Windows 8(.1) was still utter trash, I actually "down"graded to windows 7 at the time and it was a bliss.
(it wasn't the non-stop-ads kind of trash, but the UI suited a tablet more than a desk/laptop)
Yeaaaaaah, I don't know what Microsoft were thinking trying to force a unified UI on everyone... It didn't work
If only every Windows install came with an internet exploder! We wouldn't have to read Elon Musk X fluff pieces on the news ever single day.
And privacy concerns... What privacy concerns?
Yeah slowly, it started years ago but it’s been getting worse every version, slowly
The freemium model was launched and completed with Win10.
The arrow pointing downwards is about to be absolutely destroyed today. Edit: it turns out that it didn't.
I used to dual boot linux with windows Vista on an old laptop. I had only installed there the first assassin's creed and Rome total war. Nothing else, never really connected to internet. After 1 year of not using it a part than few total war sessions, vista was so slow that was unusable. It spontaneously became slow for no reason. I completely removed it, left only linux, and that laptop survived 7 years of intensive use, and was still working 10 years later (just too old).
Vista was a scam
Good for you, I'm never gonna get convinced.
Vistas problem was that it was ahead of its time
I sort of agree with you, but not in the way I think you meant it.
Vista's problem was that it's hardware requirements were too high for it's time. Operating systems have very long project development lifecycle and at a point early on they did a forward looking estimate of where the PC market would be by the time Vista released, and they overshot. When it was almost ready to release it to the world Microsoft put out the initial minimum and recommended specs and PC sellers (Dell, HP, Gateway) lobbied them to lower the numbers; the cost of a PC that met the recommended specs was just too high for the existing PC market and it would kill their sales numbers if they started selling PCs that met those figures. Microsoft complied and lowered the specs, but didn't actually change the operating system in any meaningful way - they just changed a few numbers on a piece of paper and added some configurations that let you disable some of the more hardware intensive bits. The result was that most Vista users were running it on hardware that wasn't actually able to run it properly, which lead to horrible user experiences. Anyone that bought a high end PC or built one themselves and ran Vista on that, however, seemed quite happy with the operating system.
I had no problems with Vista. I also built a new PC for it though.
Very similar story here: I bought a new computer that shipped with Vista.
I got horrendously tired of that Pentium 4 thing.
Blasphemy! Windows XP is the only King!
I don't really like XP's design anymore. I didn't like it back then either.
It started with Windows 8
Ready to feel old, that was 11 years ago^oo^oo^o
Ah maan, why'd you have to tell me that, it still feels like it came out just 3-4 years ago tops
It started with Windows 8
Win8 wasn't freemium. Win10 was.
True but it's when Microsoft started to implement apps and such for tablets and hybrid laptops along with office 365.
Windows 2000 🫶
Because at this time the internet was still slow, not always on and optional on most computers, and Microsoft did not know if and how they should integrate the internet into the OS. The only thing they had at the time was some link to MSN on the desktop, and activeX (???) Where you could display websites on your desktop or within your program, but without the Browser controlls.
Even though Windows is very user-friendly. I think Windows 11 might be my last. The amount of anti-privacy that’s implemented and what I have to do just so it doesn’t constantly phone back home is kind of ridiculous.
Off to pick my flavor of Linux.
I find it strange that people call it user-friendly, despite it doing a lot of things hostile to the user.
Just more in the neighborhood of being used or understanding something because it has been given to them from a very young age on. So getting familiar and used to it very young age on makes it "friendly" even though it is more "familiarity".
Linux is always going to be really awkward at first but over the course of time you learn and shy away and develop your own kinda workflow and that's the beauty of it in my opinion.
Because user-friendly means that even a tech-noob can easily set it up and use it right away without much researching.
If an OS requires ANY AMOUNT of command line, you have lost about half the population.
If an OS asks any remotely difficult question with techno lingo, you have lost an other quarter.
If an OS doesn't work out of the box the way it should (like all their hardware functioning including audio), you have lost all the other not technology inclined people.
Windows is setup that it requires none of that. It may do something that you find horrific, but most people do not care as long as it works.
Windows devices are set up like that.
If you give someone a blank hard drive and Windows install media, they need to to all of those things.
Have you installed Windows 10 or 11 lately?
The most difficult part are the partitions, but even that is done mostly automatically and doesn't allow you to continue if your setup wouldn't work.
It comes with decent default drivers for most generic hardware, and automatically installs drivers for more exotic hardware if it supports Windows Updates.
And it most definitely does not require a single command line.
Maybe some technical jargon, but even that you can just skip by pressing next and it won't fuck up anything.
Linux works exactly like that too, unless you start tinkering with it
Yes, it required a command line to perform disk partitioning and even a basic pre-erase.
It also asked about 20 more questions than necessary, and I had to answer "no" to each and every one of them.
Where Linux asks for a username, Windows insisted multiple time that I had to create an account. The only workaround was to physically unplug the Ethernet cable.
There's also a step where you need to lie about your regional settings to avoid getting plastered with preinstalled trash.
If you blindly click "next" through a Windows install, you will get the most bloated, horrible, invasive experience possible.
There Windows installer is an absolute fucking minefield.
If an OS requires ANY AMOUNT of command line, you have lost about half the population.
Half? It's way more than half.
90% and I feel that's generous to the supposed 10%
"user friendly" doesn't mean "in the users' best interests", it means "easy to use".
newbie or somewhat experienced user?
I would say I know the basics of Linux due to owning a Pi and messing around with it time-to-time but no where near experienced.
TL; DR: From personal experience as a Raspberry Pi tinkerer and Windows evacuee, I recommend Linux Mint.
Raspberry Pi OS is essentially Debian compiled for ARM with the LXDE desktop. They used to use LXDE, and it is my understanding they forked LXDE to make their "Pixel" desktop. Being Debian, it uses the APT package manager with .deb packages.
Linux Mint is a fork of Ubuntu, which itself is a fork of Debian. It uses the APT package manager and .deb packages. The exact same commands to install, say, LibreOffice on a Raspberry Pi can be used to install it on Linux Mint.
Cinnamon is the flagship desktop, and I think is a reasonable answer to "What if Microsoft had kept developing the Windows 7 desktop instead of trying to make a tablet OS?" I chose Cinnamon pretty immediately because it felt more like the Windows I had grown up with than Windows 8.1 did.
Isn't there a Debian version of Mint too?
There is: Linux Mint Debian Edition. There are a few things you're missing in LMDE than in the standard Ubuntu-based version though, such as the driver manager and support for PPAs. The latter of which has declined in usefulness with the rise of Flatpaks, I haven't installed from a PPA in years now.
I think Fedora and Ubuntu are easy recommendations!
and Ubuntu
No. It's way too complicated to circumvent Canonical's attempts at vendor lock-in. One might just as well pick a more open distribution from the beginning.
most users simply do not care. if it works, it works
That's a good justification for them to stick with Windows.
Fedora is nice. You might also like PopOS or Majaro.
How easy is it to move user data and software to another distro if I decide to change it up?
Not too hard, especially if you plan on running the same software on your new distro. Basically, all of the settings are in your home directory (/home/[username]/), so you could just copy everything from your home directory and that's that.
Not only that, but you could also set up your home dir to be on another partition or drive. Basically, you don't have to copy anything if you set up your distro like this. You just point the new distro to your former home directory, this is home now, and it'll just use all of the settings from there. Sure, some settings and files are distro specific, but you can manually delete those if you want to free up a few MB of space.
If only the Xbox controller wouldn't randomly disconnect on Linux. No, i bought it because i read it works well here.
This is my biggest downfall with Linux, lack of integration with gaming but I’ll learn to leave without it, I guess.
Sounds like bait but I'll bite.
Most singleplayer titles work perfectly fine under Linux. Majority of my steam library runs with compatibility toggled in steam.
I've got a Switch Pro controller, no issues via Bluetooth or Cable connection. Gives me battery readouts via Dunst
Running Wayland with an NVIDIA GPU in both my systems.
I heard some recent steam thing made it pretty great now? Or was that just marketing talking?
It’s been for a few years, the only problem is with some multiplayers games (and it’s quite a easy and complex question)
RPGMaker games are hit or miss
Overall, if its on steam and it’s not a MP game chances are it will work out of the box
When was the last time you tried? Steam Deck has allowed Valve to dedicate lots of time to fine-tuning Proton and it works with virtually every game now, save the ones with specific kinds of online anti-cheat systems.
You can also just add your Epic and GoG games to Steam Launcher and then they'll be launched with Proton as well.
"YOU KNOW WHY I CLICK LATER? BECAUSE THERE'S NO OPTION TO CLICK NEVER! I'D LIKE TO CLICK NEVER! I NEVER WANT TO DOWNLOAD THESE STUPID BULLSHIT FUCKING UPDATES EVER AGAIN!"
Then click that you aren't interested.
That setting may not scream in your face, but it is far from hidden.
No. But I pay for apps that offer me the built in features I get on Linux. Like... Setting per app audio output.
So I don't use Mac so I gotta ask, are you joking or do you legit need to pay for that that feature that I'm pretty sure was something you could control in windows 98
Yes, you do. It's not cheap, either.
I've tried the open source version but unfortunately they don't work as well. SoundSource, though expensive, works well because of their sound engine called ACE, other open source solutions had other ways of redirecting audio. Though... RogueAmoeba(the devs), through the power of ACE offer other audio apps I use such as Audio highjack and Loopback, and I can really easily process the sound, recording it and add effects, even the built in ones from apple, like the sound isolation I apply on my mic, I can apply to the audio output or application outputs as well so when I record a meeting, if the user didn't have a great mic and good noise cancelation I can apply the effect that comes built in by Apple which works really really well. I know, it sucks I have to pay but at least the apps are really really well done and nice.
I also pay for Setapp because a lot of really good apps are included that I use so I can make my Mac experience better, because honestly it misses a lot of features. Yet again, the silver lining is that the apps are built really well. Without all of these custom apps I don't know how I could use a Mac. You even need software like Rectangle because macos doesn't have built in window snapping.
I used to be a Linux user, I have been using it for quite a while(more than 5 years), but unfortunately I'm not just a developer anymore so I need to office stuff and develop... And it's been the best experience by far on Mac (I also have to test some apps I make on iOS so I need XCode). Developing on Linux is amazing, but unfortunately I need to do a lot of different things and it's been the best experience on MacOS with apps that add the features I am missing. I prefer Unix like systems and stuff to just work so you won't catch me on windows, but I did have to install windows on my Linux machine because some things I have to do only work on Windows so I gotta have that. It's just my usecase and this is what works best for me. I tried to linuxize my Mac to have the GNU utilities but unfortunately stuff started to break because they adapted it for the way the Mac utilities work... Ugh, I so wish I could have the GNU utils.
I have Arch btw
I was actually going to put it on an older laptop the other week, but Ubuntu wouldn't run on it.
This was after spending an hour trying to get into the BIOS, only to find that the keyboard doesn't actually work before the Windows splash screen comes up... I mean who the fuck designs it like that?
Also the drive bay doesn't fit the SSD properly, so it just boot loops if you use the little caddy. Refuses to even Post.
Now I hate computers again.
What laptop was it so the rest of us can avoid this tomfoolery in the future?
Acer 5742. It's old (and more importantly, free), but with a first gen i5 and 6GB RAM I thought it would still be able to run basic Ubuntu.
On the plus side, you could access the drive and RAM through a detachable panel, without needing to pull the whole machine to pieces, or be prevented from upgrading it entirely. Which is another thing that's becoming depressingly rare.
Acer seems like a bit of a grabbag when it comes to quality.
Hold shift when you click restart in windows, you can access the firmware through windows recovery.
Only with UEFI. This wasn't that. I initially thought it was Windows 10 fucking with Fastboot and causing it to skip.
This was after spending an hour trying to get into the BIOS, only to find that the keyboard doesn’t actually work before the Windows splash screen comes up… I mean who the fuck designs it like that?
Does your laptop have multiple usb ports? And did you try them all?
I had this issue even on my PC until I tried a bunch of different USB ports and found one that worked.
Uhh I just realized that since it's a laptop the keyboard is part of the laptop... Well I'll still leave this in case it helps anyone
Yeah, I had to plug in a USB keyboard in the end.
New convert here, it's mostly dope.
Edit: here as in on linux
We don't have a choice.
Please do not let Linux find out I said this, I have kids.
proton is pretty much there, thinking to jump ship to linux - already use it in all my work for decades
2024 the year of Linux. As long as we can avoid the toxic “don’t use Mint, use Arch instead users”.
Also the memey "xxxx the year of Linux". Because that's been going on for 40+ years now. 😅 You use it, or you don't. Your OS is a tool, not a belief system.
This person gets it
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Was that really necessary?
I think it's a copypasta because we're doing overdone Linux memes in this thread.
It's a copypasta.
True it’s a tool. Just like a car. We get attached to one way of working with that tool, but then advancements come and a different tool starts to look interesting. Think gas->electric windows/mac->Linux.
Every year is "The Year of Linux."
Year of Linux on the consumer PC. Linux has been dominating the server space for... 40+ years now.
That’s interesting, I remember reading a post to comp.os.minix about 32 years ago about a Finnish student who made his own OS. It was just a kernel that barely worked. Wish I’d known it was already dominant in the server space for over 8 years, could have gotten a head start!
I hope that student's project turned out ok, even if it's not big and professional like GNU. Did he ever add support for non-AT hard disks?
I'm not quibbling with nerds over the timeline, I was just echoing the original poster's words.
So Linux has been dominating the server space since before it existed? Cool!
According to the last magazine I checked about this, 1997 is actually going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
And this housing bubble is totally going to burst any day now, too.
But you should be using Arch instead ot Mint.
(I use Arch BTW)
It's the only reasonable solution.
(I too use Arch btw)
My Steam Deck uses Arch btw.
No, do not use Arch
(I too? use Artix BTW)
I mean, if you like knowing what your machine is doing, Arch is one of the best options.
Gentoo is for when you want to know what your compiler is doing.
It's also ironically easier to use day-to-day than some other commonly suggested distros. Sure something like Mint or Pop_OS is much much easier to set up but later on when you need a newer version or something that isn't in the repos. Too bad! That doesn't exist. Time hunt down a PPA and hope it's trustworthy.
With Arch 99.9% of the time if it's not in the main repos it's in the AUR. And since it's rolling there's no worry of doing the big upgrades (been seeing plenty of posts about issues with the transition from Fedora 38 -> 39 lately). I have daily driven Arch for almost 10 years now and there have only been a handful of times across that whole span where a pacman -Syuactually broke something.
debian has never broken anything here in twenty+ years of use. I'VE broken shit, but debian never has.
It's comparatively easy to not break things if you're like ten years behind. 😉 But sure, Debian takes pride in its stability. I just like having recent versions of everything.
I've literally never had a Debian or Ubuntu dist upgrade go smoothly. It's infuriating being on ancient tools, then randomly getting a giant dump up upgrades to slightly newer ancient tools that ends up breaking all kinds of shit
To be fair it is always my fault when things break not Arch's. It's not like Arch does anything on its own.
Completely agree. Ran Arch for about 10 years and had like three breakages that were all my fault (didn't read news before a manual intervention. Once the battery died). But every time I could fix that by booting the current live image. No data loss.
Honestly, I've been thinking about switching to Linux with my next system since about a month after I built my current system, over 4 years ago. That's how long it took for me to be sick of Microsoft's bullshit in Windows 10.
That said, I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to get into Linux. It's probably easier than I think, but having done 0 research (as I don't need a new system yet), the impression I have is that there's a ton of stuff I'm going to have to figure out before getting started.
Start with a live CD version (a USB thumb drive acts as your C: ) or a virtual machine (like VirtualBox and install Linux on it) just to try things out. Then do a full switch when ready.
Try a live CD. It's easy to get started without hearing a bunch of stuff.
If you've got a spare USB drive, have a look at Ventoy. It's a program that lets you put multiple ISOs (disc images) onto a drive and select which one to boot from at startup.
Most distros have free bootable ISOs to download, which let you try that distro without installing it. They usually have an installer built in so that you can install your chosen distro from a desktop environment.
Installation is probably the trickiest part, but even that's not too bad as long as you pay attention. Once you're on the desktop, it's as easy to use as Windows.
It's at the same time much easier and much harder than you think. You'll have most of it working very easily and then find some little thing annoying you with some tool and take days to find a replacement that feels just right.
Yeah, you're right about the last part.
Linux has a learning curve that's steep to the average Windows or Mac user. The guys suggesting Arch are saying it's easier than the other distros, but you have to remember that most of those coming from the other two aren't going to know what a command line is. I had to guide someone through it when they wanted to install VMware on Pop!_OS, I would not put them on Arch. (And to those suggesting the AUR, that still needs a command line and now you need to inspect the PKGBUILD for security purposes.)
The only distro I tell people not to use at this point is Ubuntu
Thanks for the heads up, I was Ubuntu install it. /s
Badum chhhhh
Don't use Mint or Arch, use Void!
Just command line.
I really thought it's harder, I really did... turns out it's not.
2 basic set of commands for upgrading and purging: xbps-install -Suv and xbps-remove -ROov, that's it.
Even on my Mac I end up pulling Terminal more and more to do things. Not everything though but some things are easier.
To be completely honest... I'm more comfortable with the terminal now.
Asimilation complete 🤣.
The main thing that we need imo is something like SteamOS that is installable on every PC and has the backing of valve, sadly it's still limited to the deck
becouse it may not be the perfect desktop OS experience (for your average linux user anyway), but game mode is absolutely a game changer for people who just want to play games on their computer 90% of the time
Yes support from a major company would set a Linux flavor as a general public friendly option. Right now the fracture between all the Linux versions is a deterrent for beginners.
shit dude, that's about the only place where I have to use windows 😂.
psst... I hear you're looking to ditch Microsoft. You might like what you see over at c/linux
uuu, nice, smooth 😏 👍
This grinds my gears. Apple does the same: my work MBP nags me daily to enable iCloud backups but I have no way of doing it because Apple login is disabled by my administrator. Consequently, I cannot reach the settings page to tell Mac to fuck off.
Is there a newbie way to install it? It looks pretty convoluted...
The best way to install is to use a LIVE edition. This is useful beacuse you have a nice installer intergrated and you can try it before you have to install the OS on the computer.
From there, if you come from Windows, I would raccomend KDE, as it is stable and customizable. Search "KDE screenshot" to see what it looks like, and if you like it.
Debian should also be lite enough for older machines, and it is the most stable distro I've tried.
With this OS, there are already web browser, media player, office suite,... but you can also download Steam, emulators and lots of software
For help you can DM me.
From experience, this is a stable streamlined process that is now easier than installing Windows.
Been some times since I installed Windows, but Calamares is a great tool
Thanks! I've installed, Ubuntu, KDE, a real old Red Hat, and most recently Linux Mint. Usually dual boot with Windows with either separate SSDs or on the same SSD. Thankfully they have come along ways and you don't need to rebuild the GRUB every time windows did a update.
I've seen Debian is the king of Linux Distros but whenever I've looked into a install it seems like a beast. I'll check out these links!
It's easier than installing Windows. The problem is that someone hasn't already done it for you.
Yes. Did you know that you cannot partition disks in a GUI while installing Windows? You can only select partition to install to or format the entire disk, all advanced actions must be done with diskpart commands in Command Prompt (Shift+F10).
Also OOBE is shit, luckily you can do it offline thanks to C:\Windows\System32\OOBE\bypassnro.bat. And the additional setup like debloating is also time-consuming.
Or just wait until you are booted into Windows and use the Diskmanager.
Honestly, these complains from you Linuxians are always just so dumb and uninformed.
You are right that there is a way to do this post-installation but I have been down this rabbit hole 4 times and all I can say is:
Nope nope nope. This is actually more pain.
Why? Shrinking the C: drive is difficult or damn near impossible when Windows is installed on it, which is why I always install Windows to a smaller partition (120 GiB as I don't play modern games) and move user folders to D:, and then leave some space for E: or Linux.
Disk Management will only let you shrink the disk by a very small amount. This is because Windows has a lot of “unmoveable files”. You need to disable recovery, virtual memory and hibernation to get a chance at shrinking that partition, and you may need to run all kinds of defrag commands. I did this on 4 PCs and the first 3 times, this was enough.
In the 4th case, just this week, I became sick and got stuck at my grandma’s place far from home. I needed a Linux installation badly, but there was only a laptop with 40 out of 220 GiB free after cleanup, and just a single partition (with Windows preinstalled, of course). It did not want to budge and reported 0 MB shrinkable space. I tried every trick mentioned online before resorting to buying Aomei Partition Assistant. It queued the action of shrinking the drive by 20 GiB (alleged minimum for Mint) and estimated 18 minutes to complete the operation. It told me it cannot do that while Windows was running so it gave me the option to use WinPE or PreOS mode. WinPE did not work so I retried with PreOS. The computer booted into VGA text mode and this appeared on the screen:
============== AOMEI Partition Assistant PreOS Mode ==============
The program is executing, please wait...
Operation 1 of 1
Resizing Partition
Hard Disk: 1
Drive Letter: C:
File System: NTFS
Partition Label: OS
Size: 220.46GB => 200.45GB
Total:0 %, Current:0 %
This was on the screen for about an hour, and the PC was apparently under load with fans spinning. The program might be stuck but could how could I tell? I eventually forced the computer to shut down. I hadn't made a backup because I did not have a large external drive (would have installed Linux on part of that, instead). Was my grandma’s only computer ruined? Would I be stuck for 2 weeks without a computer?
Luckily, the PreOS program ultimately had no effect on the drive, and I managed to negotiate a refund from Aomei. Then I realized I could boot into Recovery Mode and try diskpart from Command Prompt there, which miraculously worked. Also pretty tense because it did not give any indication of progress, just threw control back to me when it finished. I was relieved when I successfully booted into Windows on that shrunk partition. Other than having to enter Windows Safe Mode to disable RAID storage in BIOS, the Linux installation went fine.
So this is why you install Windows on a reasonably small partition or resize it before using a preinstalled copy. This is not useful just for Linux but when you want to upgrade to an SSD (as I did with my parents’ and the other grandparents’ computer), you only want the system partition there so you don't need to buy a bigger drive; also wear leveling will work better if the drive is not close to full, and HDDs are easierbto recover if they fail. With separate OS and data partitions, you just use Clonezilla or something to clone the Windows (C:) partition to the SSD bit-by-bit, then disconnect the old drive and fix boot using a Windows recovery medium (necessary because of Microsoft's shenanigans), make changes to the boot order and now you're booting from an SSD with a fallback copy on the HDD!
To be clear, I also prefer GUI utilities (except when automation is needed of course). But diskpart is pretty easy - it's essentially a state machine with built-in help so it's very noob-friendly for a CLI program. And you just saw that it can save hours of hassle.
Or you just don't partition at all.
Never had a problem with it in the last 15 years on Windows. You can usually fix the OS with some command lines. And if you can't, you just reinstall and Windows will move all your files into a Windows.old folder.
That's not good use of space, storage is still expensive where I live (partly because of piracy tax). A simple copy to “Windows.old” will not save the bootloader so it won't really work as a backup – it’s dead space now. Your OS partition (and the EFI one) must be copied bitwise if you need to back them up (but as you correctly mentioned, you probably don't).
It makes a lot of sense to separate installation and data, especially when the PC will get used by old people (who are more likely to screw up something badly) or power users. And making backups of data is as easy as robocopy D: F:\Backup /mir. Yes, I also have lots of experience using and managing Windows PCs in my family and work.
Only good thing about windows being so bad is that amazing feeling when I finish my homework in Solidworks (🤬) and boot back to my Linux desktop.
Can't you just virtualize it?
Virtualizing applications that use 3d graphics can be a pain
You just need to pass though a GPU
yeah but that needs a second gpu :/
Ugh, I just found this out and had to bail on the idea.
I mean, you can do it with a single gpu, it's just that the host won't have it anymore
Wouldn't the iGPU be enough for the host system? I'm assuming you can reload the standalone GPU on the host system when you're done with the task on the hosted system.
Would that be possible without restarting the system?
(I'm not as knowledgeable on Linux, so I'm curious if Linux can support such a use case)
hm yeah but hen you would need to have an i gpu in my case i don't have one but that would work especially since if you have an i gpu the big gpu is mostly used for offloading
Not really. You just enable 3d acceleration for the VM
My laptop barely runs windows unvirtualized and I don't have a PC :(
I see this is your first day with a Windows computer. Welcome.
I've always been a power user but never minded Windows until W11. Luckily WSL was a great gateway drug for me and I ended up switching to Linux full-time after living inside WSL for a few weeks.
If I had known it was possible to make a local account instead of having to use my outlook for my desktop, I totally would have gone that route a couple years ago. Only plus side I can think of for not doing it is that I have immediate access to my outlook.
Outlook would store your credentials anyway.
Only if you use it.
I doubt I would have even logged into my outlook if I didn't set up my Microsoft account, so it helped me there at least.
Lol... Fair enough. I don't use that shit on my personal machines but sometimes will for work.
For me it's just an old account I use because out of all my emails, it's the most professional one. I wouldn't dare try to use my other ones for anything serious.
Honestly I'd say OpenSUSE tumbleweed. Good distro, very up to date/bleeding edge, has YAST which can help newbies who are not familiar with terminal, has btrfs snapshots which saved my arse a couple of times.
I don't wanna trigger Arch users, but I find it way more stable than Arch. It gives me almost 0 headaches. Sometimes when I get home I want my PC to just work and I don't want to spend my time troubleshooting it.
It's not as customizable as Arch though.
If you still find it a bit much for a starter distro, you won't go wrong with Pop_OS, it's a good distro imo, but atm it's too old. No clue when they're gonna release their next update with CosmicDE, but when they release it, it's probably gonna be in a beta state for a while.
I suggest Kubuntu, great ui, solid base, niche problems can be googled away
I suggest Manjaro. Arch made easy.
Use EndeavourOS if you want easy Arch, Manjaro is kinda bad.
But really if you want an easy system, go with Mint or Fedora. Arch isn't designed for ease nor first-timers.
I have enjoyed manjaro. My sons first laptop ran manjaro with WINE for his gaming. It never gave him too many problems
Is there even a single benefit of this? I don't want anything to do with one drive.
The benefits are:
Data that can be analyzed and form basis of ad profile
Can track you when you are on the move.
Vendor lock-in as you may find that most features are tied to the microsoft account (onedrive, office, outlook)
Hey, wait a minute...
Nobody specified whose benefit...
Syncing settings between devices
Bought Windows Store Apps transfer
Syncing Cortana related things
And of course OneDrive, but you already said you don't care.
Honestly, if you don't care about those, it is perfectly fine to just use Windows with a local account. But there definitely are benefits if you are looking for a more Apple-like "everything is connected" vibe.
This is all accurate. However, there's one other thing, which is essentially SSO.
Basically if you sign in with a Microsoft account, you can sign into your PC with your Microsoft account username and password, which can be easier to reset from another device than going through the password recovery process for Windows.
Apart from that, your bitlocker keys are stored on your Microsoft account if you have that enabled on your main drive.
As an aside: if you have bitlocker enabled on your PC, be sure to back up the recovery key. Print it off, or save it to a USB drive and email it to yourself (the system won't let you save it on the encrypted drive for obvious reasons), or something. Bitlocker isn't bad, I just feel like Microsoft doesn't do a very good job at making people aware of the pitfalls of it when things go sideways. Basically, if you need to pull the drive for any reason as part of a recovery operation, then you'll need the recovery key to decrypt the data and gain access to it for the purpose of recovery.
Fair warning: anyone who purchased a prebuilt PC in the past 3-5 years should check on it (longer realistically), and make sure they have that recovery key. Most prebuilt PC companies (like HP/Lenovo/Dell) generally have bitlocker on by default and Windows does a wretched job of telling you any of this.
Bitlocker isn't bad, it's full drive encryption. That's a good thing for the most part and you should use it, especially with mobile systems, but please make sure you have that recovery key. I work in IT support and it's starting to happen that drives fail, and the client doesn't have the recovery key, so I can't even try to recover the data for them. It used to be trivial, just load the drive into a working system and grab what you need, but with bitlocker, even if you get a corrupted file that's required for Windows to start, but the disk is otherwise fine, your data goes away and will not come back without that key.
I have a Win7 on my PC which I only use for gaming but Steam is telling me it'll stop working on Win7 in about 80 days or so. I installed Win7 on it for a reason but soon it'll be my first ever computer running Linux.
This is the way
I'm just curious... You are ok with not installing any security updates for months (or even years)?
I guess so. I don't really think about that. As long as stuff works on my end I don't worry about updating it. I'd be happy if I could just install the security updates because updating the OS generally just breaks stuff and slows things down.
Windows 10 pushed me into finally jumping into Linux a few years ago. I've been happy ever since it feels good to change what you don't like about a system.
which distro did you end up on? I started 2 weeks ago with Arch (bad first choice, but i learned a lot), moved to Ubuntu (seemed way too bloated and hard to customize), then PopOS (worse than Ubuntu), and now I'm moving from Manjaro back to Arch. I think that's where I'm gonna stay now that i know how to fix it up and use it.
The only thing i miss from Windows is Adobe, everything else is so much better on Linux. I love how i can customize literally anything and everything, and if i need something specific i can just make it
I personally landed on mint in its cinnamon flavor. It loosk great, is customizable l, click of a button to get nvidia card working and works just the way I want
I started at Elementary OS which I just thought looked cool. Then I lived in Manjaro but had some issues. So I finally jumped to EndeavourOS, It has been smooth and a great experience. Yeah for me I have to use Windows for my Elgato Capture card which is annoying.
I started 2 weeks ago with Arch (bad first choice, but i learned a lot), moved to Ubuntu (seemed way too bloated and hard to customize), then PopOS (worse than Ubuntu), and now I’m moving from Manjaro back to Arch.
Sincerely, check out Fedora/KDE. It just works, and it's backed well.
I'm not suavevillain, but I recently switched to PopOS after a love hate relationship with Windows. I would leave Windows, then come crawling back for one reason or another, this stint is the longest I've had staying away from it.
I personally like PopOS. But for a less bloated environment and easy to spin up system, you could look at Linux Mint (https://linuxmint.com/).
There's a tool for making bootable windows USB drives called Rufus that gives you options to remove things like requiring a Windows account, TPM requirement for Windows 11, secure boot, etc when you're cloning the iso to the USB drive.
Oh wow! I’ve used Rufus a handful of times to make bootable windows USB drives and I never knew this
Still bugging people about to connect an account
I see loads of things on here about what Windows does that gets on people's nerves. Why don't I see any of it on my install? I get no ads, annoying pop-ups etc. afaik it's just win11 pro.
It's pro, that's why.
Hahahaha, if only pro was anything more than home with some added features. If you want the version without ads you need enterprise + a domain or intune.
They probably just turned off suggested links, and tips.
No, you just need the N-version, which is without any ads or bloatware. But the license cost is higher.
Did you do anything to your system? I have a Win10Pro, but the first step after installation is to disable a ton of stuff, uninstall and delete a ton of applications, etc. making a lot of that alien to me too.
Consider yourself lucky
Consider yourself *European with actual privacy rights ftfy
I've never seen a pop-up like this on Windows and I work in IT for a living. I don't do anything special with my personal OS install so idk what the difference is.
It only happens on Windows Home versions, it does not happen on Pro versions which you are probably using.
You can still just turn the notification off in the home version:
This appeared this week on our home Windows 10 machine as well for the one account that does not use a Microsoft account. It's a new behavior.
My windows 11 has the same notification but it pops up in the center of the screen on top of everything about every hour.
I know this won't be popular, but I just upgraded my decades old, unused Hotmail account to outlook, signed in to Windows during install, and have never seen anything about logging in since I did so years ago...
just create a "fuckyoaccount" over at protonmail and log in.
I was an early adherent to unique passwords for every login. Now I'm doing a unique email as well. Works a treat, and fucks up their marketing too which warms my heart.
please dont abuse protonmail.
abuse mailfence
Just make a throwaway outlook account to cost them server cost and sign it up for every spam you can find.
beautiful
GNU/Linux
Unrelated but what is that start menu?? Mine looks absolutely nothing like that
I think you need to look a linjx distro for you
Use O&O shutup
Nah. Breaks many important system parts. It just makes it bugged and unstable.
May be you dont know how to use it? I've used it, my friends use it and we never had any issue
Surely it lets you choose what parts to disable, right?
Yes
It's not hard to use. It's widely known it fucks up Windows processes. Lots of reddit posts complaining something mundane doesn't work anymore after a shitty tool like shutup or registry edit
Yea probably those people dont know how to use it. Unfortunately you're one of them :(
🤡
Not a single problem with o&o shut up for me. What exactly becomes bugged & unstable?
anyone want bet when this is going to end?
i cant remember any release after xp that not had users cry about shit M$ did.
winME...epic...so many sad customers. and while win7 kinda worked ok like a cheap toy you bought it was a telemetry desaster ...oh, and with IE and M$paint that were already shit in winXP.
so my questions is: how many generations does it take until ppl stop falling for their crap?
i once read animals need like 3 errors to change behavious in a test with electric shocks on two of three exits of a cage. three.
that should have stopped most animals to use windows after 98, xp and 7. so if you use win8 or win10 or later....i better stop here
Maybe in the next 30 years ReactOS will reach a windows 10 level, hopefully sooner.
Nah, ReactOS is a waste of time and effort. It's like constantly trying to guess what the other person is holding in his hand by doing questionares with the guy... you're bound to lose if he's always 10 steps ahead of you.
On the other hand, Wine, thanks to Proton, is doing quite well.
Proton works great for gaming because the narrow set of gaming-related API allows Valve and CodeWeaver to focus their effort to make sure most games run well. Windows has a lot more API though and a good percentage of them is still doesn't work that well in wine, which means many apps still have issues or outright unusable in wine. For example, I think iTunes for Windows still doesn't work in wine.
I never said it's perfect. In fact, I don't use Wine for gaming at all, but the fact still remains that Wine got A LOT better after Valve got involved.
Agree on the unsuable part. I can even be a witness to that (no Windows drive API, USB is out if the question). But, regarding "regular" apps, yeah, it does the job. If you wana run Adobe or AutoDesk products, yeah, it's no good (depends on the version, but no good for anything above 2018, 2019).
Regarding iTunes... if I was on the Wine team, I wouldn't even consider that for testing... good thing I'm not.
I didn't even considered running iTunes on linux too. But after installing linux on my macbook, I realized I need to cancel some apps subscriptions only to realized you have to use either an apple device or iTunes for windows to do that. No option to manage your subscription via web at all! After unsuccessful attempt at running iTunes on linux, I ended up dusting off an old ipad mini 2 from my drawer and cancel the subscription from there (thanks god it can still connect to app store, it's still on ios 12).
No option to manage your subscription via web at all!
Excuse my language, but that's fucking ridiculous. I would never use a service that didin't offer me the option to log in via plain http/https.
After unsuccessful attempt at running iTunes on linux, I ended up dusting off an old ipad mini 2 from my drawer and cancel the subscription from there (thanks god it can still connect to app store, it's still on ios 12).
Jesus 🤦... the things we have to resort to just to cancel a payment.
I'm not sure its development team will live that long
Starting to like these posts. They help me block the linux bros to clean up my feed
You might as well block all the FOSS bros. Just stop using FOSS.
(FYI Lemmy is FOSS. The fact that people trying to get away from corporate greed also want to get away from other corporate greed seems like the expectation, not the exception.)
You can hate one FOSS implementation without hating the concept.
Honestly, the worst thing about Linux is the community of entitled elitists snobs that whine about anything that isn't Linux.
At one point I was tempted to install a distro on my home machine to expand my technological knowledge. But if it turns me into one of those fuckers, then I rather keep my social life. Doesn't matter if Linux is a divinely perfect OS or not.
"I don't like it because it's popular!" Great argument. I'm sure you're a very reasonable person.
Windows is slowly transitioning from a paid and solid OS to freemuim spyware bloated dumb OS.
Slowly? This crap has been going on for years.
Yeah slowly, it started years ago but it's been getting worse every version, slowly
Fast would be if windows 8 had ads and non uninstallable internet exploder etc
Sounds like someone who doesn't remember windows 8!
Ads: https://hothardware.com/news/microsofts-big-hidden-windows-8-feature-builtin-advertising
They were working on it... and had it working in several places.
Uninstallable IE: https://www.technorms.com/34477/uninstall-internet-explorer-11
While not literally uninstallable... they definitely made it a lot harder.
Windows 7 was the last good version of windows.
Disagree, 7 wasn't the worst but the last actually good version of windows was XP service pack 2
Why not XP SP3?
Becouse SP3 was the first time Microsoft really let loose with the telemetry iirc
Interesting - I didn't know that. Thanks!
Windows 8(.1) was still utter trash, I actually "down"graded to windows 7 at the time and it was a bliss.
(it wasn't the non-stop-ads kind of trash, but the UI suited a tablet more than a desk/laptop)
Yeaaaaaah, I don't know what Microsoft were thinking trying to force a unified UI on everyone... It didn't work
If only every Windows install came with an internet exploder! We wouldn't have to read Elon Musk X fluff pieces on the news ever single day. And privacy concerns... What privacy concerns?
The freemium model was launched and completed with Win10.
Isn't a process happening gradually over years "slowly"?
Would that not be slowly? What would you call slowly in this context?
That's generally what "slowly" means, yes.
Decades.
I don’t recall such issues with Win98 or XP
Dude, that was 22 years ago... I also remember Prince of Persia as if it were yesterday
I miss Windows Vista.
The arrow pointing downwards is about to be absolutely destroyed today. Edit: it turns out that it didn't.
I used to dual boot linux with windows Vista on an old laptop. I had only installed there the first assassin's creed and Rome total war. Nothing else, never really connected to internet. After 1 year of not using it a part than few total war sessions, vista was so slow that was unusable. It spontaneously became slow for no reason. I completely removed it, left only linux, and that laptop survived 7 years of intensive use, and was still working 10 years later (just too old).
Vista was a scam
Good for you, I'm never gonna get convinced.
Vistas problem was that it was ahead of its time
I sort of agree with you, but not in the way I think you meant it.
Vista's problem was that it's hardware requirements were too high for it's time. Operating systems have very long project development lifecycle and at a point early on they did a forward looking estimate of where the PC market would be by the time Vista released, and they overshot. When it was almost ready to release it to the world Microsoft put out the initial minimum and recommended specs and PC sellers (Dell, HP, Gateway) lobbied them to lower the numbers; the cost of a PC that met the recommended specs was just too high for the existing PC market and it would kill their sales numbers if they started selling PCs that met those figures. Microsoft complied and lowered the specs, but didn't actually change the operating system in any meaningful way - they just changed a few numbers on a piece of paper and added some configurations that let you disable some of the more hardware intensive bits. The result was that most Vista users were running it on hardware that wasn't actually able to run it properly, which lead to horrible user experiences. Anyone that bought a high end PC or built one themselves and ran Vista on that, however, seemed quite happy with the operating system.
I had no problems with Vista. I also built a new PC for it though.
Very similar story here: I bought a new computer that shipped with Vista.
I got horrendously tired of that Pentium 4 thing.
Blasphemy! Windows XP is the only King!
I don't really like XP's design anymore. I didn't like it back then either.
It started with Windows 8
Ready to feel old, that was 11 years ago^oo^oo^o
Ah maan, why'd you have to tell me that, it still feels like it came out just 3-4 years ago tops
Win8 wasn't freemium. Win10 was.
True but it's when Microsoft started to implement apps and such for tablets and hybrid laptops along with office 365.
Windows 2000 🫶
Because at this time the internet was still slow, not always on and optional on most computers, and Microsoft did not know if and how they should integrate the internet into the OS. The only thing they had at the time was some link to MSN on the desktop, and activeX (???) Where you could display websites on your desktop or within your program, but without the Browser controlls.
Even though Windows is very user-friendly. I think Windows 11 might be my last. The amount of anti-privacy that’s implemented and what I have to do just so it doesn’t constantly phone back home is kind of ridiculous.
Off to pick my flavor of Linux.
I find it strange that people call it user-friendly, despite it doing a lot of things hostile to the user.
Just more in the neighborhood of being used or understanding something because it has been given to them from a very young age on. So getting familiar and used to it very young age on makes it "friendly" even though it is more "familiarity".
Linux is always going to be really awkward at first but over the course of time you learn and shy away and develop your own kinda workflow and that's the beauty of it in my opinion.
Because user-friendly means that even a tech-noob can easily set it up and use it right away without much researching.
If an OS requires ANY AMOUNT of command line, you have lost about half the population.
If an OS asks any remotely difficult question with techno lingo, you have lost an other quarter.
If an OS doesn't work out of the box the way it should (like all their hardware functioning including audio), you have lost all the other not technology inclined people.
Windows is setup that it requires none of that. It may do something that you find horrific, but most people do not care as long as it works.
Windows devices are set up like that.
If you give someone a blank hard drive and Windows install media, they need to to all of those things.
Have you installed Windows 10 or 11 lately?
The most difficult part are the partitions, but even that is done mostly automatically and doesn't allow you to continue if your setup wouldn't work.
It comes with decent default drivers for most generic hardware, and automatically installs drivers for more exotic hardware if it supports Windows Updates.
And it most definitely does not require a single command line.
Maybe some technical jargon, but even that you can just skip by pressing next and it won't fuck up anything.
Linux works exactly like that too, unless you start tinkering with it
Yes, it required a command line to perform disk partitioning and even a basic pre-erase.
It also asked about 20 more questions than necessary, and I had to answer "no" to each and every one of them.
Where Linux asks for a username, Windows insisted multiple time that I had to create an account. The only workaround was to physically unplug the Ethernet cable.
There's also a step where you need to lie about your regional settings to avoid getting plastered with preinstalled trash.
If you blindly click "next" through a Windows install, you will get the most bloated, horrible, invasive experience possible.
There Windows installer is an absolute fucking minefield.
Half? It's way more than half.
90% and I feel that's generous to the supposed 10%
"user friendly" doesn't mean "in the users' best interests", it means "easy to use".
newbie or somewhat experienced user?
I would say I know the basics of Linux due to owning a Pi and messing around with it time-to-time but no where near experienced.
TL; DR: From personal experience as a Raspberry Pi tinkerer and Windows evacuee, I recommend Linux Mint.
Raspberry Pi OS is essentially Debian compiled for ARM with the LXDE desktop. They used to use LXDE, and it is my understanding they forked LXDE to make their "Pixel" desktop. Being Debian, it uses the APT package manager with .deb packages.
Linux Mint is a fork of Ubuntu, which itself is a fork of Debian. It uses the APT package manager and .deb packages. The exact same commands to install, say, LibreOffice on a Raspberry Pi can be used to install it on Linux Mint.
Cinnamon is the flagship desktop, and I think is a reasonable answer to "What if Microsoft had kept developing the Windows 7 desktop instead of trying to make a tablet OS?" I chose Cinnamon pretty immediately because it felt more like the Windows I had grown up with than Windows 8.1 did.
Isn't there a Debian version of Mint too?
There is: Linux Mint Debian Edition. There are a few things you're missing in LMDE than in the standard Ubuntu-based version though, such as the driver manager and support for PPAs. The latter of which has declined in usefulness with the rise of Flatpaks, I haven't installed from a PPA in years now.
I think Fedora and Ubuntu are easy recommendations!
No. It's way too complicated to circumvent Canonical's attempts at vendor lock-in. One might just as well pick a more open distribution from the beginning.
most users simply do not care. if it works, it works
That's a good justification for them to stick with Windows.
Fedora is nice. You might also like PopOS or Majaro.
How easy is it to move user data and software to another distro if I decide to change it up?
Not too hard, especially if you plan on running the same software on your new distro. Basically, all of the settings are in your home directory (/home/[username]/), so you could just copy everything from your home directory and that's that.
Not only that, but you could also set up your home dir to be on another partition or drive. Basically, you don't have to copy anything if you set up your distro like this. You just point the new distro to your former home directory, this is home now, and it'll just use all of the settings from there. Sure, some settings and files are distro specific, but you can manually delete those if you want to free up a few MB of space.
If only the Xbox controller wouldn't randomly disconnect on Linux. No, i bought it because i read it works well here.
This is my biggest downfall with Linux, lack of integration with gaming but I’ll learn to leave without it, I guess.
Sounds like bait but I'll bite.
Most singleplayer titles work perfectly fine under Linux. Majority of my steam library runs with compatibility toggled in steam.
I've got a Switch Pro controller, no issues via Bluetooth or Cable connection. Gives me battery readouts via Dunst
Running Wayland with an NVIDIA GPU in both my systems.
I heard some recent steam thing made it pretty great now? Or was that just marketing talking?
It’s been for a few years, the only problem is with some multiplayers games (and it’s quite a easy and complex question)
RPGMaker games are hit or miss
Overall, if its on steam and it’s not a MP game chances are it will work out of the box
When was the last time you tried? Steam Deck has allowed Valve to dedicate lots of time to fine-tuning Proton and it works with virtually every game now, save the ones with specific kinds of online anti-cheat systems.
You can also just add your Epic and GoG games to Steam Launcher and then they'll be launched with Proton as well.
Sir, do you have a minute to talk about Linux? 👉👈
Literally op is Satan so...
No. Fuck you.
<~6yo boy
sucks bill's dick
Wat
Do we have to report him.. ?
"YOU KNOW WHY I CLICK LATER? BECAUSE THERE'S NO OPTION TO CLICK NEVER! I'D LIKE TO CLICK NEVER! I NEVER WANT TO DOWNLOAD THESE STUPID BULLSHIT FUCKING UPDATES EVER AGAIN!"
Then click that you aren't interested.
That setting may not scream in your face, but it is far from hidden.
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/137645-turn-off-get-even-more-out-windows-suggestions-windows-10-a.html
I have a feeling people here like Linux...
on lemmy are you shure ?
I use a Mac!
But you've installed Linux on it, right?
No. But I pay for apps that offer me the built in features I get on Linux. Like... Setting per app audio output.
So I don't use Mac so I gotta ask, are you joking or do you legit need to pay for that that feature that I'm pretty sure was something you could control in windows 98
Yes, you do. It's not cheap, either.
I've tried the open source version but unfortunately they don't work as well. SoundSource, though expensive, works well because of their sound engine called ACE, other open source solutions had other ways of redirecting audio. Though... RogueAmoeba(the devs), through the power of ACE offer other audio apps I use such as Audio highjack and Loopback, and I can really easily process the sound, recording it and add effects, even the built in ones from apple, like the sound isolation I apply on my mic, I can apply to the audio output or application outputs as well so when I record a meeting, if the user didn't have a great mic and good noise cancelation I can apply the effect that comes built in by Apple which works really really well. I know, it sucks I have to pay but at least the apps are really really well done and nice.
I also pay for Setapp because a lot of really good apps are included that I use so I can make my Mac experience better, because honestly it misses a lot of features. Yet again, the silver lining is that the apps are built really well. Without all of these custom apps I don't know how I could use a Mac. You even need software like Rectangle because macos doesn't have built in window snapping.
I used to be a Linux user, I have been using it for quite a while(more than 5 years), but unfortunately I'm not just a developer anymore so I need to office stuff and develop... And it's been the best experience by far on Mac (I also have to test some apps I make on iOS so I need XCode). Developing on Linux is amazing, but unfortunately I need to do a lot of different things and it's been the best experience on MacOS with apps that add the features I am missing. I prefer Unix like systems and stuff to just work so you won't catch me on windows, but I did have to install windows on my Linux machine because some things I have to do only work on Windows so I gotta have that. It's just my usecase and this is what works best for me. I tried to linuxize my Mac to have the GNU utilities but unfortunately stuff started to break because they adapted it for the way the Mac utilities work... Ugh, I so wish I could have the GNU utils.
I have Arch btw
I was actually going to put it on an older laptop the other week, but Ubuntu wouldn't run on it.
This was after spending an hour trying to get into the BIOS, only to find that the keyboard doesn't actually work before the Windows splash screen comes up... I mean who the fuck designs it like that?
Also the drive bay doesn't fit the SSD properly, so it just boot loops if you use the little caddy. Refuses to even Post.
Now I hate computers again.
What laptop was it so the rest of us can avoid this tomfoolery in the future?
Acer 5742. It's old (and more importantly, free), but with a first gen i5 and 6GB RAM I thought it would still be able to run basic Ubuntu.
On the plus side, you could access the drive and RAM through a detachable panel, without needing to pull the whole machine to pieces, or be prevented from upgrading it entirely. Which is another thing that's becoming depressingly rare.
Acer seems like a bit of a grabbag when it comes to quality.
Hold shift when you click restart in windows, you can access the firmware through windows recovery.
Only with UEFI. This wasn't that. I initially thought it was Windows 10 fucking with Fastboot and causing it to skip.
Does your laptop have multiple usb ports? And did you try them all?
I had this issue even on my PC until I tried a bunch of different USB ports and found one that worked.
Uhh I just realized that since it's a laptop the keyboard is part of the laptop... Well I'll still leave this in case it helps anyone
Yeah, I had to plug in a USB keyboard in the end.
New convert here, it's mostly dope. Edit: here as in on linux
We don't have a choice.
Please do not let Linux find out I said this, I have kids.
proton is pretty much there, thinking to jump ship to linux - already use it in all my work for decades
2024 the year of Linux. As long as we can avoid the toxic “don’t use Mint, use Arch instead users”.
Also the memey "xxxx the year of Linux". Because that's been going on for 40+ years now. 😅 You use it, or you don't. Your OS is a tool, not a belief system.
This person gets it
I'd just like to interject for a moment. What you're referring to as Linux, is in fact, GNU/Linux, or as I've recently taken to calling it, GNU plus Linux. Linux is not an operating system unto itself, but rather another free component of a fully functioning GNU system made useful by the GNU corelibs, shell utilities and vital system components comprising a full OS as defined by POSIX.
Many computer users run a modified version of the GNU system every day, without realizing it. Through a peculiar turn of events, the version of GNU which is widely used today is often called "Linux", and many of its users are not aware that it is basically the GNU system, developed by the GNU Project.
There really is a Linux, and these people are using it, but it is just a part of the system they use. Linux is the kernel: the program in the system that allocates the machine's resources to the other programs that you run. The kernel is an essential part of an operating system, but useless by itself; it can only function in the context of a complete operating system. Linux is normally used in combination with the GNU operating system: the whole system is basically GNU with Linux added, or GNU/Linux. All the so-called "Linux" distributions are really distributions of GNU/Linux.
Was that really necessary?
I think it's a copypasta because we're doing overdone Linux memes in this thread.
It's a copypasta.
True it’s a tool. Just like a car. We get attached to one way of working with that tool, but then advancements come and a different tool starts to look interesting. Think gas->electric windows/mac->Linux.
Every year is "The Year of Linux."
Year of Linux on the consumer PC. Linux has been dominating the server space for... 40+ years now.
That’s interesting, I remember reading a post to comp.os.minix about 32 years ago about a Finnish student who made his own OS. It was just a kernel that barely worked. Wish I’d known it was already dominant in the server space for over 8 years, could have gotten a head start!
I hope that student's project turned out ok, even if it's not big and professional like GNU. Did he ever add support for non-AT hard disks?
I'm not quibbling with nerds over the timeline, I was just echoing the original poster's words.
So Linux has been dominating the server space since before it existed? Cool!
According to the last magazine I checked about this, 1997 is actually going to be the year of Linux on the desktop.
And this housing bubble is totally going to burst any day now, too.
But you should be using Arch instead ot Mint.
(I use Arch BTW)
It's the only reasonable solution.
(I too use Arch btw)
My Steam Deck uses Arch btw.
No, do not use Arch
(I too? use Artix BTW)
I mean, if you like knowing what your machine is doing, Arch is one of the best options.
Gentoo is for when you want to know what your compiler is doing.
It's also ironically easier to use day-to-day than some other commonly suggested distros. Sure something like Mint or Pop_OS is much much easier to set up but later on when you need a newer version or something that isn't in the repos. Too bad! That doesn't exist. Time hunt down a PPA and hope it's trustworthy.
With Arch 99.9% of the time if it's not in the main repos it's in the AUR. And since it's rolling there's no worry of doing the big upgrades (been seeing plenty of posts about issues with the transition from Fedora 38 -> 39 lately). I have daily driven Arch for almost 10 years now and there have only been a handful of times across that whole span where a
pacman -Syuactually broke something.debian has never broken anything here in twenty+ years of use. I'VE broken shit, but debian never has.
It's comparatively easy to not break things if you're like ten years behind. 😉 But sure, Debian takes pride in its stability. I just like having recent versions of everything.
I've literally never had a Debian or Ubuntu dist upgrade go smoothly. It's infuriating being on ancient tools, then randomly getting a giant dump up upgrades to slightly newer ancient tools that ends up breaking all kinds of shit
To be fair it is always my fault when things break not Arch's. It's not like Arch does anything on its own.
Completely agree. Ran Arch for about 10 years and had like three breakages that were all my fault (didn't read news before a manual intervention. Once the battery died). But every time I could fix that by booting the current live image. No data loss.
Honestly, I've been thinking about switching to Linux with my next system since about a month after I built my current system, over 4 years ago. That's how long it took for me to be sick of Microsoft's bullshit in Windows 10.
That said, I'm not looking forward to figuring out how to get into Linux. It's probably easier than I think, but having done 0 research (as I don't need a new system yet), the impression I have is that there's a ton of stuff I'm going to have to figure out before getting started.
Start with a live CD version (a USB thumb drive acts as your C: ) or a virtual machine (like VirtualBox and install Linux on it) just to try things out. Then do a full switch when ready.
Try a live CD. It's easy to get started without hearing a bunch of stuff.
If you've got a spare USB drive, have a look at Ventoy. It's a program that lets you put multiple ISOs (disc images) onto a drive and select which one to boot from at startup.
Most distros have free bootable ISOs to download, which let you try that distro without installing it. They usually have an installer built in so that you can install your chosen distro from a desktop environment.
Installation is probably the trickiest part, but even that's not too bad as long as you pay attention. Once you're on the desktop, it's as easy to use as Windows.
It's at the same time much easier and much harder than you think. You'll have most of it working very easily and then find some little thing annoying you with some tool and take days to find a replacement that feels just right.
Yeah, you're right about the last part.
Linux has a learning curve that's steep to the average Windows or Mac user. The guys suggesting Arch are saying it's easier than the other distros, but you have to remember that most of those coming from the other two aren't going to know what a command line is. I had to guide someone through it when they wanted to install VMware on Pop!_OS, I would not put them on Arch. (And to those suggesting the AUR, that still needs a command line and now you need to inspect the PKGBUILD for security purposes.)
The only distro I tell people not to use at this point is Ubuntu
Thanks for the heads up, I was Ubuntu install it. /s
Badum chhhhh
Don't use Mint or Arch, use Void!
Just command line.
I really thought it's harder, I really did... turns out it's not.
2 basic set of commands for upgrading and purging: xbps-install -Suv and xbps-remove -ROov, that's it.
Even on my Mac I end up pulling Terminal more and more to do things. Not everything though but some things are easier.
To be completely honest... I'm more comfortable with the terminal now.
Asimilation complete 🤣.
The main thing that we need imo is something like SteamOS that is installable on every PC and has the backing of valve, sadly it's still limited to the deck
becouse it may not be the perfect desktop OS experience (for your average linux user anyway), but game mode is absolutely a game changer for people who just want to play games on their computer 90% of the time
Yes support from a major company would set a Linux flavor as a general public friendly option. Right now the fracture between all the Linux versions is a deterrent for beginners.
shit dude, that's about the only place where I have to use windows 😂.
psst... I hear you're looking to ditch Microsoft. You might like what you see over at c/linux
uuu, nice, smooth 😏 👍
This grinds my gears. Apple does the same: my work MBP nags me daily to enable iCloud backups but I have no way of doing it because Apple login is disabled by my administrator. Consequently, I cannot reach the settings page to tell Mac to fuck off.
You can't ask IT to disable it for you?
I should, you're right.
www.debian.org
Is there a newbie way to install it? It looks pretty convoluted...
The best way to install is to use a LIVE edition. This is useful beacuse you have a nice installer intergrated and you can try it before you have to install the OS on the computer.
For download of this edition, see www.debian.org/CD/live
From there, if you come from Windows, I would raccomend KDE, as it is stable and customizable. Search "KDE screenshot" to see what it looks like, and if you like it.
If you want this, here the direct URL to download: https://cdimage.debian.org/debian-cd/current-live/amd64/iso-hybrid/debian-live-12.2.0-amd64-kde.iso
Debian should also be lite enough for older machines, and it is the most stable distro I've tried. With this OS, there are already web browser, media player, office suite,... but you can also download Steam, emulators and lots of software
For help you can DM me.
From experience, this is a stable streamlined process that is now easier than installing Windows.
Been some times since I installed Windows, but Calamares is a great tool
Thanks! I've installed, Ubuntu, KDE, a real old Red Hat, and most recently Linux Mint. Usually dual boot with Windows with either separate SSDs or on the same SSD. Thankfully they have come along ways and you don't need to rebuild the GRUB every time windows did a update.
I've seen Debian is the king of Linux Distros but whenever I've looked into a install it seems like a beast. I'll check out these links!
It's easier than installing Windows. The problem is that someone hasn't already done it for you.
Yes. Did you know that you cannot partition disks in a GUI while installing Windows? You can only select partition to install to or format the entire disk, all advanced actions must be done with
diskpartcommands in Command Prompt (Shift+F10).Also OOBE is shit, luckily you can do it offline thanks to
C:\Windows\System32\OOBE\bypassnro.bat. And the additional setup like debloating is also time-consuming.More info
Or just wait until you are booted into Windows and use the Diskmanager.
Honestly, these complains from you Linuxians are always just so dumb and uninformed.
You are right that there is a way to do this post-installation but I have been down this rabbit hole 4 times and all I can say is:
Nope nope nope. This is actually more pain.
Why? Shrinking the
C:drive is difficult or damn near impossible when Windows is installed on it, which is why I always install Windows to a smaller partition (120 GiB as I don't play modern games) and move user folders toD:, and then leave some space forE:or Linux.Disk Management will only let you shrink the disk by a very small amount. This is because Windows has a lot of “unmoveable files”. You need to disable recovery, virtual memory and hibernation to get a chance at shrinking that partition, and you may need to run all kinds of defrag commands. I did this on 4 PCs and the first 3 times, this was enough.
In the 4th case, just this week, I became sick and got stuck at my grandma’s place far from home. I needed a Linux installation badly, but there was only a laptop with 40 out of 220 GiB free after cleanup, and just a single partition (with Windows preinstalled, of course). It did not want to budge and reported 0 MB shrinkable space. I tried every trick mentioned online before resorting to buying Aomei Partition Assistant. It queued the action of shrinking the drive by 20 GiB (alleged minimum for Mint) and estimated 18 minutes to complete the operation. It told me it cannot do that while Windows was running so it gave me the option to use WinPE or PreOS mode. WinPE did not work so I retried with PreOS. The computer booted into VGA text mode and this appeared on the screen:
This was on the screen for about an hour, and the PC was apparently under load with fans spinning. The program might be stuck but could how could I tell? I eventually forced the computer to shut down. I hadn't made a backup because I did not have a large external drive (would have installed Linux on part of that, instead). Was my grandma’s only computer ruined? Would I be stuck for 2 weeks without a computer?
Luckily, the PreOS program ultimately had no effect on the drive, and I managed to negotiate a refund from Aomei. Then I realized I could boot into Recovery Mode and try
diskpartfrom Command Prompt there, which miraculously worked. Also pretty tense because it did not give any indication of progress, just threw control back to me when it finished. I was relieved when I successfully booted into Windows on that shrunk partition. Other than having to enter Windows Safe Mode to disable RAID storage in BIOS, the Linux installation went fine.So this is why you install Windows on a reasonably small partition or resize it before using a preinstalled copy. This is not useful just for Linux but when you want to upgrade to an SSD (as I did with my parents’ and the other grandparents’ computer), you only want the system partition there so you don't need to buy a bigger drive; also wear leveling will work better if the drive is not close to full, and HDDs are easierbto recover if they fail. With separate OS and data partitions, you just use Clonezilla or something to clone the Windows (
C:) partition to the SSD bit-by-bit, then disconnect the old drive and fix boot using a Windows recovery medium (necessary because of Microsoft's shenanigans), make changes to the boot order and now you're booting from an SSD with a fallback copy on the HDD!To be clear, I also prefer GUI utilities (except when automation is needed of course). But
diskpartis pretty easy - it's essentially a state machine with built-in help so it's very noob-friendly for a CLI program. And you just saw that it can save hours of hassle.Or you just don't partition at all.
Never had a problem with it in the last 15 years on Windows. You can usually fix the OS with some command lines. And if you can't, you just reinstall and Windows will move all your files into a Windows.old folder.
That's not good use of space, storage is still expensive where I live (partly because of piracy tax). A simple copy to “Windows.old” will not save the bootloader so it won't really work as a backup – it’s dead space now. Your OS partition (and the EFI one) must be copied bitwise if you need to back them up (but as you correctly mentioned, you probably don't).
It makes a lot of sense to separate installation and data, especially when the PC will get used by old people (who are more likely to screw up something badly) or power users. And making backups of data is as easy as
robocopy D: F:\Backup /mir. Yes, I also have lots of experience using and managing Windows PCs in my family and work.although i would recommend playing around with different distros in a vm to see waht you like and if all your needed software is available
Check out ubuntu if you want something thats easy to install. It's very popular, it's based on Debian and it has corporate backing but no spyware
It is Linux, so no
Only good thing about windows being so bad is that amazing feeling when I finish my homework in Solidworks (🤬) and boot back to my Linux desktop.
Can't you just virtualize it?
Virtualizing applications that use 3d graphics can be a pain
You just need to pass though a GPU
yeah but that needs a second gpu :/
Ugh, I just found this out and had to bail on the idea.
I mean, you can do it with a single gpu, it's just that the host won't have it anymore
Wouldn't the iGPU be enough for the host system? I'm assuming you can reload the standalone GPU on the host system when you're done with the task on the hosted system.
Would that be possible without restarting the system?
(I'm not as knowledgeable on Linux, so I'm curious if Linux can support such a use case)
hm yeah but hen you would need to have an i gpu in my case i don't have one but that would work especially since if you have an i gpu the big gpu is mostly used for offloading
Not really. You just enable 3d acceleration for the VM
My laptop barely runs windows unvirtualized and I don't have a PC :(
I see this is your first day with a Windows computer. Welcome.
I've always been a power user but never minded Windows until W11. Luckily WSL was a great gateway drug for me and I ended up switching to Linux full-time after living inside WSL for a few weeks.
If I had known it was possible to make a local account instead of having to use my outlook for my desktop, I totally would have gone that route a couple years ago. Only plus side I can think of for not doing it is that I have immediate access to my outlook.
Outlook would store your credentials anyway.
Only if you use it.
I doubt I would have even logged into my outlook if I didn't set up my Microsoft account, so it helped me there at least.
Lol... Fair enough. I don't use that shit on my personal machines but sometimes will for work.
For me it's just an old account I use because out of all my emails, it's the most professional one. I wouldn't dare try to use my other ones for anything serious.
Why don't you just turn those notifications off?
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/137645-turn-off-get-even-more-out-windows-suggestions-windows-10-a.html
Highly rexommed Mint Cinammon or Pop!_os
Honestly I'd say OpenSUSE tumbleweed. Good distro, very up to date/bleeding edge, has YAST which can help newbies who are not familiar with terminal, has btrfs snapshots which saved my arse a couple of times. I don't wanna trigger Arch users, but I find it way more stable than Arch. It gives me almost 0 headaches. Sometimes when I get home I want my PC to just work and I don't want to spend my time troubleshooting it. It's not as customizable as Arch though. If you still find it a bit much for a starter distro, you won't go wrong with Pop_OS, it's a good distro imo, but atm it's too old. No clue when they're gonna release their next update with CosmicDE, but when they release it, it's probably gonna be in a beta state for a while.
I suggest Kubuntu, great ui, solid base, niche problems can be googled away
I suggest Manjaro. Arch made easy.
Use EndeavourOS if you want easy Arch, Manjaro is kinda bad.
But really if you want an easy system, go with Mint or Fedora. Arch isn't designed for ease nor first-timers.
I have enjoyed manjaro. My sons first laptop ran manjaro with WINE for his gaming. It never gave him too many problems
Is there even a single benefit of this? I don't want anything to do with one drive.
The benefits are:
Hey, wait a minute...
Nobody specified whose benefit...
Syncing settings between devices
Bought Windows Store Apps transfer
Syncing Cortana related things
And of course OneDrive, but you already said you don't care.
Honestly, if you don't care about those, it is perfectly fine to just use Windows with a local account. But there definitely are benefits if you are looking for a more Apple-like "everything is connected" vibe.
This is all accurate. However, there's one other thing, which is essentially SSO.
Basically if you sign in with a Microsoft account, you can sign into your PC with your Microsoft account username and password, which can be easier to reset from another device than going through the password recovery process for Windows.
Apart from that, your bitlocker keys are stored on your Microsoft account if you have that enabled on your main drive.
As an aside: if you have bitlocker enabled on your PC, be sure to back up the recovery key. Print it off, or save it to a USB drive and email it to yourself (the system won't let you save it on the encrypted drive for obvious reasons), or something. Bitlocker isn't bad, I just feel like Microsoft doesn't do a very good job at making people aware of the pitfalls of it when things go sideways. Basically, if you need to pull the drive for any reason as part of a recovery operation, then you'll need the recovery key to decrypt the data and gain access to it for the purpose of recovery.
Fair warning: anyone who purchased a prebuilt PC in the past 3-5 years should check on it (longer realistically), and make sure they have that recovery key. Most prebuilt PC companies (like HP/Lenovo/Dell) generally have bitlocker on by default and Windows does a wretched job of telling you any of this.
Bitlocker isn't bad, it's full drive encryption. That's a good thing for the most part and you should use it, especially with mobile systems, but please make sure you have that recovery key. I work in IT support and it's starting to happen that drives fail, and the client doesn't have the recovery key, so I can't even try to recover the data for them. It used to be trivial, just load the drive into a working system and grab what you need, but with bitlocker, even if you get a corrupted file that's required for Windows to start, but the disk is otherwise fine, your data goes away and will not come back without that key.
I have a Win7 on my PC which I only use for gaming but Steam is telling me it'll stop working on Win7 in about 80 days or so. I installed Win7 on it for a reason but soon it'll be my first ever computer running Linux.
This is the way
I'm just curious... You are ok with not installing any security updates for months (or even years)?
I guess so. I don't really think about that. As long as stuff works on my end I don't worry about updating it. I'd be happy if I could just install the security updates because updating the OS generally just breaks stuff and slows things down.
Windows 10 pushed me into finally jumping into Linux a few years ago. I've been happy ever since it feels good to change what you don't like about a system.
which distro did you end up on? I started 2 weeks ago with Arch (bad first choice, but i learned a lot), moved to Ubuntu (seemed way too bloated and hard to customize), then PopOS (worse than Ubuntu), and now I'm moving from Manjaro back to Arch. I think that's where I'm gonna stay now that i know how to fix it up and use it.
The only thing i miss from Windows is Adobe, everything else is so much better on Linux. I love how i can customize literally anything and everything, and if i need something specific i can just make it
I personally landed on mint in its cinnamon flavor. It loosk great, is customizable l, click of a button to get nvidia card working and works just the way I want
I started at Elementary OS which I just thought looked cool. Then I lived in Manjaro but had some issues. So I finally jumped to EndeavourOS, It has been smooth and a great experience. Yeah for me I have to use Windows for my Elgato Capture card which is annoying.
Sincerely, check out Fedora/KDE. It just works, and it's backed well.
I'm not suavevillain, but I recently switched to PopOS after a love hate relationship with Windows. I would leave Windows, then come crawling back for one reason or another, this stint is the longest I've had staying away from it.
I personally like PopOS. But for a less bloated environment and easy to spin up system, you could look at Linux Mint (https://linuxmint.com/).
There's a tool for making bootable windows USB drives called Rufus that gives you options to remove things like requiring a Windows account, TPM requirement for Windows 11, secure boot, etc when you're cloning the iso to the USB drive.
Oh wow! I’ve used Rufus a handful of times to make bootable windows USB drives and I never knew this
Still bugging people about to connect an account
I see loads of things on here about what Windows does that gets on people's nerves. Why don't I see any of it on my install? I get no ads, annoying pop-ups etc. afaik it's just win11 pro.
It's pro, that's why.
Hahahaha, if only pro was anything more than home with some added features. If you want the version without ads you need enterprise + a domain or intune.
They probably just turned off suggested links, and tips.
No, you just need the N-version, which is without any ads or bloatware. But the license cost is higher.
Did you do anything to your system? I have a Win10Pro, but the first step after installation is to disable a ton of stuff, uninstall and delete a ton of applications, etc. making a lot of that alien to me too.
Consider yourself lucky
Consider yourself *European with actual privacy rights ftfy
I've never seen a pop-up like this on Windows and I work in IT for a living. I don't do anything special with my personal OS install so idk what the difference is.
It only happens on Windows Home versions, it does not happen on Pro versions which you are probably using.
You can still just turn the notification off in the home version:
https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/137645-turn-off-get-even-more-out-windows-suggestions-windows-10-a.html
This appeared this week on our home Windows 10 machine as well for the one account that does not use a Microsoft account. It's a new behavior.
My windows 11 has the same notification but it pops up in the center of the screen on top of everything about every hour.
I know this won't be popular, but I just upgraded my decades old, unused Hotmail account to outlook, signed in to Windows during install, and have never seen anything about logging in since I did so years ago...
just create a "fuckyoaccount" over at protonmail and log in.
I was an early adherent to unique passwords for every login. Now I'm doing a unique email as well. Works a treat, and fucks up their marketing too which warms my heart.
please dont abuse protonmail.
abuse mailfence
Just make a throwaway outlook account to cost them server cost and sign it up for every spam you can find.
beautiful
GNU/Linux
Unrelated but what is that start menu?? Mine looks absolutely nothing like that
I think you need to look a linjx distro for you
Use O&O shutup
Nah. Breaks many important system parts. It just makes it bugged and unstable.
May be you dont know how to use it? I've used it, my friends use it and we never had any issue
Surely it lets you choose what parts to disable, right?
Yes
It's not hard to use. It's widely known it fucks up Windows processes. Lots of reddit posts complaining something mundane doesn't work anymore after a shitty tool like shutup or registry edit
Yea probably those people dont know how to use it. Unfortunately you're one of them :(
🤡
Not a single problem with o&o shut up for me. What exactly becomes bugged & unstable?
anyone want bet when this is going to end? i cant remember any release after xp that not had users cry about shit M$ did. winME...epic...so many sad customers. and while win7 kinda worked ok like a cheap toy you bought it was a telemetry desaster ...oh, and with IE and M$paint that were already shit in winXP. so my questions is: how many generations does it take until ppl stop falling for their crap? i once read animals need like 3 errors to change behavious in a test with electric shocks on two of three exits of a cage. three. that should have stopped most animals to use windows after 98, xp and 7. so if you use win8 or win10 or later....i better stop here
Maybe in the next 30 years ReactOS will reach a windows 10 level, hopefully sooner.
Nah, ReactOS is a waste of time and effort. It's like constantly trying to guess what the other person is holding in his hand by doing questionares with the guy... you're bound to lose if he's always 10 steps ahead of you.
On the other hand, Wine, thanks to Proton, is doing quite well.
Proton works great for gaming because the narrow set of gaming-related API allows Valve and CodeWeaver to focus their effort to make sure most games run well. Windows has a lot more API though and a good percentage of them is still doesn't work that well in wine, which means many apps still have issues or outright unusable in wine. For example, I think iTunes for Windows still doesn't work in wine.
I never said it's perfect. In fact, I don't use Wine for gaming at all, but the fact still remains that Wine got A LOT better after Valve got involved.
Agree on the unsuable part. I can even be a witness to that (no Windows drive API, USB is out if the question). But, regarding "regular" apps, yeah, it does the job. If you wana run Adobe or AutoDesk products, yeah, it's no good (depends on the version, but no good for anything above 2018, 2019).
Regarding iTunes... if I was on the Wine team, I wouldn't even consider that for testing... good thing I'm not.
I didn't even considered running iTunes on linux too. But after installing linux on my macbook, I realized I need to cancel some apps subscriptions only to realized you have to use either an apple device or iTunes for windows to do that. No option to manage your subscription via web at all! After unsuccessful attempt at running iTunes on linux, I ended up dusting off an old ipad mini 2 from my drawer and cancel the subscription from there (thanks god it can still connect to app store, it's still on ios 12).
Excuse my language, but that's fucking ridiculous. I would never use a service that didin't offer me the option to log in via plain http/https.
Jesus 🤦... the things we have to resort to just to cancel a payment.
I'm not sure its development team will live that long
Use tiny10.
Tell it to suck your dick
Starting to like these posts. They help me block the linux bros to clean up my feed
You might as well block all the FOSS bros. Just stop using FOSS.
(FYI Lemmy is FOSS. The fact that people trying to get away from corporate greed also want to get away from other corporate greed seems like the expectation, not the exception.)
You can hate one FOSS implementation without hating the concept.
Honestly, the worst thing about Linux is the community of entitled elitists snobs that whine about anything that isn't Linux.
At one point I was tempted to install a distro on my home machine to expand my technological knowledge. But if it turns me into one of those fuckers, then I rather keep my social life. Doesn't matter if Linux is a divinely perfect OS or not.
"I don't like it because it's popular!" Great argument. I'm sure you're a very reasonable person.