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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>I would suggest that giving up control of your entire computer to get a few more pixels on some crappy (paid!) streaming service is the Pyrrhic victory.

This is going to inevitably turn into a mac/windows vs linux flamewar, so I'm going to acknowledge this but refuse to continue the discussion.

>If everyone refused this Faustian bargain, then the services would be forced to adapt.

Like getting people to use dedicated set-top boxes, like with cable TV? Amazon's fire stick is basically that. Moreover I think you're overestimating how much people care about "freedom to tinker" or whatever. They just want their shit to work.

>When the jar fills up, find yourself a torrent client and spend the jar on whatever you want - it's free :)

It's only "free" if you value your time at $0/hr.

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> It's only "free" if you value your time at $0/hr.

With FOSS I don't have to spend time trying to figure out how to remove the latest unwanted crap from my start menu or taskbar. I don't have to spend time figuring out how to remove the telemetry crap. I don't have to set my default browser back to Firefox after every major update. I don't have to click through popups about new features they want to promote or telling me how I can waste even more money by subscribing to their cloud services. I don't have to lose work because it decided I didn't update often enough and just forces a reboot without my approval. No, I can just work on it and it will just do what I want, not what Microsoft wants. That saves me a lot of time.

>how to remove the latest unwanted crap from my start menu or taskbar => 5 min.

>I don't have to spend time figuring out how to remove the telemetry crap. => Use Rufus writing Win Iso., choose no telemetry option, 0,5 min.

>I don't have to set my default browser back to Firefox after every major update => Just not true, 0 min.

>I don't have to click through popups about new features they want to promote or telling me how I can waste even more money by subscribing to their cloud services. => Use Windows Pro Version, no Popups, 0 min.

In total: 5,5 min.

Learn using Linux: > 3yrs.

> Learn using Linux: > 3yrs.

That's quite dishonest in the context of general usage scenario.

> Use Rufus writing Win Iso., choose no telemetry option,

So you pay for the product and then need to download some unofficial shady East European software to remove unwanted features? Ridiculous.

Also I did some experimenting with firewalling telemetry and I doubt thatshady software blocks all of it. I don't believe it.

It doesn't. It just chooses the minimal data collection option for you during the install.

Actually turning it all off requires very deep modification of the OS.

>So you pay for the product and then need to download some unofficial shady East European software to remove unwanted features? Ridiculous.

Get your facts straight. A quick check of wikipedia will reveal it's open source and written by Pete Batard from Ireland, not "some unofficial shady East European software".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufus_(software)

https://akeo.ie/

Meanwhile "linux" incorporates software from overworked volunteers that willingly handed over control to some shady threat actor that successfully backdoored it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XZ_Utils_backdoor

True, even Microsoft once recommended Rufus in instructions for some of their msdn ISOs. Not sure if they still do though.

Well I guess I made a mistake, don't remember why I thought that Rufus is from Eastern Europe.

That is about as ridiculous as saying it takes 3 years to truly know how the iPhone works. You're talking out of your ass because you don't have any rational refutations to reach for.

Well it has happened to me that it put Edge back, at least twice that I remember. Once was a longer time ago though, when they moved from "old" edge to "new" edge (which is just a chromium knockoff).

But yeah to each their own. I don't like windows very much either because I can't really customise how it works. While on Linux I can change everything. I can choose a radically different window manager/desktop environment for example. Like i3/sway.

And Linux and BSD (I don't use much Linux, I use BSD on my desktop) are very natural to me because I've been working with Unixes for decades. Like Minix and HP-UX in the 90s before Linux even existed. This is really where preference comes into play.

I still use windows too, on my gaming desktop mostly. And I have Windows 10 LTSC on a little NUC I use for video recording. LTSC is not as bad (even though it still has telemetry :( ). But they should really make it available to everyone.

> It's only "free" if you value your time at $0/hr.

Checking the OS version, browser version, HDMI cable reference and screen reference to pray that the DRM works isn't really easy nor instantaneous either.

I'd say it's even more annoying than torrenting

Most of the time these days I can’t actually find a search engine to give me links, so they have mostly won.

If you're accessing via a personal computer at all you're already in a fairly small percentage of users.

The smart TV and set top box ecosystem work fine, and that's where the users are.

I was actually generous by picking a computer, with the amount of cheap and non updatable smart TVs, I doubt that more than 20% work with the strongest DRM.

And then if that's the case, it's either piracy or buying a new TV if you want the best quality.

>I was actually generous by picking a computer, with the amount of cheap and non updatable smart TVs, I doubt that more than 20% work with the strongest DRM.

DRM doesn't care that you're on the latest patch level with all CVEs patched, only that your system is vaguely "secure" (ie. has a TEE, even if it's full of holes). The netflix app works on phones with Android 5 from over a decade ago, so similarly old smart TVs are probably fine as well. Failing that, they can buy an up-to-date roku/fire stick for $25.

Pretty much any brand name smart TV supports the "strongest" DRM and has full UHD Netflix et al support, and has done since about 2016/2017.

Also I doubt the jar ever fills up, not many people in this thread seemed to be aware of this limitation until reading this post.

> They just want their shit to work.

Which might include streaming at appropriate qualities and being able to take a simple bloody screenshot of what you paid to watch.

I think you underestimate people.

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