Windows 11 will record all of your activity 24/7 : becomeme

[–] [email protected] 118 points 3 months ago (2 children)

They really want me to shift my gaming PC to Linux. Gaming is the only reason it's still in windows 10.

But now? Ads? Full time spying? And they choose to do all this at a time when proton is making gaming on Linux easier than ever?

Okay then. Heck. I'll gladly help my friends install Linux in their main device.

Hey government. This includes all your devices too. I'm sure you'll be able to turn it off, and by some bug oversight it just hides everything but not actually turn it off.

Do something about it. Stop blindly trusting bigcorp to do the right thing. They've proven time and time again they WILL NOT.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

Hey government. This includes all your devices too. I'm sure you'll be able to turn it off, and by some bug oversight it just hides everything but not actually turn it off.

My work computer upgraded to 11 last week and I'm sure I'm giving away people's personal info via the OS

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

My work is also rolling out the Win11 updates, and I am wondering if they knew about this. There are many things that require secret/TS clearance via temp badge and pass on certain project as well as low level sensitive documents.

If Win11 is recording all of this, they have committed about 100,000 felonies by illegally recording these documents from not just us but all the government contractors.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I switched over a year ago. Love it.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 3 months ago (21 children)

I can't make my mind up over a distro tbh.

I've used Ubuntu for a long time, but I absolutely hate snap packages.

Doubting between endeavoros, garuda and popos. Imnsure they're all viable, though my main experience has been with apt and Debian based distros

[–] [email protected] 16 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Linux Mint Debian Edition

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago (1 children)

It doesn't matter, they all install the same thing. Just pick whatever your friendly neighbour uses.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

Mint & popOS are both Debian tree distros and Ubuntu derivatives without the snap cruft.

They work fine for gaming in my experience as any linux native game is always tested against ubuntu and I've had no issues with Steam/proton for windows games.

No EAC anti cheat compatability for Linux of any flavour of course.

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[–] [email protected] 103 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Microsoft sure is putting a lot of effort into improving Linux lately

[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago (7 children)

switching a while back was best decision ever esp since Windows situation has been rapidly deteriorating. Yes to get most of linux there is a learning curve but once that is down, it is a superior experience most of the time. Privacy and Security is the cherry tho.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

The slow victory of open source is not paying money to be told "no."

[–] SuperSpruce 81 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (6 children)

Windows 11 is really shooting itself in the foot. Not just the privacy implications of this, but also the CPU and memory usage will surge once again. Why is this important?

I went to an electronics store recently to see the state of brand new laptop performance in 2024. Here's what I found:

Laptops with 16GB RAM, an SSD, and a good CPU (3K/13K single/multi thread on Passmark) will run Windows 11 smoothly. File manager, task manager takes about a second to open, while the start menu takes around 400ms. It feels like a truck with 350hp.
Laptops with 8GB RAM, an SSD, and a mediocre CPU (2.5K/9K Passmark) will noticably struggle with Windows 11. The file manager takes 3 seconds to open and the start menu takes 1 second, with stutters and hiccups using it. It'll be usable, but quite slow. It feels like a truck with 100hp.
Laptops with 4GB RAM, eMMC, and a bad CPU (1.5K/4K Passmark) will be brought to its knees by Windows 11. Task manager takes 27 seconds to open! A web browser takes even longer, and loading my light game somehow took 7 seconds (this game loaded in under a second on the better computers) to open. The CPU, RAM, and storage were pinned to 100% most of the time. Completely unacceptable performance, it's like a truck with 10hp.
And a laptop with the above but with a CPU with a Passmark score of 1K/2.5K was so bad that it couldn't open literally anything in Windows 11. It's literally a brick. I cannot believe the store (a giant multinational company) is selling this laptop. It's like a truck with 5hp that cannot go up a moderate hill.

But now, the store also sold ChromeOS laptops. As much as I hate how locked down ChromeOS was, I was delighted by the performance of it. The worst laptop specs I mentioned (4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, CPU with 1K/2.5K Passmark score) ran actually quite reasonably on ChromeOS. It opens Chrome in about 3 seconds, and my game in 1 second, with some stutters but no freezes. It struggled with YouTube, but this is due to YouTube's own bloat, which is like a 1000lb trailer to a bike with 5hp.

In conclusion, Windows is losing due to its incredible bloat. It'll make every computer--including my friend's 7900X, 4070, 1TB SSD, 64GB RAM, water-cooled beast--sweat, and will make low-end computers unusable. The super locked down ChromeOS is literally more desirable to me on laptops under $400. Yet Microsoft is still deciding to add even more bloat! No wonder why Linux market share is skyrocketing, because Windows can barely run on their computers!

I know you can disable this, but most non-techy people won't even know this exists and won't do anything to disable it, because they just want to browse the web and read emails. But the added bloat by this "feature" will cause them to notice their computers are even slower, and switch away from Windows when they realize they need a $800 Windows laptop to have a smooth OS experience, when they can buy a $250 Chromebook or $1000 Mac with a smooth OS experience.

TL;DR: Microsoft is shooting itself in the foot by adding more bloat to an obese OS, and Windows's bloat is its biggest liability.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago (4 children)

I disagree with Windows shooting itself in the foot

People will just buy better computers and throw out the ones that “don’t work”

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

We are about to get a lot of very usable hardware at second-hand prices.

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[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

I know you can disable this, but most non-techy people won’t even know this exists and won’t do anything to disable it,

Even if you can, the ones that do that get annoyed once again, as it will likely in windows tradition be randomly reset after an update: "oops, we reframed this feature you previously consciously turned off and thought we'ld give it a spin for you"

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[–] [email protected] 73 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm told that much of this experience is rendered on-device and does not reach out to the cloud to process information.

So far. Gotta boil the frog slowly.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 3 months ago

Much of is = Some of isn't

The heats already turned up and they're about to put the lid on

[–] [email protected] 50 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I'm told that much of this experience is rendered on-device and does not reach out to the cloud to process information.

Yeah, right.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

If they're already saying "much" to hedge that, I give until the end of the year before it is literally all of the information going to their servers.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 3 months ago

they'll probably do a lot of computation ally expensive preprocessing / analysis of your behavior on-device to save costs. They'll only send home the relevant results of the analysis. So it's "only very little of the data" - like the important part :-)

[–] [email protected] 40 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I try to swear only when I mean it, and fuck off Microsoft. I'd rather take the few seconds or even couple minutes it takes to type out the beginning of an e-mail or set up a new app than have something recording my every move.

The development will be something like: in 2025 it will be offline, optional, and meant to optimize efficiency. In 2026 it will be online, mandatory for updates, and also used to optimize advertising. Finally in 2027 it will be fully integrated and aimed at sales of extensive data to companies who desire to know what habits users exhibit and so on. I have no faith whatsoever that my interests will outweigh the potential profits of knowing what every PC user is doing all the time.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 3 months ago

In 2025 „much“ of it is „rendered on device“. Meaning that a part of it is not. It also leaves open what is uploaded to Microsoft.

[–] [email protected] 39 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

According to my sources, AI Explorer will run in the background and capture everything you do on your computer.

Wtf

[–] [email protected] 35 points 3 months ago (4 children)

Products you pay for should not have the ability to exploit you.
If micro$oft wants to provide free computer software to all it's exploited users, that's a different conversation.
Until then you have better options available.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago (6 children)

Windows 11 will record all of your activity 24/7

Wasn't it already like that on Windows 10 ?

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[–] [email protected] 24 points 3 months ago

[–] [email protected] 20 points 3 months ago

It’s probably their shock and awe strategy. They are pushing this anti privacy shit hard and then pull back on it on the next release. But in reality they leave a lot of that shit in. Like how Windows 10 is worse than windows 7, but it’s better than 8 so 10 feels like an improvement for people.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (7 children)

SteamOS can't become a better alternative any sooner.

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Looks like Ubuntu is going to be back on the menu.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 3 months ago

Try Mint or popOS. Ubuntu is getting very microsofty themselves

[–] [email protected] 10 points 3 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:

It's an open secret that Microsoft is gearing up to supercharge Windows 11 this summer with next-gen AI capabilities that will enable the OS to be context aware across any apps and interfaces, as well as remember everything you do on your PC to enhance user productivity and search.

These new capabilities are set to ship as part of a new app internally called "AI Explorer," which I'm told will be unveiled during Microsoft's special Windows event on May 20.

The feature is also said to be exclusive to devices powered by Qualcomm's upcoming Snapdragon X series chips, at least at first, as Intel and AMD play catchup in the NPU race.

AI Explorer is able to do more than just remember the things you do on your computer, it's also able to analyze what's currently on-screen and provide contextual suggestions and tasks based on what it can see.

This capability is called Screen Understanding, and I'm told one of the big selling points of AI Explorer is that it's supposed to work across any app, with no developer input required.

The existence of Rewind.ai proves that this is a concept that can be done, and Microsoft is essentially building its own version into Windows 11 that offloads the resources required for such a feature onto NPUs to keep the load away from the CPU.

The original article contains 1,076 words, the summary contains 225 words. Saved 79%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] [email protected] 9 points 3 months ago

Good. Let the enshittification flow through you!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

All the Windows fanbois must be kicking themselves as of late with Microsoft doing all these Ls, making those switching to MacOS/Linux for a better experience.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 3 months ago (7 children)

windows fanboys

Is there such a thing? I’m nearly certain that everyone is using windows as a result of compatibility issues and/or indifference. It’s an oxymoron, like “vanilla enthusiast.”

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago

It won't record mine. 🍥🐧😁

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (3 children)

Time to get acquainted with Tux

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

If you see Kay, tell her no

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

So if finally is time to boot Linux on my surface book

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I can read, count, and combine them into steps followed in a sequential order. Can I Linux? I think I can Linux. These fucks are taking the piss.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I'm gonna be honest with you, Linux is so much more simple than people make it out to be. If it's your first time dipping into that world, you can grab Ubuntu, KDE neon, or Linux Mint, all of which are very stable and beginner friendly. Ubuntu has a more unique look to it, and neon/mint looks more like windows. You can run and manage both without ever having to open a terminal or dive into any code, just use it like a normal computer and you'll be fine. I've been using Linux since about '08, I'm not a sysadmin or coder or anything like that. I play most of my games in Linux with no problem

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

In many ways it’s easier to use than Windows, as long as there aren’t expectations that it works like Windows.

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Probably stupid question that I can look up, but I think Linux expounding isn't a problem here:

I have an Intel/Nvidia laptop as my only machine right now. I've read the jokes about how hard it is to get working peripherals and the jokes about the brains of those who can't get them to work.

I'm an amateur web dev (looking to un-amateur) so while a command line isn't super scary, it sure would feel like work or daunting at least for a bit. I also gotta share the machine.

So I guess the question is: how true are those peripheral driver issue things for say random stuff like using a Dual Sense controller with (I think this is the right name) Proton for the gaming nights, and am I right in assuming any distro (except those mutable or atomic distributions that seem to be divisive) that is "beginner friendly" with a GUI for the family is still going to enable me to poke into further learning with the CLI, i.e. you don't sacrifice full featured command line for GUI?

Silly ahead of myself concern, but if I can avoid needing to learn more PowerShell junk and just focus on learning Bash, that's actually a bonus I hadn't thought of.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (2 children)

Those are great questions! Dualsense is supported through drivers provided by PlayStation and to my best recollection, most features work out of the box. Last I recall, the adaptive triggers weren't functional outside of normal trigger activity and the audio jack doesn't audio. Proton is a tool that Steam/Valve made to make most windows games work within Linux without needing a lot of tinkering. I've had mostly success with it, however some games still won't work, usually due to anti cheat software. There's a website called protondb.com that can be used to check the compatibility of most games and it usually offers tips for getting the best performance depending on the game.

As for the GUI vs CLI question, you'll still have full access to the terminal or command line through the terminal emulator. Think of it like the cmd prompt in Windows. You sacrifice nothing by using a graphical interface and can still do all your terminal work without a GUI if you'd prefer, that's entirely up to your preference. For example, with Ubuntu, you have your software center, which is essentially an app store that you can use to download different programs and/or utilities. You can use that, or you can open a terminal emulator and type in something like "sudo apt install Firefox" and it will do the same thing.

Linux can be as complicated or simple as you want to make it, as the owner of the computer, everything is entirely up to you. You can rely entirely on GUI based applications and never run into a problem. I do a little of both, but I've also got several years of experience tinkering around with things.

I don't know what your current level of proficiency is outside of webdev, but if you're familiar with virtual machines, like VMware, you can spin up a virtual environment and test drive Linux without having to modify your existing computer at all. With this being a shared computer, you could always dualboot it. That's when you have two different operating systems installed at the same time. When you power on your PC, you'll get a menu to pick windows or Linux and can switch by restarting your PC to get back to that menu. Windows files will be accessible in Linux, however Linux files are usually not accessible in Windows.

Drivers are pretty easy, most are already built into the Linux kernel. For Nvidia drivers, you have open source drivers, or proprietary drivers. The open source ones are readily available in almost every distro, and the propriety (better performing) drivers are a few clicks away. Most times, you'll be asked if you want the proprietary drivers during your installation and won't have to mess with them ever again.

I know I hit you with a full essay and a half, and it may seem like a lot, but I promise you it's really not as complicated as people like to make it seem. My elderly mother ran Linux on a laptop I gave her years ago without even noticing for years. If you have questions, there's a million and a half different places to ask, including my DMs. Feel free to shoot me a question, and I'll do a little digging to see what I can teach you.

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