I reeeeally wish they would just embrace and find open source software as a public good and get it over with. The equally glacial pace of adoption of OSS to avoid vendor lock in with MS is not exactly giving the OSS world the boost it deserves.
Yeah, well the DMA wasn’t going to cost most EU politicians much of their good ol’ corporate lobbying monies. But switching the EU off of Micro$oft would definitely not only lose those funds, but also introduce way more vigorous counter-lobbying.
One pro of the EU’s glacial pace is that they frog-boil the shareholders, meaning most counter-lobbying activities are relatively tame.
But damn, do I wish they would just give the finger to all those american corporations and start a 4-year transition to OSS.
This is me being selfish I’m fully aware, but I don’t want the EU to pull from those companies because it seems they’re the only countries willing to fight for the good causes and if they aren’t then the rest will suffer 10fold. At least in it’s current state it slowly feeds back to everyone else, I’m concerned if they pull the plug it’ll be full on anti-comsumer hellscape.
The EU is pumping a lot of money into FLOSS, often not even for administrative use (like, say, lemmy gets EU funding), but at far as adoption rate in administration is concerned well the Commission is one of the worst offenders. As in municipalities realising they can’t fully switch to LibreOffice because they need to apply for EU funds and the commission only accepts .docx. Parliament happily spending money on something and the executive getting around to getting its shit together are two different things.
OTOH it’s not all about Microsoft and the like, a lot of administrative software is special-purpose, written by private companies according to specs, paid for by public money. Making that kind of thing open source is a no-brainer. It’s also a way better use of money to improve and customise some open source ERP than to go to SAP and get a customised solution there.
And a lot of that has to do with lacking competency in administration – outside of police, specifically IT forensics, it’s usually quite dire. States have no issues figuring out whether a blueprint makes sense when they’re issuing building permits, road and railroad engineering, of course they can do that, but IT? Nope. Bring in the private consultants and private consultants are basically the marketing arm of big software companies.
The FSFE has an overview over the various terms but tldr FLOSS is the one that has the least amount of agitated neckbeards breathing down your neck because it a) includes both free software and open source and b) includes the “L” that clarifies that what’s meant is free as in speech, not free as in beer.
I wish we could join soon, but that’s also happening at the glacial pace
Yondoza@sh.itjust.works
on 03 Jun 12:04
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I agree it feels very slow, but identifying the correct action and then building consensus around that action takes time. Once consensus is built it is very stable though. That is supposed to be the biggest benefit of democracy; stability built through coalition.
I have a copy of Windows 10 LTSC that I have installed on a virtual machine just in case I need the one last program that I use that I cannot get to work on Linux.
Lately I upgraded my machine and had to reinstall everything. As I was installing Windows on my VM, it started demanding that I create an account and wouldn’t let me proceed without one, asked me to associate third party accounts to my OS and was generally being extremely intrusive and forceful in ways I didn’t remember it being before, like opening Edge and forcing me to click through an introduction that I didn’t want without giving me the option to close it. I then realized that I had forgotten to disable network access to my VM and that Windows had downloaded updates during the install.
I immediately destroyed that VM and started over again, this time without allowing it to connect to internet. Suddenly the experience was far better.
The moment I had let Windows connect to the internet it had thoroughly enshittified itself. It let me appreciate how badly Microsoft has enshittified Windows 10 over the years ever since its release. We are far away from the Windows 7 days.
It’s some sketchy pre-cracked Jack Sparrow edition I torrented to run exclusively offline in a VM and will never let it connect to the internet because I don’t trust it. I’m not too worried about getting security updates for it.
I exclusively use it to run Autodesk Inventor for making 3D printable objects. Once the STL is created I just drag and drop it out of the VM into my Linux machine. It’s the only communication with the outside world it will ever have.
I wish Microsoft would just let me buy a copy of Windows 11 Ultimate and be done with it. No restrictions, no bloat, privacy, just an exchange of money for a product.
latenightnoir@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 03 Jun 10:10
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I’m morbidly eager to see how they’ll handle the Win 10 EoL (yeah, yeah, it ain’t dyin’, just not getting updated, same thing to me tbh) in October. I bet it’ll be a shitshow.
thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
on 03 Jun 11:34
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No more security patches. That should be dead to you if you don’t want to host thousands of parasitic bots & malwares
I’m convinced the whole “your computer will instantly turn into a botnet that cripples children’s hospitals the moment you disable Windows Update” thing is part of Microsoft’s internet propaganda.
Like there are sysadmins for pretty big industries that schedule updates, sometimes once a month or even less frequently. Why aren’t they worried about all the 0-day remote code execution exploits that supposedly exist every single day?
thanksforallthefish@literature.cafe
on 03 Jun 13:49
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<sigh> I used to be one of those sysadmins, and the short answer is appropriate risk management, better network controls a locked down OS and immediate action to push out the patches for serious issues.
I quite frankly detest M$ but keeping your pc patched isn’t propaganda.
If you know enough to manage the risk (including proper network firewalls and good internet hygiene) then sure, keep going for a while. Zero days aren’t daily, they’re a handful per year.
On the other hand if you have no clue about ITSec then you genuinely need to upgrade asap because you’re metaphorically running around with your genitals exposed.
Your comment leads me to suggest you probably dont have the skills to do an appropriate risk assessment.
But you do you. I’m not your Dad
ObviouslyNotBanana@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 10:18
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NICE
MonkderVierte@lemmy.zip
on 03 Jun 10:54
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Since this sublemmy doesn’t have any requirement for the title to be the same as the source, can we actually have a correct title: “Microsoft abides to laws in EU and does <…>”, or even better “Microsoft is forced under EU law to <…>”.
The title makes it appear as if it’s out of charity and goodness of their corporate heart. (Fabrication)
Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com
on 03 Jun 15:14
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I mean they kind of are? It’s not like M$ couldn’t just pay the fines and keep things as is.
No its not, the object of a corp in this modern era we live in is to milk as much money out of the customer without caring about them. The EU laws are the only thing protecting their customers from microsofts greed. microsoft IS being forced to do this and thats a GOOD thing.
Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com
on 03 Jun 15:36
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The only mechanism of “enforcement” that the EU is levying is fees/fines. M$ can absorb a large amount of fees/fines pretty readily if it means complete market capture.
There is no “force” here when it’s just the “cost of doing business”.
The EU isn’t raiding M$'s headquarters and capturing board members/C-suites. There is no “force”.
Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com
on 03 Jun 19:12
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I don’t think you understand the fact that the DMA allows fines of up to 20% of a company’s global total turnover for repeated infractions.
And how many times has that happened?
None? Great, we’re on the same page now.
Knuschberkeks@leminal.space
on 03 Jun 20:00
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because no company has dared to ignore it yet. Those high fines are for repeated infractions, As in if you just pay the fine but don’t change the behaviour your fine goes up.
Saik0Shinigami@lemmy.saik0.com
on 03 Jun 20:11
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Yes… it’s only been 1.1 months since they’ve first issued fines under the DMA… What a long and litigated history! Definitely shows what you claim it does over it *checks notes* 2 issued fines ever.
Funny part is, DMA has been law since MAY 2023. So in 2 years… it issued 2 fines ever… less than 2 months ago.
The Financial Times reported in January that the EU was planning to soften its regulatory practices around Big Tech following an increase in pressure from the US, with the new EU Commission that took office in December reportedly being more focused on enforcing compliance than issuing hefty fines.
Weird… Doesn’t sound like the commission even wants to issue fines at all!
Microsoft is also after those juicy administrative contracts, and right now, with US-skepticism sky-rocketing everywhere in Europe, they are terrified that the EU might mandate that administrations have to use (or, at least, have to use more in the coming years) European-made software.
Loosing those EU contracts wouldn’t just be lost money at a time where Microsoft is pumping more and more money into AI with not a single cent of profit on the horizon, it’s also leaving the door open for a competitor to gain worldwide legitimacy and challenge their monopoly in business software.
And that is worst case scenario for them. That’s why every tech giant has been pourring billions into trying to capture the chinese market. Because where they did not succeed, another brand started taking their place.
How would you feel if, in the coming years, a good chunk of the EU administration were to switch to Nextcloud? If, following that move, ISPs started providing those same services to end user? If more and more people switched from MS Office to other office suites that ACTUALLY follow standards and are interoperable? Would one’s reasons for staying with the MS Ecosystem in general crumble?
And if you think that’s not possible, remeber where Yahoo was, and where they are now. In the recent Google trial, there were internal memos showing that Google was actually concerned about DuckDuckGo, and had to prepare a strategy to ripost just in case. DDG has 0.3% percent marketshare.
All giants have clay legs, it’s just a matter of making them bend the knee :)
The title makes it appear as if it’s out of charity and goodness of their corporate heart
Only to someone that has been living under a rock for the last decade. Everyone else is able to deduct from the “to European users” in the title that the EU forced their hand
Windows users are a revenue stream, not customers. M$ views it’s users as a sort of raw material that can be processed with dark patterns for ads and subscriptions. And like everything else, Americans are treated with the most disrespect and coercion.
Too little too late? Some European businesses have already made the change to open source. Shit should be free to anyone doing business with it anyway.
homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 13:12
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Please let them also remove all the XBox nonsense. The other day my laptop from work that runs Windows 11 Pro gave a big ass prompt if I didn’t want to try XBox Game Pass with the new Doom game. It’s basically an ad for games on a Pro machine, ridiculous.
You know what is truly ridiculous? It’s when I installed Windows N (the version without all that bullshit), but each time I launched a game, it complained that some Xbox app was missing. When I finally said, ‘Fuck it, let’s install that crap,’ I learned that it isn’t even possible to install on that Windows edition. Yet they would still show me the error about the missing app nonetheless. Every. Single. Time.
Wdym? All of Lemmy is literally a Linux circlejerk
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
on 03 Jun 19:19
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Exactly. They’re a little insufferable so tried to make a funny comment.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 19:56
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A freedom-focused decentralized platform is naturally going to attract people who love freedom-focused decentralized software. You should learn to love that about Lemmy, lest your own misguided desires contribute to your suffering.
dependencyinjection@discuss.tchncs.de
on 03 Jun 20:01
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Oh I do love that aspect of Lemmy, I just don’t want it shoved down my throat at every opportunity. I could make a post asking for windows advice and would be met with useless comments saying install Linux.
I use Linux for my media server, and I love it for that.
I tried to use Linux as my daily driver, partly due to the comments on here making it seem seamless. It was not seamless and a lot more involved than running windows for the handful of games I like to play on it.
I also like honesty and I don’t believe people on here are honest about the failings of Linux as a daily driver and that annoys me.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 20:09
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I think people here are honest about Linux, but there is a catch that often isn’t clarified - there are many distros and desktops out there and they are all optimized for particular use-cases.
Want to game and nothing else without technical headaches? Bazzite.
Want to game and love to tinker? EndeavorOS.
Want to do productivity stuff? Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Fedora.
Want updates fast, including graphics drivers? Arch or openSuse Tumbleweed. Want stability instead? Debian.
MacOS fan? GNOME desktop.
Windows fan? KDE Plasma or Cinnamon desktop.
It goes on and on. I still keep a Windows partition because a few things I need simply wont work properly on Linux no matter what I do… notably, the Affinity suite. But Linux as a whole is getting better fast. More people are working on it and that work is starting to snowball. I’m hopeful that in a few years I’ll finally be able to get away from Windows entirely… but you’re right, not everyone can. Not yet.
InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 20:17
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Every time I see PowerShell syntax, I have this dissonance where I feel like it should be better than Unix shells, its command are surely more descriptive, still… It disgusts me for some reason. Too long, maybe?
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 19:54
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Check out the debloat script. It can’t get rid of everything (like Edge) but it makes a HUGE difference.
Thanks for the suggestion. It’s my laptop from work, I have zero say in what software it runs, I don’t even have admin rights on it. None of my personal stuff runs Windows. But it might help other people on their own machines.
rottingleaf@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 14:07
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IMHO modern personal computing is as bullshit as XV century tournament armor.
RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
on 03 Jun 15:32
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But I thought Edge was so crucial for the system to function it can’t be removed? That’s what MS told me at least, and I definitely trust them
purplemonkeymad@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 18:57
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No that’s internet explorer. They “removed” it, but really it’s just hidden in a way so you can’t run it directly.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 19:52
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Windows 11 does not allow Edge to be removed. There may be some roundabout ways to do it, but the system actively puts up a LOT of roadblocks. It’s extremely trashy.
purplemonkeymad@lemmy.world
on 04 Jun 08:48
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Yea, but as you can see, it’s really just a browser added ontop. When they made xp, it was so deeply rooted it was silly. Windows explorer panels used it, I think the help reader application (remember that?) was completely re-written on it. Anything that didn’t look like a standard dialog from 2k or before, used the web engine for the UI. Hell you could even set the desktop to a webpage.
Wanted to play a game on my kid’s computer that had windows 11 N or some shit. Couldn’t play because it needed the “media pack”, which in its turn installs everything N stands for. Clown world.
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 19:50
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Windows 11 is freely available through official channels and only disables some personalization GUIs if you don’t activate. But you can still customize things without the GUI. There may be other gotchas to force you to pay up, but piracy isn’t even necessary.
By piracy I mean modifying some registry keys to trick the free version into thinking its activated
BlameTheAntifa@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 22:09
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I’m not sure Microsoft would agree, but I feel that’s fair game since the registry is readily available and accessible to any user. It seems clear that Microsoft now treats Windows as a marketing tool to get people to subscribe to their other services, anyway. The way they cram marketing and adverts into every process and corner of the OS, it’s a wonder they are still trying to charge at all.
U can half the size of windows if u use some of the debloater tools. U can also replace the start menu with the win7 version and that’s legitimately better.
kyub@discuss.tchncs.de
on 03 Jun 19:47
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In other words: Users of proprietary OS like Windows have so little control over their own devices that it’s newsworthy when the vendor allows you to uninstall 2-3 bundled things out of many more. But only in some countries! It’s pathetic.
finitebanjo@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 20:24
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Tbh everything listed is how 10 LTSC came by default for all users.
hangonasecond@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 20:39
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Windows 10 long term servicing channel. It’s intended for things like electronic signs but works great if you just want un bloated windows. It comes with most of the random bullshit not installed and has a longer period of security updates.
Because the EU at least remotely cares about it’s citizens.
Now let’s try the USA! How much does the USA cares about it’s citizens? Not all at the same time, please!
GreenKnight23@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 22:55
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Because the EU at least remotely cares about it’s citizens.
don’t get over ambitious. EU is challenging all Western tech because they see the dangers of it running unopposed within the US government.
don’t believe for a minute that any government has your interests in mind when they create policy. you only have the illusion of support when your interests and the government interests align.
And again; repeat after me: install Linux already. Just get it over with, demand Linux work stations at work,use Linux for yourself and for the first time ever experience freedom on your computer
I feel like this is one of those calls that get so repeatedly people get numbed.
Something along the lines of climate change, economic crisis, etc.
They are all true, but people are passivated.
For real though; GET THE DAMN LINUX. SPIN IT UP IN A VM. TRY THE LIVE VERSION. DUAL BOOT IT WITH WINDOWS. YOU LOSE NOTHING, WINDOWS IS STILL THERE. JUST TRY IT FOR ONCE.
It is painful to see people struggle with things that are easily solved.
lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 04 Jun 00:12
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I ripped the bandaid off a month or so ago. Went with LMDE. Haven’t looked back. Steam runs all my games through Proton just as good as they ran on Windows, if not better.
To be fair, some multiplayer titles (Fortnite, Valorant, recently Apex Legends, Splitgate 2) do not work due to anticheat being very Windows-specific, but other than that, I have not encountered any issues.
Currently playing World of Warcraft, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Minecraft, Gunfire Reborn, Endless Space 2, recently played Split Fiction, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, TES V Skyrim, Elite Dangerous, Warframe, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Cycle Frontier, Once Human, a bit of Star Citizen - each and every one of them played perfectly well.
I haven’t noticed issues in any singleplayer/co-op/MMO games I’ve tried. For multiplayer shooters, it gets worse. All Valve games are alright (of course), and some others are too. Apex Legends is a biggest loss, they’ve recently decided to arbitrarily drop all Linux support, despite working flawlessly in the past.
Used Debian, Manjaro, Mint (regular Ubuntu version), Fedora as a daily driver on PC; Debian, Ubuntu and a bit of Arch on servers.
Currently running Fedora. Debian is good, but I appreciate being closer to the bleeding edge, and while Flatpaks help bridge the gap, they also make more up-to-date distros remain stable, and you wouldn’t use Flatpaks for system packages which also matter.
Previously ran Manjaro - nice premise, but the team does not have the capacity to pull it off just stable and good enough. It does tend to break after a while. I still wish their team all the best and hope it will one day become my home again - but not before they sort their mess.
Arch on desktops is too much of a “debloated” experience for me - I don’t enjoy having to build my system from scratch, even though I know how. Also, the risk of updates borking the system is too high, and I’m not red-eyed enough to read all update notes. On experimental servers with just a few packages, though, it can be useful.
Mint was actually quite buggy for me too, despite folks generally insisting on stability as one of its selling points. Also, they are strong on promoting Cinnamon, and I’m a KDE fanboy (and a bit of a Gnome enjoyer).
Fedora caused me problems only once, and that is when I used universal Linux package to install proprietary NVidia drivers (use the package from Fedora repos to avoid my mistakes!). Other than that, and through several major updates, it works like a charm. It also automatically saves system images while updating, and you can easily load any. Stability-wise, it was same as Debian to me.
Currently running Fedora. Debian is good, but I appreciate being closer to the bleeding edge, and while Flatpaks help bridge the gap, they also make more up-to-date distros remain stable, and you wouldn’t use Flatpaks for system packages which also matter.
That’s absolutely valid. I’m the opposite, in that I’ll add something from backports or unstable if I wanna try something more “fresh”. I’ve got a few flatpaks on my Debian desktop systems; not a fan of their sheer size, but I guess having all the dependencies bundled together is kinda the point… I equate Debian to a new Toyota, where the tech might be “outdated” compared to other brands (shipping a 6-speed auto when everyone else is shipping 8/9-speed autos, for example), but they ship it that way because the tech has a proven track record and won’t break at inopportune moments, waiting to “update” when the next gen/version is more mature.
Previously ran Manjaro - nice premise, but the team does not have the capacity to pull it off just stable and good enough. It does tend to break after a while. I still wish their team all the best and hope it will one day become my home again - but not before they sort their mess.
I hold similar view points. It looks good… Needs more team members though. Maybe I’ll throw it in a VM.
Arch on desktops is too much of a “debloated” experience for me - I don’t enjoy having to build my system from scratch, even though I know how. Also, the risk of updates borking the system is too high, and I’m not red-eyed enough to read all update notes. On experimental servers with just a few packages, though, it can be useful.
Yeah… I’ve got 5 kids, ain’t nobody got time in my house for fixing something that shouldn’t have broken 😂
Mint was actually quite buggy for me too, despite folks generally insisting on stability as one of its selling points. Also, they are strong on promoting Cinnamon, and I’m a KDE fanboy (and a bit of a Gnome enjoyer).
Ah, see, I used LMDE, not the Ubuntu-based one. I don’t like the way Canonical is going, but I really like Cinnamon, and having a rock-solid Debian base with some Mint goodies on top was more than enough to get me to switch on both my personal laptop (Thinkpad T14 G1 AMD) and my gaming PC (custom build, 5800X3D/7900XTX). I considered Bazzite for a hot minute, but I’m much more familiar with Debian than Fedora (again, used Debian for years on servers, and was the first distro I actually installed on my own hardware when I first discovered Linux), plus there’s a literal mountain range of documentation, forum posts, tips, and tricks for Debian. Not saying there isn’t for Fedora, but I just know how to find info for Debian better than other distros.
Fedora caused me problems only once, and that is when I used universal Linux package to install proprietary NVidia drivers (use the package from Fedora repos to avoid my mistakes!). Other than that, and through several major updates, it works like a charm. It also automatically saves system images while updating, and you can easily load any. Stability-wise, it was same as Debian to me.
Nice. I like Fedora, very clean, but the constant updates drove me nuts. I used Fedora on an older laptop for a while, but I found that I was running updates more often than just…using it.
Going Debian is fully valid too! And more generally, whatever distro works for you is the best. There’s a good reason there are so many.
Damn, 5 kids…you’re a hero lol
Fedora sure is mature as well, but Bazzite in particular is immutable, which adds a level of complexity you may not be ready for. Debian can be used as a gaming distro, at least for as long as you’re not using the latest and greatest hardware.
Constant updates are pretty much a feature of all distros close to the bleeding edge. That’s what makes them bleeding edge to begin with. With Debian, you’ll be forgiven to forget updates even exist.
I lose Virtual Desktop for my wireless VR, 3ds Max and Solidworks for CAM. If all I did was gaming, media and browsing, I’d switch. Which is why my HTPC, only used for couch gaming and media, is running Bazzite.
To get pedantic for a second. The title of this post is “Microsoft gives…” as if this was an altruistic act that Microsoft decided to do for some people, when the article states they did it to comply with a law.
A much better title would have been “EU Forces Microsoft to Give Users More Control:” It returns the credit to the people who deserve the credit and clarifies that it wasn’t something Microsoft did willingly.
01189998819991197253@infosec.pub
on 04 Jun 02:19
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Not pedantic. The specificity, imo, is extremely important here, and the poor phrasing really bothered me, too.
Thank you, I’m not American but MS has so many ‘features’ that have been destroying my sanity, I will look into this tool when I’m back at my desktop 👍
FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world
on 03 Jun 22:37
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[Welcome to the Fundamentals of Project Planning and Management Students course! The discussion forum is great for sharing ideas and clearing doubts. Joining the live Zoom meetings adds value by offering real-time interaction and deeper understanding of the course.
Xubuntu is stable, lightweight, easy to install, and requires no tinkering. No idea about gaming, but I’d choose it over Debian and PopOS at any given time.
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world
on 04 Jun 05:42
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I’m sad to say I had to drop Linux for a while because I run Nvidia. I heard that AMD is fine, and that Nvidia is baaaadically fine with a few issues still so I gave it a shot. But games just genuinely run noticeably worse with an Nvidia card. Games would lose 20-30 frames. Maybe not a big deal with my setup if I was using a 60hz monitor since most were still above 60, but I’m using 144hz.
It sucks too because it’s not fedora or Linux as a whole’s fault. It’s Nvidia’s.
Thought about keeping it but already had a few things I needed to dual boot windows for. If I still need windows for gaming, basically that leaves idly browsing the web as fedora’s main use. And I think that’s a bit overkill.
Looking forward to eventually getting an AMD card (Legit if you’re reading this and thinking about upgrading or building a new PC and think there even a small chance you’d go with Linux in the future, go AMD) or even just a whole new build. That way I can just delegate my current machine for those few tasks I need windows for, and have a main machine for general use.
Same for me, sorta. I have to dualboot Windows and Linux because I just can’t seem to fix the jankiness of my gaming experience on the latter. I wanna make a full AMD build but I not really a good idea to splurge in this economy.
MrScottyTay@sh.itjust.works
on 04 Jun 22:18
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My gaming rig was the first thing to go full Linux because I was sick of dealing with windows for a HTPC and wanted bazzite for the steam gaming mode. Not had any issues yet.
I did wait till I got a an AMD card though. But my GF uses a 3050 for bazzite desktop and she’s had no issues yet either. She had lots of issues with the 1050Ti she had before then though.
valkyrieangela@lemmy.blahaj.zone
on 04 Jun 06:08
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My whole system is AMD so switching to Linux was a breeze. A few days ago I installed Fedora KDE Plasma because I genuinely enjoyed the look and feel of Windows, but I wanted it without the Microsoft part. And I have to say, no regrets. I’m getting everything done without the BS, and all my games work just fine. It did need some very weird tinkering to set it up properly, and I made ChatGPT work overtime to feed me answers. Nobody would have to put in the amount of effort I did though, and if it wasn’t for my niche problems, everything would have been handled without a hitch. The terminal still scares me but I’ve learned several tricks.
discount_door_garlic@lemmy.world
on 04 Jun 09:06
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I know its not everybody’s cup of tea, but plain standard Ubuntu these days has a lot of polish and interoperability. The addition of gnome tweaks, extensions, and flatpak have left me not wanting much extra customisation.
This is after being on a dozen other distros and finding ironically they can be less customisable unless I want to spend an entire in terminal.
BigMacHole@sopuli.xyz
on 04 Jun 04:40
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Europeans have the Freedom to Uninstall SPYWARE? LoL COMMIES here in America we have TRUE FREEDOM of being FORCE FED SPYWARE with NO Other options!
discount_door_garlic@lemmy.world
on 04 Jun 08:57
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the other option is a faster, more privacy focused, free, open source operating system.
I made the switch a little over a year ago, I know not everybody can/wants to - but major distros are honestly polished enough these days that I haven’t looked back, I should have switched to Linux years ago.
Not everyone will agree, but I think Ubuntu + installing apps through Flatpak is a winning option.
Am i missing something? If i had edge, store and bing forced down my throat my win11 install wouldve been long gone, but imo thst stuff was already removable before?
From what I’ve gathered here and elsewhere they never really went full throttle on all that stuff for most of us here in the EU.
Now don’t get me wrong, W11 is utter shite, and I had to essentially build a new computer from scratch to even get it running properly, but I still haven’t seen any ads or any other bullshit like that.
This is exactly why my old computer is merrily running Mint, and it likes it.
Edit: If it wasn’t for the fact that I happen to primarily use Cinema 4D for work I wouldn’t even have bothered, probably. Relearning 20+ years of software flow for the other options seemed silly at the time, but I would’ve reconsidered had I known what a mess W11 would become for me and in general.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
on 04 Jun 14:29
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I think GDPR and related laws, really tempered what Microsoft did to the whole of the European region. They didn’t want to deal with it, so they made as much as they could, opt-in. As opposed to the north american policies of either opt-out, or forced-on.
IDK. I don’t work at Microsoft, I’m just guessing. 🙃
I love mint on my old laptop (which I’m using right now) I just wish it was more compatable with newer hardware as neither it nor ubuntu work properly on my new desktop build so I’m stuck on ghost spectre instead.
outhouseperilous@lemmy.dbzer0.com
on 04 Jun 19:39
nextcollapse
Now switch package managers and run all your drives on different obscure file systems! Make every login cycle through plasma gnome an unhinged custom DE and raw terminal where a camera with sign language recognition is the only valid input!
Create a script to revert to systemd every third startup!
I would love to, but we stiill use Windows specific software (and sometimes even Dos specific software!) but we already do that through a VM.
The other issue is the extensions we have for Microsoft Office just won’t work on the Linux alternatives and even then Libreoffice isn’t good enough for half the staff in my accounting firm because it lacks certain features for now.
Most companies who work in browser based software + email can easily switch to Linux and they would barely notice it.
I would love to, but we stiill use Windows specific software
If I had 1 cent every time I read that… and I pulled those cents together… and then paid software developers to build that missing software for other OSes like Linux… then we’d gradually see less of those comments.
It’s as if the isolation was the business model, proprietary software insuring that alternatives do not exist because users do not bother to get together and unstuck themselves from glowingly dangerous (security wise but probably even financially dependencies.
Hopefully initiatives like NLNet are precisely trying to alleviate such challenges. Until them compatibility layers like Proton are showing the way with arguably some of the most complex and demanding in terms of performance software, namely games.
If I had 1 cent every time I read that… and I pulled those cents together… and then paid software developers to build that missing software for other OSes like Linux… then we’d gradually see less of those comments.
There is a version of the software that works in the browser, but it’s not really that great. That’s what you get when you legally need to use specific software (even the Dutch tax office still use the same old version we use). There are other alternatives, but it’s a massive investment of time to test and switch to that. Something we are forced to do in the near future, but it’s gonna take a lot of time inclusing a lot of time of people with hourly rates of over the 200 EUR excluding VAT. I estimate it will cost us maybe 50% of our yearly revenue to fully switch an organisation to Linux and we will loose a lot of people working here where there are a lot of issues with finding new people for accounting firms.
I have been trying to install Microsoft Office in Linux mint on my personal PC cause I have more issues with LibreOffice when using MSOffice files (and the people receiving the files will be using MSOffice as well) than I have with games. I tried it using Bottles (Wine) with multiple different installers, but no luck so far.
Not sure what NLNet is going to do about software lol, I believe you mean something different. NLNet is an instance that is there for people living with lymphedema and/or lipedema and their loved ones.
There are also BlueHats in France showing how administration is using AND consequently funding FLOSS code.gouv.fr/en/bluehats/ by paying for sysadmin, feature dev, maintenance, etc.
Because laws were made by incompetent and malicious people.
Laws should mandate protocols and formats, not implementations. Protocols and formats mandated by the law should be simple. The whole humanity was just fine transmitting telegrams by Morse code consisting of letter groups. Then it was just fine with fax. If what we absolutely require to stay productive needs to be so astronomically complex that one programmer, given ready libraries for XML, encodings, compression etc, can’t write a fully functional and usable by everyone editor for that in 1 month - then such a protocol or format is not good enough to be mandated by law.
Blame the US for that, they are generally the country that goes most against international countries, things like ISO codes for dates, accounting standards, but also things like the way they make invoices etc.
The ISO standards are generally made to make it easier to communicate with each other and here in Europe we also have some really good things going with the VAT rulings and later on with the invoice exchange protocol that is mandatory in Belgium from 2026 onwards.
I also think that beliving that “laws where made by incompetent and malicious people” is a glass half empty way of looking against it and as somebody who has a decent amount of hours learning national and international laws (mostly about taxes) I understand that a lot of them where just made in a different time and people abusing the system cause “quick” fixes to be applied instead of rewriting the enitre relevant law.
even then Libreoffice isn’t good enough for half the staff in my accounting firm because it lacks certain features for now.
The worst part is where some functionality breaks in a document bigger than a holiday card. I mean formulae vanishing.
I think OOO around year 2009 was very stable and without such annoying bugs. But I haven’t tested it there TBH.
Seriously, feature parity is a dead end. If there were a cross-platform office suite that would at least support the absolutely necessary things with a format not much more complex than org-mode, big documents (300 pages without degrading performance) and UTF-8, it would be fine. I think. That format can even be XML-based, just … why would you have vanishing objects in a document past their certain number? Do they have an unsigned byte counter somewhere?
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
on 04 Jun 14:27
nextcollapse
For those curious, if you can get a European Windows product key, you can install the “N” version of Windows. Be warned, it only works with certain product keys…
The standard Windows installer should give the option of “Windows 10” or “Windows 10 N” (or similar). The N version is basically bloatware free out of the box…
The regular version has a bunch of promos pre-installed, like candy crush, and other things that most people couldn’t give a shit about…
Recently I’ve been playing a “fun” game with my work laptop where I’ll remove copilot, and a few days later it will appear again. Weeee.
In that case, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a policy in place to enable copilot on my works systems… I’m sure someone who works here, probably higher up the food chain than me, wants it enabled, and the ham fisted policy maker can’t create a policy just for those who want it, so everyone gets it because the bosses son Shane decided that he wants to see how much of his work can get done by AI so he can do even less while on the clock.
Companies absolutely HATE copilot. I remember they didn’t even like Siri enabled on the Mac’s where I used to work. No way in hell copilot is getting a pass.
MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca
on 04 Jun 19:34
nextcollapse
Heh, it’s a small business and bossman isn’t exactly anti-AI.
sylver_dragon@lemmy.world
on 05 Jun 01:07
nextcollapse
I work for a fairly large company, and we’re hearing about “AI” constantly. CoPilot is available and its use encouraged. Also, in the cybersecurity space, AI is fucking everywhere. Vendors won’t shut up about their “AI Enabled” products. And the new hotness is “Agentic AI”, which is basically automation, but we’re going to let AI hallucinations fire off the automated process which could bring production systems down.
Good times are surely coming. /s
Don’t underestimate management desire to be absolutely indistinguishable from their competition.
They read the Harvard Business Review, learn new terms they don’t understanding, make a PowerPoint out of it and voila, they are “innovative” like everyone else.
If HBR put “AI” on its cover you can be damn sure all those innovators are going to put AI wherever they can.
N editions should exclude just certain media features. I remember it trying in Win 7 days and never touched it again, never saw a point. Some additional info. Important bit is to not use Home edition, use Pro, Education or Enterprise instead.
As for Copilot, is there anything under these registry keys?
So I could have a usable machine at work? Good. I am forced to upgrade from win7 to win11 in the lab, and current win11 crap did not appeal to me at all. And it has WSL, so at least it can actually be used for work.
Uninstalling the store would be the biggest feature. A lot of telemetry is tied to it. I tried some of the “debloaters” out there, but the windows Installation breaks after a couple of months (I assume when ms pushes a new major update).
threaded - newest
Gotta LOVE the EU, they’re working at a glacial pace but sooner or later (most likely later) it changes the landscape for the better.
If only enshittification would happen slow enough for the EU to catch up to.
I reeeeally wish they would just embrace and find open source software as a public good and get it over with. The equally glacial pace of adoption of OSS to avoid vendor lock in with MS is not exactly giving the OSS world the boost it deserves.
Yeah, well the DMA wasn’t going to cost most EU politicians much of their good ol’ corporate lobbying monies. But switching the EU off of Micro$oft would definitely not only lose those funds, but also introduce way more vigorous counter-lobbying.
One pro of the EU’s glacial pace is that they frog-boil the shareholders, meaning most counter-lobbying activities are relatively tame.
But damn, do I wish they would just give the finger to all those
americancorporations and start a 4-year transition to OSS.This is me being selfish I’m fully aware, but I don’t want the EU to pull from those companies because it seems they’re the only countries willing to fight for the good causes and if they aren’t then the rest will suffer 10fold. At least in it’s current state it slowly feeds back to everyone else, I’m concerned if they pull the plug it’ll be full on anti-comsumer hellscape.
The EU is pumping a lot of money into FLOSS, often not even for administrative use (like, say, lemmy gets EU funding), but at far as adoption rate in administration is concerned well the Commission is one of the worst offenders. As in municipalities realising they can’t fully switch to LibreOffice because they need to apply for EU funds and the commission only accepts .docx. Parliament happily spending money on something and the executive getting around to getting its shit together are two different things.
OTOH it’s not all about Microsoft and the like, a lot of administrative software is special-purpose, written by private companies according to specs, paid for by public money. Making that kind of thing open source is a no-brainer. It’s also a way better use of money to improve and customise some open source ERP than to go to SAP and get a customised solution there.
And a lot of that has to do with lacking competency in administration – outside of police, specifically IT forensics, it’s usually quite dire. States have no issues figuring out whether a blueprint makes sense when they’re issuing building permits, road and railroad engineering, of course they can do that, but IT? Nope. Bring in the private consultants and private consultants are basically the marketing arm of big software companies.
I know what FOSS and OSS is, but what is FLOSS? Search gave me only dental hygiene results.
Free, Libre, and Open Source Software
The FSFE has an overview over the various terms but tldr FLOSS is the one that has the least amount of agitated neckbeards breathing down your neck because it a) includes both free software and open source and b) includes the “L” that clarifies that what’s meant is free as in speech, not free as in beer.
…and I guess it’s about software hygiene?
Thank you for the explanation and link!
Schleswig Holstein (sp?) are doing so, ditto Copenhagen and Aarhaus (DK) and I believe France are looking into it
Yeah, but it’s all piecemeal and small batches of workstations. There’s no full national scale moves.
It’s an entire german state cutting off 800k p.a of MS revenue. That’s not piecemeal is it ?
1 out of 16 states. In 1 out of 27 countries.
Where is Estonia or Finland or the Netherlands to set the bar higher?
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I wish we could join soon, but that’s also happening at the glacial pace
I agree it feels very slow, but identifying the correct action and then building consensus around that action takes time. Once consensus is built it is very stable though. That is supposed to be the biggest benefit of democracy; stability built through coalition.
They’re moving faster than any other government regulatory body.
I have a copy of Windows 10 LTSC that I have installed on a virtual machine just in case I need the one last program that I use that I cannot get to work on Linux.
Lately I upgraded my machine and had to reinstall everything. As I was installing Windows on my VM, it started demanding that I create an account and wouldn’t let me proceed without one, asked me to associate third party accounts to my OS and was generally being extremely intrusive and forceful in ways I didn’t remember it being before, like opening Edge and forcing me to click through an introduction that I didn’t want without giving me the option to close it. I then realized that I had forgotten to disable network access to my VM and that Windows had downloaded updates during the install.
I immediately destroyed that VM and started over again, this time without allowing it to connect to internet. Suddenly the experience was far better.
The moment I had let Windows connect to the internet it had thoroughly enshittified itself. It let me appreciate how badly Microsoft has enshittified Windows 10 over the years ever since its release. We are far away from the Windows 7 days.
Ltsc or ltsc iot? Only the IOT lasts long enough and is debloated.
It’s some sketchy pre-cracked Jack Sparrow edition I torrented to run exclusively offline in a VM and will never let it connect to the internet because I don’t trust it. I’m not too worried about getting security updates for it.
I exclusively use it to run Autodesk Inventor for making 3D printable objects. Once the STL is created I just drag and drop it out of the VM into my Linux machine. It’s the only communication with the outside world it will ever have.
I wish Microsoft would just let me buy a copy of Windows 11 Ultimate and be done with it. No restrictions, no bloat, privacy, just an exchange of money for a product.
I’m morbidly eager to see how they’ll handle the Win 10 EoL (yeah, yeah, it ain’t dyin’, just not getting updated, same thing to me tbh) in October. I bet it’ll be a shitshow.
No more security patches. That should be dead to you if you don’t want to host thousands of parasitic bots & malwares
I’m convinced the whole “your computer will instantly turn into a botnet that cripples children’s hospitals the moment you disable Windows Update” thing is part of Microsoft’s internet propaganda.
Like there are sysadmins for pretty big industries that schedule updates, sometimes once a month or even less frequently. Why aren’t they worried about all the 0-day remote code execution exploits that supposedly exist every single day?
<sigh> I used to be one of those sysadmins, and the short answer is appropriate risk management, better network controls a locked down OS and immediate action to push out the patches for serious issues.
I quite frankly detest M$ but keeping your pc patched isn’t propaganda.
If you know enough to manage the risk (including proper network firewalls and good internet hygiene) then sure, keep going for a while. Zero days aren’t daily, they’re a handful per year.
On the other hand if you have no clue about ITSec then you genuinely need to upgrade asap because you’re metaphorically running around with your genitals exposed.
Your comment leads me to suggest you probably dont have the skills to do an appropriate risk assessment.
But you do you. I’m not your Dad
NICE
And local (offline) accounts when?
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Still using it that way.
Hoops to jump through on fresh install but still possible afaik.
🐧
The only correct answer. Also too little too late for MS. Suck up a little bit of inconvenience to gain back your life with 🐧
So… they’re doing exactly what apple was forced to do.
Since this sublemmy doesn’t have any requirement for the title to be the same as the source, can we actually have a correct title: “Microsoft abides to laws in EU and does <…>”, or even better “Microsoft is forced under EU law to <…>”.
The title makes it appear as if it’s out of charity and goodness of their corporate heart. (Fabrication)
I mean they kind of are? It’s not like M$ couldn’t just pay the fines and keep things as is.
No its not, the object of a corp in this modern era we live in is to milk as much money out of the customer without caring about them. The EU laws are the only thing protecting their customers from microsofts greed. microsoft IS being forced to do this and thats a GOOD thing.
The only mechanism of “enforcement” that the EU is levying is fees/fines. M$ can absorb a large amount of fees/fines pretty readily if it means complete market capture.
There is no “force” here when it’s just the “cost of doing business”.
The EU isn’t raiding M$'s headquarters and capturing board members/C-suites. There is no “force”.
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And how many times has that happened?
None? Great, we’re on the same page now.
because no company has dared to ignore it yet. Those high fines are for repeated infractions, As in if you just pay the fine but don’t change the behaviour your fine goes up.
pinsentmasons.com/…/first-fines-issued-eu-digital…
Yes… it’s only been 1.1 months since they’ve first issued fines under the DMA… What a long and litigated history! Definitely shows what you claim it does over it *checks notes* 2 issued fines ever.
Funny part is, DMA has been law since MAY 2023. So in 2 years… it issued 2 fines ever… less than 2 months ago.
But right! NO COMPANY EVER DARES IGNORE IT!
LMFAO. Right.
theverge.com/…/apple-meta-eu-dma-antitrust-fines
Weird… Doesn’t sound like the commission even wants to issue fines at all!
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Microsoft is also after those juicy administrative contracts, and right now, with US-skepticism sky-rocketing everywhere in Europe, they are terrified that the EU might mandate that administrations have to use (or, at least, have to use more in the coming years) European-made software.
Loosing those EU contracts wouldn’t just be lost money at a time where Microsoft is pumping more and more money into AI with not a single cent of profit on the horizon, it’s also leaving the door open for a competitor to gain worldwide legitimacy and challenge their monopoly in business software.
And that is worst case scenario for them. That’s why every tech giant has been pourring billions into trying to capture the chinese market. Because where they did not succeed, another brand started taking their place.
How would you feel if, in the coming years, a good chunk of the EU administration were to switch to Nextcloud? If, following that move, ISPs started providing those same services to end user? If more and more people switched from MS Office to other office suites that ACTUALLY follow standards and are interoperable? Would one’s reasons for staying with the MS Ecosystem in general crumble?
And if you think that’s not possible, remeber where Yahoo was, and where they are now. In the recent Google trial, there were internal memos showing that Google was actually concerned about DuckDuckGo, and had to prepare a strategy to ripost just in case. DDG has 0.3% percent marketshare.
All giants have clay legs, it’s just a matter of making them bend the knee :)
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Only to someone that has been living under a rock for the last decade. Everyone else is able to deduct from the “to European users” in the title that the EU forced their hand
Correct. You’re right, without context (or as you put it - living under a rock) one comes to the wrong conclusion.
THATS RIGHT MICROSOFT
Windows users are a revenue stream, not customers. M$ views it’s users as a sort of raw material that can be processed with dark patterns for ads and subscriptions. And like everything else, Americans are treated with the most disrespect and coercion.
Too little too late? Some European businesses have already made the change to open source. Shit should be free to anyone doing business with it anyway.
Microsoft: “Suck it, Americans”
Please let them also remove all the XBox nonsense. The other day my laptop from work that runs Windows 11 Pro gave a big ass prompt if I didn’t want to try XBox Game Pass with the new Doom game. It’s basically an ad for games on a Pro machine, ridiculous.
You know what is truly ridiculous? It’s when I installed Windows N (the version without all that bullshit), but each time I launched a game, it complained that some Xbox app was missing. When I finally said, ‘Fuck it, let’s install that crap,’ I learned that it isn’t even possible to install on that Windows edition. Yet they would still show me the error about the missing app nonetheless. Every. Single. Time.
You can already do that:
Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxApp" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxIdentityProvider" | Remove-AppxPackage -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxSpeechToTextOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxGameOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.XboxGamingOverlay" | Remove-AppxPackage Get-AppxPackage "Microsoft.Xbox.TCUI" | Remove-AppxPackage Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\GameBar" -Name "AutoGameModeEnabled" -Type DWord -Value 0 Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKCU:\System\GameConfigStore" -Name "GameDVR_Enabled" -Type DWord -Value 0 If (!(Test-Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR")) { New-Item -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR" | Out-Null } Set-ItemProperty -Path "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GameDVR" -Name "AllowGameDVR" -Type DWord -Value 0You’re welcome
That’s a ridiculous step by step guide. Let me see if I can simplify.
Step 1: plugin your ventoy flash drive with Linux distro
Fuck sake the Linux subs are leaking.
Wdym? All of Lemmy is literally a Linux circlejerk
Exactly. They’re a little insufferable so tried to make a funny comment.
A freedom-focused decentralized platform is naturally going to attract people who love freedom-focused decentralized software. You should learn to love that about Lemmy, lest your own misguided desires contribute to your suffering.
Oh I do love that aspect of Lemmy, I just don’t want it shoved down my throat at every opportunity. I could make a post asking for windows advice and would be met with useless comments saying install Linux.
I use Linux for my media server, and I love it for that.
I tried to use Linux as my daily driver, partly due to the comments on here making it seem seamless. It was not seamless and a lot more involved than running windows for the handful of games I like to play on it.
I also like honesty and I don’t believe people on here are honest about the failings of Linux as a daily driver and that annoys me.
I think people here are honest about Linux, but there is a catch that often isn’t clarified - there are many distros and desktops out there and they are all optimized for particular use-cases.
Want to game and nothing else without technical headaches? Bazzite. Want to game and love to tinker? EndeavorOS. Want to do productivity stuff? Ubuntu, Kubuntu, or Fedora.
Want updates fast, including graphics drivers? Arch or openSuse Tumbleweed. Want stability instead? Debian.
MacOS fan? GNOME desktop. Windows fan? KDE Plasma or Cinnamon desktop.
It goes on and on. I still keep a Windows partition because a few things I need simply wont work properly on Linux no matter what I do… notably, the Affinity suite. But Linux as a whole is getting better fast. More people are working on it and that work is starting to snowball. I’m hopeful that in a few years I’ll finally be able to get away from Windows entirely… but you’re right, not everyone can. Not yet.
Good concise write up
Every time I see PowerShell syntax, I have this dissonance where I feel like it should be better than Unix shells, its command are surely more descriptive, still… It disgusts me for some reason. Too long, maybe?
Check out the debloat script. It can’t get rid of everything (like Edge) but it makes a HUGE difference.
github.com/Raphire/Win11Debloat
Thanks for the suggestion. It’s my laptop from work, I have zero say in what software it runs, I don’t even have admin rights on it. None of my personal stuff runs Windows. But it might help other people on their own machines.
IMHO modern personal computing is as bullshit as XV century tournament armor.
Something should be done.
Install Linux
I already use Linux and FreeBSD.
Me too, I have an Android and a PS4.
I love being in EU
But I thought Edge was so crucial for the system to function it can’t be removed? That’s what MS told me at least, and I definitely trust them
No that’s internet explorer. They “removed” it, but really it’s just hidden in a way so you can’t run it directly.
Windows 11 does not allow Edge to be removed. There may be some roundabout ways to do it, but the system actively puts up a LOT of roadblocks. It’s extremely trashy.
Yea, but as you can see, it’s really just a browser added ontop. When they made xp, it was so deeply rooted it was silly. Windows explorer panels used it, I think the help reader application (remember that?) was completely re-written on it. Anything that didn’t look like a standard dialog from 2k or before, used the web engine for the UI. Hell you could even set the desktop to a webpage.
It was ahead of its time, but in a bad way.
I just found out the other day that items pinned to the taskbar are in %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar. 🤦♂️
Microsoft is a sad parody of itself.
The home of the brave, and the land of the free.
Wanted to play a game on my kid’s computer that had windows 11 N or some shit. Couldn’t play because it needed the “media pack”, which in its turn installs everything N stands for. Clown world.
dont be fooled. stop supporting the enshittification now or be left behind. Bill Gates and the other american terrorists have caused enough harm.
you are in control once you stop using anything from american corpos.
stop supporting the enshittification!
You do realize that Bill Gates hasn’t been involved with MS for many years now, right?
ofcourse. he already did more than enough. also steve jobs. we are all waiting for the google bros to vanish. hoping for the best.
Funny what happens when you have a government that actually gives a shit.
Thats what happens when you get unionised.
(because the EU is a type of Union)
I’m sorry, I’m not familiar with this concept…
I just wish they didn’t also constantly try to force backdoors into everything…
European governments and the EU definitely don’t care about us, their citizens, but most do see the threat coming from USA these days, thankfully
This is why when u pirate windows u always pirate the European version. Not that I condone pirating windows that would be immoral and wrong.
Pirating Windows is wrong, but the lesser evil compared to buying Windows. Ideally, you shouldn’t do either
Pirating windows and adobe is never wrong.
just because I could!
I need windows for my cad program so I just run it in a vm
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Windows 11 is freely available through official channels and only disables some personalization GUIs if you don’t activate. But you can still customize things without the GUI. There may be other gotchas to force you to pay up, but piracy isn’t even necessary.
By piracy I mean modifying some registry keys to trick the free version into thinking its activated
I’m not sure Microsoft would agree, but I feel that’s fair game since the registry is readily available and accessible to any user. It seems clear that Microsoft now treats Windows as a marketing tool to get people to subscribe to their other services, anyway. The way they cram marketing and adverts into every process and corner of the OS, it’s a wonder they are still trying to charge at all.
U can half the size of windows if u use some of the debloater tools. U can also replace the start menu with the win7 version and that’s legitimately better.
In other words: Users of proprietary OS like Windows have so little control over their own devices that it’s newsworthy when the vendor allows you to uninstall 2-3 bundled things out of many more. But only in some countries! It’s pathetic.
Tbh everything listed is how 10 LTSC came by default for all users.
10 ltsc?
Windows 10 long term servicing channel. It’s intended for things like electronic signs but works great if you just want un bloated windows. It comes with most of the random bullshit not installed and has a longer period of security updates.
In addition to what Hangon said, some copies of LTSC 10 still have support until 2027 unlike other Windows 10 versions.
If you wanted to try it out on a spare device without buying then ye’d be digging yerself a massgrave wink.
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I uninstalled edge from my MS PC could no longer use the standard Minecraft launcher due to missing dependencies
So being able to uninstall apps on your computer is news?
No no, on Windows it is not your computer, it is “This computer”. The days of “My computer” are long gone.
Because the EU at least remotely cares about it’s citizens.
Now let’s try the USA! How much does the USA cares about it’s citizens? Not all at the same time, please!
don’t get over ambitious. EU is challenging all Western tech because they see the dangers of it running unopposed within the US government.
don’t believe for a minute that any government has your interests in mind when they create policy. you only have the illusion of support when your interests and the government interests align.
True, but it seems like the EUs interests aligns with public interest a lot more often than it does in the U.S.
Id trade for sure. As an American, I am conditioned to settle for the lesser of two evils.
And again; repeat after me: install Linux already. Just get it over with, demand Linux work stations at work,use Linux for yourself and for the first time ever experience freedom on your computer
I feel like this is one of those calls that get so repeatedly people get numbed.
Something along the lines of climate change, economic crisis, etc.
They are all true, but people are passivated.
For real though; GET THE DAMN LINUX. SPIN IT UP IN A VM. TRY THE LIVE VERSION. DUAL BOOT IT WITH WINDOWS. YOU LOSE NOTHING, WINDOWS IS STILL THERE. JUST TRY IT FOR ONCE.
It is painful to see people struggle with things that are easily solved.
I ripped the bandaid off a month or so ago. Went with LMDE. Haven’t looked back. Steam runs all my games through Proton just as good as they ran on Windows, if not better.
2,5 years in, not looking back.
To be fair, some multiplayer titles (Fortnite, Valorant, recently Apex Legends, Splitgate 2) do not work due to anticheat being very Windows-specific, but other than that, I have not encountered any issues.
Currently playing World of Warcraft, Kingdom Come: Deliverance II, Minecraft, Gunfire Reborn, Endless Space 2, recently played Split Fiction, Cyberpunk 2077, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, TES V Skyrim, Elite Dangerous, Warframe, Euro Truck Simulator 2, Cycle Frontier, Once Human, a bit of Star Citizen - each and every one of them played perfectly well.
I haven’t noticed issues in any singleplayer/co-op/MMO games I’ve tried. For multiplayer shooters, it gets worse. All Valve games are alright (of course), and some others are too. Apex Legends is a biggest loss, they’ve recently decided to arbitrarily drop all Linux support, despite working flawlessly in the past.
Good to know about those.
My laptop has been running LMDE for the past year, so I was able to get the hang of it as a daily driver (been using Debian for years for servers).
Used Debian, Manjaro, Mint (regular Ubuntu version), Fedora as a daily driver on PC; Debian, Ubuntu and a bit of Arch on servers.
Currently running Fedora. Debian is good, but I appreciate being closer to the bleeding edge, and while Flatpaks help bridge the gap, they also make more up-to-date distros remain stable, and you wouldn’t use Flatpaks for system packages which also matter.
Previously ran Manjaro - nice premise, but the team does not have the capacity to pull it off just stable and good enough. It does tend to break after a while. I still wish their team all the best and hope it will one day become my home again - but not before they sort their mess.
Arch on desktops is too much of a “debloated” experience for me - I don’t enjoy having to build my system from scratch, even though I know how. Also, the risk of updates borking the system is too high, and I’m not red-eyed enough to read all update notes. On experimental servers with just a few packages, though, it can be useful.
Mint was actually quite buggy for me too, despite folks generally insisting on stability as one of its selling points. Also, they are strong on promoting Cinnamon, and I’m a KDE fanboy (and a bit of a Gnome enjoyer).
Fedora caused me problems only once, and that is when I used universal Linux package to install proprietary NVidia drivers (use the package from Fedora repos to avoid my mistakes!). Other than that, and through several major updates, it works like a charm. It also automatically saves system images while updating, and you can easily load any. Stability-wise, it was same as Debian to me.
That’s absolutely valid. I’m the opposite, in that I’ll add something from
backportsorunstableif I wanna try something more “fresh”. I’ve got a few flatpaks on my Debian desktop systems; not a fan of their sheer size, but I guess having all the dependencies bundled together is kinda the point… I equate Debian to a new Toyota, where the tech might be “outdated” compared to other brands (shipping a 6-speed auto when everyone else is shipping 8/9-speed autos, for example), but they ship it that way because the tech has a proven track record and won’t break at inopportune moments, waiting to “update” when the next gen/version is more mature.I hold similar view points. It looks good… Needs more team members though. Maybe I’ll throw it in a VM.
Yeah… I’ve got 5 kids, ain’t nobody got time in my house for fixing something that shouldn’t have broken 😂
Ah, see, I used LMDE, not the Ubuntu-based one. I don’t like the way Canonical is going, but I really like Cinnamon, and having a rock-solid Debian base with some Mint goodies on top was more than enough to get me to switch on both my personal laptop (Thinkpad T14 G1 AMD) and my gaming PC (custom build, 5800X3D/7900XTX). I considered Bazzite for a hot minute, but I’m much more familiar with Debian than Fedora (again, used Debian for years on servers, and was the first distro I actually installed on my own hardware when I first discovered Linux), plus there’s a literal mountain range of documentation, forum posts, tips, and tricks for Debian. Not saying there isn’t for Fedora, but I just know how to find info for Debian better than other distros.
Nice. I like Fedora, very clean, but the constant updates drove me nuts. I used Fedora on an older laptop for a while, but I found that I was running updates more often than just…using it.
Going Debian is fully valid too! And more generally, whatever distro works for you is the best. There’s a good reason there are so many.
Damn, 5 kids…you’re a hero lol
Fedora sure is mature as well, but Bazzite in particular is immutable, which adds a level of complexity you may not be ready for. Debian can be used as a gaming distro, at least for as long as you’re not using the latest and greatest hardware.
Constant updates are pretty much a feature of all distros close to the bleeding edge. That’s what makes them bleeding edge to begin with. With Debian, you’ll be forgiven to forget updates even exist.
I lose Virtual Desktop for my wireless VR, 3ds Max and Solidworks for CAM. If all I did was gaming, media and browsing, I’d switch. Which is why my HTPC, only used for couch gaming and media, is running Bazzite.
I mean, you lose nothing for trying. Windows will still be on your machine if you dual boot or use live image.
Some use cases may force the user to stay with Windows. Most won’t.
To get pedantic for a second. The title of this post is “Microsoft gives…” as if this was an altruistic act that Microsoft decided to do for some people, when the article states they did it to comply with a law.
A much better title would have been “EU Forces Microsoft to Give Users More Control:” It returns the credit to the people who deserve the credit and clarifies that it wasn’t something Microsoft did willingly.
Not pedantic. The specificity, imo, is extremely important here, and the poor phrasing really bothered me, too.
Linux Gives Every User More Control: Uninstall Anything, and Say Goodbye to Microsoft
Get fucked Microshit!
IF YOU’RE NOT IN THE EU, you can use O&O ShutUp to help you turn off the more intrusive aspects of Windows with ease.
Is it US specific, or do you just mean if you’re not in the EU?
Well, really it’s for any country that would allow MS to intrude into your PC experience as they do in the US.
Thank you, I’m not American but MS has so many ‘features’ that have been destroying my sanity, I will look into this tool when I’m back at my desktop 👍
You’re welcome. Didn’t mean to be unclear.
Not to be pedantic, but this will work fine in Australia.
There’s no reason to say “If you’re in the US”. I think you mean “for everyone else” or “for those not in the EU”.
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Can they replace the file explorer?
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Microsoft is grudgingly forced to give…*
Perhaps sometime in the future, more people will try Linux and see how good it is. My recommendation based on my own experience:
Want stable, just working. Robust workhorse: Try Debian
Want newest, nicest, good for gaming (need a tiny bit of tinkering if you run Nvidia): Try Fedora
Want easy to install, but a bit older and slower, but requires no tinkering: Try PopOS
Don’t like settings, tweaks and fuzz: choose Gnome desktop 😊
Xubuntu is stable, lightweight, easy to install, and requires no tinkering. No idea about gaming, but I’d choose it over Debian and PopOS at any given time.
I’m sad to say I had to drop Linux for a while because I run Nvidia. I heard that AMD is fine, and that Nvidia is baaaadically fine with a few issues still so I gave it a shot. But games just genuinely run noticeably worse with an Nvidia card. Games would lose 20-30 frames. Maybe not a big deal with my setup if I was using a 60hz monitor since most were still above 60, but I’m using 144hz.
It sucks too because it’s not fedora or Linux as a whole’s fault. It’s Nvidia’s.
Thought about keeping it but already had a few things I needed to dual boot windows for. If I still need windows for gaming, basically that leaves idly browsing the web as fedora’s main use. And I think that’s a bit overkill.
Looking forward to eventually getting an AMD card (Legit if you’re reading this and thinking about upgrading or building a new PC and think there even a small chance you’d go with Linux in the future, go AMD) or even just a whole new build. That way I can just delegate my current machine for those few tasks I need windows for, and have a main machine for general use.
The relatively bad linux experience, plus all the news about nvidia being the scum of the earth, is what made me go with a solid AMD card instead.
Same for me, sorta. I have to dualboot Windows and Linux because I just can’t seem to fix the jankiness of my gaming experience on the latter. I wanna make a full AMD build but I not really a good idea to splurge in this economy.
My gaming rig was the first thing to go full Linux because I was sick of dealing with windows for a HTPC and wanted bazzite for the steam gaming mode. Not had any issues yet.
I did wait till I got a an AMD card though. But my GF uses a 3050 for bazzite desktop and she’s had no issues yet either. She had lots of issues with the 1050Ti she had before then though.
My whole system is AMD so switching to Linux was a breeze. A few days ago I installed Fedora KDE Plasma because I genuinely enjoyed the look and feel of Windows, but I wanted it without the Microsoft part. And I have to say, no regrets. I’m getting everything done without the BS, and all my games work just fine. It did need some very weird tinkering to set it up properly, and I made ChatGPT work overtime to feed me answers. Nobody would have to put in the amount of effort I did though, and if it wasn’t for my niche problems, everything would have been handled without a hitch. The terminal still scares me but I’ve learned several tricks.
I know its not everybody’s cup of tea, but plain standard Ubuntu these days has a lot of polish and interoperability. The addition of gnome tweaks, extensions, and flatpak have left me not wanting much extra customisation.
This is after being on a dozen other distros and finding ironically they can be less customisable unless I want to spend an entire in terminal.
Europeans have the Freedom to Uninstall SPYWARE? LoL COMMIES here in America we have TRUE FREEDOM of being FORCE FED SPYWARE with NO Other options!
the other option is a faster, more privacy focused, free, open source operating system.
I made the switch a little over a year ago, I know not everybody can/wants to - but major distros are honestly polished enough these days that I haven’t looked back, I should have switched to Linux years ago.
Not everyone will agree, but I think Ubuntu + installing apps through Flatpak is a winning option.
The best control: uninstall Windows.
Am i missing something? If i had edge, store and bing forced down my throat my win11 install wouldve been long gone, but imo thst stuff was already removable before?
From what I’ve gathered here and elsewhere they never really went full throttle on all that stuff for most of us here in the EU.
Now don’t get me wrong, W11 is utter shite, and I had to essentially build a new computer from scratch to even get it running properly, but I still haven’t seen any ads or any other bullshit like that.
This is exactly why my old computer is merrily running Mint, and it likes it.
Edit: If it wasn’t for the fact that I happen to primarily use Cinema 4D for work I wouldn’t even have bothered, probably. Relearning 20+ years of software flow for the other options seemed silly at the time, but I would’ve reconsidered had I known what a mess W11 would become for me and in general.
I think GDPR and related laws, really tempered what Microsoft did to the whole of the European region. They didn’t want to deal with it, so they made as much as they could, opt-in. As opposed to the north american policies of either opt-out, or forced-on.
IDK. I don’t work at Microsoft, I’m just guessing. 🙃
I love mint on my old laptop (which I’m using right now) I just wish it was more compatable with newer hardware as neither it nor ubuntu work properly on my new desktop build so I’m stuck on ghost spectre instead.
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Now switch package managers and run all your drives on different obscure file systems! Make every login cycle through plasma gnome an unhinged custom DE and raw terminal where a camera with sign language recognition is the only valid input!
Create a script to revert to systemd every third startup!
You’re doing something wrong, maybe ask someone knowledgeable for help with your system. It doesn’t happen to other people.
Because they’re fucking cowards.
Yeah, you need to be really brave to setup your system incorrectly.
That word absolutely reeks of being no fun.
What, may i ask, is the correct way to configure and use my computer?
The one where you aren’t frustrated by the usage of it.
Oh, so there’s only one of those?
What made you think of this idea?
Not being a coward.
Sounds like half of the process your average Windows debloater goes through every time they update?
On like 8, maybe, sure.
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Arch, obviously, but it was all arranged before hand. After care was lacking. Forgot to load that though, so it’s kind of my fault.
Edit: I read further down…Arch is a bit of a motherfucker. Sorry.
Sorry for what? This was consensual.
For slagging you pre-edit
I’d love to at work, but I’m using some win-only software with a f-ed up licence manager that I cannot stuff into a VM.
I would love to, but we stiill use Windows specific software (and sometimes even Dos specific software!) but we already do that through a VM. The other issue is the extensions we have for Microsoft Office just won’t work on the Linux alternatives and even then Libreoffice isn’t good enough for half the staff in my accounting firm because it lacks certain features for now.
Most companies who work in browser based software + email can easily switch to Linux and they would barely notice it.
If I had 1 cent every time I read that… and I pulled those cents together… and then paid software developers to build that missing software for other OSes like Linux… then we’d gradually see less of those comments.
It’s as if the isolation was the business model, proprietary software insuring that alternatives do not exist because users do not bother to get together and unstuck themselves from glowingly dangerous (security wise but probably even financially dependencies.
Hopefully initiatives like NLNet are precisely trying to alleviate such challenges. Until them compatibility layers like Proton are showing the way with arguably some of the most complex and demanding in terms of performance software, namely games.
There is a version of the software that works in the browser, but it’s not really that great. That’s what you get when you legally need to use specific software (even the Dutch tax office still use the same old version we use). There are other alternatives, but it’s a massive investment of time to test and switch to that. Something we are forced to do in the near future, but it’s gonna take a lot of time inclusing a lot of time of people with hourly rates of over the 200 EUR excluding VAT. I estimate it will cost us maybe 50% of our yearly revenue to fully switch an organisation to Linux and we will loose a lot of people working here where there are a lot of issues with finding new people for accounting firms.
I have been trying to install Microsoft Office in Linux mint on my personal PC cause I have more issues with LibreOffice when using MSOffice files (and the people receiving the files will be using MSOffice as well) than I have with games. I tried it using Bottles (Wine) with multiple different installers, but no luck so far.
Not sure what NLNet is going to do about software lol, I believe you mean something different. NLNet is an instance that is there for people living with lymphedema and/or lipedema and their loved ones.
That NLNet nlnet.nl funding FLOSS project.
There are also BlueHats in France showing how administration is using AND consequently funding FLOSS code.gouv.fr/en/bluehats/ by paying for sysadmin, feature dev, maintenance, etc.
Because laws were made by incompetent and malicious people.
Laws should mandate protocols and formats, not implementations. Protocols and formats mandated by the law should be simple. The whole humanity was just fine transmitting telegrams by Morse code consisting of letter groups. Then it was just fine with fax. If what we absolutely require to stay productive needs to be so astronomically complex that one programmer, given ready libraries for XML, encodings, compression etc, can’t write a fully functional and usable by everyone editor for that in 1 month - then such a protocol or format is not good enough to be mandated by law.
Blame the US for that, they are generally the country that goes most against international countries, things like ISO codes for dates, accounting standards, but also things like the way they make invoices etc.
The ISO standards are generally made to make it easier to communicate with each other and here in Europe we also have some really good things going with the VAT rulings and later on with the invoice exchange protocol that is mandatory in Belgium from 2026 onwards.
I also think that beliving that “laws where made by incompetent and malicious people” is a glass half empty way of looking against it and as somebody who has a decent amount of hours learning national and international laws (mostly about taxes) I understand that a lot of them where just made in a different time and people abusing the system cause “quick” fixes to be applied instead of rewriting the enitre relevant law.
The worst part is where some functionality breaks in a document bigger than a holiday card. I mean formulae vanishing.
I think OOO around year 2009 was very stable and without such annoying bugs. But I haven’t tested it there TBH.
Seriously, feature parity is a dead end. If there were a cross-platform office suite that would at least support the absolutely necessary things with a format not much more complex than org-mode, big documents (300 pages without degrading performance) and UTF-8, it would be fine. I think. That format can even be XML-based, just … why would you have vanishing objects in a document past their certain number? Do they have an unsigned byte counter somewhere?
Huh, well ill continue living without all that shit on Linux Mint.
Mint… more than just a delicious herb!
For those curious, if you can get a European Windows product key, you can install the “N” version of Windows. Be warned, it only works with certain product keys…
The standard Windows installer should give the option of “Windows 10” or “Windows 10 N” (or similar). The N version is basically bloatware free out of the box…
The regular version has a bunch of promos pre-installed, like candy crush, and other things that most people couldn’t give a shit about…
Recently I’ve been playing a “fun” game with my work laptop where I’ll remove copilot, and a few days later it will appear again. Weeee. In that case, it wouldn’t surprise me if there’s a policy in place to enable copilot on my works systems… I’m sure someone who works here, probably higher up the food chain than me, wants it enabled, and the ham fisted policy maker can’t create a policy just for those who want it, so everyone gets it because the bosses son Shane decided that he wants to see how much of his work can get done by AI so he can do even less while on the clock.
Companies absolutely HATE copilot. I remember they didn’t even like Siri enabled on the Mac’s where I used to work. No way in hell copilot is getting a pass.
Heh, it’s a small business and bossman isn’t exactly anti-AI.
I work for a fairly large company, and we’re hearing about “AI” constantly. CoPilot is available and its use encouraged. Also, in the cybersecurity space, AI is fucking everywhere. Vendors won’t shut up about their “AI Enabled” products. And the new hotness is “Agentic AI”, which is basically automation, but we’re going to let AI hallucinations fire off the automated process which could bring production systems down.
Good times are surely coming. /s
Don’t underestimate management desire to be absolutely indistinguishable from their competition.
They read the Harvard Business Review, learn new terms they don’t understanding, make a PowerPoint out of it and voila, they are “innovative” like everyone else.
If HBR put “AI” on its cover you can be damn sure all those innovators are going to put AI wherever they can.
N editions should exclude just certain media features. I remember it trying in Win 7 days and never touched it again, never saw a point. Some additional info. Important bit is to not use Home edition, use Pro, Education or Enterprise instead.
As for Copilot, is there anything under these registry keys?
Neither of those keys exist.
Probably because I keep uninstalling the software.
If those keys do not exist, then there is no policy configured to either force enable or disable Copilot.
Make it world wide!
Oh look, with the threat of a big enough fine, you can uninstall those things.
Or at least hide the front ends for them.
Imagine living somewhere where those in charge have even there smallest bit of spine.
mmm, that was nice. can i have another?
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how do i europe
So I could have a usable machine at work? Good. I am forced to upgrade from win7 to win11 in the lab, and current win11 crap did not appeal to me at all. And it has WSL, so at least it can actually be used for work.
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Uninstalling the store would be the biggest feature. A lot of telemetry is tied to it. I tried some of the “debloaters” out there, but the windows Installation breaks after a couple of months (I assume when ms pushes a new major update).