If are still not using Linux, now it is a good time to start

[brianroth]

Yeah, that desk just about killed me...lol!

The idea back then was to start selling them as a product. I wanted to be the next Quad Eight or MCI <g>.

Alas, I had a big falling out with the owner of the company backing the concept and I moved on.

Bri

[mediatechnology]

Just saw this in my inbox from Woody's Window Watch:

What isn’t coming to your computer or phone

By Susan Bradley

Just because features such as Microsoft Recall and Apple Intelligence are available does not mean you'll be forced to use them.

If you remember, Microsoft Recall is a technology that allows users to go back to a point in time and review what they were doing and which webpages they were viewing. Originally planning to release it in June, Microsoft pulled the plug and went back to the drawing board because of strong customer pushback with respect to security.

Microsoft won't be rolling out Recall to test on the insider versions of Windows until December. Originally it was supposed to roll out with Windows 11 24H2.

[mediatechnology]

Has anyone used Steve Gibson's 'incontrol" (https://www.grc.com/incontrol.htm) to block updates?

[AnalogJoe]

Well, my brother just got himself a new laptop and I helped him install Linux Mint in it yesterday and he is stoked.

Both of us were Linux users back in the day. I started using Linux Mandrake, Slackware and Linux's ugly brother FreeBSD around '98, but it was more of a hobby since it was so impractical to use in an everyday home PC. There were driver compatibility issues, very few software applications and even minor tasks were extremely painful to do. If you wanted to have anything done, you had to settle with a dual-boot Windows-Linux PC, until you ended up booting Windows only and you realized that there wasn't any point of having Linux taking up valuable HDD space. My brother was a big fan of Linux in '08, but he also eventually quit for many of the same reasons.

Things have changed since then. I am not saying Linux is perfect for the everyday home user, but it is up to a point that I can settle with it now. After around 1 month of going full Linux I can say that there is absolutely no going back to Billy's massive surveillance crapware, aka Windows. At this point it is not only due to the surveillance issue but due to Windows itself. When Windows 7 came out I was perfectly happy with it, but over the years it has become bloatware, it eats up all the resources, it is slow, it is annoying and it is not worth it anymore.

I have a Virtual Machine with Windows 11 installed in Linux. Yesterday I booted Windows up and it began updating. Massive and endless updates, computer fan spinning at max, and the computer felt crippled. After the updates installed something went haywire. The CPU is stuck at 100% and everything is unresponsive when I load Windows. Booting up in safe mode solves the issue, so it is probably some driver or something due to the updates that went wrong (perhaps they are doing a trial run of 'Recall'). In any case, I've had it, no more. I'll install Windows in a second hard drive in case I have to use a Windows program, because I still have to use Windows for work, but I am staying with Linux and you should too.

Mac's are ok, but I am unwilling to pay massive amounts of money for 8GB of RAM and an OS which, although it is based on Linux, feels like it is targeted at soccer moms. I also truly dislike Apple and the whole Apple cult.

[mediatechnology]

I installed Steve Gibson's "incontrol" to block the 24H2 and "feature" upgrades. It still allows security updates but seems to work.

So in the Linux distro you're running would I still have to go to the command line to do something as simple as setting up an SMB share?
How many times have you had to go to the command line when in Windows you could do it from Explorer?
I liked Ubuntu 16.04 LTS but getting it configured for networking was a PITA.

The other issue I could never resolve was scanners. Scanning support for popular scanners was non-existent. I think that was due to the actual rendering done in the Win host, not the scanner.
OTOH the Focusrite 2i2 just plugged in and ran.

[AnalogJoe]

I installed Steve Gibson's "incontrol" to block the 24H2 and "feature" upgrades. It still allows security updates but seems to work.

So in the Linux distro you're running would I still have to go to the command line to do something as simple as setting up an SMB share?
How many times have you had to go to the command line when in Windows you could do it from Explorer?
I liked Ubuntu 16.04 LTS but getting it configured for networking was a PITA.

The other issue I could never resolve was scanners. Scanning support for popular scanners was non-existent. I think that was due to the actual rendering done in the Win host, not the scanner.
OTOH the Focusrite 2i2 just plugged in and ran.

Going to the terminal is mandatory in Linux, there is no way around it. However, it is not like you are going to open up a terminal and start typing code all the time. In most cases you just have to copy-paste commands from a web page to install a program or whatever, and you get used to it really fast. Linux now has something akin to the Microsoft Store or the Apple Store, in which you just type the name of the application you want and click on Install. It is for those extra things that are not so typical that you have to go to the terminal. When it comes to online printers, Linux detects them automatically if they are in your same network. I've had zero driver problems nor any hardware not being properly recognized. Everything works, even touch screens.

That being said, if you want something more unconventional, you will probably have to spend some time in the terminal. Setting up something resembling a server or networking will probably require some coding, although I am pretty sure there might be an app that will do it for you, if not completely at least partially. If you have to build source code it will be a nightmare though, but I've only had that happen to me once for some really, really arcane app I was looking for. Most other programs and stuff you'll need are much more user-friendly. Do keep away from Debian and the more 'refined' distros. I tried Debian, and as my brother puts it "Debian is Linux for people who like doing things the hard way." I've used Ubuntu and Mint, both are similar, but Mint seems lighter on resources and easier for the user to make the Windows-Linux transition.

On the other hand, I now really enjoy the terminal and having the ability to better control my PC. Windows just has stuff going on in the background of which you are completely unaware of. The price you pay for having an OS based on just "clicking on stuff" is a sluggish and insecure computer that spies on you.

Also, that update block you downloaded is just a band-aid. It will not be long before new "features" come out, and some of them will eventually get by you without you even noticing. Plus, I prefer having to resort to the Linux terminal rather than continuously patching the PC to avoid the forced updates, having to pay for an antivirus to protect against Malware and scammers but that also serves as a middle man, checking everything I do and reporting it back to central. The way I see it, the benefits of Linux outweigh the uncomfort of having to use the terminal or having to type your password for everything.

[mediatechnology]

I was able to get SMB shares running fine in Ubuntu through the command line but it took some effort. I recall Nautilus was the closest thing to Win Explorer when it came to setting up shares.

Now that I think about it this was the obscure issue I had to deal with that took about two days to solve:

Windows Can Read But Cannot Write to Samba Shares https://proaudiodesignforum.com/forum/p ... hp?p=10462

[AnalogJoe]

Update.

I am still using Linux, the learning curve has flattened a bit now and I feel more comfortable with everyday tasks.

Uploading/Downloading to and fro the cloud still consists of manual labor, but I am getting used to it and most of my backups are done automatically to a couple of SSD's I have at home.

I installed a second SSD in my laptop with Windows. I reckoned that I needed Windows in case I had to open files that can only be opened in Windows. Wine is great, but it is not a panacea, as most of the Windows apps won't work in Wine. I had a Virtual Machine with Windows in it, but, even though I believe virtual machines are a marvel, it felt a bit sluggish and looked lo-fi.

Anyway, using Windows for a little while on my second SSD felt like a dog going back to eat his own vomit, but I am back on Linux and won't be using Windows unless I strictly have to.

Again, no regrets after making the switch. Linux is amazing.