Well, honestly, I just scratched Windows off my main laptop a couple days ago for Linux Mint 18, so this really might help Linux adoption finally. I feel much more relieved running Linux after Windows Spyware Edition. It's finally ready as long as the systemd shit doesn't have spyware embedded in it, but I really don't know.
You do know you can get the source for "systemd" so you can find out yourself. Personally, I don't have a problem with "systemd" and have been using on Fedora for years now and have yet to be convinced that it causes problems other than the usual rantings of people who can't even provide examples.
Now Windows 10 on the other hand, I can prove since all you need to do is instal it in a virtual machine and attempt to lock it down. Now fire up Wireshark and make sure there are no web browsers running or torrents or any other application that will cause too much web traffic except for the usual handshake between your machine and your router.
Once you have done as I have suggested then start up your Windows 10 virtual machine and watch your Wireshark display go ballistic even though we have not even logged into Windows 10 yet. Now comes the interesting part, grab the IP addresses that Windows 10 talks to and do a simple IP search (I use an IP search for this) and guess who owns them? In fact, some of those IP addresses will not be in the country you live in.
Now do the same thing with Linux Mint or pretty much any Linux distribution and you will see it does not talk to outside services unless you use applications such as Browsers or torrents.
I'm trying to think when was the last time I re-installed Linux. It's... ah... um... actually, never. Except for experimenting with alternate distributions, entirely my choice.
Every time I get a major release (not an update) I find it quicker and less hassle to do a fresh install but then I do have a very good filesystem layout which allows me to distinguish between system files which are deleted and personal files which aren't impacted. A fresh instal takes me around 20 minutes with an extra 15 to 40 minutes getting additional packages and some basic housekeeping after which I have a fully operational system. Granted that an update may take up to an hour (depends on the network) but I can still fully utilise the computer while this is happening and I will reboot the machine at my convenience.
Personally, I like Fedora with KDE (now running version 24) which gets a new release every six months or so. However, if you like other distros such as Ubuntu or Mint and have a reasonable idea what you are doing you can easily do what I do. What is important is to clearly distinguish your system filesystems and your personal file systems and "document" any housekeeping you may need to perform (keep a copy of/etc is a good start) such as user information and additional packages you wish to install that are not in the "Live" distribution.
Even if you have forgotten one or more packages you can very quickly get them either by command line ("dnf install" for Fedora or "app-get install" for Ubuntu and Mint) or just use the package manager GUI.
Try to do the same thing in Microsoft Windows (although it is possible) and it can be hellishly messy especially if you have to get all your other non-Microsoft applications and re-register them.
One day they will decree that Secure Boot cannot be turned off. It would only be a continuation of an existing trend.
Microsoft can only decree that Secure Boot cannot be turned off if the own the hardware or use heavy handed tactics on motherboard makers. The thing is most popular Linux distributions already support secure boot. I use Fedora 24 and it definitely supports secure boot.
Now locking out all other OS's other than Microsoft Windows 10 is very risky since Microsoft runs the very real risk of being judged a Monopoly again.
"I mean they're OUR machines, we should be able to do whatever we want with them."
Your machine? Not any more.
Well, I built my PC (latest Skylake chipset) and installed Fedora 23 (now Fedora 24) on it, so that machine is officially mine and Microsoft can watch me count to four in binary.
So technical training is all I need to get a good job and keep it?
I'd say so, given the pattern of MS layoffs thus far:
* QA people
* Salesmen
* Manufacturing workers in FInland
* More salesmen
Coding seems to be the place to be. I know some devs were layed off along the way, but from what I hear backchannel it's still a net increase in coding jobs (cloud and mobile growing fast, other areas slowly shrinking).
A company doesn't need Salesmen when it can push out a product digitally and only a few people whine about it. As for Q&A people just reduce them, after all we have over 300 million testers out there and we can always push out mandatory patches latter.
This is pointless. Microsoft already owns enough lawmakers and judges so that they can do whatever they want. As to any class action joke, Microsoft would end up giving the legal firm a token few million dollars and the members of the class would end up with coupons for "free" upgrades to Windows 10.
You are dead right. There is only one way to hurt Microsoft and that is not to use their products and somehow I can't see most people doing that.
Fuck MS. Mod +5 Insightful because you know it's true and no more needs to be said on the matter.
Well this is all well and good but saying that to corporation is effectively like talking to a brick wall and I think the brick wall will be more responsive.
What are YOU going to do about Microsoft's questionable methods of installing Windows 10 and how all settings are turned on by default?
Do you:
1. Mumble allot about Big Brother but still put on your gold plated chains?
2. Install a non-Microsoft operating and then bitch because "It's not what I am used too", then go back to "1"?
3. Install a non-Microsoft operating system and learn to use it effectively, therefore having more privacy and saving money?
It's your choice. "You have nothing to lose but your chains".
Agreed. I never wanted a wireless keyboard from the first day they existed, for three reasons. The pain of having to change and hunt down batteries, the utter and complete lack of security, and because it's pointless to be wireless. So other people just NOW realized there were security problems? Were these the same people who were surprised that their parents could see their drunken party photos on facebook?
Depends on your computing needs. Personally, I prefer wireless to cables and as for hunting batteries my Logitech MK710 and matching mouse I only need to change them every one to two years. I also have a popup display that tells me their battery strength. My keyboard is also encrypted between itself and the unifying receiver.
...use a laptop; it comes with a keyboard at no extra cost.
(what?)
Not if that laptop comes with Microsoft Windows 10, it has a perfectly good keystroke logger that is turned on by default.
At least a desktop is fully upgradable if you so desire, unlike a laptop which has limited upgradability usually in memory and storage. Comparing performance and price a desktop wins over a laptop all the time. The only thing the laptop wins is in portability.
Because it's a lot easier for something that can do 8K video to do 4K, then something that can do 4K to do 8K.
Where did you get that idea? If you have an 8k display it will most likely be able to display the following content 8k (obviously), 4k, 1080p, 1080i, 720p and standard definition. A 4k display will not be able to display 8k content although it may be able to down-convert 8k content so it can be displayed on an 4k display.
It is important to note that 8k TV's are due out this year but displays will be very expensive.
Because marketing, and since 8k doesn't exist they don't have to prove that it really works.
I beg to differ. 8K TV's will be available this year although they won't be cheap so if you want to purchase one I would recommend a wait of 2 to 5 years unless you have money to burn. Of course, like 4K which has little content 8K is going to be even worse initially.
What people fail to realise it is not the resolution that is paramount but a combination of display resolution, display size, display refresh rate (in Hz) and the distance the viewer is to the screen. The following site has more details.
However, Google collects far more info about you, and it's very hard to avoid that even if you try
Yes, it is very difficult to not use Chrome and use a different browser with all Analytics turned off. Don't like Gmail then don't use it. Change your search engine to DuckDuckGo for example. Even if you do use Google software and services you don't have to log in to Google which limits their data collection and profiling of you considerably.
MS is bad, absolutely. So is the Goog - worse, in my opinion.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, however, it is very easy to prevent Google from collecting data on you since you don't need to use their applications or their products, you can even limit what they can get easily and you don't have to be very technical to do that. Microsoft, unlike Google, has made their data collection a feature of their operating system and the only way to be 100% certain that Microsft can't collect information on you is to run a different primary operating system.
I have a fairly locked down Windows 10 in a virtual machine on my Linux desktop and as a test, I can suspend all network access except for the usual handshaking between my wireless card and my router. When I start up my Windows 10 virtual machine the network analyser goes wild and guess who owns the machines my virtual machine is talking to and I have not even logged in yet.
Sure Google may be bad for collecting your browsing habits which can easily be blocked but Microsoft collects so much more data (including keylogging) that this practice actually makes Google look positively angelic.
They'd have to get the US Customs to stop anyone bringing back copies of the 'N' version.
Otherwise, how could MS keep sending all that lovely data on US Citizens to the NSA.
Rather difficult since you can download the free Windows 10 ISO's including "N" and "KN" from Microsoft
You assume much. By "factory" I meant this [slackbook.org]. I don't believe it contains any adware, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
At least with a Linux, BSD or Slackware distribution the chance you will get adware is very small. If you don't mind compiling everything from source then Slackware is fine, however, I actually prefer Fedora (currently 24) which I would not recommend for novices at least not on the first day a new distribution is released. Sure I could get sources and I am quite capable of compiling from source but I don't have the time or inclination to do so.
Unless you are totally paranoid you do have to trust your preferred operating system, however, I think I would rather trust an operating system like BSD, Linux or Slackware before I would trust a commercial operating system like Microsoft Windows which if you have installed Windows 10 from ISO has by default all features turned on and some of those features are highly intrusive.
I do know that most Linux applications do install into more than one directory, and some of the pieces have really weird names.
By weird names do you mean like/usr (short for user) or/bin,/usr/bin or/usr/local/bin (directory or folder for binary executable files) as an example? Most of these names harken from Unix naming conventions and are very logical. As for Linux (Slackware and BSD are similar) appropriate pieces of software are install into logical directories such a "man" for manuals, "bin" for binaries, "lib" for libraries and so on. You could if you like install private software under a directory tree or in any area you have write access to.
The New York State Attorney General is soliciting reports from consumers who had any kind of damages. Other state AGs might be sniffing around too. Microsoft's recent $10,000 loss is hopefully just the beginning.
So Microsoft gets sued for a few billion dollars. The lawyers get the lion's share while the plaintiffs get the scraps and Microsoft get ten's or even hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue. A win-win scenario for everyone.
Yeah much more worried about what that peeping tom google does with my data.
Here's the solution it's pretty easy, don't use Google such as Chrome or Gmail.
It's a lot more difficult when the operating system is actually spying on you but in reality, the solution is fairly easy as well. Do I need to spell it out for you?
I just run a personalized live system now. Boots factory fresh every time.
You mean factory fresh that has a whole pile of adware which most PC's appear to have when purchased brand new.
But with Microsoft, and Linux to an extent, they take a shotgun to your drive and then fill in the holes, splattering the application all over the place.
Microsoft Windows yes but I have never seen major Linux distributions do that.
If you really do need to run Windows 10, you must enjoy those gold plated chains, then it is very simple to get the ISO from Microsoft and go through the customized install, it is a real eyeopener. Even if you have just purchased a new PC which came with Windows 10 it is still a good idea to completely install from ISO which will remove all rubbish-ware although you may have some difficulty with the operating system phoning home (for your own good of course).
Of course, if you have a corporate PC then just use if for corporate and not private use since you don't really know who may be monitoring besides Microsoft and we all know that they would not betray our trust.
And how would he activate it? Which serial number should he use?
No problem. Do you see that sticker on your PC with the name Microsoft on it, you can use that code to activate your fresh Windows 10 installation providing that sticker was for Windows 7, 8 (you did upgrade to 8.1 didn't you?) and 8.1.
Of course, you do have to agree to the EULA as well as inputting your legitimate activation code and then you will be sent, free of charge a magnificent set of gold plated chains with the promise that Microsoft will discreetly spy on you to provide a better slave (err! user) experience.
but is it faster or more efficient than Edge? I mean, spartan is the render engine to beat nowadays. MicroSoft said so.
(*waits for angry mob with torches and pitchforks*)
Microsoft does have a very good PR department that can convince the gullible plebian that anything they do is for the good of their users. Sort of like the Inquisitors of old, except now they are protecting the god fearing mob (er! users) from those open source magicians who are trying to lead the faithful away from the Microsoft light..
Here is a simple test anyone can perform. Got to this site and just run their simple html5 test in the web browser of your choice. Yes even "Edge" if you are so inclined.
Ok now you have done your test click on the "compare" button and add some other browsers if you have not already run the test on them) such as "Chrome", "Firefox", "Edge", "Opera"... etc. You should notice that Chrome get the best score with 492 compared with Edge's 473, however, that does not tell the whole picture.
Now comes the fun part: Click on "Difference" and then take a look at what codec's which browser supports such as WebM, WebP, Ogg, Video and Audio codecs. It soon becomes clear that Microsoft is going to support "proprietary codecs" at the expense of open formats while most other browsers are supporting open formats. I wonder why that is?
Same experience here but on Macbook Pro 2015. OX 10.11 approx 9 hours, Windows 10 approx 8.5 hours, Ubuntu 16.04 approx 5.5 hours.
I know slashdot is full of anti microsoft types but the mis-information in the comments is stupid. Im not sure if the posters genuinely believe what they post but are utterly clueless or if its just denial.
Got a desktop which runs Linux (ie. no battery except for motherboard) so I don't care.
Got a laptop which runs Linux and most of the time I have it plugged into the mains so again, I don't care. Even hibernate works fine so battery life is a non-event for me.
Google doesn't have a monopoly on the desktop... hasn't been convicted of illegally using that monopoly to give a market advantage vs competitors including their browser. That would be apples to apples if Microsoft were advertising Edge on bing.
Yet again, Microsoft is up to their old tricks. Sleezily shoving windows 10 down the throats of users and now slimy tricks to get people to install their new browser.
Well to be fair, if you install Windows 10 or even upgrade to Windows 10 you do get the Edge browser by default. To get other web browsers if you did a fresh install (not sure about an upgrade) you actually have to use the Edge browser to get them.
What I don't like about Windows 10 is by default all "settings" are turned on and while it is fairly easy to turn off the more intrusive settings you do have to edit the registry to lock down the OS even further. This is fine if you do have some technical knowledge or use third party software that you trust but most people have no idea how to secure Windows 10 and I think Microsoft likes it this way.
Even if you lock down Widows 10 it still likes to phone home. I have Windows 10 in a virtual machine and on startup before I even log in, it actually goes out and talks to some machines and, you guessed it these machines are owned by Microsoft ( WireShark is great for detecting things like this). Needless to say, my Windows 10 virtual machine is hardly ever run and just remains a curiosity for me.
Again being fair, Windows 10 appears to be a very functional OS and it is possible to turn off most of the intrusive settings, however, if I compare it against my Fedora 24 plasma spin which I can customise to what I like and want it is rather pedestrian.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, honestly, I just scratched Windows off my main laptop a couple days ago for Linux Mint 18, so this really might help Linux adoption finally. I feel much more relieved running Linux after Windows Spyware Edition. It's finally ready as long as the systemd shit doesn't have spyware embedded in it, but I really don't know.
You do know you can get the source for "systemd" so you can find out yourself. Personally, I don't have a problem with "systemd" and have been using on Fedora for years now and have yet to be convinced that it causes problems other than the usual rantings of people who can't even provide examples.
Now Windows 10 on the other hand, I can prove since all you need to do is instal it in a virtual machine and attempt to lock it down. Now fire up Wireshark and make sure there are no web browsers running or torrents or any other application that will cause too much web traffic except for the usual handshake between your machine and your router.
Once you have done as I have suggested then start up your Windows 10 virtual machine and watch your Wireshark display go ballistic even though we have not even logged into Windows 10 yet. Now comes the interesting part, grab the IP addresses that Windows 10 talks to and do a simple IP search (I use an IP search for this) and guess who owns them? In fact, some of those IP addresses will not be in the country you live in.
Now do the same thing with Linux Mint or pretty much any Linux distribution and you will see it does not talk to outside services unless you use applications such as Browsers or torrents.
"But I need Windows for..." *SMACK!* NO! You don't!
LOL! You should typeset it. The Gimp works really well, although most popular Live distros have it by default.
But I still like this one for anime fans and this one for dog lovers . :-)
I'm trying to think when was the last time I re-installed Linux. It's... ah... um... actually, never. Except for experimenting with alternate distributions, entirely my choice.
Every time I get a major release (not an update) I find it quicker and less hassle to do a fresh install but then I do have a very good filesystem layout which allows me to distinguish between system files which are deleted and personal files which aren't impacted. A fresh instal takes me around 20 minutes with an extra 15 to 40 minutes getting additional packages and some basic housekeeping after which I have a fully operational system. Granted that an update may take up to an hour (depends on the network) but I can still fully utilise the computer while this is happening and I will reboot the machine at my convenience.
Personally, I like Fedora with KDE (now running version 24) which gets a new release every six months or so. However, if you like other distros such as Ubuntu or Mint and have a reasonable idea what you are doing you can easily do what I do. What is important is to clearly distinguish your system filesystems and your personal file systems and "document" any housekeeping you may need to perform (keep a copy of /etc is a good start) such as user information and additional packages you wish to install that are not in the "Live" distribution.
Even if you have forgotten one or more packages you can very quickly get them either by command line ("dnf install" for Fedora or "app-get install" for Ubuntu and Mint) or just use the package manager GUI.
Try to do the same thing in Microsoft Windows (although it is possible) and it can be hellishly messy especially if you have to get all your other non-Microsoft applications and re-register them.
One day they will decree that Secure Boot cannot be turned off. It would only be a continuation of an existing trend.
Microsoft can only decree that Secure Boot cannot be turned off if the own the hardware or use heavy handed tactics on motherboard makers. The thing is most popular Linux distributions already support secure boot. I use Fedora 24 and it definitely supports secure boot.
Now locking out all other OS's other than Microsoft Windows 10 is very risky since Microsoft runs the very real risk of being judged a Monopoly again.
"I mean they're OUR machines, we should be able to do whatever we want with them."
Your machine? Not any more.
Well, I built my PC (latest Skylake chipset) and installed Fedora 23 (now Fedora 24) on it, so that machine is officially mine and Microsoft can watch me count to four in binary.
So technical training is all I need to get a good job and keep it?
I'd say so, given the pattern of MS layoffs thus far: * QA people * Salesmen * Manufacturing workers in FInland * More salesmen
Coding seems to be the place to be. I know some devs were layed off along the way, but from what I hear backchannel it's still a net increase in coding jobs (cloud and mobile growing fast, other areas slowly shrinking).
A company doesn't need Salesmen when it can push out a product digitally and only a few people whine about it. As for Q&A people just reduce them, after all we have over 300 million testers out there and we can always push out mandatory patches latter.
This is pointless. Microsoft already owns enough lawmakers and judges so that they can do whatever they want. As to any class action joke, Microsoft would end up giving the legal firm a token few million dollars and the members of the class would end up with coupons for "free" upgrades to Windows 10.
You are dead right. There is only one way to hurt Microsoft and that is not to use their products and somehow I can't see most people doing that.
Fuck MS. Mod +5 Insightful because you know it's true and no more needs to be said on the matter.
Well this is all well and good but saying that to corporation is effectively like talking to a brick wall and I think the brick wall will be more responsive.
What are YOU going to do about Microsoft's questionable methods of installing Windows 10 and how all settings are turned on by default?
Do you:
1. Mumble allot about Big Brother but still put on your gold plated chains?
2. Install a non-Microsoft operating and then bitch because "It's not what I am used too", then go back to "1"?
3. Install a non-Microsoft operating system and learn to use it effectively, therefore having more privacy and saving money?
It's your choice. "You have nothing to lose but your chains".
Agreed. I never wanted a wireless keyboard from the first day they existed, for three reasons. The pain of having to change and hunt down batteries, the utter and complete lack of security, and because it's pointless to be wireless. So other people just NOW realized there were security problems? Were these the same people who were surprised that their parents could see their drunken party photos on facebook?
Depends on your computing needs. Personally, I prefer wireless to cables and as for hunting batteries my Logitech MK710 and matching mouse I only need to change them every one to two years. I also have a popup display that tells me their battery strength. My keyboard is also encrypted between itself and the unifying receiver.
...use a laptop; it comes with a keyboard at no extra cost.
(what?)
Not if that laptop comes with Microsoft Windows 10, it has a perfectly good keystroke logger that is turned on by default.
At least a desktop is fully upgradable if you so desire, unlike a laptop which has limited upgradability usually in memory and storage. Comparing performance and price a desktop wins over a laptop all the time. The only thing the laptop wins is in portability.
Because it's a lot easier for something that can do 8K video to do 4K, then something that can do 4K to do 8K.
Where did you get that idea? If you have an 8k display it will most likely be able to display the following content 8k (obviously), 4k, 1080p, 1080i, 720p and standard definition. A 4k display will not be able to display 8k content although it may be able to down-convert 8k content so it can be displayed on an 4k display.
It is important to note that 8k TV's are due out this year but displays will be very expensive.
Because marketing, and since 8k doesn't exist they don't have to prove that it really works.
I beg to differ. 8K TV's will be available this year although they won't be cheap so if you want to purchase one I would recommend a wait of 2 to 5 years unless you have money to burn. Of course, like 4K which has little content 8K is going to be even worse initially.
What people fail to realise it is not the resolution that is paramount but a combination of display resolution, display size, display refresh rate (in Hz) and the distance the viewer is to the screen. The following site has more details.
As opposed to Google harvesting everything that you do?
Ony if you let it.
It is very easy to block or reduce considerably Google collecting data about you. You don't even have to use Google services if you don't want to.
However, Google collects far more info about you, and it's very hard to avoid that even if you try
Yes, it is very difficult to not use Chrome and use a different browser with all Analytics turned off. Don't like Gmail then don't use it. Change your search engine to DuckDuckGo for example. Even if you do use Google software and services you don't have to log in to Google which limits their data collection and profiling of you considerably.
MS is bad, absolutely. So is the Goog - worse, in my opinion.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, however, it is very easy to prevent Google from collecting data on you since you don't need to use their applications or their products, you can even limit what they can get easily and you don't have to be very technical to do that. Microsoft, unlike Google, has made their data collection a feature of their operating system and the only way to be 100% certain that Microsft can't collect information on you is to run a different primary operating system.
I have a fairly locked down Windows 10 in a virtual machine on my Linux desktop and as a test, I can suspend all network access except for the usual handshaking between my wireless card and my router. When I start up my Windows 10 virtual machine the network analyser goes wild and guess who owns the machines my virtual machine is talking to and I have not even logged in yet.
Sure Google may be bad for collecting your browsing habits which can easily be blocked but Microsoft collects so much more data (including keylogging) that this practice actually makes Google look positively angelic.
They'd have to get the US Customs to stop anyone bringing back copies of the 'N' version. Otherwise, how could MS keep sending all that lovely data on US Citizens to the NSA.
Rather difficult since you can download the free Windows 10 ISO's including "N" and "KN" from Microsoft
You assume much. By "factory" I meant this [slackbook.org]. I don't believe it contains any adware, but maybe I'm not looking hard enough.
At least with a Linux, BSD or Slackware distribution the chance you will get adware is very small. If you don't mind compiling everything from source then Slackware is fine, however, I actually prefer Fedora (currently 24) which I would not recommend for novices at least not on the first day a new distribution is released. Sure I could get sources and I am quite capable of compiling from source but I don't have the time or inclination to do so.
Unless you are totally paranoid you do have to trust your preferred operating system, however, I think I would rather trust an operating system like BSD, Linux or Slackware before I would trust a commercial operating system like Microsoft Windows which if you have installed Windows 10 from ISO has by default all features turned on and some of those features are highly intrusive.
I do know that most Linux applications do install into more than one directory, and some of the pieces have really weird names.
By weird names do you mean like /usr (short for user) or /bin, /usr/bin or /usr/local/bin (directory or folder for binary executable files) as an example? Most of these names harken from Unix naming conventions and are very logical. As for Linux (Slackware and BSD are similar) appropriate pieces of software are install into logical directories such a "man" for manuals, "bin" for binaries, "lib" for libraries and so on. You could if you like install private software under a directory tree or in any area you have write access to.
The New York State Attorney General is soliciting reports from consumers who had any kind of damages. Other state AGs might be sniffing around too. Microsoft's recent $10,000 loss is hopefully just the beginning.
So Microsoft gets sued for a few billion dollars. The lawyers get the lion's share while the plaintiffs get the scraps and Microsoft get ten's or even hundreds of billions of dollars in advertising revenue. A win-win scenario for everyone.
Yeah much more worried about what that peeping tom google does with my data.
Here's the solution it's pretty easy, don't use Google such as Chrome or Gmail.
It's a lot more difficult when the operating system is actually spying on you but in reality, the solution is fairly easy as well. Do I need to spell it out for you?
I just run a personalized live system now. Boots factory fresh every time.
You mean factory fresh that has a whole pile of adware which most PC's appear to have when purchased brand new.
But with Microsoft, and Linux to an extent, they take a shotgun to your drive and then fill in the holes, splattering the application all over the place.
Microsoft Windows yes but I have never seen major Linux distributions do that.
If you really do need to run Windows 10, you must enjoy those gold plated chains, then it is very simple to get the ISO from Microsoft and go through the customized install, it is a real eyeopener. Even if you have just purchased a new PC which came with Windows 10 it is still a good idea to completely install from ISO which will remove all rubbish-ware although you may have some difficulty with the operating system phoning home (for your own good of course).
Of course, if you have a corporate PC then just use if for corporate and not private use since you don't really know who may be monitoring besides Microsoft and we all know that they would not betray our trust.
And how would he activate it? Which serial number should he use?
No problem. Do you see that sticker on your PC with the name Microsoft on it, you can use that code to activate your fresh Windows 10 installation providing that sticker was for Windows 7, 8 (you did upgrade to 8.1 didn't you?) and 8.1.
Of course, you do have to agree to the EULA as well as inputting your legitimate activation code and then you will be sent, free of charge a magnificent set of gold plated chains with the promise that Microsoft will discreetly spy on you to provide a better slave (err! user) experience.
but is it faster or more efficient than Edge? I mean, spartan is the render engine to beat nowadays. MicroSoft said so.
(*waits for angry mob with torches and pitchforks*)
Microsoft does have a very good PR department that can convince the gullible plebian that anything they do is for the good of their users. Sort of like the Inquisitors of old, except now they are protecting the god fearing mob (er! users) from those open source magicians who are trying to lead the faithful away from the Microsoft light..
Here is a simple test anyone can perform. Got to this site and just run their simple html5 test in the web browser of your choice. Yes even "Edge" if you are so inclined.
Ok now you have done your test click on the "compare" button and add some other browsers if you have not already run the test on them) such as "Chrome", "Firefox", "Edge", "Opera" ... etc. You should notice that Chrome get the best score with 492 compared with Edge's 473, however, that does not tell the whole picture.
Now comes the fun part: Click on "Difference" and then take a look at what codec's which browser supports such as WebM, WebP, Ogg, Video and Audio codecs. It soon becomes clear that Microsoft is going to support "proprietary codecs" at the expense of open formats while most other browsers are supporting open formats. I wonder why that is?
"Microsoft is one of the only major players to "
What does that mean ?
How about putting in the full context which was "Microsoft is one of the only major players to not use WebP".
Looks pretty obvious to me.
Same experience here but on Macbook Pro 2015. OX 10.11 approx 9 hours, Windows 10 approx 8.5 hours, Ubuntu 16.04 approx 5.5 hours.
I know slashdot is full of anti microsoft types but the mis-information in the comments is stupid. Im not sure if the posters genuinely believe what they post but are utterly clueless or if its just denial.
Got a desktop which runs Linux (ie. no battery except for motherboard) so I don't care.
Got a laptop which runs Linux and most of the time I have it plugged into the mains so again, I don't care. Even hibernate works fine so battery life is a non-event for me.
http://fakeupdate.net/win10/in...
My goodnes it even works on Linux.
Google doesn't have a monopoly on the desktop... hasn't been convicted of illegally using that monopoly to give a market advantage vs competitors including their browser. That would be apples to apples if Microsoft were advertising Edge on bing. Yet again, Microsoft is up to their old tricks. Sleezily shoving windows 10 down the throats of users and now slimy tricks to get people to install their new browser.
Well to be fair, if you install Windows 10 or even upgrade to Windows 10 you do get the Edge browser by default. To get other web browsers if you did a fresh install (not sure about an upgrade) you actually have to use the Edge browser to get them.
What I don't like about Windows 10 is by default all "settings" are turned on and while it is fairly easy to turn off the more intrusive settings you do have to edit the registry to lock down the OS even further. This is fine if you do have some technical knowledge or use third party software that you trust but most people have no idea how to secure Windows 10 and I think Microsoft likes it this way.
Even if you lock down Widows 10 it still likes to phone home. I have Windows 10 in a virtual machine and on startup before I even log in, it actually goes out and talks to some machines and, you guessed it these machines are owned by Microsoft ( WireShark is great for detecting things like this). Needless to say, my Windows 10 virtual machine is hardly ever run and just remains a curiosity for me.
Again being fair, Windows 10 appears to be a very functional OS and it is possible to turn off most of the intrusive settings, however, if I compare it against my Fedora 24 plasma spin which I can customise to what I like and want it is rather pedestrian.