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from the and-another-suit dept.
Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Edition Will Have Some Group Policy Settings Removed
For their forthcoming Anniversary update, Microsoft have decided to remove some Group Policy settings from all editions of the operating system except for Windows 10 Enterprise. These Policies affect your ability to control "Cloud Content", "Personalization", and "Windows Store".
The corresponding Registry keys for these policies will also be removed. Manually adding those keys back into non-Enterprise editions of Win10 will have no effect.
Looking at the list of Policies to be removed, many home/power users of this operating system will almost certainly be up in arms and annoyed at this move, but it seems they are just innocent bystanders in a bigger game/pressure-tactic Microsoft is playing out with the corporate and business world.
Unfortunately for home/power users, purchasing a license to use the Windows 10 Enterprise edition is all but impossible. Divorcing from the MS Windows ecosystem may end up being the only palatable option for many such users.
Here is the list of Policies to be removed:
- Cloud Content > "Turn off Microsoft consumer experiences" -- personalized recommendations from Microsoft ...notifications about your Microsoft account.
- Cloud Content > "Do not show Windows tips" -- may see contextual popups ...Microsoft uses diagnostic, telemetry and usage data to determine which tips to show.
- Personalization > "Force a specific default lock screen and logon image"
- Personalization > "Prevent changing lock screen and logon image"
- Personalization > "Do not display the lock screen" -- before signing in, users will see their selected tile and must dismiss the lock screen using touch, keyboard or mouse drag.
- Store > "Disable all apps from Windows Store" -- turns off launch of all apps from Windows Store that came pre-installed or were downloaded; also will turn off Windows Store.
[Continues...]
Microsoft faces two new lawsuits over aggressive Windows 10 upgrade tactics
Submitted via IRC for Runaway1956
Microsoft is facing two more lawsuits over the company's questionable Windows 10 upgrade tactics. Both suits are seeking class-action status.
The first suit was filed in U.S. District Court in Florida. It alleges that Microsoft's Windows 10 upgrade prompts "violated laws governing unsolicited electronic advertisements," as reported by The Seattle Times . The suit also says Microsoft's tactics are against the Federal Trade Commission's rules on deceptive and unfair practices. The second suit was filed in June in Haifa, Israel alleging that Microsoft installed Windows 10 on users' computers without consent. Microsoft already paid out a $10,000 award in a previous U.S. suit over similar circumstances.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:03PM
I'm yours to be used.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:26PM
Thanking you for being assuming the Microsoft Advertising Submission Position. You will now being escorted to advertising that will make Microsoft much money and being emptying your wallet to us. We appreciate your cooperation.
- Statya Nadella, Microsoft Advertising Executive.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by SomeGuy on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:14PM
All of these options have one thing in common. Advertising and "monetization" of Windows. The whole purpose of the "lock screen" advertising! Telemetry? Data used to figure out what to advertise to you! Windows Store? Well, once you see the advertising you have to be able to buy it, right?
Windows has gotten way too creepy now.
Microsoft isn't even selling software any more, they are an advertising company.
That whole Windows 10 upgrade push to get absurd numbers of people using it in a short amount of time? The whole thing smells of resume fodder. I'm guessing Statya and few others will be jumping that sinking ship soon.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:10PM
Welcome to Mindle!
That's why you can't even give away a Kindle anymore. Completely fucked up with advertisements, both on the device and in-app, and extremely dangerous to root and custom flash. Basically, if you don't know the inner workings, say hello to a brick.
Except.... I can still install other operating systems fairly easily (except for an Intel NUC) on PC hardware. Hello ReactOS :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 5, Informative) by stormwyrm on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:51PM
Sadly with UEFI Secure Boot even that may soon end. I would much rather not pay Microsoft a single cent for their misbegotten software, and the fact that laptops untainted by Windows 10 are becoming harder and harder to come by is really pissing me off. I'd buy gear from System76 or some other similar manufacturer but getting things like that shipped to Manila is a big headache and cost. Maybe I'll buy one next time someone I know at company HQ in Denver travels here, or if I travel there again soon. Failing that, a Mac laptop is becoming more and more attractive. Much as I dislike Apple they are beginning to look increasingly more attractive an option.
ReactOS? Last I heard they weren't even alpha quality. If you really needed to run Windows software your best bet is still Wine on GNU/Linux. Dunno how well that runs on the BSDs though.
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:03PM
Something funny I found out about Apple/OSX is that in spite of the walled garden, it's hilariously easy to pirate software on it. Easier than Windows even.
My girlfriend recently got a used Mac pretty cheaply. She likes OSX. She has a total moral flexibility toward software piracy. I do too. In a couple hours of work, I got about $600 worth of various "office" and "photo editing" software for her for free. No torrents or cracks either. They're legit versions of the software that I just found ways to get to work fully functionally with library preloads and other hacks I put together myself. Even with the "time == money" argument, it still proved to be worthwhile.
(Score: 2) by dyingtolive on Monday August 01 2016, @01:08PM
PC-BSD is still a little dodgy in my opinion, but it has a lot of customized stuff builtin for WINE, at least, for gaming purposes. I got Payday 2 running pretty nicely without really touching anything configuration wise. Of course, they put out a native Linux client two weeks after I did so, but so it goes.
Don't blame me, I voted for moose wang!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @12:52AM
What is it about the Intel NUC that makes installing non-Windows operating systems difficult? Isn't it simply a miniature standard PC?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:56AM
I have installed both windows 7 and Fedora 23 (dual boot) on an Intel NUC. No problem. Works great.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:13AM
(Score: 4, Insightful) by edIII on Monday August 01 2016, @03:15PM
What you linked to is a complete fucking lie. I've spent hours trying to install every fucking flavor of everything from that list on that worthless piece of shit (DN2820FYKH). It's MS only, so it's been sitting gathering dust since I bought it. It's 1 trillion percent locked by Secure boot, and none of those flavors listed will work on it. If your OS isn't directly signed by MS, then it will not install. So yeah, I could probably get Redhat working, but that's because they now suck Microsoft's cock for it.
As far as I am concerned, it was bricked by Secure Boot leaving the factory, and I won't buy Intel again unless I can see a lot of evidence online (including how-tos and videos showing it is possible) of it working. Basically, if that hardware isn't referenced by the distribution itself as something that can support it, I won't fucking buy it.
Don't ever assume Linux/BSD will run on an Intel anymore. It's a very unsafe and expensive assumption.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 4, Informative) by Aiwendil on Monday August 01 2016, @05:13PM
Ehm, did you read the page about proper bios/uefi-settings? (and made sure you used a new enough firmware, it was shipped with 0015 originally, and didn't support other OSes until 0025)
DN2820FYKH happens to be the model my mom uses, and she runs ubuntu just fine on it.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 01 2016, @07:14PM
Ubuntu got on its knees and sucked Microsoft's cock for the signed keys, that's why. They got on their knees early in the game. Ubuntu is infected with systemd anyways, and I've never liked Ubuntu. I meant to say a Linux distribution without it, or even possibly a BSD variant. Ubuntu was never an option for me, and I was looking for headless actually to use as an embedded device for a project. Gentoo and OpenSUSE were listed, and those were options I was willing to use at the time.
Yes, I spent a good deal of time researching the proper bios and uefi settings. Also, yes, I made sure about the BIOS updates. The release you mentioned happened in Feb 2014, so I know I have at least that high for the BIOS revision without checking (purchased and updated in late 2014). I even spent a lot of time trying to install different flavors not listed in the supported operating systems, but nothing would ever boot. Except Microsoft, that will boot, which is exactly what was intended.
I'm too tired and busy to sue them/bomb a building or whatever. I just don't purchase Intel direct anymore, and support projects like Purism instead. Death to secure boot, or Microsoft-Only-Boot.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:11AM
I remember visiting the bookstore ( Barnes and Noble, I think ), and saw a Kindle ( or was it a NOOK?). It was such a nice looking machine, and the salesman really wanted to seal a deal to get me one. However, the more I played with it, the more I felt I was playing with a lock. It wasn't gonna let me *do* anything.
Its job was to look pretty and tell me no, but nicely.
It was a "HAL9000" to me. ( "I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that".) It was programmed to carry out someone else's agenda at my expense. By the time I had completed my examination of the device, I had placed its value to me below zero, meaning if they had flat given me one, all I felt I could really do with it was maybe salvage the battery and power supply - that is if I took it at all.
The one handed to me would not even browse the web.
In my case they did not need to keep them behind the counter... if I had found a brand new one on the sidewalk, I would have left it there. I do not believe it was useful for a thing but enforcing the purchase of licensed and controlled content.
(Score: 3, Informative) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday August 01 2016, @10:19AM
I have one of the earlier version kindles - a 2010 or 2011 2nd gen kindle DX. It's a proper ebook rather than a tablet. Slow-refreshing B&W epaper with no backlight, a physical keyboard & wifi, battery life measured in weeks (even after however many years I've had it) It even has a fairly primitive web browser on it.
I was reluctant to use ebooks when they first came out (mainly for DRM reasons) but I was converted within minutes of opening this one. It's great. You can buy DRMed books direct off the amazon store if you want, but you can also acquire your own non-DRMed material and transfer it by email or USB. Works beautifully with Calibre, to which you can add seamless DRM-stripping functionality.
Just searched ebay for a similar model, interestingly they seem to have maintained or even increased their value from when they were first launched.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Monday August 01 2016, @09:53AM
What's wrong with the Intel NUC.? I have three of them running VMware ESXi.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by edIII on Monday August 01 2016, @06:58PM
The one I have is bricked by Secure Boot. Every Linux OS it listed on the specifications turned out to not install. While I can get an OS to install on a NUC with some effort, it will never, ever, boot. That is because it isn't signed by Microsoft and there is absolutely no way to disable secure boot on it. You can turn secure boot off, but it still gives the exact same complaint, which indicates secure boot is actually still running. You can't turn secure boot off on this model, and it's locked into MS operating systems. Which completely fucking sucks, because you can't even run Windows 7 Pro now without extreme efforts to defeat Microsoft's demands to jam advertising and telemetry down our throats.
I've heard plenty of people say you can get Linux on a NUC. Well not *this* model, and not for lack of trying, let me tell you.
There are apparently many different NUCs. Mine is the DN2820FYKH that I fell for because it was a Newegg exclusive and was priced very well. It's still sitting on my desk actually; I use it as paper weight at the moment because the fan is blowing around my notes :)
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by WizardFusion on Tuesday August 02 2016, @08:54AM
Ah, that sucks. Any chance you can still send it back and get a proper model? :)
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 01 2016, @11:53AM
Completely fucked up with advertisements, both on the device and in-app
Wait, what? I am not in the market for an e-ink kindle but I did just verify a few seconds ago that its $120 for spam and $140 for spamless. AFAIK the spamless version really is spamless, it would be interesting to know if the spamless version really is full of spam.
I'm surprised amazon makes so little money off spam. You'd like to think customer torture is worth more than $20 but apparently it isn't.
Also you threw me on the "in-app" by that you mean on kindle hardware not the android app. The android app has no ads. Call me crazy but I like the kindle app UI and use calibre and/or just drop .mobi (and other format) ebooks into a certain directory and they just work, pretty nice. I'm not like morally opposed to MOON and the other ebook readers I've tried, I just always seem to go back to the kindle app. Also I subscribe to 2600 and some other magazines on kindle app because "why not".
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Monday August 01 2016, @05:22PM
I can confirm that there are no advertisements on the $140 Kindle Paperwhite 3. I paid an extra $20 for no ads, there danged well better be no ads. Thankfully, there are not.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 01 2016, @07:01PM
Well, I would never ever buy anything from Amazon in the first place, so their extortion fee would have never been paid. Any company offering the extortion fee is instantly boycotted by my wallet. I don't pay extra to not be raped, thank you.
I'm sitting here with gifted hardware; A 7-inch Kindle Fire and a 10-inch Kindle Fire. Both completely fucking useless because of the spam, and the dangerous difficulties in getting a custom Android flashed onto it. Probably going to put them up on Craigslist for cheap.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 01 2016, @07:30PM
I'm sitting here with gifted hardware; A 7-inch Kindle Fire and a 10-inch Kindle Fire. Both completely fucking useless because of the spam
A bit of google indicates a lot of confusion about Amazon ads that can be eliminated for $20 on the "manage your devices" account page, vs 3rd party spam apps that flood any android device unless you're careful much like having a windows desktop vs free apps that spam you to death unless you pay while you use them.
Its possible a simple factory reset and utter hard wipe of the devices would fix 3rd party spam.
(Score: 2) by edIII on Monday August 01 2016, @08:13PM
3rd party? I apologize, the SPAM is direct from Amazon. I consider all advertisements, regardless of source, to be SPAM. If I paid the $20, I would still be getting the lockscreen advertisements I presume? In any case, I don't think I should have to pay anything to unlock the device for a custom android OS on it. I have zero interest in Amazon at any level.
The hardware is now mine, but it isn't usable.
Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 03 2016, @03:36AM
delete all the crap. never let it connect.
they're nice readers. just don't let it on the net or it turns to shit.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:52AM
The PRO now stands for PROMOTIONAL
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hyperturtle on Monday August 01 2016, @01:55AM
Resume fodder?
Those guys are going to be rich, they already are! You're the product! Those guys don't care about your *opinion*, they care about ad image displays per unit!
Worse still, they have now donned the One Ring and announced their mastery over it -- with any version of windows 10 available to the IT pro and common person, outside of a large business -- Microsoft can install anything they want on your PC with Windows 10, and you *can't do anything about it*. If ads get us upset, what about people living under oppressive regimes? This puts companies that sell spyware to governments out of business; think of their jobs!
If there ever was a time to not let down the guard with windows updates, now is the time.
Don't be fooled that windows 10 isn't free anymore -- they may not be able to push these same ads to you on 7 and 8 in the same way, but chances are many people will be logging into o365 and skype and will be uniquely identifiable. They are sure as heck going to capture as much about you as they can so that when you are on a system they can properly communicate to you through -- look out. Windows 10 is a new delivery mechanism, but it isn't the only one collecting.
Remember, they do state in the EULA they comply with all local and federal governmental laws. They wouldn't do anything illegal and the only thing any of these sorts of spyware companies get in trouble for... are tax related.
I guess the real harm that is punishable by law is when someone exploits you without paying first.
I remember when I was shocked when I learned what SMS (their original patch management software) could do; turn things off in group policy, change backgrounds, remove the ability to log off or reset--all sorts of things. Power that would be horrible to put in the wrong hands--I recall some people getting jailed for pushing SMS out over cable modem networks and screwing with entire communities.
Now, MS has control of the very same things--by default and as a feature-- and is presently selling everyone out after luring them in with FREE. And most people will grumble and accept it.
You have to inconvenience people signifcantly to get them to rise up against a power -- eroding their rights or privileges slowly is a time tested way to keep people compliant. George Orwell even outlined this in Animal Farm. People may wake up and realize what is going on, but it may already be too late; you're already exploited as a product (and if you are the poor horse realizing what his reward is... glue)
This also sort of reminds me of invasion of the body snatchers, too. In the end, even the people you trust will fall and betray you if you haven't fallen already. Online privacy and security is very much like that with the social networking expectations and how google and microsoft are treating their products.
Or maybe there is a utopia in this ad dominated internet? Maybe I won't see ads I find to be unpleasant?
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Hairyfeet on Monday August 01 2016, @05:21AM
Stay with 7/8.1 and by the time they hit EOL old Nutella will hopefully be FIRED and they will get someone in that actually wants the company to stay afloat.
Its sad as Ballmernator nearly cratered the company trying to become Apple and now Nutella is trying to nuke what is left trying to become Google...sigh.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:40PM
I mentioned this in the IRC chat a few days ago. Nice to see it get picked up; this is MS, having slammed the lid down on the pot with the frog in it, turning up the heat.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:46PM
...any power use that for whatever reason was compelled to migrate to that wretched OS will have but one choice to use it sanely:
Download an ISO of Win10 Enterprise and use a KMS emulator.
(Score: 4, Informative) by butthurt on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:57PM
In case I wasn't the only one ignorant of what KMS is:
--https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee939272.aspx [microsoft.com]
--https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=25095 [microsoft.com]
(Score: 2, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:17PM
Thanks for that, I was thinking of KMS in the context of DRM (the other kind). Confusion like that just screams to me the need to move away from TLAs.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @12:22AM
I wonder why AWFLs (acronyms with four letters) haven't caught on as well.
(Score: 3, Funny) by HiThere on Monday August 01 2016, @12:54AM
Well, there are more of them, but...
The First Unitarian Church in Kensington decided to claim it was in Berkeley.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 1) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @02:05AM
Seems they started in Berkeley and kept the name when they were forced out, later changing it to the Unitarian Universalist Church of Berkeley...still funny.
http://uucb.org/about-us/history/ [uucb.org]
http://www.berkeleyheritage.com/berkeley_landmarks/1unitarian.html [berkeleyheritage.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:02AM
The "A" in "TLA" stands for "abbreviation".
If you have to spell out something, that something isn't an acronym. [soylentnews.org]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Funny) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @01:46AM
You can't pronounce AWFL? Whoosh.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:54AM
Heh, yeah. That's kinda like SCSI.
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @06:30AM
"AWFLs (acronyms with four letters)"
You mean ETLAs (Extended Three-Letter Acronyms)?
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:57PM
The first two search results claimed that was Ad-ware :P
I was like: "why would you want to avoid MS ad-ware by installing your own?
Then I found this reddit thread [reddit.com] which made things more clear.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:46PM
Interesting. However, screw the emulator, and run a rogue KMS server on whole networks.. Run it on a dedicated VM to serve the entire network by redirecting everything to those networks to it via the router. It's easy to do with BSD and you can fake entire networks as being owned and operated by your equipment. On the client machines you don't even need hostfiles or anything as it's completely transparent and operating system agnostic.
It has another side effect in that it will completely break anything that requires working telemetry and MS servers, which I can only see as a good thing myself. You can run pure unadulterated copies of Windows 10 and other KMS enabled products without ever installing anything on them to effect licensed states. You control what the Internet actually "looks like", and you can replace any other network owned by anybody. So why not take advantage of that and reroute Microsoft's entire digital empire away to your /dev/null?
More and more I'm doing this so that I can be sure these networks are wholly unreachable by all equipment, including guest equipment that attaches to the network. If the outbound traffic isn't white-listed in someway or moderated, it doesn't go out.
Of course with all that being said, I'm still running Windows 10 which is just slightly more preferable than my nutsack having a date with a ball peen hammer. Looking it up KMS might work with Windows 7 Pro/Enterprise installations. Still, I would rather spend my time working with ReactOS and other similar *complete* replacements for Microsoft while I migrate to using different tools.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Celestial on Sunday July 31 2016, @10:52PM
I've stuck with Microsoft Windows all these years simply because of video gaming. Gaming on Linux is a non-starter. It's gotten better, but the available selection of games on Linux is still only a minuscule fraction compared to the amount available on Microsoft Windows, and shows no sign of improving. However, with Windows 10... I think it may be time to unfortunately make the switch to consoles for video gaming, and dump Windows on the computer for Linux or BSD. Pity. I much prefer the keyboard and mouse to a controller, but Microsoft isn't leaving much choice.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:11PM
Nevermind principles, you have to get your drug fix.
(Score: 4, Informative) by NCommander on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:32PM
I did this for a number of years, but returned to the PC simply because I got sick with the way consoles work nowadays. As for gaming on Linux, honestly, I'd be hard pressed to name a game I couldn't get running under WINE from my Steam library at this point. Many Steam releases are triple platformed now, and those that aren't I've managed to get working in WINE.
Still always moving
(Score: 2) by deimios on Monday August 01 2016, @04:27AM
Anything with D3D11 will not work on wine (for now). The most prominent exmple: Blizzard's Overwatch. The adoption of the Vulkan API however will benefit Linux gaming greatly.
I'm not a fan of GabeN or Steam but he saw it coming and that's why we have SteamOS and an ever growing library of native linux games. My library stands at 186 out of 571 games having a linux version. Now if we could just keep Linux sane and Unix compatible and from slipping into SystemDOS...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @05:00AM
but returned to the PC simply because I got sick with the way consoles work nowadays
I use all 3 platforms (console, windows, linux). All have their strengths.
For server work, hands down linux. It is 'functional' as a desktop (if you want a decent unix computer with a decent GUI... get a mac). But kinda quirky in a 'spend 3 hours on google to find whatever issue it is this time' sort of way (hope whatever fix you find is for the same flavor of linux you are using). Once up and running it is rock solid. But updates to newer versions of stuff are frequent enough to be kind of a pain. For example I use squid in my home. On the point releases no biggie just upgrade. But on a major point release I have to review no less than 500 options. To see if they are relevant or they have changed one of the ones I use in some subtle way. That is just one package. Upgrading a linux box is 'interesting' for me. The programmer IDEs are either very basic or odd to use in some basic ways. They are getting better all the time but to me seem overly cumbersome. Which is just an opinion dont take it personal.
For windows it is fairly solid as a desktop. You can run it as a server but that is not really its strength. CLI is unfortunately basically stuck in some weird limbo between REXX and DOS in 1995. Powershell is somewhat better but *very* cryptic (at least to me coming from a csh/bash shell realm). I can also pound out crazy good CMD/DOS shell scripts. They have finally sorta fixed most of the non-scriptable GUI bits from within the core shell. But you will need win8.1/10 to do that. It also has that 'google it' problem. But so many more people use it you can usually find what is wrong fairly quickly. It has what I consider hands down one of the best dev environments, visual studio (which has its own wall of learning if you have not used it before). If that was on linux I would be there in a heart beat. They are 'kinda' porting/creating one but its not there yet. For games it pretty much works with anything made after 1993 if you use 32 bit, 1999 if you use 64 bit. That is an amazing library to chose from. My wife has well over 700+ games. She would be a bit upset to lose those. Wine is getting there but flakes out in odd ways. They ported the elf format to run in win10. So that might be interesting. I will give it a try but do not hold out much hope as apparently it is limited in what it can reach to the frame buffer.
Both platforms suffer immensely from what I call the 'abandoned' problem. Both are exceedingly easy to create software for, so people have. You have thousands of programs to chose from on both. But there is also an amazing amount of crap on both platforms. You can find world class well designed software on both systems. For free and splashing out big bucks. There just is such a mountain of software out there that gets no updates. Ever. Something like the libressl thing should not have even had to happen. Yet it did and it is unfortunately not alone. Both windows and linux suffer heavily for it. As I pointed out my wife has a large library of software. She has paid a fairly large sum of cash for them. Yet she has games that just flake out or just work like crap. They will never revive another update ever, because the company that made the game folded 10 years ago. Open source might fix that issue. However, looking at stats on most games from steam there are maybe 2-3 people playing some of the games she plays at any time. So *maybe* someone would fix it. Hell, I probably could. But that means taking time away from my other projects.
For consoles. Lets just say they piss me the hell off these days. I have owned pretty much all of them at this point. I skipped the last Nintendo one so I can not speak to it. But holy fuck is it a patch fest out there. I play one of my consoles about 1-2 times a month at this point. But it feels like every time I fire one up there is a series of steps to be taken. Step one your firmware is out of date. So you spend 1-2 hours downloading/installing an update. Then you have not touched a game in a few months? Oh that will be yet another update. So many times what used to be pop a cart in and you are playing, is now a 1-3 hour patch fest before you can even start the game you wanted to play with when you turned it on. "oh just leave them on they will patch themselves". Yeah tried that, didnt work. So no reason to waste the power for that. Maybe it will work someday. Might try it again. Honestly I am not sure I care anymore.
For a game platform steam and gog is about as close as you get to 'just works' these days. Also the 'fan boys' for all 3 of these platforms are a tad annoying. You mention one little thing wrong and suddenly it is a blame storm of why you are the stupidest person on the planet for having a negative opinion on what they like.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:33PM
Linux has sauerbraten *cough* and MAME *cough*.
If you need more, you are not hardcore enough.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @12:13AM
sourceforge.net/projects/sauerbraten/?
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:38PM
Gaming on Linux has gotten way better, what are you smoking? "It's an older opinion but it checks out. I was about to let it through..."
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @01:22AM
You know, I think I'm getting sick and tired of people using "Oh I've only stuck with Windows for the gaming" excuse. Here's a tip, if everyone that used that excuse would just say "fuck it, I'm switching to liinux", they'd miss what? Maybe a couple of blockbuster hits and potentially a 1000 stinkers, then the devs would port all of that + their new games to Linux since that's where the money will be.
Hell, all the stuff currently out that's extra popular would also find it's way transferred over to Linux eventually since it'd be an easy way to resell things already sold once on Windows.
But so long as the windows gamers continue to complain but continue to use windows, they're all fucked.
(Score: 3, Informative) by julian on Monday August 01 2016, @04:23AM
I'm finally going to give up my last Windows PC because of this. There are enough games on Linux now to suffice and if something isn't available I'll just go without. I'm at the point now where MS's bullshit has exceeded my ability to put up with for the benefits I received.
Also Linux as an OS has gotten a lot better. I installed Ubuntu Gnome 16.04 LTS and for the first time ever I've not had a single problem. Nothing is broken, incomplete, mismatched, or kludgy. Everything works, automatically. It's astounding. There is still systemd, but my objections to that have always been theoretical/philosophical. I haven't encountered any problems with it in use.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Monday August 01 2016, @05:24PM
Yeah, "It runs the software I want to use" is such a terrible criteria for OS selection!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:27PM
It is. Your first priority should be picking an OS that respects your freedoms and doesn't actively abuse you.
(Score: 2) by Jesus_666 on Monday August 01 2016, @05:38PM
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @01:42AM
I stick with Windows because there is no professional grade (at any price) Linux software for programming five axis CNC milling machines. Anyone got a few million dollars to put into development?
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2, Interesting) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @02:27AM
Forgive me for commenting on a topic I'm ignorant of, but there's software called LinuxCNC (formerly EMC2) that is said to work with a Servo To Go 8-axis I/O card, with a "6-axis hexapod (Stewart platform) mill prototype" and with the "Index GS30 5-Axis Lathe"—I take it that that software is not "professional grade"?
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?LinuxCNC_Supported_Hardware [linuxcnc.org]
http://wiki.linuxcnc.org/cgi-bin/wiki.pl?Case_Studies [linuxcnc.org]
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @05:01AM
I'm not talking about servo control software, I'm talking about CAM software, which is used to write the toolpaths.
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by butthurt on Monday August 01 2016, @06:07AM
Thanks for explaining. I looked at a list of G-code generators and there was no mention of 5-axis capability, just as you said.
http://replicat.org/generators [replicat.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:36AM
Which version(s) of Windows do you use to run CNC software, and how well does it work? There is (I believe) GibbsCAM that runs on Macs...
Hopefully the actual CNC machine controller is a separate processor running some realtime OS (not Windows)??
(Score: 2) by mhajicek on Monday August 01 2016, @05:06AM
I run Mastercam on Win 7 Pro. The machine has it's own dedicated and isolated control; I only send it the ASCII files with the gcode programs. Gibbs does not support Mac, according to their website: http://www.westcam.co/support/systemrequirements.php [westcam.co]
The spacelike surfaces of time foliations can have a cusp at the surface of discontinuity. - P. Hajicek
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 01 2016, @03:30AM
Maybe not in your niche, but Debian has had full MRI support [debian.org] for years. I just can't afford the $2million machine to play on.
(Score: 3, Informative) by Hairyfeet on Monday August 01 2016, @05:30AM
Pssst....Look up "Windows 7 Tiny" or "Windows 8 Gaming Edition" but you didn't hear it from me,mmmkay?
Both are great for gaming, low resource, and bypass all the MSFT bullshit and since MSFT has refused to backport Win 12 all games will end up staying with Win 11 because there is too many on previous versions for devs to ignore. By the time 8.1 is EOL (Hell I'll be amazed if he makes it to Win 7 EOL) old Nutella will be given his walking paper and hopefully third time will be the charm, that or the gaming devs will just go to Steam OS. Either way fuck MSFT we can still game without their spyware shit.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @06:40AM
I think it may be time to unfortunately make the switch to consoles for video gaming
Wait. Wait, wait, wait, wait a minute.
Telemetry and ads are your reason for switching to consoles? Bwahahaha xD
You might want to recheck the developments in the console world over the last 10 years or so :)
Jeeze, talk about "out of the frying pan and into the fire"...
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 01 2016, @07:10AM
It may be forced updates the OP objects to.. oh wait, consoles have that too.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:42AM
Current generation consoles don't live up to what a console is supposed to be anyway. They are basically a PC in a shiny box, with all that brings - updates, needing to install games, games requiring an internet connection, etc.
If you want the advantages of a console, get a Playstation 2 or a Wii.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @07:19AM
Console gaming – too pricy, too controlling, too unpredictable.
Do you want large HDD? That’d be a premium, sir.
Want screenshots? Say “please,” sir.
Online multiplayer? We’ll be having your credits, sir.
Console upgrade time? Fuck you, sir.
Upgrade in the middle of a generation? Sucks to be you, kiddo.
Mods? You don’t need them, sir.
Oh, and we’ll have a new way to totally fuck our controllers each generation. Have fun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @09:10AM
Console gaming has been dead since 1997, PC gaming since 2001, arcades (in Japan) since around 2010. Really the entire industry is just an animated corpse.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday July 31 2016, @11:34PM
They managed to do what no one thought was possible, make it worse...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @12:48AM
How much of its endowment is MS stock? Expect dramatic decline.
And to think Warren Buffet gave all his money into this loser outfit.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Snotnose on Monday August 01 2016, @01:56AM
Tried about a year ago but I couldn't get it to boot off the CD drive, nor a USB stick. And I tried. I googled till my fingers bled, trying everything I could find.
At the time I just wanted a dual boot box, but now I'd be happy to save my stuff to my NAS and make the entire laptop Linux.
Maybe I should try again, it's been a year and I'm sure new ways around secure boot have been found.
I fondly remember the day I made sandcastles with my grandmother. Just wish I hadn't done it in the crematorium.
(Score: 2) by Snotnose on Monday August 01 2016, @03:17AM
I should mention when I tried to dual boot this box it was still running Win8.1. The OS version has nothing to do with it, the hardware itself won't let me boot anything from anywhere except the hard drive.
I fondly remember the day I made sandcastles with my grandmother. Just wish I hadn't done it in the crematorium.
(Score: 2) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Monday August 01 2016, @03:36AM
If the BIOS is not completely locked down, there should be settings for the boot order, and even if UEFI is required.
If your laptop is sufficiently stubborn, you may need to get one know to work with GNU/Linux.
Being a hipster, I now consider BSD compatibility the ACID test: companies like Nvidia actually release binary drivers for GNU/Linux.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @04:14AM
Here is a tip for forcing a boot menu, holding down shift before clicking restart and then holding it the ENTIRE process and it will bring up the advanced boot menu. If you can't get that to work, go to Settings -> Recovery -> Advanced Startup -> Restart Now. I believe the setting for the firmware is under a submenu, but I cannot recall which off-hand.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by stormreaver on Monday August 01 2016, @01:56PM
The OS version has nothing to do with it, the hardware itself won't let me boot anything from anywhere except the hard drive.
I had the exact same problem when a customer gave me a "broken" Windows 8 laptop that he was going to throw away: firmware reported bad battery and bad hard drive. Windows 8 booting suddenly wouldn't progress beyond the initial splash screen. Couldn't boot from DVD or USB to install Linux. I told him that fixing it would cost more in my time than the laptop was worth at retail, but that I may (or may not) be able to fix it for my own purposes. So he gave it to me.
Linux wouldn't boot from DVD or USB. I found a BIOS option that said something like, "Legacy BIOS support" (I can't remember the exact wording, as this was over a year ago). I switched to that, and the laptop would now boot from DVD.
I booted from a Kubuntu live DVD to see if the hardware was supported, and everything seemed to work fine. I then clicked the install option, and waited. After the installer reached 100% without any hard drive errors (remember, the firmware reported a bad hard drive), I rebooted. Kubuntu loaded and ran just fine.
I unplugged the power cord (remember, the firmware reported a bad battery), and the laptop remained powered on and running. This laptop has been running for over a year now, and my kids sometimes unplug the power for several hours before I get home and find out what happened, but the battery works fine. In fact, everything works exactly as it should.
I recently told my customer about the laptop, and he shook his head in dismay at Windows. I periodically ask him if he has any more "broken" laptops he plans to throw away.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @06:05PM
I wonder what the disk problem was. Did you ever check SMART?
(Score: 2) by stormreaver on Wednesday August 03 2016, @01:45AM
I haven't checked SMART, as the system works perfectly (although slowly, as it has less than a gig of RAM).
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:09AM
s/t
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @05:48AM
Malware/adware/crapware authors may wish to take note, perhaps if Microsoft sets a strong enough precedent such authors could have legally accepted ways of "upgrading" a lot more computers.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @06:45AM
Malware/adware/crapware authors
So... Microsoft?
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Monday August 01 2016, @08:55PM
Ever heard of an EULA?
MS can do whatever they please, peon, because people agreed to let them.
(Score: 2, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @02:26PM
I don't agree with what they are doing, however an easy way for power users to get Windows Enterprise.
If you are a home business you can get the Microsoft Action Pack.
https://partner.microsoft.com/en-gb/membership/action-pack [microsoft.com]
Approx £310 GBP, 10 Windows Enterprise Licences and and a lot of other software useable on a MSDN style licence.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @08:20PM
[quote]£310.00 per year[/quote]