Time to ditch Microsoft?

[Workingman]

A year or two back it introduced something called "Copilot", an AI 'aid'. I did what I could to disable and nullify it but you cannot uninstall it. On Win 11 it is embedded in the Edge browser, so I ditched that.

Microsoft is now to introduce Copilot+ PCs and this system will take screenshots of your computer every few seconds and store them on your PC. You could be on your bank, NHS, emails - it matters not, a screenshot will be taken. Why would anybody buy one!? We all know that it will eventually be introduced on all Windows PCs via updates.

Enough is enough!

I am thinking of going Linux - a secure distro. Software development has come on leaps and bounds and much of it is comparable to the expensive Windows offerings. That was not always the case and one reason I gave it a miss.

If we are not careful we will be sleep walking into an information harvesting nightmare.

[Suff]

Good luck with it WM if you can make it go. I tried it a few times over the years and it was simply another way or running with scissors.

If you make a go of it I'll be happy to hear.

I will stay with W10 for now. In fact M$ is seeing the largest revolt back to W10 since the W8 crapware came out. This resulted in W10. I am hoping that something similar happens with W11. Apparently they're not giving out the release name for the next Windows yet. Nor much details about it. So perhaps we can see Copilot go the way of Clippy and Cortana.

Avery other release they try to introduce more of the crapware and more and more I move away from it.

The big problem is that building a viable OS is time and money intensive. Which is why only large companies even try.

[Workingman]

There are custom Widows OS out there, but they are a mess. Atlas, Ghost. Spectre. Windows-X, Why?

All they do is cut out some MS options and restrict them. They do not kill them.

Linux?

[Suff]

The problem with Linux is that those who create Linux do so to be different and have the bedside manner of the court executioner in most cases.

Tolerance to them is a swear word and primadonna is the lowest carving on their ego totem pole.

I can use it, for sure. I could also, probably, disarm IED's if I had the right training; but who want's to?

It's like FreeCAD. Just like Linux it is free if your time is worth nothing. I wanted to use it for a project of mine and I was struggling with the concepts they were using. I went to the help forums and their answer was RTFM a couple of hours should do it. Ononists.

So I got ChatGPT to write me the phython code to make my model. Bet they didn't think of that when they created the python console in the product. I did go back and raise the middle finger to them when I explained.

So Linux is a "running with scissors" option in most cases. All distro's wax lyrical about how "easy" they are and how much better they are to use. But the second you step one micron beyond the nice little boundary they set for the "unenlightened", you descend into the same old Xnix BS that I've been dealing with for over 30 years now.

I say this from a very recent experience. My ESXi hardware had to be replaced to keep my virtual machines viable, the CPU had already lost one core out of 6 and I could tell it was slowly dying. However VMWare restrict the hardware you can use and the college guy who created the drivers I use has moved onto the real world and now there are no drivers for my new motherboard hard drive controllers or ethernet.

After a bit of thought I decided I could use VMWare workstation to run the bare metal server. OK it's double virtualisation but as I was boosting the CPU power by about 40x this should not be a problem right? So knowing windows memory management I decided to use LInux. Ubuntu 20 I believe because 22 has some weird interface changes.

All installed, VMWare installed, ESXi running, virtual servers running nice and fast. But I connect to these machines via RDP in Windows and I need to be able to connect when I power them on from the UK and get in and start it all up.

Yeah and there it all comes unstuck. Cron jobs, wrong user context, blank screens when I remote in with any remote package. Half the remote solutions don't work at all.....

In the end I stripped it down , installed Windows server 2012 R2 which has very stable memory management and did the VMWare workstation etc. all done. Sorted out the autostart and I can RDP to the server no issue.

This is the Linux v Windows world. When I tried to diagnose why the remote wouldn't work on Linux half the "help" meant nothing and I had to work out with the other half of the help and my own knowledge what was going on.

I know your requirements are way less than mine but I have always felt that Linux inhabits "where angels fear to tread" and every Linux admin I know uses a Windows PC as their goto machine. Which kind of says it all.

[Workingman]

Suff, I recognise all that, I have been there. Don't give me nightmares!

I have been away for more than 15 years and I hate the way things have gone, so I want an easy life.

Please stop pestering me. Not you, the companies.

[Suff]

:lol:

Suff, I recognise all that, I have been there. Don't give me nightmares!

I have been away for more than 15 years and I hate the way things have gone, so I want an easy life.

Please stop pestering me. Not you, the companies.

My BP could have been lower I can tell you. I got madder and madder. Fortunately my old Technet keys still work for Server 2012 R2. I can even run datacentrer if I want.

The only way I can try and understand these people is to assume they hang from the ceiling like bats and wear special mirror goggles that invert everything they see. Because otherwise I'd have to assume they were just belligerent awkward B'Stards who just do this to annoy people.... And that would be so negative.

[Workingman]

Given that all I do now is surf the web. post messages, play music, write notes / letters and emails, keep spreadsheets and watch TV and videos I don't care what is operating any Linux distro.

There is open source software to do all those things so I am happy.

I am booting Mint, Solus and Zorin from USB and all my kit works - drivers are available. Solus looks good, but I will work all the others and see which is best for me.

[Suff]

I guess my requirements are a bit more esoteric.

[Workingman]

Suff, I am now just a 70-yr-old old git sat at home doing homey things. I am not doing courses on Cisco or Fujitsu systems any more.

I just want my laptop to work my way and not how the script kiddies at MS want me to go.

Linux looks the way to go for me. There is a bit of old Unix in the back of my brain if I really wanted to get deeper, but I don't.

I want a simple life.

[Suff]

Then a fairly simple distro with minor changes is a good way to go.

Ubuntu seems to have gone for constant radical changes and use. The Gnome interface. I hate gnome and far prefer Kde. However most Liuxy people don't like Kde so it is rarer and doesn't get the same level of support.

Honestly if I wanted a Mac interface I'd buy a Mac.

If you can live with it and afford it, a Mac is more likely to give you the stability you want. You just have to work out how to make it do what you want.

I just can't stand the things.