Windows 10 kept throwing up full screen ads for whatever bullshit they were trying to get me to sign up for while also telling me my computer wasn’t good enough for Windows 11.
And that’s how I ended up with Mint on my desktop and laptop a couple months ago.
I have to use Windows for work, but my personal machines are Linux and macOS at this point, and I have zero intention of buying another windows license.
Just moved my parents onto Mint, they were hesitant at first but now doing great. MS is digging it’s own grave.
My 80 yr old mother got a laptop recently, W11. I downgraded to W10 LTSC, and dual boot with Mint, and ran Chris Titus’ win util to decrapify. Two weeks later she had allowed windows to trick her into upgrading to W11 again.
She’s been using computers since the 70’s, and owned PCs since the DOS era, but she just doesn’t want to bother with anything but using her PC in autopilot mode. Couldn’t care less about exploring Mint.
I also just replaced Windows 10 with Mint recently. I did sadly buy Windows 11 proper at some point for my new office PC, which thankfully has been okay after I turn off the copilot shit. And I’m stuck with it until a few programs get some Linux support.
But regardless, I sure won’t be buying anything more from Windows.
I’m not sure what your use cases and performance requirements are, but Windows works great in a VM.
I rarely use it, but I happened to fire it up today and after updating it I got a full screen ad to start backing up my computer to their shit.
In capitalist USA the computer own you… Or something like this?
In Soviet Linux, you own PC
In American Windows, PC own you
Microsoft doing their part to get people to move to Linux
More “Microsoft doing their part to get people used to the idea of having to login with an internet connection so that they can make Windows 12 subscription based.”
Thats what this bullshit is. Training the user base for OSaaS.
And they will have enterprise by the balls because they control like 90% of the enterprise market. The consumers, they could give a fuck if they take it or leave it. Windows licensing is such an teeny tiny part of the equation that screaming at them is going to get as much traction as screaming at Nvidia for the fact that a midrange GPU is 1000 bucks now. Nvidia doesnt care if their consumer gpu market disappears tomorrow, they’ve got the AI fucks locked in.
Wow. This is absolutely has to be the reason. There is nothing better than a recurrent revenue stream. Look at Spotify, Netflix business model.
Really. And even better, now they can granularize Windows even further. Windows 11 Home or Pro? Naw fam, that’s not enough. You’ll have the baseline Windows 12 sub for $10 per month…seems reasonable, right? Except that’s the baseline. That’s the version that can only make use of, at maximum, 4 CPU cores. Want to use all the cores in your bomb ass new processor? You need to bump up to the $20 per month subscription which includes the CPU-MAX add on. Not a fan of the basic Windows wallpaper? Well, fret not! You just need to download the Personalization add-on for an additional $5 per month and now you can change your wallpaper. Hey, is that a new GPU you got there? Yeah, you’re going to need to spring for the Gamer bundle…$20 a month for that, on top of the base sub. Oh and don’t forget about your local storage…they can subscription lock that, too. “You don’t even need local storage anyway! Just use OneDrive!!! It’s only a few bucks extra per month!!”…deliberately priced far less than the local storage subscription so that they can scrape all your shit for marketable data which you’ll see in the fine print of the ToS they’re allowed to do with abandon.
Go to turn on HDR…“sorry, you need the graphics booster add on”. Try to output 5.1 audio? “Sorry, no can do, you get 2.0 only, peasant, you didn’t sign up for the media add-on.” Want to throw another stick of memory in your rig to extend it’s life? “Sorry, base Windows can only use 16GBs…you need the performance package to address anything more.”
And you know what the best part is? This shit would all likely be legal. Know how I know? Because Windows enterprise server and software licensing is already like this, and has been for years.
Shit is so fucked man…
Heated seats in luxury cars.
I’m sure the fact that the Steam Hardware Survey just hit 5.33% Linux has absolutely NOTHING to do with Microsoft’s continued pants-on-head stupid and anti-consumer approach to things.
Nah, Hanlon’s razor has worn put here.
Microsoft probably knows what they’re doing with their anti-customer approach… and it’s nothing good.
Today is a good day to try Linux.
(maybe best to start with Mint or Ubuntu? At least that’s how I did. They have a “live” version you can try out before committing to it)
Everyone is thinking about this wrong. MIcroslop will only do their enterprise customers dirty at the very end, when they are dropping the Windows product altogether. How do SysAdmins do Windows 11 installs at their workplace? How are we expected to provision PCs without a MS account. Select add to domain and use your router as a ‘fake’ DC and then set the settings back to normal after the install. They can not remove that method, it is absolutely required for using DCs and MS makes a shit load of money licensing DCs. You have to pay per user.
Microsoft wants to kill on-prem for enterprise. Windows 11 Enterprise is a monthly subscription to your Office 365, sorry Microsoft 365, wait no Copilot 365 account. Exchange Server 2019 is the end with their subscription only version replacing it. They’re retiring Dynamics on prem to move you to the cloud.
The cloud services are parted out just right that you get almost everything you’re trying to do with one package, only to need the next level up at double the price for one little thing, or an add-on service that just so happens to need the E3 version instead of E1. Oh but you can pay twice as much again for the all-in-one bundle, it comes with everything! Expect that thing you need for regulatory compliance, that’s still extra. It’s like they studied the predatory pricing of freemium games and went “we can do better than that”
Selling you an OS once is of no interest to them. Monthly charges? Better but still not enough. All of your data flowing through their systems, ripe for harvesting and vendor lock-in? That’s the good stuff.
I think enterprise is the least affected.
Win11 installs are done with Autopilot. Users log in with their company MS accounts and if admins need access they log in with the LAPS account.
Enterprise moved away from local accounts even before COVID.
This is the case where I work.
This is the actual reason i didn’t end up going with win11, and tried Linux. Seemed like about a similar amount of bullshit to get to know my way around linux as it did doing regedits and getting around using an account.
I am now firmly in the camp of every option being terrible in some way.
Still using bazzite though, so it’s not worse.
Bazzite is underrated, its a great desktop os out of the box with solid gaming support.
Well, sure. Still had a bunch of unexpected weird stuff.
Genuine question, what was “unexpected/weird” for you?
I don’t disagree, in fact I’m in a similar situation coming to Bazzite from Windows. But I’d like to know what your experience has been like so far, Maybe I will learn something.
My own personal gripe is that they removed Discover in favor of their own store “bazzar” and I feel its just worse in every way so I tried to put it back and now Discover will “launch” and immediately crash.
Monitor snapping issues (program opens on the wrong monitor and figuring out how to force it somewhere else), VPN program not working because it’s an immutable distro, Stream deck unexpected behaviour (What functions can it use, sometimes it disconnected on a different usb hub) etc. Also some incompatibilities, can’t use fusion 360 (didn’t work at all last time i tried it)
There are a few others but those come to mind.
I have found Proton VPN works for me none of the others I’ve tried seem to function. I’m using it on a my livingroom pc so I don’t have any input on the steam deck specific issues, in fact I prefer Steam OS and I wish there was an official desktop release already.
I use windscribe. Happy so far, and direct connection works well enough. Also stReam deck (Elgato). It works pretty well on my Legion go too.
Microsoft and privacy shouldn’t be used in the same sentence other than for sarcasm purposes.
Or as a warning.
Oh? Who would have thought? I sometimes wonder what kind of limbo people live in that this hasn’t been the clear picture for most since Windows 7.
Social inertia.
Yeah, led like sheep by the illusion of convenience. It is sad.
I’ve been reading all over the place how people are finally becoming more aware of the lack of privacy, but I scratched that as me always seeing this because I mostly interact in privacy and security related environments.
However, the least likely person I know to be concerned about these factors is my brother, as he’s all about convenience and ‘glamour’. Well, he called me on Sunday to ask me if I suggested that he flashed “that operating system you use on your phone” (GrapheneOS) on his device, and asked if I knew what proton was 🤣 only to mention that he had found that and was in the process of dropping gmail. Imagine my surprise when this guy is calling for this.
What I’m trying to say is that, if my brother is suddenly concerned about his digital privacy and security, I am certain 50% of Normie’s out there are as well, or will be pretty soon.
I genuinely believe that we’re living in a pivotal moment in digital philosophy across all realms, people are finally waking up from the convenience slumber, and my hope is that this will help shift the discourse all over the place, and we can all expect more of the people in our environments start asking questions about how to fly under the radar.
“complicates” is the mildest, nicest perspective
they didn’t have room for “is entirely fucking unnecessary” in the headline
That was probably the working title for the article
That or “what the fuck, Microslop?”
Dear Micro$lop: Quit trying to make it happen
The only reason I don’t install Linux on my NVMe drive and leave it on my SSD is that I can’t reinstall Windows with a local account (though maybe there’s a painful workaround). If they break, they’re gone forever.
Just an idea:
- Get an HDD
- Use
ddto clone your NVME Windows drive. - Install Linux on your NVME.
- Boot Windows from the HDD as you find you need it (which I suspect would be a lot less than you think).
- If you find you need to go back to Windows, just reclone onto the original drive.
I bet you’ll eventually reclaim the HDD, though. I kept mine for about two years, and I nuked it last week, because I hadn’t even opened it, much less booted it, in over a year.
You can also just assign the drive you just created to a vm via VFIO. No need to dual boot.
Chris Titus’s WinUtil. In it is a tool called MicroWin that can create a custom installation media which will allow local accounts and also remove all the telemetry, adverts and all the other crap.
Rufus can still bypass every single W11 requirement and automatically complete the setup for you, including a local account.
I might try it, because my old SSD is only 250GB and my NVMe is 2TB bought 3 years ago when the prices were normal. Now isn’t worth it to buy another NMVe, especially when I use Windows less and less every day.
There’s an easy workaround : install W10 with a local account, then upgrade. No need for any kind of workaround. Disclaimer : this might have worked because I’m in Europe.
Otherwise, there are workarounds for a vanilla install with only local accounts that still works to this day, I did that in a VM. But that’s flimsy.
Of course, this leaves you to the whim of “fucking microsoft, we’ll screw you forever, bork your data when we want, force you to change computer every other year, and you’ll love it”, but the option exists.
I’m in Australia and this works. At least the last time i installed windows.
Works.
There will be always a workaround, because Windows NT was originally built with local accounts in mind and the whole system’s architecture is based on that. Even if they block every possible way to do that using their official installation media, someone will just create a custom disc image, some script or whatever that you will be able to use to have a local account.
Sail the high seas. Also, you absolutely can still skip logging in and setup a local account.
For now I’m happy with Windows 10 LTSC on my main rig. I use Debian on my laptop and Ubuntu on my server. I don’t know what I’ll do in 2032 when LTSC support ends. I’d like to go to Debian on my main rig but some software simply won’t work without hassle (if at all). I hope that changes until then, I love Debian with KDE Plasma.
By 2032 Wine will probably be advanced enough to run any Windows program
Out of curiosity, what software? It won’t run with Wine? Maybe there’s a decent enough alternative?
The Adobe stuff, Vst’s, etc.
Tons of VST’s work using yabridge.
Not Native Instruments though (their VST’s should work but I can’t get Native Access to run). And I don’t run any VST’s that need iLok.
Yabridge has a bug with wine versions later than (I think) 9.22, where the VST thinks the mouse is in another place than it really is.
Solutions are : make sure the VST window is at 0,0, or use an older version of wine, or there is a patch for yabridge that works in most cases, but hasn’t been merged in yet. I’m running that.
I know tons of vst’s work on Linux, just not the one I use. The problem is people need specific software not that just any software in that class.
Sorry but this is what irks me when people say not everything will work on Linux. There’s always someone saying “but you have alternative on Linux” like every program is the same.
You can’t expect someone that uses Photoshop professionally to just start using Gimp in an industry where Photoshop is the standard that everyone uses. Gimp, while impressive, is not Photoshop and requires a totally different workflow. And it’s simply not doable when you’re working with people using and expecting Photoshop. You also can’t expect someone to have to tinker with their PC every time, just to work. People that use their PC to work need it to be reliable. People that use computers as a tool, not to make a political statement.
In my case, I know there are vst’s on Linux. They just don’t have the quality that Amplitube has. And you can’t tell people to “just switch, bro” when they already paid for Amplitube. For these people, at least for now, Windows is pretty much the only option.
Sorry for the rant, I’m done.
Like someone said here, by 2032 wine will run all that. That’s where my hopes are. When that happens more people will use Linux (I know I will) and with more users more companies will start making native Linux versions. Things have already improved tremendously in the last 15 years. I truly believe there will be a critical point soon that will make explode Linux adoption.
But, for now, you have to understand Linux is not yet an option for some specific needs.
Well, I’ve tried it, and Amplitube runs just fine in linux. Here’s a screenshot running amplitube 5 in Bitwig 6
I have total studio 5 max, which includes amplitube. I haven’t used amplitube yet, but I could try it if you like. Haven’t had problems with the other IK Multimedia products thought. I also own the whole Arturia suite (instruments & FX), cherry audio and Melda suites, all without issues. And lots of one-offs.
As I said : native instruments plugins were, and still are, the main ones that give me grief. Given that I had bought Komplete Ultimate edition (version 13 or 14), that was a bit of a bummer. But I’ve always hated Kontakt. And their other products were also always not quite what I needed.
In total I have about 750 windows vsts running on my Linux machine. Lots of them are doubles, because I have both the vst2 and vst3 version of the plugin when available, but that still leaves me with more than 300 unique windows vsts. If you tell me what vsts you want to run, I’ll check if I have them, or stuff made by the same people. And if I don’t have anything, usually they have demos I can try. Or you might point me towards something I want as well.
Just ask me.
Since all of the “Linux is easy” folk are here I’ll ask a question even though I’m not near my PC:
I’m dual booting W11 and ZorinOS, I have 3 drives and only the OS drive mounts at boot. The other 2, games SSD and a storage HDD, have to mounted manually. An online search yielded that this was “expected behaviour” and “how it’s designed to work” but unfortunately it confuses Steam each time I boot because as far as Steam is concerned the drive ceases to exist.
Has anyone else had the same issue? I think I could use crontab to mount the drives at boot but it seems like something that shouldn’t be happening at all.
I mentioned previously the I had a little document written up, keep in mind this is how I did it on Bazzite so your mileage may vary but here it is.
To auto mount drives on Bazzite with KDE open terminal and type
(if you are using Gnome or already have Gnome disks installed you can skip to “open disks”)
sudo rpm-ostree install gnome-disk-utility
Wait for-ev-er…
Reboot
Open “disks”
Select your disk you want to auto mount
You’ll see an icon that looks like a window with a play symbol in it that is “Additionaal Partition Options”
Click on it and select “Edit Mount Options”
You may or may not have to toggle user session defaults
Check the box that says mount on startup
Enter your password if asked and reboot to verify.
Not sure what you searched for to get those answers, all I had to search was “Linux mount at boot” to get this answer with directions for editing /etc/fstab or using the gnome disk utility gui based on your preference
It’s absolutely bananas that internal drives are not mounted automatically by standard. It’s even more bananas that it’s not easily customizable via GUI. Gnomes partitioning app can somewhat do it I believe, in KDE’s partitioning app, it was completely broken last time I tried. Either way I lost two people back to Windows because of this
Yeah its not a perfect system, has some flaws, but its actual freedom from surveillance and late stage capitalism on the plus side.
Not bad for a free, modern desktop that looks stunning.
Absolutely! I’ve been on Linux since 2017 and KDE Plasma since 2019-ish. It outperforms Windows even in terms of usability/ease of use in most cases. My 70+ years old, tech-illiterate parents happily use it.
But things like mounting and partitioning make me scratch my head. KDEs partitioner requires sudo rights to even start and then formats partitions in a way that you need sudo rights to access it. It’s annoying and would be very easy to fix.
You can fix it yourself also, just add the command being run to the sudoers file and it will always run as root without needing your input.
Im sure chat gpt can give you the exact command to put in.
While I do agree with you on principle, keep in mind that while NTFS is technically supported in Linux there can still be issues. Reading is fine, but write can still be suspect. Someone a lot more experienced than I can correct this if I’m wrong, but it is not recommended to share a drive actively between Windows and Linux due to NTFS quirks.
I mount my Windows NTFS data disk as needed in CachyOS, and will build the NAS I keep putting off for active file sharing as I spend more time on the Linux partition.
Yeah NTFS is not a great experience indeed. You can only do so much without it being open source. But I also experienced issues with mounting ext4 or btrfs. It’s not a dealbreaker for me, but it tends to irritate new users while it seems easy to fix.
Very true, not a user friendly experience at all. My only experience with setting up automatic mounting was looking into mounting my “user drive” (separate SSD that I redirect all Windows stock folder structure like Documents or Downloads to) into at the time Manjaro, and abandoning the idea after reading about NTFS write concerns and experiencing chkdsk actions in Windows every time I even just mounted it. All my ext4 or btrfs drives were created during Linux installation and mapped automatically.
Admittedly in CachyOS now I have yet to generate a chkdsk after mounting, browsing or copying data out of my NTFS user drive, so that may have been a Manjaro thing (along with breaking either itself or the bootloader ever single update). Still not risking the drive by auto mounting it or writing to it.
Not sure, but I’ll give that a go this weekend when I have some time to play around with it. Many thanks!
The hard part is knowing exactly what language to search to get the result you want.
this was the only confusing thing I found withWheb I started using Linux, but once I got my drive mounting at boot at startup.
I don’t have any problem with doing it anymore but why don’t beginner friendly distros have like a gui version or something easier to do that with for new users?
You can mount your drives on boot in fstab (/etc/fstab). This is only a low-key pain in the ass, and it’s probably a good thing your internally installed drives won’t change very often.
If whatever method you use to mount them outright requires using the full
mountcommand, possibly with a shitload of parameters attached, you can also do it on boot as a cron job that fires on boot (crontab -e) by prefacing the command with@rebootrather than the usual set of time parameters. This is how I handle e.g. mounting complicated network shares on my servers. This will fire before you even get to your login screen, so the drives ought to be accessible by the time Steam has to do whatever it does.I had to figure this out the hard way because everywhere I asked the question I’d get told how I was wrong and it’s good actually. So good luck finding anything helpful for your specific install. I will share with you some links that kinda got me there. I had to figure out most of the steps individually and piece them together from multiple sources.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eoq_cgAWMmQ
https://universal-blue.discourse.group/t/auto-mounting-secondary-drives/970
I’m not sure sure how relevant those links will be as I was trying to do the same on bazzite and not zorin but hopefully they help. If you are able to install gnome disks (if you haven’t already) there is a checkbox to do it for you but I forget where it is. I have a little document typed up on my PC at home that I can share with you as well when I get there later on the off chance that it is helpful. If you have questions, ask away I’m not sure I will be helpful but I’ll do what I can.
FYI, linux seems to hate NTFS partitions and that may be a contributing factor here.
Chris Titus’ windows utility will decrapify Windows quite a bit, including removing telemetry, copilot and much more stuff for those unable/unwilling to move to Linux.
For those a bit more adventurous he provides a Microwin install image creator that tweaks a standard ISO to be as light as possible, removing as much crap as possible during install, making install un atended, and creating a local account.
