Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft To Make Saying No To Windows 10 Update Easier (zdnet.com)
Less than a week after a California-based woman won $10,000 lawsuit against Microsoft over Windows 10 upgrades, the Redmond-based company has announced it will make it easier for users to say no to Windows 10 updates. The company plans to change the Windows 10 update prompt to make it clearer and easier for Windows 7 and Windows 8.x users to schedule or reject upgrading to Windows 10. ZDNet reports:Microsoft officials said late on June 27 that the new update experience -- with clearer "upgrade now, schedule a time, or decline the free offer" -- will start rolling out this week. Microsoft also will revert to making clicking on the Red X at the corner of the Windows 10 update box dismiss the update, rather than initiate it, as it has done for the past several weeks. Microsoft officials said they are making the change "in response to customer feedback."
I have no doubt that this was all planned by Microsoft. Perhaps they didn't anticipate the backlash, but making it easier to deny the update without manually removing KB3035583 or installing a third-party program (GWX Control Panel, Never10, etc.) in the eleventh hour is too little, too late. There's only another month of the "free" "upgrade", so who's left to take it? The people who intentionally waited for the last possible moment in order to get the most stable upgrade, but they've already decided to go to Windows 10 anyway.
In other words, the damage is already done. Now's the time to cry for your government to begin imposing criminal penalties to Microsoft and cancel their contracts with them, or MSFT will get away with it.
>>>"upgrade now, schedule a time, or decline the free offer"
Based on past performance, clicking decline the free offer would lead to Win10 update and the bill in the mail.
Modern app appers know that ONLY apps can app apps, and Appdows 10 is the appiest apperating app available! Only LUDDITES would refuse to app Appdows 10!
Apps!
Basically, everybody and their dog, who heard about that woman's court case, will rush to enable recommended updates in order to screw up their system and go claim their $10000.
I am sure legal risk assessment was done before their sordid attempts to force themsel... win10 on all existing windows installations, and it was deem to be acceptable by the management of highest level.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
They could have done this months ago and not taken a single bit of negative PR.
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\Gwx] "DisableGwx"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\WindowsUpdate] "DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001
Although granted, one shouldn't have to do this...
I don't respond to AC's.
but a simple LAN card swap (to play nice with a hackintosh install) triggered the whole authentication process with piracy accusations
Assuming you had a free slot, you could have simply added the new LAN card and not used (and/or disabled) the old one. I have a system with a 10Mbit NIC on the motherboard and added a 1Gbit card w/o any authentication issues. I have still used the original NIC to configure my WiFi AP as it came with a default IP on a different subnet.
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Does anyone really feel like they need "Customer Feedback" to understand that deceptive practices are something customers don't want?
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
I'm sure their management will deny up and down that this had anything to do with the case they just lost and that the timing is "purely coincidental."
But I suspect that their legal department emailed someone in management an Excel spreadsheet detailing the costs of losing that case and how much it would cost to defend similar cases now that there is precedent. The manager probably multiplied that number by some number that may or may not reflect the actual number of users with similar claims and said "Shit, that's actually a lot of money. Maybe we should stop."
Still doesn't change the fact that they spent the last 11 months gleefully burning the modicum of trust in Windows Update they had had managed to build up over the last few years.
MS- bend down now, bend down in a few seconds, or decline to receive anally this free cock
U- GO AWAY (click X)
MS- excellent choice! forceful insertion of cock now in progress
There are two Boolean flag vars in the Registry which turn off the automatic update and free-offer notifications. Using the builtin registry editor ("regedit") drill down to [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows] and look for key entries 'WindowsUpdate' and 'GWX'. If they're not present then use the editor to create new key names WindowsUpdate and GWX in the Windows key list.
Then to disable auto-update add a dword named DisableOSUpgrade under WindowsUpdate and set it to 1 (true)
"DisableOSUpgrade"=dword:00000001
To disable the freeWin10 upgrade offer notification add a dword named DisableGWX under GWX and set it to 1 (true)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Microsoft\Windows\GWX]
"DisableGWX"=dword:00000001
That's it. Now you can turn the automatic Windows-update back and not worry about Win10 being installed. Also you won't be nagged about the free Win10 offer.
You are probably already hosed.
This site had the old school way to block it all if you did the other manual steps using the hosts file.
https://github.com/WindowsLies/BlockWindows/
A slashdot commenter had made a video of "wiresharking" his Windows 10 and posted it on YouTube. For those unfamiliar it is a packet sniffer and detects and displays the nature of each incoming and outgoing network packet. By nature I mean IP address, protocol as in TCP, UDP, RDP, etc name it.
That video was pulled from YouTube nearly immediately, and obviously there was no moral reason to pull a video showing how your OS connects to Microsoft and Markmonitor servers. (among other tracking hosts)
Then there were many articles and they are still around about how to do it manually, and even grc.com has a small portable app called Never10 that is reckoned to block installing Windows 10 over 7/8/8.1 etc.
The problem and pertinent factors are thus. They snuck new server lists in other "security updates" and never disclosed the change. I haven't checked recently but there was a period (maybe still is) that Microsoft decided to not disclose what is actually in their so-called security updates.
What I mean by problem AND pertinent factor is why they even force spyware on you at all. Bill doesn't need the money and it is not for anybody's protection that they track everything you do on your PC. The lies are asinine. The deceit shameful. The employees and Bill himself are forced by the US spy agencies to incorporate every possible tracking you can imagine. This is the same with Google and Facebook and others. The higher the traffic, the higher the priority to force tracking on you. Slashdot connects to myriad CA Cert servers that change on a daily basis it seems. Sometimes more than once a day.
You should use NoScript (and remove the XSS default-to-allow permissions under advanced, and uncheck all boxes on the ABE tab). You should also use Adblock Plus or similar. Ghostery is no good any more because it's settings rely on remote server to change and it chats with it. BetterPrivacy for flash cookies is the 4th I would recommend to run on Firefox.
Now this is important. Spy agencies and Google (gstatic, google-analytics, etc) track you all over the Internet and yes it is cross-reference-able. From your porn likes to your Facebook profile to your bank account to your SMS log on your cell phone to your shopping history at Walmart if you use a card. By face recognition too if you already have their special attention. It is accessible by any US government spy agency at will in the name of "security" but like Microsoft, it is the same lie.
They know all about browser parameters and whatnot but blocking works. THIS IS THE BIG TIP OF THE DAY.
Ready? Set your PC time to an inaccurate time. Change time zones. Make it as screwy as possible unless you need to sync implicitly for something. They rely on time logging and IP addresses as a failsafe tracking mechanism. This totally messes up their monitoring ability. Better than that is to use Tor, but you will notice you bump into Google captcha after Google captcha. I don't intend this to be a long tutorial but just set a wrist watch or your phone next to your monitor and keep your clock on your laptop/desktop coming from Liberia or whatever. That little clock is a itsy bitsy little teeny weeny convenience for you.. and night/day for the monitoring ability of US spy agencies.
Also, your data is shared internationally especially Facebook profiling because the FBI has an unconscionable amount of moles.
Microsoft also will revert to making clicking on the Red X at the corner of the Windows 10 update box dismiss the update, rather than initiate it, as it has done for the past several weeks.
Nothing more, nothing less...
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
Microsoft Gives End-Users A Real Way Out Of Windows 10 Upgrade Because They Don't Want To Get Sued More
Now that there's legal precedent, the floodgates of legal action against Microsoft can now open, and they damned well know it.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
Various commentards on other sites have suggested to me that I should suck it up and just update to Windows 10 already because everyone is going to have to sooner or later...
Meanwhile I have moved to a Mac at home. At work I'm transitioning to a FreeNAS based file server and will be dumping my Windows server in the near future. The minute I can find a suitable (read as cheap), simple Point-Of-Sale / Jobs Manager for my small computer repair business I will be moving to Mac or Linux on my shop PCs.
Pardon the language but F**K Microsoft and their brazen, heavy-handed tactics. They've finally proved to me they're just not to be trusted or relied upon.
Anyone else notice that the "12 month" window to 'upgrade to Windows 10 free' is closing (tomorrow in fact) and so they can now change the behavior and try to act like a poor victim while perhaps posting "1 year adoption rates" much higher than would have been otherwise.
When this crap started I told myself that this will be "rectified" once they have 1 year of Windows 10 being out. Then they can post "their great numbers" which will, naturally include, a lot of accidental upgrades and other people that didn't even want to upgrade.
It really sickens me, and is why I'm still on Windows 7, and dual boot with Linux and FreeBSD. Microsoft's behavior is totally unacceptable.
"...Windows 10 install manager, now only available in Windows 10."
Well, you are not to far away: "Windows 10 install manager, now only available in Windows".
So far, it's been quite easy for me to avoid it.
I think you dismiss the alternatives too easily. I haven't used Windows for about 10 years now and I can't say that I miss the malware and high maintenance experience.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
...F**K Microsoft and their brazen, heavy-handed tactics. They've finally proved to me they're just not to be trusted or relied upon.
"Finally"? Really? You must not have been in this business for very long...
What level of cognitive dissonance is required to simultaneously assert that GNOME 3 and systemd were "forced" on Linux distros and then immediately talk about why one wouldn't want to use Linux distros that have voluntarily opted to not use systemd?
Well, here you go: http://blog.capterra.com/the-t...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
Why mention Bill at all? He hasn't been the head of Microsoft for a long, long time.
Using old, potentially-vulnerable versions of Windows long after they're no longer supported isn't a real option, of course.
See here: https://support.microsoft.com/...
Windows 7 end of mainstream support: 2015-01-13 (extended is 2020-01-14)
Windwos 8 end of mainstream support: 2018-01-09 (extended is 2023-01-10)
How is that "long after they're no longer supported"?
And yes, I know 2015 is less than now, but it's not long after, and it's still in extended support. For that matter, vista is still in extended support until Q2 2017!
I shouldn't be feeding the trolls at all, but continuing to use those *should* be a valid option. That said, I'd still recommend GNU/Linux or MacOSX.
The problem goes far beyond systemd and GNOME. Linux is great for servers, not so much for the desktop. When Linux Torvalds first created Linux it wasn't designed to be a mass-market operating system. It was designed by geeks for geeks. A bunch of fucktarded neckbeards who don't give two shits about usability, only blind adherence to an Orwellian mindset of "the only way to be free is to do exactly what I say."
Yes, when it was first designed, it was a school hobby project by a kernel hacker. But that was over 20 years ago. And assuredly you're not going to say that anything that begun as a hobby must be a toy for its entire lifespan?
But you don't need to list all the ways that Linux sucks and is horrendously inferior on the desktop. Just one simple fact says it all. When you put everything on a level playing field -- Linux is free and so is a pirated copy of Windows -- people always choose Windows.
Really? I didn't choose Windows. Nor did the millions of people that use desktop Linux.
People only use (and pirate) Windows because billions of dollars of legacy x86 apps that were written when Microsoft had a monopoly on the OS market due to their lucky deal with IBM. Don't believe me?--how much money has Microsoft written off for Windows Mobile and Windows RT, again?
Even when Windows isn't free (i.e., businesses who need to keep things legal so they don't get shaken down by the BSA Mafia) they still choose Windows. The only place you're seeing any adoption of Linux on the desktop is a few European companies, and that's due to anti-American sentiment more than any technical superiority.
Instead of verifying that you don't know what you're talking about and/or are lying, why don't you do some simple research? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
I cant wait for all Windows programs will stop existing and instead go minimize or "better" yet assume 'OK' on any dialog: "format drinve C: Ok Cancel?"
4wdloop
I'm still not installing KB3035583.
Editor, A1-AAA AmeriCaptions
He is still a majority stockholder, only Ballmer has more. Its still his company whether hes on the board or not..
Good-bye
...Microsoft officials said they are making the change "in response to customer feedback."...
Oh please. If Microsoft had cared in the slightest bit about customer feedback, they would not have been on the losing side of a lawsuit in the first place.
.
Instead, Microsoft lowered itself to using some of the sleaziest tactics a vendor could use. Changing Windows UI guidelines to trick the customer into doing something the customer explicitly did not want to do? It is beyond belief that any vendor, much less a reputable vendor, would resort to such low-life trickery of their customer base.
imo, Microsoft knew all along exactly what they were doing and the effect it would have. I would be surprised if Microsoft's legal department were not involved at every step of deception.
In my view, Microsoft blew their reputation. Big time. Blown right out of the water.
It may take years for Microsoft to regain the confidence and trust of its customers once again. But by then, I have to wonder how many of those customers have moved on to Linux or MacOS. I know I am testing Linux on my notebook now. It is doing all that I need it to do, so much so that I have wondered why I even bothered with Windows in the first place.
If Windows is due to legacy of the 80s and 90s then where's the linux freeware, payware and shareware?
There's fuck all on that front. 99% is free and open source software. Typically on a system the only linux proprietary software you'll find is Oracle Virtualbox (some of the "extended" features), Google Earth and (few) Steam games. Some crap like Skype for those who want it.
It's great that way, but I miss the Windows days, with more software and less OS upgrades.
This. They're killing the "Windows is easier than *NIX" argument. You can trust any free *NIX package manager to only update the packages you need. If you can't, it dies fast and you install one of the many others available.
The trouble is, since these other "vendors" don't sell software you're subject to the whims of their various other funding sources. It used to be we could bypass all that drama simply by ponying up $$$ for Windows, and now we can't because MS is emulating the worst aspects of those other ecosystems.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Yes, when it was first designed, it was a school hobby project by a kernel hacker. But that was over 20 years ago. And assuredly you're not going to say that anything that begun as a hobby must be a toy for its entire lifespan?
No. With well over a hundred different Distros and more petty squabbling and "religious-war" infighting than the U.S. Republican Party, "Linux" is doing a fine job of that all on its own...
A month before ending the "free" offer, they graciously allow us to not update if we so please.
Microsoft? Hi. Listen, please do us a favor? Go play with something explosive, will ya?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
The only place you're seeing any adoption of Linux on the desktop is a few European companies, and that's due to anti-American sentiment more than any technical superiority.
Sure, we all know you are trolling. But why not throw in some fun (actual) facts?
There is a company who uses Linux on their desktops. They are slightly technical, and you may have heard of them - Google.
And although it was about 4 years ago, there was a nice article about Goobuntu (their modified version of Ubuntu) on ZDNET. Another interesting fact from the article is that they were paying customers for it, and not the largest. Things may have changed since then, I don't know. But I do know that they haven't switched over to Windows.
What I really don't understand is what you get out of your copy/paste trolling. Or do you really believe what you posted? Either way, you're obviously wrong. But then again, you're posting as an AC, so what else could be expected.
I remember back in the good old days when trolls at least had a little bit of skill.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
I did the "Wireshark" thing a few months ago. Put a remote packet capture daemon on my router, and pointed a copy of Wireshark at it, and watched what a "castrated" install of 10 talked to, and then, as a control, an UNcastrated, default-install of 10, provided by friends.. Bottom line, there was hardly any difference between the two captures... Which tells me one VERY important thing.. All of the cutesy-tootsie toggle switches that make you *think* you're disabling the spyware aspects of 10 are just a smoke-screen... Sooooooooooo very glad I gave up the Windows addiction when I retired in 2010....
THANK YOU, Edward Snowden!! Americans owe you a debt of gratitude (whether they know it or not..)
At work I'm transitioning to a FreeNAS based file server
Genuinely curious. How does FreeNAS work with OS X? Have you tried it yet?
How nice of them to do this after the free upgrade period is over.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
Actually, one thing I was wondering is how exactly the licensing works. For what I do use windows for, I'd currently rather stay with Win8. However if there is some need to move to win10, I was thinking of just imaging my OS partition for now, installing, and grabbing the license key for future installs (then restoring the image)
Anyone know if this should work or would that invalidate my license on the older OS? Having the image will also be nice in case win10 (likely) blows up with my dual-bootloader config etc.
Genuine question: Did you also do a Wireshark session on a Win10 machine after running both Spybot Anti-Beacon and O&O ShutUp 10? They appear to do more than the regular placebo that the toggle switches, but I definitely would be interested in whether they cause a reduction in that sort of traffic.
How the hell does your local time figure into this at all?
If you're not using javascript, the server can't get your local time. Last I checked, no timestamps are sent over HTTP GET/POST requests.
And the server has it's own timestamps for everything, so the fact that your IP is logged at a certain time is inescapable.
For the potentially-vulnerable aspect extended support is sufficient. Extended support means that the OS still gets security patches, just no more functional updates.
For drivers it depends on the hardware vendors, some stop making drivers for old operating systems before those reach their end of extended support. Case in point:
The PC I built in 2007, with a then fairly new Nvidia GeForce 8600 GT. Windows 2000 was still in extended support, but Nvidia did not make any more drivers for Windows 2000. I ended up switching to XP because of that, otherwise I'd have kept Windows 2000 for a few more years.
BTW, the other way round (old hardware on new OSes) Nvidia are fairly good at long term support. Support for the 8600 GT lasted almost nine years after release. The final driver is version 341.95 from March 2016, supports Windows 10 and is still available for download.
C - the footgun of programming languages
They're killing the "Windows is easier than *NIX" argument.
It has always been just an argument, never the truth. What's dieing is the spin.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Axiom #10: It's easier to ask for forgiveness that it is for permission.
An effective "democracy" creates the illusion the people have a say in their government.
I find myself skeptical. What about Microsoft's "forced install" culture?
I'll see your senator, and I'll raise you two judges.
Can someone provide a honest non-paranoid schizophrenic listing of reasons to or not to upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 10?
This is for my dedicated Windows gaming machine. I have other Linux servers and Android devices for other things.
I currently run Start 8 on it to make it look pretty much like Windows 7 and I would run Start 10 on it if I upgraded to do the same.
DirectX 12 support is already one big reason to upgrade.
Nevermore.
...hit 'em with a leg sweep... http://www.movetoamend.org/
Mebbe some of them will decide to play nice once we snatch their teeth out.
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
Burn yourself a variety of Linux liveCD's to try out and see which one works best with your hardware, and you. You'll really be kicking yerself in the butt for not ditching Microsoft earlier...
When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law he tore his robes.2Kings22:11
Technically, it's always been harder to install Linux than it has been to just use the version of Windows the computer came with. I've had slightly less trouble installing Linux than Windows, when I did the installation.
"When you have eliminated the unacceptable, whatever is left, however improbable, must be the truthiness" - Holmes
When Linux Torvalds first created Linux it wasn't designed to be a mass-market operating system. It was designed by geeks for geeks. A bunch of fucktarded neckbeards who don't give two shits about usability
Don't confuse "Linux Torvalds" with the GNOME devs. He does and has given various arrogant developers both barrels when they do something stupid. In fact he specifically called out GNOME3 for that exact thing.
A bunch of fucktarded neckbeards who don't give two shits about usability, only blind adherence to an Orwellian mindset of "the only way to be free is to do exactly what I say."
Or a more accurate way to say it, "if you don't like how I do it, fork it and do it your own way." I'd like to hear about how you think proprietary software is any more free than that.
When you put everything on a level playing field -- Linux is free and so is a pirated copy of Windows -- people always choose Windows.
Like the other replier said, not true. You kids and your silly absolute statements.
Unity? Screw that: XFCE. Slashdot Beta? Screw that: SoylentNews. Australis? Screw that: Pale Moon. UX developers DIAF
Well, aren't they?
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
" If my kindle fire tablet has advertising, that's fine, I bought it with that understanding and at the end of the day, it is a toy that the kids watch Netflix on."
agree to disagree
Genuinely curious. How does FreeNAS work with OS X? Have you tried it yet?
Amazingly well. FreeNAS supports CIFS/SMB and AFP among others so you can share files with pretty much any platform you can imagine.
Also, when you're setting up an AFP share, there's a check box that just says "Time Machine." If you check the box, when you can use OSX's built in Time Machine backup service to back up to that share. You don't have to dedicate an entire drive as I'm told you have to do with the official Apple hardware and you can even set up quotas for the dataset that the backup is on so that Time Machine will autoprune it and it won't get out of control.
I used Windows Home Server for a few years, then tried Amahi, then rolled my own server, but I'll never go back to any of them since I started using FreeNAS. I don't think I've run into a single sane thing I've wanted to do that I haven't be able to do yet. Be warned, though, that ZFS is one heck of a memory hog. That being said, I'm running my system with 6.5 TB of storage on only 4 GB but I wouldn't recommend it. I'm going to upgrade the system as soon as I have the free cash.
I don't think she deserved it. The rest of us deserve it, we clicked on the red x which is the Roman numeral representation of TEN.
The functional updates are generally pointless anyway. Most updates of any value only ever shows up in the latest releases. Once there's a new Windows version the previous version stops getting anything useful except for some crash fixes. Windows 8 has mainstream support until 2018, but I can say with high confidence that they will never port DirectX 12 to it for example.
That's never going to work, that's where I put the mother in law.
Greatest feel good marketing slogan of all time: "You have to upgrade sooner or later so may as well do it now and get it over with."
You can block with the router. However the script I saw that tried to do this was extremely broad. It blocked skype for instance, not just some part of skype but "*.skype.com". I don't use skype but it didn't give me a good feeling that they were using pinpoint accuracy.
You need to get around more then, or read more news, because it is real and people have been upgraded without ever clicking on a "yes" button.
The fact that so much software was written for it was a result. The reason really is pre-installation.
People just has happily buy Apple or Android stuff now. Sure, some people will be installing Windows because they need a specific software to work (and I even include games here). The majority of people will not need that. They will need to be able to use the Google and Facebook. They might need sometimes need to print out a letter. And they need to listen to music and watch films and the pictures of their grand children.
That is the majority of people. So why don't they use Linux? Because it did not come with the PC.
Just like car radios, there are way better radios available, yet people just go with what is already in there.
I know there are some PCs you can buy with Linux, but people who are interested in that will already know what distro they want and will install it themselves anyway. I am talking about the PCs at Amazon and Best Buy and the like where your neighbours grandpa gets his PC from.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
Yes, when it was first designed, it was a school hobby project by a kernel hacker. But that was over 20 years ago. And assuredly you're not going to say that anything that begun as a hobby must be a toy for its entire lifespan?
No. With well over a hundred different Distros and more petty squabbling and "religious-war" infighting than the U.S. Republican Party, "Linux" is doing a fine job of that all on its own...
Isn't it amazing, macs4all, that even despite all the conflicts, we Linux users still have an abundance of freedom of choice and customization, and still have a superior experience to Macs?
Isn't it amazing, macs4all, that even despite all the conflicts, we Linux users still have an abundance of freedom of choice and customization, and still have a superior experience to Macs?
I agree that you have an abundance of freedom of choice and customization; because that's all you have. But a "superior experience"? Not even close.
That's nice. I'm glad you're happy with your computer. I'll be using one with equivalent specs but half the price, better performance, and a workflow customized to my liking.
They will make it easier to decline W10 installation because the main goal has been already achieved - the dumbest part of the population have already been upgraded and there's no point in doing it any more. Also, losing the case in court helped, too, as they want to avoid losing money like that. It's all really carefully pre-calculated. They're not as dumb as you might think. This is like saying sorry to your neighbour after you've already shit on his porch.
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." - Jiddu Krishnamurti
That's nice. I'm glad you're happy with your computer. I'll be using one with equivalent specs but half the price, better performance, and a workflow customized to my liking.
...and a Warranty that... Oh, wait.
What "workflow" are you talking about? Every OS on the planet has pretty much solved the same challenges is pretty much the same way. The GUI may be slightly different (or in the case of the UI-Formerly-Known-As-Metro, completely different); but underneath it all, OSes are like DNA: The similarities from one species to another FAR outweigh the differences.
So I can't even fathom what you are trying to communicate with your "Workflow customized to my liking" comment, seriously. Your words are a non-sequitur. Your facts are un-coordinated.
STERILIZE! STERILIZE! STER-I-LIIIIIZE!!!!
No. It was the truth, at least it was in the late 90s. All the Linux guys were like, "woohoo, I got it to install". One time I asked them "what's the equivalent of find all files and folders containing X?", and I got 3 different line-noise answers that sort of made sense to me but would have befuddled most regular people. Also, installing was considered an "accomplishment" and as recently as 2007 our solution to "Red Hat doesn't install on that machine" was "Install Ubuntu".
Face it. Although Linux has closed most of the gap, it took its own sweet time.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?