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Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

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Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#271

Post by hot_gril »

JohnFen wrote: post #263
hot_gril wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Linux is ok nowadays, but why? The Mac hardware is already better, and Apple isn't too annoying. You'll have more random nonsense to deal with on Linux, some of it not their fault.

> Apple isn't too annoying I find Apple to be too annoying for my tastes. Less annoying than Microsoft, but that doesn't mean much.

It's that vs the annoyance of using Linux. Which is worse? I've been there, diagnosing bluetooth and wifi issues, dealing with free vs non-free drivers, finding out Netflix won't run in 1080p/4K, going down the Flash rabbit hole back then, dealing with sleep issues, having sound not work, jumping ship to whatever DE is best supported, messing with WINE for the plethora of non-Linux-supported apps, it never ends. A "how to do X in Linux" article exists for so many things that you'd never search for on Mac (or even Windows), but Linux users tend to make it sound like everything works out of the box.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#272

Post by mrguyorama »

gumballindie wrote: post #65
mythz wrote: post #53

I'm a big fan of WSL, which has kept me on Windows for years more than I otherwise would have. But I can't stand the scammy adware infused OS Windows has become and will be moving to Apple Silicon full-time when the next gen M3 Desktop hardware is out. As a recent M2 Macbook Air owner I'm surprised how much software supports ARM/Apple Silicon natively, where everything I use daily as a .NET developer worked OOB [1].…

Why not Linux (depending on your line of work). Wider hardware choice, easier to upgrade, and no corporate oversight. Doesn't cover all use cases but it's a good option these days.

>Wider hardware choice

You're joking right? Sure, something built in 2002 will probably still work well in Linux, but that's often the case for Windows, and on a Windows system, the hardware AND the proprietary software it came with will probably still work.

Meanwhile, in Linux land, if you don't buy very very very specific hardware you can never hope to have functional sleep.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#273

Post by mrguyorama »

nicolaslem wrote: post #208
vladvasiliu wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I find current gen (starting with 8th) HP EliteBooks decent enough. They work perfectly in Linux (actually better than Windows, since for a while some bits weren't recognized...). They're quiet unless I'm compiling something (if I don't use Windows, which for some reasons gets the fan spinning even when it's supposed to be asleep). The trackpad is good, even though it's worse than my 2013 MBP's. The main issue…

I daily drive a Gen 9 on Linux, it works fairly well, it even gets BIOS updates through fwupd now! However I cannot state how bad the display is, it's dragging-a-window-leaves-a-visible-trail bad.

Every single LCD display technology right now has serious flaws. I don't understand it.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#274

Post by marcodiego »

TheRealDunkirk wrote: post #161

When I was in 8th grade, one of my teachers was out sick, and the principal took over the class for the day. He talked about frames of reference. To illustrate the point, he asked if we had seen the movie, E.T. Of course, we all had. It was the Star Wars-level blockbuster of the summer of 1982. He asked if we remembered the bus scene. None of us could. "You know, 'Uranus?'" Oh, right. Yes, we all remembered that line…

> It's already been proven several times over that we cannot influence this situation.

I have a few points against this.

First is that it is not that important if we can revert M$ (yes, sorry, I'll refer to them this way for this comment) behavior, the most important is that we should have alternatives. For that we must push hardware and software vendors to support other OS's, specially Linux.

Second is that, by making a choice, we can influence statistics and this influence may be becoming strong enough to give us some bargain powers (a lot of recent open source drivers only became economically viable because of that). I don't know how much worse is the Android-land but most "normal" people are using their mobile devices more than their desktops, the same shift doesn't happened to power users. This made the share of power users on desktop to grow significantly recently, specially after the pandemic. Actually, I partly assign to this the current uptick of the Linux desktop (more than 3% with ChromeOS above 4% recently).

We may be a minority, but we are no longer a minority that can be ignored. A share of 7% of under served proficient users is a huge market wanting to be pleased. Vendors can not ignore us any longer.

We should not waste our efforts trying to convince M$ not to turn their OS into a ad-infested wastebasket; Let it be! We should concentrate our efforts so that we can comfortably live without depending on M$.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#275

Post by wing-_-nuts »

capableweb wrote: post #265
wing-_-nuts wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It really is a shame. I've wanted to build a gaming pc for years now, but the dev experience is compromised on windows, and the gaming experience is compromised on linux. People on windows will tell me to 'just use WSL', and people on linux will tell me to 'just use proton'. Both are decent, neither are great. I currently have a linux laptop, and a ps5 and both excel at their respective roles

Good ol' dual-booting still works, and I'm currently using it to switch between Windows, Arch Linux and NixOS.

Yes, but ideally I'd like a robust fs that I can use for storage and have r/w interop between linux and windows. I hear you can do that with the btrfs windows driver, but I've never tested it

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#276

Post by pxc »

hot_gril wrote: post #254
pxc wrote: post #241

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Framework considered a player in that space? What does that company actively do to improve Linux support? Do they offer free BIOSes like coreboot? Are any of their peripheral firmwares open-source? What kind of Linux compatibility do they guarantee for their hardware prior to launch? Afaik they're exactly the same as Lenovo: a Windows PC manufacturer that happens to be popular with Linux users, and which doesn…

Lenovo Thinkpads have explicit Linux support, but they still tend to have issues with Bluetooth audio at the very least.

That's a welcome development. In the past, every time I've been in the market for a laptop, they had few or no explicitly supported models.

(The Bluetooth thing sucks though.)

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#277

Post by mrguyorama »

macintux wrote: post #225
falcolas wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to be honest, it doesn't change my answer. Advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry who spends millions yearly on figuring out how to manipulate us into buying things we don't need. The average person has no chance against this manipulation. So yes, burn it all to the ground.

Banning all advertising would also destroy many small businesses. Interstate billboards are a nuisance, no doubt, but I can’t tell you how many roadside markets, small restaurants, etc I’ve visited while traveling that I’d never have known about otherwise.

Funny, billboards have been banned here in Maine for decades, and small businesses do very very well in this tourist driven economy. Meanwhile you cross the border to new hampshire and are immediately pestered with garbage advertising that provides no benefit to your life.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#278

Post by sotix »

nerdjon wrote: post #60

Microsoft really needs to take a real hard look at Windows and figure out what its place is in the world. I know very few people outside of gamers that have a full computer outside of one given for work. This is one of the many reasons that my windows computer is solely for gaming (and I use a debloated Windows 10 LTS install) and never has anything sensitive on it. Any general computing tasks happen on my Mac. I wou…

> I would love to ditch Windows and go to Linux for gaming but as good as proton is. I value being able to play my games without hassle more.

I play all my games on Linux via proton without hassle. I made the switch 2 years ago and haven’t run into any major issues. At one point, I was playing Elden Ring hassle-free while my friends playing on Windows faced stuttering issues. I am unable to play sim-racing in VR because iRacing uses a Linux-hostile anti-cheat, but that’s the only time I’ve had an issue. Personally, I’m fine avoiding anti-cheat because I don’t like how it interacts with my personal device. Currently, I am playing Baldur’s Gate 3 on ultra settings, and it has worked phenomenally since day one.

Overall, I would say my gaming experience is surprisingly better on Linux than it was on Windows, and I’m absolutely shocked that’s the case.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#279

Post by prepend »

xethos wrote: post #192
prepend wrote: post #163

This is much more invasive than Google’s banner on search (and kind of everything they make) pushing to instal Chrome. And way worse than MacOS’ occasional prompt to switch to safari that I think happens once per version upgrade and is just a typical modal prompt. Microsoft acts like their OS is free. I paid $120 for this stuff.

> Microsoft acts like their OS is free Because it effectively is. Between the discounted OEM pre-installed copy (effectively free to the casual user), the people happy enough with "Please activate Windows" in the corner and most functions working, and the "I found a deal on a legit activation key with a steep discount" crowd, very, very few people paid even a tenth as much as you.

But it’s not free. It’s some price included by manufacturers.

And I bought a copy at retail (for $120) because it was easier than going through their “you changed the hard drive and now have to find the key from years ago.” And it does the same thing.

Re: Microsoft is using malware-like pop-ups in Win11 to get people to ditch Chrome

#280

Post by vladvasiliu »

nicolaslem wrote: post #208
vladvasiliu wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FWIW, I find current gen (starting with 8th) HP EliteBooks decent enough. They work perfectly in Linux (actually better than Windows, since for a while some bits weren't recognized...). They're quiet unless I'm compiling something (if I don't use Windows, which for some reasons gets the fan spinning even when it's supposed to be asleep). The trackpad is good, even though it's worse than my 2013 MBP's. The main issue…

I daily drive a Gen 9 on Linux, it works fairly well, it even gets BIOS updates through fwupd now! However I cannot state how bad the display is, it's dragging-a-window-leaves-a-visible-trail bad.

As far as I remember, the "best" displays on the Elitebooks sport a whopping 72%... NTSC coverage. Some are worse, at around 48% or something.

I don't understand why they cheap out so much on displays. These could be very nice little laptops... My 10 yo MBP's display is running circles around them...

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