Never has been with windows on it.
Indeed, Linux and FLOSS more broadly was never about technology itself, it’s about empowering. It “just” happens to be where software change could lead to a pragmatic difference for so many lives.
Own your computer, own your devices, value your life and don’t interact with the numerical world through manipulative blinders.
There’s a reason I run Linux, and root my Android
Because it actually feels like my device now
(And fixing issues is significantly easier, if you know where to look)
The thing that makes me laugh/cry/be happy I switched to Linux, is that it’s in that state, but it’s a paid product.
If the license was free it was somewhat okay, but it’s not. People are still paying.
That’s a perfect way to put it. I remember starting college and being really excited about the cloud, having my stuff accessible anywhere, changes automatically saved, etc etc. but now I don’t want any of my shit anywhere near their servers, it’s mine and mine alone and I’ll manage it myself and buffer against losses the best I can. I’d rather have myself fuck up and break a hard drive rather than let microsoft or apple wipe my stuff over a bug or because I didn’t pay them enough. Horrible, misleading bullshit.
I think you’d like syncthing
this.
My Windows Computer Just Doesn’t Feel Like Mine Anymore.
Aww.
If you love it, set it free!
I prefer to keep it locked in a cage and disable as much of it’s bullshit as I can
M$ is terminal and most of the world is hooked up to a terminal entity; Most of the world is terminal.
Only now?
My Windows computer stopped felling mine when 10 came aroundAre there different versions of Windows 11? Mine doesn’t show ads at all.
Same
I’m curious about this. Do either of you run a custom dns for blocking ads, like adguard or pihole?
Did you turn off a bunch of stuff when you first got the PC?
Do you have corporate policies being applied in your registry?
I have Win 11 Pro. I had Starfield ads on my lock screen for a while. I also had those search recommendations, but that’s it. Now I have nothing. Maybe it’s related to EU?
Yeah, you all get all the nice things we don’t in the US.
Massgrave.dev can help you get an LTSC version of windows that have no ads
it never been
Windows 9x was low-bullshit.
NT and 2000 were corporate enough to be no-nonsense. They belonged to the administrator, but the administrator can be you.
ME was a mistake.
XP was not yet online enough to be properly skeezy.
But from Vista onward, yeah, it’s been an escalating shit-show that’s difficult to miss.
Win2k is peak windows
Vista sucked for sure, but Windows 7 was pretty great IMO. I was dragged kicking and screaming into the shit that’s Windows 10 because Steam stopped supporting 7.
I would still be using 7 if ransomware wasn’t a thing.
I went back to Mint instead.
The irony
Is BeOS still floating around?
@ChickenLadyLovesLife @dvdnet62 Not as such. I mean it is but its drivers are 25 years out of date now. YellowTab Zeta is out there too which was updated a bit but is still ancient.
But there is Haiku. Bigger, slower, more complicated, but it does a lot more.
As I recall, Gasse was offered something like $440 million for BeOS by Apple and he turned them down. Not sure it would have made any difference in anything by this point, but at least Objective-C wouldn’t have been littered with classes with the “NS” prefix.
@ChickenLadyLovesLife I was a big fan of BeOS. I reviewed it about quarter of a century ago:
… and I liked it a lot:
Yeah, BeOS was awesome. I remember a coworker showing it to me in 1996 - he also taught me how to wow the c-suite with giant printouts of insanely over-normalized databases, a parlor trick that has served me well over the years.
I am sorry but I don’t junderstand any of this.
> the c-suite
(?)
> with giant printouts of insanely over-normalized databases
(?)
> a parlor trick
(?) How is a database a trick?
What does this stuff mean?
No but here is a open source branch of it called haiku and it works great!
Sounds like a personal problem. Windows works great for me.
I can’t even remove the “Recommended” section from the Start menu
That’s disgusting
i mean it’s annoying but how is it disgusting?
it just shows recently opened files/software mixed in with stuff you open frequently, it’s not an ad section or anything.
but yeah i have disabled it on all my machines, because I’m not using it + disabling it adds two extra rows of pinned apps…It’s called hyperbole
Windows 10 LTSC FTW!!! I just installed it and wow is it snappier and devoid of nearly all of those annoyances. I have no idea if productivity apps are affected by its stripped down nature but for Steam gaming it’s perfect. I get less lag spikes on steamVR.
I haven’t trusted Windows in years. This is just for gaming. I have a physically separate hot swappable Optane SSDs for Linux and Windows Gaming.
For those who will winge at me for not just switching to Linux. During this process I gave a concerted effort to give Linux a go and chose Manjaro KDE to try for steamVR gaming. It sucked. Once I had worked out that it was a permissions issue (It’s always a fucking permissions issue under Linux) and just ran it under the root account, there was extremely high latency for the VR compositor to HMD display. Completely unusable as it made me sick and that’s usually very hard. I tried X11 and Wayland. Direct and Non Direct output modes. No success.
I was using Manjaro KDE and ended up switching to Pop OS because Manjaro would never work right with my GPU. Pop OS has worked very well out of the box though.
I chose Manjaro KDE as one of the SteamVR requirements is KDE Plasma. It’s required because it has a DRM function to allow SteamVR to take ownership of the DisplayPort.
A quick google search says that PopOS is Gnome based. But KDE can be installed over it? I might give it a go.
Odd. I retired from arch to Manjaro. I’m baffled at the depiction of it being difficult. It’s been a smooth 6 years so far…and yes, Nvidia.
EU should force a choice for all new PC. What OS do you want to run? Windows, Linux or Android? Then you would be able to see real competition in the OS market.
Maybe something like the raspberry pi OS chooser. In the best of worlds you have everything installed and just choose in the boot menu what to run.
Some manufacturers allow you to get a refund for pre installed windows if you feel like sitting on the phone for hours. Something about a lawsuit involving Microsoft and anticompetitive contracts with the manufacturer not allowing the distribution of other operating systems.
I’ve seen a story about someone who got a refund for their dell laptop but it was slow, and the support staff was rude about it during the process. They stated things like the Microsoft software is free and why would you want to remove windows anyway, passing him from department to department. It’s often $60-$80 depending on the version of windows etc.
Edit: I should clarify it might only be a US thing, I’ve heard people in France having some luck.
i mean you can just buy a Dell laptop with a copy of Ubuntu preloaded instead, they sell those as an option with most models
It’s always better to go that route. I also understand having hardware requirements and not being able to find a version of those models with Linux installed.
I like what system 76 is doing but I don’t think they really have competition in the US market right now. If you don’t mind a clevo and you live in the US I’d recommend them.
I think it’s a registry modification, but, I’ve seen windows start to ignore modifications to the registry so idk.
I’m using StartAllBack (paid software), it replace the start menu with a Windows 7 like one, and brings back the pre Windows 11 taskbar, it has no ads and good customization. There’s also Open Shell that is free and Start11 that’s also paid.
I love openshell, so many options !
Definitely switch search from tab to just the windows key however
You pay how much to be told no?
