7mo ago

Linux not in meme

Windows malware

96 comments

when you're the OS, they let you do it. you can do anything.
- Grab 'em by the kernel.
- When you know for sure a statement (or reality) makes it impossible for something to gain mass-market adoption
  Thennnnn comes the general public

Literally yes
This was pretty informative and shocking.
And then Chris Titus made this video
They literally record everything you do, at least if it is a "Copilot plus" PC with a "neural engine".
- Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
  Literally yes
  Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
  I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

For people who say you should read the contract before agreeing to it. What about the hundreds of thousands? No, millions of people buying new windows laptops every year. Are they presented with any kind of agreement? I don't think so.
- Oh they are when they first set up Windows
- The same is happening with some of these new "smart" vehicles. Built-in software in these vehicles are the anti-thesis of freedom and privacy.
- It's like using edge to download a better browser but with extra steps.
- They are. It is a huge problem that companies are allowed to do clickwrap bullshit with no human-comprehensible summary. But people are agreeing to this stuff.

Maybe I'm missing something, but what is the damage in this screenshot?
- High background resource usage.
  
  Ah, the light blue between the 2 lines is background usage? I wouldn't know, I use Arch btw :3

nah i don't care that you're using windows who the fuck still uses eclipse
- Eclipse is Free Software and as such it is valuable even if better commercial options exist.
  http://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#EPL2
  
  Why not something else free? Geany, etc.?
- university students ?

Pretty funny how it says "Unauthorized access" right below screenshots of features clearly being enabled.
- But in the end of the day, there is no intended way to turn off Telemetry fully.
  
  Could airgap it, but then you’ve airgapped it..
- Do you understand windows update is changing settings to defaults right? They are overriding user configured settings on this toggle. That is malware
- I recall once setting up Windows 7 or 10, turned off everything in oobe, and every choice was ignored. Everything was enabled after finishing

Why the damage?
- From my experience Windows have this system program called "CompatTelRunner.exe" that run silently in the background maybe once a month it's send data to M$ and using a lot of CPU power while collecting data, now with Al being pushed to windows who knows what it could be doing in the background without user knowledge

"Windows malware" increasingly sounds like pleonasm
- "Windows malware" increasingly sounds like Linux users wanking each other
  
  Your comment increasingly sounds like a bootlick
  
  you don't have to browse linuxmemes

To be fair, the access is authorized
- Authorized without consent. That is what Louis Rossmann calls a rapist mentality.
  
  I agree with that dude’s takes but he rubs me the wrong way.
  
  Users explicitly and willingly click on "I agree" to the Terms and Conditions. It might be undesirable, but it is consented
  
  You do give consent. If you didn't you wouldn't be using Windows.
- "Authorized" in the sense that even if I set all these options to No, a future Windows update will reset them and not tell me.
- Authorized by not denying...

Yes.

This stuff affects the user experience too. I’ve been able to daily drive Linux at work for a few weeks now. Restarting and booting into windows, after being used to Linux on the same hardware, makes windows feel like the slow, cobbled together OS that you can get for free.
I mean, we’re a Microsoft 365 company like many others, but even things like Teams and Outlook feel more responsive in Firefox in Linux than in the native apps on windows. Even video conferencing works great.
This difference isn’t exactly new to me, and I’ve used Unix or Linux sporadically over the past couple decades. However, using it as my main work OS has really highlighted the differences. Hell, even the multi-monitor support is better!
And this is with Mint Cinnamon installed, not some cutting edge or lean & fast distro.

ITT: Libertarians advocating for corpos with rapist mentality calling it "consent".
- Sir, this is a Linux memes community

It is getting into the final form, after decades of progressive enmalwaretyfication

Is it malware when the user allows it?
- While there are ways to disable some aspects, most people don't even know how to disable what they theoretically could.

always been. In fact all proprietary program is a kind of malware.

Yes, without a doubt Microsoft Windows is malware. And soon will introduce to us, adware. Yaaaay.
Fk Microsoft and it's decision makers.

I agree with the general sentiment but it literally says it will update outside of active hours. So as non-disruptive as possible.
And the privacy toggles are set when you install the OS. You can untick all of them the last time I checked.
Sorry for being such a pedant
- but it literally says it will update outside of active hours.
  Yeah, but it lies.
  And the privacy toggles are set when you install the OS. You can untick all of them the last time I checked.
  But a future Windows update will reset them without informing the user.
  Microsoft respects user choice about as well as Republicans respect voting rights.
  
  Has what you said been proven and documented anywhere? All I can find is threads of people claiming things, but no actual (investigative) journalism that covers these parts.
  Toggling on data collection without informing the user would mean billions of dollars worth of fines in Europe, so I doubt that happens regularly. Still, I don't mind being proven wrong if you got the proof to back it up
  
  Do they do that? I've had my laptop for a while, and it's never happened to me.
  
  Yeah, but it lies.
  No it doesn't, at least not if the update isn't already a month overdue
  But a future Windows update will reset them without informing the user.
  I've done 3 years worth of updates in one day cause I needed too. Pretty much everything was reset including registry edits, but the privacy toggles were one of the few things that stayed persistent. Maybe it's a EU special feature (wouldn't be the first), but at least here they won't change back silently.
- And this update outside active hours will have a good chance to "fix" your privacy settings again. Without you noticing. One basically needs a tool that confirms that your privacy settings are still active. And then wait how long it takes Microsoft to declare that tool as "malware".
- I find it hilarious that Linux users STILL continue to hate on Windows Update when memes like this exist.
  In my experience, Linux wants to update itself far more frequently than Windows (which is really generally no more than once a month these days), and it DOESN'T EVEN OFFER THE OPTION of automatically postponing it to a more convenient time. Yes, you can always say "not now", but then it'll just keep bugging you again until you say yes.
  Ironically, at this point, updates on Linux are basically everything that Windows used to get made fun of in the past (for good reason!), but while the situation has actually improved on Windows, on Linux it's only become worse as distributions grow and updates become even more frequent.
  
  I think Linux seems to have more updates because the package update manager is taking care of every installed program as well as the OS.

Windows updates aren't disruptive if you actually update now and then. It's not even that often.
- or...
  Upgrade to Enterprise (upgrading to enterprise will also remove ads in settings)
  in gpo editor:
  Set updates to Manual
  set the telemetry level to "Security" in group policy (iirc can also be called "Compliance"). This only works on Enterprise.
  opt out of Microsoft accounts. This will force account creation to skip right to local accounts as if MS accounts were never a thing. This only works on Enterprise/Pro.
  disable copilot and integrated bing search
  do a full reboot

96 comments