I was using Firefox btw. Also I didn't even open a PDF on this install of Windows yet.
Open source librarys like Poppler also need updates to add new proprietary feature as they get reverse engineered.
Software property bad
And yet still completely worthless for non-tech people if you don't want to teach people to use a command line and insane Linux stuff.
Most of the command line stuff can be avoided. The reason most websites tell you do do things in the command line is because it is the most specific and concise way. You can tell someone "copy and paste this command," instead of "open the settings app, then go to Network, then click on the little plus icon next to VPN, then click on import from file, then go to this directory and pick the file named blah blah blah charlie brown grownup speech noises." This is complicated even further by the fact that depending on which desktop environment or version someone is using, the "open this, click on that menu, choose the third item, click that button" directions will be entirely different, while the copy/paste instructions will always do the same thing. The best way to learn it is really just to fuck around with it - the same way we learned Windows, MacOS, iOS, or Android.
If you have a computer which does the things you need it to do, that's fine. "If it's not broke, don't fix it." There's nothing wrong with that. But technology changes every day. With every change, there are people left behind where the thing did what they needed it to do yesterday, but with the newest boneheaded update from Redmond or Cupertino it is no longer possible. That's what we're here for. We're here to help, not to make people's lives more difficult.
i hate windows.
if you are a windows user and are tired of Microsoft's bullshit, i ask you to give Linux a try. it seems hard and scary, but there are many versions made to make Linux easy to use. my personal favorite is Linux mint: https://linuxmint.com/
you can even have both Windows and Linux on the same PC and just choose what one you want to use when you turn it on
besides, open source software is inherently communist :logo:
But you still can't remove Internet Explorer looooooooooooooooooool
I was using a burner laptop for Silk Road type business, and Windows had forced an update on me. Good thing I went through the settings, because stuff like "let Microsoft monitor your internet data and keyboard inputs to improve your Windows experience" boxes had all been set to Yes by default. Really shady shit.
Linux Mint is also a great choice for someone who wants to try using Linux. It's stable, easy to use, has almost every program you want to use, and doesn't include the garbage that comes with base Ubuntu.
I'm still using Windows 7 on my main PC, but I've got a cheapo laptop that has windows 10 and I hate it, but I know I can't use 7 forever. Dreading the inevitable "upgrade". I dunno, I don't feel I need the level of control offered by Linux, especially when you have to learn some basics of coding to use it (Or that's what I've heard, anyway. I know very little about this). That's a massive time investment versus something that an idiot can use out of the box.
Also what's the gaming situation on Linux? As a consumer, all I really use my PC for is web-browsing, gaming, and writing, so if I couldn't play the latest RPG from Bioware or whatever there'd be no point in my using Linux.
You should either switch to Linux or upgrade to Windows 10 immediately, because Win7 isn't getting any security patches, it's literally a hacker's paradise.
My recommendation is Linux Mint if you've never used Linux before. It's mostly similar to the Windows UX. And if you have to use some Windows software you can propably use them in WINE
I'm in the same boat with win 7. Apparently gaming on Linux is a thing now, so next compy will be a dual boot for me. I despise windows 10 but somebody mentioned you can download fixes that remove most of the bloat..
My Pihole/Adguard DNS adblocker literally blocks about 1 000 requests a day for Windows 10 to "phone home" and send data to Microsoft. Shit is literally spyware
Can you by any chance post a guide on this? I have an extra raspberry pi that I'd like to use this for. Especially blocking windows request.
https://github.com/AdguardTeam/AdGuardHome/wiki/Getting-Started
https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/#one-step-automated-install
In my experience Adguard home is easier to install, and has compatibility with more blocklist formats, so that's why I use it.
Do you have a recommendation for the PI hardware? Thinking I need to do this today
I don't use a raspberry pi, I use an old laptop that also does a bunch of other networking stuff, so no unfortunately
Thanks anyway. I ended up getting a pi3 1G model and it's up and pieholing so everything is awesome. Cheers!
OK this is awesome. I won't upgrade my system at home because of how insidiously win 10 is and had often thought if I could block outgoing to MS related IPs that would rule. I'm definitely checking this out!
Yeah, here's the blocklist I use to block windows tracking personally. Not sure if it's the most effective, but blocking 1000 requests a day seems good
i had a real fun time some weeks ago in midst of a deadline i turned off my pc to go to sleep and microsoft decided to update my computer it turned on and they literally broke the explorer like i could not access any folder because the explorer just would not load and then just soft restart forever COOL STUFF having to restore to former point and waste like hours that i could have just done my work
for months, a microsoft update kept pushing itself onto my computer and i kept reverting because it broke the sound, I got tired of reverting it once it started updating me again daily, so I tried to permanently fix it, broke the OS, had to start over with a factory install, sound broken on factory install and now I cant revert, fuck.
Turns out the update was changing which headphone jack i had to plug my speaker into. Fucking dogshit.
every single time they update my pc i have to either fix something because of their dogshit update system fucking up like just disappearing with system files for no reason or having to just fix some weird ass hardware problem because the update is fucking with some driver it fucking sucks like i have been thinking about windows xp and how it was just fine like not bloated at all just perfect
OpenSUSE Tumbleweed seems like a good option for folks with a bit of understanding of IT things. Trying to decide on which distro to put on my boomer dad's netbook, but thinking OpenSUSE is probably one of the better options.
One of my coworker's laptops got ransomware shit on it and the MS license sticker on the bottom was conveniently deteriorated so I set him up with Fedora and he's been doing well for a couple years now. I had to do a couple extra steps to make sure proprietary video codecs and shit worked, but I was able to hand it off after that and he's been good ever since. He uses it mostly for social media and Zoom.
