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Comment by yreg | Hacker News Reader

> I’m reconsidering my future use of Macs

Just FYI, this is a valid reason to switch to Linux, but absolutely not a valid reason to switch to Windows.

Yeah. I have a special installation of Windows that I keep locked down and prevent automatic upgrades. I don't recommend it unless you really need Windows. I also boot Linux and prefer it overall, but some things are not good experiences there (game graphics development)

I've used all 3 OSs since the 90s.

> I have a special installation of Windows that I keep locked down and prevent automatic upgrades.

Could you share more? I have an old MacBook with Windows that I use for games and I’d like to have it as locked down as possible with as little effort as possible.

There are a bunch of ways to do it. If you have a standard version of Windows like Home or Pro, there are scripts and config files on GitHub repos, with directions.

I know there are a lot of ways to do it and used one of them myself. But it hasn’t stopped nagging for updates and at one point didn’t even allow shutting off without an update.

I already trudged through a bunch of them, each with their own specific set of features. What I was looking for was a specific recommendation to compare to what I already know.

I'm sure it is possible, but I have spent so much time with it already without a consistent success, that I gave up.

I have come to terms with Windows doing this and I will keep complaining any time the topic comes up.

Because your MacBook does not support TPM, you never have to worry about it upgrading to Windows 11.

But it still upgrades to different versions of Windows 10, and as far as I know those tend to turn on things you turned off, such as different kinds of telemetry.

> Just FYI, this is a valid reason to switch to Linux, but absolutely not a valid reason to switch to Windows.

I have been bitten by bad Linux upgrades many, many times.

OpenBSD has been the most consistent OS I have used upgrade-wise, but might not support all the tools the original comment needs for music production.

> this is a valid reason to switch to Linux

Not if it's a flavour that uses snaps.

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