4 ms·

It convinced me to switch. I've been on Windows since forever and was excited for Windows 10, but the privacy (and auto update) issues convinced me to dual boot

It convinced me to switch. I've been on Windows since forever and was excited for Windows 10, but the privacy (and auto update) issues convinced me to dual boot with Linux Mint, which I now use for everything but the occasional game. I have a few small gripes, but overall it works well (bluetooth drivers actually work much better). I can kind of see MS's perspective, in that everyone else is doing all kinds of tracking and auto-updating on all their platforms. But for me it really felt like I was losing control of my computer in an unacceptable way.

diydsp 10y ago
me, too! I spent a few weeks trying to use /r/tronscript and disable specific updates but then just said "sod it" and I run Ubuntu Studio now. My work laptop is still Win7 so I can get win-only things there like cbmprgstudio...
- retro64 10y ago
  You could try CBM prg Studio with Wine/.NET (or mono). I doubt the integrated debugging would work though unless you also ran WinVICE. Wine really is quite impressive. Even for many games it is very solid.
WayneBro 10y ago
I spent the requisite minute to turn off all of the settings after a clean install and then promptly forgot about it. Haven't had a problem since. It's the same thing I have to do on every other OS...there's no OS that I can install and then NOT have to configure in some way.
- Sylos 10y ago
  1) That's a logical fallacy. Just because every OS needs configuration, doesn't mean that it's ok for one OS to suddenly need a lot more configuration for no reason, let alone for the reason of making it as hard as possible to get the OS into a privacy-friendly state. 2) These settings have been resetted for many users in the past, especially after bigger upgrades, so you not having problems is not a terribly great metric. I don't have proper statistics either, but they would be very much appropriate here. 3) You cannot actually turn all telemetry off, at least not in any official way.
  - WayneBro 10y ago
    1) No problem because the new configs aren't there for no reason. 2) Every OS has bugs. You won't get away from that by switching. 3) I often see this fact quoted but nobody ever points out how it has actually ever caused a problem for them other than their sense of ownership being offended. You can switch for whatever reasons you want though. Are you actually a Windows user who is considering a switch?
    - Sylos 10y ago
      1) I didn't say that they are there for no reason, rather that there is no reason why there can't be a simple switch which turns everything off in an easily accessible way, or heck even having everything off by default. And no, Microsoft needs telemetry is not a reason when we're talking about user-friendliness/respect. 2) No, but you can get away from malicious defaults. Believe it or not, but there's OSs out there where the defaults are an actual recommendation from actual people. And again, same fallacy. Just because every OS has bugs, doesn't mean that it's ok for one OS to suddenly have more of them for no reason, or in this case more severe bugs, as with user-respecting defaults only the most hardcore Microsoft-fanboys would complain that their computer suddenly stopped sending telemetry to Microsoft. 3) Because we don't know the extent of the damage that this does. We don't know what is being sent, what is being stored, how long it's being stored. Could be that even the most privacy-friendly setting can still report you to the NSA and get you on some list. Could be that people have already disappeared, because they were on such a list at the NSA, without anyone knowing about it. The same stuff was going on for a good while at the Stasi before people noticed, and the Stasi was a bad joke in comparison to the NSA. > You can switch for whatever reasons you want though. Are you actually a Windows user who is considering a switch? No, I already switched with the Windows 10 + new ToS launch in expectation of something like this going down, although I also just got extremely lucky, as it wasn't my only reason at the time. This actually going down, though, certainly has cemented that decision. Why do you ask?
      - WayneBro 10y ago
        > Could be that people have already disappeared... NSA... Stasi... Uhmm, OK. I don't think that switching to a different OS is going to do anything to stop the NSA, but I sincerely wish you good fortune in that endeavor. Please make sure that you comb over every line of code that you run on your system, because that's the only way you're going to be safe. Given the type of concerns that you stated I had a hard time imagining that you ever used Windows. That's why I asked. Anyway, here are my other responses: 1) Sure there is a reason. It's a really bad design to have one switch that disables a set of completely unrelated features. 2) You say they're being malicious, but you have zero proof. Until such time as you have some proof, this argument holds no weight whatsoever. 3) Exactly. You don't know.

diydsp 10y ago

me, too! I spent a few weeks trying to use /r/tronscript and disable specific updates but then just said "sod it" and I run Ubuntu Studio now. My work laptop is still Win7 so I can get win-only things there like cbmprgstudio...

retro64 10y ago
You could try CBM prg Studio with Wine/.NET (or mono). I doubt the integrated debugging would work though unless you also ran WinVICE. Wine really is quite impressive. Even for many games it is very solid.

WayneBro 10y ago

I spent the requisite minute to turn off all of the settings after a clean install and then promptly forgot about it. Haven't had a problem since. It's the same thing I have to do on every other OS...there's no OS that I can install and then NOT have to configure in some way.

Sylos 10y ago
1) That's a logical fallacy. Just because every OS needs configuration, doesn't mean that it's ok for one OS to suddenly need a lot more configuration for no reason, let alone for the reason of making it as hard as possible to get the OS into a privacy-friendly state. 2) These settings have been resetted for many users in the past, especially after bigger upgrades, so you not having problems is not a terribly great metric. I don't have proper statistics either, but they would be very much appropriate here. 3) You cannot actually turn all telemetry off, at least not in any official way.
- WayneBro 10y ago
  1) No problem because the new configs aren't there for no reason. 2) Every OS has bugs. You won't get away from that by switching. 3) I often see this fact quoted but nobody ever points out how it has actually ever caused a problem for them other than their sense of ownership being offended. You can switch for whatever reasons you want though. Are you actually a Windows user who is considering a switch?
  - Sylos 10y ago
    1) I didn't say that they are there for no reason, rather that there is no reason why there can't be a simple switch which turns everything off in an easily accessible way, or heck even having everything off by default. And no, Microsoft needs telemetry is not a reason when we're talking about user-friendliness/respect. 2) No, but you can get away from malicious defaults. Believe it or not, but there's OSs out there where the defaults are an actual recommendation from actual people. And again, same fallacy. Just because every OS has bugs, doesn't mean that it's ok for one OS to suddenly have more of them for no reason, or in this case more severe bugs, as with user-respecting defaults only the most hardcore Microsoft-fanboys would complain that their computer suddenly stopped sending telemetry to Microsoft. 3) Because we don't know the extent of the damage that this does. We don't know what is being sent, what is being stored, how long it's being stored. Could be that even the most privacy-friendly setting can still report you to the NSA and get you on some list. Could be that people have already disappeared, because they were on such a list at the NSA, without anyone knowing about it. The same stuff was going on for a good while at the Stasi before people noticed, and the Stasi was a bad joke in comparison to the NSA. > You can switch for whatever reasons you want though. Are you actually a Windows user who is considering a switch? No, I already switched with the Windows 10 + new ToS launch in expectation of something like this going down, although I also just got extremely lucky, as it wasn't my only reason at the time. This actually going down, though, certainly has cemented that decision. Why do you ask?
    - WayneBro 10y ago
      > Could be that people have already disappeared... NSA... Stasi... Uhmm, OK. I don't think that switching to a different OS is going to do anything to stop the NSA, but I sincerely wish you good fortune in that endeavor. Please make sure that you comb over every line of code that you run on your system, because that's the only way you're going to be safe. Given the type of concerns that you stated I had a hard time imagining that you ever used Windows. That's why I asked. Anyway, here are my other responses: 1) Sure there is a reason. It's a really bad design to have one switch that disables a set of completely unrelated features. 2) You say they're being malicious, but you have zero proof. Until such time as you have some proof, this argument holds no weight whatsoever. 3) Exactly. You don't know.