Microsoft just recently implemented a screenshot spyware on your computer and an AI with the widest attack surface for hackers ever on your OS and mixed it into your most basic tool, the file explorer, then blocked off a quarter of all users for using 2-5 year old hardware, instead of implementing software fixes to avoid hardware vulnerabilities.
It then forced you to use a closed source hardware component that likely has a backdoor, to store all your encryption keys, required you to make a Microsoft account just to use your PC, and then use that account to spy on your every move both online and offline. It is a privacy nightmare.
It then keeps overriding your default settings to make you to use Microsoft products over other ones, and have started baking in ads into various menues.
If you still don’t think that makes it the worst OS, you’re obviously coping. I have used Linux, Windows, and Mac, and out of those three, Windows is at the very bottom.
A) None of that has actually happened. If you want to back down from hyperbole and provide specific examples, I will consider addressing them.
B) The U.S. Government is not an adversary in my threat model. If it is one in yours, I assume you are running Qubes OS, which is a completely different conversation. With Windows, I have access to Secure Boot and TPM-backed full drive encryption (including hibernation support) out of the box. Can you do that with Linux? Also, you know as well as everyone else here that the MSA requirement is easy to bypass.
C) Again, provide specifics. I don’t default any of my apps to Microsoft’s and this just doesn’t happen.
A) Windows Recall and Copilot. Recall will screenshot your environment every second. Copilot is an LLM which has access to virtually everything on your system. LLMs are also notoriously easy to fool into giving away information it was specifically instructed not to, and perform actions it was instructed never to do.
B) The us government has no business collecting information about non-us citizens, but even for people living in the US, imagine having an abortion, and living in a state where abortion is illegal. In that case you wouldn’t want the US government to come sniffing either. But more importantly, privacy does not need to be justified.
With Windows, I have access to Secure Boot and TPM-backed full drive encryption (including hibernation support) out of the box. Can you do that with Linux?
Yes.
Also, you know as well as everyone else here that the MSA requirement is easy to bypass.
You know very well that if someone has to crack your OS to get it the way they want, that is not a quality.
C) Again, provide specifics. I don’t default any of my apps to Microsoft’s and this just doesn’t happen.
Press the windows key, write “how to open windows menu searches with firefox” press enter and let your favorite browser Edge look that up for you. A nice page will explain to you that windows doesn’t let you use your default browser from the windows menu and that you’ll have to install a script called “ChrEdgeFkOff” to circumvent it.
A) You’ve said nothing relevant. We already knew all of this. Recall isn’t being installed or turned on on any of my Windows boxes. Copilot is dumb but it isn’t collecting any data you don’t voluntarily feed it.
B) I don’t disagree with whatever point you’re trying to make but it has nothing to do with Windows. Unless you know something we don’t?
B2) You’re lying
B3) What?!
C) You’re initiating searches through the Microsoft Windows Start Menu™ and are mad it’s launching Edge? Do I have that right?
A) copilot and recall are embedded into windows explorer and many other features of windows regardless of whether you have it enabled or not. If you uninstall copilot+, windows explorer stops working.
B) it has to do with Windows if they collect information that they’re not legally required to collect. Most linux distributions don’t collect it, so that makes them superior in that case.
B2) it has been available in Ubuntu core for over 2 years now, and in arch for even longer than that.
B3) If you have to break a system in order to circumvent (temporarily) something that is being forced upon you, that only proves my point that the system is shit.
C) oh so now suddenly it is OK to have Microsoft products shoved down your throat because after all, windows itself is a Microsoft product.
B2) You’re still wrong and in over your head. Remember, the ask was for an out of box solution for full drive encryption, silently decrypted via TPM (using Secure Boot’s PCR 7) that still supports OS hibernation.
B2) First of all, you’re requiring out of box. Even windows has hibernation disabled by default, so it doesn’t come out of box like you want. Second of all, while yes, hibernation requires a little more extra work because it requires signing your keys with secure boot and therefore Microsoft itself (which any linux user is hesitant to do), it does work with a bit of extra work, and there are guides. It is not a big deal.
I neither use TPM due to the potential backdoors, nor secure boot because it serves no purpose other than to try to lock in users to Windows, and preventing piracy (besides, BlackLotus bypasses secure boot, so it is rendered completely useless). And on linux you are allowed to disable these. Secure boot in itself is legally in a gray area because it forces you to sign with Microsoft even when you don’t use Windows or any Microsoft products.
C) Me: windows is shit because it overrides my preferred settings in favor of Microsoft products. You: No it doesn’t. Me: yes it does. Here try this right now. You: That doesn’t count because you’re on windows using a Microsoft product. Me: the entire OS is a Microsoft product, so technically they could ignore your preferences at anytime, but that only proves my point harder. You: pardon?
Microsoft just recently implemented a screenshot spyware on your computer and an AI with the widest attack surface for hackers ever on your OS and mixed it into your most basic tool, the file explorer, then blocked off a quarter of all users for using 2-5 year old hardware, instead of implementing software fixes to avoid hardware vulnerabilities.
It then forced you to use a closed source hardware component that likely has a backdoor, to store all your encryption keys, required you to make a Microsoft account just to use your PC, and then use that account to spy on your every move both online and offline. It is a privacy nightmare.
It then keeps overriding your default settings to make you to use Microsoft products over other ones, and have started baking in ads into various menues.
If you still don’t think that makes it the worst OS, you’re obviously coping. I have used Linux, Windows, and Mac, and out of those three, Windows is at the very bottom.
A) None of that has actually happened. If you want to back down from hyperbole and provide specific examples, I will consider addressing them.
B) The U.S. Government is not an adversary in my threat model. If it is one in yours, I assume you are running Qubes OS, which is a completely different conversation. With Windows, I have access to Secure Boot and TPM-backed full drive encryption (including hibernation support) out of the box. Can you do that with Linux? Also, you know as well as everyone else here that the MSA requirement is easy to bypass.
C) Again, provide specifics. I don’t default any of my apps to Microsoft’s and this just doesn’t happen.
A) Windows Recall and Copilot. Recall will screenshot your environment every second. Copilot is an LLM which has access to virtually everything on your system. LLMs are also notoriously easy to fool into giving away information it was specifically instructed not to, and perform actions it was instructed never to do.
B) The us government has no business collecting information about non-us citizens, but even for people living in the US, imagine having an abortion, and living in a state where abortion is illegal. In that case you wouldn’t want the US government to come sniffing either. But more importantly, privacy does not need to be justified.
Yes.
You know very well that if someone has to crack your OS to get it the way they want, that is not a quality.
Press the windows key, write “how to open windows menu searches with firefox” press enter and let your favorite browser Edge look that up for you. A nice page will explain to you that windows doesn’t let you use your default browser from the windows menu and that you’ll have to install a script called “ChrEdgeFkOff” to circumvent it.
A) You’ve said nothing relevant. We already knew all of this. Recall isn’t being installed or turned on on any of my Windows boxes. Copilot is dumb but it isn’t collecting any data you don’t voluntarily feed it.
B) I don’t disagree with whatever point you’re trying to make but it has nothing to do with Windows. Unless you know something we don’t?
B2) You’re lying
B3) What?!
C) You’re initiating searches through the Microsoft Windows Start Menu™ and are mad it’s launching Edge? Do I have that right?
A) copilot and recall are embedded into windows explorer and many other features of windows regardless of whether you have it enabled or not. If you uninstall copilot+, windows explorer stops working.
B) it has to do with Windows if they collect information that they’re not legally required to collect. Most linux distributions don’t collect it, so that makes them superior in that case.
B2) it has been available in Ubuntu core for over 2 years now, and in arch for even longer than that.
B3) If you have to break a system in order to circumvent (temporarily) something that is being forced upon you, that only proves my point that the system is shit.
C) oh so now suddenly it is OK to have Microsoft products shoved down your throat because after all, windows itself is a Microsoft product.
A) Nope. You’re spreading FUD. Got a link?
B) I’m ignoring you. You’re talking gibberish.
B2) You’re still wrong and in over your head. Remember, the ask was for an out of box solution for full drive encryption, silently decrypted via TPM (using Secure Boot’s PCR 7) that still supports OS hibernation.
C) Wut?
A) https://www.notebookcheck.net/Removing-Windows-Recall-breaks-File-Explorer-in-latest-24H2-update.899991.0.html
B) No, you’re replying.
B2) First of all, you’re requiring out of box. Even windows has hibernation disabled by default, so it doesn’t come out of box like you want. Second of all, while yes, hibernation requires a little more extra work because it requires signing your keys with secure boot and therefore Microsoft itself (which any linux user is hesitant to do), it does work with a bit of extra work, and there are guides. It is not a big deal.
I neither use TPM due to the potential backdoors, nor secure boot because it serves no purpose other than to try to lock in users to Windows, and preventing piracy (besides, BlackLotus bypasses secure boot, so it is rendered completely useless). And on linux you are allowed to disable these. Secure boot in itself is legally in a gray area because it forces you to sign with Microsoft even when you don’t use Windows or any Microsoft products.
C) Me: windows is shit because it overrides my preferred settings in favor of Microsoft products. You: No it doesn’t. Me: yes it does. Here try this right now. You: That doesn’t count because you’re on windows using a Microsoft product. Me: the entire OS is a Microsoft product, so technically they could ignore your preferences at anytime, but that only proves my point harder. You: pardon?
Are we up to speed?