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Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

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Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#321

Post by alias_neo »

entropie wrote: post #302
OvbiousError wrote: post #291

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gaming on linux has been awesome for years. With the advent of systems like bazzite, the transition is only getting easier.

As far as I know almost all (if not all) anti cheat software just does not work on linux therefore "gaming on linux has been awesome for years" is not true if you play games online or competitive.

I'm generally not an online gaming, never enjoyed PvP, so gaming on Linux has been a breeze for me.

I recently got into playing Helldivers 2 with some family members and luckily for me it works just fine.

My opinion is that Linux gaming is most suited for majority single-player gamers like myself.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#322

Post by jogu »

Kbelicius wrote: post #317
jogu wrote: post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is simply not true. Most anti-cheat software does work on linux, but many games choose not to allow linux. This has a good list of what works and what doesn't: https://areweanticheatyet.com

AFAIK on linux they are not kernel level and thus are easier to work around. It isn't just that devs are lazy or hate linux.

Yeah, totally understand it isn't that simple but that's also my point. "Game has anti-cheat so it doesn't work on linux" is an oversimplification and people should check the specific games they're interested in. They could very well work if the developer allows it.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#323

Post by pjc50 »

socalgal2 wrote: post #117

I'm sure I will regret this, something will change and I'll be "F.U. Win11!". But, I'm on Windows 11 Pro (upgraded from Windows 10 Pro) and I have barely noticed a difference. Maybe because it's Windows Pro, not Home? Maybe because I have 2 profiles. The one I used to install it which required a microsoft account, and a separate, local only account which is the one I use always. I can't remember the last time I had t…

The "Microsoft account" requirement is a weird one, because when I got a Win 11 PC after the death of my Win 10 one, I tried to set it up with my Microsoft account .. and it told me that this was unsupported on this account, and then it just fell back to creating a local one anyway. Which was what I wanted. No idea how I got into that state, other than the account being very old.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#324

Post by edg5000 »

iamtedd wrote: post #221
edg5000 wrote: post #173

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Generally nobody should exchange Office docs anyway, I find it much more professional to exchange PDFs. I use MS arial so my PDFs made with LibreOffice look immaculate on any device. I think people are really shit for being so attached to their stupid office. I could not sell my dad on LibreOffice though. He'd rather pay 100 EUR/yr than learn to use new software.

*immaculate on any device that has Arial, unless your PDF conforms to PDF/A. Linux machines don't normally include Arial due to the license, and only PDF/A includes the fonts used in the document.

By default an Arial clone is present, ideally Arial is specified as a valid replacement font in the PDF if the user does not have the Arial clone present (Arial itself is a clone, but that is another story). It would require deeper investigation to see if this is actually the case. I've always wondered about this.

PDF/A has given me all kinds of issues (windows users get incorrect glyp placement with very bad results). Regular PDF has worked fine for me.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#325

Post by squidbeak »

Ekaros wrote: post #257
aleph_minus_one wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. 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 cann…

Or something like Google sheets. Attempted very basic thing: 1. Got barcode reader and scanned some barcodes from books 2. Looked up these from online API 3. Wrote result in ISBN;Name;Year to output 4. Tried to copy result to Google Sheets 5. No import from custom CSV? (Excel has very good tooling) 6. Actually to split I had to use =SPLIT() and then copy paste results in weird way to actually be able to use first col…

There's an import function in the File dropdown, with a dialog giving you control over separators. If that fails, you can paste the data, followed by Data > Split text to Columns. I work with CSVs in Google Sheets often and it's pretty reliable.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#326

Post by edg5000 »

Cu3PO42 wrote: post #176
edg5000 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> if you want to store secrets that don't need a user password to unlock and can't be stolen by taking apart the computer, you need a TPM I had a Win 7 system and just entered a password on boot, this decrypted the disk. It was supported without mods or TPM (maybe some registry tweaks though). On Ubuntu I do the same, no need for TPM. Am I missing something? My disk is encrypted. If they take it apart, they need my p…

The important part in the parent is "that don't need a user password". You just said you had to supply a (user) password. With a TPM you can set it up that your disk is unlocked automatically, but only if no-one changed anything in the signed boot chain. This is the default with Bitlocker on Windows and is also possible on Linux, though somewhat more finicky.

But without password, anybody can physically access the device and exfiltrate data. That is even easier than regular password protection, where the storage medium would have to be removed or a live OS would have to be booted.

The risk is data leakage. With a TPM and no password, there is no data leakage protection.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#327

Post by unixhero »

apple4ever wrote: post #9

I think it's a good plan, though there might be some pain. I have a bog standard AMD graphics card that does not work in Linux. I've tried multiple distributions and version in those distributions and both the Linux and AMD drivers. It just randomly flashes. Where do I go to get help? Who knows?

Yes low end chips that no one bothered to write drivers for has issues

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#328

Post by d3Xt3r »

dcanelhas wrote: post #267

I wish there was an active dev community that could patch win10 going forward, but without access to source code for the kernel, perhaps that isn't really viable. Ideally I would want to use Linux but I also want to play games that are only supported on windows. Does using WSL help or is an outdated windows base still going to be the weakest link in the security onion?

WSL is unfortunately is less than ideal, not only is it rubbish (it has its own set of issues like weird networking bugs), it also doesn't mitigate any of the security vulnerabilities/bloatware/telemetry/bugs etc present in Windows.

But you can always dual-boot between Windows and Linux. Just uninstall all your browsers (to mitigate risk) and other non-essential app in your Windows install, configure the firewall to block everything except games. And boot into Linux for everything else.

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#329

Post by unixhero »

gethly wrote: post #264

I have been using windows since version 95. I even liked the Millennium version, that was most hated before Vista. I tried Linux several times, but Windows just always worked and Linux usually had always some issues(mostly drivers, lack of good programs and no gaming). But now, after more than two decades, I am certain Windows 10 is my last Windows. Nothing lasts for ever, not even Microsoft's domination on personal…

Just use Linux Mint

Re: Retiring Windows 10 and Microsoft's move towards a surveillance state

#330

Post by esun »

bee_rider wrote: post #78
AlotOfReading wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Programmers use markdown or LaTeX anyway; there’s approximately nobody excited about working on an office suite. It is a completely unrewarding task.

This is a pretty ignorant take.
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