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Microsoft Tests New Tool To Remove OEM Crapware (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Windows 10 already includes ways to clear out applications and data to repair misbehaving systems or prepare them to be sold, courtesy of the Refresh and Reset features added in Windows 8. Microsoft is now adding a third option: a new refresh tool. Currently available only for Windows Insiders, the new tool fetches a copy of Windows online and performs a clean installation. The only option is whether or not you want to preserve your personal data. Any other software that's installed will be blown away, including the various applications and utilities that OEMs continue to bundle with their systems. Ars Technica points out that the tool isn't perfect. For example, "it installs a preview build from the fast track, but Microsoft notes that the new tool can sometimes install a version older than the one currently installed. When this kind of version mismatch occurs, the option to preserve your files is removed."
Fuck you. People don't want a shit OS like Linux. People actually want to use their computers to do stuff other than figuring out why the computer won't boot past the Grub2 prompt.
After a couple of decades of using Linux, I now think that Linux needs a tool like this way more than Windows does.
It's one thing when it's some non-Microsoft hardware vendor adding to the default Windows installation. Like this story shows, at least there's some hope of getting back to a usable base system.
But it's a different case with modern Linux distros where the distro maintainers themselves have been bundling what a lot of users consider to be "crapware". Systemd and GNOME 3 are great examples of this. Systemd is now included by default by nearly all of the major Linux distros, typically without any option during the installation process for using a different init system. So by default you're forced to use systemd, even if you don't want to. It's exactly the same as bundled "crapware". It's a similar situation when it comes to GNOME 3, which most users absolutely hate, although at least there's sometimes the Linux distro installers allow a real desktop environment like Xfce or KDE to be used instead.
If you want to use Linux but don't want to use systemd, you're forced to use a niche distro like Devuan, Gentoo or Slackware. Or you're forced to try to hack it out of your installation, which is error prone and can impact future updates. Of course, neither of these is an option for somebody who wants a usable, reliable Linux installation without systemd.
The only other option is to move away from Linux, to something like FreeBSD, OS X, or even Windows. That's exactly what we're seeing many long-time Linux users doing. They're using FreeBSD on their servers. They're buying Macs and using OS X. Some have even gone back to Windows. It shouldn't have to be this way. Debian, for example, should allow the user to choose the init system. That's not just the right thing to support, it's the Linux way!
You know how many linux machines you used just to post this?
They should also let users easily remove all of the Microsoft crapware