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.
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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.
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Why not XP SP3?
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)
Isn’t a process happening gradually over years “slowly”?
Decades.
Would that not be slowly? What would you call slowly in this context?
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
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It started with Windows 8
Ready to feel old, that was 11 years agooooo^o
Ah maan, why’d you have to tell me that, it still feels like it came out just 3-4 years ago tops
I miss Windows Vista.
The arrow pointing downwards is about to be absolutely destroyed today.
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
Vistas problem was that it was ahead of its time
I both agree and disagree with that statement.
Windows finally got animations and transparency when Mac OS has beaten it by 6 years. Truly an oomph moment.
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.
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.
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.
I think Fedora and Ubuntu are easy recommendations!
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Up to date… on Debian… lol 🤣
/s (somewhat)
Fedora is nice. You might also like PopOS or Majaro.
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.
Ah, yeah, that makes more sense.
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?
So Linux has been dominating the server space since before it existed? Cool!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.)
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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.
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.
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 😏 👍
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Why buy a new system when you can just run Linux on the existing system
The point is to transition to a subscription based OS. You subscribe, pay a monthly fee for services like Teams, Outlook, etc.
The LTSC editions probably won’t ship with that bullshit, so it’s probably safe to say that they can still be usable even after completely transitioning to a subscription based OS.
Bully for them, but I don’t use Teams, Outlook, Office365, Onedrive, or Skype anyway. So the only way Microsoft is going to make a dime off of people like me is to charge a subscription for the base OS, which I ain’t paying.
I know what you mean. Likewise, I’ve never paid MS for any of their products (or any other company for that matter, lol 😂). So, if pushing comes to shoving and LTSC still comes with this bullshit, bye bye dual boot 👋 😉.
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Uuum, no.
To be perfectly honest, building software for a fixed set of hardware products is a piece of cake. Doing it for every bit of hardware on this earth, yeah, that is PITA. So, even though I don’t like MS at all, I have to hand it to them in the conpatibility department. Not as backwards compatible as Linux, but they sure are a close second.
Buidling software for an already stable as fuck platform (*BSD) is a lot easier, plus you already know what hardware it’s gonna run on, lol. You cherry pick security/bug fixes and everything else regarding optimizations gets thrown under the carpet… and of course you charge your customers for the security/bug fixes, that’s always a plus 👍.
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Is supporting every bit of hardware on earth why Linux shows ads everywhere?
I run Linux daily, I’ve never seen an ad (unless it was in a browser).
Exactly. Saying windows is problematic has nothing to do with supporting multiple hardware configurations and everything to do with Microsoft having no empathy for the user experience.
Aren’t LTSC a pain to get (legally) when you’re not a corporation or something like that?
Yeah, they are. Which doesn’t stop you from pirating them. I use them on all my rigs IF I had to to use Windows.
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.
“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!”
Is there a newbie way to install it? It looks pretty convoluted…
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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
I have a feeling people here like Linux…
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.
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.
Still bugging people about to connect an account
Oh wow! I’ve used Rufus a handful of times to make bootable windows USB drives and I never knew this
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 Manjaro. Arch made easy.
Sir, do you have a minute to talk about Linux? 👉👈
Literally op is Satan so…
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.
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.
This is the way
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.
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.
