Re: [PLUG] [just ignore this] W10

On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 15:34 Rich Mingin (PLUG) <plug@frags.us> wrote:

While I agree with the great majority of what you’re saying, and the intent at least, there are some factual issues with a few points.

“You can’t do anything without logging into MS first” - Not true. MS wishes it was true, and they’ve been toeing the line with how far they can go to “encourage” universal use of Microsoft accounts, it’s still possible to use a local account. In 1809 there was a bug that effectively made the offline/local account options invisible unless you unplugged all networking first, but in 1903 and 1909 that’s been corrected. It’s still completely non-obvious, but that’s by design.

“You can’t even change the wallpaper without going online” - This is only true in a very narrow and specific case. While you do technically need to go online first, to activate the OS, you do not need to stay online to change wallpaper, you do not need to be signed in to a Microsoft account, and MS doesn’t directly exert *any* control over your wallpaper choices aside from requiring you be activated first.

And if you’re going to lump activation in alongside your other complaints, you’re fighting a war that ended 15 years ago.

As for HIPAA violations, why would my employer do dis to mes? Because that same instrumentation and monitoring is available to your domain admins. They can flag the OS not to pass along info to MS, but to report it to a local server instead, and Big Brother can watch you all he likes. Most corporations *love* that part.

On Thu, Dec 12, 2019 at 15:27 jeff via plug <plug@lists.phillylinux.org> wrote:
$WORK has mandated Win10 Real Soon Now.
While waiting, I downloaded Microsoft's VM to learn my way around.

It's draconian.
It's an ad platform.
It's a profiler.
It's The Cloud.
You can't do anything without logging into MS first. You can't even
change the wallpaper without going online.
To say this is out of scope for an OS is to be polite.

$WORK is very concerned about privacy and security. I'm even crazier.
How this wound up on our desktops is completely beyond me. It's a
rolling HIPAA violation, if nothing else.

The browser crashed right out of the box, just before the OS decided to
reboot without notifying me. Had I been working on something important....

One of my favorite sayings, that always gets a laugh, is "Windows: it's
not an OS, it's a virus." I never thought I'd long for Win 7.

W10 should have caused a major exodus to a different OS. Any OS.
Yet people accept it. It's like Win is in a race to the bottom with Google.

It's probably a tolerable OS, if it weren't for the intrusiveness.
I'd be saying this same stuff if I didn't use linux.

Proceed with insults, comments about being a few years late to the
party, speculation on my age, compliments on my tin foil hat, and
something nasty about my dog.
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