The Windows 11 Apocalypse thread

[Skybird]

In this thread I will occasionally unsystematically post info and videos on the unfolding security and privacy desaster that Windows 11 is. Some poeple may not be aware of things like Copilot and Recall, and why they are so totally unacceptable. With Windows 10's days counted at least regarding updates, some people sooner rather than later will consider to go Windows 11, others may buy a new machine and get it as a free toxic preinstalled suicide bonus.

Myself, I was stunned with disbelief when I learned the first horrifying details about Windows 11's safety and privacy meltdown. I have buried all plans to ever buy a new machine for Windows use again, which will dramatically chnage and in parts delete my ability to play the sims I like, namely racing sims, flight sims and PC-based VR. I will get a new gaming rig once the need is there, but tailored to the needs of gaming under Linux, because Windows 11 is totally and completely unacceptable to me even if here in the EU certain legislation may and already have been released forcing Microsoft to compromise some of its totalitarian wet dreams. But who said they comply? There are already reports on that they lie and do not comply at all, but hollow out the new rules released in August this year.

With Recall at the latest Microsoft has overstepped the last thin red line for me, I am fed up with Microsoft. It led to the number of Windows 11 users declining over this year (!!) by either going back to Windows 10 - or migrating to Linux or Apple. Windows 11 and Recall is a great marketing strategy of Microsoft to push people over to Linux, the move is already happening.

I can only warn everybody to embark on Windows 11 or to carelessly accept Recall. And that you should not trust the cheating words and candy-glossed lies of Microsoft you should know yourself by now.

"Personal" Computers are dead. Windows is dead. That simple it is.

If you hear of this for the first time: Recall is a default-activated and mandatory "service" that creates screenshots of your screen every 5 seconds and stores these on your HD, exposing them to criminal hackers who attack your machine as well as allows remote-analysis by Microsoft' well-meaning AI tools. It snot just screenshots being stored, but the content of these screenshots in image and text and formula gets analysed by AI - and extracted, if MS sees an interest to do so, obviously. PIN numbers and sensitive data and texts you enter get analysed. Intimate communications you trade with a partner get analysed. Confidential customer or patient files get analysed. Data you may need to keep confidential for legal reasons if you are a lawyer or doctor etc will get analysed.

Its the total transparency and surveillance of yourself. And its mixed into the code of file explorer, you cannot delete the code of Recall and being done with it, they force you to accept its presence by trying to make it undeletable. You cannnot easily find it insettings of Windows (in the EU they need to make it "deactivatable" and they must offer it as an opt-in, not opt-out like in other parts of the world. But do you trust Microsoft that they do not secretly - or accidentally, "oooops, we apologize for our mishap" - activate it again? Or hammer the activation button secretely with every update they install?

You cannot trust Microsoft. They want total control over all data on your computer, that is their goal, you should not have any illusions there.

Go Linux. Serious. Because now the situation really becomes threatening. For your safety. For your privacy,. For your legal situation. You can violate privacy laws and rules of confidentiality if you work in certain professions and use this OS.

Gaming is said to have become quite good under Linux, with things like Proton Steam. I will investigate that.

[Skybird]

IMHO Recall is like a ticking time bomb for everybody using a system with it enabled, may it be his own devicem, or a public one, or his serviceman's device, it does not matter.

And Microsoft's claims and words and promises mean nothing.

Windows 10 was once marketed by the claim that it would be the last operaiton sysstem of that name. Well, for me that is true.




And this guy has drawn the consequences. He says his gaming has often become better under Linux than under Windows.

[mapuc]

Do remember that 95-98 % of us computer user isn't exactly what you would call a computer nerd and can do nothing than embrace the new operative system Win11.

I'm going to stick with my Win10 as long as I can.

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Avoid Win11 like the plague for as long as possible.

[Aktungbby]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Do remember that 95-98 % of us computer user isn't exactly what you would call a computer nerd and can do nothing than embrace the new operative system Win11.

I'm going to stick with my Win10 as long as I can.

Markus

Originally Posted by Jimbuna

Avoid Win11 like the plague for as long as possible.

...as do I; I'm constantly decling sudden screen requests to upgrade to WIN 11 from my current WIN 10...a miserable form of nagging elder abuse to a computer illiterate as myself IMHO. I gresatly mourn the loss of my WIN 7 which had all my favorite games, particularly SH-5.

[Commander Wallace]

Originally Posted by Aktungbby

...as do I; I'm constantly decling sudden screen requests to upgrade to WIN 11 from my current WIN 10...a miserable form of nagging elder abuse to a computer illiterate as myself IMHO. I gresatly mourn the loss of my WIN 7 which had all my favorite games, particularly SH-5.

I have Windows 10 for business correspondences as it was essentially forced on me at work. I absolutely refuse to " upgrade " to Windows 11. My Silent Hunter 3 frequently crashes on Windows 10 units. I still have Windows 7 units with which to play Silent Hunter 3 and other applications. Luckily or unluckily, I never have time to play them anyhow. Maybe with Winter Weather fast approaching.....

I think it's time to for me revisit Linux and it's derivatives, like Ubunto Operating Systems. Maybe Microsoft and other manufacturers like HP will finally get the message but I seriously doubt it.

[Dargo]

Ahum why not use Linux (Ubuntu, Debian, Linux Mint, etc) it has all the tools Window also can run window games or programmes (Wine).

[Skybird]

Linux Mint Cinnamon/MATE/Xfce new LTS version 22 just out. https://linuxmint-installation-guide...st/choose.html

Steam Proton, since 2018. https://www.protondb.com/

Proton is a new tool released by Valve Software that has been integrated with Steam Play to make playing Windows games on Linux as simple as hitting the Play button within Steam. Underneath the hood, Proton comprises other popular tools like Wine and DXVK among others that a gamer would otherwise have to install and maintain themselves. This greatly eases the burden for users to switch to Linux without having to learn the underlying systems or losing access to a large part of their library of games. Proton is still in its infancy so support is inconsistent, but regularly improving.

I still had not gotten up my lower bottom to check both out, but these are the way to go, I have my homework laid out before me.

Problems with Linux might more focus on hardware compatabilties. I forsee issues with VR, and my racing wheels. Thank God I have migrated a lot to Quest 3.

The games being able to run under Proton on Linux are now in the five digit range. Including PC Linux, Steam Deck, Chromebooks. I checked a random colleciton of my favourites, and found them all rated as "works out of the box" or "works after a few tweaks. With MS-FS and my racing sims however it is a bit different. Steal Beasts Pro also is a no go.



Oh wait... https://www.steelbeasts.com/topic/17...on-linux-wine/


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[mapuc]

Have no clue about this Linux operating system-So I just do as said before-Keep my Win10 as long as possible.
(To be honest I'm scared, that I would do more damage to my computers softwares and perhaps hardwares)

Markus

[Catfish]

Windows 10 already sends home all kinds of info and data about you, you cannot switch that off –

Also on android or apple mobiles the option to switch off visited web history and data does not mean it is not stored and sent – you are just not shown it anymore.

Linux is it. But .. games. I doubt wine will have the game performance of a native Windows system?

[Dargo]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Have no clue about this Linux operating system-So I just do as said before-Keep my Win10 as long as possible.
(To be honest I'm scared, that I would do more damage to my computers softwares and perhaps hardwares)

Markus

Linux is a Unix-like operating system Unix a family of multitasking, multi-user computer operating systems that derive from the original AT&T Unix, whose development started in 1969 at the Bell Labs research centre. Linux is developed by Linus Torvalds in the 1990s and continues to be developed by the Linux community of developers. Linux is safer than windows, it does not damage the computer. The internet runs on Linux systems MacOS is comparable to Linux in structure because both are based on the Unix operating system. But unlike Linux, macOS is not open-source, and its source code is not made available to the public. If you have an old laptop, PC, try it, it is not that different as Windows.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by mapuc

Have no clue about this Linux operating system-So I just do as said before-Keep my Win10 as long as possible.
(To be honest I'm scared, that I would do more damage to my computers softwares and perhaps hardwares)

Markus

Linux Mint Cinnamon is designed to make the migration very easy especially for former windows users, it reminds of it and is designed with Windows users in mind, the ways of handling they are used to.

It gets installed by downloading an ISO file and put it onto a bootable USB stick, for exmaple. And then you boot in Linux from that stick (or disc, you may need to reset your BIOS so that the medium you use is first in the booting sequence). What you then have is your computer booting this time - in Linux. A fully working Linux.

Which is temporary only of course. If you unplug the stick and boot new, the normal Windows boot will take place.

This is great to do for two reasons:

1. you can check out Linux, go into its functions, see how it looks, what it offers, you can thoroughly check it out without compromising your existing Windows installation. You can see how driver support is, whether your attached hardware would work. And so forth. Simply: thoroughly check it out. Get a taste. A first rendezvous to find out whether you could imagine to meet the other again.

2. if you want to fully adapt to it and install it, you simply hit a button in the above temporary installation, and then it gets written to your HD and becomes your lasting standard-installed OS. Thats how it gets installed. Pressing a button in the temporary installation from a disc or stick.

It comes with a full and complete set of free software, for example Open Office (full), Gimp graphics editor, Firebird, Thunderbird (I think), media players, and more. Its however many new names and tiltes of tools, you must check out what tool does what.

The temporary installation by booting with an external medium is a very good and simple way to meet Linux, and if your copy working files on external media, you can even fully work from here. On any PC and laptop, that is.

You could also consider to install a dual boot, I used that in 2016 and 2017. When you then switch on your computer, it will ask you to select whether to boot in Windows or Linux, you press 1 or 2, and then it is business as usual from there on. The negative thing is you could not run both installations at the same time, if that may be opportune. Also, installing a dual boot is a bit more comp0licated. But I did it 2015 or 2016, so it can be done even by apes like me, and it works.

Before installing in full, i would nevertheless recommend to search and read an little video or text instruction for it all, or have a simple beginners book for Mint 22 and go over it. If Linux is your first time, then some reading first indeed helps. Last but not least it reduces your prejudices you maybe have and your fears and worries, and gives you confidence in what you are doing. You must not fear that you would need to learn text editor commands like with MSDOS 30, 35 years ago. That interface is also still there, and the nerds pray to it, but Mint Cinnamon is designed to make it even more unneeded than it already was in the last Mint version I freshly installed, which was 20.3 .

I do not consider myself a Linux expert, I am still a noob in it and do not care to learn more about it, nevertheless I deal with it now since almost 7 years. Like I press a button in a lift without studying engineering to understand how lifts are constructed. Mint has nicely matured over the years, and it does everything that Windows does, just in practically all cases: faster and better. The only issue with it is compatability with Windows software, and sometimes drivers, namely for printers and exotic gaming hardware. But even these issues got healed over time. Most hardware producers refuse to released dedicated Linux drivers, so the community then has to code them, you often find open source drivers, but they may need some time to get delivered when some new printer came out that does not get supported natively in Linux. For printers it does not hurt to have an Epson, Epson is one of the two printer manufacturers who sometimes do Linux drivers, often actually, the other was I think Brother, I'm not sure. For other brands however there is an open source library for drivers.

Make a bootable USB stick with Linux Mint Cinnamon on it, and then have a look yourself. No risk, no costs, and even much less work than you maybe think. Youtube has many guides, so have according forums.


P.S.
If oyu ahve a very old laptop, you coudl install a less hardware demanding version of Linux. Mint Cinnamon is all Wndows bells and whistkes, and works nice, and I alos had it on a laptop more than 15 years old, however. If using an old laptop you must however chekcd whetehr you ned a 32 or 64 bit Linux. More recent Linux distributions are all 64 bit only.

[Skybird]

There are Windows emulators like Wine under Linux, allowing you to run Windows software under Linux. However, if you are about security, this must be handled wiht care, becasue your drive cna get infested with Windows malware this way, if you access the web or transfer windows files from disc, web or stick, because these files then may be Windows fomratted, but nevertheless rest on your hard drive, and for nhere cna spread even if your Linux insbtallation may not feel infested and is not further affected. The data file stays corrupted. So, such emulators are an entrance gate for Windows malware being copied to a Linux installation. Thats what makes Proton by Valve/Steam so attractive, it has several such emulators under its hood, but I would suspect Steam takes good care about their safety. Proton means, if I got it right, that you install it from steam, and then launch compatible Windows game via Proton, much the same way you launched them from your Steam account under Windows. And thats all. Hey it s Valve/Steam havign debekloped this to make Window sgames playable unde rLnux, and I see how great their Steamlink to Quest 3 works, too: Meta now officially recommends the use of SteamLink over Meta's own Airlink, that much better than Meta's native solution it is!

[mapuc]

I wrote this in the search field "Is windows 11 as bad as they say"

The first suggestion was this article:

https://uk.pcmag.com/migrated-3765-w...out-windows-11

Markus

[Skybird]