Topic: Picked up a new laptop.

[Nemesis]

For the first while I'm "burning it in" and have to use the installed OS.  After 10 years of mostly Linux it is very frustrating dealing without the many better ways I'm used to.  Not a happy camper

All the nonsense you can't uninstall or even remove from the start menus.  I'm NEVER going to use some of this stuff and it is occupying prime real estate on menu and that is the end of it.  Why can't they remember a very simple key fact IT IS MY COMPUTER and MY COPY of Windows NOT THEIRS. 

[Javora]

Not like you can't dual boot.  But I understand what you are saying.  Hope you like your new computer.

[Nemesis]

The computer is fine.  The OS is annoying. 

Over night it did an update, then this morning I wanted to check the Weather Network to decide how to dress for the E-Bike ride to work and the update wouldn't let me use any of the active programs UNTIL I dealt with the update and rebooted.  No time for that so I ended up over dressed for the temps. 

Once I've burned in for a few weeks I'll install Linux.  I just don't want to change the OS until the burn in period is over to avoid warranty issues if it fails (no you broke it by not using the preinstalled OS nonsense).  Mostly such electronics either last for years or fail in the first month so I'm running SETI@Home on it to stress it.  It is a MSI i7 at 2.8ghz gaming notebook 17.3 inches. 

[Brush Wolf]

Is it that Linux is really so much better or that you are used to how things are done in Linux, I would be completely lost in Linux. As Javora mentions you can dual boot.

[Nemesis]

For years I had both side by side and used Windows almost exclusively then in early Sept 2007 I had a problem with the Linux machine and had to use Windows to look up the solution and realized the situation had reversed and I hadn't booted into the Windows machine in over a month and found the ease of use of the Windows machine was decreased by the lack of the extras I'd gotten used to that were on Linux and still not on Windows.  For me Linux works better even though when that transition point occurred I knew Windows far better.  I still don't know Linux as well as I knew Windows because I haven't been forced to learn as much due to the lack of problems.  This is for my personal use at work I use 3 program on Win 10 but nothing fancy so it doesn't bother me as much as on my own machines where I do more.

[Nemesis]

My trek to Linux began just with curiosity, in those days I did little with Linux because of lack of a spare computer to install to.  Later MS began the first of many moves that annoyed me enough to WANT to get off Windows.   Move 1 was when DRM in Win 2000 Pro (my favourite Windows) blocked my legal copying of a DVD claiming it was illegal under U.S. law.  As a Canadian using software and hardware bought in Canada it annoyed me that a foreign company was making me abide by a foreign law.  Move 2 was activation another form of DRM.  Move 3 is the conversion of Windows to spyware, I'm a private person and MY COMPUTER shouldn't have MS spying on it.

My first real start on using Linux was setting up a machine to run SETI@Home with it.  With experimenting I found that the Windows version was 20% faster than the Linux one with the same hardware.  Further experiments taught me that I could install the Windows version to run under Wine on Linux and it ran 20% faster than on native Windows (the Great Moo Hunt helped drive this).  For a long time all the use of Linux was just SETI or experiments not real use. 

My first real regular use was playing DVDs which worked better on the Linux SETI machine which admittedly as part of the Moo Hunt was a more powerful dual processor machine.  Gradually that expanded without my even noticing until that day in 2007 when I realized I hadn't logged into the Windows machine in over a month. 

[Brush Wolf]

Whatever works for you YMMV.

[Nemesis]

A lot of people don't care about the DRM, activation and spyware.  I do.  If you don't I won't try to make you change. 

[Nemesis]

3 times since Saturday this machine has done updates and rebooted stopping all my programs and blocking my usage without my consent.  I'm seriously annoyed. 

[Javora]

Yeah, the forced updates are kind of a pain in the @$$.  We should have the option to install on our convenience not theirs.  I don't use a computer like I used to so it's a minor annoyance.

[Nemesis]

On my work computer last year it wouldn't let one of the 3 programs I use operate for a month until another update fixed it.  Luckily I could access that terminal program from another computer.  Another time it disabled the keyboard except for several seconds after you unplugged it and plugged it back in.  The computer guy here couldn't fix either one.  The keyboard one I eventually managed to remove the driver and get it to reinstall to make it work but that was breaking the rules as I'm not supposed to do such things.  There was another time when all 3 computers were doing updates for a couple of hours when I really couldn't afford to lose the time.  I had to work like a maniac that day just to keep even.  Gee thanks Microsoft  you make everything so much %^&* better!

So naturally I'm against forced updates. 

Tomorrow I set this machine to boot off an external Linux drive.  I've had it with MS "We know better than you do" attitude.

[Brush Wolf]

Well, the forced updates are really because of people not updating and businesses were the worst offenders. The security updates should be a must do but everything else should be optional.

[Nemesis]

I've had situations where updates blocked the OS from loading (blue screen on boot) due to MS replacing a driver for a brand new motherboard with an older incompatible driver and an IE update that allowed a connection to the internet but no access to the internet by ANY program.  That was pre forced updating though the Blue Screen was an auto update when it had been explicitly turned off.  Why an IE only update could block all other programs from the internet is pretty much of a mystery unless they packed other updates into it without telling (that one was manually chosen).

Microsoft wants the control they should be legally liable to pay your losses (personal as well as business) for losing access to what you OWN. 

I've gained access to the BIOS and can now boot off an external Linux drive so once I get home I'll install Linux on the external and no more booting to Windows.  With the system set to Legacy boot Win 10 won't even load. 

[Javora]

That's the kicker, the Microsoft business version will allow you to hold off installing updates for compatibility reasons.

[Don Karnage]

Win 10 is a bad OS. It take over everything and force the installation of stuff you don't want.

There are way to block (I think) win 10 updates, you can check on YouTube for that.

I have a 10 years old (well the mother board is tough) machine and I only run win 7 on it. I stop all update on it since I don't want it to be transformed into a win 10. The com is working but not the best performing since it need if its possible to fix it?

I check the ram, the HDS, for spyware, malware and viruses, but all seem fine. So I just have to not let firefox having more that 4 to 6 windows open and close it all at night so it can rest.

Still looking for money so I can get a new com (600$) and it will run with win 8.1 I think?

But I will not have any com running win 10. I don't want a spying software to tell me what I can or can't do with my com.

[knightstorm]

With Windows 8, MS decided to take Steve Jobs' idiocy to heart, and implement a tablet-centric interface that was unsuited for PC use.  With Windows 10, they decided to keep everything we hate about Windows 8, and add a bunch of new features which we hate even more.

[Brush Wolf]

With Windows 8, MS decided to take Steve Jobs' idiocy to heart, and implement a tablet-centric interface that was unsuited for PC use.  With Windows 10, they decided to keep everything we hate about Windows 8, and add a bunch of new features which we hate even more.

Most of the tablet/touch screen centric garbage was removed when 10 came out and in reality it is really Windows 8.2 but I think they were trying to distance themselves from the bad rep that 8 had. On the forced updates blame the morons that would never update leaving army sized security holes. What I wish they would have done was forced security updates that could be put off for a day or so but no more and leave the non-security stuff as an option.

[Nemesis]

The attempt to make a single OS interface good for everything from servers to cell phones was nuts. 

[Brush Wolf]

The attempt to make a single OS interface good for everything from servers to cell phones was nuts. 

Whoever signed off on that should be slapped, I think they thought everything was going to have touch screens which is just not going to happen in the desktop market and probably not even in the laptop market. With 10 there are only a few signs of that stupidity and a user will rarely if ever have to see or deal with them. To MS's credit they not only recognized that they made a mistake they addressed it in what is really 8.2.

[Nemesis]

Working all day on a desktop touch screen with  your arms held out like that is just not close to ergonomic. 

[Brush Wolf]

Working all day on a desktop touch screen with  your arms held out like that is just not close to ergonomic. 

Even on a laptop that is an ergonomic disaster.

[Nemesis]

Why didn't the MS ergonomics boys and girls see that?  They can design ergonomic keyboards but can't see that touch screens on desktops aren't the way to go?    Tablets and cell phones are held in more comfortable positions when you are touching the screen so they work out. 

[Brush Wolf]

Why didn't the MS ergonomics boys and girls see that?  They can design ergonomic keyboards but can't see that touch screens on desktops aren't the way to go?    Tablets and cell phones are held in more comfortable positions when you are touching the screen so they work out. 

I think some MS executive(s) were enamored with them from too much sci-fi and pushed it through. One of the most dangerous things in the business world is an executive with an idea.

[Nemesis]

Just copying some Youtube videos from the desktop to a tablet (android) and Windows gives me the option to copy them as is or convert them.  Seems helpful except the leave out the info on what they propose to convert them TO  .  Idiots.

[Brush Wolf]

Just copying some Youtube videos from the desktop to a tablet (android) and Windows gives me the option to copy them as is or convert them.  Seems helpful except the leave out the info on what they propose to convert them TO  .  Idiots.

Yeah, I have seen that and always ignored it. Does anyone know what they are converted to?

[knightstorm]

Why didn't the MS ergonomics boys and girls see that?  They can design ergonomic keyboards but can't see that touch screens on desktops aren't the way to go?    Tablets and cell phones are held in more comfortable positions when you are touching the screen so they work out.

Steve Jobs predicted that PCs were on the way out, and that tablets were the future.  The designers of Windows 8 believed him, and focused on the tablet market.

[Nemesis]

Seems Dilbert had inside info on Win 10 in 2010

Link

[Brush Wolf]

Seems Dilbert had inside info on Win 10 in 2010

Link

My tablet is like that, I swear it needs to update only when I am using it and it is Android.

[Nemesis]

My tablet is not for use as an internet device and it rarely has wifi active so I don't get so much of that. 

[Brush Wolf]

My tablet sees most of its use in waiting rooms and a little surfing while at home but not at the PC.

[NJAntman]

Sign of the times.... I keep an old  Amazon Kindle in the bathroom, takes up less space. Guess it could even be emergency tp and not be missed.