241–250 of 514 posts
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.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Make sure libreoffice is included, and ublock origin. Show them how much faster it is, with fewer ads, and no subscription to Microsoft required just to write a document. The business customers might want to know that databases are a lot cheaper on Linux, especially for small business. Literally spoke to an automation company the other week that told me "we have to delete a bunch of stuff every time the database gets…
I can't imagine trying to replace MS word with libreoffice for businesses. I respect the project and the complexity of the task, but it's just not there for even light professional use. As an example, I recently submitted a manuscript following standard format [0] with libreoffice. Nothing difficult, just basic professional functionality. The only way to do it involved editing global default page styles (because cust…
Exactly.
Just work in the finance or insurance industry for a year, and you will see how it is part of the daily workflow to use very obscure, advanced Excel feature combined with VBA. If a proposed Microsoft Office alternative cannot handle this, it's not suitable.
I personally observe that a lot of nerds who barely use Excel in their daily workflow patronising that ... (in particular LibreOffice) is an alternative to Microsoft Office. Better first learn how the actual powerusers' workflows (in particular for Excel in the finance and insurance industry) actually look like.
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 adding shapes/colours/annotations etc to photos, I found krita to be more accessible than gimp. E.g. I wanted to do changes to my contractor's realistic concept drawings and I could learn krita (guided by Claude Sonnet) and make the changes in a span of couple of hours.
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I honestly have only come across one company that is app only. That was because I was with them when they changed over, otherwise I would never have signed up. This was my local gym which sacked their front desk staff and moved to app access only, and with an app infested with trackers at that. Needless to say I don't go to that gym anymore.
Want another exemple as fresh as yesterday? I'm on a move, had to pay some transport company to move some stuff for me, pick-up date tomorrow. Paid online, website asked for a confirmation from my bank's app (N26), fair enough. Opened the app, just to be greated with "Please Update. The latest app version includes new features, enhancements and stability improvements" with the only choice: "Update now". Being confron…
There is absolutely no reason to release a new major version of your OS every year, and there is no reason to arbitrarily drop support for older devices (except extremely contrived ones, that I'm sure will be posted below). I made the mistake of acquiring an Ipad once. Its only job was playing YouTube videos in bed (yes I know), until Apple and Google in unison decided that it should be thrown into a landfill, because its OS was unsupported and the YouTube app, for no reason at all, would no longer work. Was the device suddenly unable to decode H.264 video or playing audio? Nope. But please just throw it in the trash and buy a new one - what are you, poor?!
Install Fedora with KDE.
Install Firefox, Thunderbird and Chrome.
Install uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger.
Install LibreOffice & bookmark Google Docs.
Install multimedia support, h264/h265, VLC/mpv/ffmpeg, enable DRM in browser.
Install Steam if applicable.
If they have a printer, connect it and show them how to print a page.
Configure & tweak KDE to be cleaner & more user friendly (its already near perfect out of the box). Show them how to manage wifi/lan connections.
Stick with Intel & AMD hardware, Nvidia drivers breaks on most kernel updates (and it messes with luks/secureboot/dracut). Intel & AMD, Just Works.
Educate the user on how to do Software Updates, install/remove software, how the file explorer works, maybe some terminal stuff if they seem inclined. Give them a high level overview of the benefits of linux.
With Fedora and KDE you can accomplish 95% of your computering needs, including software development. Only a handful of games & creative softwares don't work.
It will only take 6 months to have them permanently converted.
I think describing TPM and Secure Boot as "artificial limitations" is unfair. Many Linux distros have no problem working with both of these and they serve a valuable purpose. The problem is not that they exist or that Windows 11 supports them. It's that Microsoft pretends they are required , when they are not.
I don't use Windows and actually find it kind of insane when I use someone else's computer to see what Windows is like... But it's kind of MSFT's choice whether TPM and secure boot are requirements for their software. If their software makes security assumptions that the OS has access to trusted hardware then it's a requirement. One could argue that they should create secure and less secure versions of Windows, but I…
In an IT security context, "trusted" (example: "trusted computing") means distrusting the users.
I should mention that ubuntu phones home a lot. I like the fact that it has done a lot for the linux ecosystem, but there are a few things: - it has a privacy policy - it forces updates - their hardwired package ubuntu-advantage-tools cannot be uninstalled without breaking the os - motd has telemetry and nags - can't disable snaps - whoopsie uploads crashes to canonical now, this is different from windows because the…
-unable to execute a clean chip-architecture transition (while Apple shipped three clean ones)
-unable to modernize its operating system consistently (5 layers of different UI/UX and 30 years old DLLs spread all over the place)
-unable to harden its own software
-unable to design its own hardware
-unable to keep users's data secure
I could continue, but the pattern is clear
I will never store personal or government issued documents on a Windows device and I will never use any form of digital ID to login on infrastructure that depends on Azure AD
TPM, Secure Boot, Windows Update stories are the evidence that the more you entrust Microsoft, the worse it gets
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.
Create a 'showroom', virtual through network screen sharing or physical if possible. Demo machines where you can let customers get a bit of immediate experience with GNOME, Xfce and possibly something more. You can walk them through checking their email, creating a document and doing a bit of web browsing.
Don't front 'Linux', it's a tainted word that is of no use to typical public sector and small to medium business people, preferably don't mention it. Instead talk about your solutions being secure, cheap, enterprise grade, customisable, long term supported, things like that.
The best path forward for home users and small business for non-technical users: Install Fedora with KDE. Install Firefox, Thunderbird and Chrome. Install uBlock Origin, Privacy Badger. Install LibreOffice & bookmark Google Docs. Install multimedia support, h264/h265, VLC/mpv/ffmpeg, enable DRM in browser. Install Steam if applicable. If they have a printer, connect it and show them how to print a page. Configure & t…
Immutable/atomic distros are rock solid and extremely hard to break, the automatic updates/upgrades are a godsend for newbies, and in the rare event something does break, you can boot directly into the previous version right from the boot menu - no command line wizardry required. Immutables also don't suffer from the dependency issues that can sometimes plague regular distros, so I would highly recommend them over a regular distro for most newbies.