Another reason to switch to Linux
- Thread starter benenglish
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Yep, was going to allow an older laptop in my office to update today.
Decided this has to be just the tip of the iceberg.
These third world types becoming prevalent in upper management tech today tend to be sneaky, vicious, evil and aggressive.
Decided this has to be just the tip of the iceberg.
These third world types becoming prevalent in upper management tech today tend to be sneaky, vicious, evil and aggressive.
Rotten effing SOB bastard A-hole MFs...
And this is true because we read on the internet? We'll see. What browser doesn't try and trick you into installing it over its competitors? They all do. I only have 1 windows computer. And its not used very much. The other ones are Macs. Waiting for my free install.
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Just turn the option off. I'm seriously considering installing Win 10 because it has to be better than this 8 I'm running on my laptop. This has to be the worst operating system from MS since Windows ME.
You have to read past the first four sentences:
Yep. It's a devious little feature called Windows Update Delivery Optimization. It's enabled by default. For Enterprise and Education users, it operates over the local LAN. For ordinary Home type users, Microsoft can send their data update goodies to potentially any PC on the global Internet -- from your PC, over your Internet connection. On your dime.
Average user will not be aware of it, will not be easily able find the setting to turn it off, and common regard for the user dictates a 'feature" like this be "opt in", not an unknown default.
Main concern for me being that this new model of OS (and it's delivery) no longer belongs to the user, and MSFT will be able to turn it back on, and any other feature, through updates or otherwise, and without your knowledge.
A disturbing trend IMO, with way too much latitude in the hands of the purveyor, and often developed and run, thanks to HB-1 visas, by those lacking a sense of our traditional, cultural values.
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Who owns a smartphone? They all do this. Are you trashing it, too?
I'm on my first smartphone. My lack of control of a device that I theoretically own bothers me greatly. Once I had it in hand and experienced the way it works, I adopted my current usage pattern. IOW, I use it as little as possible and for nothing important.
My next phone will be as dumb as a box of rocks.
Irrelevant to what is under discussion, as it in no way makes the practice less egregious.
Same boat here.
I haven't kept up with Windows for several years. What I'm seeing is downright scary. Buried in the 45-pages of the Privacy Statement and the Services Agreement is this gem:
That's a very low bar to set. Essentially, it says "We'll tell anyone we want anything about you we know."
So, what do they know?
Under the default settings, as soon as you install MS gets your browser history, favorites, open sites, website passwords, mobile hotspot passwords, wi-fi network names and passwords. As you use it the assistant app that comes baked in also gathers, retrieves, stores: your device location, data from your calendar, which apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts, and how often you communicate with whoever you communicate with. It collects at least partial data about what services you use down to the music you listen to, how you set your alarm, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browser and Bing search history, and more.
The literal language of the agreement is "and more". It's completely open-ended.
In fact, if you encrypt, it backs up your recovery key to their servers.
All of this is set by default and most (I'm not sure all) can be defeated by turning things off by digging through many, many menus, multiple levels deep. The overwhelming number of users won't know to do this. Those who do know to do this will be defeated by the sheer volume of minor changes that must be made; they will overlook things.
On top of that, forced updates can reset everything, without you knowing it.
The OS will try to gather information about not just your machine, what's on it and how you use it, but also about any network you're connected to.
Egregiously, all that data will be easily packaged and sold to advertisers because the OS generates an identification number that's used to market to advertisers. It specifically identifies your machine out of all those in the world and links it with all that data to create a profile of you so that you may enjoy the privilege of being bombarded with more advertisements.
I can remember removing Gator. Anybody remember those days? It was spyware that deviously managed to re-install itself when you went through any normal cleaning procedures. While there were ways to use Windows to remove it (assuming the machine was air-gapped), it was one tough SOB. I generally wound up booting a linux CD and manually editing everything. We cursed it and wished a horrible, painful, long-lasting and ultimately fatal disease be visited upon the developers.
Now, Windows has come along and produced a giant suite of spyware baked into an operating system that's far beyond the wildest wet dreams of a Gator developer.
And people actually install this shit?
Look, I understand the need. I've got an all-the-bells-and-whistles, in the commercial box, properly paid for, copy of Win 7. I've also got Wine on Linux. If I must run some Windows software, I can fall back on those. In the most narrow of situations, where I want to do one task on a computer that's only rarely connected to the internet, I *may* be willing to use the latest version of Windows. I won't rule it out completely. Someday I may want to use multiple Adobe products to make negatives for contact printing. That, however, is an edge case.
The general case is what's important. The computer is supposed to be a machine that does nothing by itself. It adapts itself, based on a set of instructions, to emulate other machines like calculators or typewriters or a secretary making phone calls for you to the local library to find information. It's not supposed to go off on its own and do things that are not in the best interest of the owner.
Windows has passed that line. Some of us argue that it went too far beyond that line a long time ago. But I don't see how anybody can accept the current situation. The best analogy I can come up with is this: if you're a chicken farmer and you have an egg-sucking dog, you have to get rid of him. Period, full stop, no matter how much you love him.
Windows is the egg-sucking dog of the OS world.
That's a very low bar to set. Essentially, it says "We'll tell anyone we want anything about you we know."
So, what do they know?
Under the default settings, as soon as you install MS gets your browser history, favorites, open sites, website passwords, mobile hotspot passwords, wi-fi network names and passwords. As you use it the assistant app that comes baked in also gathers, retrieves, stores: your device location, data from your calendar, which apps you use, data from your emails and text messages, who you call, your contacts, and how often you communicate with whoever you communicate with. It collects at least partial data about what services you use down to the music you listen to, how you set your alarm, whether the lock screen is on, what you view and purchase, your browser and Bing search history, and more.
The literal language of the agreement is "and more". It's completely open-ended.
In fact, if you encrypt, it backs up your recovery key to their servers.
All of this is set by default and most (I'm not sure all) can be defeated by turning things off by digging through many, many menus, multiple levels deep. The overwhelming number of users won't know to do this. Those who do know to do this will be defeated by the sheer volume of minor changes that must be made; they will overlook things.
On top of that, forced updates can reset everything, without you knowing it.
The OS will try to gather information about not just your machine, what's on it and how you use it, but also about any network you're connected to.
Egregiously, all that data will be easily packaged and sold to advertisers because the OS generates an identification number that's used to market to advertisers. It specifically identifies your machine out of all those in the world and links it with all that data to create a profile of you so that you may enjoy the privilege of being bombarded with more advertisements.
I can remember removing Gator. Anybody remember those days? It was spyware that deviously managed to re-install itself when you went through any normal cleaning procedures. While there were ways to use Windows to remove it (assuming the machine was air-gapped), it was one tough SOB. I generally wound up booting a linux CD and manually editing everything. We cursed it and wished a horrible, painful, long-lasting and ultimately fatal disease be visited upon the developers.
Now, Windows has come along and produced a giant suite of spyware baked into an operating system that's far beyond the wildest wet dreams of a Gator developer.
And people actually install this shit?
Look, I understand the need. I've got an all-the-bells-and-whistles, in the commercial box, properly paid for, copy of Win 7. I've also got Wine on Linux. If I must run some Windows software, I can fall back on those. In the most narrow of situations, where I want to do one task on a computer that's only rarely connected to the internet, I *may* be willing to use the latest version of Windows. I won't rule it out completely. Someday I may want to use multiple Adobe products to make negatives for contact printing. That, however, is an edge case.
The general case is what's important. The computer is supposed to be a machine that does nothing by itself. It adapts itself, based on a set of instructions, to emulate other machines like calculators or typewriters or a secretary making phone calls for you to the local library to find information. It's not supposed to go off on its own and do things that are not in the best interest of the owner.
Windows has passed that line. Some of us argue that it went too far beyond that line a long time ago. But I don't see how anybody can accept the current situation. The best analogy I can come up with is this: if you're a chicken farmer and you have an egg-sucking dog, you have to get rid of him. Period, full stop, no matter how much you love him.
Windows is the egg-sucking dog of the OS world.
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This will become even worse when MS ends support of all "outdated" OS that don't have this spyware. Sometimes I think MS is just plain evil.
OT Warning
For me, the changeover was easy. For others, it could be difficult or impossible. I accept that. I just hate seeing what some people are being stuck with.
If you want to test, some variation of Ubuntu (there are dozens, at least) is the normal route. If you don't like any of them, I suggest Fedora.
Personally, I'm so chuffed that PC-BSD has finally set up full disk encryption in their installer that I'm considering testing it. If they've ever gotten around to packaging a proper usenet client, I may well change my OS.
It's only a leap if you must use a particular bit of software that doesn't work on Linux. Lots of people are in that situation. Being an old retired guy who no longer needs to use computers to make a living, I find that there is no particular software that I must use.
For me, the changeover was easy. For others, it could be difficult or impossible. I accept that. I just hate seeing what some people are being stuck with.
If you want to test, some variation of Ubuntu (there are dozens, at least) is the normal route. If you don't like any of them, I suggest Fedora.
Personally, I'm so chuffed that PC-BSD has finally set up full disk encryption in their installer that I'm considering testing it. If they've ever gotten around to packaging a proper usenet client, I may well change my OS.
I've bookmarked Mint, Ubuntu, and Yumi.
I did boot Ubuntu from a stick a couple of times but I don't remember how I did it. I just remember it was a little more involved that I thought it would be. I need to back up before I really get into it.
I did boot Ubuntu from a stick a couple of times but I don't remember how I did it. I just remember it was a little more involved that I thought it would be. I need to back up before I really get into it.
SORRY FOR THE OT POST... but I need help.
I purchased a decent used laptop PC several weeks ago and it was supposed to come with an active key for Win7 Home Premium x64. However, I need an installation disc to install it. MS no longer supports the OS so I can't download a copy from them and I can't find it elsewhere.
The computer has a working copy of Ubuntu that boots to the previous owner's desktop without me having to enter his password but when it logs itself out after a few minutes then I can't log in again. The previous owner doesn't remember the PW and prefers I do a fresh install anyway to clear his data.
Well... that's all fine and good except he listed the machine for sale with working Win7. After many emails he offered to get a copy of whatever OS I want with his student discount... if I pay for it plus shipping. Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated and pissed.
I haven't a clue regarding non-MS OS and what software they can run. Can someone point me to a link to explain the pros/cons to a moron like me?
I purchased a decent used laptop PC several weeks ago and it was supposed to come with an active key for Win7 Home Premium x64. However, I need an installation disc to install it. MS no longer supports the OS so I can't download a copy from them and I can't find it elsewhere.
The computer has a working copy of Ubuntu that boots to the previous owner's desktop without me having to enter his password but when it logs itself out after a few minutes then I can't log in again. The previous owner doesn't remember the PW and prefers I do a fresh install anyway to clear his data.
Well... that's all fine and good except he listed the machine for sale with working Win7. After many emails he offered to get a copy of whatever OS I want with his student discount... if I pay for it plus shipping. Needless to say, I'm a bit frustrated and pissed.
I haven't a clue regarding non-MS OS and what software they can run. Can someone point me to a link to explain the pros/cons to a moron like me?
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You don't need the disk. You just need the product key. Do you have it? If you do, go here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-recovery
If not, do you want to go to a lot of bother to recover it from the machine so that you can make Windows work? IOW, is getting Win7 up and running that important to you?
It shouldn't log out. It should just turn on the screensaver. Is that what's happening?
If so, you can just make sure you keep the mouse moving so that the screensaver doesn't kick on. There are USB devices that will do that for you, if you don't care to ever know the password to your own computer. I don't think that's a good solution.
He didn't wipe it before he sold it? You bought from an idiot.
Which is why I asked if Win7 was that important to you.
I feel for ya. However, it's fixable. It really is.
A link? Just a link? Awww, I wanted to write something that would bump up against the per-post word limit. Phooey.
An intro (pay attention to the section that explains who should NOT use Linux): http://www.whylinuxisbetter.net/
If you want a list: http://itsfoss.com/reasons-switch-linux-windows-xp/
In more detail (though Ubuntu-centric): http://www.howtogeek.com/207964/just-switch-to-linux-if-you-want-to-download-lots-of-freeware/
If you decide to switch to it: http://lifehacker.com/5778882/getting-started-with-linux-the-complete-guide
And don't believe people who oversimplify it like this:
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