Thread

1. askonomm · 1790329035 · focus · HN ↗

   Any move away from the abusive big tech that exists in USA is a good move in my book. Microsoft just recently made a new patent where they will monitor you via camera and microphone to block your program/game to show you ads, and per ads viewed, you then earn credit to be able to use your program/game. It is absolutely wild to me how a corporation can be so toxic and abusive to its users and still be in business.

   1. wartywhoa23 · 1790338341 · focus · HN ↗

      > It is absolutely wild to me how a corporation can be so toxic and abusive to its users and still be in business.

      There is a couple more wild things here:

      1) That there is an agenda, demand and total legal abetment from the top of the power/monetary hierarchy for such corporate policies

      2) That there is a horde of individual employees working to those ends without any shadow of doubt, often even vice signaling their intent to be the first to attain the figurative A-bomb or full-blown BB telescreen.

      1. atoav · 1790339540 · focus · HN ↗

         A lot of that has to do with the fact that the people who decide to use it fall into two camps:

         1. People who do not have to use it themselves (political decides, bosses, ..), but get lobbied to the max

         2. People who have to administer it and know nothing else and endure the lasting pain over the perceived infinite hurdle of changing the system

         I gladly can use Linux at work, so I have had a stable, reliable and unchanging system since the past 6 years, but others have to go through major pains for each version of enshittification of their OS update. In my case the OS just got better slowly and incrementally.

         1. tedggh · 1790346280 · focus · HN ↗

            I have a reliable system running for years on a Surface Pro 2022, so not sure what your experience with Windows was. It does take a few tweaks to remove some of the junk but otherwise it is a solid work environment IMO. The same can be said of Linux, it can be a real PITA finding and configuring drivers for something that should not take more than a few seconds. So both environments can definitely be a shitty experience unless you know what you are doing.

            1. atoav · 1790353776 · focus · HN ↗

               I have been a decade long windows user (and still am), I administer a computer room with MacOS and use Linux. So I know all three pretty well.

               Try reinstalling that surface pro with windows 11 without a Microsoft account. Windows is okay, but every update introduces new bullshit, bloatware, accounts you're forced to use, UI-changes. Linux is reliable in the sense that you can chose when and if you want to change things and there is always a way to do it the way you want to do it (something that is the big weakness of MacOS).

               Additionally KDE Plasma is the best Desktop UI on all operating systems today. Scripting and automation on Linux is killer, ... The only reason for Windows/MacOS is certain software that doesn't performantly run on Linux (or if Linux scares you).

               1. MentalM · 1790359360 · focus · HN ↗

                  > Try reinstalling that surface pro with windows 11 without a Microsoft account

                  Aren't this take like 3 additional minutes (including search of how to do this)?

                  1. pino83 · 1790415347 · focus · HN ↗

                     Maybe not everyone is happy with these stupid cat and mouse games.
            2. hamandcheese · 1790355911 · focus · HN ↗

               > The same can be said of Linux, it can be a real PITA finding and configuring drivers for something that should not take more than a few seconds.

               If you value your own dignity you should see that these scenarios are worlds apart. In one case you have a trillion-dollar company actively working against your own interests. On the other hand, you had some trouble finding drivers for a volunteer-driven project, which is a problem that you are actually empowered to fix.

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