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💡 Newskategorie: Linux Tipps
🔗 Quelle: reddit.com
English being my not native language will probably keep me out from writing this post in good style, but anyway...
I think for desktop users, which I am - it is pretty lucky that there is decent alternative for Windows. And I believe you should feel lucky too, even if you are primarily Windows user.
Long ago, (let's say around 2000-2007) I generally liked the direction Microsoft was going. Microsoft Office was unmatchable software at its time for affordable price, and I kinda liked the way Windows system was generally following. These were everything I needed from Microsoft. Later, minor annoyance and uncertainty happened with Windows Vista release (including explaining why I do not have plan to get new PC with Vista, but with XP to multiple people), which was not too big deal. I lived my happy life until 2012, liking my Windows XP stability and compatibility with old PC games a lot.
In 2012 I got laptop with windows 7, I considered swapping the system there to XP as I was not familiar with windows 7 and somewhat doubtful that it will work flawlessly for gaming. I gave it a try, and apart from running some hardcore old video game mods made via reverse engineering there were no overall problems, at worst some games had to be ran under compatibility mode. My doubts of "quality of running 32 bit applications under 64 bit" were all gone. Then first disappointment came, and it was called Windows 8. It was the actual release and state of new system that disappointed me, as I never swapped to Windows 8 from Windows 7. That made me question the sense of life analyze a bit my current direction, as I was at university at that time, IT classes - aiming for software development, and Visual Studio was another Microsoft product I got pretty familiar with. I found three "dangers" / "disadvantages of Microsoft and Windows":
- As many more people I did not like windows 8 UI at all - I called it "UI for tablets, not computers"
- Based on my research some old PC games using DirectDraw have heavy performance decrease in windows 8, and some others refuse to work as nicely as they did on windows 7 (started crashing under various circumstances etc).
- My little belief that Microsoft is going towards mobile and getting less interesting and potentially annoying in future, due to new software (such as Visual Studio) not working on Windows 7 and future windows versions being potentially similar to windows 8. I was also never fan or avid user of mobile devices.
Sometime later, not sure when - I started to turn against recommending Microsoft Office. While OpenOffice is/was not so good, I learned about LibreOffice and its potential. The biggest deal was major price increase of Microsoft Office Products. It was at least 2x more expensive than the prices of Office 2003 / 2007 I remembered. It started feeling like Microsoft enjoys a scam and exploiting people who do not know about free office software. I believed and still believe that only 1% of users need the "advanced features" in Microsoft Office suite, vast majority only has to know stuff such as how to write formal letter with basic font, or do simple calculations and show graph in spreadsheet.
I planned to use Windows 7 for many new years, but then the real problem came - Windows 10 and all related things. First available system announcements were really positive - back to "non mobile" user interface etc. I even voted on some Microsoft's user vote platform for Windows to improve that DirectDraw support for old games. And then, Microsoft showed what they "can do" and what they think about Windows 7 and its users, also uncovered more information about their upcoming system. These are the days I started my holy war with Windows 10.
I'll start with the worst: as a half-way Richard Stallman, the total deal breaker for me was built-in telemetry that cannot be disabled in Windows 10. In windows 7 I hand-picked Windows Updates, knowing about telemetry Microsoft was adding, but it was not that much of a concern since these could be dodged, also I was deleting telemetry coming from other software whenever possible. It gives me impression, that in Windows 10 you no longer have good amount of control over your system. You are used by it as much as you use it. My opinion and dislike of Windows 10 was strengthened by some related news. First one was giving Windows 10 for free - no corporation gives product for free without good reason. 2nd one, which made me totally upset was Microsoft's deal with hardware manufacturers to break Windows 7 compatibility with hardware sooner. 3rd one was actually nagging users to get free update. 4th was blocking windows 7 updates on so called "incompatible hardware" aka AMD Ryzen and Intel 7th gen+ CPU's without "let me update anyway" button. I also do not have facebook, snapchat, instagram, blacklisted some web domains for being able to leave cookies on my PC, firewalled some of them completely system-wide as well etc.
Over time I noticed other flaws - Windows 10 Updates being not really stable and I saw a lot of content on Reddit about Windows 10 update breaking various stuff, including certain behavior of the games I played at that time. One of my friends reinstalled PC after some update failed to install correctly and he could not boot up the system.
In 2017 I ended up buying new laptop as an upgrade. I picked the one with 6th generation Intel CPU even though 7th generation ones were available, so I could have full windows 7 support. It was and still is a bit sad that the choice of laptops without preinstalled operating system is really limited. Installed windows 7 for media predating 2012 big wave of telemetry updates, throwing in only security patches and it serves me to this day really well.
So back to the post title - why do I believe me as example Windows (soon ex-Windows) user may be glad that potential alternative exists? Because it is nice to have a choice and control over own PC... and future of your PC. The way Windows works - Microsoft has power and by continuing to use it, user can only accept whatever ideas Microsoft will invent next, be it extending telemetry - might be acceptable via new Terms of Service popup window (current Terms of Service allow Microsoft to distribute your data further "in good faith if they feel the need" which is red flag anyway). May as well be hidden in kernel and made invisible to packet sniffer software. To be honest Windows 7 can also have some fishy things hidden in Kernel, but for me Windows 10 core is far less trustworthy anyway.
To make it clear - it is not just lack of button in settings to "disable telemetry" in settings - I cannot fully trust such thing if it existed as well. It is the change of Microsoft's direction that is more questionable. I cannot afford to trust Microsoft's future steps and new ideas that may come from their side. If for example - someday I end up living in country with dictatorship, Windows 10 could be decent tool to perform surveillance via delivered update that extends "telemetry" and cooperate with corrupted government that will offer Microsoft billions of dollars (extreme example but makes some sense). To maintain a stable future, and be independent of Microsoft's decisions I am going to swap to Linux. It's awesome that there is system that I can trust a lot more, with clear development ecosystem. The only thing I will miss from Windows is Visual Studio, but I will manage somehow - I have to.
PS. Yes, I know shady things such as Intel Management Engine exist, but not trustworthy operating system complements such solutions really well.
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