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New Processors Are Now Blocked From Receiving Updates On Old Windows (arstechnica.com)
halfEvilTech writes: Last year, Microsoft announced they were planning on blocking OS updates on newer Intel CPU's, namely the 7th Generation Kaby Lake processors. Ars Technica reports: "Now, the answer appears to be 'this month.' Users of new processors running old versions of Windows are reporting that their updates are being blocked. The block means that systems using these processors are no longer receiving security updates." While Windows 7 has already ended mainstream support, the same can't be said for Windows 8.1 which is still on mainstream support until January of next year.
While I have been planning to get a Ryzen 1800X, those plans are now shelved. My FX8350 is good enough. There is no way in hell I am installing Microsofts spyware (Win10) until it has either become clear how to reliably and permanently block all "telemetry" or the EU has finally managed to enforce European privacy laws against them, which, among other things, means that _all_ data collection is subject to approval and must be "off" by default.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
Background fact: All modern NICs (Network Interface Controller) used on Ethernet interfaces have an EEPROM on them. This is what allows the NIC to be mass produced but still each one can have its own unique MAC address.There is left over space is all NIC EEPROMS that I have seen, and manufacturers have used that space to let the NIC owner control configuration options.
I haven't installed any Windows update since I bought an XP laptop with SP1 and Windows kept wanting to install an "important security update". After a month of using XP and a live Linux CD (Knoppix) with no significant problems, I finally accepted the "security update". Windows still worked as well as Windows can be expected to work, but my live Linux CD could no longer connect to the Internet! I eventually tracked the problem to the EEPROM on my notebook's NIC being changed to an unusable startup configuration. Windows knew to not use the configuration in EEPROM and just configured the NIC itself, Linux didn't know that the EEPROM had been screwed with and kept trying to use the configuration stored in EEPROM. I did fin cumbersome manual ways to work past it eventually, but it is an experience that I don't want to have again.
Being that the only people who have ever done harm like this to my computer is the Microsoft corporation, I no longer accept security updates from the only company that I need the protection from.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
We had to start running Linux because of compatibility problems with DOS programs. It's sad when Linux is better than Microsoft at their own programs.
I've been using WSUS Offline Update to build update ISOs and never touching the Windows Update site directly for years now. Just recently a Windows Update (or some other mechanism) made my Windows screen display 'This copy of Windows is not genuine'. Since it happened in the last several months, it's time to reinstall and use the Windows 7 update ISO that I created a few months ago. I'm glad I date and keep the ISO images.
I don't know which recent update from Microsoft tagged my copy of Windows 7 as 'non-genuine' but if I stop doing updates and freeze things at a recent point where they snuck in whatever WGA crap they've done, I am probably okay.
Does anybody know when they crept in the new WGA malware update? It was apparently something in the last three or four months.
*puts on flameproof suit*
And that crazy flow-chart of decisions that need to be worked through before it's even worth investing time into a given distro enough to learn it well enough that you know why it's not actually going to work for you after all and you need to start the whole asinine process over again... It's precisely why Linux of any flavor makes for a horribly sad excuse of a desktop.
The real flow chart is much simplier than you're describing: If what you want to do is dick around with your OS all day, then by all means run Linux as your desktop. If you're anyone else whatsoever (you know, someone who's actually productive or even just wants to play video games and watch p0rn), then don't run Linux. Windows or Mac, even Android, but not Linux.
Hell, for 99% of "Linux users" I kid you not, Windows + Cygwin makes a massively more functional "Linux Workstation" than any Linux distro on earth: All the "it just works" hardware drivers, games, software, etc with nearly all the power of a real Unix shell environment as well as very solid cross-talk between the two (unlike Window's new Ubuntu subsystem, such crap...). Ok, ok so I'm exaggerating a bit: It's no where near 1% of Linux desktop users that wouldn't be far, far better off running Windows + Cygwin because only a tiny fraction of 1% are doing any deep systems level programming on the Linux kernel that might justify having an actual Linux workstation.
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