The only reason I don’t install Linux on my NVMe drive and leave it on my SSD is that I can’t reinstall Windows with a local account (though maybe there’s a painful workaround). If they break, they’re gone forever.
Just an idea:
- Get an HDD
- Use
ddto clone your NVME Windows drive. - Install Linux on your NVME.
- Boot Windows from the HDD as you find you need it (which I suspect would be a lot less than you think).
- If you find you need to go back to Windows, just reclone onto the original drive.
I bet you’ll eventually reclaim the HDD, though. I kept mine for about two years, and I nuked it last week, because I hadn’t even opened it, much less booted it, in over a year.
Microsoft doing their part to get people to move to Linux
More “Microsoft doing their part to get peoppe used to the idea of having to login with an internet connection so that they can makes Windows 12 subscription based.”
Thats what this bullshit is. Training the user base for OSaaS.
And they will have enterprise by the balls because they control like 90% of the enterprise market. The consumers, they could give a fuck if they take it or leave it. Windows licensing is such an teeny tiny part of the equation that screaming at them is going to get as much traction as screaming at Nvidia for the fact that a midrange GPU is 1000 bucks now. Nvidia doesnt care if their consumer gpu market disappears tomorrow, they’ve got the AI fucks locked in.
Windows 11 has given me so many headaches at work I have genuinely explored moving the entire corporate environment to Linux. Unfortunately it would be a massive multi-year operation that would not bring the amount of benefits required to get such a thing greenlighted. But simply the fact that I, and many peers, took a good hard look at it tells you just how incredibly shit Windows 11 is. It’s a fucking nightmare on so many levels, it’s ridiculous.
They know that, that’s why they do it… And that’s why you should go ahead with it…
Yeah I’m in a (primarily) Windows shop too, but we have many Linux servers that I manage and maintain. My DD at home is CachyOS, and I’m very familiar with management of a fleet of Ubuntu servers. I’ve already told the guys on my team I’m ready to just switch at work too. Might cause me some management issues at times though because of needing Windows Server management tools (e.g. RSAT), but I suppose I could jump box that.
Setup = download Linux iso > flash memory device > boot > install.
Where do the complications come in?
Where do the complications come in?
When drive doesn’t automount and you have to manually edit fstab file
The complication comes from where I need to use proprietary windows-only software for whatever professional or recreative reasons.
Free (as in freedom) software is great for 90% of situations, but there are things free software just can not do.
Wine exists but it’s mostly focused on video-games, and honestly, it’s such a pain to get a windows program to run on wine that I prefer to just have a second SSD with Faildos and boot from it when I eventually need to use such programs. Which I make sure to unplug the ethernet cable when I do.
When does that come up recreationally?
If I can’t do something I don’t do it.
I literally just recommended CachyOS to my boss while we were complaining about Windows 11 in our one on one meeting today
I’m in the process of getting my kids their first PC this Christmas. They’ll both get a mini-PC, with severely restricted Internet access. I’m actually thinking about just letting them connect to the home server where I’d mock the Web sites I pick for them. For this reason, Win11 with its online account requirement is automatically excluded from consideration. I wated to give them Mint anyway, but this was the argument that convinced my wife.
Mocking up whole websites seems like a pain. With a Pihole, you can create different service groups for computers and apply a whitelist to just their machines. Plus you get adblocking too!
Yeah, could also have two Pi-Hole instances. One is network wide and block ads for everyone, and the other is the DNS the kids PCs use, set with a white list of approved sites only. You can set Pi-hole to block everything (set * as the a RegEx filter) and then add domains to the white list to be allowed through.
Groups is probably more efficient but two instances could be offer more options/nuance on how you run things.
I saw a deal for a pair of mini PCs with decent specs on eBay right after I got my annual bonus, so I jumped on it because I want to do the same thing for my kids. May be jumping the gun a bit…my son just learned the alphabet (uppercase only) and my daughter just learned how to flop off the couch head-first.
It’s a hell of a moment when they can out perform their parents, isn’t it?
My kids are a little older - just learned to read without sounding off the words - so I need to introduce parental controls. But you may see your purchase as an investment: a year from now, the hardware may be worth twice as much.
You should keep an eye on Gnome. Their recent release, Gnome 50, just introduced parental controls to limit access to programs and they’re looking to implement website access as well.
I don’t like Gnome, but my kid’s first PC will have Gnome on it now because of these new features, which I greatly appreciate
Just put 3.1 on those and let them play solitaire to their hearts content.
If they get Windows 95, they can also play Hearts to their Solitaire’s content.
Windows 95 with the Microsoft Entertainment Pack
I have a working emachines desktop with Win98. They’ll pry it off my cold, dead hands…
Do you have a few minutes to talk about our Lord and Saviour, Linus Torvalds?
a few years ago I had a really stupid issue with my laptop. about twice a year, for whatever reason, Windows 11 decided my internal wifi card wasn’t worth existing and would just wipe it off the face of the earth. Just completely remove it, delete the drivers, everything. hard resetting the laptop didn’t work, physically unplugging and replugging the card back in didn’t work, manually installing the drivers didn’t work. the ONLY way Windows would accept the card again was on a fresh OS install. So twice a year, like clockwork, i’d have to do that except the last time I couldn’t because I needed an MS account. well I couldn’t get online. for whatever reason it wouldn’t allow me to connect to wifi and I didn’t have access to an eithernet connection. So I gave up and finally decided to give this Linux thing a try. Installed Mint within 15min.
The added bonus of installing Linux on the laptop was it suddenly brought my battery back to life. on Windows I MAYBE got 30min out of a full charge. On Linux with a WM like Niri it’s now a few hours. Linux also made me fall in love with the PC again. Now I’m on NixOS and i just love configuring my system or doing more dev work with ease thanks to nixshells.
Linux also made me love computing again!! So fun actually knowing your machine and being totally free to break it completely.
Praise be!
I ran into my first people doing that for Jesus in many years last weekend. Was so bizarre. They just approached me randomly on the street.
Filthy heretics!
No, im sorry I dont have time for that, but have you heard of Linus Torvald?
I always have time to talk about The Admin. Should I make some
teacoffee to sip as we talk?Ha, “The Admin” brought to mind something I haven’t thought about in years…
Ohh…
I need to find these books.
Thank you.
Milk and sugar please.
If by “complicates… basic PC ownership” they mean “infringes on your property rights as a computer owner,” then they’re finally catching on to what I’ve been saying for damn near a decade.
You should not accept having an abusive relationship with your operating system, and that’s what Windows has been since at least 8 (when they started infecting it with “telemetry”), if not earlier. Have some goddamn self-respect, people! Kick Microsoft to the curb!
Google onboarding on Android…
The key difference is that there are credible alternatives in the PC OS space. If I could ditch Android/iOS without major pain, I’d do it in a heartbeat.
Root and use custom roms.
alas, most models of android phones don’t have support from the custom roms that currently exist
Only works if your device has an unlockable bootloader, and most phones nowadays are completely locked down.
Most but not all. If someone cares THAT much about making a free account and telemetry, a few minutes on XDA won’t hurt their schedule.
and it can be skipped. for now.
Also win8: Hey, would you like NOT having a desktop? We’ve got tiles now!
Windows 10 IoT Enterprise LTSC is supported until 2032 and free to activate.
And what does that accomplish? Delaying the actual problem to 2032?
It gives you 6 years to transition to a better OS. Or to become CEO of Microslop and improve things.
It’s honestly great, even for me who only boot into windows once every few months.
I wouldn’t say “great”. But great in comparison to 11 😁 But who needs 6 years of transition? The run-of-the-mill-user with office and Firefox could just switch and not even notice it. Despite libreoffice loading much quicker.
But who needs 6 years of transition?
I’m hoping someone manages to make surface pro’s fully compatible with linux in that time…
Probably rather the latter 😁 But yes, sure. Valid point. Nice devices but too locked
Great in the sense I don’t have to bother for 6 years for a partition I will use less than 24 hours over that period of time haha.
So far I’ve used it to scan once (for some reason that day skan decided to not work) and to make a windows install USB for my SO.
I tried Expedition 33 thinking performance issues were a Linux thing by no, it’s just like that.
So it’s a long term unlikely to be used OS, and for that long support is great.
True true. Can’t hurt to have. I went through great hassles to set up Linux besides my old win install and also made a VM out of it for those “I don’t wanna boot again”-moments.
Turns out, I never actually needed either. And I was surely deep into win and half of my tools were self made and now obsolete. Everything just works and works better, more comfy and even faster.
Actually, one more use case is my SO. Can’t/won’t use Linux, and I’m not fighting. But needs an up to date OS on the ancient lappet laptop, so 10 IOT it is.
Unless she’s a pro, why does she even care? My wifey would just want her browser, mails and is already using libreoffice. Browser looks the same as win, so could the whole OS if one prefers.
But yeah sure, wouldn’t force her to any OS either,I’m not suicidal 😁
Gives 6 more years for Adobe and my online games to start supporting Linux D: (or the Adobe alternatives to become more suitable for professional use)
I can’t help you with the games. You could vote with your wallet and just not play those specific ones. Start hitting that backlog of games you got on sale and never opened.
Regarding Adobe suite in a professional manner, I’m pretty sure they work on MacOS.
You always have choices. They may not be perfect but they do exist nonetheless. These companies will never stop being invasive if users keep giving in. Until “number go down” in board meetings, nothing changes.
You could vote with your wallet and just not play those specific ones.
Oh I’m not paying for them, but still one of my main daily drivers is Genshin, and I haven’t found such an enjoyable open world exploration in any other game I’ve tried. (I’m PC-only so haven’t tried Breath of the Wild.)
Regarding Adobe suite in a professional manner, I’m pretty sure they work on MacOS.
I would never touch a Mac, it’s way more of a walled garden than Windows.
Also I was talking about Adobe alternatives like Inkscape for Illustrator or Scribus for InDesign. From what I’ve read they are really not there yet. (Tried Inkscape a few times, but the UI is so unintuitive for my brain used to Adobe’s UI/workflow 😭)
Oh I’m not paying for them, but still one of my main daily drivers is Genshin, and I haven’t found such an enjoyable open world exploration in any other game I’ve tried.
Genshin Impact works on Linux: https://lutris.net/games/genshin-impact/
(I’m PC-only so haven’t tried Breath of the Wild.)
I’m Linux only and I’ve played Breath of the Wilds (works on Windows too).
Go to your favorite torrent site (1337x to) and search for Breath of the Wild. It’ll be packaged with the emulator so you don’t need to do anything. It’s a better experience, higher framerate, antialiasing, 4k upscaling and reverse tonemapping (Windows calls this autoHDR) (and basically anything that you can do with ReShade)
Also I was talking about Adobe alternatives like Inkscape for Illustrator or Scribus for InDesign. From what I’ve read they are really not there yet. (Tried Inkscape a few times, but the UI is so unintuitive for my brain used to Adobe’s UI/workflow 😭)
A few months ago someone made a patch which makes the Adobe CC 2021 and 2025 installer work in Wine.
Come on in, the Linux water is fine :)
Genshin is playable on Linux? I play it on my Steam Deck.
Thanks, that’s good to know! From what I’ve read a few months ago when I last looked into it, it only worked with a fan-made launcher that posed a ban risk and also broke every few updates.
I just add the official launcher as a non-steam game and ran through the install as normal.
Granted I haven’t done it in a couple of months, so not sure if that method still works…but I don’t see why not
Not played genshin yet, but you might like where winds meet? Incredibly beautiful, good combat, exploring is rewarding. And totally free. And runs wonderfully on Linux, even with HDR.
Dunno about current adobes, but don’t they also run fine via wine? Have only one single tool so far that makes a bit trouble (mediamonkey).
It delays the problem for six more years, and it also gives me the satisfaction of pirating the only decent version of Windows free of Microslop bloat and vibe coded react.
the only decent version of Windows
Please stop romanticising Win 10 just because it’s less shitty than 11. There is no decent Windows.
Reminder: Win 10 introduced
- mandatory telemetry (you can only choose between some telemetry and firehose telemetry)
- a built-in keylooger
- built-in advertising
- agressive nag screens containing dark patterns trying to trick users into “upgrading”
Reminder that they backported the Windows 10 telemetry to Windows 7 as well.
Yup. That’s what made me ditch Win 7 long before EOL and switch to Linux. Been here for ten years now. Life’s good. 🌱
Exactly. It just delays the inevitable (maybe even sooner if something denies to run on “this old unsupported version”). As an old win-lover I never thought I’d say this:
Better switch to Linux, most of everything windows still works, everything else is just better and faster.
Was it a hoax that Microsoft came after Massgrave?
Oh no!
Anyway…
I use Linux BTW.
If I were ever to use that Microslop thing they call OS, it would be mandatory to have a local user.
I do not mind if some/any OS has optional accounts for online services, nor do I mind possibility to use online account instead of local one.
As long as everything is purely optional and thus giving convenience or usability depending on the usercase.
Just install 7 Ultimate and keep it moving.
If we somehow could run windows in a container and not allow it network access.
Yeah, its a terrible idea
