Microsoft now activates 'Recall', a Copilot AI feature that's making your private emails & messaging obsolete by saving screenshots of these every few seconds. So what does this Windows update mean, is it really "opt in" and how can you turn it off? Let's take a deep dive!
It’s been confirmed before the US government puts backdoors Linux too. I seem to recall a sudo exploit they were found to have intentionally put in years ago.
Yes and that why it was eventually found but it took years. Hell, the Linux community almost missed the XZ backdoor. But your implication was that backdoors don’t exist in Linux and that’s just not true.
Windows and Mac are both easier to use for the standard user.
I’m a technical person and even I struggle with what/how the hell I’m supposed to even install applications on Linux:
Should I download the binaries? Should I use snap/flatpak/etc? If I do one vs the other which is more up to date? If I can’t find it in the software store can I trust random online sites?
And that’s just finding applications. Most people don’t have hours of free time to read forums to understand how to fix something that broke (assuming the distro they choose even has a thread relating to the issue).
I feel like clearly everyone here is smarter than me or something.
I’ve been running Kubuntu for a while and here is a recent anecdote and you can tell me if I’m just an idiot. I went to install an application so opened up the software store. After installing I found out it was an out of date version of the software. I went to the companies site and they recommended a flatpak install. Kubuntu doesn’t have flatpak enabled by default, so I have to lookup how to install flatpak and could then install the flatpak. However another piece of software recommends using the apt install, and another the Kubuntu store is fine. All of this is okay, but now there are three different ways I have to manage my software.
Its fine for me, but if that’s really the case, you’ll loose the average user at using the command line to install flatpak.
I just looked it up again and it seems like they require you run a command in the console to enable flatpak. I’m not sure if it’s cause they use snaps, given it’s an Ubuntu derivative. I suspect as flatpak continues to win out it’ll all tend that way.
However, the fact this its even a discussion is kinda my point.
Ubuntu… ugg the worst of all distros. I had issues with it since it came out. I never got why it took off. Although I did like their fonts, colors, and Unity. (Even as a KDE person).
So my experience: download Kubuntu. Install. Click update. It of course throws an error. I ignore it and click update again. This time it succeeds but it seemed like forever. Why is that? I can’t stress this enough: Nearly everytime I have tried to work with Ubuntu the very first thing it does is throw an error. Never a good look.
Anyways: Click on software center. Go to settings. Click enable Flatpack. Click on Flatpack add Flathub as a repository. (That step is a little confusing actually, but it is there). Search for Strawberry music player: it offers to add it from Flatpak.
No command line ever used.
The confusion sometimes comes from looking up info, which will lead to the command line. Becuase command line is always the easiest way to share information. Same thing with windows, when I go to fix stuff, they offer powershell. A dozen gui steps and pictures reduced to a single line.
After hearing you found it in a setting I went looking around again, and while I couldn’t find any official Kubuntu documentation, it does seem like Flathub has a setup guide that mentions it as a setting config.
Also, I generally lean towards Ubuntu as most support I find online leans Debian, but curious what distro you use.
In the past: Redhat, then Mostly Debian or Debian derivatives. Mepis was great for the time it was a thing (2003 - 2005). Also Gentoo for awhile.
Nowdays: Arch and Fedora mostly. I put Fedora on a laptop a couple of years ago while trying to see what would work with it and I have been extremely surprised by it. Packages are really up to date, I have gone through a major revision upgrade with no problem at all. Arch is great, but you have to pay attention and deal with change. Fedora is just as up to date but I don’t have to manage the changes.
And Fedora recently added KDE as an official release instead of a “spin” which is all the better. I hope they keep going, I read that they are not a big team and one of them just left.
Windows is a marketing and spying platform. It is targeted by any and every scammer, hacker, used for harvesting your data by programs you install. It is sold as an “easy to use” computer - most ppl don’t even know what an OS is - until 6 months later when the CPU is at 100% and you don’t know why, the hard drive is filling up and you no longer know if your files are local or in “the cloud”. I service older computers for friends and family on a regular basis. Half of them now have Ubuntu installed on old laptops and it’s an eye opener for them. Because most people don’t install new apps. They just want to browse, read emails, open documents, watch movies and listen to music. If you avoid snap and flatpak and install with APT or just download an AppImage you’re going to be ok.
Windows and Mac are both easier to use for the standard user.
Not at all true anymore for Windoze. Windows 7 was the last installment where that was true. Linux distributions are consistent. Once shown how the basics works, e.g., apt install or pacman -S and the general whereabouts of settings or software, it’s super easy to get them going, indefinitely. Even troubleshooting is within reach because searching the settings isn’t a maze within a maze (except for Gnome sometimes). Windoze keeps changing shit constantly, reinstalls uninstalled software, search algorithm is horrible and has Bing search results within the menu enabled by default [the fuck?], updates don’t indicate how long they’ll last, setting a default program often requires configuring it manually for every file extension, oh goddamn fuckers I have to stop typing because Microsoft pisses me off so bad.
Tabula rasa, if I had to teach a 70-year-old who’s never touched a computer before, to do so, I’d pick Linux every time. Consistency and customization is key.
Microsoft makes their users dumb by an illusion of convenience which shatters the instant something goes wrong, like riding a bike with helper wheels that constantly fail. Linux does none of that. It empowers users quite quickly by simply learning how to ride a bike properly. Sure, you fall every so often at the start, but that made mastery that much more satisfying.
MacOS doesn’t run on my hardware, but yeah editing software and CAD software are the reasons I’m on Windows still.
Technically Davinci Resolve does run on Linux, but it’s not always stable and lacks certain codec support.
I haven’t found a good replacement for lightroom yet, darktable is too complex for me, and rawtherapee doesn’t really manage my library well but is an OK RAW editor.
I recognize it may be a pretty niche issue, but i still haven’t found a Linux app that i can build Monte Carlo simulation models with, though I think some of the developers of these types of apps have made MacOS ports. The ones that I’ve historically used are Excel add-ons, but i haven’t found anything similar yet for Libre Office, or stand alone app.
I would think you would want to do that in python anyways, regardless of the OS. I suppose it might be relative to what you want to do, there are several monte carlo applications for linux but they are focused on certain fields. Whats yours?
Risk Management. I have some very limited experience with using R, but not really any Python experience. There was a good set of tools (Excel add-ons) from ProbabilityManagement.org that gave a lot of flexibility in the models that you could build (e.g. not restricting a user to building financial risk models or schedule risk models like a lot of other risk management apps). I’m not really trying to complain about not being able to find this on Linux, and run an air-gapped Windows machine to hang on to this capability.
I also run silly things like modeling expected dollars needed to complete a Funko collection.
I’m curious on what features does Windows have other other OSes. Just gaming? Music and video editing can be on MacOS. Linux can do everything else.
It’s been confirmed before the US government puts backdoors Linux too. I seem to recall a sudo exploit they were found to have intentionally put in years ago.
With Linux, you can see all the code. So, if you know about government backdoors in Linux, you should point them out so that people can fix them.
Yes and that why it was eventually found but it took years. Hell, the Linux community almost missed the XZ backdoor. But your implication was that backdoors don’t exist in Linux and that’s just not true.
Usability.
Windows and Mac are both easier to use for the standard user.
I’m a technical person and even I struggle with what/how the hell I’m supposed to even install applications on Linux:
And that’s just finding applications. Most people don’t have hours of free time to read forums to understand how to fix something that broke (assuming the distro they choose even has a thread relating to the issue).
Wait, this seems completely backwards.
Windows: Here is some forum post to some rando’s software. SomeShit.exe. Should I install it?
As opposed to Linux: I look in the category of the software I am interested in, click install.
And as far as breaking… I use linux because it doesn’t break. I don’t have time for windows bullshit.
I feel like clearly everyone here is smarter than me or something.
I’ve been running Kubuntu for a while and here is a recent anecdote and you can tell me if I’m just an idiot. I went to install an application so opened up the software store. After installing I found out it was an out of date version of the software. I went to the companies site and they recommended a flatpak install. Kubuntu doesn’t have flatpak enabled by default, so I have to lookup how to install flatpak and could then install the flatpak. However another piece of software recommends using the apt install, and another the Kubuntu store is fine. All of this is okay, but now there are three different ways I have to manage my software.
Its fine for me, but if that’s really the case, you’ll loose the average user at using the command line to install flatpak.
Kubuntu require you to use a command line to get flatpaks? Usually it is just a toggle in a package manager. I think Fedora is on by default.
I just looked it up again and it seems like they require you run a command in the console to enable flatpak. I’m not sure if it’s cause they use snaps, given it’s an Ubuntu derivative. I suspect as flatpak continues to win out it’ll all tend that way.
However, the fact this its even a discussion is kinda my point.
So I wanted to see for myself.
Ubuntu… ugg the worst of all distros. I had issues with it since it came out. I never got why it took off. Although I did like their fonts, colors, and Unity. (Even as a KDE person).
So my experience: download Kubuntu. Install. Click update. It of course throws an error. I ignore it and click update again. This time it succeeds but it seemed like forever. Why is that? I can’t stress this enough: Nearly everytime I have tried to work with Ubuntu the very first thing it does is throw an error. Never a good look.
Anyways: Click on software center. Go to settings. Click enable Flatpack. Click on Flatpack add Flathub as a repository. (That step is a little confusing actually, but it is there). Search for Strawberry music player: it offers to add it from Flatpak.
No command line ever used.
The confusion sometimes comes from looking up info, which will lead to the command line. Becuase command line is always the easiest way to share information. Same thing with windows, when I go to fix stuff, they offer powershell. A dozen gui steps and pictures reduced to a single line.
Wow! I appreciate your thoroughness.
After hearing you found it in a setting I went looking around again, and while I couldn’t find any official Kubuntu documentation, it does seem like Flathub has a setup guide that mentions it as a setting config.
Also, I generally lean towards Ubuntu as most support I find online leans Debian, but curious what distro you use.
In the past: Redhat, then Mostly Debian or Debian derivatives. Mepis was great for the time it was a thing (2003 - 2005). Also Gentoo for awhile.
Nowdays: Arch and Fedora mostly. I put Fedora on a laptop a couple of years ago while trying to see what would work with it and I have been extremely surprised by it. Packages are really up to date, I have gone through a major revision upgrade with no problem at all. Arch is great, but you have to pay attention and deal with change. Fedora is just as up to date but I don’t have to manage the changes.
And Fedora recently added KDE as an official release instead of a “spin” which is all the better. I hope they keep going, I read that they are not a big team and one of them just left.
Windows is a marketing and spying platform. It is targeted by any and every scammer, hacker, used for harvesting your data by programs you install. It is sold as an “easy to use” computer - most ppl don’t even know what an OS is - until 6 months later when the CPU is at 100% and you don’t know why, the hard drive is filling up and you no longer know if your files are local or in “the cloud”. I service older computers for friends and family on a regular basis. Half of them now have Ubuntu installed on old laptops and it’s an eye opener for them. Because most people don’t install new apps. They just want to browse, read emails, open documents, watch movies and listen to music. If you avoid snap and flatpak and install with APT or just download an AppImage you’re going to be ok.
Not at all true anymore for Windoze. Windows 7 was the last installment where that was true. Linux distributions are consistent. Once shown how the basics works, e.g.,
apt installorpacman -Sand the general whereabouts of settings or software, it’s super easy to get them going, indefinitely. Even troubleshooting is within reach because searching the settings isn’t a maze within a maze (except for Gnome sometimes). Windoze keeps changing shit constantly, reinstalls uninstalled software, search algorithm is horrible and has Bing search results within the menu enabled by default [the fuck?], updates don’t indicate how long they’ll last, setting a default program often requires configuring it manually for every file extension, oh goddamn fuckers I have to stop typing because Microsoft pisses me off so bad.Tabula rasa, if I had to teach a 70-year-old who’s never touched a computer before, to do so, I’d pick Linux every time. Consistency and customization is key. Microsoft makes their users dumb by an illusion of convenience which shatters the instant something goes wrong, like riding a bike with helper wheels that constantly fail. Linux does none of that. It empowers users quite quickly by simply learning how to ride a bike properly. Sure, you fall every so often at the start, but that made mastery that much more satisfying.
MacOS doesn’t run on my hardware, but yeah editing software and CAD software are the reasons I’m on Windows still.
Technically Davinci Resolve does run on Linux, but it’s not always stable and lacks certain codec support.
I haven’t found a good replacement for lightroom yet, darktable is too complex for me, and rawtherapee doesn’t really manage my library well but is an OK RAW editor.
I recognize it may be a pretty niche issue, but i still haven’t found a Linux app that i can build Monte Carlo simulation models with, though I think some of the developers of these types of apps have made MacOS ports. The ones that I’ve historically used are Excel add-ons, but i haven’t found anything similar yet for Libre Office, or stand alone app.
I would think you would want to do that in python anyways, regardless of the OS. I suppose it might be relative to what you want to do, there are several monte carlo applications for linux but they are focused on certain fields. Whats yours?
Risk Management. I have some very limited experience with using R, but not really any Python experience. There was a good set of tools (Excel add-ons) from ProbabilityManagement.org that gave a lot of flexibility in the models that you could build (e.g. not restricting a user to building financial risk models or schedule risk models like a lot of other risk management apps). I’m not really trying to complain about not being able to find this on Linux, and run an air-gapped Windows machine to hang on to this capability.
I also run silly things like modeling expected dollars needed to complete a Funko collection.