Does anybody know if when using Windows on a computer but not paying for anything windows related: is windows/ Bill Gates profiting from it? Is it worth installing linux as a protest?
It’s worth it for something more important than as a protest - it means ending Europe’s dependence on Silicon Valley. And in this, every PC switch matters.
(not to mention it’s a pretty good OS - and it’s only going to get better if we make it part of the European autonomy strategy and give it the support it deserves)
Personally, I don’t think switching your OS “as a protest” is a good idea. Bill Gates is so obscenely wealthy that your protest will have literally zero impact. Not “very small” impact; actually zero. As in, the whole world could abandon all Microsoft products and Bill Gates would still be able to live exactly as he did before. It’s not worth your mental health to let his actions have that level of control over you.
All that said, you should switch to Linux because it’s a better OS (as long as it does what you need).
They still profit. Windows is increasingly an ad platform with ads delivered directly to your start menu.
You also get included in their user statistics when they report such things publicy, and therefore help toward selling their value as an investment.
ZorinOS, stylish, modern and user-friendly check it out!
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i just installed mint on my laptop and it runs way better than it ever ran with windows 11 plus it’s super user friendly :)
Wonderful. I’m considering Ubuntu. But I’ll give mint a consideration. Thank you for the tip!
Good thing is that mint is based on Ubuntu so you should already be familiar too :)
Nice mate, thanks 👍
also disable bitlocker first if it’s on you’ll save yourself a lot of pain
Linux is worth it as the greatest protest to everything that is wrong with technology.
The secret word is “telemetrics”. Microsoft will track your actions and sells the data, just like Google or Apple.
Thanks. Was looking for something like this. Going forward with my decision to do the switch
Linux Mint is the most Windows-like regarding its user interface, so that one probably requires the least learning. Ubuntu is trying to work a bit like Mac OS X, and I actually like that.
And then there are distros that don’t try to be super easy but actively try to help you learn how to do the difficult things. Arch Linux is famous for that.
Ubuntu (and Linux Mint, which is actually just Ubuntu with a more Windows-like user interface) have the best app support, so that might be a factor.
The amount of data Windows and microsoft in general collect is worth billions and going straight to the hands of the US govt. for a price obviously, so yes they are profiting from your use regardless of whether you pay for it or not.
There’s a reason they gave the upgrade to 11 away for “free.”
During a public talk at the University of Washington in 1998, Microsoft founder Bill Gates admitted, “Although about three million computers get sold every year in China, people don’t pay for the software. Someday they will, though. And as long as they’re going to steal it, we want them to steal ours. They’ll get sort of addicted, and then we’ll somehow figure out how to collect sometime in the next decade.”
Not necessarily as a protest, but the answer is always hard yes.
The way I see it, using these software, even without paying anything and even if you could somehow shield your data from telemetry, strengthens their hegemony.
Growing the pool of users in Open Source project, talking about them, maybe filing bug reports if needed, helps make them more viable. The growing user count makes developers more enticed to release software for these platforms.
I don’t think Microsoft’s hegemony suffers a lot from losing a user … But they do suffer slightly more from Linux gaining a user.
Windows is not making money on sales only. They collect data and then they sell them to data brokers. Those brokers then sell the data to advertisement agencies to serve you adds. Even if you buy just one item based on those adds (which may be unconscious choice) you have already paid. Even if you buy nothing based on adds, microsoft already got the money.
I do recommend linux but be aware of letting people to push you into something you don’t want to do. Linux community can be very enthusiastic 😅. Top three to recommend are Linux Mint (most windows like design), Fedora (most stable) and Pop OS (best with nvidia gpu). Only one of these is favorite of mine but I will not tell you which, just search for them, look at screenshots and you will see what suits you.
Yeah Linux can be troublesome if you’re dual booting on a single drive. Updates can break the GRUB. Also it’ll take a while to optimise your workflow (like finding replacement for Windows apps).
Good reminder ⬆️ 😊
I think the most windows like desktop environment (DE) is KDE. So I try to limit my windows to Switcher recommends to distros that use KDE by default.
So my recommendations would be:
- KDE neon (Ubuntu/Debian based)
- Fedora KDE (Fedora)
- EndeavourOS (Arch based, least noob friendly)
I would also recommend they do some poking around DistroSea
I think KDE is great if you want to customize everything. But truth to be told, I think no one knows until they try. I have always seen myself a KDE guy until I had to use it longterm and then tried GNOME and found it more to my taste. I assume that is why everyone is feeling so strong about their distros and DE’s, because if it really suits you, you gotta love it and you want others to find that too :)
Isn’t Ubuntu The most used distribution? How come it isn’t in your top three? Not judging, just wondering. It feels to me it’s reasonably user friendly and its large user base makes it the easiest to find support online for if you’re a Linux newbie.
But it is there. Both Linux Mint and Pop OS are based on Ubuntu. And these three distributions seems to be the most recommended, that I have seen. My personal issue with ubuntu itself is that it is a little bit rough around the edges and then there is this whole snap thing. But I don’t want to go into that here. It was just a recommendation and yes ubuntu is fine :)
Isn’t it’s KDE offshoot, Kubuntu also gaining more and more ground due to the growing distaste of Gnome that I’ve been hearing?
I honestly don’t know.
On Ubuntu:
Ubuntu: despite having a huge mind-share as the beginner distro, Ubuntu suffers from it’s parent company’s policy to make Ubuntu kinda-Linux-but-not-really and a second-rate citizen compared to their Ubuntu Pro commercial product. Some of the worst takes in recent years have been pushing Snaps super agressively in order to get some “vendor-lock-in”, proprietary walled-garden ecosystem with exclusive commercial apps, forcibly installing snaps even when explicitely asking for a .deb package through apt, baking ads and nags into major software or only delivering critical security patches to Pro customers. …
Ubuntu Linux is the most popular distribution but it uses the Gnome desktop by default, which many Windows users may find to be a stumbling block since it looks and acts nothing like the Windows desktop. The standard distribution of Linux Mint uses the Cinnamon desktop, which is much closer in look and feel to Windows, and it is based on Ubuntu so most users can benefit from the technical support of the Ubuntu community.
[Edit: corrected “Linux” to “Ubuntu Linux.” thanks grue@lemmy.world.]
You are right about linux mint, but I want to just add that I have been adding distro with Gnome to former windows users and there were no issues with usability. And those were people that are not very technical. I think Gnome does a great job when it comes to ux. But nowadays Gnome, Cinnamon, KDE and even not yet released Cosmic are so amazing I can’t believe how lucky we linux users are to have so many good choices.
That’s good to know and I’m happy you’ve had success moving users. Keep up the good work.
I think converting users to Linux tends to face three major issues:
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A historical reputation for being hard to configure and use, even though that is generally no longer the case with mainstream distros.
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Fear of the command line.
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Decision paralysis due to the sheer number of options available for things like distro and desktop environment, and the fact that there are as many opinions as there are users. I’m an obvious example of this.
Technical people like me tend, I think, to appreciate the flexibility. Normals just want something that works immediately and without any fuss.
Thank you. Your points are… well… on point :D Especially with “and the fact that there are as many opinions as there are users” maybe that’s why we have so many distros.
I hope there will be more devices with linux out of the box in the future, because that is probably the number 1 enabler. We see it with steam deck, although its kinda special case. But that is a Linux device that people buy, use and often times without prior linux experience.
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[Ubuntu] is the most popular distribution but it uses the Gnome desktop by default, which many Windows users may find to be a stumbling block since it looks and acts nothing like the Windows desktop.
Just use Kubuntu.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a fan of it or anything (especially because of the “snap” nonsense), but it is the easiest to get working because things like Steam officially support it.
Haha this should be a t-shirt 😀 How many times I saw a discussions recommending distros to newbies so many people saying “just use [enter your favorit distro]” 😀
Unfortunately that uses the Plasma desktop which looks similar but is much more complicated to (re)configure and less like Windows. It might drive a switcher away through frustration.
You don’t have to reconfigure it, though. I know it’s not a very “Linux-y” thing to say, but it really is okay to just install it and then leave it alone.
I myself have done basically nothing to my Plasma configuration except changing to a dark theme and setting my own wallpaper.
You make a very good point. I’m probably overthinking this. I actually use Plasma as my DE but have done some additional configuration and sometimes get frustrated at the number of options, and the difficulty of finding how to change them, for literally everything.
It is worth installing GNU/Linux.
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