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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

#331

Post by gethly »

robin_reala wrote: post #300
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…

If you’re this engaged already I’d just make the jump. Be part of the future you want to have rather than watching from the sidelines.

I could but I do not need to, so i'd rather make better use of the time it would take me to move at this time.

Biggest pain point actually are not programs, but the need to format all hard drives to some linux file system. I cannot just replace windows with linux and that is it. No, I have to migrate all my data somehow to reformat all my drives and then move the data back. That was always huge pain in the ass.

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

#332

Post by Voultapher »

spragl wrote: post #252
heavyset_go wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I would say that specifically with Secure Boot, Microsoft actually promoted user choice: A Windows Logo compliant PC needs to have Microsoft's root of trust installed by default. Microsoft could have stopped there, but they didn't. This was not the case with the initial rollout of Secure Boot, it was combined with locked BIOS to lock PCs so that they could only boot Windows 8 on some devices. This was the case on W…

> There is also a real potential for abusing TPMs or cryptographic co-processors to enforce remote attestation. Remote attestation can be misused, yes. But why writing it as TPM is the problem? In cases where remote attestation is used for good, TPM improves the setup, if anything. I dont see the rationale for what you wrote, and am genuinely curious what it is.

You can't do remote attestation without something like a TPM.

Let's compare these scenarios:

A) TPMs are optional and 30% of users have them. A bank is thinking about requiring remote attestation to use their services. Since they'd lock out 70% of users they decide to not do it.

B) TPMs are mandatory and 90% of users have them. A bank is thinking about requiring remote attestation to use their services. Since they'd only lock out 10% of users they decide to do it.

And banking is the nice example here. Refusing to serve a site if the user is using an ablocker is very much in the interest of powerful players in the space, see WEI. Every platform that has wide spread TPM adoption, namely Android and iOS have shown that they will abuse them for anti-consumer purposes sooner or later. We are talking about Microsoft here, the current and past poster child for anti-consumer decisions.

I hope that explains why making TPMs blanket available introduces new risks to sovereign computing.

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

#333

Post by theandrewbailey »

unixhero wrote: post #231

How about this, you don't need Windows. My mum runs Linux and has been for 10 years! No more support phonecalls!

Agreed! I replaced XP with Xubuntu (my preferred distro at the time) on my parent's computer about 15 years ago. I told them that "it works like Windows[0]", showed them how to check email, browse the web, play solitare, and shut down. Even the random HP printer + scanner worked great! I expected a call from them to "put it back to what it was", but it never happened. (The closest was Mom wondering why solitare (the gnome-games version) was different, then guided her on how to change the game type to klondike.)

[0] If "it [Xubuntu] works like Windows" offended you, I'd like to point out that normies don't care about how operating system kernels are designed. They care about things like a start menu, and that the X in the corner closes programs.

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

#334

Post by Intermernet »

wartywhoa23 wrote: post #308
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…

I switched to Ubuntu 3 years ago and never looked back for a daily driver. The reason Windows (and Microsoft itself) is not 6' deep yet is a relatively small number of commercial creative software like DAWs, graphics suits and CAD modellers. Yes, there's a huge amount of legacy software in CAM, plant control and whatnot, but that can run alright on all those Windows XP and 7 machines like forever. All major software…

Annoyingly, Ableton Push 3 Standalone runs on Linux. This means that Ableton have a working Linux version of, at least the core, of Ableton Live working on Linux. I sincerely hope they release a true Linux version soon. It's the last thing tying me to Windows.

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

#335

Post by hexagonwin »

gethly wrote: post #331
robin_reala wrote: post #300

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you’re this engaged already I’d just make the jump. Be part of the future you want to have rather than watching from the sidelines.

I could but I do not need to, so i'd rather make better use of the time it would take me to move at this time. Biggest pain point actually are not programs, but the need to format all hard drives to some linux file system. I cannot just replace windows with linux and that is it. No, I have to migrate all my data somehow to reformat all my drives and then move the data back. That was always huge pain in the ass.

fyi NTFS works perfectly on my linux machine.. ntfs-3g ftw

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

#337

Post by serenadeineb »

hexagonwin wrote: post #335
gethly wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could but I do not need to, so i'd rather make better use of the time it would take me to move at this time. Biggest pain point actually are not programs, but the need to format all hard drives to some linux file system. I cannot just replace windows with linux and that is it. No, I have to migrate all my data somehow to reformat all my drives and then move the data back. That was always huge pain in the ass.

fyi NTFS works perfectly on my linux machine.. ntfs-3g ftw

Yea, what this guy says. Throw a new HD in the machine, install linux to it, and then just /mount your other previously-windows HDs.

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

#338

Post by gethly »

hexagonwin wrote: post #335
gethly wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I could but I do not need to, so i'd rather make better use of the time it would take me to move at this time. Biggest pain point actually are not programs, but the need to format all hard drives to some linux file system. I cannot just replace windows with linux and that is it. No, I have to migrate all my data somehow to reformat all my drives and then move the data back. That was always huge pain in the ass.

fyi NTFS works perfectly on my linux machine.. ntfs-3g ftw

iirc linux can read ntfs but not write...unless things progressed. it was a licence issue, not a software one.

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

#339

Post by entropie »

jogu wrote: post #310
entropie wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

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

> This is simply not true. Most anti-cheat software does work on linux, but many games choose not to allow linux.

Iam not sure if I care whether the AC software does work (theoretically) on linux. Most of the games with AC cannot be played on linux. (You can see this on the graphic you linked).

I tried it long enough. I played MTG Arena with lutris and every patch day was a frickle.

I don't even play FPS games seriously, let alone competitively, but many of the games I play don't run on Linux. It's that simple. I've been using Linux daily for 25 years, but I have a dual boot with Windows. A week ago, I taught my NixOS to boot with secure boot because the new Battlefield requires it—and other games will follow.

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

#340

Post by keyringlight »

pgreenwood wrote: post #201
erentz wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> And then there's little bugs everywhere that just grind away at you on a daily basis: When I create a new folder or file in a directory in explorer it hangs for a bit and doesn’t show up unless I click refresh. Ditto if I save a file to a directory that is open in explorer. Thinking about trying to get a copy of Win 10 IoT LTSC instead at this point.

The Win 10 IoT LTSC iso is on archive.org (from microsoft)

I'd love to know how many people are verifying checksums, and sourcing the checksums themselves from reputable sources. An event like this seems like a prime opportunity for someone to insert something extra into one of the components needed and a proportion of users will pick it up, whether the security cure is worse than the disease of an unsupported OS.

Just as an example of this everyone points out Massgrave for activation on a version of windows I doubt many are properly licensed for, and one of the methods used relies on periodically talking to KMS servers they provide including some on a Chinese TLD [0]. Personally I'd be charitable and say it's probably well intentioned using the cheap resources they can get (there's no mention of donations on the site), but I wonder how many are aware of what is involved and this is just something they rush through to get rid of the big scary warning that windows puts up and tech news hysteria.

[0] https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts/b...

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