WSL honestly killed my desire to set up Linux since WSL fully supports GUIs, and I can run all of the Unix terminal commands I want on the Windows files using WSL. Microsoft's Terminal app is also...
WSL honestly killed my desire to set up Linux since WSL fully supports GUIs, and I can run all of the Unix terminal commands I want on the Windows files using WSL.
Microsoft's Terminal app is also pretty slick since it fully supports tabs and everything else I've ever needed.
I have a number of friends who (somewhat jokingly) call Windows "the best Linux desktop" because of WSL. It is really cool stuff and I see where they are coming from. Personally, I still think KDE...
I have a number of friends who (somewhat jokingly) call Windows "the best Linux desktop" because of WSL. It is really cool stuff and I see where they are coming from. Personally, I still think KDE Plasma offers a better desktop environment than Windows.
FYI bootlegging Windows was designed to be easy, MS's target audience is corporations whose employees already know how to use Windows. It's a one command affair, and MS reps have been known to...
FYI bootlegging Windows was designed to be easy, MS's target audience is corporations whose employees already know how to use Windows. It's a one command affair, and MS reps have been known to make use of it.
In fact, the most popular activation tool for testing both Office and Windows permanently, has been hosted on GitHub since 2020, yknow, the platform now owned by the Bigger Blue themselves, even...
In fact, the most popular activation tool for testing both Office and Windows permanently, has been hosted on GitHub since 2020, yknow, the platform now owned by the Bigger Blue themselves, even has 136k stars, super useful if you're into that sort of thing btw: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
it's a one command affair
to be fair you also have to use the down key one or twice and an enter key too with MAS (+:
I kind of don't like this, Microsoft making Windows increasingly more "free" has coincided with them adding more and more ads and tracking. I personally don't have a problem with spending money on...
I kind of don't like this, Microsoft making Windows increasingly more "free" has coincided with them adding more and more ads and tracking.
I personally don't have a problem with spending money on a quality proprietary operating system and would gladly pay $100-$200 every 4-5 years for a version of Windows that doesn't come with ads and bloat, skips the telemetry, and doesn't fight me about using a local user account, without the limitations of the LTSC builds.
I don't know where everyone is seeing all these ads, but I don't. I think the last license I paid for was windows 7, and have upgraded for free. I have seen a very few out of the way places where...
I don't know where everyone is seeing all these ads, but I don't.
I think the last license I paid for was windows 7, and have upgraded for free.
I have seen a very few out of the way places where MS pushes their products, but I don't see any of that on a daily basis at all.
As far as bloat goes.. there's some apps and functionality that I don't use, but its existence doesn't bother me, and doesn't seem to be slowing my system down.
I just get confused by everyone talking about these things because I just haven't seen them to any large or bothersome degree.
I forget which version of Windows is the barebones one, but it's one of the corporate long-support versions I think. That would surely solve some of the listed problems.
So an example of ads that annoy me would be the Start Menu showing search results from Bing any time you type something in it. I don't even want my start menu searching the web at all, I have a...
So an example of ads that annoy me would be the Start Menu showing search results from Bing any time you type something in it. I don't even want my start menu searching the web at all, I have a web browser for that, but even if I did I wouldn't want it to search with Bing. This "feature" was clearly implemented as a means to advertise Bing, not to solve a problem or improve the user experience.
Of course, most of this annoying stuff can be turned off if you know where to look, and that's why I'm not necessarily chomping at the bit to ditch Windows entirely. But these clearly demonstrate how the monetization of Windows has changed, and the negative effects that has on what kind of feature work is prioritized going forward.
Contrast this to Apple's approach with macOS. They are no stranger to integrating their services tightly into their operating systems, but the implementation almost always puts user agency first. When you set up a new MacBook, it will not force you to sign in with an iCloud account. It asks if you want to, with an explanation of what you get in return, but it respects your decision if you say "no".
Apple is incentivized to keep it this way because the user is the customer. When you buy a MacBook, a good chunk of that price is for macOS. Apple makes a hefty profit from their high margin hardware sales, where Microsoft gets maybe $30 in licensing fees for each Windows laptop sold and nothing from people using "officially unofficial" tricks to install it for free. The incentive to find other sources of revenue is much stronger.
There's a very good chance that you have either disabled them or you have just become blind to them because you see them all the time. But as someone who only sees Windows when students use them...
There's a very good chance that you have either disabled them or you have just become blind to them because you see them all the time. But as someone who only sees Windows when students use them or when I have to boot up my W11 VM to help troubleshoot them, they're everywhere and they keep coming up. One of the ones i particularly hate is that it often gives you "recommendations" of Microsoft programs and services to use ("Have you accepted Edge as your personal savior yet?"). You have to go into settings and turn them off for it to finally stop interrupting what you're doing.
For posterity, it's relatively easy to disable the majority of Windows bloat. It's there to exploit people who don't tinker, which sucks, but for everyone else there are solutions. Here's a user...
For posterity, it's relatively easy to disable the majority of Windows bloat. It's there to exploit people who don't tinker, which sucks, but for everyone else there are solutions.
Here's a user friendly option, name nonwithstanding: O&O Shutup 10++
I've used that with Windows 10, and while it is easy it's also not what I'd describe as "friendly" because there's a ton of options that aren't terribly obvious and have warnings in place. Or at...
I've used that with Windows 10, and while it is easy it's also not what I'd describe as "friendly" because there's a ton of options that aren't terribly obvious and have warnings in place. Or at least it was when I used it years ago.
In any case, this is one of those things you shouldn't have to do; it's basically like opening a bank account and having to submit a written certified letter to tell them to not let anyone else withdraw funds to me.
I agree that it shouldn't be necessary, but that doesn't make it any less useful. Corporations at the tech giant level aren't going to change things because we think they're wrong. Best to find...
I agree that it shouldn't be necessary, but that doesn't make it any less useful.
Corporations at the tech giant level aren't going to change things because we think they're wrong. Best to find workarounds while we hope for regulation.
It's been ages since I've used Windows for more than a few minutes at a time, but when I recently used 11 to make an ISO I distinctly remember something that some people may refer to as ads: the...
It's been ages since I've used Windows for more than a few minutes at a time, but when I recently used 11 to make an ISO I distinctly remember something that some people may refer to as ads: the search bar accessed by pressing the Windows key really loves to show random crap from the Internet and the Microsoft store.
I'm not sure if people consider these ads, but they're very frustrating to me. I don't use shortcuts and stuff. I press super, type a few letters, and press enter. On Windows this will sometimes land me on random web or store pages, which makes it at least feel like sponsored links are being injected where I very much don't want them.
This is a way of interacting I picked up from Windows back in the 7 days I think. But now it works way better on Plasma and Cinnamon than it does on Windows itself.
Paying $100 for a license (or less if you know the right forums) is worth it for me to not have to deal with Proton compatibility issues. I've had too many Linux chipset and driver issues even...
Paying $100 for a license (or less if you know the right forums) is worth it for me to not have to deal with Proton compatibility issues. I've had too many Linux chipset and driver issues even with ThinkPads.
I'm not really a tinkerer. I want my computer to work without me digging into configs for typical hardware and software.
Ive never really had an issue but I also don’t update my kernel very often I just find one that works and then stick with that for years. So far for me Windows was way more annoying than linux,...
Ive never really had an issue but I also don’t update my kernel very often I just find one that works and then stick with that for years.
So far for me Windows was way more annoying than linux, with the automatic updates and the bugging me all the time, and that was just win7 I haven’t really used windows since then, I imagine its only gotten worse.
Last time I updated my os was in 2019 when I built a computer with an amd apu, I think I maybe had to test out 1 or 2 different kernels before finding one that worked perfectly but they make that process so easy now, theres a GUI for it where you can just click on a kernel you want.
Oh yeah for linux mint you get security updates for all the applications it uses and you don’t have to upgrade your kernel to the next whole version to update that too you can just take the latest...
Oh yeah for linux mint you get security updates for all the applications it uses and you don’t have to upgrade your kernel to the next whole version to update that too you can just take the latest patch
By ‘havent updated’ I mean the latest mint version is like 22.something or maybe 23 now but mine is 20 I think. Upgrades never really works right so to update Id have to flash the whole os with the latest iso downloaded from the website. Its a task, which is why I only do it when I build a new pc
Perhaps I lucked out with my hardware combination and the games that I play, but I haven't had a single Proton compatibility issue in a year. Games almost universally work on the day they are...
Perhaps I lucked out with my hardware combination and the games that I play, but I haven't had a single Proton compatibility issue in a year. Games almost universally work on the day they are released.
I still sometimes hit issues with Proton, but almost exclusively in cases that I manually configured it after adding a non steam game. 9 times out of 10 just changing to Proton hotfix "just...
I still sometimes hit issues with Proton, but almost exclusively in cases that I manually configured it after adding a non steam game. 9 times out of 10 just changing to Proton hotfix "just works". On very rare occasion I have to fiddle with it further.
My experience may be abnormal though as at some point I just started using steam as a container for all of my widows software. I'm lazy and like that it manages the prefixes for me, but it also means I have stuff in there that Proton wasn't necessarily designed to run.
That means it has served its primary purpose :) At least in your case, that is. I still hate windows with passion, but being able to run some Linux apps lessened the pain.
That means it has served its primary purpose :) At least in your case, that is.
I still hate windows with passion, but being able to run some Linux apps lessened the pain.
I would require all of Windows to be open source to move there, but even if it was, I think I'm at this point too used to Linux way of doing things that I wouldn't want to move there. I suppose...
I would require all of Windows to be open source to move there, but even if it was, I think I'm at this point too used to Linux way of doing things that I wouldn't want to move there. I suppose many Windows users have a similar path of thought.
I really hope folks do awesome stuff that is accessible (i.e. that I can play with). I like Windows and Linux both. I use tools that give me some linux-like behaviour in my Windows. I like being...
I really hope folks do awesome stuff that is accessible (i.e. that I can play with).
I like Windows and Linux both. I use tools that give me some linux-like behaviour in my Windows. I like being able to use WSL.
I don't use it as much as I otherwise might, since much of what I play with is on my servers, so I'm most typically remoting in, and MobaXterm is my favorite tool for that.
My work is annoying because we're not allowed to have Linux on our laptops, only Mac or Windows, but then for the software engineers we do all our work on either physical Linux workstations or...
I lobbied for a corporate Linux build at work and didn't get one
My work is annoying because we're not allowed to have Linux on our laptops, only Mac or Windows, but then for the software engineers we do all our work on either physical Linux workstations or Linux VMs that we have to SSH to. I think some work is being done to enable crossbuilding from Mac so us Mac people won't have to SSH but that's not done yet.
That's awesome :) I should create a topic to find out what Linux GUI apps are compelling enough to use. For the most part, even when I've run Linux, I've run either things that exist in both Linux...
That's awesome :)
I should create a topic to find out what Linux GUI apps are compelling enough to use. For the most part, even when I've run Linux, I've run either things that exist in both Linux and Windows like browser, out equivalents that I used mainly because they existed like random text editors or whatever.
I think I will go create that thread actually. Lol. I want more fun toys!
You can limit WSL2 RAM usage with the .wslconfig file for global restrictions - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#configuration-settings-for-wslconfig I think you can do the...
Isn't WSL just glorified virtualization? I wouldn't be too surprised to see a BSD version eventually, but I wonder how much demand there is for such a thing.
Isn't WSL just glorified virtualization? I wouldn't be too surprised to see a BSD version eventually, but I wonder how much demand there is for such a thing.
Kind of, for WSL2 at least. It has some specific optimizations and it hooks more into the host system somehow. The fact that you can use WSL to run GUI apps that use Windows decorations is weird....
Kind of, for WSL2 at least. It has some specific optimizations and it hooks more into the host system somehow. The fact that you can use WSL to run GUI apps that use Windows decorations is weird.
WSL v1 is a translation layer and it's way more complex, but also more interesting for that exact reason. That's what would need to be forked for a BSD to run.
WSL honestly killed my desire to set up Linux since WSL fully supports GUIs, and I can run all of the Unix terminal commands I want on the Windows files using WSL.
Microsoft's Terminal app is also pretty slick since it fully supports tabs and everything else I've ever needed.
I have a number of friends who (somewhat jokingly) call Windows "the best Linux desktop" because of WSL. It is really cool stuff and I see where they are coming from. Personally, I still think KDE Plasma offers a better desktop environment than Windows.
I think Gnome is a better DE than Windows, and I hate Gnome. 😜
Gnome is the best clean no faff DE in my opinion. I end up modding KDE so much that it gets in the way of getting anything done.
Weird, I don’t use Linux because of the terminal, I use it because its way easier than trying to bootleg a copy of windows.
FYI bootlegging Windows was designed to be easy, MS's target audience is corporations whose employees already know how to use Windows. It's a one command affair, and MS reps have been known to make use of it.
In fact, the most popular activation tool for testing both Office and Windows permanently, has been hosted on GitHub since 2020, yknow, the platform now owned by the Bigger Blue themselves, even has 136k stars, super useful if you're into that sort of thing btw: https://github.com/massgravel/Microsoft-Activation-Scripts
to be fair you also have to use the down key one or twice and an enter key too with MAS (+:
I kind of don't like this, Microsoft making Windows increasingly more "free" has coincided with them adding more and more ads and tracking.
I personally don't have a problem with spending money on a quality proprietary operating system and would gladly pay $100-$200 every 4-5 years for a version of Windows that doesn't come with ads and bloat, skips the telemetry, and doesn't fight me about using a local user account, without the limitations of the LTSC builds.
I don't know where everyone is seeing all these ads, but I don't.
I think the last license I paid for was windows 7, and have upgraded for free.
I have seen a very few out of the way places where MS pushes their products, but I don't see any of that on a daily basis at all.
As far as bloat goes.. there's some apps and functionality that I don't use, but its existence doesn't bother me, and doesn't seem to be slowing my system down.
I just get confused by everyone talking about these things because I just haven't seen them to any large or bothersome degree.
I forget which version of Windows is the barebones one, but it's one of the corporate long-support versions I think. That would surely solve some of the listed problems.
So an example of ads that annoy me would be the Start Menu showing search results from Bing any time you type something in it. I don't even want my start menu searching the web at all, I have a web browser for that, but even if I did I wouldn't want it to search with Bing. This "feature" was clearly implemented as a means to advertise Bing, not to solve a problem or improve the user experience.
Of course, most of this annoying stuff can be turned off if you know where to look, and that's why I'm not necessarily chomping at the bit to ditch Windows entirely. But these clearly demonstrate how the monetization of Windows has changed, and the negative effects that has on what kind of feature work is prioritized going forward.
Contrast this to Apple's approach with macOS. They are no stranger to integrating their services tightly into their operating systems, but the implementation almost always puts user agency first. When you set up a new MacBook, it will not force you to sign in with an iCloud account. It asks if you want to, with an explanation of what you get in return, but it respects your decision if you say "no".
Apple is incentivized to keep it this way because the user is the customer. When you buy a MacBook, a good chunk of that price is for macOS. Apple makes a hefty profit from their high margin hardware sales, where Microsoft gets maybe $30 in licensing fees for each Windows laptop sold and nothing from people using "officially unofficial" tricks to install it for free. The incentive to find other sources of revenue is much stronger.
There's a very good chance that you have either disabled them or you have just become blind to them because you see them all the time. But as someone who only sees Windows when students use them or when I have to boot up my W11 VM to help troubleshoot them, they're everywhere and they keep coming up. One of the ones i particularly hate is that it often gives you "recommendations" of Microsoft programs and services to use ("Have you accepted Edge as your personal savior yet?"). You have to go into settings and turn them off for it to finally stop interrupting what you're doing.
For posterity, it's relatively easy to disable the majority of Windows bloat. It's there to exploit people who don't tinker, which sucks, but for everyone else there are solutions.
Here's a user friendly option, name nonwithstanding: O&O Shutup 10++
I've used that with Windows 10, and while it is easy it's also not what I'd describe as "friendly" because there's a ton of options that aren't terribly obvious and have warnings in place. Or at least it was when I used it years ago.
In any case, this is one of those things you shouldn't have to do; it's basically like opening a bank account and having to submit a written certified letter to tell them to not let anyone else withdraw funds to me.
I agree that it shouldn't be necessary, but that doesn't make it any less useful.
Corporations at the tech giant level aren't going to change things because we think they're wrong. Best to find workarounds while we hope for regulation.
It's been ages since I've used Windows for more than a few minutes at a time, but when I recently used 11 to make an ISO I distinctly remember something that some people may refer to as ads: the search bar accessed by pressing the Windows key really loves to show random crap from the Internet and the Microsoft store.
I'm not sure if people consider these ads, but they're very frustrating to me. I don't use shortcuts and stuff. I press super, type a few letters, and press enter. On Windows this will sometimes land me on random web or store pages, which makes it at least feel like sponsored links are being injected where I very much don't want them.
This is a way of interacting I picked up from Windows back in the 7 days I think. But now it works way better on Plasma and Cinnamon than it does on Windows itself.
How??? Ive got a win 7 copy that will not stop bugging me about being an unauthorized copy.
Check out drannex's link.
I'm actually not sure if it works for win 7, pretty sure that is past end of life. Worth a shot though!
Paying $100 for a license (or less if you know the right forums) is worth it for me to not have to deal with Proton compatibility issues. I've had too many Linux chipset and driver issues even with ThinkPads.
I'm not really a tinkerer. I want my computer to work without me digging into configs for typical hardware and software.
Ive never really had an issue but I also don’t update my kernel very often I just find one that works and then stick with that for years.
So far for me Windows was way more annoying than linux, with the automatic updates and the bugging me all the time, and that was just win7 I haven’t really used windows since then, I imagine its only gotten worse.
Last time I updated my os was in 2019 when I built a computer with an amd apu, I think I maybe had to test out 1 or 2 different kernels before finding one that worked perfectly but they make that process so easy now, theres a GUI for it where you can just click on a kernel you want.
What are your thoughts on zero day exploits since then? Are you unconcerned?
I keep up with my security updates?
I suppose I misunderstood what you meant by not having updated your OS since 2019.
Oh yeah for linux mint you get security updates for all the applications it uses and you don’t have to upgrade your kernel to the next whole version to update that too you can just take the latest patch
By ‘havent updated’ I mean the latest mint version is like 22.something or maybe 23 now but mine is 20 I think. Upgrades never really works right so to update Id have to flash the whole os with the latest iso downloaded from the website. Its a task, which is why I only do it when I build a new pc
Aha, I'm with you now. Makes sense.
Perhaps I lucked out with my hardware combination and the games that I play, but I haven't had a single Proton compatibility issue in a year. Games almost universally work on the day they are released.
I still sometimes hit issues with Proton, but almost exclusively in cases that I manually configured it after adding a non steam game. 9 times out of 10 just changing to Proton hotfix "just works". On very rare occasion I have to fiddle with it further.
My experience may be abnormal though as at some point I just started using steam as a container for all of my widows software. I'm lazy and like that it manages the prefixes for me, but it also means I have stuff in there that Proton wasn't necessarily designed to run.
That means it has served its primary purpose :) At least in your case, that is.
I still hate windows with passion, but being able to run some Linux apps lessened the pain.
I would require all of Windows to be open source to move there, but even if it was, I think I'm at this point too used to Linux way of doing things that I wouldn't want to move there. I suppose many Windows users have a similar path of thought.
I feel you in the terminal which is why I reach for WSL to get my familiar utils.
I really hope folks do awesome stuff that is accessible (i.e. that I can play with).
I like Windows and Linux both. I use tools that give me some linux-like behaviour in my Windows. I like being able to use WSL.
I don't use it as much as I otherwise might, since much of what I play with is on my servers, so I'm most typically remoting in, and MobaXterm is my favorite tool for that.
But I still like having it :)
My work is annoying because we're not allowed to have Linux on our laptops, only Mac or Windows, but then for the software engineers we do all our work on either physical Linux workstations or Linux VMs that we have to SSH to. I think some work is being done to enable crossbuilding from Mac so us Mac people won't have to SSH but that's not done yet.
That's awesome :)
I should create a topic to find out what Linux GUI apps are compelling enough to use. For the most part, even when I've run Linux, I've run either things that exist in both Linux and Windows like browser, out equivalents that I used mainly because they existed like random text editors or whatever.
I think I will go create that thread actually. Lol. I want more fun toys!
You can limit WSL2 RAM usage with the .wslconfig file for global restrictions - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/wsl-config#configuration-settings-for-wslconfig
I think you can do the same for individual distros as well with wsl.conf files.
I can't wait to see a fork for WSF (Windows Subsystem for FreeBSD) soon.
Isn't WSL just glorified virtualization? I wouldn't be too surprised to see a BSD version eventually, but I wonder how much demand there is for such a thing.
Kind of, for WSL2 at least. It has some specific optimizations and it hooks more into the host system somehow. The fact that you can use WSL to run GUI apps that use Windows decorations is weird.
WSL v1 is a translation layer and it's way more complex, but also more interesting for that exact reason. That's what would need to be forked for a BSD to run.