Lets not forget WSL. I just got the WSL2 upgrade - it turns a Windows 10 desktop into a quite decent software developer workstation.
Seriously guys, if the last time you used Windows was a few years ago it is time to give it a another shot.
Seriously guys, if the last time you used Windows was a few years ago it is time to give it a another shot.
Microsoft also keeps a copy of your full-disk encryption key. <https://theintercept.com/2015/12/28/recently-bought-a-window...
IIRC they lessened it by some ε > 0 in 1803. [1]
> As far as I remember, it is absolutely overreaching, collecting your name, email address, browsing history, searches, application usage and more.
Some of these seem more alarming than others. Where are each of these pulled from? If you have a Microsoft account they already have your name and address. Most people use Chrome and I assume Windows isn't sending that info to Microsoft (although this does make me worry for those who use IE/Edge). Searches and application usage I haven't heard explicitly but those would worry me more.
> Microsoft also keeps a copy of your full-disk encryption key.
Wasn't this only when you had a Microsoft account or something? We can debate how they shove MSAs down users' throat (I want to punch my computer when they do that too), but as far as the FDE key is concerned, I feel like those who don't want this also wouldn't want to use a Microsoft account for their logins to begin with?
But to respond to your overall point, there are probably hacks around each of the things I've mentioned, but the point is that I don't feel like using an OS that does these things is a reasonable alternative for me. Particularly because who knows what other kinds of aggressive changes are being concocted for the future. I try to make this point to my family and friends too and they seem to agree.
Thanks for the link though, I'll take a look.
You can remove them easily enough from a Microsoft account.
There's also a few custom installers/scripts that people have written to disable the telemetry via PowerShell that are floating around, but I think their up-to-date-ness varies from author to author.
What's the point? They do it all the time when things start going bad. It'll turn to garbage as soon as they have enough of mindshare. Why be among the ones who run back and forth?
This is no different than with windows. Except that more vendors sell you windows compatible pre-built systems. With macos the situation is far worse.
If you want more Linux enables hardware it will help to vote with your wallet and buy hardware from manufacturers that do provide support for Linux.
very funny
If I need to do serious work, I'll snap the keyboard on and open WSL, but for anything else, I'll detatch the keyboard and just browse the web with Edge.
It's still awful.
It's not a great selling point. Not everyone thinks it's productive to switch operating systems once in a while.