this.

People don't need to understand tools and systems to use them. Hell, they'll use things for millennia without knowing how they work (quite literally).

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#237

Post by nitrogen »

Osiris wrote: post #226
tracker1 wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On the flip side, I run Ubuntu on my htpc, and have for several years now... there have been a couple times where the updates broke audio, and the fix took on average 2 days, though I can imagine some people having worse experiences... Getting an MCE remote (arguably the most common PC remote type) working with Kodi (formerly xbmc and very popular full screen media player) took some cumbersome steps. On average one a…

I was running Ubuntu 14.04 on a small PC with XBMC and proprietary Nvidia drivers. The standard `apt-get update` would never rebuild the nvidia drivers so inevitably on reboot, X couldn't start and I had to figure out why, then rebuild the nvidia drivers manually, and try again. I'm much more scared of Ubuntu aptitude updates than I am of Microsoft updates.

Fixing a broken apt update is easier than fixing a broken Windows update, though.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#238

Post by dredmorbius »

jakebasile wrote: post #17

I upgraded willingly so the deceptive upgrade practices, while deplorable, didn't really affect me. What does affect me is that Microsoft refuses to let me control my computer. - If you turn off Windows Defender Real Time Protection it explicitly tells you "You can turn this off, but if it's off for a while we'll turn it back on". It turns itself on upon next reboot, it seems. - You can't turn off Windows Update. It…

With a few word substitutions I could use this to describe my experience on Android.

Background: highly experience Linux user. On a budget, and move, needed something for basic connectivity. Wanted a larger tablet.

9-10" Nexus devices nowhere to be found in brick-and-mortar stores (and hard to come by online as well). Almost always crippled by pathetically small storage.

My Samsung Tab A isn't rootable, flashable, had an absolutely useless userland installed (Termux has helped some with that), and now insists that the tools I've used to try enforcing my will are malware, and won't stop nagging me over this.

The default featureset is so pathetically poor that I could neither figure out where disk space was being used, or address moving things elsewhere, necessary for an OS upgrade. Which now fails on account of rooting attempts.

I'm pretty fucking pissed at Google, Android, and Samsung at this point.

And that's before getting to hardware issues.

Offering computers to the public at large is apparently an intractable problem.

(There's another set of gripes I could write about OS X. And I just commented on Debian's fucking up 20 year old mouse drivers.)

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#239

Post by dredmorbius »

native wrote: post #25

Not shocking. I'm writing this out of my Ubuntu partition and I'm running Windows 10, forced down my throat to begin with, and it just does what it wants when it wants to. I've had times when I've gone for a break and my laptop has rebooted and installing some updates I wasn't even aware of. And I'm running Windows out of sheer necessity for the time being because I need Illustrator, Photoshop, etc.. But Microsoft ha…

VM with CoW and no commits.

Reboot to your known good session, always.

Re: With Windows 10, Microsoft Disregards User Choice and Privacy

#240

Post by CamperBob2 »

daveguy wrote: post #95
ghostly_s wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everything you've listed is addressable by enterprise users in an AD environment. I.E., Microsoft's real customers. Using a copy of Windows 10 with no Cortana, Auto-updates, Groove, or Windows Defender right now.

Yes. If you want that control, all you have to do is buy a subscription [0]. $7 per month isn't that much to be able to control your own computer is it? That's only $84 per year or $252 every 3 years -- it's practically a discount for buying an upgrade every 3 years! [0] http://www.computerworld.com/article/2867542/microsoft-touts...

(Shrug) They'll just change the deal as soon as I sign up, like they always do.
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