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Comment by tdkl | Hacker News Reader

1. Don't. You're happy with the system as it is.

Now, what to do regarding Windows 10 ? If you're a fairly computer savvy person, for home usage, I'll say disable the updates, get an AV and a firewall and keep a weekly backup.

Updates loose any credibility if the vendor issuing them cannot be trusted and MS has shown with those tactics what the endgame is. Checking every update what it does and if it's safe to apply to the system takes more time and energy then keeping a weekly backup of the system and basic security. Now why should someone play hide and seek with MS and their dark patterns instead of using the system as is ?

I'd say that this is a pretty sad state of OS updates we're in regarding Windows, if not software generally.

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You have a very good point about disabling updates. Everyone here seems to think that OS updates are vital-important, but they are not. If you are running latest browser, instant messenger and personal firewall, you are unlikely to catch malware online regardless of OS patches installed.

So, Windows 10 actually does not complete against Linux or PC-BSD, it completes against previous versions of Windows without telemetry crap, i.e. Windows 7 and Vista. Exactly these operating systems with disabled updates will dominate for the next 20 years, not Linux or BSD.

Btw, this approach (disabling updates) also solves all well known problems with long time reboots, metered internet connections, tray nags about Windows 10, insufficient disk space to save old OS etc.

I got by using xp on a quite old machine from 2007 to 2015 by disabling updates and using a firewall. I think many will do similar things with windows 7.

Funny you mention pc-bsd. I lost the boot sector (perhaps) on my ssd in my win7 machine so this weekend I installed pc-bsd on the 'broken' ssd. During the install I was given a warning that something in my uefi was funny. Windows just failed to install with errors and no help to be found on the install cd (retail version).

So...I'm currently, as of 24 hours ago, using pc-bsd. I can't see most people going for it though. The kde desktop uninstalled itself randomly so I ended up installing gnome desktop and am using the classic version of gnome. It's going well now though. Actually really well, but I keep waiting for something bad to happen. If it behaves for a bit longer I might just switch.

There's an evil side to microsoft that I wouldn't miss but I do already miss liking microsoft. I've used them for a really long time. There's a lot of good design and engineering in there.

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